Chapter 33
Chen Xi's grandmother had fainted in the stairwell while out buying groceries. The neighbor across the hall found her and rushed her to the hospital immediately.
Fortunately, the number one speed-dial on her senior phone was Gu Xichen's, so they were able to reach him right away.
At her age, some hardening of the cerebral blood vessels was normal. A fall could easily rupture a clot and cause a hemorrhage. The diagnosis was a head injury complicated by a chronic subdural hematoma—they needed to drill the skull and drain the blood.
Fortunately, the surgery was already scheduled for three days later.
The timing was bad—Gu Xichen was at his busiest period at work—so Lian Xia had been caring for her around the clock for the past few days.
Right now, the old woman was still unconscious in the ICU, and Lian Xia sat at the foot of the bed scrolling through her phone. She was planning the wedding and had been ordering balloons and wedding candy online, saving every penny she could.
The ward was quiet enough to hear the drip of the IV. Near dusk, the old woman suddenly began breathing rapidly, the ventilator alarm blaring.
"Grandma?" Lian Xia rushed to support her, but the woman seemed to still be in deep unconsciousness, thrashing and waving her hands, calling a name over and over.
"Xixi! Xixi!"
"Grandma, Xixi stepped out for a moment, he'll be right back."
"No, he's not!"
"He's not Xixi!"
The ward doors burst open as doctors and nurses swarmed in, leaving Lian Xia standing alone in stunned silence.
Did even the grandmother know that Gu Xichen wasn't Chen Xi?
So was her lover actually Chen Xi, or... that existence that was beyond words?
At this point, even the staunchest materialist was swept up in confusion.
Because of the sudden spike in intracranial pressure, the originally scheduled surgery had to be moved up. Gu Xichen had to take emergency leave and rush to the hospital to sign the surgical consent form.
...
...
Fortunately, the surgery went smoothly. The old woman's vital signs stabilized and she slipped back into unconsciousness.
After days of exhaustion, Gu Xichen looked drained. He even dozed off leaning against Lian Xia's shoulder.
As the girl listened to his somewhat heavy breathing, she felt her own eyelids drooping. But then his head slipped and he startled awake, calling out: "Xiaoxia!"
Lian Xia jumped and grabbed his arm: "I'm here, what's wrong?"
Gu Xichen swallowed, trying to compose himself.
"Let's go buy a wedding dress, shall we?"
"Huh?"
That was quite the leap in logic.
She twitched her lips: "But your grandmother is still lying in there."
Gu Xichen nodded: "I know. I just suddenly want to see what you'd look like in one."
The truth was, there was plenty of hardship but not much that was unbearable. After all, the old woman wasn't his own grandmother—he was only fulfilling a moral obligation by using Chen Xi's body.
When days were too hard and too grueling, creating a little sweetness oneself became essential.
"Okay."
So the two slipped out of the hospital quietly.
It was nearly midnight now. Even in downtown Shanghai, 24-hour bridal shops were rare. They stood on the cold, windy street trying to hail a cab, both feeling a little absurd and inexplicably happy.
They finally found an open shop. The two staff members on the night shift looked a bit drowsy, but that didn't dampen their enthusiasm for trying things on.
Lian Xia rejected several dresses in a row. Gu Xichen suspected it was because she'd been peeking at the price tags, so he told the staff to recommend based on her figure. Once she put one on, she couldn't bear to take it off.
She wasn't especially tall, but not short either. The off-shoulder mermaid-cut gown elongated her legs and played up her proportions—like a slim-waisted mermaid, radiant and gleaming.
The fitting curtain opened. Gu Xichen froze.
The girl looked a bit shy but hopeful as she asked if he liked it. He, however, was suddenly reminded of Duras's declaration on love.
"Love, to me, is not the meeting of skins, not a meal and a vegetable. It is a deathless desire, a heroic dream in an exhausted life."
Sometimes he didn't want to be a hero, but for love he charged forward again and again.
Now, with a thousand words flooding his heart like an ocean, all condensed into one inadequate confession.
"........You're truly beautiful."
