Aunty Hsiao lifted a spoonful of food to her mouth, her eyes fixed on her mother, Mama Taichen, who was busy recounting a story to Iya, one of their neighbors. The woman had come by earlier that day with news...bringing word that the marriage between Zhan and Yibo had been finalized, and that Nainai had sent messages around the neighborhood to inform everyone.
Since Iya had long been Mama Taichen's close friend...they had been married around the same time and moved into the neighborhood together...their bond had lasted for years. That was why, after offering her congratulations to Nainai, Iya had remained behind, and she and Mama Taichen had settled into conversation. Mama Taichen was now giving her a full account of how everything had happened, starting from the very moment the message announcing the wedding complete.
"I swear to you," Mama Taichen said, "Nainai complained all night, asking why the marriage was arranged without informing Zhan's father. But her children stood firm. They said even if that man...Xiao Die himself...appeared and sat right there, they wouldn't ask his permission. They were going ahead with the wedding. After all, no one even knows where he is."
Iya nodded slowly.
"Everything is in God's hands. As far as I know, his father is as good as dead. I've never once heard anyone mention his relatives...I always assumed the man wasn't alive."
"He's alive," Mama Taichen replied. "It's just that no one has known where he's been since the day the children were brought here. He never sent so much as a piece of cloth for them. Because of that, the Bozai family insists they have every right to give Zhan's hand in marriage without him. A man who never acted like a father has no claim now."
Iya tilted her head thoughtfully.
"I honestly don't blame them. They've been both parents and family all this time. Even when Zhan's mother was still alive... before she was married... it was said she had no real ties to her family. Nainai is just arguing out of habit. Didn't you tell me just days ago that she was desperate for Zhan to get married?"
"That's true," Mama Taichen sighed. "She even fell ill over it... they said she carried the worry too deeply in her heart. But she's let go now. She agreed they would try to inform the father before Zhan moves into his husband's house. Still, Ruobing told me they spoke with Sanxing, who said they only acknowledged her request... but no one knows where that man is. Even years ago, when Zhan was about to start medical school, they tried to find him. They searched everywhere. Nothing. The only relative they found said even under threat of death, he wouldn't know where the man was."
Aunty Hsiao swallowed the food in her mouth and sighed quietly to herself. She was tired of listening... tired of how her Mother had refused to stop dissecting the matter ever since it began. Every little movement drew another comment.
"Human beings are strange," Mama Taichen often said. "They struggle and struggle, thinking they're saving themselves, but in the end, only what destiny has written will happen."
At other times, she would add,
"They say the family Zhan is marrying into are good people. Ruobing keeps praising them... how the wedding was arranged with dignity and peace, without coercion or deceit."
And now she was drifting into yet another comparison.
"They say Zhan and Fuyue stayed together for so long, refusing to move forward… and now look... Zhan finally moved on and left Fuyue behind."
That was the point where Aunty Hsiao's patience snapped. Despite Mama Taichen being her mother, she couldn't hold it in.
"He was treated with cruelty and neglect, Mama," she said sharply. "Otherwise, how could you just hand someone over the moment strangers appear? Which of their own children would they ever treat that way?"
The warning look Mama Taichen shot her... clear and unmistakable... only deepened her anger. She could never understand why her mother refused to see the faults of those people. Even though Mama Taichen herself had nothing with Nainai, she hated hearing blame placed on them. And so, knowing she would receive no support, she simply stood up and gave them space.
Her thoughts were elsewhere now... focused on one thing alone: how to extract more money from Peng. Especially now that her court case against her husband had ended, and the court had ordered her to pay a substantial sum within a fixed time. She didn't even have half of it. She had tried selling her furniture, only to be insulted by potential buyers who made disgracefully low offers. In the end, it had turned into a shouting match filled with bitter words.
Every morning, she checked her phone, her heart pounding as she watched the deadline creep closer. As if that weren't enough, Fuyue's father...out of sheer spite...had sent her a message, warning her to make sure she had the money ready. Otherwise, after this case, he would drag her back to court to claim the remainder she had avoided paying.
