He and Zhang Jiting had roughly learned the cause of yesterday’s accident earlier. Ji Chen had always found Chen Zhou disagreeable, and now that someone else was beating him up, he was more than happy to watch the show.
Seeing Chu Luyu approaching, and afraid she might worry, he quickly said, “Little sister-in-law, your brother is fine—he’s the one who’s been hitting his big brother the whole time.”
Chu Fanyin, seeing her daughter arrive, hurriedly said, “Xiaoyu, go take a look! Your brother doesn’t know his own strength—if he seriously hurts Chen Zhou, it’ll be a real disaster!”
Aside from Chen Zhou getting injured, she was even more worried that if things escalated, Chen Mian might end up being taken away by the police!
The police had already taken statements from them yesterday because of the car accident, and Chu Fanyin still felt anxious just thinking about it. She only had these two precious children now—if anything happened to either of them, she’d lose her mind!
Chu Luyu didn’t respond. She just walked silently forward a few steps.
The spot where Chu Fanyin and Ji Chen had been standing was still some distance from where Chen Zhou and Chen Mian were, making it hard to hear what the two brothers were saying from afar. But as she drew closer, she caught fragments of their conversation—
“So those words you said that day—you really said them on purpose! You just wanted to make Mom and me misunderstand so we’d do something stupid! But in reality, my sister was never locked up or imprisoned by her fiancé at all!”
Chen Zhou’s lip was already bleeding from the punches, but his expression still maintained its gentle, elegant composure.
“Xiaomian, as I just said, your aunt must have misunderstood my words earlier. I only mentioned that the second young master of the Jiang family might be keeping a bit too close an eye on Xiaoyu, and that it might not be quite normal. But I never used words like ‘locked up’ or ‘imprisoned.’ All of that was your own wild imagination.”
Chen Mian gritted his teeth in hatred. He yanked Chen Zhou’s collar tightly, staring at the nonchalant curl of the other’s lips, and growled, “Why did you do this! Do you have any idea my brother-in-law almost died yesterday!”
There weren’t many people in the small garden at this hour—just a few scattered onlookers. The wind and the rustling sounds of nature were more prominent than voices.
Then Chen Zhou chuckled again, replying in a casual tone: “But he didn’t die, did he?”
He lowered his voice a little, fixing his gaze on Chen Mian. The light in his eyes was sticky and cold, like a venomous snake.
“Don’t you also hate to see your sister get married? If that Jiang guy had died yesterday, your sister would have come back to us forever. Isn’t that a good thing?”
Chen Mian was taken aback. The hand gripping Chen Zhou’s collar unconsciously loosened. “That’s disgusting! She’s always seen you as her brother!”
“So I’ve always been content to be her brother.” Chen Zhou’s voice carried a faint sigh. But the next moment, for some reason, his eyes gradually turned sinister. “But why did she have to go to someone else? With all those other men before, she’d play around and then it would fade. But this one—she said she was going to break up with him! She said it with her own mouth! And yet she still went back to him later. So, Chen Mian, I don’t think I did anything wrong. She broke her promise—just like when we were kids, she said she’d only ever be with her brother forever, but when she grew up, she was the first to drift away from me. I tried so hard to keep her by my side, to make sure her world only had me in it. I clearly said I would take care of her for life—why did she just forget all those vows?”
For a moment, Chen Mian felt like he no longer recognized the person standing before him.
Was this still the big brother he had always respected and admired? Or had he been putting on an act in front of everyone all along, and this face now was his true self?
Chen Mian raised his fist, ready to throw another punch—he was furious, absolutely furious!
Just then, a very soft voice came from not far away, calling out to him: “Chen Mian.”
He instinctively looked up and saw his sister standing there, though he had no idea when she had arrived.
Chen Zhou also noticed Chu Luyu. Both of them paused at her arrival. Chen Zhou propped himself up and stood from the ground.
His coat was now stained with wet mud mixed with melted snow, his hair dirty at the back, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He looked rather disheveled.
When Chu Luyu took a couple of steps closer, he showed no sign of panic at being exposed. Instead, a hint of excitement flickered in his eyes.
“Did you remember something from when we were kids? Remember how you said you’d stay with your brother forever?”
Chen Mian felt that Chen Zhou was not in his right mind. Afraid the man might hurt his sister, he moved to the side, shielding her with his body in a defensive stance.
“Sis, stay back. He’s not himself right now.”
Chu Luyu just looked at Chen Zhou quietly, not moving or speaking for a long while.
Seeing her like that, the unsettling smile on Chen Zhou’s face grew even more pronounced. He seemed to know the pretense was over and didn’t bother hiding it anymore.
“What? Are you going to hit me too, just like Xiaomian?”
