After Xu Qingya left the hospital, Xu Qingzhu sat on a bench outside the ward, lost in thought.
Initially, I was wondering why Liang Shi had an allergic reaction.
Later, I gradually came to believe that amnesia could drastically change a person's personality.
Then I overturned my initial thought in my mind, and felt that this was not the same person.
Liang Shi had never had a pleasant, comforting, or reassuring scent on him before.
But the facts proved that it was indeed Liang Shi.
However, he had a head injury and lost his memory.
The two little figures in her mind kept fighting, and in the end, Xu Qingzhu's thoughts began to drift away.
He was in a state of not knowing what he was thinking, just simply spacing out.
It wasn't until Zhao Xuning finished his rounds and came over that this happened.
Zhao Xuning handed her a bottle of water. "Still thinking about Liang Shi?"
Xu Qingzhu then came to her senses. She took the water, drank a sip, and told Zhao Xuning her guess.
Zhao Xuning looked at her and said, "Didn't we agree before that no matter who she is, as long as everything is normal, it's fine? Anyway, you're planning to get a divorce."
Xu Qingzhu was silent for a moment, "But I'm too familiar with the Liang Shi of the past, so whenever she makes a move now, I can't help but compare it to her. This may be related to my curiosity. I always feel that this matter is too bizarre. Even if I want to get through this period with her and then get a divorce, I know that her affairs have nothing to do with me. But lying in the same bed, we will have countless interactions every day, and I can't help but be curious."
"So what are you suspecting now?" Zhao Xuning asked bluntly.
After pondering for a moment, Xu Qingzhu sighed heavily and shook her head, saying, "I don't know."
It turns out that Liang Shi was still allergic to milk.
She was still the same Liang Shi, except that her personality was completely different.
"Isn't it better to let go of yourself?" Zhao Xuning said. "Why force yourself to think about things that are hard to understand? In the end, we'll all go our separate ways anyway."
Xu Qingzhu pursed her lips: "The impact she had on me was greater than I had imagined."
"So you like her?" Zhao Xuning raised an eyebrow, his tone somewhat incredulous.
Xu Qingzhu immediately denied it, "I'm not crazy."
"That's good." Zhao Xuning was slightly relieved. "I thought you would step into the same river twice without hesitation."
Xu Qingzhu: "..."
She gave a wry smile. "Impossible. All my energy is now focused on my work. Minghui is my grandfather's life's work, and I don't want it to decline."
"Is your company doing well?" Zhao Xuning asked.
Xu Qingzhu nodded, "There are some minor issues, but they can be overcome."
"That's good."
The atmosphere suddenly became heavy.
After a long pause, Xu Qingzhu sorted out her thoughts and said to Zhao Xuning, "Do you remember me telling you that I first met Liang Shi when I was five years old, right?"
Zhao Xuning nodded, "Back then, you were kidnapped, and you and Liang Shi escaped together. After Liang Shi came back, he acted very strangely for a while, but no one paid much attention to it."
She, in particular, didn't take it to heart at all.
They thought Liang Shi had gone mad.
I was even a little happy at the time.
Hsu Ching-chu said, “I was five years old that year and Liang Shi was seven. When we were kidnapped, she took care of me a lot. She even roasted sweet potatoes for me in the wild and encouraged me to live well, saying that life would definitely get better because we would definitely have a lot of love.”
Zhao Xuning listened to her quietly.
Xu Qingzhu was also immersed in that memory, her cool voice carrying a hint of tenderness.
“I thought this older sister was very strange. We were clearly bullied so badly. Those people whipped us, slapped us, and dragged us by the hair and slammed our heads against the ground, leaving bloody marks. One little kid even died from being slammed like that, bleeding a lot.”
Xu Qingzhu's voice trembled as she said this.
Clearly, she was reminded of the tragedy of that year, but she was restraining her emotions.
This was the first time she had spoken about the details of the kidnapping case with anyone other than her attending physician.
Zhao Xuning clearly noticed her unusual behavior, frowning as he gently reminded her, "If you feel unwell, you don't have to say anything, otherwise you'll..."
"It's okay, I can control myself." Xu Qingzhu breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "I also saw with my own eyes that a child's finger was chopped off and then thrown to feed the big wolfhound. And Liang Shi was always smiling, so the kidnapper didn't like her and slapped her, knocking out one of her front teeth."
Zhao Xuning felt a bit annoyed upon hearing this.
It was probably because Liang Shi was usually too arrogant and domineering that it was impossible to connect her with the kidnapping case from back then, and it was impossible to empathize with the pain she had suffered. But when Zhao Xuning heard Xu Qingzhu say this, she suddenly remembered Liang Shi during that period.
That was shortly after they met.
Zhao Xuning was a transfer student.
She is usually oblivious to what's going on around her, so she doesn't care what's happening in the outside world.
All I know is that there's a little girl in my class who was kidnapped, and she often talks nonsense after she comes back.
She didn't take it to heart at all.
