Chapter 181 She doesn't remember me
That afternoon, Zhuang Liuyue suddenly arrived.
She was wearing a beige suit, her hair was neatly styled in a bun, and she wore delicate light makeup.
"Ahe, how are you recovering?" Zhuang Liuyue's voice was a little hoarse and tired.
"She's mostly recovered, Sister Liuyue." Qu He looked at her. "Where is he, Zhuang Bieyan?"
Zhuang Liuyue remained silent for a long time before saying, "I'll take you there."
Qu He's heart raced instantly as she followed Zhuang Liuyue out of the ward.
The midday sun streamed in through the glass window.
The Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, and the osmanthus trees outside the window have finished blooming, leaving only green leaves and no trace of gold.
Qu He turned her gaze away from the window and pushed open the door to the VIP ward.
The ward was quiet, with only the beeping of the electrocardiogram monitor.
Her gaze fell on the man lying on the hospital bed, fast asleep with his eyes closed.
Zhuang Bieyan lay on the hospital bed with gauze on his forehead and neck, and obvious abrasion scars on his chin.
The blue and white striped hospital gown made him look even more vulnerable.
Qu He stopped in her tracks, her heart feeling as if it had been struck hard.
She walked over and reached out to touch his face, but was afraid of startling him.
Her hands trembled uncontrollably as she clenched them tightly. "What...what did the doctor say..."
From the moment Si Yue stopped talking about it, she had a bad feeling.
I thought I was prepared, but seeing him in person, I still couldn't suppress the pain in my heart.
Zhuang Liuyue quickly stepped forward to support her swaying body and helped her to sit down on the sofa next to her.
"It was lucky that he survived when that billboard crashed down, and it was even more of a miracle that he was able to jump into the river to save people."
Zhuang Liuyue's voice choked with sobs, "Exhausted and suffering a severe head injury, she was unconscious when she was taken to the hospital."
"What did the doctor say? When will he wake up?"
"The doctor said he has central nervous system damage and sequelae of cerebral hemorrhage. They can't say for sure, he might wake up tomorrow, or he might have to wait a long time. It all depends on his own will to live."
Qu He listened, her head throbbing with pain.
It wasn't until I felt a chill on the back of my hand that I realized I was already in tears.
Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably.
She remembered the boy in the wheelchair in her dream, his promise to come back and teach her to write her name, and how he held her hand tightly in the river.
Zhuang Liuyue looked at her younger brother lying on the hospital bed, her eyes reddening.
She took a file folder out of her bag and handed it to Qu He. "The police found this in A Yan's car. I saw him take it from home that day, and I think he originally intended to give it to you that night."
Qu He looked down at the file bag in her hand, which seemed to contain a photo album and an envelope.
Its existence serves as a constant reminder of the fireworks night that was supposed to arrive as promised.
"I have something to do at the company, so I'll head back now."
Zhuang Liuyue wiped away her tears. "Ahe, you should go back to your ward and rest early. There are nurses watching over you here."
Qu He watched Zhuang Liuyue's figure disappear through the doorway.
The carefree and unrestrained eldest daughter of the Zhuang family once again shouldered the burden of the entire family, just like she had done years before.
Zhuang Liuyue walked out of the ward and had just reached the elevator when her phone rang.
It was a call from a company director, his tone full of urging, asking when she would return to the company for a board meeting.
She hung up the phone, sent a message to Tan Cong, asking him to calm the board members down first, and then quickly walked towards the parking lot.
She stopped in her tracks as soon as she reached the car.
Shang Shijin leaned against a black Porsche, half of his figure hidden in the shadows of the parking lot, his expression unreadable.
He was wearing a black trench coat, a cigarette between his fingers, the smoke obscuring his features.
Zhuang Liuyue turned and tried to run away almost the instant she saw him.
But he was faster than her. He took a few steps forward, put one arm around her waist, and pulled her into his arms.
"Let me go!" Zhuang Liuyue struggled, her voice icy.
Shang Shijin's breath brushed against her neck, carrying a faint scent of tobacco. "You need me, just like the Zhuang family needed me back then."
Zhuang Liuyue's body stiffened, and her struggling movements stopped.
Noticing her stiffness, Shang Shijin kissed the back of her ear, his kiss filled with tenderness and determination.
But the next second...
"Smack!"
A resounding slap landed on his face.
Zhuang Liuyue broke free from his embrace and looked at the man in front of her, a man she had once both loved and hated, her eyes devoid of any warmth.
"You're wrong. Back then, the bookmakers didn't choose you, nor did they necessarily need you."
After she finished speaking, she pushed him away forcefully, opened the car door, and got in.
The car started and drove away from the parking lot.
Looking through the rearview mirror at the figure standing still, getting smaller and smaller, Zhuang Liuyue's forced composure finally collapsed.
Some wounds, even after scabbing over, can still ache slightly when touched.
......
As dusk deepened in the hospital ward.
Si Yue has already gone back. Director Lian and Teacher Qu went back to Yujia Ferry to complete the formalities and prepare to move to Baiyu Bay so that it would be easier to take care of her.
Qu He sat by the hospital bed, watching the sunset outside the window.
The clouds on the horizon were dyed red, much like the blood on the river that day, and also like the sunset at the fishing village ferry in my childhood.
She picked up the file folder, her fingers trembling slightly.
I opened the bag and found a photo album and an envelope inside.
The photo album is old, with a protective case on the outside and some wear on the edges.
I opened the photo album, and it was filled with pictures.
The first picture on the homepage is of her lying on the table with a Polaroid camera.
The angle is very similar to the photos I've seen before.
On the back, neat handwriting reads: "[September 2001, she fell asleep again. This time she was very well-behaved and didn't drool.]"
Qu He felt a lump in her throat and continued flipping through the pages.
Page after page.
At the elementary school opening ceremony, she was wearing her school uniform and listening to the school leaders' speeches with her head tilted back.
In September 2001, she started elementary school. She was the smallest in stature, but had the brightest smile. However, she didn't remember me. That's alright, at least it's better than her hating me.
At the junior high school opening ceremony, she spoke on stage as a student representative, holding the microphone, her expression both nervous and serious.
[September 2007, the auditorium of the district junior high school. She had grown up and was very outstanding.]
Upon entering high school, she and several newly acquainted friends ate popsicles by the playground.
[September 2010, No. 1 Middle School of the city. She made new friends, and they were doing very well.]
The background of the university photo wasn't the freshman ceremony, but her back as she stood on tiptoe writing on the freshman wish wall.
[September 2013, North City University. Basel was her dream after all. See you in England!]
Year after year, page after page.
Each photo is labeled with the date and location.
From her innocent childhood to her teenage years, the beginning of each new stage of her life was silently recorded in this way.
Some photos are clear, while others are blurry.
Some of them even look like they were deliberately enlarged and cropped from promotional photos on the school's official WeChat account or group photos, just to capture her image alone.
Tears fell drop by drop onto the transparent protective film of the photo album, spreading out as tiny water stains.
She had always thought there was a twenty-year gap between them, but now she finally realized that he had always been there.
She appeared quietly at every important juncture in her life, and then quietly left.
He kept his promise by the lotus pond that he would come back before the start of the school year, and never missed one of her entrance ceremonies.
With trembling hands, she turned to the last page of the photo album.
There's only a small, yellowed, and somewhat blurry photo posted here.
The photo shows her at age five and Zhuang Bieyan at age seven.
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