Gao Xiang had no choice but to put aside his work and go to the labor market with his secretary to find a nanny. After much difficulty, they finally found a suitable candidate, but she wouldn't be able to start until the day after tomorrow.
Chen Zi Hui had been taking care of the baby alone for two days, barely getting a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, and was utterly exhausted. Gao Xiang, feeling sorry for his mother, forcibly moved the small bed into his room and insisted she go rest for a while, taking over the watch for her.
The room was unusually quiet. He stared at the child in the crib—the face was only the size of a peach, and even in sleep, the faint brows were furrowed, paired with a downturned little mouth, forming a standard expression of unhappiness. He couldn’t find any discernible hereditary traits in that face, but it reminded him of the hand that had clutched his lapel unwilling to let go at the town health center, and that pale, gaunt face.
The entire family had been so overwhelmed by the child’s illness that they hadn’t had time to think about naming the baby. Probably starting with Chen Zi Hui, everyone had casually called him "Bao Bao." But the child would grow up and would need a proper name. Thinking of how he had gritted his teeth and promised Zuo Si'an that the child wouldn’t take the Chen surname, Gao Xiang couldn’t help but sigh.
As if sensing his distress, the peacefully sleeping infant suddenly flailed his little hands and began to cry. Gao Xiang quickly reached out to pat him gently, but the baby only cried more fiercely, his face, hands, and feet immediately turning cyanotic. Gao Xiang was so frightened he didn’t know what to do. He wanted to pick him up, but upon touching the small, soft body, he had no idea how to handle it.
Chen Zi Hui, hearing the noise, threw on her clothes and came over, picking up the child and soothing him softly.
“This is too frightening. Should we take him to the hospital?”
He shook his head. “The doctor said that before the surgery, these symptoms can’t be alleviated. Going to the hospital won’t help.”
The hysterical crying gradually subsided under Chen Zi Hui’s comfort. After feeding him a little milk, she laid him back in the bed, gazing at him tenderly. “Look at his nose—tall and straight, exactly like Ziyu’s. It’s a Chen family trait. Your nose is like that too.”
He frowned. “It’s still just a lump of flesh. You can’t tell.”
“Nonsense, he clearly…”
“Alright, alright, go rest now.”
Chen Zi Hui refused to leave. “Once he’s three months old and can have the surgery, things will be better. Ah, I just don’t know if the surgery will be safe.”
“Don’t scare yourself, Mom. Tomorrow, I’ll rent a bigger place and hire two nannies to work in shifts. Otherwise, your health won’t hold up.”
Chen Zi Hui still disagreed. “Renting is inconvenient. I plan to buy a larger apartment. But nannies are outsiders, after all—they can’t care for Bao Bao the way I do. No matter how many we hire, I won’t be able to let go. I’m fine. When Ziyu was little, he was a crybaby too. The moment I sat down, he’d start crying endlessly, and I had to carry him and walk around all night.”
She mentioned Chen Zi Yu again, and Gao Xiang had no choice but to fall silent.
“Are you, like your father, resentful that I focused entirely on taking care of Ziyu when you were little and paid no attention to you?”
He shook his head. “Let’s not bring up those things.”
Chen Zi Hui stared at him blankly. “Whenever your father said that to me, I’d tell him our son never complained or brought it up, that only he was petty. He said you not mentioning it didn’t mean you didn’t mind. It seems he was right.”Gao Xiang searched his heart and admitted to himself that he wasn't harboring resentment, yet he couldn't claim to be completely unaffected. However, as a 23-year-old adult man, with Chen Ziyu already having met a tragic end—becoming a heavy shadow weighing on his entire family—he had no reason to bring up his lingering feelings to discuss with his weary mother.
"You're too tired. Go get some proper sleep."
The New Year of 1997 passed in a blur of busyness and worry. Gao Xiang attempted to mend his relationship with his girlfriend, but when Sun Ruodi finally answered his call, he found himself at a loss for words. His hesitant attitude, in Ruodi's eyes, naturally came across as completely insincere, and she hung up on him in anger.
