Evening.
After finishing dinner, Xiang Wanniao waited and waited, but even by nine o'clock, Gu Jingzhan had not come to see her.
A trace of disappointment washed over her. She checked her phone over and over again, yet there was neither a call nor a WeChat message.
What on earth was wrong with this man?
Hadn't she already coaxed him into a good mood this morning?
They say a woman's heart is as unfathomable as the bottom of the sea, but a man's heart was just as hard to guess.
In the end, Xiang Wanniao couldn't hold back any longer and took the initiative to call Gu Jingzhan.
The phone rang for a few seconds before connecting, though at first, both of them remained silent.
The atmosphere stagnated for a long moment.
Xiang Wanniao pouted, a hint of unhappiness coloring her tone as she asked, "Why didn't you come to see me tonight? Do you have a lot of work?"
Gu Jingzhan offered no explanation, merely replying indifferently, "Mmm."
Hearing his cold tone, Xiang Wanniao felt even more wretched inside.
Yet she had brought this result upon herself; she had no one else to blame. Who told her to squander his sincere heart so ruthlessly in the past?
Xiang Wanniao let out a soft sigh and asked again, "Then... will you come to pick me up when I am discharged tomorrow?"
"Mmm."
"My mother wants us to go back and have a meal together tomorrow night. Are you free?" Xiang Wanniao cautiously probed for his opinion. Gu Jingzhan remained as tight-lipped as ever, unwilling to spare even a single extra word: "Mmm."
Whatever she said, he simply acknowledged it.
Xiang Wanniao bit her lower lip, her voice muffled, "Do you have nothing else to say to me besides 'mmm'?"
Gu Jingzhan paused for a moment before finally saying, "Get some rest early. Goodnight."
A flicker of loneliness crossed Xiang Wanniao's eyes, intensifying the sense of defeat in her heart.
With a helpless sigh, she replied with a touch of concern: "Then don't work too late either. Get some rest early."
"Alright."
After hanging up the phone, Gu Jingzhan walked back from the corridor window to the entrance of Xiang Wanniao's hospital room.
Though he hadn't shown his face, he had been standing outside, peering in through the glass pane on the door.
From the sound of her voice just now, Xiang Wanniao had seemed somewhat unhappy, though he couldn't tell if it was because he had given her the cold shoulder tonight.
Yet, upon second thought, her joys and sorrows were never something he could influence.
Everything happening now felt far too sudden, rendering it completely surreal to him.
Gu Jingzhan stood quietly outside the door, ultimately not going inside to see her.
He only left after Xiang Wanniao had fallen asleep.
Just as he turned a corner, Gu Jingzhan ran straight into Lu Qingzhou.
Lu Qingzhou leaned lazily against the wall and asked relentlessly, "Brother Zhan, are you really not planning to divorce Xiang Wanniao? Even if she's just putting on a pitiful act to fool you, you don't care?"
Gu Jingzhan pressed his lips together in silence.
Did he not care? He cared deeply.
Yet when it came to Xiang Wanniao, his heart simply couldn't harden.
"I don't want to care, as long as she stays by my side." Gu Jingzhan's voice was low, a reply born of self-deception.
Seeing him acting so worthless made Lu Qingzhou furious, and he couldn't help scolding him: "Your love-brained foolishness is truly beyond saving!"
Gu Jingzhan lifted the corners of his lips into a slightly bitter smile.
In the end, he said nothing more, walking right past Lu Qingzhou and taking the elevator down.
Lu Qingzhou watched Gu Jingzhan's retreating figure with a look of utter helplessness, muttering in bewilderment, "Is love really that great?"
...
The next day, afternoon.
Gu Jingzhan did not break his promise; as soon as he finished his work in the afternoon, he came to the hospital to pick up Xiang Wanniao.
The moment Xiang Wanniao saw Gu Jingzhan, a joyful smile immediately bloomed across her face.
"I've packed all my things." She walked up to him and took his hand. "Darling, let's go."
Hearing the word "darling", Gu Jingzhan visibly froze.
He stared at her in utter astonishment and blurted out in disbelief, "What... what did you just call me?"
"Darling, of course!" Xiang Wanniao blinked at him. "Aren't you my husband?"
"I am," Gu Jingzhan answered without a shred of doubt.
Xiang Wanniao bit back a smile and then coquettishly cajoled him, "Darling, my body still feels a bit weak. Why don't you carry me down?"
Gu Jingzhan knew she was doing it on purpose. At first, he didn't move, but eventually, unable to withstand her pleading gaze, he yielded to her request and carried her down to the underground parking garage.
Xiang Wanniao stayed quietly in the man's embrace, gazing up at him without blinking.
Sword-like eyebrows, star-like eyes, a high-bridged nose, and light, thin lips.
In the past, she had never examined him so carefully and earnestly.
In her past life, she had actually thought Gu Jingzhan's stunningly handsome face couldn't compare to Xiao Xu'an's—her brain must have been flooded with water!
As she looked at him, a deep sense of guilt welled up inside her.
Xiang Wanniao tightened her arms around his neck, slowly resting her head against his shoulder, gently snuggling into his embrace.
Gu Jingzhan lowered his gaze and, seeing her proactively lean closer to him, felt a surge of boundless joy within his heart.
Where she couldn't see, the corners of his lips curved upward slightly, and a spark of delight rippled through his ordinarily calm eyes.
Xiang Family
As soon as Xiang Wanniao stepped through the front door, Xiang Xingyu happened to be coming down the stairs, rushing straight over to her in two long strides.
"Sis, how are you?" Xiang Xingyu grabbed her hand and asked with a nervous expression, "Is the wound deep? I heard you lost a lot of blood and almost didn't make it!"
The moment she saw Xiang Xingyu, Xiang Wanniao's eyes grew red.
If not for her blindness and misplaced trust in the past life, her sister wouldn't have met such a tragic end.
All of this was her fault.
Xiang Wanniao lowered her gaze, masking the emotions in her eyes, curved her lips into a smile, and said, "Aren't I right here in one piece? I'm fine."
Seeing that she was still joking, Xiang Xingyu instantly turned serious and lectured her, "What do you mean by 'fine'?! Do you know you almost died? What couldn't you have talked out properly instead of resorting to a suicide attempt? Do you value your life so little?"
Hearing the word "suicide," the atmosphere in the living room instantly grew heavy and oppressive.
Gu Jingzhan's expression turned exceptionally ugly, and the aura around him grew chillingly cold.
Xiang Wanniao felt even more guilty.
"I... I was just momentarily confused."
"You weren't just momentarily confused, you were utterly out of your mind!" Xiang Xingyu refused to let her off the hook, mercilessly rebuking her, "You can't even tell good people from bad."
Xiang Wanniao cleared her throat and made a solemn vow in front of everyone: "I swear, from now on I will cherish my life and will never do anything to hurt myself again."
Though they didn't know whether her words were true or false, hearing her say this caused the expressions of Xiang Yanhua, Jiang Peijun, Gu Jingzhan, and Xiang Xingyu to ease up just a fraction.
Xiang Wanniao wrapped both arms around Gu Jingzhan's arm in a deeply intimate gesture.
"That's right, I really couldn't tell the good from the bad in the past, but now I've woken up."