Yuncheng.
Eight in the evening.
Lightning split the pitch-black sky, and rain poured down in torrents.
Qin Xingwan curled up on the icy ground as pools of blood beneath her were washed away by the rain.
Her fingers, blanched from the rain, brushed over her phone. She opened her contacts and called one number after another.
A mechanical female voice rang out over and over through the rain.
“Sorry, the person you are calling is not answering at the moment.”
At last, the phone screen went dark in the downpour. No matter how many times she pressed it, it wouldn’t light up again.
……
Nine o’clock.
Yuncheng People’s Hospital.
The doctor’s hurried footsteps broke the silence of the night.
“The patient has miscarried. Have her family been notified?”
“Yes, but…” The nurse hesitated.
“But what?” The doctor’s voice was full of agitation.
“The patient’s family said they’re celebrating a birthday and don’t have time…”
……
Eleven thirty.
Qin Xingwan stared at the stark white light overhead and the clear liquid dripping from the IV bag.
She heard the hospital room door open, followed by a slightly weary voice.
“Xingwan.”
An hour earlier, she had come out of surgery. Then, under the nurse’s sympathetic gaze, she had borrowed a phone and messaged Chu Li, asking him to come pay her medical bills when he had time.
Now, her husband had finally arrived.
Chu Li wore a white shirt. His handsome features were sharply defined, and a trace of weariness showed in his eyes.
She turned her head away, her eyes damp.
“Are you feeling unwell anywhere?” Chu Li sat beside the bed, his expression as cool and detached as ever.
He had hurried over after seeing her message, still unaware of the cruel ordeal Qin Xingwan had been through.
A sudden, unbearable pain seized Qin Xingwan’s heart. If she hadn’t seen with her own eyes how gentle he could be with someone else, if she hadn’t nearly died on that rainy night, perhaps she would still have thought his coolness was simply part of his nature.
Qin Xingwan caught the smell of alcohol on him, and nausea rose in her chest.
“My phone’s broken. Could you pay my medical bills for me?” Qin Xingwan’s voice was hoarse and utterly exhausted.
As for everything else, once she had recovered from this pain, she would talk to him.
Chu Li heard the restrained disgust in his wife’s voice.
He raised an eyebrow and explained, “It’s Yunshu’s birthday today. You know that.”
Qin Xingwan stared at the ceiling. Of course she knew it was Qin Yunshu’s birthday. She also knew they had thrown her an especially lavish birthday party.
Her family and her husband had spent nearly the entire evening celebrating with her.
So when Qin Xingwan was in unbearable pain, she couldn’t reach any of them.
“Yes, I know,” Qin Xingwan said softly, unmoved.
Chu Li was not pleased. His voice turned impatient. “Yunshu invited you to her birthday party. You didn’t go, and now what are you making a scene about?”
A scene?
His accusing words stabbed into Qin Xingwan like knives, leaving her drenched in blood.
He knew nothing.
He didn’t know she had been kidnapped, and he didn’t know their baby was gone.
The fury in her chest reached its breaking point.
“Chu Li, are you saying I checked myself into the hospital on purpose?”
The long silence was suffocating. Chu Li’s eyes were dark and unreadable.
Qin Xingwan easily saw the silent agreement in his gaze.
Her heart felt painfully hollow. She curled her lips into a self-mocking smile.
After three years of marriage, so this was what he thought of her.
Perhaps Chu Li knew that if he said any more, they would end up fighting. He stood and said, “I’ll pay the bill. Get some rest. Dr. Tang is already on the way.”
Dr. Tang was an obstetrician who had been caring for Qin Xingwan ever since she became pregnant.
“Chu Li, do you know…” Qin Xingwan suddenly wanted to tell him about the baby.
“Older Sister.” A sweet voice came with the sound of the door opening, cutting Qin Xingwan off.
Qin Yunshu wore a pink gown, her long black hair swept up beneath a dazzling diamond tiara. She was beautiful and gentle, with a sweet, charming air.
“Sister, are you all right?” She stepped forward.
Qin Xingwan swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue. Seeing Qin Yunshu now brought back every unanswered call she had made, and the feeling of nearly dying in that cold, rainy night.
A surging hatred she couldn’t control rose from deep within her.
“I’m not quite dead yet.” Her voice was cold.
Qin Yunshu’s eyes reddened, guilt filling her gaze. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked A-Li to come to my birthday party.”
Qin Xingwan closed her eyes. Her body hurt, and her heart was exhausted.
“Yunshu, this has nothing to do with you.” Chu Li frowned, displeased by Qin Xingwan’s tone.
He was convinced Qin Xingwan was making a fuss for no reason.
After all, Qin Xingwan had never liked the Qin family, and she was especially hostile toward Qin Yunshu, who had only recently returned from abroad.
In the month since Qin Yunshu had come back, Qin Xingwan and Chu Li had argued several times.
Qin Yunshu continued timidly, “Sister, the baby matters. Please don’t be upset. I’ll keep my distance from A-Li from now on.”
“So you knew I was pregnant.” Qin Xingwan’s face held a faintly mocking expression.
During the month since Qin Yunshu had returned, she had summoned Qin Xingwan’s husband away every few days.
Qin Yunshu’s eyes grew red. She opened them wide, tears glistening, her lips pressed together in a wounded pout.
“Yunshu, step outside. I’ll talk to her.” Chu Li soothed her and coaxed her out.
Qin Yunshu bit her lip and murmured, “Then don’t fight with my sister. She’s still pregnant.”
She looked back again and again as she left.
Qin Xingwan gazed up at her husband, her eyes cold with sorrow.
She lay in a hospital bed while her husband glared at her, maliciously assuming she had come up with some sordid scheme to ruin Qin Yunshu’s birthday party. In the end, it had taken another woman to tell him not to argue with her.
The tenderness in Chu Li’s eyes when he looked at Qin Yunshu turned to coldness, bit by bit. “Qin Xingwan, don’t drag Yunshu into our problems. She hasn’t done anything to wrong you.”
The way he defended her sent Qin Xingwan’s pain surging like a storm-tossed sea.
She and Chu Li had been married for three years. Their marriage had started as an arrangement, but eventually they had truly come together, and Qin Xingwan had invested her feelings in it.
She had once thought Chu Li felt the same.
It wasn’t until Qin Yunshu came back that she realized Chu Li had never felt even the slightest affection for her during those three years of marriage.
He had saved all his tenderness for Qin Yunshu.
For three years, she had naively believed that the clouds would part and the moon would shine. But the truth was, she had never managed to warm his heart.
“Chu Li, let’s get divorced.” Qin Xingwan watched the IV drip. The words left her lips lightly, almost weightless, yet her resolve was absolute.
Truthfully, she had begun thinking about divorce as soon as Qin Yunshu returned. But she couldn’t bring herself to let go of the relationship and had clung to wishful thinking.
As if something had crossed his mind, Chu Li’s cold expression softened a little. “I know pregnant women can be emotional and prone to overthinking. But, Xingwan, Yunshu is your younger sister. There’s nothing between her and me.”
Qin Xingwan turned her head. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye as she gently laid a hand over her abdomen.
“It’s gone,” she whispered.
Chu Li, our baby is gone.