Zhou Ruotan’s taut nerves suddenly relaxed, but what followed was an indescribable irritability.
As he looked at Yuan Qian, whose dress was not even the slightest bit disheveled, he could not stop himself from recalling the look of utter despair in Xie Wanyin’s eyes when she had hurled a pillow at him.
He had just delivered Yuan Qian home, yet he already wanted to rush to the hospital!
Seeing that he was about to leave, Yuan Qian immediately caught the corner of his clothes and asked considerately, “By the way, I heard Sister Wanyin fainted! How is she?”
Zhou Ruotan patted her hand reassuringly. “She’s fine! You get some good rest first. I’m going to the hospital!”
With that, he turned around and was about to leave!
“Ruotan!”
A stern, icy shout cut him off.
Father Zhou and Mother Zhou had come down the stairs at some point!
Ever since he had been acknowledged by the Zhou family, he had lived with Yuan Qian in the Zhou Family’s Old Residence!
But he was basically always with his unit, and Yuan Qian was the one who spent more time accompanying his parents!
As a result, Father Zhou and Mother Zhou doted on Yuan Qian exceptionally deeply!
They practically treated her like their own daughter-in-law!
Mother Zhou pulled Yuan Qian to her protectively, then shot her son an accusing glance. “What’s wrong with you, child? Qianqian has suffered such a terrible shock, and you’re leaving without even comforting her? Has that ex-wife of yours filled your head with some kind of bewitching nonsense again?”
“Mom! Wanyin’s leg was seriously injured—”
“Shut up!” Father Zhou said in a deep voice.
“That shameless woman who abandoned you—is she worth you throwing yourself at her over and over again? Look at Qianqian. How much has she suffered for you all these years! Your mother and I have already decided that next month, we’ll hold a grand wedding for you and Qianqian. Consider it compensation for all these years she has spent without a name or status!”
“What wedding? I don’t agree!” Zhou Ruotan’s voice rose sharply as though he had been struck by lightning.
“Dad, Mom, I’ve always regarded Qianqian as my younger sister. The only person I love is Wanyin!”
At his words, Yuan Qian’s body, which had been nestled against Mother Zhou, suddenly stiffened. Her lowered eyes instantly filled with venomous hatred.
Xie Wanyin! That shameless woman was already crippled, so why did she still have to come back and haunt Brother Ruotan?
But when she raised her head again, Yuan Qian’s face was already streaked with tears. She tugged at Zhou Ruotan’s clothes and sobbed pitifully, “Brother Ruotan, don’t make Uncle and Aunt angry. Qianqian doesn’t mind. As long as I can stay by your side, I’m willing to do anything for you. I don’t need a title…”
The more she retreated in order to advance, the more Mother Zhou and Father Zhou’s hearts ached for her, and the more fiercely they pressured Zhou Ruotan.
That night, he still failed to make it to the hospital!
Over the following days, Yuan Qian seemed to have grown onto Zhou Ruotan.
One moment she was dizzy, the next she was suffering from palpitations, finding one way after another to demand his attention.
Father Zhou and Mother Zhou joined forces to make arrangements for the wedding venue and invitations, both openly and covertly, attempting to force Zhou Ruotan to submit by making the wedding a fait accompli.
Smothered by this suffocating familial affection and sense of obligation, Zhou Ruotan had not even the space to catch his breath.
He wanted to go find Xie Wanyin, but his feet were firmly held back.
It was not until the morning of the fourth day that Zhou Ruotan finally obtained a brief moment of respite!
He drove recklessly to the hospital where Xie Wanyin was staying.
Yet the moment he pushed open the hospital-room door, the only thing that greeted him was an empty bed, neatly made.
“Nurse! Where’s the patient in this bed? Where’s Xie Wanyin?” Zhou Ruotan grabbed hold of a passing nurse, his eyes bloodshot.
“Bed thirty-two? She was discharged three days ago.”
