“—You are truly lucky.”

This was the sentence Lin Zhu had heard most often lately. He deeply agreed. After all, not everyone could successfully survive being hit by a truck that had lost control and emerge with only minor injuries.

Of course, that was a relative term. The heavy truck loaded with goods had flipped entirely onto its side; the driver had been critically injured and was unconscious when sent to the hospital for emergency care. Meanwhile, the young man who had been struck and pinned underneath a mountain of cargo had actually only broken two bones.

The scene of the car accident was so gruesome that anyone who saw it would be compelled to sigh and say, “It’s a miracle to be alive.” Lin Zhu had only broken a leg bone and a rib, along with a mild concussion; it could indeed be considered a “minor injury.”

Although he agreed with this assessment, he had to admit that this sudden accident had brought him quite a bit of trouble. The incident had caused a major stir—rumor had it that the driver’s family was embroiled in a dispute with the company, and as an honors student at a key local high school, Lin Zhu had attracted quite a bit of attention. Especially since the accident had happened on the very day Lin Zhu finished his college entrance exams.

Soon, the local news station reported on the event.

By the time the news aired, Lin Zhu was lying in his hospital bed. His left leg was in a cast, and his ribs ached dully. He was essentially half-disabled; even though he could barely manage his own daily needs during recovery, it was a struggle.

A nurse came by for rounds and urged him, “Student, is there anyone who can come to take care of you? You cannot move around randomly in your condition; it’s very easy to cause secondary damage, and it will affect your recovery…” She handed him his evening medication and warm water, checked the IV drip, and added, “You’ll need to be hospitalized for at least a month with injuries like these, and you’ll need to continue recuperating once you get home. You can’t be careless.”

Lin Zhu had been spacing out a lot lately. He always felt an emptiness in his heart, as if he were missing something. After hearing her, he froze for a few seconds before nodding: “Thank you, I’ll be careful.”

However, the actual situation differed somewhat from what the nurse had predicted. Perhaps due to the robust constitution of a young man, Lin Zhu’s recovery speed was abnormally fast. The cast on his lower leg was removed successfully after just over two weeks.

Another check-up and X-ray. After looking at the films, the doctor said in disbelief that he would soon be able to go home and recuperate, though he would still need crutches for a while to walk normally and should avoid strenuous exercise.

Lin Zhu couldn’t help but exhale. Being able to leave the hospital was enough.

The doctor then pulled up the CT scan of his brain from earlier on the computer, looking at it repeatedly, and finally said with confusion, “It’s strange, little student. This shows a blood clot in your brain. Although it is being absorbed on its own, logically it should have caused some effects—most patients in this situation experience short-term memory confusion or loss…”

“Are you really sure you don’t feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

Lin Zhu checked himself carefully and replied: “No.”

“That’s good, then,” the doctor nodded. “Don’t worry too much. The clot is very small, and the human body is very powerful. In your case, you should be completely recovered in about two or three months.”

Lin Zhu was certain he had no post-accident memory deficits. After pondering for a moment, he hesitated but eventually asked:

“Doctor, I don’t know why…”

I don’t know why, but a strange sense of urgency and anxiety often welled up from the bottom of his heart. It made his time lying in the hospital bed agonizing; not a single night was spent in a restful sleep. But Lin Zhu didn’t know where this overwhelming flood of emotion came from—it was inexplicable, yet it followed him like a shadow—as if he had lost something important, and he was too anxious to sleep.

The doctor arranged two more tests, found nothing abnormal, and finally referred him to a psychologist responsible for post-accident psychological intervention to help Lin Zhu process his feelings. Lin Zhu felt it was helpful, but not entirely effective.

On the day of his formal discharge.

Lin Zhu was in a car passing the intersection where the accident occurred. The rear window was half-down, and as he glanced at the familiar streetscape outside, his heart suddenly tightened. As if possessed, he said, “…Driver, stop right here.”

Immediately after, he was out of the car.

It was only morning, but the sky was terrifyingly overcast. Thick, dark clouds shrouded the entire horizon; the sunlight couldn’t penetrate them at all, and flashes of lightning flickered faintly at the edge of the sky.

It was about to rain.

But Lin Zhu was in no rush to go home. He extended his portable medical crutches, braced them against the ground, and shifted his weight onto his uninjured leg, his gaze slowly scanning the streetscape.

There were no longer any traces of the accident here. The hair salon that had been affected had been renovated and looked even newer; the rotating light at the entrance emitted a brilliant glow. Every color flashed in Lin Zhu’s eyes.

In a daze, he sat on the bench in front of the convenience store across from the hair salon, half-closing his eyes. A vague figure seemed to emerge in his mind. So he closed his eyes completely, trying to carefully trace it…

In an instant,

The world was silent for only a second, and then the rain poured down like a deluge, soaking the entire world with a deafening roar.

Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.

Almost at the same time, the vague image in Lin Zhu’s mind was like a sheet of opaque frosted glass; the raindrops struck it, creating cracks like a collapsing iceberg, reflecting no more images.

