Chu Mu turned her head away without stopping his hands, and pondered for a moment.
"Why regret it? I chose you because I intended to bring you into my life. As for the future..." Chu Mu paused slightly in the hand holding the towel, his long, slender knuckles swaying. He suddenly lowered his head and kissed her smooth forehead. "We can take it slow."
This phrase, "take it slow," has taken two years.
Shu Yi'an's breathing became rapid. The dream was so vivid that she felt she had nowhere to escape. She desperately tried to forget and get rid of it, but those scenes appeared in her mind word for word, and tears kept streaming down her face.
Her hand unconsciously touched her lower abdomen, which was still flat. Shu Yi'an opened her eyes as if startled awake. Her gaze fell upon the walls and facilities specially designed for the hospital, and she breathed in the faint smell of disinfectant in the air.
Awakening from a long dream, a thousand years have passed.
Shu Yi'an slowly withdrew her hand from his grasp, staring blankly at the IV drip bottle, and finally uttered the words she had never imagined. Though calm, they were enough to leave her heartbroken and devastated.
"Chu Mu, let's get a divorce."
The author has something to say: The reason why Chu Mu married Miss Shu is simply because he felt sorry for her because she lived a lonely and pitiful life, and he didn't want anyone else to take care of her.
Sometimes, it is a series of coincidental decisions that have the most profound impact on your life. From the moment Chu Mu decided to go back to find Shu Yi'an, it was destined that the two of them would be entangled for a lifetime.
Miss Shu has taken the most important step in her love life, for her growth and for her dedication.
Chapter 51 Only Then Did We Know a Thousand Years
Chu Mu's fingers tightened suddenly. He deliberately looked away from the pale woman on the hospital bed, glanced at the IV drip bottle hanging on the wall, and calmly walked out.
"The IV drip is finished, I'll go call the doctor."
The ward door opened and closed gently. Shu Yi'an listened to the soft clicking of the lock and wearily closed her eyes. Have you ever had this experience: witnessing your own life-or-death situation and also personally experiencing the safety of another life? Undoubtedly, Shu Yi'an has experienced both.
She wondered if she could have continued her crumbling marriage with Chu Mu if this child had never existed. The answer was no. From meeting him at twenty, marrying him at twenty-two—to leaving him at twenty-four—this was the most absurd yet most willing thing Shu Yi'an had ever done. Only when the blood slowly began to flow from her body did Shu Yi'an realize that the reason she had been able to compromise in this love was because she held onto hope and illusions for the future. She stubbornly believed that as long as she poured all her seriousness and emotion into this marriage, there would definitely be a good outcome. But now, the cruel reality and the irreparable rift between them forced her to sadly admit that the future she had longed for was a distant dream.
No mother can accept the departure and death of her child, and she was no exception. Lying in the operating room, she could clearly hear the clanging of surgical instruments and keenly feel the cold metal probing into her body. Looking at the bright, glaring operating lights above her, she suddenly calmed down. She thought, from that moment on, she would learn the strength and resilience a mother should possess. And the first step was to leave him.
Even if he wouldn't agree.
The doctor arrived quickly, led by the same female head doctor, followed by a nurse, with Chu Mu bringing up the rear. She glanced at Shu Yi'an's medical record, then gestured for the nurse behind her to remove the IV. Turning to Chu Mu, she pointed to the curtain separating the bed from the patient.
"Excuse me, I need to examine her. Family members, please wait outside."
Chu Mu glanced at Shu Yi'an with unease, but Shu Yi'an still kept her eyes half-closed, seemingly unwilling to see him. A long silence followed, before his deep voice was finally heard.
"good."
He could vaguely hear the doctor's questions through the curtain, but he never heard her reply. This made Chu Mu feel very uneasy, as if he was slowly losing her.
The examination lasted two or three minutes, and the female doctor still reminded everyone of the precautions before leaving.
"Rest in bed as much as possible, avoid any activity during the rest period, avoid any mental stimulation, keep her in a calm and happy state, and pay attention to nutrition."
It was evening, and the dark sky was tinged with a large expanse of magnificent red. Chu Mu stood by her bedside, and the usually eloquent Chu Mu was at a loss for words. Shu Yi'an squinted at the gloomy sky and suddenly spoke softly.
How long did I sleep?
Chu Mu made a difficult sound in his throat, "Two days."
Two days... Ha. It seems the movies and novels I read weren't so exaggerated after all. Forty-eight hours were enough to turn two people who were initially at loggerheads into awkward silences, neither of them willing to mention what happened before.
Chu Mu slowly walked to the bedside, his eyes filled with suppressed disappointment and heaviness.
"When...did this happen?"
Having come this far, there's nothing left to hide. Shu Yi'an gave a self-deprecating smile, but kept her eyes closed.
“The night I called you, I told you I had something to tell you when you got back. I said…” Shu Yi’an paused here, as if trying to calm herself down. “I said I wanted to be with you properly, and that we would never fight again. Then… the day Tao Yunjia told me she was pregnant with your child, I came to this hospital that morning to confirm the results. He was only nine weeks old.”
I came to this hospital this morning to confirm, and this afternoon I lost him. Is this karma?
Chu Mu was startled. If he had gone home earlier that night, would this have been avoided...? Tao Yunjia, Tao Yunjia.
By the end, Shu Yi'an was almost trembling.
"Chu Mu, I'm serious. I really want to leave you."
At this point, any further dialogue seemed ridiculous. Chu Mu closed his eyes with some difficulty, his voice sounding as if he had a handful of sand stuck in it.
"You haven't eaten for two days, I... I'm going out for a bit."
Almost fleeing from the ward, Chu Mu stood in the hospital parking lot, suddenly bending over without warning, breathing heavily, his breath rapid and uneasy. He thought that only in this way could he alleviate the sharp, piercing pain in his heart.
She said, "We'll be fine, we'll never fight again." She said, "I have something to tell you when you come back." It turns out, he had missed so many important moments in Shu Yi'an's life.
He missed her birthday, missed their wedding anniversary, missed the suffering she endured during her most vulnerable and painful time, missed... the child she was carrying...
Along this journey, I have truly been burdened with heavy sins.
What was most terrifying, and what terrified him the most, was that she didn't cry or make a fuss when she woke up. She simply said calmly, "Chu Mu, let's get a divorce."
She rarely called his name, usually just a "hello" or a pitiful look. Sometimes, when he was in the mood, he would pin her to the bed and torture and threaten her to call his name. At such times, she would sob, shrink her body, and stretch out her two slender white arms as if begging for mercy.
“Chu Mu… Chu Mu…”
That one call of "Chu Mu" made his heart itch. But each time she called out, it was usually mixed with surprise or shock.
Three months into their marriage, she opened her eyes wide and said, "Chu Mu, I ruined your shirt with the iron." A year into their marriage, she stood in the snow in the villa's yard, dressed like a big ball, and said with a grin, "Chu Mu, Happy New Year! Can you build me a snowman?" A year and a half into their marriage, when he came home late from a social engagement, she stood on the bed, her eyes sparkling, as the clock struck twelve and said, "Chu Mu, Happy Birthday!" Two years into their marriage, she lay weakly and frail on the hospital bed and said, weakly but firmly, "Chu Mu, let's get a divorce."
Looking back on the path of love, I am filled with worry and despair, seeing only devastation.
His fingers gripping the steering wheel slowly turned white. The scenery outside the window swept by, carrying away a glittering neon light. Chu Mu knew that this serious injury was likely to be crippling for Shu Yi'an.