No. 73 Melon

The noise in the ward grew louder, and the smell of disinfectant and formaldehyde filled my nose.

Chu Weiqian woke up in a daze, his head still a mess from the anesthetic, and the wounds on his waist and abdomen were so painful that his facial muscles twitched.

He opened his eyes and saw the people around the bed.

In addition to the uniformed police officers, there were also the Xue family members who had just arrived.

Chu Weiqian frowned, and when he lifted his waist slightly, the wound felt like it was being torn apart. But he still gritted his teeth and struggled to get up.

The young nurse reached out to stop him, "Your wound has just been sutured, don't move!"

Chu Weiqian waved his hands, still gritting his teeth and climbing out of bed. His bony hands gripped the short bed rails, a thin layer of cold sweat already seeping from his forehead.

Everyone looked at him quietly, not understanding what he was going to do. Chu Weiqian slowly moved in front of Xue Xixi, paused, then grasped the bed railing to support his weak body and bowed deeply to Xue Xixi.

"sorry!"

Xue Xixi had just arrived at the hospital with her parents. She was still a little confused and had no idea what was happening.

"S-Sorry for what?"

"I, I didn't mean to cheat on you," Chu Weiqian choked up. The pain in his abdomen made him clench his teeth, but he still held it in, trying to straighten his back and take a deep breath. "Grandma's kidneys are damaged and she needs a transplant, but she doesn't want to sell the house or get treatment. I have no other choice. I heard that you can get a lot of money in gifts when you get married...so I came up with this idea."

"Those gifts... I can't return them to you right now, but I promise I'll work hard to earn money and return it all to you!"

Father Xue finally understood why Chu Weiqian was in the hospital. His brow furrowed deeply. "So... you married my daughter to raise money for Grandma Zhang's treatment? You, you're not the real Zhang Xingzhou. Why would you do all this? Grandma Zhang has nothing to do with you. Why do you care so much?"

Chu Weiqian was silent for a long time and said nothing.

But his beautiful eyes gradually turned red.

Everyone looked at him. He raised his face, which still looked good after the plastic surgery, and smiled bitterly. "Maybe it's the first time I've met someone who treats me so well. I don't want to lose her."

Chu Weiqian remembers that his parents divorced when he was five years old.

At the age of five, many people still don’t remember much, but Chu Weiqian clearly remembers that his parents quarreled all day after they came back from the Civil Affairs Bureau.

They argued about the distribution of property after the divorce, who would own the car, who would own the house, who would own the shop, and how to divide the savings.

Eventually, they argued over his custody.

The former was the object of contention; even a fraction would lead to heated arguments between the two sides, neither willing to give up. But when it came to him, no one wanted to take over.

My mother already has a new love, and he doesn't like her marrying in with a child, let alone a boy.

My father's mistress has taken over and is already pregnant, so naturally she is unwilling to accept that there is a child from his ex-wife in the family.

Chu Weiqian was like a ball, being kicked around.

He had heard many stories about parents getting divorced in the past, around him, on the Internet, and on TV, but those parents were all eager to sue for custody.

It turns out there is such a situation.

It turns out that no one wants him to be in this situation.

Finally, Chu Weiqian was entrusted to his uncle.

Chu's father gave the other party a large sum of living expenses every month, and only then did his uncle reluctantly agree.

Before parting with his parents, his uncle said with a smile that he would take good care of Chu Weiqian. After all, he was his eldest nephew, and they were all family and related by blood.

Chu Weiqian also believed his parents' lies about "temporarily" entrusting him to his uncle.

At the beginning, my uncle was very kind to Chu Weiqian.

You have to save face, but they are still relatives, so you still need to be polite.

But later, the uncle discovered that his younger brother didn't care at all whether his son was living well with him, and he asked his secretary to transfer the living expenses to him every month.

In the past few months, Chu's father was immersed in the joy of his mistress's newborn child and didn't even call Chu Weiqian.

If even his biological father is like this, his uncle would rather not bother to pretend.

What's more, he has always been jealous of Chu's father.

We're from the same mother, so why is this brother so successful and earning more than me? Not only does he have a beautiful wife, he even has a mistress!

This kind of mental imbalance needs to be vented.

Chu Weiqian is the tool for venting.

It seemed like it happened overnight that he went from being a young master who needed to be supported and cared for to a slave who was ordered around.

Sometimes, I would even be scolded by my uncle's family for being late in buying groceries and cooking.

