Chapter 48

“He’s a very strange boy,” Merrick said as he thought to himself. “Even when we’re together, there are things he won’t tell me. All I know is that his trip to Shanghai this time wasn’t because of those batches of spices. I guess he’s trying to escape the turmoil in the British concession these days.”

"Is that so?" Yu Congyi raised his eyebrows.

"Perhaps. Now that things have come to this, how do you say in Chinese, 'let's take it one step at a time'?"

Yu Congyi hadn't expected that the foreign noblewoman in front of him would understand this principle. He smiled slightly and said, "Yes, that's right."

He recalled that Tang Zefei insisted on dismissing that group of officers that morning, and wondered why he had brought his mother along if he was only on a business trip. With these thoughts in mind, he understood part of the situation.

"Xiao Fei, how is he outside?" Merrick suddenly asked out of the blue as the evening breeze blew.

"How was it?" Yu Congyi wasn't sure which aspect the other person was asking about. He withdrew his arm from the railing and looked at Merrick, gripping it tightly. Because he was guessing and recalling, he picked out some simple points to answer, but still unconsciously became incoherent. "He's a good businessman. Although I'm not in business, I sometimes hear about what he does from my brother who is. I see him as very calm when things happen, so I don't think anything can really make him lose his temper. This must be very important for a businessman, and in my opinion, he is that kind of person."

"Sigh." Merrick suddenly sighed for some reason. "You mean he's cold-blooded and aloof, right?"

Yu Congyi thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No."

Merrick turned his gaze to the sea and slowly began to speak, "Don't try to comfort me, I know he's like that with everyone. But would you like to hear some of his past?"

Noticing Yu Congyi's calm yet questioning gaze, Merrick smiled. "When I saw you, I felt a sense of familiarity for some reason. Regarding Xiaofei, I realized it was my fault. I don't really want to talk about these things with others, but I always find myself thinking about them and wanting to confide in them. Please forgive me, you and Xiaofei are good friends, so I had no choice but to tell you."

Yu Congyi was surprised that his cold demeanor could have such endearing moments. He raised his hand, awkwardly pinching his brow, then relaxed it, somewhat taken aback. Little did he know how gentle he had been when facing Tang Zefei's mother. Seeing that Yu Congyi remained silent, Merrick continued, "I'm not very mentally healthy, and I only remember these things when I'm lucid. Back then, his father was so busy that he completely neglected his family, a real scoundrel. I was often sick, and he lacked so much parental love when he was little, so this outcome was understandable. At that time, when I went crazy, I would go find him and beat him. I didn't even know what I looked like when I was crazy... Later, I learned that he was so scared of me that he would run around the house crying, often hiding in the closet or under the bed for half a day or a whole day, not eating anything, just waiting for me to come out when I was lucid... He was deeply affected by me; he was afraid of me. I remember he used to be very lively, but after he got a few years old, he wasn't like that anymore."

"Huh?" Yu Congyi had no idea that Tang Zefei had such an experience as a child, because no matter how you look at it now, he couldn't imagine that she had ever been like this. Looking at Merrick's current state, he also couldn't imagine that she had such an illness. For a moment, Yu Congyi felt a lump in his throat and didn't know what to say.

"After I went crazy, it was still him who comforted me and calmed me down. He even comforted me after I hit him. How ridiculous I am. All of this, all of this, that's why I always feel like I owe him so much. When I want to make it up to him, I suddenly find out that he has anemia... and I just can't control myself. My heart aches. I think about how he grew up here, speaks fluent Chinese, and has never even been back to his hometown. He, he, who knows how to cure this disease... He's been running the business his father left behind here. All that stuff, all that mess, just looking at it gives me a headache. When will this end? That bastard of his father insisted on taking me to Tianjin. I never imagined it would last so long... Xiaofei, did you ever tell me where his hometown is?"

"Is it Italy?" Yu Congyi seemed to vaguely remember something.

“Romagna, a small town near Bologna, this is my hometown,” Merrick’s voice grew louder as the sea breeze picked up, yet every word reached Yu Congyi’s ears clearly. “I think he will always want to go back; he hasn’t even seen what Romagna looks like. I remember, I also came by ship from Ravenna back then, and the sea was as calm as it is today. We’ve been sailing across the ocean for thirty years. A few days ago, I thought I shouldn’t wait any longer, so I told him I wanted to go home. Actually, I’ve been telling him this for a long time. He always made excuses at first, but these past few days he seems to be softening his stance. Now it seems…”

Merrick paused, as if to say something, but then stopped, finally uttering only a soft, "It really seems like nothing has changed." She stretched out her palm, letting it fall into the air as if stroking the shape of the wind.

"He likes Tianjin, but he should go back to his hometown to visit."