Her calculations completely collapsed on the day Zhan's troublesome suitor went to Uncle Elder's house. That same day, Fuyue...still half-asleep in the morning...received a call from Peng.
It was not a call that brought good news. He lashed out at him, accusing him of wasting his efforts and the money he had given him, threatening him with consequences and making it clear that he saw no value in the task he had assigned him anymore.
And from that moment on, nothing felt stable again.
The way Fuyue froze in fear left him unable to even explain that he had searched everywhere and failed to find him.
Aunty Hsiao struggled for a long time before she was finally able to calm Fuyue down. He had been badly shaken by Peng's words...so much so that he kept saying they should find a way to gather the money and return it immediately. That was impossible. Fuyue himself had already spent more than four hundred thousand on purchases, and she had spent her share as well. There was no reason to imagine they could suddenly produce a million they simply did not have.
That was why she insisted, persuading Fuyue with great difficulty until he finally agreed to go back to Peng, promising that no matter how hard the road was, he would continue trying to find a solution. Still, they tried every possible means to reach him and failed. Every number they called went unanswered, and even the return calls never connected.
While they were stuck in that tense waiting, news of the sudden wedding arrangement broke out like a bombshell. By the next morning, she had no choice but to push Fuyue to retrace his steps and find the exact place where Peng had taken him during their last meeting, so he could inform him of this major development...and promise that if he was willing to provide funds, they would carry out the task flawlessly and sabotage the marriage before it went too far.
So she waited for his return, her heart restless and unsettled. If Fuyue met Peng and he rejected the proposal, she had no idea what they would do next.
About thirty minutes after she overheard Iya speaking and leaving, she heard Mama Taichen's voice responding to Fuyue's greeting. She sprang to her feet and rushed into the living room, her heart lodged in her throat. And the very first look she took at Fuyue made something heavy settle in her chest.
Fuyue turned from Mama Taichen, met her eyes, and smiled...a smile that instantly brightened his face...then nodded at her.
Without thinking, she felt her heart lift. She turned and went back into the bedroom, and it felt like an entire era passed before Fuyue followed her inside.
"Mom, the trip was successful," he said with a smile, dropping onto the bed.
"Thank God… what happened? Tell me," she urged. "Did you find the place?"
"I found it, Mom. I found it," Fuyue said, laughing. He pulled his bag closer, unzipped it, and without hesitation brought out a thick bundle of cash and handed it to her.
Aunty Hsiao took it, her hands trembling, ready to dance with relief. She looked at the money, then lifted her gaze back to Fuyue.
"Peng?"
Fuyue shook his head, laughing, and said a single word....
"Malo."
✳️✳️✳️
Someone once told Zhan that life is like a dream. When you wake up from it, you cannot recount everything in detail...you only gather fragments and line them up. Life is the same. After all the years one spends in the world, if asked to summarize what happened, it takes barely a minute...sometimes even less...to outline it all. That is why, when a person dies and is asked about their time on earth, it feels as though their entire existence was nothing more than a brief moment.
That was exactly how Zhan saw his life now.
It felt like yesterday when his mother collapsed before him and he was told she had died. Soon after came Nainai....Nainai entering their home, taking him by the hand, pulling him out of that old life and into a new one. And somehow, within that new life, he had grown up, studied, worked… and now, he was married.
Married...yet still unable to fully grasp it.
Between yesterday and today, countless words had been spoken to him...so many he couldn't even count them...but not a single one had settled in his mind. His thoughts were too crowded, too chaotic, leaving no space for clarity.
He knew that Uncle Elder had come into his room, placed money into his hands...money said to be his groom price and ceremonial gifts combined... and spoken words that changed nothing about what had already happened.
Aunty Shui and Noni were beside him. He was still wearing the same night clothes he hadn't bothered to change. And just like that, a marriage had been performed over his head... something he had never imagined, never even considered. Even if it hadn't been forced, he would have said he had never heard of such a thing.
