“Wanyin, it’s not the same! Back then, I made a judgment based on professional instinct, but today… I only wanted to save your leg!”
“You have to believe me! I did it all for your own good!”
The intense hatred in her eyes sent a wave of panic through Zhou Ruotan. He hurriedly tried to explain himself.
Just then, an abrupt ringtone shattered the tense silence in the hospital room.
Zhou Ruotan’s voice came to an abrupt halt.
He instinctively paused, then freed one hand to take out his phone.
The moment he saw the two words “Qianqian” flashing on the screen, Zhou Ruotan’s gaze almost instinctively shifted away.
He glanced at Xie Wanyin, who lay weakly on the hospital bed. After hesitating for half a second, he still pressed the answer button.
“Hello, Qianqian?”
The instant he spoke, the cold, impatient, reproachful tone he had used toward Xie Wanyin transformed into a pool of spring water.
It was a gentle, tender tone engraved into his very bones—a completely instinctive softness.
“I’m a little busy right now. What?”
He had no idea what the person on the other end said through her tears, but Zhou Ruotan’s expression changed abruptly.
His tall body suddenly rose from beside the hospital bed.
“Don’t cry. Don’t be scared. Try to get somewhere with a lot of people. I’ll be right there!”
As he soothed the person on the phone, he anxiously turned around.
Even the hand that had been pressing down hard on Xie Wanyin’s bleeding hand was completely released by his sudden rise.
Blood once again trickled down the back of Xie Wanyin’s hand, drops of warm red liquid pattering onto the blanket.
Yet Xie Wanyin did not even look at her own hand.
She simply watched Zhou Ruotan become an entirely different person because of a single phone call from Yuan Qian, casting her completely aside.
An overwhelming wave of nausea churned up from her stomach.
How utterly pathetic.
She felt that even the one second of hope she had once held for him had been so pathetic it made her sick.
Zhou Ruotan spoke softly, finally soothing the person on the other end.
The moment he turned around and said, troubled and reluctant, “You—you wait for me to come back!” Xie Wanyin summoned all her strength, grabbed the pillow behind her, and viciously hurled it at Zhou Ruotan’s face!
“Get out!!!”
The blow forced Zhou Ruotan back a step. He stared at her in utter disbelief. “Wanyin, something urgent came up on Qianqian’s end. She ran into trouble while she was out alone, and I have to go check on her! The doctor has already treated your leg. Rest here properly, and stop making a fuss, all right?”
“I’m telling you to get out of my sight! Go as far away as you can! Don’t make me feel sick anymore!”
Xie Wanyin only regretted that there was nothing beside her except a pillow. If it had been a brick or a dagger, wouldn’t throwing it have felt even better?
She pointed toward the hospital-room door, her finger trembling uncontrollably from extreme fury. Gritting her teeth, she did everything she could to suppress her voice.
“Don’t force me to call security and have them throw you out!”
Zhou Ruotan’s face shifted from green to white and back again.
He gritted his teeth and gave Xie Wanyin a deep look. “Get some proper rest first. We’ll talk again once you’ve calmed down!”
With that, he pulled open the hospital-room door and strode out.
The moment the door closed again, all the strength seemed to drain from Xie Wanyin’s body.
She collapsed back onto the hospital bed. As she stared at the ceiling, a cold tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
She was truly hopeless. She knew perfectly well that that man could not be trusted, yet she was still hurt because he was acting so intimately with another woman.
Less than two minutes later, the hospital-room door was suddenly shoved open with great force.
“Wanyin!!”
A woman’s hurried voice, thick with tears, rang out.
Qiao Yu rushed in like a gust of wind.
The moment she entered, Qiao Yu saw Xie Wanyin’s deathly pale face, as well as the hand that was swollen horribly and drenched in blood.
“Oh my God… your hand! Nurse! Nurse, come quickly!”
Qiao Yu’s face turned white with fright. She frantically pressed the call button beside the bed, and tears instantly burst forth.
She rushed to the bedside and carefully cradled Xie Wanyin’s hand, remorse and self-reproach nearly drowning her.
“I’m sorry, Yin, I’m sorry! It’s all my fault!” Qiao Yu sobbed so hard she could barely breathe, wishing she could slap herself. “I only found out that the traditional Chinese clinic had a special skill for treating bone injuries. I should have damn well checked who owned it! If I’d known it was run by the Zhou family, I would never have let you set foot in that godforsaken place, even if I had to die!”
