Twenty minutes later—
Yan Xun pleaded and explained, even showing the hospital wristband and admission info on his wrist. Finally, he barely managed to convince the uncle security guard that he wasn’t the habitual offender who always stole trash cans, but a kind-hearted young man dragging a trash can for a car-sick friend.
The uncle waved his hand. “Alright, alright, stop explaining. Just put this thing back where it belongs and leave.”
“…Sorry for the trouble.”
So Yan Xun could only hobble on his crutch, demonstrating unyielding determination as he dragged the trash can back to its place.
All the way, he wondered if Chu Tingyun had done it on purpose. Yan Xun’s first reaction was yes. But after thinking about it, he felt that someone as gentle as Chu Tingyun wouldn’t play such a childish prank.
Perhaps Chu Tingyun suddenly had an emergency…
Lost in thought, he rode the elevator all the way up to the seventh floor of the inpatient department. As he passed the front desk, Nurse Zhao called out to him.
“Little Yan is back? A delivery guy just brought something for you.”
“Brought something?”
Yan Xun returned to his room and sure enough, saw an exquisitely packaged box. He checked the recipient info on top; the name was indeed his.
Who sent it?
Yan Xun opened the box and found the latest model smartphone of a certain brand, a smartwatch of the same brand, Bluetooth earbuds, and matching charging cables.
Although they were all brand new, the plastic wrap had already been removed. All the electronic devices were fully charged, and the sender had even thoughtfully set up everything for him.
Yan Xun opened the phone’s contacts. There were only three people saved in it.
Mother, Lin Ran, and Chu Tingyun.
Aside from these electronics, there was also Yan Xun’s ID card and medical insurance card.
It went without saying who had sent these.
Yan Xun felt a wave of relief and stopped dwelling on what had just happened.
After getting the phone, Yan Xun initially wanted to call his mother immediately. But he didn’t want her to know that he’d been in a car crash, had amnesia, and was now possibly getting a divorce.
After all, she and Lin Ran were abroad. Even if they knew, it would only add to their worries.
After much deliberation, Yan Xun decided to wait a bit longer, at least until his leg healed. Next, he saved Zhou Ze’s number and sent a text to share the good news of having a new phone.
Although Zhou Ze had visited yesterday, he had clearly sneaked out from work. He hadn’t stayed long before receiving a frantic barrage of calls demanding his return.
In his haste, Zhou Ze naturally hadn’t remembered to buy a phone for his destitute friend. At the same time, the amnesiac Yan Xun had forgotten to ask about Zhou Ze’s current situation.
However, Zhou Ze’s family was well-off to begin with. Now he was a returnee who had studied abroad, and he had slimmed down into a handsome guy. He should be doing pretty well.
However, the reality was the exact opposite of Yan Xun’s expectations—
The former rich kid Zhou Ze was currently gnawing on dry whole-wheat bread while getting chewed out by his manager.
“What a great opportunity! Tell me, what a great opportunity! Do you know how many strings I had to pull to get you a chance to show your face on the hottest variety show right now?”
“But you, Zhou Ze, you fucking ran off right at the start of filming and left behind this massive mess!”
“Now they don’t want you anymore, and you have to pay the penalty for breach of contract!”
Zhou Ze swallowed the bread with difficulty, burying his head and mumbling, “Then I’ll pay it.”
The manager’s blood pressure instantly spiked.
“Pay it?! Do you have any idea how many digits the penalty fee is? Feel your pockets, how many pennies do you actually have?!”
“…”
Zhou Ze stayed silent for a moment before saying sullenly,
“Then let’s stall for a bit. Find me a few more gigs, and I’ll pay it back slowly.”
“You think you can still get other gigs?! Do you even know who you offended today…”
The manager wanted to yell some more, but just then, he received a phone call.
“Ah, yes… yes, yes, yes, we have time, of course we have time!”
In just two seconds, the manager’s expression completely changed, his eyes full of surprised smiles.
“Rest assured, our Zhou Ze’s physique, his line delivery… no problem, no problem. We’ll be there as soon as possible, as soon as possible.”
