---

Chapter 06: As Long As I Can Be With You…

“…Father?”

Que Wanshu didn’t react at first and blankly repeated the word.

“I’m not.” Before her voice even faded, Wei Xun immediately responded. He seemed to be speaking to Specialist Lin, but his eyes were fixed on Que Wanshu. “I’m his uncle.”

U-Uncle?

Now Specialist Lin was stunned too. After a few seconds of pause, she hastily tried to confirm, asking somewhat nervously, “Aren’t you Wei Qian’s father?”

“No. His father had something urgent come up and asked me to come instead,” Wei Xun explained. “I remember I informed the reception area before I arrived.”

His face remained expressionless as he spoke, and his tone was flat, giving away no emotions. This made Specialist Lin even more anxious.

With an apologetic expression, she said shamefully, “I’m terribly sorry, I should have confirmed things more carefully beforehand…”

Wei Xun didn’t reply.

The atmosphere grew a little tense. Seeing this, Que Wanshu stepped forward. She also had a copy of Wei Qian’s file in hand. Holding it, she said to Wei Xun, “Hello, I’m the therapist responsible for Wei Qian’s auditory rehabilitation training. My surname is Que. As per hospital regulations, we must verify the patient’s identity before beginning therapy. May I ask the child’s full name?”

Wei Xun glanced at her and calmly answered, “Wei Qian.”

“His date of birth?”

“February 16, 2023.”

“Parents’ names?”

“Mother: Wei Jin. Father: Xie Huaiyu.”

Que Wanshu asked a series of basic questions, and Wei Xun answered each one. Once Wei Qian’s identity was confirmed, she gave Specialist Lin a subtle look and then smiled slightly at Wei Xun. “Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Wei. Please, come in.”

Specialist Lin gave her a grateful smile, while Wei Xun simply tugged at the corner of his lips and pushed the stroller holding Wei Qian, who was curiously looking around, inside.

Beyond the door of the auditory center was a corridor. On the left were the duty office, hearing test room, and vestibular function assessment room. On the right were four speech therapy rooms of varying sizes.

Only three people were in the corridor: Que Wanshu, Wei Xun, and the child. The therapy room they were heading to was the third one. Que Wanshu walked silently ahead and led them to the door. Just as she was about to open it, she heard Wei Xun speak:

“The therapist lady is really enthusiastic about helping others.”

He emphasized the words “enthusiastic about helping,” and his tone was thick with sarcasm.

“…”

Que Wanshu didn’t respond to that. She opened the door and stepped aside, allowing him to enter first.

The room was designed specifically for children. It was spacious and well-lit, with wooden floors. All four walls were lined with low cabinets filled with various toys and picture books, suitable for children of different ages.

“This way, please.” Que Wanshu led them to a curved table on the left side of the room and gestured for Wei Xun to place Wei Qian in the child’s chair at the table.

There were two adult chairs beside the child’s chair—she took the left one, leaving the right for Wei Xun.

Truthfully, she hadn’t expected Wei Xun to be the one showing up today.

From the beginning, when she first saw Wei Qian’s medical file, she knew he was the son of Wei Jin—Wei Xun’s sister. The file clearly listed the patient’s family information since Wei Qian was a minor.

In conversations with Director Wu and Teacher Zhang about Wei Qian’s condition, they had casually mentioned that he was the young grandson of the Zeyue Group. So she had already anticipated that she might see someone familiar during the session.

But she never expected the “familiar face” to be Wei Xun. She had assumed the people bringing the child would be Wei Jin and Xie Huaiyu, or perhaps Wei Xun’s parents.

Now, sitting in the same therapy room with him—even with a child between them—Que Wanshu could feel her breathing tighten. Her palms were starting to sweat, though her fingertips felt cold.

She tried to steady her breath and treat him like the family member of a regular patient. “Mr. Wei, hello. I’m the therapist in charge of Wei Qian’s auditory rehabilitation. My name is Que Wanshu…”

“You don’t have to go through that kind of opening speech,” Wei Xun abruptly interrupted. His eyes were downcast as he lightly tapped the table with his long fingers, sounding impatient. “Are we meeting for the first time?”