Chapter 34
A million-yuan wedding might have been an impulsive promise, but a ten-thousand-yuan wedding dress was certainly doable.
On the roadside, Gu Xichen carried the shopping bag in one hand and held the hand of Lian Xia, who kept complaining the dress was too expensive even as her smile stretched to the sky.
It was morning now, broad daylight. Traffic was picking up. The two stood at the intersection waiting for an endlessly long red light, planning to grab a scallion pancake across the street.
And then it happened.
Without warning, a silver-gray car burst from the orderly flow of traffic. For no apparent reason, it veered onto the sidewalk at over a hundred kilometers per hour, hurtling straight toward the pedestrians.
The scene was more devastating than any movie special effect they'd ever witnessed.
The two of them happened to be standing right in the car's path. They watched helplessly as the vehicle rolled two or three times, smashing other cars along the way—completely frozen in shock!
It was a multi-car collision!
"Xiaoxia!"
Seeing the oncoming car still had momentum, Gu Xichen shoved Lian Xia aside the moment he came to his senses. He himself was clipped by the tumbling hood and thrown several meters.
"Xichen!"
Lian Xia scrambled over to check his injuries, only to find him lying face-down in the dust, motionless.
"Xichen! Xichen!"
She didn't dare shake him hard, wiping tears and snot as she dialed 120. But before the call went through, the man picked himself up off the ground, looking thoroughly confused.
"Huh? You're not hurt?"
"I'm fine."
His answer was brief. He flexed his arms and legs—nothing seemed wrong. Just then, the emergency line connected.
Lian Xia had them transfer to the nearest hospital and reported the multi-vehicle collision. The driver's condition was unknown.
Strangely, the background noise on the other end included a rapid beeping—like the cardiac monitor of a patient being resuscitated.
After hanging up, driven by some morbid curiosity, Lian Xia crept over to check on the driver.
The front of the car was completely caved in, the cabin crushed and deformed. The airbag on the driver's side had inflated to envelop the entire upper body, making it impossible to see the extent of the injuries.
From the clothing, it appeared to be a young man. A jade-green watch hung limply from his wrist—if she knew luxury brands, she'd have recognized it as the most sought-after Rolex Submariner.
After calling 120, Lian Xia insisted on taking Gu Xichen to the hospital for an examination. She also needed to get back to continue watching over the grandmother, so they took a cab directly.
At the hospital, Lian Xia registered him for a surgical checkup. Strangely, after being thrown nearly ten meters by the car, the man didn't have a single scratch on him—almost supernatural.
Gu Xichen declined her request for a brain CT, instead going back to the ward and throwing himself over the grandmother's bed, weeping.
"Grandma, Grandma!"
Lian Xia was stunned.
She hadn't expected a grown man to start crying just like that!
"Grandma will be okay. The surgery was successful..."
"I didn't ask you!"
Lian Xia: ????
The man before her was rapidly becoming a stranger. Even as he cried his heart out, her heart didn't stir—only a growing sense of absurd wrongness.
So she stayed silent, until darkness fell again.
Between them, they'd been awake for nearly forty-eight hours. They handed all nighttime care to the hired nurse and caught a cab home to sleep.
Lian Xia didn't say a word the whole way. Meanwhile, the man was trying to make conversation, pointedly mentioning that their newly bought wedding dress had been too expensive, and that renting would've been a fifth of the price.
Back home, he even whined to her: "I'm hungry. Make me some noodles."
"Okay."
Lian Xia agreed meekly.
But when she came out of the kitchen, she was holding a sharp knife!
She pointed it at him with an unprecedented ferocity!
"You're not him. Who are you?!"
Chapter 35
Their new apartment was on a high floor. The windows were open, and cold wind howled through.
The girl's nose was red from the cold, her whole body trembling, but she kept the knife pointed at him.
Chen Xi was panicked at first, but that emotion quickly cooled. Instead, a ingratiating smile appeared on his lips: "Look, we're already married, and we've bought the wedding dress. You pulling this on me is basically spousal assault..."
Lian Xia cut him off: "The person I love is Gu Xichen, not you!"
Chen Xi curled his lip and dropped onto the sofa: "You call that thing a person?!"