On the last day of April, Chu Luyu was rushed into the emergency room for the third time for resuscitation. When she came out, the doctor issued the final critical condition notice.
In truth, the doctor had said similar things many times before. Every time he made his rounds and saw Chu Luyu’s deteriorating vital signs, his face would be filled with worry and regret.
But this time, as he came out of the operating room, his expression was heavier than ever.
“We’ve managed to save her for now, but you need to be mentally prepared. She’s suffering from multiple organ failure, and her condition is extremely critical. She doesn’t have much time left—likely just these next two or three days… We’ll do our best to maintain her state. You should… make the necessary arrangements.”
In other words, they were being told to prepare for the worst.
Hearing this, Chu Fanyin nearly fainted from crying again.
Chen Mian had been grieving for so many days that he had grown almost numb. Supporting his mother, he felt as if a heavy stone were pressing on his heart, suffocating him.
Jiang Hezhou stood nearby, silent as always. Every time Chu Luyu was taken into the ER, he was like this—still, deathly quiet, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the operating room doors. When the doctor came out, he would listen to what was said, but showed no emotional reaction.
Chen Mian, supporting his mother who had cried herself unconscious, walked over. His eyes were red, and his young, rebellious face rarely looked as lost and helpless as it did now.
He didn’t know what to do. His sister had been given a terminal notice, his mother had passed out from crying… He looked at his brother-in-law and called out to him instinctively.
“Brother-in-law…”
Jiang Hezhou’s gaze shifted blandly from the operating room doors. Meeting Chen Mian’s eyes, he replied quietly, “First, take Mom back to the hotel room to rest. Then order two meals—eat, take a shower, and get yourself together. Come back to the hospital to relieve me around five o’clock.”
Chen Mian nodded, as if receiving clear instructions. But before leaving, he cast a worried look at Jiang Hezhou.
“Brother-in-law, what about you? You haven’t eaten all day either. And Mom said you didn’t sleep at all last night.”
“I’m not hungry. As for eating—when your sister comes out, I’ll eat with her.”
Eat with her?
But his sister had just been given a critical condition notice. Even before today, she had only been on IV fluids and glucose—how could they eat together?
Jiang Hezhou hadn’t lied to him. When Chu Luyu was wheeled back to the ward from the ER, he called the restaurant and asked them to deliver a meal in an hour.
While waiting, he changed Chu Luyu into a fresh set of hospital pajamas—a custom order he’d had made a few days earlier. They were pink and white striped, looking much cuter than the standard blue-and-white ones.
The girl lay quietly on the bed as always. If not for her pallor, she would have looked like she was simply asleep.
Jiang Hezhou usually wiped her down every night, but tonight he might not have time, so he did it now instead.
Later, when the restaurant delivery arrived at the nurses’ station, a nurse brought it to the ward. She happened to see the man carefully wiping the girl’s hands, finger by finger, with tenderness and patience.
Back at the station, the young nurse said regretfully to her colleagues: “The patient in Room 3205 is such a shame. I heard she just got her marriage license with her fiancé, and she was rushed here during their wedding rehearsal. These past few days, I’ve seen her fiancé watching over her without leaving her side. When I just brought their food, he was still wiping her down.”
“Yeah, it’s such a pity. They were so perfect for each other, and that man clearly loves her so much—right at the happiest moment of their lives… It’s just cruel.”
Jiang Hezhou had no idea that people outside were pitying him and Chu Luyu.
After cleaning her up, he took out each dish from the restaurant delivery and arranged them on the table. He had ordered all of Chu Luyu’s favorites today: braised shrimp, sweet and sour ribs, stuffed meatballs, and tomato-braised beef brisket.
He put on disposable gloves and, just as he always did when feeding her, peeled the shrimp one by one, placing them in a container. It was soon piled high with shrimp meat, but Jiang Hezhou showed no intention of eating. He simply pushed the container closer to the bed.
The person on the bed remained still, not moving at all. Jiang Hezhou looked at her quietly for a long while, then sighed. “Never mind. I’ll eat all of this for you today. If you’re mad, you can take it up with me when you wake up.”
After that, Jiang Hezhou ate the entire meal by himself. He had ordered a double portion because Chu Luyu usually ate a lot—she would finish two boxes of rice on her own. By the end, he was completely stuffed, but he kept mechanically, expressionlessly stuffing food into his stomach.
As he cleaned up the containers, he felt so full he wanted to throw up. His stomach was deeply uncomfortable. But he didn’t pay it much mind—he cleared the table, opened the window to air out the room, and made sure no food smell lingered.
Chen Mian had followed his instructions and came to relieve him right around five o’clock.
Chu Fanyin had cried so hard she could barely get up from the hotel bed. Unable to care for her properly, Chen Mian had asked the hotel to send a staff member to stay with her.
When he arrived at the ward, Chen Mian walked straight over. “Brother-in-law, I’m here. You can rest now.”
These past days, Jiang Hezhou had been sleeping in the ward. At first, due to his wrist injury, the doctor wouldn’t let him leave the hospital. Recently, he could have been discharged, but he still hadn’t left—he’d just set up a small cot beside his sister and stayed.
As Chen Mian spoke, his gaze unconsciously swept around the bed. Something felt different today. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly asked, “Brother-in-law, what happened to all those books you had stacked up before? They’re all gone.”
“While you were out, I had the hospital cleaning staff come and take them away for disposal.”
