Once he no longer had to speak directly with the doctors, Xie Qian’s mood became genuinely bright.
Being unable to move freely sometimes helped the mind focus instead.
Xie Qian even felt he could start handling company matters again; of course, that was impossible.
The happiest part of Xie Qian’s day was when Jiang Youjia arrived at the hospital with her laptop.
He wasn’t particularly looking forward to Jiang Youjia’s face, but she brought him Wen Ying’s emails.
Wen Ying wrote to him every single day: sometimes one email, sometimes two.
If there was only one, it meant her travel schedule that day had been packed, and she could only write after returning to the hotel at night.
If there were two, one had been written before she left in the morning.
Wen Ying was a novelist to begin with, so her prose was vivid. Lying in his hospital bed, Xie Qian felt as though he were travelling the world with her.
Travelling inevitably comes with little mishaps.
In the past, a family of three like the Wens might have ended up arguing during a trip, but this time everything was strangely harmonious.
“Professor Shen is a true gentleman. Vastly knowledgeable, genuinely modest, sincerely appreciative of Auntie Wu, and extremely respectful toward his son Shen Huan. When he disagrees with Auntie Wu, he always defers to her. When he and Shen Huan have different opinions, he never pulls rank as the father. Sometimes he persuades Shen Huan, sometimes Shen Huan persuades him, and then Professor Shen will turn around and apologise to his son. All of this has put enormous pressure on my dad. I even suspect he’s trying to copy Professor Shen…”
Wen Dongrong was working hard to imitate Professor Shen.
Chen Ru did not imitate Wu Chunqin; their personalities were different to begin with.
But Chen Ru had definitely been influenced by Wu Chunqin.
The changes in his parents had made this trip exceptionally comfortable.
Wen Ying even wrote openly: “This is the family trip I’ve been longing for, for so, so long. You can’t imagine how long.”
How long could it be?
From the day she was born: just a little over eighteen years!
Wen Ying also said Shen Huan was a little contrarian.
In order to teach Shen Huan how sinister the world could be, Wen Ying wanted to invite Xie Qian out of retirement to prepare a few more “exam-paper gift packages” for the boy.
Hmm. That request could be granted.
It had been a while since he last sent anyone exam papers. Xie Qian’s fingers were getting itchy.
Then there was the food Wen Ying tried on the trip.
Her verdict: good for the occasional change of pace, very novel.
But if she had to eat it every day she’d go mad. She had a thoroughly Chinese stomach.
“My dad actually can’t stand eating like this every day either, but he loves to show off. In front of Professor Shen he discoursed eloquently about culinary differences around the world. I suspect he stayed up all night cramming. The funniest part was that after grandly declaring in public that he embraces all food cultures, that same night he secretly asked the guide if the next meal could possibly be at a Chinese restaurant. He didn’t care how fancy it was; just a plate of egg-fried rice served to him alone would do…”
Every single email brought Xie Qian joy.
Jiang Youjia was the one who read them aloud. Xie Qian kept his eyes closed, deliberately tuned out Jiang Youjia’s voice, and could pretend it was Wen Ying standing beside him speaking.
That was enough to make him happy.
When a person’s mood lifts, everything looks pleasing.
Well, almost everything. The only thing still irritating was the doctors.
With a doctor hovering nearby, Xie Qian was too embarrassed to say certain things when dictating his replies through Jiang Youjia.
He had to express his feelings very indirectly.
Because that idiotic doctor would tease him mercilessly!
The nosy doctor loved to gossip, asking whether the girl who emailed every day was his “ride-or-die little girlfriend”.
First of all, Hamster was not his girlfriend yet.
Second, he would never let them face death together. If danger came, he would unhesitatingly give her the chance to live.
Today, right after Xie Qian finished dictating his “reply” to Jiang Youjia, Zou Weijun arrived.
“Youjia, don’t work yourself too hard. There’s always more work.”
“Oh, it’s not hard at all…”
Reading Wen Ying’s emails aloud and helping reply really wasn’t tiring.
Jiang Youjia closed her laptop. “Auntie, Xie Qian and I are finished. I’ll head back to the office?”
Zou Weijun smiled and nodded. “Go ahead. Drive safe.”
Once Jiang Youjia left, the smile vanished from Zou Weijun’s face.
“A couple of days ago, Zhang Zhijun’s wife, Lu Meishu, died. Suicide.”
Lu Meishu committed suicide?
All the romantic bubbles in Xie Qian’s head popped instantly. Clearly, old memories had resurfaced.
Zou Weijun relayed what Xie Yuping had learned.
“Your uncle says Lu Meishu should not have chosen this moment to take her own life.”
Exactly. She should not have.
Zhang Zhijun spent most of the year abroad on business, so Xie Qian hadn’t interacted much with Lu Meishu.
In his memory, Lu Meishu was a straightforward, cheerful, and warm person.
Zhang Zhijun had started with cross-border trade. The Zhang family had no roots in that business, but Lu Meishu came from the border region and knew the local customs inside out. She had been a huge help to his early success.
