The hospital where Yan Yan was going to have the abortion was quite far from where I was. While waiting for the green light on the way, I called Jian Wei again, asking her to stop Yan Yan. However, she gave me a desperate reply. At that moment, she was also on her way to the hospital. After discovering Yan Yan missing, she had begun contacting her friends at the health bureau, making calls to hospitals one by one, and finally learned that Yan Yan was at the Maternal and Child Health Hospital awaiting an abortion surgery. Perhaps Yan Yan had already entered the operating room by now…
I felt deeply oppressed… Would a life just disappear like this?
When the green light came on, I didn’t move until the cars behind me started honking in unison. I snapped back to reality, stepped on the gas, and followed the car ahead toward the next intersection… Yet my heart had already sunk. I realized there was a place that had stood strong for a long time but eventually succumbed to the torrent of time. Everything begins with a choice and ends with a choice—nothing more than that.
After parking the car in the hospital parking lot, I rushed directly to the third floor operating room. As I stepped out of the elevator, the first thing I saw was Jian Wei leaning against the wall with a serious expression. My footsteps also became heavy. I caught my breath and approached her, not daring to ask in words, only sending her a questioning look.
Jian Wei shook her head. After a long pause, she replied solemnly, “It’s too late. When I arrived, she had already entered the operating room… The baby couldn’t be saved! This is the karmic retribution for Fang Yuan… I just didn’t expect it to come so quickly. The one who suffered the most is Yan Yan, and that unborn life… Zhao Yang, Fang Yuan will have more retribution, right? Otherwise, it’s just too unfair from heaven!”
“…I don’t know!”
“Of course you don’t need to know. For you, everything in Suzhou has come to an end. Xuzhou is your new beginning… You don’t need to remember the love or hatred, grudges or resentments here anymore…”
Her words unconsciously reminded me of the nearly ten years I had spent in Suzhou since university… When these ten years became the past and were left behind, everything should have come to a close. I never doubted that my ending in Suzhou was right here. Today, when Yan Yan was wheeled out of the operating room, the couple who once treated their campus romance as a lifelong endeavor had also reached their end. Countless years of devotion shattered in this very moment!
Actually, from the first day we arrived in Suzhou, we had already begun to change, becoming birds with ulterior motives, flying through the city’s steel and concrete, passing by countless windows, placing our souls on panes of glass, looking back as desires turned into secrets we couldn’t reveal, while our bodies dragged by wings deviated further—deviating from this city, deviating from our beliefs…
Thus, I obtained something called returning to one’s roots… Therefore, I was destined to leave the most thoroughly among this group of people, while those who remained were still entangled in life and death, unable to escape!
In the midst of Jian Wei’s hatred, I thought a lot but said nothing. So she leaned against the wall, tears dropping one by one… Using tears to mourn the years we had all shared!
The operating room door opened, and Yan Yan was wheeled out on a mobile bed and sent into the recovery room. She hadn’t yet regained consciousness. I looked at the pale, lifeless expression on her face, unable to accept the reality that the child was already gone. How surreal this all felt!… A few weeks ago, Mi Cai and I had still bought many toys and clothes for this child as their uncle and aunt…
Jian Wei and I walked into the recovery room one after another. Yan Yan was gradually regaining consciousness. The first thing she did upon waking was to cry. For her, this was a pain deeper than flesh… I really wanted to ask her what had prompted her to choose the abortion… Jian Wei shook her head at me, signaling not to upset her emotions. She gently placed her hand on Yan Yan’s forehead and softly said, “Don’t think too much… Rest for a while more!”
Yan Yan closed her eyes, seemingly calmer, but her tears flowed even more intensely… Her life had undergone a qualitative change right here, heading completely toward an unknown direction. The next step would be her divorce from Fang Yuan, followed by the division of their marital assets. When the emotional bond ends, all that remains is material settlement!
Hasty footsteps approached from afar. In an instant, Fang Yuan appeared at the entrance of the recovery room. Looking at the frail Yan Yan lying on the bed, he staggered… The bank card he held in his hand trembled along with his hand.
His facial muscles trembled. After several attempts, he still couldn’t bring himself to speak. A deep, anguished whimper came from his throat… Finally, he walked to Yan Yan’s bedside, lifting his trembling hand. Looking at the bank card in his hand, then at Yan Yan, he painfully said, “There’s 20 million in this card… I’ve prepared this money. Why wouldn’t you wait just a little longer?… Why?”
Jian Wei sharply replied, “Fang Yuan, shut up… You have no right to question Yan Yan, and you must never mention the word ‘wait’ to her again… You don’t deserve her waiting!”
Fang Yuan looked at Jian Wei, filled with hatred, roaring, “You evil woman! It must have been you who encouraged her to do this… You’re just trying to get back at me, right?… I’ll strangle you to death!”
Fang Yuan’s eyes turned blood-red. From his throat came painful whimpers. Losing control, he stretched his evil hands toward Jian Wei. I rushed forward in one step, standing between him and Jian Wei. While blocking his hands, I threw him to the ground beside Yan Yan’s bed. Kneeling on his chest, I grabbed his neck and roared, “If you dare touch a single hair on her head, I’ll kill you!!”
Yan Yan used all her strength to sit up from the bed, gasping for breath as she said, “You all stop… It was my choice to terminate the pregnancy. It has nothing to do with anyone!… Zhao Yang, I beg you, let him go. I have something… to say to him!”
The commotion in the recovery room had already drawn the attention of the staff. They stood at the door watching. Apologetically, Jian Wei said to them, “It’s just a small dispute… Sorry for disturbing everyone!” As she spoke, she pulled me up from on top of Fang Yuan.
Seeing that we had calmed down, the staff gave us a warning before leaving again. Yan Yan sobbed for a long time before finally speaking to Fang Yuan again, “Fang Yuan, I terminated our child because I no longer see any hope in you… Nothing is sadder than a dead heart. Since my heart is already dead, I no longer have the strength to bring this child into the world. It’s not that I didn’t give you chances, and I could even forgive your infidelity, but you didn’t cherish it. You squandered our many years of love so easily… I don’t want any money from any of you because I’ve always been a proud woman. It’s just that you’ve never truly acknowledged my pride. I’ve always existed beside you like an accessory… Now that the child is gone, neither of us has any burdens left. We can each live our own lives… Prepare the divorce agreement. I only want the house we currently live in… Everything else doesn’t matter to me!”
Fang Yuan lowered his head and closed his eyes. Gently, he placed the tightly gripped bank card on Yan Yan’s bedside table. Opening his eyes, his emotions seemed to calm in an instant. He said, “The password is our wedding anniversary… I’ll have the divorce agreement delivered to you within three days. Take good care of yourself!”
After saying this, his face showed no pain, only a cold expression. He adjusted his tie back to its proper position, left without another word, and walked out of the recovery room with the steps of a superior…
He was a sinner, yet I still saw a deep, hidden pain in his retreating figure—a pain called ultimate emptiness…
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