The sky in the rain was even gloomier. Lin Zhu sat under the convenience store’s awning. The rain couldn’t reach him, but the air became cold and damp, smelling faintly of the sea.

Lin Zhu’s expression became horrified!

—He saw someone lying in the middle of the road ahead.

It was an exceptionally tall man wearing a white shirt and silver-gray trousers. His feet were bare, and he lay on the cement floor covered in dirty water in a side-lying position. Even through the curtain of rain, Lin Zhu clearly saw that his collar was disheveled and wide open, exposing a long neck covered in ambiguous marks—especially at the back of the neck, where bite marks were layered, the fair skin making those purplish-red imprints look even more vivid…

The situation looked very wrong. Not to mention that the man was hugging a men’s coat, his two wrists exposed to the air, showing unnatural circular marks. Marks like those caused by binding.

Lin Zhu couldn’t see the man’s face buried in the coat.

Inexplicably, his heart was beating fast; he could almost hear the sound of his own blood accelerating in his ears. This was likely a man who had encountered some terrible tragedy, Lin Zhu thought with a heavy heart.

He quickly set his crutches aside, dashed into the rain in two steps, and carried the man, who seemed unconscious, back to the bench at the convenience store. He quickly asked:

“Sir, are you okay?”

Actually, what he wanted to ask was: Do I need to call the police?

After speaking, he quickly wiped the rain off his face. When he opened his eyes again, he happened to catch the man lifting his face from the coat and looking toward him—

This was an incredibly beautiful man. He was soaked through, his face deathly pale, his lips an unnatural red, his gray-green eyes unfocused. But as his gaze touched the young man before him, his long lashes trembled rapidly, splashing away a few tiny, indistinguishable droplets of rain.

Lin Zhu asked again.

“Sir, do I need to call the police?” He lowered his eyes, looking at the man whose condition was clearly not good. His throat felt dry, and he subconsciously clenched his hands into fists. “Or is there anything I can help you with?”

The man opened his mouth, his voice slightly hoarse.

“…Don’t call the police. I’m fine.”

Lin Zhu ignored the slight stinging pain in his lower leg, his lip line straight. His gaze swept over the man’s neck, collarbones, wrists, and the red mole and tooth marks on the inside of his ankle, then quickly looked away, his tone becoming extremely serious.

“Sir, have you been abused by someone else?”

The man stared at Lin Zhu and slowly shook his head.

He didn’t want Lin Zhu to help him call the police, nor did he want to go to the hospital. He just stared at the young man before him with his peach-blossom eyes. Lin Zhu asked him questions, and he answered, though his voice was terribly hoarse. It was as if he were harboring a throat full of sobs.

When Lin Zhu asked him “what exactly happened,” the man gave a bleak smile, his eyes reddening.

He said,

“I… my husband doesn’t want me anymore.”

Gurgle, gurgle…

No one spoke in the room, making the sound of the water boiling in the kettle sound exceptionally loud. Scalding white mist erupted from the spout, rising steadily.

Lin Zhu stood up from the sofa awkwardly, only for the man sitting on the opposite sofa to stand up as well and say softly: “Your leg is injured, let me get it.”

Watching the man’s retreating figure, Lin Zhu suddenly let out a breath, and the next second, he heard him ask: “Where do you keep your cold medicine?”

Lin Zhu’s heart leaped again, and he quickly told him the location.

A few minutes later.

Lin Zhu was drinking the medicine the man had prepared for him, quietly lifting his eyelids to look at the man sitting back across from him. He truly had no idea how things had developed to this point.

The man’s complexion looked less frail and pale than before; after showering, his clothes had been changed for Lin Zhu’s. A short-sleeved shirt and casual shorts that didn’t reach his knees.

Lin Zhu sat uneasily, his gaze grazing the man’s exposed knees. Both places were abnormally red, swollen, and bruised—it was easy for someone to imagine…

Had he been kneeling for too long?

Lin Zhu endured it for a moment, but finally couldn’t help it, and asked with difficulty: “Sir, do you really not need…”

Before he could finish, the man stared at him and suddenly began to explain voluntarily: “I really don’t need to call the police, and I don’t need to go to the hospital. I feel very good.”

He paused, then added:

“By the way, thank you for being willing to take me in.”

Lin Zhu shook his head. He was silent for a long while before asking: “Are you not going to drink the cold medicine? Take it as a precaution to avoid getting sick.”

After a few seconds.

The man came back to his senses, subconsciously raising his hand to rest on his lower abdomen, and said slowly: “I can’t take medicine blindly, because…”

“I have a unique constitution, and I am currently pregnant with my ex-husband’s child.”

Cough, cough, cough!!

The moment the man finished speaking, Lin Zhu erupted into a fit of violent coughing, nearly choking. He took a deep breath, and then another.

One sentence was scrolling frantically in Lin Zhu’s mind.

—He seems to have picked up a pregnant husband of unknown identity, who was suspected of being abused by a same-sex partner, and then callously abandoned?