Chapter 91
When Sun Pengfei finally found the corridor where the operating room was located, he immediately understood: the thing he feared most had happened.
The red light was still on the double mint-colored wooden door, and the waiting benches were still full of anxious patients and their families, but Chengshi was no longer there.
When Sun Pengfei was less than 5 meters away from the wooden door, he saw the dark door open again, and a group of medical staff in dark green uniforms came out and hurriedly scattered in all directions. Then, behind them came a... no... Cheng Shi, who was being carried out by three or four male medical staff.
The way Narumi was being supported looked like that of a drunkard who had caused trouble in a bar and was being carried out by the bar's security guards—his legs seemed so weak that they couldn't support his massive body.
Sun Pengfei frantically scanned the space in front of the operating room, trying to find a place to put down the two bottles of coffee he was holding. But before he could even get a good look around, his hands involuntarily loosened their grip, and the two bottles of coffee fell to the ground with two muffled thuds, rolling backward. Sun Pengfei immediately sprinted towards Cheng Shi, only to find himself surrounded by medical staff—he couldn't distinguish them individually, because to him they were just a group of screaming creatures in dark green uniforms: each one seemed to be talking at once—
"……terribly sorry……"
"...a heavy blow..."
"...It was delivered too late..."
"...The bleeding is really severe..."
"...a severe disulfiram-like reaction..."
"...Please accept our deepest condolences to the family..."
"...Sit down first..."
The medical staff tried to get Cheng Shi to sit down, and the row of benches against the wall were even pushed and moved by the crowd. But no matter how much they tried to persuade him, Cheng Shi stubbornly insisted on standing. Now his legs had regained their strength and he could support his body, but he was expressionless, silent, and breathing rapidly…
Cheng Shi remained motionless, her head bobbing slightly with each rapid breath, her eyes fixed on the door whose red light was still on.
In Sun Pengfei's memory, what happened next was blurry and out of order. However, he was certain that the events he remembered occurred consecutively over many hours, because when he and Chengshi returned to Central Park, it was very late, perhaps even the early hours of the next day. Sun Pengfei was certain they went to many places after leaving the hospital, as he remembered driving the whole time, but he couldn't recall exactly where they had been.
So Sun Pengfei could only remember fragments. For example, he remembered that they had stopped the car once on a certain road, and he had gotten out to buy Chengshi a bottle of liquor at a 24-hour convenience store on the side of the road. It seemed to be 52-proof Jiangxiaobai. "Hey buddy, have a drink," Sun Pengfei remembered saying to Chengshi. He also remembered that Chengshi was sucking on the Jiangxiaobai like a baby, like sucking on a pacifier or his thumb, which had been sucked until it was deformed.
Then there was another parking—or the same one? Sun Pengfei couldn't figure it out. He only remembered that he called Su Ningna from under the car, behind Chengshi's back—Su Ningna had called him countless times before, but he hadn't had time to answer or was in the mood to answer, so he hadn't told Su Ningna about Huang Ruoyu's death yet.
Upon hearing Huang Ruoyu's news, Su Ningna burst into tears on the phone, screaming, "Ah? What? How could this happen? No, no, no! It can't be... Pengfei, don't scare me..." Sun Pengfei had no choice but to patiently remind Su Ningna again not to disturb the children. However, he dared not hang up before Su Ningna calmed down, and at the same time, he had to keep an eye on Cheng Shi, who was left alone in the car, lest he do something strange.
“Nana, listen to me first. I can’t take Xiaocheng back before those two kids fall asleep, so you need to get them to bed right now. Try to act natural and don’t cry in front of them. I’ll take Xiaocheng home later. I just bought him a bottle of wine, hoping he’ll fall asleep after drinking it… Damn, even if I take him home later, I definitely can’t leave him alone at home. I can’t take him to our house… Here’s what you do, call the property management first thing tomorrow morning and ask if they have anyone else’s phone number at his house. I can’t get any information from them right now…”
Aside from a few brief stops by the roadside, Sun Pengfei and Cheng Shi spent the rest of the time driving aimlessly through the streets. Sun Pengfei only remembered that this period consisted of one traffic light after another, like the days described on TV being made up of one seven-day period after another. Of course, besides traffic lights, Sun Pengfei also remembered countless trees, houses, overpasses, various neon lights, and countless speeding car enthusiasts…
Of course, there was also Cheng Shi, who either remained silent, groaned softly, or muttered the same words over and over again:
"...She was so incredibly gentle and considerate this morning, she was so nice to me, damn it! What the hell is going on? She was so incredibly gentle and considerate this morning..."
Another time, Sun Pengfei couldn't remember whether it was when they first started taking Chengshi for a drive or when they were almost back to Central Park, but he heard Chengshi muttering, "She did it on purpose! Fuck her! She did it on purpose! Old Sun, she definitely committed suicide, her mother committed suicide! There's a family history of suicide! Old Sun, do you know who her mother is? Her mother is..."
The name that followed was drowned out by Cheng Shi's sudden sobbing. Sun Pengfei, however, had no interest in knowing who Huang Ruoyu's mother was—presumably an elderly Shanghai woman who had committed suicide. So, Sun Pengfei resorted to his old trick, putting these provocative topics aside, thinking he could think about them later. Then he comforted Cheng Shi: "Xiao Cheng, don't say such hurtful things. It was just an accident. Xiao Huang must have accidentally ingested cephalosporin."
"No, I swear to you, this is definitely not an accident! You have no idea, she was planning to have an abortion last month—no, wait, she was planning to have one as soon as she found out she was pregnant, and she even wanted to use one of those unregulated Miao medicines! You have no idea how much effort I put into persuading her to give up that plan. I really, really convinced her, I'm sure of it. Then we had a fight yesterday, and... sigh, she was so gentle and considerate this morning, but she must be acting. Don't let her failing acting classes fool you, she didn't even graduate, she's a born actress, just like her mother! Old Sun, I'm telling you, she did it on purpose!"
Sun Pengfei stared at the road, thankful that there were still so many "palace intrigues" in his family waiting for him to participate in. He didn't want to ponder how much of what Cheng Shi said was true and how much was false, and he was even less willing to think about how much of Huang Ruoyu's death, with whom he had already had intimate relations, was related to him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
