"But he refused to take medicine, refused IV drips, and wouldn't eat. His wound got wet and is now severely infected."
"The doctor said a large portion of his surface skin tissue has died. If they don't operate soon to remove the necrotic part, and the infection worsens, he might need an amputation."
"Mr. Zhan won't let anyone near him, nor will he have surgery. His temper is terrifyingly bad, I'm at my wit's end."
"Miss Jiang, from what I've observed, he only listens to you. Please, could you make some time to come and help persuade him?"
When she was around, he was fine.
In just three days of not seeing him, had he become so severe that he might need an amputation?
Jiang Nan Fang clenched her fist subconsciously. "Where are you now? Is Zhan Bei Jue next to you?"
"Give the phone to him, I want to speak to him."
A Zhong returned to the ward and handed the phone to the pale and hollow-eyed Zhan Bei Jue.
"Mr. Zhan, Miss Jiang is calling for you."
Jiang Nan Fang?
Didn't she not care about him and go to spend the New Year with Ke Teng?
Why was she calling again?
Did she hear he was dying? Was she calling out of kindness to send him off?
Heh. Zhan Bei Jue raised his hand and swatted the phone away.
"Take it away! I'm not taking anyone's call! Don't bother me!"
"But Mr. Zhan, Miss Jiang has something to tell you."
"Don't you understand what I'm saying? Get out! No one is allowed to bother me! All of you, stay away from me!"
Jiang Nan Fang heard Zhan Bei Jue's outburst clearly on the phone.
Seeing that A Zhong couldn't control him, she couldn't sit still any longer. She turned, went back to her room, grabbed her suitcase, and rushed out.
"Tell Zhan Bei Jue to get surgery immediately. I'm going back now."
"Otherwise, when he's amputated and becomes a cripple with one leg, I'll laugh at him for the rest of my life."
Zhan Bei Jue had a fever, making him groggy and disoriented.
His whole body ached as if he'd been whipped, the pain making him unable to move.
A fleeting voice in his mind grew closer and closer, pulling him towards a distant place.
So tired.
He had managed the company alone for many years, almost never taking a vacation.
In the end, he still didn't get what he wanted. His body was tired, and his heart was weary.
He really wanted to just follow that figure and disappear.
But suddenly, a clear little girl's voice reached his ears.
"Mommy, look, someone over there seems to have been in a car accident!"
It was Jiang Nan Fang at the age of five.
She was sitting in a black Santana.
Due to the slippery roads from the snow and the steep uphill section, the car was moving very slowly.
Jiang Nan Fang, with a red hairband and long, flowing hair, wearing a black sweater and a red coat, was leaning out the window, pointing at him with her tiny finger.
It was the first time Zhan Bei Jue had ever seen her.
Her eyes were large and bright, her face clean, fair, and tender, clearly that of a pampered little princess.
Behind her sat a quiet and elegant woman.
Like Jiang Nan Fang, she had long, flowing black hair, a black sweater, and a red coat.
In the eyes of Zhan Bei Jue, who was bleeding out and on the verge of death, she looked as beautiful as a fairy descended from heaven.
That was Jiang Nan Fang's mother.
Hearing Jiang Nan Fang call out, Jiang's mother immediately stopped the car.
Soon, the family of three, with small steps, ran towards them.
Although Zhan Bei Jue was severely injured in that car accident and was in a daze, he always remembered that scene.
The mother and daughter, standing there, looking at them with kind and pure eyes.
The scene was too beautiful; he would never forget it.
Later, Zhan Bei Jue and his grandfather were sent to the hospital.
After a period of recovery, his grandfather found the Jiang family.
At a thank-you dinner, he discovered that Jiang Nan Fang was exceptionally cute and clever. He jokingly proposed a marriage engagement between the two children.
Perhaps because she had no son, Jiang's mother felt a special connection with young Zhan Bei Jue.
Looking at his outstanding features and his mature demeanor, she took a great liking to him and immediately agreed to his grandfather's joke.
To the adults, this might have just been a joke.
But in young Zhan Bei Jue's heart, it planted a seed of hope.
From the age of seven, he knew he had a future wife named Jiang Nan Fang.
Therefore, in the years that followed, although his grandfather's business grew better and better,
And their home became larger and more beautiful, he and Jiang Nan Fang never met again.
But he always remembered this matter.
Until he was fifteen years old and in his third year of junior high.
He saw Jiang Nan Fang again at the opening ceremony of Nan Da Affiliated High School.
That year, as an outstanding student representative, Zhan Bei Jue was assigned by his homeroom teacher to give a speech at the opening ceremony.
And Jiang Nan Fang, as a student representative specially recruited as the city's top scorer, was arranged to stand with him.
If he hadn't heard the teacher call Jiang Nan Fang's name and seen her slightly familiar features, Zhan Bei Jue wouldn't have dared to recognize her.
Perhaps something had happened at home, or for some reason, Jiang Nan Fang was dressed very shabbily.
In Nan City's premier aristocratic school, amidst the crowd of students wearing famous brands, she stood out so starkly.
She seemed to be wearing boys' clothes.
A black t-shirt that barely covered her waist.
On her legs, a pair of black wide-leg pants, whether intentionally bought as cropped pants or simply too short, exposed a large section of her ankles.
The sandals she wore also seemed to be a boy's.
Although the size fit perfectly, they had a picture of Jordan playing basketball printed on them, clearly a style favored by boys.
Her hair was cut very short.
On her pale, almost sickly cheeks, a swollen, purplish scar, like a terrifying centipede, was attached.
When he heard her name and she turned to look at him, Zhan Bei Jue was stunned.
Was this the Jiang Nan Fang he remembered, the one who was supposed to be his future wife?
How had she become like this?
To figure this out, after the event that day, using his identity as student council president,
Zhan Bei Jue deliberately bent the rules and checked Jiang Nan Fang's records.
And he indeed found out that this was the Jiang Nan Fang from back then.
Their home address had never changed.
But how could the former princess have become like this?
The next day, Zhan Bei Jue intended to quietly go near her home after school to inquire about the situation.
Unexpectedly, before school ended, he encountered Jiang Nan Fang being punished by standing in the campus.
That day, because the city was holding a physics competition, the homeroom teacher had called him and a few other students participating in the competition to the office to brief them on the competition process.
Then, among a group of students being punished by standing, he saw her, standing out from the crowd.
All the girls were wearing appropriate clothes for girls, clean and standing there with confidence.
Only she, still in boys' clothes.
The nosebleed on her nose hadn't been wiped off and had dried on half her face, making her look so ugly and strange.
As their eyes met, Zhan Bei Jue couldn't describe his feelings at that moment.
There was heartache, and there was disappointment.
Heartache that such a good girl had become like this.
Disappointment that, even in this state, why wasn't she studying properly and was instead mixing with those disreputable students.