Qiao Yu was completely bewildered when she heard this, and finally couldn't help but put down her bowl gently.
"Mom! Even at a time like this, you're still thinking about him! Have you forgotten how he treated you..."
Before she could finish speaking, Mrs. Qiao pushed the rice bowl to the ground and roared.
"Shut up! No matter what! He's your father!"
"From the moment he cheated on me, he was no longer my father!"
These past few days, Qiao Yuchu had been suppressing a volcano in her heart, and at this moment it finally erupted completely.
"I really don't understand. Even after all this, you still won't divorce him. Don't you find it disgusting to have your name on the same household registration as him?!"
The image of my husband walking hand in hand with another woman, holding a child, flooded back into my mind.
Mrs. Qiao screamed and lunged at her.
"He's mine... he's mine... don't divorce me... I won't divorce you... Qiao Zishan... you won't get rid of me!!!"
"Dean, that's the situation. I can't go back for the time being."
Jin Shunqi was on the phone when he heard the noise. He glanced into the ward and was immediately shocked. He rushed in.
He pulled Qiao Yuchu back.
Mrs. Qiao fell off the bed, and her fingernail scratched her face, causing a burning pain.
Before Qiao Yuchu could even gasp in surprise, she saw her mother kneel on the ground, picking up shards of porcelain to cut her wrists.
She instantly teared up and rushed over.
"Mom! Mom! Don't do anything foolish!"
Jin Shunqi also wanted to step forward to help pull the people apart, but Qiao's mother, who had already lost control, wouldn't listen to anything he said at this moment.
He forcefully snatched the broken porcelain shard from Qiao's mother's hand, his fingers already bleeding profusely from the cuts. Qiao's mother then picked up a new shard.
The situation is completely out of control.
Qiao Yuchu burst into tears.
"Quick...someone come quick!"
Doctors and nurses rushed in upon hearing the commotion, and it took a lot of effort to subdue Mrs. Qiao.
"Quickly... give them a sedative injection!"
It was so hard to get her to fall asleep.
Qiao Yuchu gently closed the door.
Jin Shunqi sat on a bench in the corridor outside the door, his fingers wrapped in gauze, already bandaged.
She walked over, sat down beside him, took his hand in hers, and examined it closely.
"Does it still hurt?"
Jin Shunqi shook his head.
"It's just a minor injury."
"But for doctors, hands are their livelihood, they're very precious, you..."
Jin Shunqi winked at her and smiled gently.
"I didn't think too much at the time, I just wanted to save people as quickly as possible. Besides, even if I don't become a doctor, I have other sources of income, so you won't go hungry. You can rest assured about that."
Qiao Yuchu lowered her head and gave a bitter smile.
That's not what I meant.
Jin Shunqi gently grasped her hand in return.
"I know, I just want to make things easier for you."
Qiao Yuchu slowly rested her head on his shoulder.
If her feelings for him before were just the flutter of love, now they have grown into a sense of dependence. Thanks to his constant care and advice, she feels that these darkest days of her life are not so hard to bear.
"Why won't my mom let herself go?"
As Qiao Yuchu spoke, tears welled up again without warning.
Jin Shunqi put his arm around her shoulder and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes.
“Give her some more time. I understand how you feel. You want to help your mother completely break free from the past and start a new life. But people of your mother’s generation are somewhat traditional. This is a marriage she has worked on her whole life. She can’t just give it up like that. You are just her daughter after all. You can’t make the decision for her. It has to be up to her own thoughts.”
Qiao Yuchu sniffed and nodded.
"There's no other way now. I'm afraid that if I bring this up again, it will upset her and she'll do something to hurt herself again."
She can wait, but some people can't.
Since an amicable divorce could not be reached, Qiao Zishan wrote a complaint in the detention center, handed it to his lawyer, and decided to formally file for divorce.
Meanwhile, the victim's family also heard the news that Qiao's mother had been released on medical parole. They panicked and gathered more than a dozen idle unemployed people in the village overnight. Under the pretext of burying the victim's mother, they carried her body out of the funeral home.
Under the secret instructions of the lawyer, this group had a clear division of labor and planned to ambush Qiao Yuchu at the entrance of her residential compound.
Arrange for some more people to set up wreaths and braziers at the hospital entrance.
The man still felt uneasy, so he discussed it with his wife and came up with another solution.
