"You're overdoing it, Miss Lu. Keep the money, but please, try to be more careful next time." After one injury too many, I couldn't stand to be there a second longer. I said my piece and turned to leave, a searing pain shooting through my elbow. It felt dislocated. Lu Ke’er’s gentle voice came from behind me. “Zhizhou, Ji Qing didn't mean to run into her. She got knocked around herself.” The man’s response was low and devoid of emotion. “I know.” The exchange made my chest tighten painfully. *He knew? Did he really know?* A wave of dizziness washed over me. I tried to push through it, to take just a few more steps, but a moment later, I collapsed. The next time I awoke, I was lying in a hospital bed. Surrounded by a sterile white haze, I felt dazed, my thoughts moving sluggishly. “Lili, you’re awake?” My mother’s voice cut through the fog. I blinked, turning toward the sound. My mother was there, fumbling to set down a kettle before rushing to my side. She gripped my hand, her eyes red. “Oh, Lili, how could you have been so reckless?” “Mom, I’m fine. Please don’t cry.” I’ve never been able to stand seeing her cry. I instinctively lifted my hand to wipe away her tears, but the movement sent a jolt of pain through my elbow, and I hissed in a sharp breath. My mother’s face flooded with panic. “Don’t move! The doctor just finished setting it.” It was only then that I registered my once-dislocated elbow had been put back in place. After a moment, I looked at my mother, testing the waters. “Mom, how did you get here? And how is my brother?” Her eyes ached with sympathy as she looked at me. “It was Mr. Gu’s fiancée who called,” she said, a note of resignation in her voice. “She said you had fainted, that you’d lost a lot of blood. I didn’t know you’d had an abortion until I got to the hospital… or that you’d let yourself get into this state.” I wasn’t surprised my mother knew about the abortion—the doctors would have told her as soon as she arrived. What I couldn't understand was why Lu Ke’er would have been kind enough to contact her at all. She looked at me, words catching in her throat. I squeezed her hand and offered a weak smile. “Don’t worry about me, Mom. I’m fine.” My reassurance only seemed to stoke her anger. Her eyes flared. “Fine? Is that all you ever say? Do you think an abortion is a small thing for a woman? You nearly hemorrhaged! You tell me whose child it was. I’ll go get justice for you.” I knew she was only trying to protect me, but what was between Gu Zhizhou and me was a tangled mess I couldn't begin to explain. Exhaustion weighed me down. I closed my eyes. “Mom, I’m so tired,” I murmured. “Please, don’t ask any more questions. Can you just let me rest?” I hated the way I sounded, but I saw no other way to make her stop. My plea seemed to work. She sighed, the sound heavy with helplessness. “Alright. You get some rest. I’ll go find you something to eat.” Gu Zhizhou came in the middle of the night. With my brother still undergoing treatment, my mother couldn’t stay with me around the clock, leaving me alone in the dark room. A sudden chill washed over me, pulling me from a restless sleep. I instinctively opened my eyes, my gaze drawn to the source of the cold, and froze. A man was standing beside my bed. The lights were off; I couldn’t make out his face. A cold sweat broke out on my skin. Ignoring the pain, I bolted upright in bed. “Who are you?” I stammered, my voice tight with fear. My only answer was the silence of the room. Then I caught a faint, familiar scent—his cologne. I froze for a second before fumbling for the switch on the bedside lamp, needing to be sure. As the lamp cast its soft glow, I saw his face. Only then did my frantic heartbeat begin to slow. My voice came out as a rasp. “Zhizhou? What are you doing here?” He just stared at me, his gaze cold, his dark eyes filled with an emotion I couldn’t decipher. “Do you regret it?”