Chapter 67: His Dignity Collapsed After So Long
Translator: Claire.KK
Ziyu had sat in hospital overnight and Zhishu He was still in sleep. During his sleep, it seemed the doctor was about to make some sort of conclusive declaration through his prevarication.

Ziyu Ai didn’t listen. “Sorry, I am also a doctor.” Both of them knew what he meant. He didn’t need the truth, all he wanted to hear was good news. He wasn’t deceiving himself; he simply wanted to ease his pain.

Ziyu Ai entered the ward to check Zhishu up a few times but he didn’t dare to touch him. Nor he sentimentally poured his feelings out. He just wanted to look at this man’s face, wondering why he was so pale and how much pain a man’s heart could take. Is this world so cruel that it must torture this fine man for fun?

5 a.m., Ziyu Ai was in light sleep alone on the hospital hallway bench. His cellphone’s constant buzzes suddenly woke him up.

It was a strange number.

“Hello, who is it?” His voice was hoarse.

“It’s me, Wenxu Jiang,” There came a deep and sedate voice with a touch of unusual humbleness, “Please don’t hang up.”

Ziyu Ai sneered, “Out already? President Jiang.”

Wenxu Jiang coughed before he caught his breath. “I’m calling to beg you.” His voice sounded weak.

This was the word Wenxu Jiang rarely said throughout his life. He was a proud man, he grew up with that arrogance. Even when toasting important figures on tables at his humblest moment, he still kept up his appearances. He said the word though, to Zhishu, like a compromise that meant to spoil him, not forced at not.

An unyielding man’s begging is even more surprising.

“You give him back to me, you can have whatever you want. Your brother has been craving for Tianqi Market for a long time, I can give up my shares if there’s too much trouble,” He paused and coughed again, “I have got the best expert and equipment in Beijing ready for him, better than what he’s got in Hangzhou anyway…”

“Do you think I need your money?” Ziyu Ai interrupted him rudely, eyes all red, “Do you think I can’t give him the best medical resources?”

“When you were sick of him, you didn’t give a fuck about him, leaving him to perish by himself. Now you suddenly want him back again? Do you think you are the center of the world?” Ziyu Ai chuckled.

After the long silence on the other side of the phone, a surprisingly aged sorrowful voice came to his ear, “I love him, I can’t live without him…” Maintaining his dignity in the conversation with his lover rival didn’t matter anymore to Wenxu Jiang, “I know I screwed up.”

Looking at the cold, snow-white wall in the hospital suffused the strong smell of disinfectant, Ziyu Ai felt more and more despair. “You screwed up. You are now making amends. You’ve figured out your true love. And then what? Will he go with you or will he get better? Do you honestly think you are a big-timer of Beijing? If you were earnest and telling me that you had found the marrows that match Zhishu’s, I would immediately drive 14 hours to send him to Beijing. But you can’t.”

Ziyu suddenly lowered his voice and started to choke. “You can’t… And I can’t either,” He said, “I traded my dignity for the marrows, but Zhiqi Li’s son took them away effortlessly because he is the son of the mayor. I’d rather you were more powerful so that you could also rob some marrows!”

Wenxu Jiang didn’t even realize Ziyu hung up the phone. For a moment, he thought he was a fish, the fish tank crashed so there he waited to be dried. His brain was so in need of oxygen that it was now in chaos. He didn’t have a clue.

He always remembered that day he came home in a weirdly good mood, which was the same day he hit Zhishu the hardest. More flashbacks, what was he fucking happy about that day? Right, the mayor’s son’s lover had the chance to survive, the mayor’s son helped him nail the bids.

That was it.

This kind of coincidence is funny and pathetic at the same time.

Wenxu Jiang collapsed on the sofa as if all of his strength was drained up; his chest went up and down hard. The cramps surged yet Wenxu didn’t reach to his pills. He let himself tremble in agony, let his eyes blur.

He was always happy about the wrong things, enthusiastic about the wrong things, and gave the wrong things cold shoulder.

Ziyu Ai hung up. He felt waves and waves of headaches. He had kept up for two days, Wenxu Jiang’s call just made him more tired. He didn’t just rip off Wenxu Jiang’s scab, he deepened the cut on his own heart.

He took a look at his watch, it was half past five. He decided to make the call now in case of the inconvenience when Zhishu’s awake.

“What?” A fuzzy and light snort. Ziyu Ai had interrupted a heavy sleep.

“Brother, it’s me…” Ziyu Ai thought he’d better give his brother a call since Wenxu Jiang would surely contact his brother after getting a refusal from him.

“Yu?” Ziqian Ai kept a low voice. It loudened more than ten seconds later; probably he was out of his bedroom, “I got two phone calls in such an early morning. Your in-law is a light sleeper. She was disturbed twice.”

“Sorry, brother… I just want you to do me this favor. If Wenxu Jiang calls you…”

“Oh, yeah, my wife’s pregnant.” Ziqian Ai cut him off, “We went to the hospital two days ago. A boy and a girl. Dad and mom are super happy so they are so easy on me now. They stop pushing me to make money for you to have a baby.”

Ziyu Ai immediately understood what he meant. He felt warm inside. “Brother, thanks…” He reckoned his brother had got Wenxu Jiang’s call before he called him but he kept his mouth shut about that part.

“Yu, just be good. Our family’s got me. I have quite a few regrets, I just wish you to be happy,” Ziqian Ai said to him gently, “Just remember, I’m always there for you. You are always the most important person to me.”

Ziyu Ai hung up the phone and rubbed his bloodshot eyes hard. The call was heartwarming. He thought, ‘Good, finally I could be at ease. Zhishu and I could probably enjoy a rather long peaceful time.’