“Still pretending.” Qin Shen gave a scornful snort and looked down at Qin Xingwan on the floor. “Qin Xingwan, you faint whenever you feel guilty, is that it? Don’t forget, this is a hospital. The doctors will know as soon as they examine you.”
Chu Li lifted Qin Xingwan into his arms. She was so light she seemed to weigh nothing.
A strange feeling stirred in Chu Li. He had barely seen her lately and hadn’t realized she’d lost so much weight.
“I’ll get a doctor.” Qin Shen was determined to expose Qin Xingwan’s act. He turned and headed for the door.
Just then, a nurse pushed open the hospital-room door.
Qin Xingwan had miscarried, and there was no family member with her, so the nurse had been keeping an eye on her medication. By chance, Qin Xingwan’s IV bag had just run out.
The nurse came over. When she saw Qin Xingwan’s condition and the blood on the back of her hand, her expression changed. She immediately pressed the call button for a doctor.
“Doctor, the patient in bed 29 has lost consciousness. We need emergency assistance.”
Soon, hurried footsteps sounded in the hallway.
A doctor and several nurses hurried over.
After examining Qin Xingwan, the doctor quickly sent her to the emergency room.
Outside, Chu Li’s heart suddenly began pounding for no apparent reason.
Qin Shen’s unconcerned voice came from beside him. “Nurse, she’s faking it. There’s no need to make such a fuss.”
The nurse replied crossly, “You’d know better than we would whether she’s faking it, wouldn’t you?”
Thinking of how unmistakably pale Qin Xingwan had looked, Chu Li asked, “What exactly is wrong with her?”
“Miscarriage.” The nurse left those two words behind and hurried into the room.
Silence settled over the hallway.
Then Qin Yunshu murmured, “How could Sister have miscarried?”
Chu Li stood there, dazed. He remembered how violently Qin Xingwan had reacted after Qin Shen said those things.
What had happened to her?
He took out his phone and messaged his assistant, telling him to find out exactly what had happened that night.
Qin Shen muttered, “How could she have miscarried? Maybe she did it on purpose.”
Chu Li’s eyes snapped up, fixing Qin Shen with an icy stare.
Qin Shen stiffened. He hurriedly tried to explain himself. “I just think something about it seems strange…”
Qin Yunshu tugged at Qin Shen’s arm and said quietly, “Big Brother, just stop talking.”
Chu Li’s expression was cold, and his tall frame radiated menace. “She’s my wife. If you keep running your mouth, don’t blame me for what I do next.”
Qin Shen pursed his lips, but in the end he didn’t dare say another word.
About an hour later, Qin Xingwan was brought out. The doctor had stabilized her condition.
The nurse asked, “Who’s the patient’s family member?”
“I’m her husband,” Chu Li said.
The nurse looked Chu Li over, undisguised disdain in her eyes, then instructed him, “The patient has just had a miscarriage and needs a quiet place to rest. It would be best not to have too many people in the room.”
…
When Qin Xingwan woke again, she was in a private VIP room at the hospital owned by Chu Group.
She didn’t need to ask to know Chu Li had arranged it.
“Are you still in pain?” Chu Li asked quietly. There was no sign of yesterday’s coldness.
Qin Xingwan looked up. Even now, seeing Chu Li left her heart feeling hollow.
She turned slightly toward the window, trying to rein in the emotions rising inside her again.
Chu Li’s low voice filled the room. “Xingwan, I’m sorry about what happened last night. If I’d known something like that would happen, I…”
He would have sent someone to pick her up.
“Chu Li, our three-year agreement is almost up.” Qin Xingwan spoke softly, her face turned toward the window, her expression indifferent.
Chu Li stared at Qin Xingwan. His black shirt made him look even more grim.
Qin Xingwan slowly turned to look at Chu Li, her voice even. “There are still three months left on our agreement, and the divorce cooling-off period is one month.”
When she and Chu Li had married, neither of them had been willing. So they had drawn up a three-year agreement: if, after three years, they still couldn’t develop feelings for each other, they would divorce.
By bringing up their three-year agreement now, Qin Xingwan was saying she wanted a divorce.
“We can have another child. You have to stay strong.” Chu Li pressed his lips together and lowered his head slightly. He was in pain over losing the baby, too.
But it had been an accident.
“I’ll have children in the future, but you definitely won’t be their Dad.” The words in Qin Xingwan’s heart slipped out naturally.
“Chu Li, Qin Yunshu has come back to the country. If you want to marry her… I’m happy to step aside.”
“There’s nothing between Yunshu and me.” The tenderness at the corners of Chu Li’s lips was like ripples on water; it soon faded.
Qin Xingwan didn’t want to argue about this.
After all, Chu Li and Qin Yunshu hadn’t actually done anything inappropriate. But she couldn’t stand having her husband orbit around another woman.
Even after losing their child, he seemed completely unconcerned.
Perhaps because the child hadn’t been growing inside a man, he couldn’t understand that miraculous sense of a shared bloodline.
Naturally, he couldn’t understand the bone-deep agony of losing a child, either.
That was why he could so casually say something as cruel as, “We can have another child.”
“I never said there was anything between you. But Qin Yunshu is the woman you love. Now that she’s back, the two of you can finally make up.”
Qin Xingwan saw things clearly. Her husband wanted to look after another woman, and she, as his wife, was willing to let him go.
“I told you, there’s nothing between Yunshu and me.” A trace of coldness crept into Chu Li’s eyes. He paused, then added, “I know you’re heartbroken over losing the baby so suddenly, but Yunshu has nothing to do with it.”
Qin Yunshu began coughing softly, her eyes gradually reddening.
Her chest felt painfully tight.
“Xingwan—”
“I was pregnant. You knew that.” Qin Xingwan cut Chu Li off, her almond-shaped eyes cool and mocking.
“You were afraid I’d bother you two, so you wouldn’t answer my calls. You even put your phone on silent in the end, didn’t you?” Qin Xingwan spelled out what Chu Li had done, one word at a time.
It was only her guess, but she was almost certainly right.
She hadn’t wanted to bring any of this up. But Chu Li kept going on about how innocent Qin Yunshu was, and she was sick of hearing it.
Chu Li fell silent, his lips pressed together. Qin Xingwan had guessed almost exactly right: when he saw her calls, he’d assumed she was trying to cause trouble again and had put his phone on silent.
Now, he regretted it.
“What’s the point of talking about it now that it’s already happened?” Chu Li didn’t want to argue.
He turned and headed for the door. “Get some rest. I’m going back to take care of a few things.”
The hospital-room door closed.
Silence settled in the room.
Qin Xingwan gave a small smile, but sorrow spread through her eyes.
Before long, someone brought her a new phone. Her old one had been ruined in the heavy rain, and her SIM card had been replaced.
As soon as she turned on the phone, messages began popping up one after another.
Some were concerned; others demanded answers. Qin Xingwan tossed the phone aside without replying to a single one.
She slept for most of the day. When she woke, she felt considerably better.
Just after six, her phone began ringing insistently.
It was a call from her friend, Lin Qingya.
She answered. “Qingya.”
Lin Qingya’s voice came through, lowered. “Xingwan, why didn’t you come to the Perfume Conference?”
Qin Xingwan sat up abruptly, and the movement sent another wave of pain through her body.
After a moment, remembering her condition, she gave a bitter smile. “Something happened. I couldn’t make it.”
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end.
Then Lin Qingya spoke again. “Your husband came. Qin Yunshu is with him, and they’re walking arm in arm, looking very close. And the clothes Qin Yunshu is wearing… Never mind, I’ll send you a photo.”