"I heard that Qiao family's daughter is a professional athlete. No way, we have to go to her workplace and expose the fact that her parents killed someone in a car accident. Remember to find a few more reporters, and this will definitely work."
The darkness of human nature gradually ferments and grows in the corners, while Qiao Yuchu is completely unaware of everything that is about to happen.
***
At the hospital.
Aunt Xie rarely makes a phone call throughout the year.
Jian Changnian pressed the speakerphone button and gently placed the phone next to her pillow.
The day after he regained consciousness, Xie Shi'an removed his oxygen mask. Although he was still unable to move, he was able to speak freely.
"Shi'an, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine now that the surgery is over."
Mother Xie smiled with relief.
"That's good, that's good. Since we live far away, Mom can't be by your side to take care of you. Just listen to the doctor and take your medicine on time, and try to recover as soon as possible. When you come home, Mom will give you a welcome-back party."
While she was speaking, there was a child's voice coming through the receiver.
"Youyou! Mommy's talking to your sister right now, don't touch Mommy's phone. Sigh, you little rascal..."
"Okay, I understand. You go ahead with your work."
Xie Shi'an responded lightly, glanced at Jian Changnian, and Jian Changnian understood and went forward to hang up the phone for her.
The entire call lasted no more than two minutes.
In the corridor.
Coach Liang pulled Yan Xinyuan a little further away, and after checking that no one was around, he said, "Shi'an's surgery was successful, so you can rest assured now. Director Chen has been urging you to go back to the hospital many times. When are you planning to go back to the hospital? I'll tell you, you don't have to go back. You can stay in Shanghai and find a hospital..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yan Xinyuan interrupted him.
"Look at me, I'm perfectly fine now. Why would I need to be hospitalized? It's just throwing money away to the hospital for no reason!"
Coach Liang was completely bewildered. He thought to himself, "What kind of talk is this? No matter how I try to persuade them, they won't listen." His temper flared up immediately.
"Do I need to remind you again? You have a lump in your lung, it's cancer! Shi'an's can be cured by removal, but yours won't be cured even if it's removed! If you want to live for another two years, you'd better go to the hospital right away. Surgery or chemotherapy, whatever, control it first. Once the cancer cells spread, it will be too late to regret it!"
Yan Xinyuan instinctively reached for his pipe to take a couple of puffs, but it was snatched away from him.
"Keep smoking! Keep smoking! Are you out of your mind?!"
He gave a wry smile, then took it back and showed it to him.
"It's empty; there's no tobacco in it."
Yan Xinyuan held the tobacco in his mouth, somewhat missing the taste of tobacco, and glanced deeply toward the ward.
"You heard it too, Chang Nian is going to play in the team competition, Wan Jing definitely won't be able to take care of Shi An, and her mother refuses to come and take care of her. It's so pitiful that Shi An is hospitalized alone at such a young age..."
Coach Liang opened his mouth: "I..."
Yan Xinyuan continued.
“You’ve been stuck in Shanghai for days now. Go home soon. Your younger brother, sister-in-law, and children must be getting impatient.”
Jian Changnian picked up her phone from beside her pillow and put it on the table. There was a chair by the bed, but she hadn't sat down since she came in.
Xie Shi'an turned his head to look at her.
"You need to tell me something?"
Jian Changnian hesitated for a moment, but still said.
"Shi'an, I...I'm going to play in the team competition..."
When are you leaving?
"Coach Wan is waiting for me downstairs now."
Jian Changnian looked at her pale face and her dry, cracked lips, which had been confined to a 48-hour fast and no water intake after the surgery, and felt a pang of pity.
"I know it's not appropriate to tell you this now, and Sister Yu Chu isn't here with you. I shouldn't leave at this time, but..."
Before she finished speaking, Xie Shi'an, who was lying on the bed, smiled slightly and laboriously raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist.
"I won't say anything more, good luck in the game..."
Jian Changnian was taken aback, then smiled and, as usual, gently reached out to bump fists with her.
"good."
As she walked out of the ward carrying her golf bag, Yan Xinyuan saw her and nodded at her from the corridor, his eyes full of approval and satisfaction.
Jian Changnian bowed deeply to the crowd, then turned around and strode towards her youthful battlefield.
***
After a brief reunion, we must eventually part ways.