Chapter 71
Just a few words changed Tong Yufei's life.
Mo Daoyan cleared the plates, his calmness surprising Chen Ruchao. "Why are you telling me?"
"This way you can get to know her better. She used to be so great."
"Not once, but always."
Chen Ruchao was confused: "You don't blame me?"
"Strange, can you give her back what she lost?"
He could denounce Chen Ruchao with a righteous expression, and he was only concerned about whether Chen Jueyao could withstand the blow, but he never thought about Tong Yufei's situation at the time. Even though Chen Jueyao failed the election, he still had his professor parents and medical student sister to rely on, but Tong Yufei only had Ye Yimo. If he was more ruthless, he could even completely deny her, saying that she had lacked a sense of right and wrong since childhood. Chen Jueyao provoked others and was beaten, and she pushed the attacker into the river without any reason. If he had not rescued the other party in time, she would have been sent to a juvenile detention center. He then killed her heart, saying that people without a sense of right and wrong can never become good doctors.
And then? Tong Yufei remained Tong Yufei, but Chen Ruchao was able to unburden himself of his thoughts, and the sky became clear.
In fact, he concealed the truth from Chen Ruchao, and the whole thing was found out a few days ago.
He had been to Tong Yufei's school and wanted to pry some student photos. As an art school, there would always be some records of rehearsals or practice sessions. Tong Yufei had failed in her application for the city song and dance troupe and had to retire from the stage due to a serious ankle injury. This had caused an uproar in the school. Her head teacher still felt sorry for her and whenever Tong Yufei was asked about, this old news would be brought up again.
The examiner who had interviewed her, Professor Lin, was the head of the School of Literature at Xicheng University and also Qiao Zhuoqun's father-in-law. With the help of Zhuoqun's sister, it was not difficult for her to meet Professor Lin. Professor Lin has retired and is no longer troubled by fame and fortune. He looks back on the past with much calmer attitude. However, he has never been able to let go of the only "stain" in his life. He was qualified to run for the position of president, but he voluntarily gave up and resigned early to go home to spend his twilight years with his grandson.
On the day when the union representative went to his home to mediate, Tong Yufei was half-cajoled and half-tricked by him to stay. With the rain and warm clouds, she slept very soundly. But in her dream, she kicked the quilt again and shouted "Dad". In the limited warmth she received in her short life, Ye Conghai was irreplaceable.
During the process, she woke up once because of thirst. He fed her half a cup of warm water, handed her Professor Lin's apology letter, and asked her if she wanted to claim back the debt. Even if she could not return to the stage, at least the people who did wrong should pay the price. As long as this letter was published in the newspaper, those people would never have peace of mind.
She tore up the letter without thinking, and then confessed to him that she had gone to the medical school to "retaliate" against Chen Ruchao the day before their engagement.
That day, she dressed up and, under the pretext of sending an engagement invitation, contacted a high school classmate she hadn't seen in a while. After being rejected from the city song and dance troupe, she had disappeared for a while, and some people had rumored she was mentally ill. Now, when they met again, she was rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed, and even married an international student, and her classmates congratulated her. When she "ran into" Chen Ruchao in the cafeteria, she was uncharacteristically lively, deliberately sitting at the next table, chattering like a sparrow, telling him how infatuated Mo Daoyan was with her, how he'd decided to marry her just after they met, and how he planned to take her to Germany to settle down and have a pair of children. Chen Ruchao paled at this, and as he fled, he knocked over his plate, and her laughter smeared his lipstick.
But when she looked up at him, her eyes were full of autumn water, but they flashed with unspeakable sadness: "Mo Daoyan, now you know that I was using you back then and almost took Chen Ruchao's life. Do you still think I'm a good person?"
Tong Yufei has not yet come to terms with his mistake, so why should Chen Ruchao come to terms with it?
He hoped she would live with this guilt: "Ruchao, you must remember that you will never be able to repay her in this lifetime."
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After lying in bed for nearly a day, his legs nearly numb, Mo Daoyan picked up the IV pole and went downstairs for a walk. He walked slowly from eight to ten, traversing the hospital's makeshift green belt a dozen times. There were only a few sparse ivy branches there, and the weeds were thriving, barely decorating the facade. It was past ten past ten, and the heartbroken figure still hadn't appeared at the hospital gate. He figured she wouldn't come. He confessed his feelings to her during the day, the first time in over twenty years. Those words were much harder to write than a test report. He'd tried his best, but she still didn't agree.