That day, Chu Weiqian couldn't bear it anymore, so he used the pocket money he had saved for half a year to buy a high-speed rail ticket and traveled more than 500 kilometers to visit his mother in another province.

The hard seat on the train made his butt hurt, his nose was filled with all kinds of smells from the train, the train was bumpy all the way, and there were whistles at night. Chu Weiqian couldn't sleep at all.

But he held his backpack, which contained all his luggage, and had a little hope in his heart.

When I arrived at the community where my mother lived, I could see her from a distance pushing a stroller and walking out of the community, chatting and laughing with the neighbors.

He stretched out his hand and waved to his mother.

There was a smile on the mother's face, but the moment she saw Chu Weiqian, she suddenly froze.

She handed the stroller to the nanny, hurriedly pulled Chu Weiqian to a dark place aside, and said rudely, "Didn't I give you living expenses again? Why did you come to me again! Your uncle will be unhappy if he sees you!"

The joy of seeing my mother for the first time disappeared in an instant.

Chu Weiqian suddenly recalled the scene of their divorce when he was five years old. The memory that had been almost erased by the years gradually revived.

Will time change the fact that they didn't want me in the first place?

People, perhaps no matter how much time passes, it will always be the same.

Chu Weiqian returned to his uncle's house in a mess again.

He disappeared for an entire night, but his uncle had no idea about it. What worried him even more was that Chu's father hadn't given them living expenses for three months.

Ever since Chu's father and his family immigrated overseas, this living allowance has been cut off.

My uncle couldn't even contact Chu's father anymore.

This made my uncle even angrier, and he took his anger out on Chu Weiqian.

The family's life suddenly became difficult, but they had raised Chu Weiqian for so long, and he was responsible for all the housework and cooking. They were reluctant to drive him away and could only let him live at home in a mediocre state.

Until, his cousin was caught stealing money from the neighbor because his pocket money was cut in half. In order to avoid being punished by his parents, he falsely accused Chu Weiqian of doing it.

The day we left my uncle's house was a rainy night.

It was the same rainy night as the day my parents divorced.

The world was torn apart, and heavy rain poured down, but it could not wash away the haze of the city.

That night, Chu Weiqian spent the night under the arch of Jinjiang Bridge. The arch became his home. He had no diploma, no skills, and was not even an adult. He moved bricks at the construction site during the day and returned to the arch at night.

And so, I don’t know how many years passed.

Until that car accident.

A strong wind blew, blowing the prayer out of the little boy's hand, and the little blue toy floated to the middle of the road.

When Chu Weiqian came back from work, he saw the little boy suddenly running to the middle of the road to pick up balloons, and the oncoming van.

Without thinking, he subconsciously rushed forward and pushed the little boy away.

Honking, braking, screaming, crying——

Chu Weiqian thought he was going to die. When he watched the blue balloon floating away, he even had a thought in his head that it would not be a bad thing to die like this.

Life is so boring.

But at that moment, Zhang's father's expression froze, and he turned the steering wheel without hesitation. The front tires turned instantly, and the entire van passed by Chu Weiqian within a few centimeters, and then slammed into the electric pole on the side of the road!

Chu Weiqian stumbled and fell to the ground, only his palm was scratched and thin beads of blood oozed out.

The van in front was smashed to pieces, with most of the front of the car embedded in the electric pole, and the people in the driver's seat and the passenger seat were dead.

Chu Weiqian was stunned.

I watched helplessly as the oil in the tank flowed out through the cracks, snaking onto the dilapidated asphalt road. The power pole tilted violently, entangled by the wires above, but it didn't fall down, but the top of the pole flashed with terrifying sparks.

The little boy fell to the ground, crying loudly.

The crying sound called Chu Weiqian back to his senses. He suddenly woke up. His phone had smashed to the ground and was already scrapped. He didn't care too much and suddenly grabbed the little boy: "Hurry up and find his mother and call an ambulance!"

Then he rolled and crawled to the side of the van.

"Don't die, don't die!"

He didn't care about anything else and struggled to pull the van. His hands were covered with horrible bloody marks from the broken metal, but he still tried hard.

The car was so badly damaged that the door couldn't be opened properly. Chu Weiqian smashed the window with his elbow and reached out to grab the people inside. The broken glass pierced Chu Weiqian's arm, and blood flowed down the glass to the ground.

But Chu Weiqian seemed to feel no pain and used all his strength to rescue Grandma Zhang, who was closest to the car window.

He lay on her chest and listened for a moment.

As long as he's breathing, he's not dead.

