Chapter 1: Secretly Giving Birth
During the seven years of her marriage, Wen Shu secretly gave birth to a child.
The girl was five years old now.
Her husband was entirely in the dark.
She had never given Sheng Zhengzhou the chance to be a father.
Taking a break during her night shift, Wen Shu listened to the sweet, soft voice note sent by her daughter, whom she had tucked away in a neighboring province:
“Mommy, why haven’t I ever seen Daddy? Is he dead?”
Wen Shu gave it some genuine thought.
Not dead.
Close enough, though.
Little Huo Lingyi had recently begun developing thoughts of her own, and a tiny worry had started taking root in her small head.
Namely, she had never laid eyes on her biological father.
Curiosity was sprouting with each passing day.
It had even gotten to the point where Wen Shu was seriously pondering whether she should just come clean to Sheng Zhengzhou. Should she tell him they actually shared a five-year-old childthat he could skip the agonizing infant years and become an instant father, pain-free?
Exiting the chat with little Huo Lingyi, Wen Shu counted the days.
Between her and Sheng Zhengzhou, it seemed only three months remained...
Weighing her words, Wen Shu began typing a line into the WeChat dialogue box with her husband, a thread with barely any chat history to speak of:
If we had a child, would you...
Before she could hit send, the door was shoved open with urgency.
A young nurse called out in a flurry of panic. “Sister Shushu, an emergency case just arrived! Suspected intense intercourse in early pregnancy, possibly causing a ruptured corpus luteum!”
Wen Shu’s phone screen went dark at once.
Rising quickly, she hurried out behind the young nurse, her brow knit tight. “Isn’t this sheer madness? You cannot have intercourse in early pregnancy! Were they really that impatient”
As the nurse pulled back the privacy curtain around the gurney, Wen Shu’s disapproving words caught in her throat.
Stunned for a couple of seconds, she blurted out the woman’s name in surprise. “Su Zhiyao?”
It was actually her husband’s... prospective sister-in-law?
Seeing Wen Shu, Su Zhiyao stiffened almost imperceptibly as well, offering no reply.
Wen Shu instinctively took in the patient’s condition.
Su Zhiyao was the fiancée of Sheng Zhengzhou’s younger cousin.
Yet that cousin had already been imprisoned five months ago over corporate embezzlement, sentenced to a year and a half.
Su Zhiyao’s belly was completely flat, showing no outward sign of pregnancy. If she were pregnant, it couldn’t be very far along.
So where did a pregnancy with such mismatched timing come from...?
Still, Wen Shu was not one to pry into others’ private lives. Snapping on a pair of medical gloves with practiced efficiency, she said, “Lie flat for now. Let me do a preliminary examination first.”
Instead, Su Zhiyao sat straight up, her face clouded with displeasure at Wen Shu’s presence. “No need. I want to transfer to another hospital.”
The young nurse cast an awkward, helpless look at Wen Shu.
“If you don’t want any medical complications, lie back down,” Wen Shu advised firmly. “I can perform a basic examination for you first.”
Su Zhiyao frowned, thoroughly disliking Wen Shu’s aloof, dignified demeanor.
Wen Shu wasted no more breath. As a doctor, she could not afford to let personal friction delay a patient’s care. Bending over, she reached out to lift the hem of the woman’s gown.
With a cold, mocking curl of her lips, Su Zhiyao swung her arm to slap the hand away.
A sharp, resounding smack cracked through the room.
It landed with considerable force.
It stung sharply.
Wen Shu glanced down; the back of her hand was already blooming red.
Before she could react, Su Zhiyao’s tone melted into honeyed softness as she called out to someone behind Wen Shu: “Zhengzhou...”
Hearing the familiar name, Wen Shu ignored the throbbing pain on the back of her hand and turned her head.
The man walked in with a steady, decisive stride, an overcoat draped over one arm. His tall, lean frame carried a cool nobility that was impossible to overlook. As he approached, his eyes shifted slightly, locking with Wen Shu’s.
It was only for a fleeting fraction of a second. Without breaking stride, he indifferently turned his gaze away.
