Emerging from the office, Zhan Beijue drove at breakneck speed, his silence a stark contrast to his haste.
He seemed impatient, eager to reach the hospital and see Shen Min'er.
It was a lie to say Jiang Nanfang wasn't upset. She reminded him, "You're speeding. Even if you don't care about your life, others do. Let me drive if you're not careful."
Zhan Beijue slowed down slightly, responding gruffly, "Min'er's state seemed off today. I'm afraid she might do something rash."
However, it was already too late.
Despite his rapid driving, by the time they reached the hospital and went upstairs, the staff, with panicked expressions, informed them:
Min'er had vanished the moment he left.
"They've already reviewed the surveillance footage and are searching everywhere. It seems they haven't found her yet."
Damn Ke Teng.
If he hadn't summoned him away at the last minute, Min'er would never have had the chance to escape.
He'd better pray she was alright, or Zhan Beijue wouldn't let him off!
She must have gone to the nursing home.
Zhan Beijue and Jiang Nanfang exchanged a look, then simultaneously headed downstairs and rushed towards the nursing home.
On the way, Jiang Nanfang called the doctor, asking him to check on Min'er's mother in her room.
The doctor regretfully informed her, "It's too late. I just reported it, and the staff are at the scene now. You can come and see."
She didn't know how they arrived at the nursing home.
When her mind regained consciousness, she was already at the scene.
On the small hospital bed, Min'er's head was covered with a plastic bag, and her neck was wrapped in thick gauze.
She had bid farewell to this world in a most brutal manner.
The staff told them,
She had likely fed her mother medicine before taking her own life.
It was clean, peaceful, and appeared to be a plan long in the making, a testament to her utter despair with the world.
Then, someone handed Zhan Beijue a letter.
"This is what she left for you."
The scene was so overwhelming that Zhan Beijue trembled, fumbling several times before finally securing the letter.
He didn't open it immediately.
His chest felt heavy and suffocating. He went to the courtyard and sat alone for a long time.
It was so long that the sky began to turn faintly white before he mustered the strength to open the letter.
Min'er's rather untidy handwriting appeared before his eyes, and his vision immediately misted over.
"Zhan Beijue, hello."
"Your name is very difficult to write. I might have gotten it wrong, please forgive me. I'd rather misspell your name than call you 'brother.' It's quite shameless, isn't it?"
"But, please forgive me. By the time you read this letter, I will already be dead. In any case, I won't be able to threaten Sister Nanfang, so let me be willful one last time."
"I like you, I like you so much. Although I never said it out loud, I believe you could tell, I've liked you for a very long time."
"From the first moment I saw you, when I decided to bring you home, I had already fallen for you. Although this affection later caused me great pain, I have never regretted it."
"If fate gave me another chance, to stand by the river in that small Swiss town and choose again, I would still choose you."
"In my short twenty years of life, there have been bitterness and sweetness. The few months spent with you were the sweetest of all."
"Although I made you eat poorly and live poorly, and wasn't gentle enough with you, that was the best I could offer."
"No matter how insignificant it may seem in your heart, every time I recall that period, I feel so happy."
"I never hated you, not even when you promised to take care of me and then couldn't fulfill it, I didn't hate you."
"You possess such great charm, so powerful that no matter what you do, you can make others willingly submit."
"Even if you love someone else, I can submit to the tenderness you show her."
"Sister Nanfang is a good person. Although I am very reluctant to admit it, and unwilling to admit it, I have to acknowledge it."
"Among the women I know, she is the most beautiful, the most gentle, the kindest, the most capable. The woman most worthy of you."
"She probably hasn't told you why I came to Nan City, right? Because my mother and I, on impulse, killed my father together."
"My original intention was to break up you and Sister Nanfang, to make you divorce. But I was too overconfident."
"Sister Nanfang has repeatedly shown me with her actions that I am simply not her match."
"If heaven hadn't been kind enough to give me a chance to save you, I don't think I would have ever been worthy of standing before you."
"Today was very happy. You spent a perfect and happy day with me. It's been a complete circle."
"Don't grieve for me. I committed wrongdoing first and received my due retribution. I'm quite content with this outcome."
"Goodbye, the person I love, I'm leaving first. If there is a next life, I will prepare in advance and become more outstanding. When we meet again, I hope you will remember me."
"I've taken my mother with me, to not trouble anyone."
"The house in Fucheng was also transferred before I came to Nan City. It has been returned to you. The paperwork and keys are in my room's drawer."
"Goodbye, this is my final farewell. I hope you and Sister Nanfang will be well. And I hope Ke Teng will no longer bother you."
Zhan Beijue looked at her uneven handwriting, as if he could recall every scene from their time in Switzerland through the words.
He had been so badly injured, unable to move at all.
His only expectation in life each day was for Min'er to visit him after work.
Those worn-out shoes, covered in dust and oil stains, but every time she appeared before him, he felt immense joy.
And those hands, barely twenty years old, were rough and greasy.
The fingernails were perpetually filled with black grime, and the food she brought was always leftovers from others.
Such a girl was the only light in his darkest hours.
He dared not reminisce.
The thought of Min'er having lived only twenty years, enduring such poverty and working day and night for several years, only to meet such an end.
He felt utterly useless.
When had she committed her wrongdoings? When did she get involved with Ke Teng? How many struggles had she endured in secret? He knew none of it.
He had been lost in his own happiness, thinking that by giving her some money, he had completely settled his debt and drawn a clear line between them.
This must have been what truly hurt Min'er.
The more he thought, the sadder he became, and the angrier he grew.
Seeing the name Ke Teng at the end of the letter.
Recalling his arrogant tone that afternoon, his disdainful gaze, and his manipulation and threats towards Min'er behind her back, he was consumed by rage.
He shoved the letter into his pocket and stood up with a sudden movement.
Jiang Nanfang had been watching him from afar through the hospital room window.
Seeing him stare into the distance for a long time, then read the letter, and now stand up in anger.
Knowing he must be experiencing a major emotional upheaval and was about to cause trouble.
She quickly called out from the window, "A Jue, where are you going?"