It was only when Xie Wanyin saw Qiao Yu that she felt as though she had come back to life.
The nurse hurried in, sucked in a sharp breath at the sight, and quickly stepped forward to treat Xie Wanyin’s wound and insert a needle again.
Xie Wanyin let the nurse handle her without uttering a single cry of pain.
It was only when she saw Qiao Yu helping the nurse change the pillow and bedsheets while secretly wiping away her tears that she felt she had to become strong again. After all, there was still someone in this world who genuinely cared about her.
She reached out and gently patted Qiao Yu’s back. Her voice was hoarse yet unusually calm. “A-Yu, it’s not your fault. Perhaps this was fate. Heaven gave me this chance to see the true faces of that family once again, and… to see clearly just how laughable I really am.”
After the nurse finished treating the wound and left, only the two of them remained in the hospital room.
Qiao Yu held Xie Wanyin’s hand and looked into her friend’s eyes, which were as still and lifeless as stagnant water. A sharp pain suddenly clutched at her heart.
She knew Xie Wanyin too well.
The old Xie Wanyin had possessed an unyielding light in her eyes, even when she was trapped beneath the rubble, even when she had been told that she would never be able to dance again.
But now, that light had gone out completely.
“Yin…” Qiao Yu hugged her tightly, choking up and not knowing what to say.
“A-Yu, I really want to leave this place.”
Xie Wanyin gently rested her head against Qiao Yu’s shoulder and stared blankly at the drizzling curtain of rain outside the window.
This city was saturated with too many memories of Zhou Ruotan. Every street and every rainfall repeatedly tore at the scabs covering her wounds.
“I don’t want to see Zhou Ruotan ever again, and I don’t want to hear anything about the Zhou family. I’m so tired, A-Yu.”
After hearing this, Qiao Yu roughly wiped the tears from her face, her gaze instantly becoming firm.
“Fine! We’ll go! We’ll leave this lousy place!”
She clasped Xie Wanyin’s hand in return and said through clenched teeth, “That pair of shameless dogs, and that disgusting family of theirs—they’ll get what they deserve sooner or later! If we can’t afford to provoke them, can’t we at least hide from them? What you need most right now is a change of scenery so you can clear your head!”
Qiao Yu’s eyes suddenly lit up. “That’s right! My brother just gave me two internal invitations to a top-tier luxury cruise party a couple of days ago! That cruise is about to leave port. It’ll spend half a month sailing in international waters, and everything aboard consists of secret luxury experiences that aren’t open to the public. It can even completely block mobile signals! There’s everything you could possibly want to eat, drink, play, and enjoy!”
Qiao Yu excitedly hugged Xie Wanyin tighter, her tone domineering and leaving no room for refusal. “I’m taking you out to get some fresh air at sea! We’ll feel the sea breeze and look out at the vast ocean! We’ll live the high life and enjoy ourselves! To hell with Zhou Ruotan—let him and that white-lotus sister of his slowly rot away on land!”
“The only thing you need to do now is take good care of your injuries and stop thinking about anything strange.”
“You must listen to the doctor. Get discharged as soon as possible, then set off happily.”
“All right. Thank you, Qiao Yu.”
The rain continued to fall outside, pattering against the hospital’s cold glass windows and adding a few more notes of desolation.
Meanwhile, when Zhou Ruotan hurried to the location Yuan Qian had sent him, he saw only that she was sitting safe and sound inside an upscale café. Exquisite desserts were arranged before her, and she was elegantly eating a serving of tiramisu with a small spoon. Not even a single strand of her meticulously styled hair was out of place.
“Qianqian! What trouble did you run into? Were you hurt?” Zhou Ruotan rushed through the door, not even having time to wipe away the rainwater on his body, and grabbed Yuan Qian by the shoulders, looking her over from head to toe.
A trace of unmistakable triumph flashed deep in Yuan Qian’s eyes. Then her eyes reddened, and she threw herself into Zhou Ruotan’s arms like a startled fawn, complaining coquettishly, “Brother Ruotan, you’re finally here! There was a drunk man by the roadside staring at me the whole time, and he even tried to grab me. I was so scared… I didn’t know who else to call, so I could only call you.”
“I was terribly frightened then. Thank goodness you came.”