Brushing past Wen Shu as though she were a total stranger, he stepped directly to the other side of the bed.
His voice was deep, cold, yet edged with genuine concern. “How are you feeling?”
Wen Shu genuinely had not anticipated this.
The family member rushing in to back up Su Zhiyao... was none other than the husband she had been secretly married to for seven years!
Watching Sheng Zhengzhou fix his entire focus on Su Zhiyao, a thought flitted across Wen Shu’s mind:
Had he even noticed the heavy blow Su Zhiyao had just struck across her hand?
The moment Sheng Zhengzhou offered his concern, Su Zhiyao shot a subtle, darting glance at the frozen Wen Shu.
Looking up at the man fussing over her, Su Zhiyao spoke with a delicate, spoiled affection reserved exclusively for lovers: “You know how it is. It was only because my stomach hurt that I came to the hospital.”
Those words made everything instantly clear to the surrounding medical staff.
Wasn’t she spelling out that the leading man of tonight’s “intense bedroom affair” was the very gentleman standing right here?
Sheng Zhengzhou made no denial, nor did he offer any explanation.
Watching the scene unfold, Wen Shu nearly forgot how to breathe.
She stood there, watching her husband shower such tender indulgence upon... his cousin’s fiancée.
Even though Sheng Zhengzhou rarely wore his emotions on his sleeve, women were perceptive by nature. How could she fail to notice the subtle intimacy humming between them?
Especially when the reason Su Zhiyao had ended up in the emergency room was so scandalousand her husband was an insider to it all!
A bone-chilling numbness washed over her.
All along, she had believed his cold detachment toward her was simply his nature, that he was someone incapable of loving.
Now, she understood. He simply reserved his heart for someone else.
Yet the grotesque absurdity of this situation and their respective roles made her want to laugh out loud.
Anyone with eyes could see who had shared that so-called “wild night” with Su Zhiyao.
Seeing Wen Shu remain frozen in place, Sheng Zhengzhou slowly drifted his gaze over to her.
Like a poisoned barb, it jolted Wen Shu back to her senses.
Her gloved hand, which had been raised to examine the patient, trembled almost imperceptibly.
It was as though the venom from Su Zhiyao’s slap had suffered a delayed reaction, momentarily starving her brain of oxygen.
The betrayal was glaringly obvious. Did she really need to humiliate herself further by seeking confirmation?
Noticing Sheng Zhengzhou treating Wen Shu like a complete stranger, Su Zhiyao curved her lips into a faint, triumphant smirk and took the initiative. “Zhengzhou, I want to transfer. Take me to a more authoritative hospital, please.”
“All right.” Sheng Zhengzhou agreed without a moment’s hesitation, as if he would grant whatever demand she made.
Between the two of them, there was a palpable intimacy that barred any outsider from intruding.
From the vantage point of a wife who had deeply loved this man for years, how could Wen Shu not sense it?
It was an agonizing sight, tearing at her chest stroke by stroke.
And Su Zhiyao’s jab about “a more authoritative hospital” was nothing less than a blatant insult, mocking Wen Shu for being unqualified to treat her.
Sheng Zhengzhou arranged the transfer smoothly and efficiently.
From start to finish, he never addressed a single word to Wen Shu, showing not the slightest shred of...
Shame!
Long after the pair had vanished from the examination room, Wen Shu remained rooted to the spot, struggling to pull herself from the wreckage of the moment.
The colleagues who had witnessed the entire spectacle immediately erupted into hushed, eager gossip.
“Good grief! Young people these days certainly know how to play rough.”
The young nurse sighed with envy. “Still, that guy was weak-at-the-knees handsome. Looks like he’d be an absolute beast in bed too!”
Head lowered, Wen Shu peeled off her medical gloves one finger at a time, her mind drifting elsewhere. “Is that so.”
Missing the underlying tone, the nurse remembered something and leaned in close to whisper, “By the way, Sister Shushu, haven’t you been married for years too? How come I’ve never heard you mention having kids?”
Wen Shu tossed the gloves into the medical waste bin. “My husband has erectile dysfunction. Still in treatment.”
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