“He should go back and see,” Yu Congyi said, unsure of his own feelings, offering only pointless reassurance. “He should go back and see.” Merrick’s words were soft and slow, her tone like a storyteller, blending seamlessly with the warm sea breeze. Perhaps troubled by her own emotions, she seemed somewhat incoherent when recounting the past, but Yu Congyi didn’t mind. Turning his head, he saw a hint of sadness in Merrick’s eyes, making even Yu Congyi lower his head. The sea breeze, like a gentle hand, silently gripped his heart. The suffocating feeling that had been building in his chest since the afternoon surged back up, and as Yu Congyi listened to Merrick’s heartfelt confession, he suddenly felt breathless. Something was gradually and silently weighing on Merrick, affecting even Yu Congyi. Merrick continued to recount things about Tang Zefei and her own past, and Yu Congyi fell silent, choosing to be a listener. He clearly sensed that the relationship between the mother and son was like a rope tied together, seemingly delicate but actually extremely tight. Tang Zefei felt this way towards his mother, and Merrick felt the same way towards Tang Zefei.

Yu Congyi thought to himself that this was a Tang Zefei he hadn't discovered. The Tang Zefei he had met in the past two years was so different from the Tang Zefei Merrick had described—a difference that couldn't be discerned from appearances alone. He didn't know Tang Zefei well, yet he had almost never considered trying to understand her at all.

Yu Congyi realized that his life for the past two years had been almost entirely hijacked by the hatred in his heart.

"Please accept my condolences." When Merrick inadvertently mentioned her husband's unexpected death, Yu Congyi's subconscious reply made Merrick's expression suddenly solemn.

Merrick pulled her arm away from the railing and turned around abruptly. Her back slammed against the white railing with a "whoosh," startling those watching the scene. Grabbing the railing, Merrick swayed unsteadily. Yu Congyi stepped forward to pull her up, instantly noticing her strange demeanor. Merrick had begun to tremble, her body shaking, her expression panicked. "Madam," Yu Congyi tried to find the right words, unsure of what he might have said wrong, hoping to ease her pain. Merrick raised her hand to his lips, and Yu Congyi saw her slightly furrowed brow and shook his head vigorously.

“Don’t say anything! I… I’m feeling a little unwell.” Merrick clenched her fists, trying her best to tell the other person how she felt before losing her composure. Her voice was hurried and dazed, drawing the attention of several people around them. Brushing away Yu Congyi’s hand that was supporting her arm, Merrick stood still, taking a few deep breaths. Her gaze towards Yu Congyi suddenly became unfamiliar, even subtly hateful. Her expression confused Yu Congyi, causing him to stop in his tracks, until he watched Merrick turn and flee from the deck, heading straight back to her cabin.

Yu Congyi stood there, staring intently in the direction Merrick had gone, his mind a jumble of thoughts. People around him cast curious, speculative glances his way, even whispering among themselves. He ignored them. His fingers repeatedly clenched and unclenched into fists, a sense of unease creeping over him.

He stayed there for a while longer, when suddenly he saw Liu Shiping rushing up to the deck looking for him, covered in sweat. When he asked what had happened, Liu Shiping only said, "Please come quickly and see what's going on. Mr. Tang's mother has had a meltdown for some unknown reason."

Yu Congyi spent some time figuring out what the other party meant. The vague word "crazy" that the other party used was Merrick's true state.

"Go find a doctor right away!" After understanding, Yu Congyi asked Liu Shiping, "Have you found a ship's doctor?"

"We did look for him, but Mr. Tang said he didn't need it and turned us away." Liu Shiping wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Director, you should still go and take a look!"

Without being told, Yu Congyi was uneasy, but his face remained calm. He walked briskly like a gust of wind to the door of the cabin where Tang Zefei's mother was.

Despite being somewhat prepared, he still couldn't help but feel a tightness in his chest and a heavy heart when he actually saw the scene. Through the small pane of glass in the cabin door, he saw Tang Zefei's mother being tightly embraced by Tang Zefei, holding a metal plate and desperately slamming it against the wall. The violent screams were so loud that they sent shivers down the spines of those outside the wall. Merrick seemed determined to smash the plate to pieces; the resounding crashes of the metal against the wall could have knocked a heart out. Shards of glass and debris littered the room, clearly indicating what had just happened. Two equally anxious and sweating doctors stood outside the door. Yu Congyi asked them, disapprovingly, what they were doing standing there.

Merrick's condition was very different from when he was on the deck. Yu Congyi reached out and pushed the door, then turned the handle, only to find that the door was locked from the inside.

“Mr. Tang won’t let us in,” one of the doctors told him. “He went in and locked the door! We can’t get in either!”

"Tang Zefei!" Yu Congyi began knocking on the door. "Tang Zefei! Open the door!!"

Through the glass window, he saw Tang Zefei still clinging tightly to his mother, refusing to let go. Merrick pounded on the metal plate dozens of times, finding it remarkably undamaged, and abandoned his plan to break it. Instead, he turned his blows on his son, who struggled violently in his arms. He screamed and shouted, uttering incoherent ramblings about his husband's death. Tang Zefei knew his mother must have suffered some kind of shock to act this way. The pounding on the door intensified, but he ignored the commotion outside, holding his mother tightly with his arms like a vise, hoping to calm her down. He insisted on speaking to Merrick, his voice broken, slow, and soft, offering words of comfort. His forehead rested on Merrick's shoulder, his expression a mixture of love and sorrow.

