Farewell (Part Two)

Zhou Zeyu opened the door, and there was only a simple suitcase left at the doorway. Nothing was added or missing, only the hidden scratches in the corner showed that it had a troubled history.

She looked around, but no one appeared as she expected. The surroundings were quiet, so quiet that it seemed to conceal something.

She opened her luggage, and clothes that had been hastily crumpled into a ball quickly jumped out of the overburdened suitcase. She looked helplessly at the mess on the floor and slowly put everything back in its place.

She couldn't quite put her finger on what she was thinking. In an instant, a flood of thoughts came to mind, more than she could handle. There were all sorts of messy people and trivial, complicated matters—too many to bear.

So even keeping it as it was became difficult. She glanced at the crumpled clothes in her hand and resignedly threw them back into the box.

She rested her head on her hand, staring absently out the window. The scenery was actually quite the same; even the most beautiful sights became tiresome. The white clouds were very white, the blue sky very blue, and then two shifty-eyed fellows suddenly appeared.

Anna and Eric waved vigorously at her, startling her. She jumped up, opened the door, and went to the balcony. The two men were carrying a large black plastic bag and gestured for her to come downstairs quickly.

Then the situation became that the three of them stood in the courtyard downstairs, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"With such a strong smell of blood, are you going to dismember my body in my yard?"

Eric glanced at the plastic bag in his hand, wiped the bloodstains on his hands on his black coat, and chuckled, "It looks similar, but it's not."

Zhou Zeyu hesitated, glancing at the bag that was still dripping blood onto the lawn. Thinking that these two guys shouldn't be so audacious as to do this, he smiled knowingly, "A prank, huh? Is it heavy? Let me carry it."

The two exchanged a smile, then yanked open the bag, revealing a large, bloody chunk of raw meat inside. "Surprised, aren't you!"

"Ah!" She jerked her outstretched hand away. "You, what are you doing?!"

Anna waved her hand, took out a large knife from her backpack, and squatted down to cut the meat as if no one else was there. "This is good stuff. It's fresh beef that was just delivered from the slaughterhouse this morning. It's said to be imported from the Alps. Eric and I went through a lot of trouble to get it."

With a series of clattering sounds, Ericf also took out the barbecue grill and began to assemble it, nodding in agreement, "Yes, the weather is nice today, so we're planning to have a barbecue, and we've specially reserved the tenderest part for you!"

Zhou Zeyu's eyes stung with tears. She looked up at the sky deliberately and mumbled that the weather was nice. She wiped away her tears without leaving a trace and then began to help Anna prepare the meat.

The marbled meat sizzled on the iron grill, and under the blazing sun, the three men simultaneously wiped away their sweat, staring intently at the meat.

"Sigh." Zhou Zeyu sighed.

"Sigh." Erik and Anna also sighed.

The three men looked at each other, but none of them asked why the other was sighing. They ate the expensive beef with their own thoughts, and it tasted bland.

“No, that would be such a waste of this beef.” After a moment of silence, Eric seemed to have made a huge decision, clapped his hands sharply, and said to Anna, “We can’t just stay silent like this, we have to make things clear!”

Anna nudged him hard, trying to signal him not to say it, but Zhou Zeyi had already sensed something was wrong and looked at the two of them in confusion: "What do you want to clarify?"

Seeing that the truth could no longer be hidden, Anna could only shrug dejectedly and wink at Eric, but without a doubt, Eric completely failed to understand her meaning.

"Injured!" Zhou Zeyi's eyes widened, and he shouted almost reflexively, "Is it serious? How could he suddenly be injured?"

Anna and Eric exchanged a glance and shook their heads without saying a word.

"He looked so strange. We thought you two had a fight. Didn't you know?"

Zhou Zeyu was stunned. Recalling the situation with him at the airport yesterday, it seemed that his expression was a little strange at that time, but she did not take it to heart. She did not expect that he would help her retrieve her suitcase. So how could he be injured?

She was so worried that she picked up her phone to call him, but the two men stopped her as soon as she raised her hand. Their movements were so fast that she wondered if they had rehearsed beforehand.

"What's wrong?"

