"Air embolism..."
Chu Teng clenched his fists, his face flushed with overwhelming shame and annoyance.
She had only fainted and been brought to the hospital—since Chu Zhao had already woken up, why hadn't she called for help? How had she ended up in the emergency room for an air embolism from an IV infusion?
Recalling the nurse's look after checking on Chu Zhao and realizing he was her father, Chu Teng felt the anger burning even hotter in his chest.
What was that look? Was she blaming him? What did an outsider know anyway?
Did she know how much trouble this so-called daughter caused him, or how many times she had embarrassed him?
*A debt-collector.* The phrase flashed through the bottom of Chu Teng's heart.
He never should have brought Chu Zhao back in the first place.
The thought rose once more in Chu Teng's mind, though he had lost count of how many times he had regretted it.
"Dad, Sister... Sister's going to be all right, isn't she?"
A trembling hand gently grasped Chu Teng's arm. Beside him came the tearful, guilt-ridden voice of his younger daughter, Chu Fu.
"It's all my fault... If I'd noticed something was wrong with Sister sooner, if I'd just found out earlier, none of this would have happened to her!"
"I shouldn't have stayed out of the room just because I was afraid Sister would be upset if she woke up and saw me. Sister was still suffering so much, how could I not stay in the room with her...?"
"Xiaofu!" Chu Teng raised his voice, cutting Chu Fu off. "How could this possibly be your fault?!"
"When you noticed something was wrong and rushed in, Chu Zhao was awake, and the call button was right beside her, close enough to reach! Her just lying there without moving—wasn't she doing it on purpose just to see this happen?!"
"She'll be happy as long as she can watch the whole family torn apart by her worthless drama, with none of us having a moment of peace! Risking her life over something like this, if she wants to die, then let her go and—"
"Sir! Please keep the hallway outside the ward quiet."
At the nurse's warning, Chu Teng cut himself off, his reason returning just a bit.
It didn't matter what Xiaofu heard; she was family. But Shang Que was here too.
For Shang Que to catch wind of such shameful family business right here, right now...
It was all Chu Zhao's fault! Making a fool of him yet again!
The anger in Chu Teng's chest burned even fiercer.
He turned his head—only to see Shang Que standing face-to-face with the emergency room entrance, his gaze locked immovably on the door, only his cold profile visible.
By some masculine intuition, Chu Teng felt this was a very bad sign.
Chu Teng's eyes darted back and forth between the red light glowing above the emergency room and Shang Que's cold, focused profile.
A wave of dizziness washed over him. Could Shang Que still have feelings for Chu Zhao...?
"Dad! What's wrong?" Chu Fu's worried voice rang out beside him.
"Did you forget to take your medicine on time again lately?"
Without waiting for Chu Teng to answer, Chu Fu looked toward Shang Que, her expression a mix of worry and entreaty, like a flower drenched in a heavy storm.
"Shang Que, could you take my dad back first?"
"He isn't feeling well. I'll stay here and look after Sister."
"Sister will be fine."
As if startled from a long dream, Shang Que met Chu Fu's gaze, momentarily dazed. "I..."
"Xiaofu, go back with your dad."
Chu Teng gripped Chu Fu's hand where it rested in the crook of his arm, tightening his hold as his eyes fixed on Shang Que's face, refusing to miss a single shift in the other man's expression.
The marriage alliance between the Shang family and the Chu family could not afford any more twists and turns.
Chu Fu looked anxious. "But Sister is still in the emergency room..."
"Alright." Shang Que exchanged a look with Chu Teng.
He looked away, his attitude brooking no refusal—almost as if trying to hide something—as he turned to Chu Fu.
"Xiaofu, I'll take you and your uncle back first." He paused. "As for the hospital, if anything comes up, they'll notify us."
"Then I'll have to trouble you, young Shang." Chu Teng agreed decisively, his tense nerves finally relaxing a fraction at that moment.
Thank goodness.
Between Chu Zhao and Xiaofu, Shang Que had chosen Xiaofu.
Naturally—who in their right mind would choose Chu Zhao over Xiaofu?
He must have been out of his mind with anger to have imagined otherwise.
