chapter 1

chapter 1

Once the car was fixed, I climbed in and started the engine. Everything seemed fine.

The young man held out the payment QR code on his phone. Just as I was about to scan it, his phone rang again.

I glanced at the screen. It was the hospital.

He answered with a quick hello, and his face changed instantly. “What? All right. I’ll be there right away!”

As soon as he hung up, I spoke before he could. “Get in.”

He stared at me.

“Aren’t you going to the hospital? You seem to be in a hurry. I’ll drive you.”

He pressed his lips together, then got into the passenger seat without much hesitation.

It was a while before I heard a quiet “Thank you.”

I said nothing, entered the address into the navigation system, and drove.

On the way, I asked about his situation.

His name was Fan Xin. He was twenty-one, a third-year university student, and had a ten-year-old sister. Their parents had died in a plane crash when he was fifteen.

The inheritance should have been enough to support them both until adulthood, but relatives had taken part of it. Then his sister was diagnosed with heart disease the previous year. What little remained vanished rapidly, leaving them deep in debt.

Just before meeting me that day, another relative had shut the door in his face.

I asked what he intended to do.

He turned toward the window, his expression perfectly calm. “These days, if you want to make money badly enough, you’ll find a way.”

The moment I stopped outside the hospital, Fan Xin sprang out of the car. He could not even wait for the elevator. He shoved open the stairwell door and raced upstairs.

Carrying my bag, I checked which floor housed cardiac surgery, then waited for the elevator and followed the room numbers until I found the ward.

The doctor appeared to have just finished treating an emergency and spoke briefly to Fan Xin about his sister’s condition.

Not long afterward, the little girl in the hospital bed woke up. Almost instinctively, the strain vanished from Fan Xin’s face and softened into a warm smile.

He stroked her hair and murmured a few words to her. Soon, she drifted back to sleep.

I looked at the friend request I had accepted on my phone not long ago. After a moment’s thought, I transferred fifty thousand yuan to Fan Xin and turned to leave.

I had barely taken a few steps when he chased after me.

“Wait!” He caught my wrist, words hovering behind his lips.

I smiled. “Take it. Consider it my good deed for the day. Your sister is adorable. I hope she recovers soon.”

I knew accepting the money troubled him, but reality had already worn down a young man’s pride. His lips moved, yet he could not force out the words, *I don’t want it*.

In the end, all he said was, “I’ll pay you back.”

I waved it off and stepped into the elevator.

When the elevator reached the parking garage, I took out my car key and was about to look for my car when a gentle voice reached me.

“Ah Yan, I think I left the prenatal report in the car.”

I stopped and turned my head.

Not far away, the door of a black Rolls-Royce stood open. Jiang Yan was bent over, retrieving a small bag from inside.

The woman beside him wore a soft, flowing dress. Her expression was mild, and her belly curved beneath the fabric.

Neither of them had noticed me.

She linked her arm through Jiang Yan’s. They exchanged a smile, intimate and entirely oblivious to the world around them.

I thought of the year I miscarried. I had been about her age then.

Our careers had only just begun, and neither our finances nor our circumstances could accommodate a child. But we had still been in love. We could never quite bring ourselves to end the pregnancy.

Soon enough, there was no longer any decision to make.

I miscarried before we reached one.

Jiang Yan held me tightly all through the night, his eyes red from exhaustion. At dawn, his voice raw, he promised, “Xiuxiu, give me a little more time.”

“When this child comes back to us, I swear they’ll be the happiest child in the world.”

I clutched his shirt. Knowing his grief was no less than mine, I had not even dared to sob aloud.

At twenty-four, I lost my child.

Jiang Yan was cleverer than I was. He knew how to make up for his regrets.

Look—at twenty-four, my replacement was carrying Jiang Yan’s child.

I got into my car and tried to light a cigarette with trembling hands.

In the end, I only covered my eyes. Tears slid through a bleak smile.

I had accepted Jiang Yan’s change of heart long ago. I expected nothing from him anymore.

So I could not quite say why I was crying then.