As he finished speaking, he happened to lift his gaze and locked eyes with her. His expression was calm, but Que Wanshu felt as if something had pricked her, and she instinctively looked away.

She felt a bit frustrated.

Indeed, given their history, polite formalities were unnecessary.

So after a brief silence, she spoke calmly: “Since this is the first session, today’s class will primarily focus on evaluating Wei Qian’s hearing abilities. Before we begin, I’ll ask some questions about his background, including medical and family history, his hearing status before and after cochlear implant surgery, and any observed speech development in daily life. Then, I’ll conduct some activities to assess his auditory development and performance. At the end of the session, we’ll discuss his current condition and provide guidance on therapy and hygiene education.”

“If you have any questions about what I just mentioned, feel free to ask.”

“I have no objections to the course content,” Wei Xun said. “But I do have a few questions for Teacher Que.” As he said her name, there was a subtle, fleeting smirk on his face—one that disappeared almost immediately.

“Go ahead,” she replied.

“First,” he said, “my sister and her husband are very concerned about Wei Qian’s condition. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it today because of other pressing matters. However, they care deeply about the course and his progress.” Wei Xun picked up his phone. “So I’ll be recording this entire session. I hope that’s okay, Teacher Que?”

Seeing the recording interface on his phone, Que Wanshu hesitated for a second. It wasn’t unusual—many parents had asked to record therapy sessions before. She’d encountered this before, so she simply responded, “That’s fine.”

Wei Xun nodded and immediately pressed the record button, placing the phone on the table. Then he looked at her and calmly continued:

“Second, to be honest, our original choice for therapist was Teacher Zhang Shulan. She’s highly experienced, with nearly twenty years in pediatric auditory and speech therapy and is recognized as a national expert in the field.”

“But she recommended you instead. Even Director Wu Shian, Wei Qian’s lead surgeon, spoke very highly of you. That’s why we switched to you.” Suddenly, his tone changed, and his eyes turned sharp, as if trying to see straight into her soul. “However, Teacher Que, you’re still relatively new. Young. Compared to someone like Teacher Zhang Shulan, who’s been in this field for two decades, it’s difficult to place complete trust in you.”

Hearing this, Que Wanshu pressed her lips together and nodded. “…I understand.”

Wei Xun stared at her, catching every subtle shift in her expression. “So, please allow me to ask you a few questions about your background—to help build trust.”

He didn’t ask for permission in question form. It was clear he didn’t intend to take no for an answer.

Que Wanshu could only respond, “Go ahead.”

Wei Xun’s first question:
“Teacher Que, which university did you graduate from? What was your major during college?”

---

This question was surprisingly normal. Que Wanshu only paused for a moment before replying, “I graduated from Yian Medical University, majoring in Audiology and Speech Rehabilitation.”

“It’s a good school,” Wei Xun commented, then asked, “Did you only move to Yian City when you started university?”

As his voice fell, a brief silence descended on the surroundings.

Que Wanshu took a deep breath and replied, “No, I moved to Yian City after graduating from high school. I repeated a year at Yian No. 3 High School before getting admitted to Yian Medical University the following year.”

“I see.” Wei Xun tugged at the corner of his mouth and continued asking, “Why did you repeat a year?”

“……”

Que Wanshu fell silent again.

Why did she repeat a year?

Didn’t he already know the answer to that?

She looked up at the person in front of her. At this moment, the two of them were slightly turned toward each other, and their gazes collided midair. She saw that Wei Xun was staring at her intently, as if trying to dissect her with his eyes and see straight through her.

Just then, Que Wanshu suddenly smiled, but that smile made Wei Xun feel especially stung.

She said, “I had originally planned to study abroad, so I didn’t take the national college entrance exam. But just before I was about to leave, my family suddenly went bankrupt. I couldn’t afford the expenses for studying abroad, so I stayed in China and repeated a year.”

“……”

Wei Xun didn’t respond immediately. He lowered his eyes, lost in thought, and after a while finally said, “After that, you stayed in Yian the whole time?”

Que Wanshu shook her head and softly said, “After graduating from university, I went to Australia for two years.”

