Seeing Su Huan so protective of that Ah Yao, Gu Beixian felt very uncomfortable. There was no change on his face, but his eyes revealed restrained and suppressed emotions. "I'm going out for a cigarette," he said indifferently and turned to walk out. He closed the door harder than usual. But Su Huan didn't notice. Her mind was filled with the night thirteen years ago, that nightmare-like late night, with howling winds, raging fires, endless pain, and desperate cries. Ah Yao was the key to unlocking that nightmare; just mentioning him would pierce her heart like a thorn, stirring up tumultuous waves, making it hard for her to calm down for a long time. A tear silently slid from the corner of her eye, falling onto the blurred photo. After a very long time, Su Huan finally calmed down. She wiped her wet eyes with the back of her hand, her gaze returning to the photo. She wondered, who exactly was helping her in the dark? She hadn't even told her own mother about her hand injury, fearing it would worry her, and only a few people like Gu Beixian knew. Gu Beixian was out of the question; he would not harm his beloved. Could it be Shen Hua? Su Huan picked up her phone and called Shen Hua, asking, "Mr. Shen, do you know Chu Suosuo?" Shen Hua paused for a moment and said, "I seem to have heard this name somewhere, what's up?" "Her hand was smashed with a hammer last night." Shen Hua uttered an "Oh," and said, "Do you need me to help find her a doctor?" "No need, it's nothing serious."

Su Huan hung up the phone. Clearly, it wasn't Shen Huai. Su Huan picked up the photo again and scrutinized it carefully. Ever since she married Gu Beixian, she had been leading a reclusive life, and with her quiet and reticent nature, she didn't have many friends, especially few male friends. She racked her brains but still couldn't recognize whose back it was in the photo. Gu Beixian smoked an entire half pack of cigarettes outside before he managed to regulate his emotions. He pushed the door open and entered the room. Seeing Su Huan sitting on the hospital bed, holding the photo and frowning with a worried look, he paused for a moment, then walked over to sit beside the bed. He reached out to smooth the fine wrinkles on her forehead. Staring deeply into her eyes for a while, he pulled her into his embrace and held her. The hug lasted a bit longer than a normal one. Su Huan smelled the heavy scent of smoke on him and asked softly, "Did you smoke a lot?" "Mhm." "You just managed to quit, don't start again. Smoking too much is bad for your health." "Okay." After a while, he said again, "Sorry for upsetting you earlier." Su Huan wanted to say something but didn't know where to start, so she simply said, "I'm hungry, let's eat." Gu Beixian let go of her and called the bodyguard to bring in the meal. After eating, Gu Beixian went to the company. In the evening, Gu Nanyin came with a big bunch of flowers to see Su Huan. As soon as she sat down after entering, she began to complain, "Sister-in-law, why didn't you tell me you were injured? If it weren't for Brother Mo Chen mentioning it casually, I wouldn't have known you were hospitalized." Su Huan smiled and said, "You have to study, coming to see me would affect your studies."

"I'm about to graduate, and I don't need to look for a job or want to pursue postgraduate studies. I'm so bored every day that it hurts. If you had told me earlier, I would have come to chat with you, so you wouldn't be bored, as long as you don't mind me being a nuisance." Su Huan said softly, "I won't mind." Gu Nan Yin glanced at her hand wrapped in a splint, red and swollen, and said angrily, "Who is the scoundrel, trying to kill someone? To hit you so hard." "A few days ago, I got involved with a group of tomb raiders. One of the bald guys is in jail, and his sister came to take revenge." Su Huan briefly explained the cause and effect to her. After hearing this, Gu Nan Yin was furious. The two chatted for a while, and it got dark. Gu Nan Yin looked at her watch, picked up her phone, and called Gu Bei Xian, "Brother, I'm at the hospital visiting sister-in-law. I want to drink milk tea, could you pick me up a cup on your way back? You remember what I like, right? Don't forget to bring one for sister-in-law too." Gu Bei Xian's indifferent voice came from the phone, "I'm in the hospital, just tell the bodyguard to buy it." "I'm in sister-in-law's ward, I didn't see you." "I came to see Suo Suo, I'll be back in half an hour." Gu Nan Yin couldn't sit still, she jumped up from the chair and went to the window, saying, "Brother, you're so disappointing. Sister-in-law is injured and already in a bad mood, and you're still upsetting her. Don't you know that what women hate the most is men being too close to their ex-girlfriends?" Gu Bei Xian was silent for a moment, then said, "I'll be back in a while." "Come back now, hurry up."