***
When Chu Zhao regained consciousness once more, her senses were still somewhat hazy.
Her memories before losing consciousness were no longer clear.
The only things with any impression were the despair of her fingertips missing the call button, and the eyes she had met—the eyes belonging to Chu Fu.
Had the other girl been watching her back then?
Had she seen her feeble, pathetic attempts to save herself like a clown?
Chu Zhao did not know.
She only felt tired, so tired she lacked even the strength to open her eyes.
The roaring in her ears from before she fainted had long since faded, replaced instead by—
The soft, rustling sounds of packing up items inside the ward, and the voices of two completely unfamiliar nurses.
"What's going on with Room 401 anyway? The patient is still in the emergency room, and yet within a few minutes, all her family members just up and left. They don't look worried at all."
"Now she's been revived and is lying here unconscious, and there isn't even a single person staying to look after her."
"A companion?" The other nurse let out a scoff.
"Right after she came out of the ICU, the head nurse called her family. Made over a dozen calls, went through three different contact numbers just to barely get a hold of someone."
"In the end, the person on the other end just asked if she was dead yet, and hung up the moment they heard she wasn't. Didn't want to hear a single extra detail."
"You don't say..."
"'Is she dead yet?' Those were the exact words of the patient's family member. I'm not exaggerating."
"Alright, stop talking about it. Haven't you noticed the head nurse got called into the director's office to be chewed out and disciplined because of what happened today?"
"Because of the patient's air embolism? But wasn't that visitor who came earlier—the girl who said she wanted to..."
"Shh! We shouldn't be talking about this! Either way..."
The two nurses' conversation faded away completely as they finished packing, closed the door, and stepped outside.
A minute, perhaps longer, passed before Chu Zhao slowly opened her eyes.
Her gaze rested blankly on empty air, without a single focal point.
[*Within a few minutes, all her family members just up and left.*]
[*Made over a dozen calls, went through three different contact numbers just to barely get a hold of someone.*]
[*Is she dead yet? Those were the exact words of the family member.*]
So noisy.
Chu Zhao raised a hand, tentatively covering her ears.
The thin film that had seemed to insulate her from the world ever since she woke up shattered soundlessly in that sudden, quiet moment.
The chaotic, disordered words reorganized themselves into fluent, coherent speech, received by her ears and processed by her brain.
Chu Zhao felt the pain hit her belatedly.
Had they left that early?
They couldn't even wait for the outcome.
When it came to her life or death, there was only a casual, phone-filtered question.
If she hadn't woken up? If she had just died like that...?
Then her father—the indispensable half who had given her life—considered even waiting for news of her death a waste of time?
How could they... how could they care about her so little?
The monitor beside the bed emitted a piercing warning tone.
Like a fish gasping for water, Chu Zhao trembled miserably and painfully on the snow-white hospital bed.
Outside the ward, hurried footsteps seemed to echo in the hallway.
But Chu Zhao no longer had the strength to register them.
Everything around her began to sway. She felt as though she were rising, yet falling at the same time.
She was the most worthless document tossed into a shredder.
[*You're completely useless, you couldn't even hold onto the marriage alliance with the Shang family. What on earth did I raise you for?*]
[*Can't you learn from Xiaofu and give me one less thing to worry about?*]
[*She doesn't have a mom or a dad! Nobody wants her, she's a bastard! A filthy thing!*]
"The patient has a psychiatric history spanning nine years, presenting with neurasthenia, moderate depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, severe sleep disorders, and other symptoms... Prepare a dose of sedatives to stabilize the patient's mood first."
The attending physician calmly announced the preliminary diagnosis after assessing Chu Zhao's condition.
"Understood." A nurse stepped forward to grip Chu Zhao's arm.
[*Wild child! Bastard! Nobody loves you, haha...*]
"No..." Chu Zhao murmured, pushing back with all four limbs.
The attending physician frowned slightly. "Get a few more people to hold her down."
Vines trapped her hands and feet. Chu Zhao breathed heavily and erratically.
A cold needle pierced her skin, pumping the equally cold liquid into her body.
Before the heavy, dark dizziness could swallow everything, Chu Zhao heard the exclusive ringtone assigned to her family members coming from her phone.
"Who..."