Mrs. Jiang struggled against her illness for five years before she finally passed away.
Mr. Jiang was the one who announced the news.
And the only person Mrs. Jiang didn’t get to see before she died was Jiang Nanshu.
Crying could be heard from a nearby hospital room.
Jiang Nanshu immediately understood why Jiang Jingcheng was on this floor—it was because Mrs. Jiang had also been staying here, in the room next door.
The person crying was Jiang Leyi.
No matter what, Mrs. Jiang had always been the mother who cherished and raised her.
So Jiang Nanshu felt that Jiang Leyi was the luckiest one among them all.
Even if she had been switched at birth, she still grew up in a wealthy family, and now that she had found her birth family, she was still in a nest of wealth.
She had never known poverty.
“Do you want to go have a look?” Jiang Jingcheng asked.
Jiang Nanshu shook her head, “I never visited her while she was alive, wouldn’t it feel a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted if I went to see her now?”
Jiang Jingcheng thought about it seriously, “That’s true.”
Not long after, several of Jiang Nanshu’s older brothers arrived.
Jiang Nanshu sat in Lu Qingyan’s hospital room, peeling an apple.
Lu Qingyan lay in bed, staring at the IV bag hanging by the bed.
He too wanted to be at peace with Jiang Nanshu, but he found that he couldn’t quite manage it.
He didn’t want to show his dirtiest side in front of her, nor could he give up on her, as Jiang Nanshu was a very thoughtful person.
Lu Qingyan knew she wanted him to release the person he was keeping locked up.
But he felt the punishment wasn’t enough yet.
It was nowhere near enough to make up for the hurt Jiang Nanshu had suffered over the years.
Compensation wasn’t sufficient.
And the catalyst for their recent argument had been Zhou Yanxu.
He realized from what was in Jiang Nanshu’s heart, how important this person was to her.
From the time he saw her lost and distraught at the temple.
It was an emotion of Jiang Nanshu’s that he had never seen before.
She was always so outspoken and seemed to approach everything with great openness.
Could she be sad?
Lu Qingyan had never seen it, so that was a first.
He found evidence that she liked Zhou Yanxu in the little details.
And from the way he interacted with Jiang Nanshu, he discovered that he was the only one who would argue and cry, she would not.
Lu Qingyan felt a vexing tightness in his chest, it was driving him mad.
Damn it, he glanced out of the corner of his eye at Jiang Nanshu, who was happily munching on an apple and scrolling through her phone.
He felt his stomach pain flaring up again.
Lu Qingyan clutched at his stomach, his face pallid, sweat dripped off his brow.
Jiang Nanshu noticed his discomfort, quickly set down the apple and phone, and reached out to feel his not-so-warm hand, asking, “Does your stomach still hurt?”
Lu Qingyan pursed his lips, his gaze stubbornly fixed on her, “I’m not in pain, I want to eat an apple.”
Jiang Nanshu was speechless.
“The doctor said it should be at least four hours before you eat again, wait a few more hours, okay?”
Seeing Lu Qingyan’s forehead soaked with sweat, she went to wring out a clean towel and wiped his face for him.
Looking at him making trouble for himself, Jiang Nanshu felt a mix of exasperation and amusement, “I already told you the medicine was expired, I didn’t dare to take it, and you just gulped it down, do you really not care about your life?”
“Dying would be just what you wanted.”
Jiang Nanshu watched him speechlessly, “Well, before you die, let’s get our marriage annulled. I don’t plan on being a widow.”
Sure enough, at the mention of divorce, his eyes turned fierce, his gaze fixed on her face, “In your dreams.”
“Then take better care of yourself, and don’t do anything this stupid again. When your stomach feels better, I’ll peel one for you,” Jiang Nanshu promised him as she looked on.
She was ready to leave when Lu Qingyan reached out and gripped her hand. Jiang Nanshu looked at him, puzzled, “What’s wrong?”
After a long time, he exhaled deeply, black eyes devoid of light, “I actually know everything about you and Zhou Yanxu. Do you know how jealous I was of him? Every day I wondered, why wasn’t it me you met first… If I had met you first… would you still treat me like this?”
He once even felt relief at Zhou Yanxu’s death, but reality struck him hard. He thought that a living person couldn’t compare to someone who had died; now he realized that, alive or not, he couldn’t compare to him at all.
He was the second choice, and it was he who had used compensation as an excuse to keep her tied to him.
When she died, he was in pain, and now that she stood alive before him, he was in pain too.
She wouldn’t even spare him a sincere “like.”
Jiang Nanshu never knew that Zhou Yanxu was the reason behind Lu Qingyan’s erratic behavior; this was also the first time he mentioned this name in front of her.
Zhou Yanxu…
She had met him first.
Because that was the order in which characters appeared, they left marks in her life that she couldn’t erase.
So, to Lu Qingyan’s words, she felt a mix of laughter and tears. After a moment, she said, “But I’m with you now, we’re married. Lu Qingyan, there’s no chance for me and him.”
Jiang Nanshu tried her best to defend.
Lu Qingyan’s eyes, already devoid of color, “Yes, we’re married, you’re my wife. I went to him seeking a way to save you. Before I left, he told me to take good care of you…”
Lu Qingyan clenched his hand, “Jiang Nanshu, if it weren’t for me, would there have been a chance for you and him?”
Jiang Nanshu had never considered this question.
She met Zhou Yanxu and then met Lu Qingyan.
The former was the one she pursued, the latter was the one who loved her.
She couldn’t deny that in her girlhood, she harbored a secret fondness for Zhou Yanxu, which she later, in the original world, upon learning the truth, tore into shreds beyond recognition.
If Zhou Yanxu hadn’t died, she would have never come to this world.
Jiang Nanshu thought to this point.
Suddenly felt.
Even without all of that.
She probably wouldn’t have ended up with Zhou Yanxu.
She was just about to answer when Lu Qingyan released her hand.
“You can leave.”
Jiang Nanshu’s silence killed his hope.
“Lu Qingyan… there are no ’what if’ hypotheses in this world.”
“Get out!” He lowered his eyes, his face pale, his demeanor calm.
Jiang Nanshu saw the storm hidden beneath his calm exterior, but was also powerless.
Five years had turned a man once composed into a madman.
She didn’t want to provoke him any further and turned to leave.
She had only reached the entrance to the ward.
When she saw him pull out the needle from the back of his hand, knocking over the IV stand with a loud crash.
Through the crack in the door, Jiang Nanshu saw him slumping, hands clutching his head, his fingers buried in his hair, blood dripping down his arm from the back of his hand, which he seemed not to care about.
She pursed her red lips, her eyes moistening slightly.
She thought so.
There were fractures between them.
Unrepairable.
Why continue to torment each other by staying together?
Her existence seemed to only bring more pain to Lu Qingyan.
He had even lost himself.
Jiang Nanshu went to find a nurse and reported the situation in Lu Qingyan’s ward.
A stretcher covered with a white sheet was pushed over from not far away.
Around the stretcher followed Mr. Jiang and Jiang Nanshu’s five brothers, as well as Jiang Leyi, whose eyes were swollen from crying.
Seeing Jiang Nanshu standing in the corridor, they seemed surprised as well.
Mr. Jiang, eyes red with emotion, came forward excitedly, “Nannan, you’re here? Has that boy from the Lu family been bullying you? Tell dad.”