Gu Beixian hung up the phone. Gu Nanyin walked over to Su Huan's bed, sat down with a huff, and looked at her, hesitating to speak before finally blurting out, 'Sister-in-law, has my brother been getting close to Chu Suosuo lately?' Su Huan hummed in response. Gu Nanyin sighed, 'Sister-in-law, you're too trusting. You can't outplay her. She's always been cunning since she was a kid, especially sly and manipulative, even I can't outdo her.' Su Huan listened absent-mindedly and casually said, 'Is that so?' 'Yes, ever since she was a child, she liked to compete with me for my brother's attention. Our families have business dealings, and we often gather for meals during festivals. She would stick to my brother's side, cooing 'Oh my, Brother Beixian' on one hand, and 'Sob, sob, Brother Beixian' on the other, asking him to pass her dishes and peel shrimp for her, so affected and artificial. My brother was as if bewitched, treating her extremely well, indulging her in everything.' Su Huan felt a pang of pain in her heart, but her face showed no emotion. Gu Nanyin said, 'Later, I got so angry that I started to compete for her brother. I called him 'Brother Mochen' all the time, bossing him around too, just to piss her off.' Su Huan had a pretty good impression of Chu Mochen, so she said, 'It seems that the siblings don't really resemble each other; they have quite different personalities.' 'They have the same father but different mothers. Chu Suosuo's mother is Mochen's biological aunt, a mistress who rose to power, very slutty,' Gu Nanyin rolled her eyes. Su Huan listened quietly. 'Talking about it, Brother Mochen is quite pitiable too,' Gu Nanyin's mood suddenly became somber, and she sighed, 'His biological sister died a few months after birth, and his mother went mad from the shock.'

His biological sister was originally engaged to my brother through a child's betrothal, and if she were alive, she would probably be about your age." Su Huan didn't know what to say, so she just curved her lips slightly. Before long, Gu Beixian came back. He was holding two cups of milk tea and desserts, one was the Yangzhi Ganlu that Su Huan loved to drink, and the other was the Yunding Strawberry Milkshake that Gu Nanyin liked. Gu Beixian inserted the straw into the milk tea and handed it to Su Huan, 'Bought from your favorite store.' Su Huan reached out to take it, smelling a faint sweet fragrance from his suit sleeve. It was the perfume that Chu Suosuo often used. Her gaze casually swept across and noticed a fingernail-sized red stain on his shirt collar, a water-like cherry red. The last time she saw Chu Suosuo, she was wearing lipstick of this color. Su Huan felt as if she had been bitten by a cat, her heart skipping several beats from the pain. It wasn't the first time she had experienced this, but it was still so painful, like being tormented in hell. Su Huan gripped the cup tightly, self-mockingly smiling and said, 'Thank you for your trouble, going to buy us milk tea despite being so busy.' Gu Beixian casually said, 'I had the driver buy it.' Gu Nanyin took the milk tea from his hand, giving him a glare and said, 'Brother, keep it up and you'll lose your wife. A woman as good as your sister-in-law, one in ten thousand, once lost, it'll be hard to find another.' Gu Beixian's gaze fell on Su Huan, seeing her slowly sipping the milk tea with her long eyelashes drooping, showing no particular expression. He said nonchalantly, 'Adult matters, kids shouldn't meddle with.'

Gu Nanyin looked displeased, as if she were dealing with recalcitrant iron, 'I'm thinking of your best interests. If you don't listen to me, you'll regret it later, hmph!' Ten days later, at noon. Gu Beixian finished inspecting a subsidiary company and hurried back to the hospital. The two bodyguards stationed at the entrance were gone, which slightly displeased Gu Beixian. He pushed open the door to the ward and saw a stranger lying in the hospital bed. Gu Beixian was shocked and quickly asked the nurse who came over, 'Where is the patient who was staying here, named Su Huan?' The nurse thought for a moment and said, 'She was discharged this morning, early.' Gu Beixian's face darkened. They had agreed that he would come to pick her up after his inspection, but she had left without even saying goodbye. He took out his phone and dialed Su Huan's number. A mechanical female voice came from the phone: 'The user you dialed has turned off their phone.' He opened WeChat to send a message to Su Huan, but the message couldn't be sent. She had blocked him.