He didn't know any other first aid methods, so he hurried to save the next person.

But this time, just as he rushed to the side of the van, a dangling electric wire that was flashing with sparks suddenly broke and fell squarely on the leaking oil.

With a loud bang, the van was blown into ruins! The flames from the shop were accompanied by a thick gust of air, instantly burning all the skin on Chu Weiqian's face!

When I woke up again, I was in the hospital.

Chu Weiqian was wrapped like a mummy. As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard the voice of Grandma Zhang beside him -

"Xingzhou! Xingzhou, are you okay?"

At that time, his body had not recovered yet and the voices he heard were very vague. When he saw that it was the old man he rescued, he just replied vaguely, "Yeah."

It was this "hmm" that made Grandma Zhang overjoyed, "It's my grandson! My grandson is fine! My grandson is fine!"

The bodies in the van were blown to pieces, and the forensic doctor determined there were five bodies. After the hospital and Grandma Zhang mistakenly thought they were Chu Weiqian and Zhang Xingzhou, the fifth body was naturally mistaken for the passerby.

——Grandma Zhang was sitting in the middle seat of the van at the time and had no idea that Father Zhang didn’t hit any passersby.

Chu Weiqian became Zhang Xingzhou by accident.

He thought about explaining, but he couldn't bear to do it.

For the first time in his life, someone personally fed him porridge when he was sick; when he was in so much pain that he couldn't sleep during treatment, someone would always be by his side, even singing nursery rhymes to him, even though he was no longer a child; someone would put aside all the things they were doing and accompany him for examinations, treating him as the most important person.

This is the feeling of being cared for.

It’s nice to have family.

It is said that it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality, and greed for these things will become an addiction.

At first, Chu Weiqian thought that he would tell his grandmother the truth after he recovered from his illness; later, Chu Weiqian thought that he would tell his grandmother the truth after spending her birthday with her; later, Chu Weiqian thought that he would tell Grandma Zhang the truth after the New Year... and then later, it was three years later.

There are not too many three years in life.

The real Zhang Xingzhou doesn’t exist, and neither does the future Grandma Zhang.

The car accident damaged her kidneys, causing her to suffer renal failure and she won't live long.

Chu Weiqian's treatment had already consumed most of the family's budget, leaving them with very little money. Even after Chu Weiqian dragged Grandma Zhang to the hospital for a matching test, and even after the test was successful, Grandma Zhang still decided not to continue treatment.

But Chu Weiqian didn't want Grandma Zhang to leave.

He finally met someone who cared about him. This was the only person he had ever met in the world who cared about him.

Even her concern was stolen by Chu Weiqian.

"Impersonation? This brat actually did such a thing!"

"I've always said that this kid has been stealing money from home since he was young. He's not a good person! Mr. Police Officer, just send him to jail. There's no such scum in our Chu family!"

When Lin Cha and Jiang Mingkai arrived at the hospital wearing masks, they happened to see Uncle Chu and his family making trouble at the door of the ward.

Chu Weiqian's mother was there too, but she was making an international call. "He's your son, and you don't care about him, and you expect me to? Don't I have my own children? My daughter has to go to piano class today... You blame me for not caring? Do you really care? You don't have any responsibility for raising him to be the horrible person he is now?!"

"What's wrong with him now?"

Suddenly a clear voice interrupted the noise in the hospital corridor.

Everyone was startled and turned to look at Lin Cha, who had just walked in. She was in her early twenties, and because she was wearing a mask, her expression was unclear, but her round, doe-like eyes looked unusually bright.

Mother Chu glanced at Uncle Chu who was arguing and cursing beside her, "You've done things like stealing money, cheating on marriage, and impersonating others! I always say that your Chu family is no good! Chu Weiqian was led astray by you!"

Uncle Chu was about to argue when Lin Cha took the lead.

"As someone who gave birth to a child but didn't raise him, what right do you have to say that? Since the divorce, you can count the number of times you've seen Chu Weiqian on one hand, right? If you don't want to raise him, why bother giving birth to him?"

“I, I…”

Mother Chu blushed for a moment, "I have my daughter at home to take care of, how can I take care of him?"

Uncle Chu was very proud when he saw Mother Chu being humiliated. "If you want to blame someone, blame your parents! It's your children who are not good enough! What does education have to do with it..."

Lin Cha scoffed. "Whether it was Chu Weiqian who stole the money, others may not know, but Uncle Chu, don't you know? What's going on? Do you think that by making someone else a scapegoat, you can erase the fact that your son was the thief?"

