Chapter 23

Song Guanshu was ruthless enough that even if her whole family died right in front of him, he wouldn’t so much as bat an eyelid. It was just that this woman was here crying and complaining, and if word got out, it would affect his and Jiang Ling’s reputation.

While Jiang Ling was still confronting Li Jun, Song Guanshu had already silently put on his coat.

Since she had said she would help him handle it, Jiang Ling would absolutely keep her word.

She had just seen Xie Lang off and hadn’t even had time to change into her pajamas when she ran into Li Jun knocking on the door.

When the door was finally opened, and Li Jun saw that Jiang Ling was going to the hospital as well, the smile on her face froze.

Jiang Ling was a difficult one to deal with. With her going to the hospital too, Li Jun couldn’t even imagine what might happen.

Jiang Ling, acting overly familiar, apologized to her, “Sorry about earlier, the two of us really weren’t in a convenient situation. Is the child okay?”

As she spoke, she gave a shy smile and shot her a knowing look.

Silently cursing vixen in her heart, Li Jun quickly adjusted the expression on her face. “Leilei has a very high fever. I’ll have to trouble Xiao Song to come with me and take him to the hospital.”

Liu Lei was cradled in Li Jun’s arms. When she saw Song Guanshu come out, she immediately tried to pass the child over to him.

Song Guanshu strongly disliked physical contact with others and had an aversion to filth.

Liu Lei was not a clean child. He ran wild everywhere during the day and was always covered in dirt.

Before she could shove the child into Song Guanshu’s arms, Jiang Ling grabbed Song Guanshu’s hand, opened the front door, and began pounding on the back door of Section Chief Liu’s home in the front courtyard.

The lights at Section Chief Liu’s home had been turned off early, and they were already asleep. When Han Ruixue heard the knocking, she didn’t want to get out of bed. She kicked Section Chief Liu and said, “Go answer the door.”

Section Chief Liu got off the kang bed with a coat draped over him but didn’t turn on the light, worried it would disturb Han Ruixue.

The knocking continued. Even a deaf person would have been woken by it, let alone someone in the same house. Han Ruixue could no longer sleep. She grumbled angrily, “Who is it, making such a racket in the middle of the night and disturbing other people’s sleep?”

Section Chief Liu opened the back door and was momentarily stunned to see the two people standing there. “Xiao Song? What’s going on?”

For someone to come knocking so late at night, it had to be something urgent.

With a look of urgency on her face, Jiang Ling said, “Section Chief Liu, something serious has happened. Liu Lei has a high fever that won’t go down. Sister Li Jun asked us to call you so you can take him to the hospital.”

As soon as Section Chief Liu heard that Liu Lei had a fever, he became extremely anxious. “Tell her I’ll be right there.”

He immediately went back inside to change clothes and get money.

Han Ruixue was young and had good hearing. She overheard the conversation between the two outside. Before Section Chief Liu returned to the room, she quickly hid the metal box that held their money, then lay back under the covers and pretended to be asleep.

When Section Chief Liu came back in and didn’t see the money, he immediately realized it was Han Ruixue on the kang bed who had hidden it.

On the other end, his biological son was still burning with fever and urgently needed to be taken to the hospital. He didn’t argue with Han Ruixue. Instead, he silently took out the stash of private money he had hidden away.

His mother, Granny Liu, had said something that made sense. A man shouldn’t tell the woman at home everything. He should always keep some private money for emergencies.

By the time Li Jun realized what Jiang Ling was trying to do, it was already too late. She couldn’t stop her—Jiang Ling was already knocking on the door.

In truth, when her child had a fever, what Li Jun really wanted was to ask her ex-husband, Section Chief Liu, to go with her and take the child to the hospital.

That way, the three of them—as a family of three—could bond again, and at the same time, make Han Ruixue feel uncomfortable.

Her mother-in-law, Granny Liu, stopped her and said, “He still has to work tomorrow. If he goes with you to the hospital, what if it affects his job?”

She thought her mother-in-law had a point. One should care for her own man, so she went to ask Xiao Song, who lived across the street, for help. Young people were thin-skinned and kindhearted, so he wouldn’t refuse.

She hadn’t expected to be blocked right from the start. That damn girl Jiang Ling just had to meddle and wouldn’t even open the door.

When the door finally opened, Jiang Ling went and knocked on the door of the front courtyard.

And she even had the nerve to look like she was expecting praise. “No need to thank me, we’re neighbors—this is just a small favor.”

Li Jun wore a face like her mother had died. No one wanted to thank you.

If she had wanted to ask Old Liu to take the child, could she not have knocked on the door herself? Did she really need you to do it for her?