He knew it would be best to talk in person, and given Ruodi's gentle nature and his own persuasive abilities, winning her back shouldn't have been difficult. Yet, for some reason, he couldn't muster the energy to make further efforts.
His car had been thoroughly cleaned, and the seat cushions replaced, but every time he got in, he couldn't shake the suspicion that he could still detect a faint scent of blood. He wondered if this was a sign of being unable to move past certain influences, a psychological barrier preventing his life from returning to normal.
Could Zuo Si'an's life ever return to normal? This thought occasionally surfaced in his mind.
One afternoon, as work was winding down, Gao Xiang was handling tasks in his office when he suddenly received a call from Yu Jia. "Gao Xiang, I need you to go to my house right away."
"What's wrong?"
Yu Jia's voice was urgent, almost shrill: "I'm currently in H City for an important work conference that I couldn't postpone. I won't be back until tomorrow. Xiao An was still running a slight fever yesterday. I wanted to take her to the hospital, but she absolutely refused. This morning, I made sure she took her medicine before I left. I've been calling home for the past two hours, but the line's been busy the whole time. I'm worried something might have happened to Xiao An. I'm sorry, I can't ask anyone else—I have to rely on you to check on her for me."
After getting the address, he hurriedly drove over.
The Zuo family lived in a dormitory complex on Zhongshan Road. After some difficulty navigating the nearly identical old buildings, he found the address Yu Jia had given him. On the third floor, he repeatedly rang the doorbell and knocked directly on the door, but there was no response. He called Yu Jia again. "Ms. Yu, is it possible Xiao An went out?"
"It's been less than a month since her surgery. She's still very weak—how could she go out? Besides, she's been in a depressive state and hasn't shown any interest in going out. Maybe you should find a locksmith to open the door."
Gao Xiang tried ringing the doorbell once more, but there was still no response. Just as he was about to turn and head downstairs, the door suddenly opened. Zuo Si'an stood there, her hair disheveled and falling over her shoulders, wearing a set of pink-and-blue checkered pajamas and a pair of fluffy pink slippers, clutching a cloth teddy bear. Not only had she reverted to looking like a young girl, but she also carried an exaggeratedly childish air, leaving Gao Xiang both amused and exasperated.
She stared straight at him, as if she had never seen him before. He felt relieved but also somewhat annoyed. "Why did it take so long to open the door?"
"I was asleep," she replied, her voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
"Is the phone off the hook?"
"I don't know."
"It's almost dinnertime. What would you like to eat? I can buy something and bring it up."
She shook her head. "There's chicken soup at home. I don't want to eat.""Then... give your mom a call and go back to sleep."
She murmured an "okay." As he reached out to close the door for her, just before the latch clicked shut, he suddenly sensed something amiss. Pushing the door open again, he studied her carefully. She remained standing in the same spot, her face flushed with an unnatural redness, her gaze unfocused and vacant. Though she appeared to be looking at him, she seemed to see nothing at all. He raised his hand to feel her forehead—she didn't instinctively pull away as she usually would. The heat against his palm startled him; she was clearly running a high fever.
"Go put on some clothes. I'm taking you to the hospital."
She seemed to regain a sliver of awareness: "I hate hospitals. I'm not going."
"How can that be? You're burning up like this. No being stubborn."
She stood motionless, unresponsive. Helpless, he took off his coat and gently took her arm. She suddenly let out a sharp cry. Startled, he quickly explained, "It's cold outside. You have to wear something."
"It hurts."
"Where does it hurt?"
But she bit her lip and refused to speak. Puzzled and cautious, he helped her into the coat. "Come with me."
Still clutching the little bear, she followed him out. He closed the door behind them and only then noticed she was still in slippers. Stumbling down the stairs, she nearly missed a step and fell after just one move. He had no choice but to pick her up. She offered no resistance, staring ahead as if sleepwalking. This was the second time he had held her like this, and compared to the last time, she felt as light as a feather, almost weightless.
