chapter 2

“He Lu, have you lost your soul?”

I snapped back to my senses, nearly losing grip of the IV bottle in my hand.

Gu Zhan’s eyes curled with a smile. “Are you thinking about another man behind my back? Hm?”

I couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose. Not only did he lean in close as he spoke, but he also said it loud enough for everyone to hear.

His warm, damp breath tickled my ear, making me shrink my neck uncomfortably.

Just as I was about to push him away, I suddenly felt a gaze sweep over me.

Almost instinctively, I looked toward Jiang Jiang in the distance.

Our eyes met.

If the Jiang Jiang from five years ago had seen this, he would have walked over with a cold face, wrapped his arm tightly around my waist, and declared his claim through gritted teeth.

At night, no matter how hard I tried to coax him, he would never yield.

He would even end up aggrieved, “You’re not allowed to fall for anyone else.”

That petty Jiang Jiang, the Jiang Jiang who loved me so much…

But now, he just looked at me calmly, without a ripple of emotion.

He spoke indifferently to the pregnant woman beside him, “Let’s go.”

Watching the two of them walk away, it felt as if a huge piece of my heart had been hollowed out.

We’ve been separated for five years. I’ve imagined countless reunion scenes, but I never dared to think he would already be married.

I bit my lip, trying to ease the sour ache in my chest, but it kept fermenting and spreading inside me.

For a moment, I wanted to rush over and question him, but realized I didn’t even have the right to.

After all, I was the one who brought up the breakup back then.

He was always so proud, but at that time, he tried every possible way-abandoning all his pride-to keep me.

It was me who couldn’t handle the pressure and gave up on him.

“I asked for you-he’s still single.” One sentence from Gu Zhan instantly kept my tears at bay.

“Huh?”

Gu Zhan smiled at me. “He’s my attending physician. Small world, right?”

I froze, a glimmer of hope rising in my heart. “You asked him yourself?”

“Not exactly.” Gu Zhan stroked his chin. “I heard it from the nurses.”

Gu Zhan has always gotten along well with women. From the nurses, he learned that Jiang Jiang had suddenly transferred from Beijing a month ago. When he joined the hospital, the information he submitted listed him as unmarried.

But my chest still felt stuffy. “But that pregnant woman just now…”

I know Jiang Jiang-he disdains lying, and he’d never wrong himself.

If it weren’t true, the moment the pregnant woman called him ‘husband’, he would definitely have denied it.

But he didn’t.

Gu Zhan looked at me and said nothing.

He pondered for a moment and offered a possibility: “Maybe it’s a case of getting pregnant before marriage?”

That night, when Jiang Jiang came for rounds, my eyes were already swollen from crying.

I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination, but Jiang Jiang seemed to pause for a split second.

But very quickly, he withdrew his gaze, striding straight to Gu Zhan’s side to perform the routine check.

He first asked Gu Zhan about his injuries in an official tone, then went through some standard questions-never looking at me once during the whole process.

My hand in my pocket tightened, my heart steeped in sourness.

“What did you eat today? Has the frequency of your headaches increased or decreased?” Jiang Jiang asked.

Gu Zhan replied leisurely,

“Today, I ate congee that Lulu made for me herself. Her mom said she spent three hours making it at home, almost hurt her fingers while handling the crabs. Even her ex-boyfriend never got this treatment!”

“Strange thing is, after drinking Lulu’s congee, my headache seems to have disappeared too. Tsk.”

Only then did Jiang Jiang’s hand pause for a moment. He turned his head, giving me a brief, indifferent glance.