So he cried quietly, tears spilling freely... especially when Nainai shocked everyone by openly voicing her own dissatisfaction. Beyond her complaint that the marriage was conducted without consulting the his father, she unleashed a flood of grievances, even declaring that the marriage was unjust. This was not how she had envisioned things. She had carried so many hopes for Zhan's marriage, and in one moment, Uncle Elder and the others had shattered them all.
After Yibo left without offering any explanation, Nainai's outburst became the second blow that pushed Zhan into deeper sorrow.
Still, after persistent persuasion and careful soothing, Nainai was finally calmed the night before.
At dawn, when Zhan went to greet her, she pulled him close and began to advise him... words that seeped into him, awakening memories his sleep had pushed far away. Everything returned again, vivid and unavoidable, forcing him to confront reality.
And that reality, now, was nothing more than the thought of the man Nainai and the others were calling his husband.
Where was he?
What had kept him away all this time... why hadn't he come looking for him since arriving with his family, since arranging the marriage without even seeking his consent from the beginning?
At that moment, his mind began to calculate on its own...adding, subtracting...until it delivered a conclusion he could no longer ignore: if he continued to believe that Yibo had no real reason for suddenly appearing in his life and asking for his hand in marriage, then he was only deceiving himself. Something had to be happening. There had to be a reason strong enough for Yibo to abandon everything and step into his life so abruptly...just as Peng had once done.
Peng...
Peng.
The name echoed in Zhan's mind as his thoughts drifted back to the day Yibo had abruptly driven off, the two of them still inside the car, leaving Peng standing there after coming to call for him. Only now did Zhan truly remember Peng's eyes...eyes he hadn't paid attention to then...how Peng had followed the car with his gaze as they drove away. And Yibo's eyes too, fixed rigidly on the road, his jaw tight with anger, saying nothing at all.
Something was definitely happening...something his mind had refused to accept until now. Only now, when everything was already settled, did he realize he could no longer tell whether what lay ahead was good fortune… or its opposite.
From where Zhan sat facing Nainai, he felt his head begin to spin. Her words reached him only faintly, as though they were stopping just short of his mind instead of entering it. He tried to lift his gaze to look at her, but failed. When he forced himself to gather his strength, he felt himself being pulled backward, as if dragged by an invisible force, falling into a deep pit. Then, all at once, a strange calm and lightness washed over him. He felt his spirit separating from his exhausted body, rising freely upward, while from far away he heard Nainai's panic and anxious calls.
****
Primecare Hospital
"Vitals are stable. Oxygen at ninety-eight percent."
Inside the operating room, a nurse spoke while watching Yibo, dressed in surgical attire, his eyes fixed on the procedure. He nodded slightly without looking up.
"That's good. Let's close this layer. Suture, please."
The scrub nurse beside him quickly handed it over, and he continued working.
Ten minutes later, the surgery was completed. The patient had already begun to stir from anesthesia. Yibo left the operating room and headed straight to his office. As usual, he locked the door behind him and went directly into the bathroom to wash up. When he came out, his gaze fell on the office door opposite him.
A thought surfaced... or perhaps found a place to settle among the many already crowding his mind. The day he first met Zhan. The day Zhan entered his life. He remembered seeing him standing right there, as if sent, waiting for him. Change was not something he was used to. Since the one great shift that had completely overturned his life, everything had followed a single, carefully planned path... one he controlled.
And yet, within the span of just a few months, he had faced more changes than he could count, one after another, until he reached this point... where he was now a married man.
Married… to Zhan.
It had been two days since he last saw him, and now he no longer knew how to face him. Things had begun to drift away from his original calculations.
The day he confirmed that the marriage between them had truly taken place, just as he had hoped, another piece of news reached him...one neither he nor Malo had planned for.
Peng had taken some of his men and left for Africa, Ghana..pursuing Xiao Die, following a promise someone had made to him. Even Malo hadn't known about the trip until the very day Peng left, which only deepened their confusion... especially for Malo, who realized that Peng had begun making major moves without informing him.
As Yibo reflected on Peng's journey, along with Duan's words to him, he found that nothing truly solid had settled in his mind. Even after parting ways with Duan, he couldn't say he had grasped anything clearly. That was why he still didn't know how to face Zhan.
