Chapter 11

Chapter 11

That day, Jiang Wan added my contact information. By that night, she had forwarded nearly ten blog posts related to treating burns.

Only a few days later, before I even had a chance to look for her, that foolish woman actually delivered herself to my doorstep to apologize.

Both her hands were laden with gift bags. After setting them down, she went back to her car to fetch another load.

It was truly excessive. I nonchalantly inspected the gifts: burn ointment, scar-fading gel, a beautiful geographic atlas, a bowl identical to the one that had shattered, and, looking particularly rustic compared to the rest, a batch of baked cookies…

There was also a silk scarf. Jiang Wan said that on the day she picked me up from the airport, she thought my dress was beautiful and that it would pair perfectly with a pure white silk scarf like this one.

In the final box lay a wooden carving with crude, simple lines. It was a souvenir handmade by children from when she was volunteering in South America.

I said softly, “I love it. I want to put it in my bedroom. But… this is too much. It’s just a minor injury; you really didn’t need to take it to heart.”

“Today is also your birthday,” Jiang Wan said. She paused for a moment before adding, “Actually, I saw you this time last year.”

Last year… she saw me?

“I came back to handle some business and only stayed for two days, so I didn’t tell anyone. It was… about eleven-thirty at night, I think. I passed by that convenience store on the corner and saw you sitting alone by the window eating oden. You had a cream cake in front of you with a single birthday candle stuck in it.”

“I originally wanted to tap on the glass and wish you a happy birthday, but then I felt… you probably didn’t want to be disturbed.”

I froze in place.

That had been a night of torrential rain. Gu Jingshen had told me over the phone that he had to fly to Hong Kong on short notice. The convenience store clerk had sold me the last near-expired cake; the cheap cream had collapsed into a blob. I ate my oden while my tears kept falling into the broth.

Because of the long stretch of death and rebirth that lay between then and now, even the memory of the dampness on my face that night felt like something from a lifetime ago.

I remained silent for a long time, until Jiang Wan’s gaze turned worried.

“Miss Jiang, could you help me carry this up?” I asked. “The wood carving.”

She looked down at my bandaged right hand. “Of course, of course.”

The stairs of the old manor creaked beneath our feet. Jiang Wan walked ahead of me, clutching the wood carving, her short hair swaying against the back of her neck.

“Jiang Wan,” I called out to her.

She turned around.

“I’m sorry.”

I meant it. I was truly sorry.

A look of slight confusion froze on her face.

I let go of the handrail and tumbled down the stairs amidst Jiang Wan’s scream. In the dull thud of my head hitting the floor, I vaguely heard Gu Jingshen’s voice: “How long are you going to keep making things up? Congwen said you fell down yourself.”

Yes. I really did have a miscarriage once. I was pushed down the stairs and could only desperately, hopelessly protect my bulging stomach, like a dog that had been kicked down, crawling on the ground and begging my husband’s dear younger brother to call an ambulance.

That time was the absolute truth, but in Gu Jingshen’s eyes, it was nothing but a lie.

I punctured the blood pack I had hidden in my pocket beforehand. Under Jiang Wan’s incredulous gaze, a pool of bright red blood slowly spread beneath me.

Gu Jingshen was home today. Naturally, he didn’t remember my birthday; he was just in the study having a video conference.

And this time, when he stepped out of the room, he would happen to see the lie I had meticulously prepared for him. The ‘perpetrator’ was still standing frozen at the top of the stairs, staring down at me with a deathly pale face, the little wooden bird in her arms having shattered in two on the floor.

At the end of this day, I wept in his arms. “The baby… Jingshen, the baby.”