He heard her, didn’t think much about it, and with a furrow in his brow, blurted out, "Why do you even need to bother with that? I’ll get you a cleaner."
Having said that, he was about to hang up the phone and arrange for someone to go over.
But the woman on the other end, upon hearing this, became anxious and hurriedly called out on the phone, "No need, no need, I’m almost done, no trouble to anyone."
When he heard this, he paused and wanted to say something else, but as he looked at the two photos in his hand, all his words got stuck in his throat, and he just sat there holding his phone, listening to the zapping electrical sound in his ear.
The child wasn’t his, then whose was it?
His eyes were as dim as that patch of thick fog on the horizon that wouldn’t disperse...
On the other end of the phone, the woman hadn’t hung up either. She too was listening to the electrical noise over the phone, and his breathing.
His breaths were deep and forceful, she could almost feel his heat from over here.
Suddenly, she looked fiercely out the window with her phone in hand, "Ou Mucen, when will you be discharged from the hospital?"
The man holding the phone on this end, upon hearing this, replied offhandedly, "Should be tomorrow, I guess. Jicheng just came back, said I could be discharged if the check-up was okay."
"Well then, I’ll pick you up from the hospital tomorrow, go to your house, and cook for you," she said with a laugh, her joy and cheer audible over the phone.
Ou Mucen was taken aback when he heard this!
Go to his house to cook for him?
He suddenly remembered that breakfast, yes, the morning that for the first time he felt a presence in his apartment.
That morning, the apartment was filled with inviting aromas, she was bustling in the kitchen, he sat by the dining table, and the little child sat beside him, his chubby little head bobbing, eating while his dark eyes looked at him.
The child said, "Uncle, it’s really delicious."
He also said, "Uncle, my mom’s cooking isn’t bad, right? Let her cook for you from now on."
He was still talking, "..."
Suddenly he didn’t want to think about anything anymore, holding the phone, he agreed, "Sure, but I don’t have anything at home."
The woman on the phone laughed, "There is a little bit, the last cleaner bought some, but I’ll buy some more tomorrow. What do you want to eat?"
"I can’t make ’anything,’ and don’t make it difficult for me; my culinary skills aren’t that great."
"Then how about..." his handsome face suddenly flushed, "the last time, that one?"
The woman on the phone was taken aback, "That one? Dumplings? You want to eat dumplings when you come home at night? They’re for breakfast."
His face suddenly darkened, "Didn’t you say you would make whatever I wanted?"
He’s actually getting upset?
Hearing his tone, the woman on the phone finally compromised, and after this conversation, they didn’t see each other the whole day. She didn’t visit the hospital again, and he didn’t call her anymore.
Perhaps, he felt that he needed some time to be alone at this moment.
But that pause turned into a major incident the next day, the day he was supposed to be discharged. On the ninth floor of the hospital’s surgical ward, in room number 8, Yang Xueshan, the suspect under police watch, had escaped!
Yang Xueshan had escaped?
He was surprised when he heard this news in the ward, "How could she have run away? Weren’t the police watching outside?"
Jicheng nodded, "That’s right, but there’s no one in that ward now, no one knows how she disappeared, and the police are conducting a search throughout the hospital. You probably won’t be able to leave for the time being, we have to wait until they’ve finished their search."