When the thoughts grew too heavy, he took his sleeping medication and went to bed. By morning, he was back at work. The surgery he had just completed was already his second of the day, yet he didn't feel nearly as exhausted as he had the day before.
It reminded him...once again...that mental exhaustion often outweighs physical fatigue.
His phone vibrated on the desk. He picked it up and saw Malo's number flashing on the screen.
He answered.
"I've got news…"
That was how Malo began, his voice reaching Yibo's ear without greeting or preamble.
Yibo found a place to sit on the edge of his desk, released a quiet breath, and replied, "I'm listening."
"The man I suspected of passing information to Pepe just left the area he come to meet him."
Yibo nodded in understanding without saying a word.
"From what I gathered, money is what he wants. So I used that angle. I gave him some cash and my phone number, told him to contact me with anything he finds. I'll pass everything on to Pepe myself. That way, whatever he brings us, we'll know exactly how to approach it... calmly, without causing trouble."
Yibo nodded again.
"That was a very good call." He rubbed his head lightly, then asked, "Did you get anything concrete from him?"
Malo shook his head, as if Yibo could see him. "We only spoke once. He told me to keep a close eye on Zhan, because they might reach Peng in a way that won't make him accessible by phone."
Yibo lifted his head, staring out of his office window.
"You still think they won't inform him while he's there?"
"I don't think they'll wait long. And like I explained before, we'll get better evidence if he returns and is informed in person, not just over the phone. Audio recordings alone aren't solid evidence in court...if he denies it, they'll say it was an imitation."
Yibo nodded in agreement. Duan had told him the same thing earlier: whether he liked it or not, they would have to wait for Peng's return before making any real progress.
They ended the call. Yibo set the phone down and opened his laptop to check an email Matron Tanga had asked him to review early that morning, before he went into surgery. He was still reading when his phone rang again.
When he picked it up, he saw Sanxing's number. He used that line to contact him as well, so the call itself didn't surprise him...but something about it made his chest tighten. His involvement with Sanxing would clearly have to deepen now.
He answered, greeted him...and then Sanxing said something Yibo had never expected.
"They've been trying to reach you from home. They said they've been calling the number on Zhan's phone since morning but couldn't get through. Zhan fell ill this morning and was taken to the hospital. He's been admitted."
****
When Zhan regained consciousness, almost everyone was already at the hospital...including Nainai.
He realized he had been placed in a private room. It was the hospital where Uncle Nanjing had opened a file for the family.
Even though Nainai and the others had been told before he woke up that there was nothing seriously wrong... his blood pressure had dropped dangerously low, worsened by stress and lack of food, causing him to collapse...and that by now he had already received two IV fluids and was beginning to feel much better, Nainai still insisted on calling people.
Before noon, the room was filled with relatives until the nurses had to step in and ask for order.
Uncle Sanxing, who had arrived earlier, kept complaining that it was Aunty Shui's fault for allowing Nainai to call so many people.
Everyone who came had something to say.
"A newlywed falling sick… We heard good news, and then illness followed?"
One of Nainai's younger sisters, Aunty Gumsu, brought Zhan a bowl of meat porridge and sat beside him while he ate. Lowering her voice, she said.
"Zhan, what's really going on? I know Nainai wouldn't force you into marriage...but from a wedding straight to the hospital? If there's a problem, tell me. You know I can even go as far as Bozai-Gege to speak on your behalf."
Zhan only shook his head, saying nothing.
When Aunty Gumsu still didn't seem convinced, she added,
"Don't carry a burden you can't handle. Everyone who comes here will assume you don't like the man you married. Speak up now...clear the air before it gets worse."
Zhan finally swore to reassure her.
"Aunty, there's nothing like that. I agreed to marry him willingly. It's just that everything that followed happened so suddenly. I haven't seen him since, and he hasn't explained anything. And Nainai keeps asking why the marriage happened without informing my father."
He said it honestly.