In the past, it was profitable to value him, but now that we no longer seek his benefits, he is naturally insignificant.
It's really ironic that he is no longer even worthy of being used and has ended up like this.
But he will not give up easily. Once he makes up his mind to do something in this life, he must do it.
In the brief minutes back in the ward, Mo Daoyan's thoughts drifted. What would Tong Yufei's life have been like without Chen Ruchao's "interference"? She would surely have been as strong as Chen Jueyao, a pillar of the city's song and dance troupe. With her dedication to the stage, her performances would have soared to new heights. She might still keep in touch with Meng Ruqing, but her gifts would no longer be handwoven items, but theater tickets. They would still cross paths, but she wouldn't secretly kiss him in the cinema, nor would she go to great lengths to please him, obsessed with becoming his wife.
The higher she rose, the more admirers she would attract. Among them were the rich and powerful, those who truly admired her talent, soulmates who shared her understanding of the true meaning of dance, and those simply drawn to her beauty... Given her stubborn nature, she wouldn't be easily impressed. And he wasn't one to revolve around women. So, the possibility of their marriage diminished significantly; perhaps they couldn't even be friends. Mo Daoyan couldn't help but laugh at his imagined defeat. Why was he so unsure? No matter how stunning she was on stage, without her makeup, wasn't she still just a young girl? Why couldn't she, like in the novels, walk through thousands of audiences, wasting her life just for him?
"Where have you been? Why haven't you come back even though the lights are out? Can you walk on your own now?"
As soon as he entered the room, he heard Tong Yufei's voice. She held up a flashlight and asked him to come in carefully. In the original room, Chen Ruchao had originally arranged a single room for him, but in order to prevent Tong Yufei from feeling that they had too much contact, he displayed his noble style of selflessness and gave the ward to other people.
Tong Yufei went through the side door of the hospital, passed through the outpatient building, and arrived at the inpatient department.
Mo Daoyan adjusted his hand, which was recovering blood, and placed the IV stand steadily. "I've been on IV drip for a whole day and still can't walk. It's all in vain." Seeing that she was wearing a black mask, he asked, "Do you have a cold?"
"No."
She filled a basin with hot water at a suitable temperature and brought it to a stool, asking him to lie down and wash. He complained that it was too slow, so he took off his hospital gown, put it on his left arm where the IV was, and stood while she washed him. Tong Yufei was worried that he would catch a cold if he stayed like this for too long, so she took a bath towel and draped it over him first. Although she had hugged this body many times, she had rarely observed it from this perspective. The firm muscles formed by exercise were clearly defined, the body proportions were excellent, with broad shoulders and narrow waist, and the lower limbs were slender and powerful, like a sword drawn from its sheath.
Mo Daoyan raised his hand and placed it on her shoulder: "Help me check if there is a rash on my neck. It's itchy."
She stood on tiptoe and checked with the help of a flashlight. "Maybe the hospital bedding hasn't been aired for a long time, so I'm allergic. I'll go to the emergency room later to get some ointment..."
As he was speaking, Mo Daoyan kissed her through the mask, but it was just a light peck.
"Busy," she lowered her head and wiped his neck with a corner of the towel, her tone becoming serious, "I met Sister Xilin in the clinic."
"Is Uncle Ji sick again?"
"She said she was going to have rectal surgery and was hospitalized. I saw her at the entrance of the ultrasound room in the obstetrics and gynecology department. The queue was full, and she was sitting alone on the floor. I didn't have anything to put on my bag, so I asked the nurse for a plastic stool and went over to chat with her."
Mo Daoyan felt a bang, as if he'd been hit by a flashbang. As his mind cleared, two thoughts surfaced: one was that Ji Xilin couldn't shake Qiao Zhuoyuan off, and the other was that Qiao Zhuocheng's path to power was completely ruined. Tong Yufei finished wiping his armpits and came up behind him. He leaned half-sideways so he could still look her in the eye while he spoke. "The ultrasound scan from the obstetrics and gynecology department, does that mean you're pregnant?"