Zhou Ruotan felt as if he had plunged into an icy abyss. With trembling hands, he pulled out his phone.
“I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service.”
Not in service.
She had canceled the number.
Unwilling to believe it, he drove like a madman to the place where Xie Wanyin worked, only to be told by the receptionist, “Teacher Xie has already taken an indefinite leave of absence.”
Zhou Ruotan stood stiffly in the lobby, his ears roaring.
The world was vast, yet he suddenly realized that, just as three years ago, he had once again lost all trace of Xie Wanyin.
In the deafening bar, neon lights flashed in bizarre, fantastical colors.
Zhou Ruotan sat at the bar, downing glass after glass of hard liquor.
The spicy liquid rolled down his throat, yet no matter how much he drank, it could not burn away the fire in his chest.
“Why did you leave… Wanyin… come back. Can’t you punish me instead…” He buried his head in his arms, his voice filled with suffocating anguish.
“Brother Ruotan…”
A fragile voice tinged with sobs sounded behind him.
Yuan Qian had come looking for him at some point.
Looking at the man before her, drunk to the point of unconsciousness for the sake of another woman, Yuan Qian’s hand, hidden inside her sleeve, dug fiercely into her palm, her nails nearly drawing blood.
She wished she could go and hack that shameless Xie Wanyin into a thousand pieces right then and there!
But she drew a deep breath, walked forward, and gently wrapped her arms around Zhou Ruotan’s waist, pressing her face against his broad back. “Brother Ruotan, please stop tormenting yourself like this. It hurts Qianqian to see you suffering. Since she was determined to leave, why grieve over someone who doesn’t care about you?”
Zhou Ruotan shoved her away. His reddened eyes fixed on her, and his tone was harsher than it had ever been. “Yuan Qian, don’t say another bad word about Wanyin! And as for that absurd wedding, I absolutely will not attend it!”
Yuan Qian staggered back two steps from the force of his push, and tears immediately burst from her eyes.
She bit her lower lip, looking like a white lotus swaying in a storm. “Brother Ruotan, I know you don’t love me. But… but I don’t have a father or mother anymore. I’m an orphan! I just want to put on a wedding dress and hold a wedding for my parents in Heaven to see!”
She stepped forward and grasped Zhou Ruotan’s sleeve, almost pleading. “It can just be a fake wedding. We only have to go through the motions and let me fulfill this dream. Consider it… consider it a way of honoring all the years of sibling affection between us! After the wedding, we’ll issue a statement saying that our personalities were incompatible and that we’ve separated. It absolutely won’t delay you from looking for Sister Xie!”
“Impossible!” Zhou Ruotan brushed her hand away without hesitation, his eyes cold as ice.
“Marriage is not child’s play. I will only hold one wedding in my entire life! And I will acknowledge only Wanyin as my wife! Give up on this idea while you still can!”
With that, he snatched up his coat and rushed out of the bar without looking back.
He thought his ruthlessness would bring Yuan Qian back to her senses.
But he had underestimated just how mad she was.
At four in the morning the next day, a piercing phone call jolted Zhou Ruotan awake from the headache of his hangover.
“Zhou Ruotan! You’re a beast! Qianqian swallowed half a bottle of sleeping pills—an entire half bottle! She’s in emergency treatment right now! Get over here!”
Mother Zhou’s shrill cries over the phone sounded like a summons from death itself.
He immediately sprang up from the bed in the dormitory!
Chaos ensued.
The glaring red light outside the emergency room remained lit for three full hours.
When Yuan Qian was wheeled out of the resuscitation room, her face as pale as paper and an oxygen mask covering her mouth and nose, Zhou Ruotan felt as though someone had struck him across the head with a heavy club!
He looked at the girl on the hospital bed, her breathing as faint as a thread.
Deep guilt and helplessness flooded over him like a rising tide.
He loved Xie Wanyin, but he could not simply stand by and watch Yuan Qian die because of him.