As far as he knew, there was no problem between him and Yibo. From the way Yibo spoke to him and treated him, Zhan never sensed any sign of conflict... now or in the future.
There was only one issue: something he himself couldn't yet define, because he hadn't fully understood it.
And then there was the silence...the days that had passed without a single call from Yibo. Zhan couldn't understand why. They had parted on good terms. If Yibo wasn't going to call him, then why had he rushed to marry him in the first place?
That was the question that kept tightening around his heart.
If there was truly a problem, then it lay between only two things...two things he felt were not yet meant to be shared with anyone.
The room stayed crowded, because those who came would call others, and soon everyone knew that Nainai had relatives. Zhan heard Nainai telling Uncle Sanxing to call Yibo and inform him. After Aunty Shui tried Yibo's number herself... just like every other time... the call still did not go through.
What surprised Zhan was Uncle Sanxing later claiming that he had spoken to Yibo. Zhan found it hard to believe; it felt as though Uncle Sanxing had only said it to quiet Nainai, who kept insisting that Yibo should be contacted.
But around two o'clock, the doubt vanished.
Three women arrived, accompanied by two men, all carrying neatly packed gifts. They introduced themselves as relatives from Yibo's father's side. Greetings were exchanged, congratulations offered for the marriage, followed by words of sympathy for Zhan's illness.
One of the women even came forward and sat at the foot of Zhan's bed, praising him warmly and saying it was only right that Yibo had hurried to complete the marriage. They were cheerful, open people, and the room filled with light conversation as they explained that they didn't live nearby.
When it was time for them to leave, they asked Aunty Shui when Zhan would move into Yibo's home and advised that it shouldn't be delayed too long. Aunty Shui replied that such a decision was between Zhan and Yibo...it would depend on what they discussed.
As Zhan listened, he turned their words over in his mind, already imagining how everything might unfold.
Using his phone, he asked Bai to call Aji and inform her of his illness.
Before evening, Aji arrived, heavily pregnant...due any day now. Nainai immediately began scolding her for coming out in that condition.
When Zhan looked at Aji, he didn't know where to begin explaining his marriage to Yibo. In the end, he gathered himself and told her everything. Aji only shook her head, saying, "If I had a few months pregnancy, I had no choice but to stay in the hospital for telling me this, Zhan."
He patiently explained why he hadn't told her earlier and asked her to help inform Zuzu.
By nightfall, everyone had left. Uncle Sanxing insisted on escorting Nainai home, gathering her, Bai, and another younger sister who had come to keep vigil, and driving them back since the doctors said Zhan would not be discharged that day.
Nainai complained bitterly on hearing this, muttering that now that people had gathered and celebrations expanded, of course the hospital would refuse to discharge him...everyone had gotten what they wanted.
In the end, Aunty Shui was the only one who stayed the night with Zhan.
In the evening, a nurse came and administered a sedative, explaining that he needed proper rest. Once the medication took effect, Zhan didn't wake again until around eight o'clock. When he finally opened his eyes with effort, he saw that only Aunty Shui and her husband were in the room.
Aunty Shui stood and asked what he wanted, whether he felt like eating. Zhan only shook his head; the sleep still felt heavy in his body. Even when her husband greeted him, Zhan responded faintly before slipping back into sleep.
Perhaps thirty minutes later...or less...Zhan felt a hand gently slide into his.
At once, his awareness stirred.
Warmth spread around his fingers, and a deeper silence settled over him...so complete that he could hear the frantic pounding of his own heart in his ears.
The hand moved again, fingers slowly, carefully threading between his, as if it wasn't real, as if he were dreaming. His breath caught. A warmth, almost liquid, flowed through his veins, trying to pull him out of the fog that held him.
But he couldn't fully wake.
The warmth followed his pulse, reigniting something deep inside him. His whole body felt fragile...achingly fragile...as though the hand holding his was the only thing he had ever been missing.
And when he finally forced his eyes open through the haze, he saw Yibo sitting in the chair beside his bed, both of his hands wrapped firmly around his.
Friday, 23 January
2026
Zhanxianyibo💚❤️💛