Eric looked flustered, and his guilty tone was almost eerie, "Perhaps it would be better to call later...right?"

Zhou Zeyi's suspicions suddenly arose: "What happened? Is he in the hospital or at the police station?"

Erik's expression shifted rapidly, flashing between surprise, admiration, and hesitation within half a minute, before finally turning to helplessness. Under her intimidation, he eventually confessed honestly.

Zhou Zeyu gasped. She remembered that she had just taken a nap, but when she woke up, the world had turned upside down. Was this still within her acceptable range?

"What happened! How badly are you injured? How could you not tell me about something so serious!"

Ericf looked completely innocent. "But I still told you. Anna was worried that you'd be too anxious and faint."

She hurriedly asked which hospital it was, quickly put down her knife and fork, and was so anxious that she couldn't even tell which way was which. She walked straight into the house, but after walking several steps, she realized something was wrong and quickly turned around and walked back outside.

"We'll go with you!" the two men shouted in unison as she was about to leave.

“We’ll go with you!” the two insisted.

Zhou Zeyi didn't care about anything else. He didn't even have time to think about whether to agree or refuse. Seeing their determined expressions, he casually waved his hand to signal the two of them to follow.

Taxis in Belgrade are hard to find, a fact she had long realized. All the drivers here are always uncooperative, and the mood only changes when she pulls out a few large bills. This time was no exception.

She hurriedly opened the car door and got in, ignoring Eric's pained expression. Anyway, she figured it was fine to kill him, and this was probably the last time.

That's the intensive care unit, after all; it's a matter of life and death!

At the intersection with the red light flashing, the driver made a daring maneuver at the corner as if it were his own back, leaving the three people in the back seat swaying and twisting. After finally getting the car back on the straight road, the driver suddenly braked and nearly crashed into the truck in front of him, leaving the passengers speechless with shock.

In stark contrast to their panic was the driver's calm and relaxed demeanor. With that characteristic Eastern European arrogance and disregard for rules, he ran four red lights and cut off six large trucks in a row. He even took out a pair of sunglasses from the side and put them on with great interest.

Zhou Zeyu closed her eyes tightly. She didn't want to think about anything anymore, and she couldn't remember anything. Countless gods and deities, both familiar and unfamiliar, from the East and West flashed through her mind. She prayed to Hera, Zeus, Guanyin, and Bodhisattva, hoping that she could live and stand on land again. That would be a victory.

Anna and Eric were terrified and held onto Zhou Zeyu's arm tightly, refusing to let go no matter what.

“Are we about to die?!” Anna cried out.

"I'm sorry to have made you all come here with me!" She thought she was calm enough, but for some reason her voice was still trembling, and it even seemed to be trembling more and more.

As the car abruptly stopped, his shout also abruptly halted. The three of them snapped out of their daze and quickly got out of the car as if fleeing for their lives, standing in front of the hospital, panting heavily as if they had been granted a pardon.

"We...we made it here alive!"

Zhou Zeyu, holding onto a lamppost, finally straightened up. He touched his left chest with lingering fear, and once he was sure it was still beating, he felt relieved and headed towards the emergency room.

She jogged into the hospital. Outside the emergency room, a large crowd had gathered, including doctors, police officers, and onlookers. It was so noisy it was like a shopping mall.

What on earth happened?! How did things turn out like this?

With an overwhelming sense of urgency, she forced her way through the crowd and stood on tiptoe, trying to peer into the intensive care unit. However, the average height of men and women in Belgrade was 1.8 meters, and no matter how hard she tried, she could only see the backs of other people's heads, which overlapped with each other. There was nothing else.

Anna and Eric looked at each other, puzzled by her anxious expression, and finally couldn't help but ask.

"Actually, we were just about to ask you, why are you in such a hurry?"

Do you know him?

Zhou Zeyu looked at the two of them in disbelief: "What are you talking about? How could I not know Solkov!"

Anna and Eric exchanged another glance, and Zhou Zeyi felt that the two of them were gradually developing a tacit understanding like twins.

“We never said that the person inside was Sorkov.”

She was standing on tiptoe trying to see inside when she heard this, her heels fell off with a thud, and she turned around, blinking in confusion.

"What?"