As Lin Wan reached the door, she nearly collided with a young man rushing by. Fortunately, Tan Xizhe caught her in time. The man who had bumped into her muttered an apology as he walked inside, but after a couple of steps, he suddenly turned around and their eyes met.
Tan Xizhe looked over in surprise as well. When he clearly saw the man's face, he couldn't help but frown. What a coincidence—he had run into Chen Zui here. Was this mere happenstance, or was it fate?
Chen Zui seemed struck by lightning, his body trembling slightly. His expression was stiff, but his eyes swirled with all sorts of emotions. Sweat poured down his forehead like a stream, and after a long silence, he hesitantly said, "Lin Wan, I'm sorry."
But for which incident was he apologizing? Lin Wan turned her gaze away indifferently, then turned and walked off. Tan Xizhe shook his head and followed her.
Chen Zui stood frozen, watching Lin Wan's retreating figure, unable to move. The air conditioning in the lobby was set too high, and the cold breeze made him shiver, his back chilled as he did. His backpack, which only contained a passport, suddenly felt unbearably heavy, pulling him down. Sweat stung his eyes, and he wiped his face roughly before running toward the escalator.
The escalator only went up to the fifth floor, and a line of people was waiting for the elevator. Chen Zui gave up and decided to take the stairs instead. He dragged himself up several flights, punishing himself with the little strength he had left. By the time he reached the tenth floor, he was completely exhausted. His legs gave way, and he collapsed to his knees, staring at the glass wall and crying uncontrollably, "Brother..."
Lin Wan didn't take Tan Xizhe's car. She wanted to walk. She had imagined the day she would see that person again, but she never expected them to be in this kind of situation, and she certainly didn't expect her reaction to be this way. At that moment, she felt no anger or resentment, only an overwhelming sense of exhaustion. Life really was a black comedy—same scene, same actors, but the script had been rewritten. When she saw Chen Zui's complicated expression, she suddenly realized: this ending was a punishment for all three of them.
A loud whistle interrupted her thoughts. The light had turned red. She stepped back, blending into the crowd of people around her. A pregnant woman stood nearby, her abdomen round and high, clearly just having finished a prenatal checkup. The woman was happily chatting with her husband about their baby.
Lin Wan instinctively placed her hand on her own stomach. Her tense face relaxed slightly. Despite the mistakes she had made and the punishments she had suffered, the heavens hadn't been completely heartless. They had left her with her baby. Just moments ago, she had been terrified, thinking she might lose the child. It had taken her ten minutes in the restroom to recover from her fear and panic. This little life, barely two months old, had already become a part of her—maybe even her entire life.
There were several restaurants across the street. Lin Wan walked into a fast food place, ordered a dish of vegetables, a meat dish, a bowl of rice, and some tomato and egg soup. She needed to eat well so that her baby would get proper nutrition. She had already neglected it on a physical level, so she couldn't afford to let it suffer any further.
She took a sip of soup, then picked up her chopsticks to eat. She ate mechanically, as if performing the most important task in the world. But her thoughts drifted, flying out of the restaurant, across the street, and up to the tenth floor of a building, landing on that man covered in tubes, lying under a mask, and on the screen monitoring his vital signs...
She didn't know when the tears started. The drops fell like pearls from a broken string, some of them landing on her neck and soaking into her collar, others mixing with the food she ate. She continued to sob and eat, ignoring the strange looks of those around her. As she chewed on the sour cabbage, she remembered what Milan had said about boys loving sour flavors and girls preferring spicy food. She loved sour food so much—maybe it was a boy after all. She used to prefer girls, but now she thought, maybe a boy would be good too. A boy like him...
Lin Wan ate everything on her plate, as if this was her way of keeping the promise not to let her baby go hungry. But it didn't go as planned. A few minutes later, she found herself in the restroom of Xitu Lanya Restaurant, vomiting everything she had just eaten, nearly throwing up bile.
When she walked out, she saw Tan Xizhe standing at the door with a bottle of water, his face full of concern. She was startled and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Tan Xizhe unscrewed the bottle cap and handed it to her, saying lightly, "How could I leave when you're like this?"
Lin Wan's heart ached. That person had said something like that once.
Tan Xizhe didn't ask any more questions. He went next door to the porridge shop and got two different kinds of porridge. He hailed a taxi and took Lin Wan inside. When they reached her apartment building, he handed her the Thermos with the porridge and gently reminded her, "Eat, then get some good rest. Don't overthink it. If there's any news from the hospital, I'll call you."
Lin Wan nodded, saying "Okay," and walked toward the building's entrance. Tan Xizhe stood there for a while, watching her leave, then turned and walked away, feeling an emptiness in his chest. It felt as though something was missing—like something had been lost, yet there was a lingering sense that something had always been absent.
Having lived for over thirty years, Tan Xizhe had always considered himself charming, a man of many flirtations and fleeting loves. But those relationships left only hollow shadows behind, with none of them leaving a permanent mark. It wasn't that he hadn't been moved by women before, but he always passed them by with a smile, thinking he was carefree, never realizing that he wasn't brave enough to truly give himself to anyone. He had to admit, in this regard, he was no match for Chen Jin.