Section Chief Liu didn’t overthink it. He threw on his coat, went out into the yard, got on his bicycle, and rode around to the street behind the house.

He reached out and felt Liu Lei’s forehead—it really was burning hot. “You hold the child and sit on the back. I’ll take you both to the hospital.”

Since they had already been disturbed, after so many years, Li Jun finally found herself once again sitting on the back seat of Section Chief Liu’s bicycle.

At that moment, in the east wing room where she had remained silent all this time, Granny Liu pushed open the window. “Xiao Song, you’re young, healthy, and full of energy. Your Brother Liu is getting on in years—he’s not what he used to be. Auntie has to trouble you to go with them and help each other out.”

Jiang Ling tugged at Song Guanshu’s sleeve and said pitifully, “Auntie, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but I’m all alone at home and I get scared. If the child’s illness turns serious and they can’t handle it, we’d be horrible people for not helping. But Liu Lei has both his parents with him—two adults are enough. Sending more people would only get in the way.”

Section Chief Liu urged Li Jun to get on the bike quickly. “Mom, stop making things more complicated. It’s not that serious. Just me and Li Jun will do. You and Tongtong stay home and lock the doors and windows. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

He gave Jiang Ling and Song Guanshu an apologetic smile. “My mom is just like that. I hope you won’t take it to heart.”

Granny Liu couldn’t bear to see her son overexert himself, but at this point, all she could say was, “Be careful on the road. If it gets too late, just stay at the hospital for the night. Qingming is almost here. The nights aren’t clean—don’t run into anything dirty.”

The day after tomorrow was Qingming. In these few nights, there were no pedestrians on the roads, for fear of encountering something unclean.

Section Chief Liu, worried that the fever might damage his son’s brain, was burning with anxiety. He pedaled the bicycle quickly and didn’t notice the figure standing beside the rear window of his house—it was his wife, Han Ruixue.

After sending the mother and son off, Jiang Ling locked the door and went back inside.

Before going to bed, she didn’t forget to remind Song Guanshu, “You’re doing the dishes tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

Li Jun and Section Chief Liu rushed to the hospital and registered for emergency care to get Liu Lei treated.

After examining him, the doctor diagnosed the fever as a result of severe shock. Fortunately, they brought him in promptly, so it wasn’t serious.

He prescribed several IV drips and instructed them to stay in the hospital for two days for observation.

With things settled for the moment, sitting by Liu Lei’s hospital bed watching the IV drip, Li Jun began to feel once again like the two of them were still husband and wife.

Section Chief Liu followed his mother’s advice and didn’t rush home in the middle of the night. After Liu Lei finished the IV drip, he spent the night making do on an empty hospital bed.

The next morning, he went straight to work at the Security Section.

He hadn’t returned home all night and had stayed with his ex-wife Li Jun, which made Han Ruixue feel uneasy.

After getting off work, Section Chief Liu went to the hospital. Seeing that Liu Lei was awake, he finally felt at ease and only then remembered there was still a wife waiting for him at home.

No matter what kind of storm he would face once he got home, he had to hurry back. The later he returned, the worse it would be for him.

However, when he told Liu Lei and Li Jun that he needed to head back first, Liu Lei clung tightly to his arm, refusing to let go. Crying and throwing a tantrum, he begged him to stay at the hospital and wouldn’t let him leave no matter what he said.

Liu Lei’s body hadn’t fully recovered, and with all the crying and fuss, he ended up vomiting.

Section Chief Liu could no longer worry about anything else. He went to borrow a mop and broom from the janitor.

Li Jun cleaned the floor and said, “He’s still sick. Just go along with what he wants. If he cries himself into worsening his condition, it could affect him for a lifetime.”

So Section Chief Liu spent yet another night in the hospital. The next day, he went to work at the factory. After getting off work, worried that Liu Lei wouldn’t let him leave again, he didn’t go to the hospital. Instead, he went straight home.

It had been two full days and nights since the night he first took Liu Lei to the hospital, and Section Chief Liu still hadn’t returned home.

There were no secrets among neighbors. That night, when Jiang Ling knocked on the door, the commotion wasn’t small—everyone knew that Section Chief Liu had gone to the hospital in the middle of the night with his ex-wife and taken Liu Lei along.

Logically speaking, as the child’s biological father, it was perfectly reasonable for him to take his son to the hospital when he was sick.

But the fact that he had gone with his ex-wife, while he still had a wife at home, raised eyebrows.

On top of that, he hadn’t returned home for two days straight. Everyone was gossiping behind his back, saying that Section Chief Liu was planning to get back together with Li Jun, and expressing sympathy for Han Ruixue.

