Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zhou Huai was very good at taking care of people.

That only made me hate him more.

He knew I needed warm water first thing after waking up in the morning. He knew I didn’t eat scallions. He knew I didn’t like the bed curtains pulled all the way shut when I slept.

At first, I thought all caregivers were like that.

Then the caregiver for the woman in the next bed brought her the wrong blood pressure medication and got scolded by the nurse for ages.

The woman watched as Zhou Huai adjusted the speed of my IV drip and clicked her tongue.

“Your caregiver must be expensive, huh?”

I said, “I don’t know.”

She smiled. “Your family hired him?”

I didn’t know that either.

I had been awake for two days, and not a single relative had come to see me.

The doctor said my parents were both gone, my friends couldn’t be reached for the time being, and the hospital admission procedures had all been handled with the caregiver’s help.

I asked Zhou Huai, “Who pays your salary?”

He was changing the hot water bottle for me.

“The hospital.”

“The hospital provides emotional care now too?”

He lifted his eyes to look at me.

“If you need it, I can do that too.”

I choked on my own words for a moment.

“I need you to stay away from me.”

He took half a step back.

“Okay.”

He actually stepped back.

All the way until he was two meters from the bed, as if I had drawn a line between us.

And somehow, that made my chest feel tight again.

Not sad. Annoyed.

People like him were the most troublesome.

You cursed him, and he accepted it.

You told him to leave, and he left.

It was like punching cotton, only for the cotton to catch your fist for you.

On the third day, I could get out of bed.

Zhou Huai helped me to the bathroom, but I wouldn’t let him touch me.

He said, “Your legs are still weak.”

I said, “Even if they are, I don’t need you holding me up.”

He withdrew his hand and stood half a step behind me.

I walked slowly, the soles of my feet feeling as if they were treading on water.

When I reached the doorway, my vision suddenly went black.

Zhou Huai reached out and caught me.

His embrace was steady, carrying the faint scent of laundry detergent.

A man’s voice abruptly rang in my ear.

“Qingyu, don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

I shoved him away.

I did it too abruptly and nearly sent myself crashing to the floor.

Zhou Huai caught himself against the wall, his face a little pale.

I saw an old scar on the back of his hand.

It was long, running from the web between his thumb and index finger all the way to his wrist bone.

I stared at that scar.

Another flash of a rainy night crossed my mind.

I was sitting in a car, the seat belt tightening around me until I could barely breathe.

Someone smashed the car window, blood dripping down the back of his hand.

He was calling my name.

“Su Qingyu, wake up.”

The scene jumped.

Another voice said, “Mr. Zhou, everything with Madam has been taken care of.”

Taken care of.

Those four words stabbed into my temples like needles.

I gripped the sink and started retching.

Zhou Huai tried to come over.

I raised a hand to block him.

“Don’t touch me.”

He stopped.

“Okay.”

I lifted my head and saw my own face in the mirror.

Pale, thin, with gauze taped to my forehead.

Suddenly, I asked, “Why was I in a car accident?”

Zhou Huai stood in the doorway.

“A rear-end collision in the rain.”

“Who was driving?”

He said, “You were.”

“I was alone?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Yes.”

I looked at him in the mirror.

“When you lie, you don’t dare look at me.”

Zhou Huai raised his eyes.

In that instant, there was something terribly heavy in them.

As if he had been enduring it for a very long time.

“Su Qingyu,” he said.

“You can’t know too much right now.”

I laughed.

“That sounds more like something Zhou Yinghuai would say.”

He didn’t answer.

The suspicion in my heart finally grew thorns.

That night, while he went to the nurses’ station, I searched his coat.

I knew it was wrong.

But a strange caregiver knew too many of my habits and had lied to me about the details of my car accident. I couldn’t keep pretending to be stupid.

There was only a set of keys in his coat pocket, a crumpled payment receipt, and a ring.

Two letters were engraved on the inside of the ring.

S&Z.

As I held the ring, my hands began to tremble.

When Zhou Huai returned, I was sitting on the bed waiting for him.

The ring lay spread across my palm.

“Explain.”

The moment he saw the ring, his expression changed.

I asked, “Is this yours?”

He was silent.

“Or is it Zhou Yinghuai’s?”

Still, he said nothing.

I hurled the ring at him.

“Get out.”

The ring fell to the floor and rolled to his feet.

Zhou Huai bent down and picked it up.

He stared down at it for a long time before saying softly, “Okay.”

That night, he really left.

I thought I would feel satisfied.

But the moment the ward door closed, I suddenly felt cold.