Chapter 51: Cutting Him Down, Part 2

A sudden clamor erupted as a group of four people swarmed into the adjacent bed, 516.

Tao Fei could no longer sleep. She reached out to pull the privacy curtain around her bed, but no sooner had she let go than it was yanked back with a sharp rattle.

"Sorry about that! It feels so stifling with the curtain pulled shut. I like to look at the view outside."

The round-faced woman beamed a brilliant smile at Tao Fei. She sat cross-legged on the hospital bed, clutching a bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts. She shouted at the two men who had just entered, telling them to hurry back to the shop, and then called to her mother, who was busy stuffing bags of belongings into the locker, to sit down and rest for a moment instead of unpacking.

The aroma of the sugar-roasted chestnuts made Tao Fei swallow hard, unable to help herself. It was strange; ever since she had occupied this body, she had felt nothing—no pain from injections, medication, or her minimally invasive incision. The three-delicacy wontons Tang Songyuan had brought that morning, which he insisted were delicious, had tasted like wax in her mouth. It was as if this body were made of stone, yet now, a craving had suddenly stirred in her stomach.

Tao Fei turned her back, forcing herself to resist the enticing scent of the chestnuts.

"Sister Tao Fei, right? I’m Wu Xiuli."

This Wu Xiuli looked to be in her early thirties!

"Hello."

"Hello, hello!"

Wu Xiuli’s gaze drifted from the small card at the head of Tao Fei’s bed, and her smile widened even further.

"Sister Tao Fei, are you here all by yourself? Where is your family?"

"That chubby guy who just walked out is my husband. Don't you think my husband is handsome?"

No sooner had Wu Xiuli finished speaking than the nurse, Li Ya, walked in with a patient chart. Seeing the bed tray in 516 covered in chestnut shells, she couldn't help but frown.

"Wu Xiuli, your surgery has been scheduled. Please note that you are not to eat or drink anything, not even water, after five o'clock this evening."

"Huh? The surgery is so soon?! If I don't eat, how will I have the strength to go under the knife? And not even water? I’ll die of thirst!"

"Mom, what are you saying! So when will I be able to eat?"

As Wu Xiuli spoke, she continued to shell chestnuts, seemingly unbothered by the prospect of surgery. Her mother, however, was nervous, peppering Li Ya with questions. Li Ya responded distractedly while hanging up the medical chart and the nameplate at the head of the bed. Glancing at Wu Xiuli, who had just opened a bag of spiced melon seeds, she gently reminded her that eating shelled snacks on the hospital bed was not permitted.

"We spent so much money to stay here, and we aren't even allowed to eat snacks? What kind of lousy hospital is this!"

Wu Xiuli’s mother immediately flared up, and Wu Xiuli pouted her chubby lips in annoyance.

"I am merely offering a kind reminder to maintain the hygiene of the ward; post-operative care, in particular, requires keeping the area dry and clean. Eat if you must. As for when you can eat again, I will note the dietary requirements at the appropriate time. If you’re worried, you can ask the attending physician."

Although this was a high-end private hospital that most people couldn't afford, it still attracted a motley mix of patients, regardless of their background or manners. If she spoke too softly, no one listened; if she spoke too sternly, she risked complaints from the families. Li Ya didn't want the trouble.

"That little nurse looks like a vixen. You can tell at a glance she’s no good!"

"Mom, you shouldn't talk about her like that."

"I have the best eye for people. I can tell a person’s character and temper the moment I see them—whether they’re good or not..."

"Mom is the best!"

The mother and daughter chirped back and forth in a lively display. Tao Fei chuckled to herself at their temperament; they were cut from the same cloth, making the tedious time of waiting feel a little more entertaining.

"Sister Tao Fei, what are you in for? I have an ectopic pregnancy. I don't know how it happened, why it ended up outside the uterus this time."

Wu Xiuli held out the paper bag of chestnuts to Tao Fei.

"It’s a uterine fibroid, I believe. It’s almost better now. I won't have any, thank you!"

Looking at Wu Xiuli’s bright red fingernails, Tao Fei suddenly lost her appetite, and the scent of the chestnuts seemed to vanish into thin air.

"I’ve heard that if a woman is unhappy, it’s easy to grow uterine fibroids. Are you the introverted type who likes to stew in your own feelings? Honestly, what is there in life to be so worked up about! You live a day whether you laugh or cry. If something really happens, crying doesn't solve the problem."

Wu Xiuli clapped her plump, fair hands. Seeing that Tao Fei did not respond, the expression on her round face only confirmed her judgment, and she turned to her mother for validation. Receiving her mother’s affirmative nod, she laughed out loud.

Tao Fei didn't consider herself an introverted person. She was a top student and a regular in the arts scene. She had lost count of the awards and trophies she had won for dancing, singing, playing instruments, and painting.

Being rational did not mean being introverted.

However, she didn't know if the *original* Tao Fei was introverted, though she likely wasn't the type to stew in silence. Love is the best nourishment for a woman, and this "Auntie Tao Fei" had a loving husband and a comfortable financial situation—how could she be unhappy? If there was one thing that might affect her mood, it would be the mother who had come by that morning. Having a mother like that was truly mind-boggling.

At lunch, Wu Xiuli’s husband brought in two large bags of food. They found the hospital food at Anhe Hospital too bland, so they had ordered six boxes of stir-fried and deep-fried dishes from a restaurant outside. The three of them gathered around the small tray on the bed, filling the room with the fragrance of their meal.

"Sister Tao Fei, aren't you eating lunch? Would you like some?"

Tao Fei smiled and shook her head, feeling uncomfortable with the stranger’s excessive enthusiasm.

"You’re a patient, how can you not eat! I’m most afraid of being hungry. I don't mind eating four or five meals a day. When I gave birth to my third child, I could eat a whole chicken in one sitting and eat six or seven times a day. It exhausted my mother to look after me during my postpartum period. Mom, have a chicken leg."

Wu Xiuli took the chicken leg her husband had just placed in her bowl and transferred it to her mother’s.

"There’s no one like a mother in this world. No matter how good a mother-in-law is, she’s not like your own mother. I’ve had three kids, and my mother-in-law never once helped me during my postpartum recovery. I know she resents me for having girls. So what if they’re girls? Daughters are a parent’s little padded jacket. Anyway, I’m going to treat my mom well for the rest of my life, and when my daughters grow up, they’ll treat their grandmother well too. Sister, how old are your kids? What is your mother-in-law like..."

Wu Xiuli complained about her mother-in-law while she ate, her husband keeping his head down and eating silently, not daring to utter a word of contradiction.

It seemed the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law dynamic was a timeless puzzle; in any era, one could dig up tales of their conflicts.

Tao Fei licked her parched lips; she was genuinely hungry. She hadn't realized she had gone the whole morning without drinking water, all thanks to the chaotic visit from the money-grubbing mother.

Tao Fei prepared to go to the canteen to buy something to eat, but when she searched the bedside drawer, she couldn't find a single cent. Even if she could pay with her phone, the crucial problem was that there was no phone in the drawer!

Where was her doting, older-husband at a time like this?

"Tao Fei, you must be hungry, right?"

Just as Tao Fei’s resentment toward her older husband, Tang Songyuan, began to rise, Tang Songyuan appeared before her.

"Is that your husband?"

Wu Xiuli stared at Tang Songyuan, clicking her tongue in surprise.