One day, her comic book on the table was torn to shreds. She was furious, but when she turned around, she saw the other half of her comic book on the little girl's table.
The little girl kept tearing the paper into long strips.
Zhao Xuning stepped forward and started fighting with the little girl.
The little girl was Liang Shi.
Everyone said she was crazy.
There's not much to say between normal people and madmen.
But at some point, the madman started forming cliques and became arrogant and domineering.
Nobody thought there was a problem.
Because madmen are arrogant and domineering.
Zhao Xuning painstakingly pieced together his memories, but found no clues whatsoever.
She continued listening to Xu Qingzhu speak.
“Even though this woman is strange, I still think she is warm and kind. She has a beautiful smile, and I am willing to believe her,” Xu Qingzhu said. “On our wedding day, I mentioned to her that I was kidnapped when I was a child, but she didn’t say anything, as if she had never known me before.”
"Also, ever since we met, her smile has always been sinister, nothing like the person I knew when I was a child. I've tried to comfort myself by thinking that we've both grown up, so we've forgotten, and people have changed. But recently..."
She paused for a moment, then said, "I started to see a familiar smile on her face more and more often, the curve of her smile was exactly the same as when she was a child."
"So you suspect she's the person you met when you were a child?" Zhao Xuning asked.
Xu Qingzhu shook her head. "I don't know."
Because she couldn't make a judgment, she recounted the past in great detail, hoping that Zhao Xuning, a more rational person, could help her make a decision.
“It’s just my feeling,” Xu Qingzhu said. “I inexplicably see a sense of familiarity in her.”
Zhao Xuning: "..."
“This is indeed a difficult situation,” Zhao Xuning said. “I’ve even tested her DNA; she is indeed Liang Shi.”
Both of them are science students and tend to think rationally, so they don't believe things that haven't been scientifically verified.
"Is it possible that she has a split personality?" Zhao Xuning asked. "Can you tell me anything different?"
Xu Qingzhu thought for a moment and then told her everything about how she met Liang Shi after she grew up, including those unpredictable moments.
She would occasionally treat Xu Qingzhu extremely well, taking her to upscale restaurants, sending her roses by air, and affectionately calling her "wife," "baby," and "sweetheart." But at the same time, she would do the same to other women. She would have affairs constantly, sometimes pretending, but sometimes not even pretending. The most outrageous time was when she brought a woman home, right in their newlywed room.
The woman asked her, "Am I much better than your Omega wife?"
She used all sorts of sweet words to coax him in bed.
Xu Qingzhu was standing outside at the time and heard everything.
She endured it for four months.
In fact, she never expected Liang Shi to change. She just felt that it was a business marriage, and the Liang family had given the Xu family so much money that Minghui Jewelry was able to survive.
So she gave in.
When she first told Zhao Xuning about her married life, he clenched his fists and exclaimed, "Why didn't you say anything back then? She's already become such a scoundrel, and you're still covering for her?"
"Not really," Xu Qingzhu said with a wry smile. "I just felt there was no need for you all to be sad with me."
Zhao Xuning: "..."
Xu Qingzhu didn't dwell on this issue for long; she quickly changed the subject.
After listening to what she said, Zhao Xuning remained silent for a long time before saying somewhat uncertainly, "She may have a dual personality or a triple personality."
"Has she remained in this state ever since she woke up that day?" Zhao Xuning asked.
Xu Qingzhu nodded, "Yes."
"Logically speaking, multiple personality disorder is a long-term mental illness. The relationship between each personality is different. Some people split off a personality to protect themselves because of trauma, while others do so to escape certain things, thus distributing their accumulated negative emotions to another personality. In the history of medical research, the most severe case of multiple personality disorder involved 32 personalities. Mental illnesses require specific analysis for each case, so I can't give you a definite answer. It might be better for you to ask Dr. Gu at that time."
Xu Qingzhu sighed heavily, "Life really likes to throw problems at me."
"So you just forgave her like that?" Zhao Xuning asked. "I used to think she might just be a wild child, but..."
That's too wild.
In this circle, going out and having fun is considered quite normal.
Especially when marrying someone from a different social class, they often keep several mistresses outside the marriage while their wives at home are completely indifferent to them.
But people like Liang Shi, who bring women home right after getting married and indulge themselves by trampling on their wives' self-esteem.
This is also rare in the industry.
Unless the two families have a long-standing feud.
But clearly, no.
Even in the beginning, it was Liang Shi who actively pursued Xu Qingzhu.
“I haven’t forgiven her.” Xu Qingzhu shrugged. “I treat her the same way she treats me. I’m currently living under someone else’s roof, so I’ll cooperate amicably if possible, and if not, I’ll move out. You know my family situation isn’t ideal right now, and my parents definitely won’t approve of my divorce, so there’s no need to make things awkward with her.”
Zhao Xuning was stunned. She suddenly asked in surprise, "So did you ever love her? It seems like you let go of her so easily, without feeling sad at all."