Uncle Chu was shocked.

This happened seven or eight years ago, how could this girl know so much about it?

Uncle Chu stammered, "Don't talk nonsense! It was Chu Weiqian who stole the neighbor's money. What does that have to do with my son?"

"Really?" Lin Cha smiled. "Why don't you call and ask where your son, who should be attending university, is now? Is he in a detention center somewhere, arrested for stealing money from his roommate?"

Uncle Chu glared at me and said, "What nonsense are you talking about..."

The next moment, the phone rang. Uncle Chu hung up impatiently, wanting to continue arguing with Lin Cha. But Lin Cha said, "That number just now started with the area code of Hangzhou. Mr. Chu, don't forget, your son is studying at a university in Hangzhou!"

Uncle Chu was startled when the phone rang again. He answered the call with some confusion, but heard the other party say, "Hello, we are from the school office of Hangzhou University. Are you Chu Shaoqian's father? Your son is suspected of theft and has been arrested by the police..."

Uncle Chu felt a "boom" in his head. He didn't bother to argue with Lin Cha. He quickly grabbed the phone and left the hospital in a hurry.

Lin Cha looked at Chu's mother again.

Mother Chu suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Her cell phone rang again. It was her daughter calling.

Mother Chu took a look and could only helplessly say to Liu Youyou at the door, "Officer Liu, I really have something going on at home. Wei Qian is an adult after all, and he should be punished for making a mistake... You police officers should decide how to punish him! I have something else to do, so I'm leaving first!"

After saying that, she picked up her bag and hurriedly left the hospital.

Liu Youyou watched Mother Chu and Uncle Chu walk away and sighed helplessly, "The Chu family is obviously much better off than the Zhang family. But with parents like this, it's no wonder Chu Weiqian wants to replace Zhang Xingzhou."

"Yeah," Lin Cha couldn't help but sigh.

The air gradually became quiet.

Suddenly, Lin Cha felt something was wrong.

[Oh no!]

[I was so angry just now that I directly scolded Uncle Chu Weiqian and Mother, but I saw all those things on the "Eating Watermelon" system! In theory, I shouldn't know this!]

[It's over, it's over. Will Officer Liu and Brother Kai find out?]

Lin Cha couldn't help but turn her head slightly, secretly glanced at Liu Youyou, and then looked at Jiang Mingkai.

[Bless, bless! These two are like goldfish, with only a seven-second memory! Forget it! Forget it all!]

Liu Youyou: “…”

Jiang Mingkai: “…”

Do you really think they are idiots?

However, this wasn't the first time he'd pretended not to hear someone's inner voice. Jiang Mingkai even felt that his acting had improved considerably during his time with Lin Cha.

He winked at Liu Youyou, and the two of them exchanged pleasantries and talked about Grandma Zhang's illness, pretending to have forgotten about Lin Cha's quarrel with others.

"Is Grandma Zhang okay?"

"The kidney transplant operation was successful and he has been transferred from the ICU to the general ward."

"Where is Chu Weiqian?"

"It's okay. He's a young man after all. He's recovered better than Grandma Zhang and can even get out of bed and walk around."

The three of them walked forward while talking and happened to pass by Chu Weiqian's ward.

Chu Weiqian was the only one in the ward. He stood in front of the window, looking out quietly.

Lin Cha followed his gaze and saw the back of a woman hurriedly leaving in the direction he had been staring at.

It's the mother of the crown prince.

She hurried out of the hospital with her phone in hand. She didn't even look back at Chu Weiqian until she left the hospital.

Chu Weiqian's eyes were red.

Liu Youyou also saw this scene, but she deliberately didn't point it out. She just asked Chu Weiqian, "Grandma Zhang has woken up, aren't you going to see her?"

Chu Weiqian lowered his head in silence.

"I lied to her and took over her grandson's identity. How could she possibly be willing to see me? And how could I have the nerve to see her?"

"Grandma, I guess you won't want to see me again for the rest of your life..."

Liu Youyou and Jiang Mingkai both sighed.

The only person who actually survived the car accident was Grandma Zhang. When she learned the sad news of her grandson's death again, she couldn't accept it. This was normal for her as the person who had impersonated her grandson for three years.

【But……】

Lin Cha's heart was in turmoil for a moment, but he couldn't help but say, "But Zhang Xingzhou's body was claimed three years ago, and the person who claimed it was... Grandma Zhang!"

"Grandma Zhang knew about this three years ago."