He settled her into the car and drove toward the hospital when he suddenly heard her say, "No, Dad, this stop is Shanghai Road. The next one is Kunming Road. We still have three more stops to get to Shenyang Road, right?"
The city did indeed have many streets named after other cities, but the route he was taking was neither Shanghai Road nor Kunming Road. Glancing at her, he saw her head tilted to the side, resting against the window, her eyes blankly fixed ahead as if lost in some hallucination. She murmured, "Dad, don't be angry. I won't run off alone again. I'll wait for you to pick me up."
Her slender neck was bent at a precarious angle, unexpectedly triggering a nearly forgotten memory from his childhood. When he was about six or seven, he and Chen Ziyu, who was the same age, were playing behind the school. Chen Ziyu caught a young night heron and proudly showed it off to him. That bird had a similarly long neck, tilted weakly to one side as if unable to bear the weight, its eyes filled with terror, its cries unusually piercing.
He didn't know why such a distant memory surfaced now, especially the thought of Chen Ziyu, stirring a tumult of emotions in his chest that left him unsettled.
☆、24
SixAuthor's Note: The book is about to be released, apologies for the pause in updates. Regarding this story, many readers may have questions, and I completely understand. Most people lead ordinary, uneventful lives, which aren't suitable for novels. Others have their lives permanently altered by an unexpected event, and novels often focus on extreme situations and lives that deviate from the norm. This story was conceived last year and completed in early April, so trying to assign a real-life hot topic as its prototype is rather forced and meaningless. Some readers say they miss the "sweet stories" I wrote, which surprised me a bit—I didn't realize I had written that type of story before, haha. But just as how to write is the author's freedom, how to interpret it is entirely the reader's freedom. Some comments are quite naive, likely from readers with simple lives who see the world as: "You're so bad, I don't acknowledge you as my mom, get lost"; "You beast, I don't have a relative like you, watch me righteously eliminate you"; "Whoever dates someone should be responsible for them forever, no changing their mind"; "If you say you love me, even after parting, you should remain chaste for over a decade without any other emotional needs, and if you have physical urges, deal with them yourself—otherwise, you're a hypocrite"... It's all quite innocent and adorable, but allow me to say, the real world doesn't operate that way. I'm not here to defend anyone, because I write novels, not fairy tales. They all have flaws, regardless of gender; none are perfect. I provide the story, but not the perspective or mode of viewing—everyone is free to interpret as they wish. It's been five years since I started writing on Jinjiang, and whether I'll post here in the future is uncertain. What I'll miss most are the readers who've accompanied me along the way. If interested, feel free to follow my Sina Weibo. Thank you all for your support, and I wish you happiness...
Gao Xiang took Zuo Si'an to the emergency room. The female doctor on duty asked about the situation, but Zuo Si'an was completely disoriented and unable to answer, while Gao Xiang could provide only limited information.
The female doctor took out her stethoscope, and as soon as it touched Zuo Si'an's chest, she screamed again and shrank back: "It hurts."
The doctor was greatly surprised and took her to an inner room. After a while, she came out and called a nurse, "Please ask Dr. Wang to come over right away."
Dr. Wang, a middle-aged male doctor, hurried over and went in with the nurse. Gao Xiang had no choice but to go to the corridor to call Yu Jia.
"When I left, she only had a slight fever, and I told her to take her medicine. How could it suddenly get so serious? What did the doctor say?"
"Her fever is up to 39.7°C, and the doctor is still examining her. Don't worry, I'll update you as soon as there's news."
"I'm heading back now. Please stay at the hospital and keep an eye on her for me."
Another ten minutes or so passed, and the two doctors came out. Dr. Wang glanced at Gao Xiang before leaving, while the female doctor looked at him with a stern, serious expression: "What is your relationship to Zuo Si'an?"Oh ho, dear friends, if you find 52 Book Vault great, remember to bookmark the URL https:https://www.52shuku.net/ or recommend it to your pals~ Pretty please (>.<) Portal: Ranking List | Book Finding Guide | Green Shirt Falling
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