Chu Luyu suddenly let out a small laugh and shook her head. “Hit you? I’ll pass—I’d dirty my hands. How disgusting.”
Her tone was light, her voice as soft as ever, but the words she spoke cut into Chen Zhou like icy blades.
His expression changed in an instant, his eyes fixed on her with intensity.
“Xiaoyu, you shouldn’t talk to your brother like that. Have you forgotten how we depended on each other when your mom and my dad weren’t home when we were little? Everything I’ve done all these years—it was all to bring us back to those days… Back then, we had no one else around—no Xiaomian, no messy men, no fiancé. We were each other’s only one.”
As he spoke, Chen Zhou’s fists unconsciously clenched. He stared at Chu Luyu and asked, each word deliberate: “Those days were so good. I really thought we’d stay that close forever, side by side. So why did you have to go find someone else?”
Chu Luyu couldn’t be bothered to listen to his nonsense. She found even looking at him repulsive.
She thought for a moment, then took two more steps toward him. Seeing this, Chen Mian warned her again: “Sis—”
“It’s fine. I just want to say a couple of things to him.”
Chu Luyu stopped half a step away from Chen Zhou. She moved to his other side, away from Chen Mian, and lowered her voice as she spoke to him.
A few seconds later, Chen Zhou’s expression shifted dramatically—first shock, then utter disbelief.
“Impossible! You’re lying!”
Chu Luyu ignored him, simply turning around with a detached expression to leave.
At that moment, Chen Zhou lunged like a frenzied mad dog, shouting and trying to grab the girl ahead of him: “Chu Luyu, explain yourself! Chu Luyu!”
But Chen Mian held him back firmly, not giving him any chance to get close.
Ji Chen had been watching the whole time. He had no idea what was said between the siblings and Chen Zhou, but when he saw the man suddenly become agitated, he frowned and stepped forward.
“Little sister-in-law, take Auntie and leave first. I’ll stay and help your brother deal with that guy.”
Chu Luyu nodded, said “thank you,” and led Chu Fanyin away.
Mother and daughter returned to the inpatient ward. As they stepped into the elevator, Chu Fanyin finally couldn’t hold it in anymore. She took her daughter’s hand and apologized.
“Sweetheart, Mommy was wrong. I shouldn’t have trusted Xiaozhou so easily. I thought you were really in danger, which is why I lied… I didn’t mean to, really.”
Chu Luyu felt utterly drained now. She felt as though after the system was erased, it had taken a part of her vitality with it. Hearing her mother say all this, she couldn’t muster any energy—not even for resentment or anger.
After a moment of silence, she simply said, “It’s over now, Mom. Just don’t do it again.”
The elevator doors opened just then, and Chu Luyu stepped out first. Chu Fanyin watched her daughter’s back as she slowly walked toward the ward, and her nose stung with tears again.
Chu Luyu didn’t go back to her own room. Instead, she walked along the wall toward Jiang Hezhou’s ward.
She thought he was still unconscious, so she pushed the door open casually. But the next moment, the figure on the bed came into view.
The man seemed to have just woken up, his body still weak. He was struggling to pull out the IV tube from the back of his hand, shoving the blanket aside to get out of bed.
Zhang Jiting, standing beside him, was nearly frantic, trying to hold him down but failing completely.
“Can you just calm down?! I told you, little sister-in-law just went downstairs to check on her brother—she’ll be back in a bit… She didn’t leave! She really didn’t!”
Jiang Hezhou stayed silent, not arguing back, but his movements remained forceful. He seemed set on going out to find her—no matter what Zhang Jiting said, he was determined to go.
Seeing him like that, Chu Luyu’s eyes instantly grew hot.
She opened her mouth, her voice catching with tears as she called out: “Jiang Hezhou.”
The man by the bed froze. He immediately looked up toward the door.
Their eyes met across the room. The dead emptiness in Jiang Hezhou’s eyes seemed to dissolve in an instant. The next second, he pulled out the IV tube from his hand, crossed the distance in three quick strides, and walked toward Chu Luyu.
When he pulled her into his arms, a raw emotion seemed to roll in his throat. He held her tightly, his arms trembling almost imperceptibly.
“Baby,” he whispered softly.
From the moment she had woken up, all the confusion and sadness pent up in her chest seemed to explode at the sound of his voice.
It was as if she were a traveler trudging through a scorching desert, finally spotting an oasis—or like a child who had endured countless hardships, finally, finally seeing the one person who could shield her.
Her nose stung instantly, and big teardrops rolled down in streams. Nestled in his arms, her voice muffled, full of sorrow and grievance—
“Jiang Hezhou… why did you only wake up now—”
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