“Disposed of?”
“Yeah. After today, they’re useless.”
Chen Mian felt that his brother-in-law’s words sounded rather cryptic—he couldn’t make any sense of them—but he didn’t ask further.
Jiang Hezhou went into the ward’s bathroom and changed into a clean set of outer clothes. When he came out, Chen Mian saw that he was dressed entirely in black.
He was surprised. Although his brother-in-law had a cool personality, he had always dressed rather brightly—apart from his winter coats, he never deliberately wore all black. Now, black shirt, black pants, and even a black baseball cap on his head.
“Brother-in-law, you—”
Jiang Hezhou knew what he was asking and replied casually, “It’s nothing. Just going out to handle something.”
With that, he walked to the bedside and, right in front of Chen Mian, bent down and kissed Chu Luyu’s pale lips.
“Baby, I might be back tonight, or I might not. If I don’t, then we’ll see each other again in two or three days.”
The last words were whispered softly into her ear. Chen Mian only heard him say something to his sister, but couldn’t make out the specifics.
Before leaving, Jiang Hezhou said to Chen Mian, “If your sister wakes up tonight, call me immediately.”
Chen Mian replied with an “Okay,” but only after the man left did he realize what he’d said.
Wake up?
But his sister hadn’t opened her eyes since she was brought to the hospital. And now the doctors had issued a critical condition notice—given that, could she even wake up at all?
After leaving the hospital, Jiang Hezhou headed straight to the parking lot. He made calls to Zhang Jiting and Ji Chen separately, then called his mother.
His mother had just come to the hospital to visit him and Chu Luyu a few days ago. Now, on the other end of the line, she sounded surprised.
“Hezhou?”
“Yeah, Mom.” Jiang Hezhou gripped the steering wheel, his expression calm as he looked ahead. “I changed the passcode to my apartment, and you didn’t know it yet, right?”
“No, I only remember the old one—it was your birthday.”
“Now it’s Luyu’s birthday. 020712. Write it down.”
“Okay.” His mother acknowledged it, then asked, “But why are you suddenly telling me this?”
“In a few days, a lawyer might go to the apartment. I’ve already told him that if I’m not there, to ask you to help open the door. There are some documents in the safe—just hand them over to him when the time comes.”
His voice was calm, without any hint of anything unusual. But his mother still felt something was off—recently, her son had been at the hospital keeping watch over his wife, refusing to leave even for a moment. Why was he suddenly bringing all this up today?
“Hezhou, is something going on?”
Jiang Hezhou tugged his lips into a silent smile, his voice lighter than before. “Nothing’s going on. Don’t overthink it.”
He paused briefly, then spoke again: “Mom, I know that because of what happened with Big Brother, Grandpa must have given you a lot of grief over me. You never said a word to me about it, but I know the past while must have been very hard on you… Thank you for enduring it, Mom.”
There was a long silence on the other end. Jiang Hezhou could hear faint sobbing. When his mother spoke again, her voice was thick with tears.
“Xiao Er, I never really blamed you for what happened with your big brother. I did hold back because of your grandfather, and I didn’t dare say much to you—but I’m glad you understood it all. You really understood.” She broke into quiet sobs. “Xiao Er, now I only have you. You have to be okay. You have to be okay.”
These past days, with his wife’s illness, his behavior had been far too abnormal. Beyond the initial suicide attempt, his many actions and the constant aura of stillness and lifelessness around him had deeply worried his mother. Today, having this chance to talk to him, she couldn’t help but speak her heart.
Jiang Hezhou was silent for a few seconds, then let out a brief “Mm” without saying anything more.
After hanging up, he stared at the red light counting down ahead. After a long, long pause, he murmured quietly: “I’m sorry.”
…
Meng Wantian saw Jiang Hezhou outside the hospital when she got off work.
He was leaning against the passenger side of his car, head lowered, the brim of his baseball cap hiding most of his face, revealing only a pale jawline.
But his figure was impossible to miss—nearly 1.9 meters tall, standing there with such presence that even without seeing his face, you could tell from his aura alone that he was an attractive man.
He was dressed in an all-black athletic outfit. At first, Meng Wantian didn’t think it was him—she just, like her colleagues, glanced over out of curiosity.
But the next moment, the man suddenly looked up, and their eyes met in midair.
In just a few days, Jiang Hezhou’s face had grown even more gaunt. His already sharp features were now chiseled like carved stone, with hardly any flesh left. His eyes, under the night sky, looked exceptionally dark and somber. When Meng Wantian met his gaze, she felt a chill run down her spine—she instinctively wanted to step back.
But she held her ground and stopped.
Her colleague, not understanding the situation, saw the handsome man walking toward them and apparently staring at Meng Wantian. She asked gossipily, “Wantian, who’s this? Your boyfriend?”
Jiang Hezhou had just walked up and must have heard the comment. Meng Wantian quickly explained, flustered: “No, he’s a teacher from my school.”
She then looked at the man, but he showed no reaction—as if he didn’t care at all, or maybe hadn’t even registered what her colleague said.
Meng Wantian told her colleague to go on ahead, and stayed behind to talk to Jiang Hezhou.
“Mr. Jiang, coming to find me so late… something the matter?”
“Yeah.” Jiang Hezhou nodded. Apart from his deep, dark eyes, his expression gave nothing away. “I need your help with something related to what we talked about before. Get in the car first.”
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