If Section Chief Liu hadn’t taken Liu Lei to the hospital that night, the neighbors would have gossiped that he was afraid of his wife, or that Han Ruixue was cold and heartless.

Either way, these people had something to say.

Han Ruixue didn’t work, but her younger siblings were still in school and couldn’t help but overhear the gossip. When they came home, they told her everything they had heard.

Section Chief Liu had already anticipated that Han Ruixue would cause a scene once he got home. After all, he had taken Liu Lei to the hospital without even asking for his wife’s opinion.

What he hadn’t expected was that she had also heard plenty of rumors about him wanting a divorce.

So the moment he stepped through the door, he was immediately greeted with the infamous Nine Yin Skeleton Claw that his ex-wife Li Jun had once experienced.

Section Chief Liu let her vent. “I know you’re upset, but Leilei was really sick. The doctor said the fever was caused by severe shock. If it hadn’t been for yesterday…”

Han Ruixue sneered again and again. “And whose fault is that? If he hadn’t been stealing, none of this would have happened. Even if he’s got a fever now, he brought it on himself.”

“Liu Jianshe, let me tell you this—you’re already divorced from Li Jun. Your wife now is me. If you keep using the excuse of taking care of the child to keep tangling with her, then we’ll get a divorce. Do you really think I can’t live without you? Back then, there were plenty of young men who wanted to marry me. They were all bachelors. If it hadn’t been for you treating me the best, why would I have married a divorced man like you?”

No one wants to be compared to their romantic rival. Even as much of a pushover as Section Chief Liu was with his young wife, he still couldn’t bear to hear those words.

“After divorcing me, you’d just become the divorced woman you always looked down on. Do you really think those young men who once liked you would still want you now? At best, they’d just play around with you. No one’s going to actually marry you.”

When Han Qingzhu and her younger brother came home from school, they heard their older sister and brother-in-law arguing.

Although neither of them liked this brother-in-law, they didn’t want their sister to get a divorce.

Someone like Liu Jianshe—who was actually willing to support his wife’s younger brother and sister—was rare. If they let this one go, there wouldn’t be another like him.

If their big sister divorced Liu Jianshe, she didn’t have a job and would still need to rely on a man. What if the next one wasn’t willing to take care of the two of them?

The siblings exchanged a look, then rushed into the room and separated the quarreling couple. “Calm down, both of you. Some things really shouldn’t be said so lightly.”

Han Qingzhu turned to Liu Jianshe and said, “Brother-in-law, you don’t know—these past few days while you weren’t home, my sister was so worried about you she couldn’t even sleep at night.” Han Hongmei spoke up for her sister, “Brother-in-law treats you so well. You really shouldn’t take it for granted. Look around the whole staff compound—where are you going to find another man better than my brother-in-law?”

She wasn’t just trying to comfort her sister; she was also indirectly praising Section Chief Liu.

After being complimented a couple of times, Section Chief Liu’s mood improved.

Han Hongmei continued, “Brother-in-law, don’t blame my sister for getting upset. You don’t know what people have been saying out there—they’re spreading rumors that you’re going to divorce her and get back together with your ex-wife in the rear courtyard. Even I was angry when I heard it, let alone my sister who cares about you so much. It’s only natural she’d be upset.”

With the siblings’ mediation, Section Chief Liu and his wife patched things up and returned to their usual relationship.

Section Chief Liu raised three fingers and swore, “I promise I won’t have any more contact with Li Jun. This time really was a special situation. Don’t you know how much I can’t stand her? It wasn’t easy getting that divorce—why would I ever get back together with her? You’re seriously overthinking it.”

Seeing that her expression had softened, Section Chief Liu put his arm around her shoulders and said, “Tomorrow’s Qingming. We haven’t bought incense, candles, and spirit money for Mom and Dad yet, have we? I’ll go with you—we’ll get a bit more.”

As the old poem goes, “On the Qingming Festival, drizzling rain falls unbroken.” It seemed like it always rained around Qingming each year.

When Jiang Ling left the house in the morning, the sky was overcast. It hadn’t rained yet, but the air was heavy with damp moisture.

On the way to work, the two of them happened to run into Juxiang, who was just returning from outside. Jiang Ling casually asked, “Sister, what were you doing out so early?”

Juxiang lifted the things she was carrying in her hand to show her, then pointed toward the burial hill behind the staff compound. “Going up the hill in a bit.”

Jiang Ling nodded. Oh, right—today was Qingming. It was time to visit the graves of one’s ancestors.