Zhou Ze stopped eating his bread and asked hesitantly, “Got a gig?”
“A massive gig!”
The manager tried to keep a straight face, but given the sudden turn of events—a massive pie falling right from the sky—he couldn’t help but grin.
“It’s a huge IP, third male lead. They want you to go audition tomorrow.”
Zhou Ze was stunned. “Me?”
“The producer called me personally, asking for you by name. How could this be fake?!”
While speaking, the manager had already started booking flights. As if suddenly remembering something, he snatched away Zhou Ze’s personal phone and strictly ordered:
“Focus on work these next few days. No contacting the outside world!”
“…”
—This was the reason Yan Xun hadn’t received a reply from Zhou Ze.
Knock, knock.
A knock sounded on the door.
Yan Xun put down his phone. “Come in.”
It was Nurse Zhao. She brought his evening nutritious meal and a fresh hospital gown. Because Yan Xun had run around outside in the one he was wearing today, it was no longer clean.
“So many gifts, huh?”
Her gaze lingered on the items in the box for a few seconds as she teased,
“Looks like the date today was very successful.”
Date?
Yan Xun froze, instinctively refuting it.
“Nurse, you misunderstood. It wasn’t a date. Today I went to…”
He went to discuss divorce.
“It wasn’t?”
She blinked at him, asking in an obviously teasing tone,
“Then who gave you the gifts, and whose clothes are you wearing?”
“Clothes?”
Yan Xun subconsciously touched them, only then suddenly remembering he had forgotten to return Chu Tingyun’s clothes. Just then, he fished two pieces of candy out of the pocket.
Pink plastic wrappers printed with cute lychee doodles.
—Two lychee candies.
Yan Xun stared at the candies in his palm, stunned for a few seconds before recovering to explain:
“It’s because it rained today, and then…”
Nurse Zhao didn’t let him finish, smiling at him with an “I understand everything” look.
“…”
So in the end, Yan Xun gave up explaining, lowered his head, and quietly ate his meal.
As expected of an expensive private hospital, even the nutritious meal tasted great.
After he finished eating and Nurse Zhao cleared the table and left, Yan Xun recalled everything that had happened today. Only then did he realize that the meeting had been vastly different from his expectations.
He and Chu Tingyun had clearly met to discuss divorce, yet the other party lent him his clothes, treated him to dessert, and specifically dropped him off. It really did feel a bit like…
—A brief date.
When this bizarre thought popped into his head, Yan Xun himself found it slightly absurd.
It was indeed absurd.
Yan Xun lowered his eyes to look at the divorce agreement in his hand, confirming this point once more.
How could it possibly be a date?
Tossing aside these messy thoughts, Yan Xun focused his attention on the divorce agreement.
The lighting in the car earlier had been poor, and Chu Tingyun hadn’t looked well, so he hadn’t been able to read it closely. Only now did he have the chance to carefully read the clauses.
It wasn’t long. The general gist was that both parties were divorcing voluntarily, and premarital assets remained with their respective owners.
As for post-marital joint assets…
Three properties—a suburban villa, a residence in the main city district, and a downtown apartment—went to Chu Tingyun.
Two cars went to Chu Tingyun.
All savings went to Chu Tingyun.
Custody of the kitten went to Yan Xun.
“…”
Yan Xun read it over several times, finally confirming that upon divorce, he would be leaving with absolutely nothing but the cat.
Yet, Chu Tingyun himself hadn’t approved or signed this divorce agreement, which seemed extremely unfair and solely beneficial to him.
But Yan Xun had signed it.
Which meant that before losing his memory, he had accepted these terms. Not only was he willing to be divorced, but he was also willing to walk away with nothing.
Why?
Yan Xun unlocked his phone and started searching for more information about his past. The last time his once-familiar QQ was logged into was three years ago, holding no useful information.
So Yan Xun turned to WeChat. He’d heard from Nurse Zhao that everyone used WeChat for social networking nowadays, and he shouldn’t be an exception.
