1. The Safest Man on Earth 1
Municipal Hospital, seventh floor, obstetrics and gynecology ward.
In the restroom, the cleaning lady vigorously knocked on a tightly closed door, “Hey, hey, are you done inside? Can you make a sound? Is anything wrong? Do you need help?"
Just then, a nurse came in and offered to help, “Auntie, let me check. If it's a patient who has fainted, we need to rescue them immediately.”
Right at this moment, the restroom door suddenly opened.
Inside the door, stood a thin and small girl at about fifteen or sixteen years old. With her small heart-shaped face and finely crafted features, she was obviously a beauty in the making. But her complexion was as yellow as wax. Although girls her age usually had plump, collagen-filled cheeks, this girl's cheeks were slightly sunken and her under-eyes had dark circles, making her look like a little African refugee. Her almond-shaped eyes appeared even larger.
When those big, dark eyes looked over, both the cleaning lady and nurse felt a sudden startle in their hearts.
“I'm sorry. I... I fell asleep by accident."
The girl lowered her eyes and walked past the two women out of the restroom.
Standing under the bright sun, looking at the familiar and tender face in the mirror, Jiang Sese painfully twisted her arm. She wanted to sob out loud, but she held back her tears, even though the rims of her eyes turned red.
It took a while for her to calm down. Seeing the current date was exactly ten years ago, a deeply engraved memory surfaced. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wrinkled medical report. The result column read: seven and a half weeks pregnant.
It was that year when Jiang Sese just came of age, she was forced to engage in a relationship with a stranger during a spring outing with her cousin's family. She was horrified and scared, with no one to confide her plight in. She suffered from insomnia, had constant nightmares, and sobbed under her covers every time she woke up. She endured this for over a month, and that's how she turned into the starved African refugee look she now bears.
It was only recently when she realized her menstrual period was abnormally late and came to the hospital on a Saturday for a check-up. She fainted in the restroom after seeing the results.
Jiang Sese clenched her fist and threw the pregnancy test into the trash bin. She gently touched her lower abdomen, her eyes sparkling with determination.
Since heaven had pity on her and let her return to this moment, she would not foolishly repeat her past and live as the helpless, desolate, single woman she became, only to be inexplicably killed by a car in the end.
Jiang Sese stood in front of a large gate, with armed soldiers standing guard on both sides.
This was a military family compound. This was her home before she turned 18, but Aunt usurped the nest, using the excuse that she should learn to support herself when she grew up, and drove her out.
As soon as she stepped into the gate, she saw two familiar figures coming towards her and immediately hid.
One of them was her relative, Yu Suhua. The other one was the daughter of Suhua's brother, named Yu Hong, who was staying at her home.
"Auntie, I haven’t seen that brat Jiang Sese all day. I wonder where she ran off to?"
"She must have run off to some bookstore to read. What's the use of a girl reading so many books? It's better to marry a good man. She ran away the last time she was set up for an arranged meeting. People are still blaming me. It was agreed to introduce some suitors to Mingming, but everyone was held back from meeting him. We need to think of other ways..."
The two women walked away quickly. Jiang Sese, hiding in the shadows, felt shivers run down her spine.
She was originally tricked by Yu Suhua into going on a spring trip, but in reality, Suhua wanted to sell her to an old man who was almost a generation older than her in exchange for a betrothal gift for her good-for-nothing, unskilled, and lazy darling son, Wang Weiming. Jiang Sese managed to escape by tricking them, but ended up being forced into a dark room, losing her dignity.
In this lifetime, she will not give these people a chance to bully her again.
Jiang Sese stood up, with one hand on her stomach, and ran quickly towards her destination. At the end of the road, there was a large courtyard. The red doors were adorned with green bronze door rings, with the beast's eyes bulging out, indicating the identity of the owner inside the house, too noble to say.
She touched the cold iron ring and knocked it hard.
Knock, knock, knock.
At twilight, the knocking sound seemed particularly harsh in the quiet courtyard.
Inside the house,
There sat a man in front of a desk lamp. He was well-built, wearing an olive-green military tank top, showing his muscular chest and arms. His deep brown skin was smooth, and the lines of his body were filled with strength and beauty. Yet, his long legs were sat on a wheelchair, with plaster cast on the lower part of his legs.
At this moment, his dark eyebrows furrowed deeply, the ones that slant into his temples. His thick, sexy lips form a serious straight line. His sharp eyes focus intently on a video clip on the computer, repeatedly analyzing it.
When the knock on the door rings out, the man’s eyebrows crease further, obviously displeased at the intrusion.
He does not get up immediately. But the persistence of the knocker leaves him no choice. He closes his computer, leaves the room.
"Grandma Zhou, Grandma Zhou..."
It’s a little girl’s voice, probably looking for her grandmother. Sadly, she is bound to be disappointed.