"Reality?" Lu Peizhi's voice suddenly rose, tinged with grief and indignation. "The reality is we were together for two years! The reality is we were this close to getting married! The reality is I had no idea about that child! Can't you just... just give me a chance to win you back?"
Yu Wanwan looked at him, her eyes full of utter impatience and detachment. "Lu Peizhi, some mistakes can't be erased with a simple 'I didn't know.' The problem between us was never just about a child; it was about trust crumbling. Do you understand?"
"I can rebuild it! Just give me time, I can be better than before." He stepped forward urgently, almost grabbing her arm, a paranoid undercurrent surging in his eyes. "Wanwan, look at me now! In this terrible weather, the one worrying about you and staying by your side is me, not that man who lives under the same roof! Does he know what you do when you're sad? Does he know you bite your lip when you're nervous? He knows nothing. The one who knows you best..."
"Enough!" Yu Wanwan cut him off sharply, her chest heaving with anger. "By what right do you interrogate me here? And how do you know he doesn't understand me? I beg you, wake up! I'm married now. Whether he understands me or not, I am his lawfully wedded wife!"
"Lawfully wedded?" Lu Peizhi let out a scoff, the laughter harsh and grating in the wind. "And what about your heart? Does your heart acknowledge it too? Wanwan, don't lie to yourself. You married him just to spite me, to find a refuge. I don't believe you can just forget our two-year relationship!"
He stared at her, as if searching for any sign of wavering. "Tell me, have you truly fallen in love with him? Say it looking me in the eyes!"
"I don't want to answer your boring question." Yu Wanwan looked away, her tone resolute. "Whether I love him or not, it doesn't change the fact that I'm done with you. Please, stop living in your own fantasy world."
With that, she ignored him, took the packaged pig trotters from the shop owner, and strode out.
Lu Peizhi stood frozen, the color draining from his face. The wind tousled his hair, making him look utterly disheveled. He stared at her retreating figure and shouted unwillingly, "That's not a fantasy!"
Yu Wanwan walked forward without looking back, focusing all her attention on fighting the inner turmoil and the howling wind around her, completely oblivious to a large tree nearby emitting a strained creak in the gale.
That sound was like the final warning before death's arrival.
The next moment, with a loud crack, the thick trunk was snapped in half by the fierce wind, crashing down on Yu Wanwan with unstoppable force.
"Wanwan!"
Seeing this from afar, Lu Peizhi's pupils contracted. Instinct took over before thought; he shot forward like an arrow from a bow, shoving Yu Wanwan aside with all his strength, meeting the deadly fall with his back and shoulder.
"Thud."
A dull sound, accompanied by the crackling of breaking branches. Yu Wanwan was thrown to the ground by the immense force, dazed and disoriented. The pig trotter soup spilled everywhere, and in her ears was the creaking of a milk tea shop sign half knocked down by the trunk, dangling precariously.
She lifted her head, still in shock, her mind buzzing.
Before her, Lu Peizhi was pinned under the thick trunk, his face instantly turning pale as paper, a patch of glaring red seeping through his shoulder.
In that moment, all resentment and irritation vanished from Yu Wanwan's heart, replaced by primal terror and disbelief—he had nearly died for her.
Her heart clenched as if gripped by an icy hand, barely able to breathe. A wave of fear washed over her—if that tree had hit her squarely...
"Lu Peizhi." She scrambled to his side, her hand hovering over him, afraid to touch, her voice trembling. "Are... are you okay?"
"Don't... don't move me." Lu Peizhi's lips quivered in pain, his voice faint and weak.
His injured arm lay limp on the ground, twisted at an odd angle, a horrifying sight.
"Oh my god, are you alright?" A reporter covering the weather witnessed the scene and, along with the camera operator and nearby shop owners, rushed over to move the tree trunk.
Someone quickly called the hospital from nearby for an ambulance. As she watched the medical staff deftly immobilize him and lift him onto a stretcher, the man suddenly grabbed her hand in his pain-filled grip. The hot, blood-tinged touch jolted Yu Wanwan back from the edge of terror.
Then came a crushing weight.
The debt of being saved at the cost of his life, heedless of his own safety, was like an invisible shackle, firmly pinning her in the position of the indebted one.
After a series of tests, the doctor diagnosed a severe displaced fracture of the shoulder blade, with the collarbone also affected. Because it was an open wound, surgery was required immediately.
As the pen scratched across the paper, a great sense of absurdity and helplessness washed over Yu Wanwan.
A married woman, yet now signing as a "family member," anxiously waiting outside the emergency room for the surgery results of her ex-boyfriend who had risked his life to save her.
Fate, you sure know how to play tricks.
Yu Wanwan sat alone on the cold bench outside the operating room, her mood as messy as the weather outside.
She sent a message to Gu Enzhun explaining the situation and ordered takeout for her two best friends on her phone.
Time ticked by, each second feeling excruciatingly long.
The surgery lasted nearly three hours. Even after the doctor came out and gave her some instructions, Yu Wanwan still felt lost.
A married woman, now having to take care of her ex-boyfriend in the hospital—what a mess...
But he was injured because of her, and she couldn't just leave him.
"Sigh." She let out a sigh of resignation and followed the nurse to the ward.
Lu Peizhi was still asleep under anesthesia, his face pale, looking fragile and pitiful compared to the paranoid man who had been pestering her that afternoon.
Yu Wanwan looked at the once familiar face, her emotions in turmoil.
If she left him now, she couldn't do it, whether emotionally or morally.
Just as she was feeling vexed, the patient in the next bed, an elderly man, looked at them for a while and asked curiously, "Are you two a couple?"
"No, we're..." Yu Wanwan quickly denied it, trying to distance herself. She stammered, "There was a typhoon, a tree fell, he saved me, so I brought him to the hospital."
Hearing this, the old man let out a slightly disappointed "Oh." "So you're a good Samaritan."
The tone carried a hint of regret.
Lu Peizhi's ward was next to Mi Xiaonai's. Yu Wanwan, feeling drained, returned to Mi Xiaonai's room.
Seeing her expression, her two best friends immediately came over to comfort her. "What's wrong?"
Yu Wanwan let out a bitter sigh. "He hasn't woken up yet... but he should be fine."
"It's all my fault!" Mi Xiaonai blamed herself. "I had to have pig trotter soup, and it almost got you killed. I should have ordered takeout or told you to get something from the cafeteria."
"What does it have to do with you? Typhoons are dangerous." Yu Wanwan comforted her. "Just stay in bed and don't move. I'll go check if he's awake."