Tang Nuan fainted the moment she was hauled into the cab by the driver. When she woke up, it was already midnight. The patient’s room was very quiet, and the white lights in the ceiling were blindingly bright.
She stared at the lights for a long time before suddenly raising her hands to touch her flat stomach. The heart-piercing pain had already disappeared; everything seemed suspiciously quiet.
What about my child… Tang Nuan sat up in hurry.
A nurse not far away was startled by Tang Nuan’s sudden movement. She rubbed her blurry eyes and asked in a bleary tone, “Miss, you…”
Before the nurse could finish, Tang Nuan interrupted her urgently. “Where is my child? Is the child safe?”
“Miss, don’t worry, your child is safe.” The nurse comforted her with a warm smile as she stood up from the sofa to walk toward the bed. “Your body is still very weak, and you need to rest. Certain wounds on your body are quite serious, but thankfully, there are no broken bones. The doctor suggests to stay away from drugs because it might cause irreparable damage to your child, but he did prescribe some drugs to help the baby because the injuries did cause some minor trauma to your child…”
As the nurse explained, she passed Tang Nuan some medicine. Tang Nuan wiped the cold sweat off her forehead. She accepted the medicine and washed it down with a glass of water. She passed the empty glass back to the nurse and thanked her softly.
Tang Nuan, who had been unconscious for a long time, found herself unable to go back to sleep. The nurse who was assigned to her kept nodding off in her little corner.
Tang Nuan leaned against the headboard as she stared at the night sky outside the window. Without any prompting, the scenes from that afternoon rushed into her mind, the relentless assault of Mrs. Huang and the imperviousness of the crowd to her cries of help. These would have been traumatic for any other person, but the scenes left Tang Nuan’s mind without leaving much a trace. The only image that stayed stubbornly in her mind was Song Qingchun pulling out a stack of bills to hand to the taxi driver before she left.
…
CEO Huang came to visit Tang Nuan at the hospital that Wednesday. He came carrying many things, clothes and purses from brands Tang Nuan adored as well as plenty of expensive jewelry. In fact, the moment CEO Huang stepped into the room, he started arguing with the nurse to tell her to get him the hospital manager because he wanted to change Tang Nuan into their best patient’s room.
If this was before, Tang Nuan would have been greatly touched by such actions from CEO Huang, but now, her eyes barely flickered, watching the roomful of expensive presents. When only she and CEO Huang remained in the room, she asked him, “Why didn’t you tell me that you’re married already?”
CEO Huang took her hands in his and told her many things. They were apologies and promises, like how he had sent his wife to Hong Kong so that she would not be troubled by her in the future. However, he stressed that she need to rest well so that the baby could grow healthily. He even promised that after the baby was born, he would gift her a bungalow that she had her eyes on.
In the middle of his speech, CEO Huang’s phone rang. It was probably related to work. After he hung up, he continued to feed Tang Nuan with more sweet words before kissing her on her cheek and leaving her a tall stack of cash. He promised that he would be back later before leaving in a hurry.