Later, when the business stabilised and Zhang Hua grew older, Zhang Zhijun wanted his son to receive the best education. Lu Meishu stepped away from the company to accompany Zhang Hua abroad for school.
The past two years her health had declined. Living overseas long-term didn’t suit her, so she returned to China to recuperate.
Xie Qian shared Xie Yuping’s view: he did not believe Lu Meishu had committed suicide.
“Aunt Meishu was only physically unwell. She was tough enough to build a border-trading business alongside Zhang Zhijun. Her personality wasn’t that fragile.”
Just as Xie Qian finished speaking, the phone the doctor was holding for him suddenly rang.
After Jiang Youjia replaced the SIM card, the new phone was kept powered off most of the time so people would believe Xie Qian was still abroad. It was only because Jiang Youjia had just left that it hadn’t been switched off yet.
Xie Qian couldn’t hold the phone himself. The doctor read the caller ID aloud. “Answer?”
The number was unfamiliar.
Xie Qian had an extraordinary memory. Once he had seen a number, whether it belonged to a close contact or not, he remembered it forever.
“Answer.”
The doctor put it on speaker.
A voice came from the other end.
“Is this Xie Qian? This is Zhang Hua. There are some things I’d like to ask you. Is it convenient?”
…
Mrs Peng still hadn’t discovered who Zhang Zhijun’s mistress was.
It wasn’t because she lacked connections. No normal person would ever imagine that the woman was Sara Zhuo. After all, that woman had long been branded as “Xie Jinghu’s”.
Who would think Sara Zhuo could also bear a daughter for Xie Jinghu’s good friend?
Even a screenwriter wouldn’t dare write that plot. If it aired, the audience would curse it to death.
Zhao Dong didn’t know either.
Zhao Dong only cared about Xie Jinghu’s movements because they had business dealings.
He didn’t even know Zhang Zhijun personally.
The news of Xie Jinghu’s divorce had spread, but the fact that he had been cuckolded by his mistress had not.
Dai Chenglan had always been close to Sara Zhuo. Lately they met even more often, almost always at Dai Chenglan’s initiative.
In front of Zhuo Chen and Zhuo Yue, Dai Chenglan kept quiet. Whenever the siblings weren’t around, she tried to fish for information.
The He family’s business was deeply tied to Jinlake. If Sara Zhuo became the official wife, the Hes would profit greatly.
“You’ve suffered in the past. You’ll be compensated from now on. Xie the Third is single again. Who can stop you two from getting back together?”
Looking at the pampered Sara Zhuo before her, Dai Chenglan couldn’t tell if she felt more envy or jealousy.
This woman really had a blessed life.
Born into a good family, became the precious daughter of the Zhuo household.
When the Zhuo family fell on hard times, an old overseas Chinese businessman suddenly appeared and whisked the down-and-out Sara abroad to live in luxury.
When the old man died, Sara rekindled her old flame with her ex-boyfriend and made Xie Jinghu her new provider.
The only imperfection was that Xie Jinghu was already married with children, and the Xie family had strict rules, so Sara could only be his “outside woman” with no status.
Thinking of the once-pampered “princess” reduced to a nameless mistress gave Dai Chenglan a secret thrill.
But she hid her contempt perfectly. After all, she still needed Sara’s connections to get investments from Xie Jinghu!
No one could have predicted that Xie Jinghu’s wife would actually file for divorce and succeed in divorce.
Because of the divorce, Xie Jinghu lost at least half his fortune.
So what?
A Xie Jinghu with only half his wealth was still filthy rich!
Sara Zhuo was probably about to become the official wife.
In Dai Chenglan’s eyes this was nearly impossible, yet it had really happened. Apart from “blessed by fate”, she could think of no other explanation.
She was already offering congratulations, but Sara Zhuo remained tight-lipped and gave no confirmation, which infuriated Dai Chenglan.
She swallowed the anger, though.
When Sara was merely the mistress, Dai Chenglan had to flatter her. There was even less reason to offend her now that she was about to become the legitimate Mrs Xie.
When Sara didn’t take the bait, Dai Chenglan changed topic. “I heard Zhang Zhijun’s wife suddenly died. You remember Zhang Zhijun, right? When we were young he was always glued to your Xie the Third. I always felt the way he looked at you was off. He definitely liked you. Of course, plenty of people liked you back then; he was just one more. Later he got married, found some minority-ethnicity woman from who-knows-where, and everyone said he treated his wife wonderfully… Yet he kept a woman on the side too, even had an illegitimate child. His wife couldn’t take the shock and killed herself.”
Sara Zhuo frowned.
Lu Meishu was dead.
That was not good news for Sara either.
Lu Meishu could have died of illness or in an accident, anything but suicide.
Right now no one knew that Zhang Zhijun’s illegitimate daughter was Zhuo Yue, or that the woman on the side was Sara Zhuo. But everyone believed it was the mistress who had driven Lu Meishu to her death!