Yu Congyi clearly saw Tang Zefei tightly hugging her mother, trying her best to comfort her, so tightly that Yu Congyi's whole body trembled. Anyone would feel bad seeing their mother like this. The first time he saw her so helpless, Yu Congyi's nose tingled with tears. The childhood stories that Merrick had told him about Tang Zefei flashed through his mind, and he almost wanted to forgive Tang Zefei.

Gradually, Merrick's cries lessened, her movements slowed, and she began to sob softly. Tang Zefei released his mother's back and turned to face her. He stared intently into Merrick's eyes, his expression serious. Merrick, comforted, sat on the edge of the bed, her head bowed low, her hands covering her mouth as she wept, her hair falling down to conceal her weariness.

It was clear that Tang Zefei had encountered this situation more than once or twice. He spoke softly for a while, calming his mother down and making sure she was in a stable mood. Then, Tang Zefei stood up, supporting himself on the table. Stepping over the mess on the floor, he walked to the door and unlocked it. The moment Yu Congyi saw Tang Zefei, he saw deep weariness on his face.

“I know my mother’s condition very well; calling a doctor would be useless,” he explained to the people outside. “I know how to calm her down quickly. She’s much better now; please give her her medication.” Then he walked past the crowd and went outside.

"Tang Zefei," Yu Congyi called out to him from behind, "you..."

Tang Zefei paused, waved to him, but didn't turn around. "I'm a little tired," he said, his voice almost a sigh. "Let's talk about it later."

Yu Congyi was speechless, watching helplessly as Tang Zefei walked away. She was stopped by servants in the corridor. It was the boy he had seen earlier. Yu Congyi watched as the boy went up to her, straightening her clothes and tidying her disheveled hair. For some reason, he felt an extremely strange feeling.

"Where was my mother before she fell ill?" Tang Zefei asked his servant when he returned to his room.

“The lady was with Commander Yu,” one of the boys told him. “They were chatting on the deck. It seemed the lady initiated the conversation with Commander Yu, and they seemed to be having a pleasant chat… Later, the lady left, and on her way back…”

"Really?" Tang Zefei looked back at her mother's door. Yu Congyi was no longer standing there. "My mother and him, unexpectedly, get along well?"

That night, Tang Zefei's anemia flared up again. Perhaps it was because the evening's efforts to comfort his mother had been so emotionally and physically exhausting, but when he returned to his cabin, he almost instantly felt as if something was gripping his chest.

Lying in bed, a familiar wave of dizziness washed over him. Tang Zefei covered his forehead, blinked, and when he looked at the ceiling again, the entire cabin felt like it was spinning. Something on the back of his head started thumping incessantly, his breathing became increasingly rapid, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Someone come here," he sighed, covering his eyes, "this time you should call the doctor for me."

One reason Tang Zefei brought the two male servants was to provide him with blood for transfusions when he fell ill. When the doctor arrived at Tang Zefei's ward with the transfusion equipment, he first needed to test the two boys' blood types to determine if they were compatible with Tang Zefei's blood, which would decide whether they could donate blood to him.

After a stick of incense had burned, the tests were finished. The doctor came to Tang Zefei's room with the test results and told him that one of the boys' blood types was a complete mismatch with Tang Zefei's, and that a blood transfusion was absolutely out of the question, but the other one could be tried.

…

Yu Congyi learned of Tang Zefei's condition half an hour after Tang Zefei began receiving a blood transfusion.

He didn't know why Tang Zefei was hiding this from him now. Perhaps she didn't want more people to know about his condition and to prevent further unrest. After all, if Yu Congyi hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed that Tang Zefei had this illness.

But now he clearly knew and was very clear about the other person's illness, and had even given blood to the other person many times. Yu Congyi suddenly felt a little annoyed. He didn't understand why Tang Zefei had kept it from him this time instead of informing him.

He rushed to Tang Zefei's cabin in one go and knocked on the door without any politeness. Tang Zefei's deliberate coldness left him very confused and bewildered; he needed to know why.

The hatch opened from the inside, and Yu Congyi coldly surveyed the room. The people inside were almost exactly as he had expected: two doctors stood in the living room, a male servant stood beside Tang Zefei's bed, and another sat. Tang Zefei was half-reclining on the bed, her arm connected to an IV line that was also connected to one of the male servants' arms. Various medical instruments were displayed on the bedside table between them, and the smell of disinfectant made Yu Congyi's scalp tingle.

Tang Zefei looked extremely unwell. Yu Congyi could tell at a glance that he was experiencing a severe rejection reaction, causing him great discomfort. His cheeks were completely bloodless, but large beads of sweat slid from his forehead to his chin, which Yu Congyi could clearly see. His eyelashes were wet and blinked fragilely, and his chest heaved violently. He was enduring his discomfort. The blood type of the donor was not a perfect match for Tang Zefei, but there was nothing he could do. The two doctors looked at Yu Congyi nervously, wondering what orders their superior had come to issue at this time.

“Transfuse my blood,” Yu Congyi walked to Tang Zefei’s bedside, casually dragged a stool over and sat down, his gaze fixed on Tang Zefei’s eyes, “Transfuse my blood.”