The data from his old phone was completely destroyed before it could be transferred, so naturally, there was no chat history in WeChat.
But Yan Xun saw his Moments background image—it was indeed that marriage certificate photo.
The bottom right corner indicated it was set to “visible for three days.” The hidden Moments only contained a scant few posts.
The first was posted four years ago, during Yan Xun’s junior year of college.
He saw his mother and brother off to go abroad. The three of them took a group photo at the airport.
His mother looked much older but very happy and excited. Lin Ran looked exactly the same as always—sitting in a wheelchair, his expression aloof, gloomy, and silent.
The second post was three years ago, when Yan Xun married Chu Tingyun right after graduating from college.
Perhaps because he had deleted too many contacts, there were very few likes beneath this marriage announcement.
The third post was from two years ago.
On their wedding anniversary, Yan Xun posted a picture of a bouquet of flowers and a photo of them holding hands.
Chu Tingyun’s hand was easy to recognize, because he was still wearing that wedding ring on his ring finger.
In the final post, Yan Xun posted a picture of a kitten’s back.
Just as Chu Tingyun had said, he brought a little cat home.
After this, the records of happiness abruptly stopped.
Every single post perfectly aligned with the information Yan Xun had gathered over the past two days, mutually corroborating one another.
Yan Xun scrutinized those photos back and forth for a long time but couldn’t glean any further information.
As for his contacts, there were only a dozen or so people on the list.
He checked each contact one by one. Those friends, both familiar and unfamiliar, all had their own rich, colorful new lives, but there were no traces of Yan Xun in them.
As for his only two family members, Lin Ran had blocked him, and his mother’s Moments only featured Lin Ran.
She meticulously documented every detail of his life—eating, reading, painting, reconstructive surgeries, rehabilitation training…
Many posts.
Every picture was accompanied by encouraging words, making one feel the surging, warm love of a mother poured into every single character.
“…”
Yan Xun stared for a long time.
He couldn’t help but open the chat with his mother. He pulled up the keyboard and haltingly typed out many words.
But after finishing, Yan Xun looked at the “Mom” contact name above and suddenly deleted it all, word by word.
Then, he backed out without saying a thing.
In five minutes, he flipped through the thin contact list from beginning to end. Ultimately, the amnesiac Yan Xun found traces of himself with only one person.
Because that person’s background image was the exact same familiar marriage photo as Yan Xun’s.
His profile picture was a snowy mountain, and his contact name was saved as “Wifey”.
Yan Xun: “……….”
Actually, he had guessed who the other party was right away, but he still cross-checked the phone number in his contacts and finally confirmed the person’s identity.
—Chu Tingyun.
In that instant, Yan Xun suddenly thought of that man’s face and his nonchalant tone in the cafe earlier.
[Yan Xun, you never used to call me ‘Mr. Chu’.]
[Then what did I call you in the past?]
How had Chu Tingyun answered then? The man had just smiled dismissively and said:
[Whatever you like. It doesn’t matter anymore.]
The other party hadn’t given him an answer, only saying it didn’t matter anymore…
So it was only at this moment, upon seeing the WeChat contact name, that Yan Xun received the answer.
This answer that Chu Tingyun claimed didn’t matter.
“…”
Yan Xun absentmindedly caressed the snowy mountain profile picture, spacing out for a moment.
However, right at that moment, his fingertips suddenly felt a faint vibration. The next second, a line of small grey text appeared in the blank chat interface—
I patted “Wifey’s” butt and said, I miss you so much.
Yan Xun: “………”
“??????”
His mind went completely blank in an instant.
…This!
What the hell is this?!!
He clearly hadn’t sent anything just now!
Yan Xun stared at that tiny line of text, feeling as if the blood in his entire body was flowing backward.
He remained completely stunned for several full seconds until his ears grew burning hot, and he finally scrambled to recall the message.
However, by that time, the top of the chat page was already displaying “The other party is typing…”
“Typing…” blinked for a few seconds, but in the end, the snowy mountain only sent back a single, powerful—
“?”
Yan Xun: “……….”