Tong Yufei glanced at the list in Ji Xilin's hand. "Abortion" was written on it in flamboyant calligraphy. "She's pregnant, but the pregnancy isn't certain yet. She wants to abort the baby. She didn't get an appointment today, but she can do it tomorrow morning. She said someone proposed to her, and she wants to escape this family, but she's worried that choosing to start a family alone just to escape would be unfair to others."
"Why should she overthink? That man is not a blank slate. He's been in the business world for so many years, and he has his own standards. She should think about herself first. Passion will eventually fade. Is she really sure that this is the one? How sincere is he?"
"She did realize that there was still a long way to go between being attracted to someone and getting married, and that the man who proposed was just trying to take responsibility. That's why she was worried that they would become like their parents, incompatible and that it would be better for them not to have a child. I tried to convince her that her parents were the way they were because of a special period, and that in these peaceful times, they would have been a loving couple, supporting each other through thick and thin. Every family has its own setbacks, and just because you've witnessed an unhappy marriage, you shouldn't assume your own misfortune will be unfortunate. But she still insisted that even couples with long-lasting relationships couldn't guarantee happiness, so how could they, who would have been drowned in the old society, be happy? A false start never leads to a good ending..."
The same applies to their marriage.
When it comes to giving good advice, Mo Daoyan often feels helpless and at his wit's end: "If you can think so carefully before going to bed with someone, you won't feel sorry for yourself. Making more excuses is selfish." Then he defends their marriage, "Ours wasn't a wrong start, it was a naive start. It's different from theirs."
"Even if she's selfish, it's not just her fault. Do you want to tell Qiao Zhuocheng?" Tong Yufei finished wiping his back and saw that he had taken off his trousers on his own. He took out a small basin, filled it halfway with cold water, added hot water, adjusted the temperature, soaked the handkerchief, wrung it out, and handed it to him. "Your legs, and... you can wipe them yourself. Use the water in the small basin and the handkerchief separately."
He half-knelt down, cleaning with a slightly awkward posture: "If I'm not looking for the child's father, what's the point of looking for Qiao Zhuocheng?"
When she was working part-time at the hotel, she saw Ji Xilin and Qiao Zhuocheng coming and going, and even had dinner with Qiao Zhuocheng's family: "Sister Xilin is not pregnant with Qiao Zhuocheng's child?"
"You only recognize Qiao Zhuocheng, do you know Qiao Zhuoyuan?"
She couldn't say she knew the eldest brother of the Qiao family personally, but she had dealt with him once before. Qiao Zhuocheng asked her to create some paintings and calligraphy to sell to customers. Initially, she was reluctant. She wasn't a professional painter, so what if there were disputes? Besides, what was the difference between this and street art? But after her first painting was snapped up for a high price, the money she earned was equivalent to her monthly part-time job, so she just closed her eyes and painted. Whether it was elegant or vulgar, it was just a way to make a living, so her pretentiousness was worthless.
Among the customers who bought calligraphy and paintings was Qiao Zhuoyuan.
He was a burly man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes. Compared to the youthful spirit that still lingered in Mo Daoyan and Qiao Zhuocheng, he possessed a more mature demeanor. She selected the calligraphy and paintings that others bought, but Qiao Zhuoyuan specifically requested a painting that featured a line from Cao Zhi's "The Goddess of the Luo River": "From a distance, it is as bright as the sun rising in the morning glow; from close inspection, it is as brilliant as a lotus emerging from the green waves."
After purchasing the calligraphy and paintings, Qiao Zhuoyuan joked with her, "That kid Mo Daoyan is a wild boar that can't handle fine bran. If you dump him one day, come with me..." He paused deliberately and said, "Big brother will introduce you to a better one."
Qiao Zhuocheng started to scold: "You are unlucky in love, so you can't stand seeing others doing well. If the Taoist saying is a pig, then you are worse than a pig."
Mo Daoyan sneered after hearing this: "Let's not talk about those pigs and dogs and animals for now. He got someone pregnant and is facing the prospect of having no descendants. And he still has the leisure to pretend to be refined?"
Tong Yufei saw Mo Daoyan changed his clothes and was about to go out, and put away his toiletries: "It's too late, let's go tomorrow morning."
"He still wants to sleep through the night? Senior Sister Ji doesn't have that blessing." He took a few steps to the door, then turned around and stared at her, "How much have you drunk?"
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