That night, Xiaoyi didn't return from the intensive care unit. The bed opposite of her was still empty.
Jiang Ruolan occasionally glanced towards the bed on the other side. When she thought of Jiang Yijun, she felt suffocated. Then she thought about that adorable child, Xiaoyi, and her heart ached for no reason.
At noon the next day, Xiong Ruogang received the news that Jiang Ruolan was in the hospital and went to visit her. By that time, she was much better off, as long as she didn't shake her head, touch the water, or eat any irritating food, for the time being.
Jiang Ruolan got up to send Xiong Ruogang off. On the way, she saw a few doctors and nurses pushing a small bed.
They entered the ward. Xiaoyi was still awake and was carefully put on the bed by the doctor and nurses. After the doctor and nurse told Zhou Shufen about some precautions, Xiaoyi suddenly opened her mouth and sweetly said, "Thank you, uncle and aunties!"
"Good child, you must listen to your mother." They seemed to like her a lot. One of the nurses gently caressed her face.
Xiaoyi giggled, "Xiaoyi knows!"
After the doctor left, Zhou Shufen covered Xiaoyi with a blanket and leaned over to say something to her in a very soft voice. Xiaoyi blinked and nodded with a smile. "I understand, mama! Little Yi will be fine! I won't let you and great-grandfather worry."
"Xiaoyi is a good child. Great- grandfather will buy you a little goldfish and a fish tank tonight. We will put it on the window sill ~" Senior Zhou stood next to the bed with a loving and smiling face.
"Great-grandfather is the best! In the future, small goldfish will accompany Xiaoyi to play ~"
Senior Zhou heard the footsteps in front of the ward's door. He turned to take a look and saw Jiang Ruolan walking back into the ward. He was startled at first, but then he saw her wearing a light blue hospital gown.
Zhou Shufen did not turn to look but only helped make Xiaoyi's bed. While tidying up the corner of the bed, she said disapprovingly, "Miss Jiang suffered a few stitches on her head, and during the two days you were in the intensive care unit with Xiaoyi, and when I came back to retrieve her things. I saw the doctor arrange for her to stay in this ward. Since there weren't any other empty VIP wards and my Xian Family was already here, I didn't want to refuse the doctor's request. So I let her in."
Senior Zhou didn't seem happy, but he controlled his emotions and looked at Jiang Ruolan in the blink of an eye.
Jiang Ruolan remained calm on the surface and nodded politely to Senior Zhou. "Senior Zhou."
Senior Zhou snorted and laughed, "Miss Jiang, it really is fate. I am curious about how you are fated to meet me in person."
Hearing the meaning behind his words, Jiang Ruolan just smiled, "Senior Zhou has a high status and is rarely seen by ordinary people. I am lucky enough to meet you several times because of grandfather. This is just a coincidence, nothing to do with fate."
As Jiang Ruolan said this, she thought back to her mother's picture in her teens that Senior Zhou once asked her to look at.
Zhou Shufen also noticed something from Senior Zhou's words. She suddenly turned around and looked at Jiang Ruolan, who was sitting on the bed, and then looked back at Senior Zhou. She immediately asked him in confusion, "Grandpa?"
Senior Zhou came back to his senses and turned to look at Zhou Shufen. There was nothing unusual about his expression.
Zhou Shufen paused for a moment before looking back at Jiang Ruolan. She was reading the newspaper silently across the bed. Zhou Shufen suddenly frowned as she thought of something.
"Xiaoyi has fallen asleep. Grandpa, you have been accompanying us to the hospital for the past few days. Do you want to go back and rest first? Xiaoyi's operation this time is not bad, and she was temporarily free from danger. We just have to wait for her wounds to heal before she can leave the hospital." Said Zhou Shufen.
Senior Zhou nodded. "If anything happens to Xiaoyi, you must immediately tell me."
Zhou Shufen nodded.
When Jiang Ruolan lifted her gaze from the newspaper and met Senior Zhou's cold gaze, he paused. Senior Zhou seemed to remember something because his expression changed a little. After a few seconds, he left without saying a word.
After Senior Zhou left, Zhou Shufen watched Jiang Ruolan's expression. Her eyes, which were as bright as the moon, had signs of something else in them.
"Miss Jiang, I forgot to ask. How many days do you plan to stay in this ward?" When Zhou Shufen spoke, her tone was clearly impolite.
Jiang Ruolan folded the newspaper and looked at her. With a slight smile, she said, "Miss Zhou, are you regretting letting me stay in this ward?"
"Regret is not the reason, it's just to give grandpa Xian a face. But my daughter has been transferred from the intensive care unit, and she doesn't like you, so she will be scared when she sees you. I think Miss Jiang should know why she would be afraid of you, so … "When Zhou Shufen said this, she paused before continuing. "You must understand what I mean."
Jiang Ruolan raised her eyebrows. "Miss Zhou, you mean to say that you felt wronged when I slapped you a few times? Your daughter keeps calling my husband 'Daddy.' If I remember correctly, she is only a five-year-old child. Could it be that she would call any men 'Daddy'? Was it a coincidence that she addressed it to Zihao? Or was she really innocent? Who is instigating behind the scenes? I think that I went too easy on you. Those few slaps were nothing compared to what you had done behind the scene."
Zhou Shufen's expression was calm as she smiled gently. "Fighting in front of a kid. Jiang Ruolan, I never thought that you're a weirdo too."
"Stop talking to me about children!" Jiang Ruolan looked at her coldly.
"The one lying there is your biological daughter, Zhou Shufen! If you knew she was a child, if you knew how fragile she was, if you knew she couldn't be hurt too much, you shouldn't use her as a tool to get sympathy from others!"
"Zhou Shufen, being rich and knowledgeable in one's family is not the reason for a woman to be proud. The person you're most proud of has already been pushed away by your own hands! Right now, you are using all sorts of methods to take back everything that once belonged to you. I'm sorry, I'm not that generous! You don't expect me to give him up, do you?"
Zhou Shufen's expression stiffened. She didn't expect Jiang Ruolan to be so sensitive to the word "child". Subconsciously, she looked towards her slightly protruding abdomen. Immediately, her eyes looked as if they were in pain.
"If you're a qualified mother, you know better than anyone how to protect your child." Jiang Ruolan turned around and looked at the sleeping Xiaoyi. "For the sake of your pitiful private matters, you forced her to leave the United States, a country which has the best medical environment. You forced her to travel thousands of miles to China, and let her last bit of life play a little light in your absurd plan. You have no right to talk about children with me."
After a long silence, Zhou Shufen gently said, "Since American psychologists are powerless to treat Xiaoyi's brain tumors, I want her to go to China and let Chinese medicine help her in the hope that miracles will happen. However, because miracles don't happen, I can only let her go to the best brain hospital in H City."
Zhou Shufen turned and sat on the edge of Xiaoyi's bed.
Jiang Ruolan's breath stopped. Perhaps her tone was too harsh, but she had enough of Zhou Shufen constantly talking and using her child as a shield. That child was innocent!
Jiang Ruolan only looked at Zhou Shufen's back, which seemed to have lost a lot of weight compared to the past, and sighed helplessly. Then, she got up, took out a box of milk brought by the Xian Family, and poured it into a glass. Then she walked to Xiaoyi's bed and gave the glass of milk to Zhou Shufen.
Zhou Shufen's gaze shifted from Xiaoyi's sleeping face to the glass in Jiang Ruolan's hand. She was stunned for a moment before shifting her gaze to her (Jiang Ruolan) face.