Wei Xun suddenly let out a sarcastic laugh. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t afford to study abroad? How come you suddenly had money after graduating?”

“I received a scholarship, and I saved up some money through part-time work while I was in college,” Que Wanshu explained. “Also, my aunt helped cover my tuition and part of my living expenses.”

At the last part of her sentence, a crack appeared in Wei Xun’s expression. He pressed his lips together, trying not to lose control, but his tone was still full of malicious accusation, as if he were interrogating a criminal: “So, it’s not that Miss Que couldn’t accept help from others after all.”

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere dropped to freezing point.

Que Wanshu suddenly felt disoriented for a second. Looking into Wei Xun’s eyes, full of restrained anger and mocking sarcasm, deeply buried memories surged like waves from the depths of her mind—pulling her back to that rainy night.

After high school graduation, she had originally planned to study abroad with Wei Xun.

They had both been accepted to schools: she to the School of Visual Arts in New York for illustration, and he to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Although the schools weren’t in the same city, both were on the East Coast, and New York was less than two hours by car from Philadelphia. If they wanted to, they could see each other every week.

They had even talked about buying a place between the two cities, living together—going to school in the morning, returning home at night, shopping at supermarkets and malls during their free time, traveling to nearby cities during holidays, hanging out with friends, or simply staying in and spending the whole day together.

They had even imagined getting married after graduation and spending the rest of their lives together.

But all those dreams were shattered the moment her family ran into trouble.

Even after so many years, Que Wanshu still found those dark days unbearable to recall, like a nightmare.

Who would’ve thought the once-glorious Que family, owners of Changyuan Shipping, would suddenly collapse like a crumbling tower? One after another came the announcements: Changyuan Shipping declared bankruptcy, all assets were seized by creditors, and her father was detained by the prosecution for embezzling company funds, illegal investments, and money laundering.

Then came the news that her mother, upon hearing the bad news, had a dormant brain tumor—left from a past car accident—rupture, causing intracranial hemorrhage. The damage affected the Broca’s area, which controls language, leaving her mother with aphasia.

With both parents in crisis and herself barely an adult, Que Wanshu didn’t even have time to grieve. She had to stay strong—selling off all family assets to cover debts with the help of a lawyer, attending her father’s trial, and taking her mother from place to place seeking treatment.

Eventually, based on a doctor’s suggestion, she took her mentally unstable mother and left Zicheng, the city she had lived in all her life, and returned to her hometown of Yian City, where her aunt’s family lived.

After the Que family’s downfall, she had a fight with Wei Xun.

It was about their future plans. Wei Xun wanted her to stick to the original plan and go abroad with him. He offered to cover all her expenses, even her mother’s medical bills.

He said he could bring her mother to the U.S. too, and would find a suitable medical institution to treat her aphasia. He insisted they could still live together, go to school together, come home together, and get married after graduation—spending the rest of their lives as planned.

But Que Wanshu refused.

She had no intention of going abroad anymore. First, because treating her mother’s aphasia was better done in a native-language environment. Second, even though her father was in prison, she couldn’t abandon him. And third, her pride wouldn’t allow her to become a caged bird relying entirely on Wei Xun.

They couldn’t reach a consensus about going abroad. Eventually, Wei Xun gave in, but his compromise was this: he would give up the prestigious school he had gotten into and stay in China to repeat a year with her.

“As long as I can be with you, I’m willing to do anything.”

Eighteen-year-old Wei Xun had bright, passionate eyes. Raised in luxury and pampered by everyone around him, he never had to care about others’ opinions. He did what he wanted, when he wanted—living freely, uninhibited.

Que Wanshu didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. She hoped he could always be that way—free and adored. She was happy to tolerate all of him—his temper, his impulsiveness, and that overwhelming love of his that could practically burn.

But this—this one thing—she couldn’t agree to.

Not only could she not agree, his family would never allow it either.

So after his mother came to see her, she took the initiative to break up with him.

On a rainy night, she ended it with a single text message. Then she and her mother boarded a car leaving Zicheng—and disappeared from his world ever since.

---