Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Wang Zheng had classes in the afternoon, so he left first.

After Wang Zheng was gone, Nan Mu said to Qiu Ziyu, “I need you to look into something for me.”

“You haven’t even recovered yet. Why are you already thinking about this stuff again?”

Qiu Ziyu felt that Nan Mu really ought to spend some time properly recuperating.

Nan Mu rubbed his wrist and did not answer. His lashes lowered slightly, his pale eyes cold and indifferent.

Qiu Ziyu understood Nan Mu’s temperament. Nan Mu had always had a mind of his own; once he decided on something, he would do it. He had been like this since they were children. If you tried to stop him, he would just come up with some other scheme, leaving you with no way to guard against him.

If Qiu Ziyu refused to help, Nan Mu would definitely go find someone else. By then, who knew what kind of trouble he might stir up?

So Qiu Ziyu could only agree, however reluctantly. “Fine, I’ll look into it! I’ll find out as soon as I can, so you have to promise me that these next few days, you won’t overthink things or worry yourself sick. Anyway, the moment I find anything, I’ll tell you right away.”

“All right.”

Nan Mu agreed readily enough, but whether he would actually listen was another matter entirely.

===

Qiu Ziyu was supposed to be the one staying overnight today, but he suddenly received a call from his unit and had no choice but to rush over for overtime.

Although Nan Mu said he was fine, that no one needed to stay with him, and that Qiu Ziyu should hurry back to work, Qiu Ziyu still couldn’t rest easy. After all, Nan Mu had nearly died right in front of him twice in a row already. At this point, there was no way he could feel comfortable leaving Nan Mu alone.

Just as he was caught between two impossible choices, a voice greeted him from behind.

“Officer Qiu, are you on night duty today?”

Qiu Ziyu turned around and saw that it was the nurse Panpan, who was handing over her shift at the nurses’ station.

“Yeah… Are you on the night shift today?”

Panpan had previously told him about how she had gone with Nan Mu to the evening banquet, and how Nan Mu had given the last spot to her.

“Yep. Want a late-night snack later? I ordered barbecue. Come have some with us?”

Qiu Ziyu shook his head. “My unit called me back for overtime, but I can’t leave this side unattended either. I was just worrying about it…”

Before he could finish, Panpan instantly understood. “So there’s no one to stay with him tonight, right? It’s fine. If you’re busy, go ahead. I’m on the night shift today, so I’ll go over later. Has his temperature been taken tonight? If not, I’ll take it for him in a bit.”

Panpan had always felt guilty about what had happened on the cruise ship. She kept thinking that Nan Mu had been injured so badly partly because of her, and she had long wanted to find an opportunity to repay him. So the moment she heard Qiu Ziyu had something to do, she immediately took responsibility for looking after Nan Mu herself.

Having a nurse help keep an eye on him was definitely better than a complete layman like Qiu Ziyu trying to care for him. Besides, Panpan was careful and responsible in her work; Qiu Ziyu had always seen that for himself.

“It hasn’t been taken yet. He just finished dinner. If you take it now, the reading might not be accurate. Just go in about an hour.”

Once Panpan agreed, Qiu Ziyu thanked her repeatedly before leaving.

===

Nan Mu lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

The moment he closed his eyes, he would always think of that dream.

That dream had been so real. So real that it was completely different from an ordinary dream.

In an ordinary dream, after waking, the images would gradually fade. Many fragments would blur, and sometimes one could only remember the general outline of the story without being able to recount what had happened.

But for some reason, the details of this dream had not faded at all with the passage of time. In fact, they had only become clearer.

Not only did he still remember every part of the story vividly, he could even recall the heart-skipping feeling when Wen Miao held him; the smooth, delicate sensation beneath his fingertips when he touched Wen Miao’s cheek… It was as if he had truly experienced all of it.

Rather than calling it a dream, it would be more accurate to call it a memory.

But that was impossible. His relationship with Wen Miao had never progressed to that stage.
He had never even managed to say the words of confession out loud. How could he dare hope that Wen Miao would throw herself into his arms?

Just as he was racking his brain for an answer, the door to the hospital room was suddenly pushed open.

Nan Mu turned his head and saw that it was Panpan.

“Good evening, President Nan.” Panpan smiled and waved the thermometer in her hand. “Officer Qiu said something came up at the station tonight, so he went back first. I’m here to take your temperature… I’m on duty tonight, so if you need anything, just press the call bell!”

Nan Mu nodded. “Thank you.”

As Panpan opened the thermometer case, the lid accidentally fell to the floor.

She did not pick it up right away. She first put the thermometer in place for Nan Mu, then bent down to retrieve the lid that had bounced under the bed.

The lid had fallen near the foot of the bed. As Panpan reached for it, her hand brushed against a bag under the bed.

She crouched and looked the bag over. “Oh, your clothes are still here? No one cleaned them up?”

Nan Mu froze. “What clothes?”

“The clothes you were wearing the day you fell into the sea.” Panpan pulled the bag out from the floor. “When they brought you in, it was an emergency, so the surgeon cut your clothes off… But they didn’t just throw them away. They collected everything, put it in this bag, and left it here… Did they forget to tell you?”

When Nan Mu woke up, he had already been changed into a hospital gown. He had completely forgotten about that.

“I was the one who put the bag here after the surgery that day. You were unconscious for three days, so after so much time, they probably forgot too.” As Panpan spoke, she suddenly remembered something else. “Oh, right. I also collected your watch and things earlier and gave them to Officer Qiu. He told you about that, didn’t he?”

Nan Mu did remember that. Qiu Ziyu had mentioned it to him and said everything had been placed in the drawer of the bedside cabinet.

Qiu Ziyu was not someone who paid attention to minor details, so he must have forgotten about the clothes. Xu Yang had been in the room at the time as well, but naturally, no one had reminded him about such a trivial matter.

After Nan Mu’s temperature was taken, everything was normal. Only then did Panpan hand the bag to him. “I remember the cufflinks on your shirt that day looked pretty expensive. Why don’t you check if there’s anything in here that’s still usable? If there’s anything you don’t want, just take it out and leave it to the side. After I finish my rounds, I’ll come back and throw it out for you.”

Now that Panpan mentioned it, Nan Mu remembered that he had indeed been wearing a pair of sapphire cufflinks worth a considerable sum on his shirt that day.

He opened the bag and saw the suit pants and shirt he had worn that day stuffed messily inside. White sea salt had crystallized on the surface, so the clothes were clearly ruined. Besides, in order to escape back then, he had thrown away the jacket long ago, so it was no longer a complete suit anyway.

Thinking he would just remove the cufflinks, he rummaged through the bag. The pins on the backs of the cufflinks were gold-plated and of good quality. Although they had been soaked in seawater, they had not rusted. As for the sapphires, needless to say, they still gleamed brilliantly, as if they had never gone through any calamity at all.

He removed the first cufflink. Then, as he went to take off the other one, he suddenly noticed a piece of fabric tangled around the sapphire.

After unwrapping it, he spread it open and realized it was actually fabric from a blue-and-white hoodie.

It was as if all the blood in his body had frozen. A sensation with nowhere to escape spread over him like an inescapable net, suffocating him at a single glance.

A blue-and-white hoodie. In an instant, he thought of the day he had escaped on the cruise ship-that fleeting glimpse, the figure that had flashed past and looked so very much like Wen Miao.

But…

How could that be?

How was that possible?

She could not possibly have been there…