Chapter 146: The Problem

Lu Fengzhou pulled the blanket up to cover Qiao Jiu.

Qiao Jiu woke up abruptly. Before she could fully process it, she remained somewhat dazed, and asked, "Lu Fengzhou?"

Lu Fengzhou uttered a soft sound of acknowledgment and asked, "How did you manage to get yourself into this state?"

Qiao Jiu did not answer. After catching her breath for a few seconds and clearing her thoughts, she turned her head toward Liang Xiucheng, saying, "Ah-Cheng."

Liang Xiucheng took a deep breath, walked over, and sat down nearby. "Are you hungry? I had the servants bring over some rice congee. It's still warm."

A thermal container sat on the nearby table. He opened it and poured a bowl. "Your stomach is completely empty from vomiting. Eat something."

Qiao Jiu was not hungry, but her stomach genuinely ached from having vomited so violently earlier.

Propelling herself up, she accepted the bowl of congee from Liang Xiucheng and looked back at Lu Fengzhou. "Why did you come over? Aren't you busy with work?"

Lu Fengzhou turned and sat down on the nearby sofa. "It's fine."

After a few seconds, he added, "I heard you went back to the old family residence some time ago."

Knowing she had returned to the old residence meant he either had someone keeping an eye on her or someone at the estate was watching her.

Qiao Jiu lowered her gaze. "I just went back to take a look. The anniversary of my mother's passing is coming up soon, and I wanted to find some of my father's belongings to burn for her."

Su Fang had passed away more than twenty years ago, but every year on her death anniversary, Qiao Siwu would take Qiao Jiu to pay their respects without missing a single year.

Lu Fengzhou nodded. "It is coming up soon."

He said nothing further and fell silent.

After that, aside from the sound of Qiao Jiu drinking her congee, there were no other noises in the hospital room, and the atmosphere grew inexplicably awkward.

Qiao Jiu had little appetite and only drank half the bowl.

Liang Xiucheng took the bowl from her hands, pulled out a tissue, and naturally helped wipe her mouth.

Lu Fengzhou narrowed his eyes slightly as he sat on the sofa.

After waiting a moment, Qiao Jiu turned to look at Lu Fengzhou. "I'm quite all right. Mr. Lu can go back to whatever he needs to do."

Lu Fengzhou replied with a hint of coldness in his tone, "I don't have anything pressing to do either."

Well, this...

Qiao Jiu suddenly found herself at a loss for words.

Fortunately, at that moment, the door to the hospital room was pushed open and Guan Wei arrived.

She bustled in, exclaiming, "Qiao Jiu, what happened to you? Why are you in the hospital?"

Rushing to the bedside, she looked closely at Qiao Jiu and clicked her tongue several times. "You poor thing, your complexion is so awful. Tell me, who bullied you?"

Qiao Jiu raised a hand to touch her own cheek. "No one bullied me. I just caught a cold."

Guan Wei turned her gaze to Liang Xiucheng. "What is wrong with you? Why didn't you take good care of our little Jiu?"

No matter how one looked at it, the blame could hardly fall on Liang Xiucheng, yet he still smiled and said, "My fault. It won't happen again."

Guan Wei sighed, turned to sit on the edge of the bed, and took Qiao Jiu's hand, intending to say something, when her peripheral vision caught sight of someone still sitting on the sofa.

She stood up instantly. "Mr. Lu, why are you here?"

Lu Fengzhou crossed his legs. "I'm here to visit a patient."

Guan Wei blinked, and after a long moment, she remarked, "Mr. Lu is certainly very thoughtful."

Whether this was meant as casual flattery or intentional sarcasm was unclear, but to Lu Fengzhou, it felt rather grating.

Thoughtful was something he had never been.

Whenever Qiao Jiu fell ill in the past, he had never spared her an extra glance, showing only boundless impatience.

He frowned slightly, wanting to say something, but ultimately held his tongue.

Qiao Jiu asked Guan Wei, "Why did you come? How did you find out?"

"Where else?" Guan Wei sat back down. "I wanted to find you for lunch at noon, so I drove to your company. Ah-Jin said you were hospitalized, and I rushed right over without even eating. You didn't even notify me—you clearly don't think of me as a friend."

Qiao Jiu smiled. "I felt too terrible; I simply didn't have the bandwidth to notify anyone."

Liang Xiucheng chimed in, "You didn't see how she was earlier. Her fever had her completely delirious, and she was vomiting so badly she couldn't even stand. How could she have notified you?"

Guan Wei quickly cupped Qiao Jiu's face in her hands. "Oh dear, my poor little thing. Let me look at you. Why are you so hopeless at taking care of yourself?"

Lu Fengzhou stood up. "Since there's nothing major, I'll take my leave now and check on you later."

Guan Wei turned to look at him, answering on Qiao Jiu's behalf, "Alright, alright. Take care, Mr. Lu."

Qiao Jiu held back a laugh. Anyone could see through Guan Wei's petty tactic of deliberately cozying up to Liang Xiucheng to irritate Lu Fengzhou.

Then again, he deserved it.

Liang Xiucheng also had matters to attend to at his company. Shortly after Lu Fengzhou left, he stood up as well and told Guan Wei, "Stay here and keep her company. I've been away from the office all morning and have some loose ends to tie up. I need to go back and handle them, but I'll return as quickly as possible."

"Go on, go on," Guan Wei said. "I'm here."

Liang Xiucheng turned back to Qiao Jiu. "Call me if you need anything."

"What could possibly happen?" Guan Wei muttered. "The doctors and nurses are all right here. What good is calling you?"

Qiao Jiu smiled at Liang Xiucheng. "Go ahead."

Heading downstairs, Liang Xiucheng spotted Lu Fengzhou the moment he stepped out of the inpatient building.

Lu Fengzhou stood near the green shrubbery with his hands tucked into his pockets.

Knowing he was waiting for him, Liang Xiucheng walked over. "Mr. Lu."

Lu Fengzhou turned to look at him. "Let's talk."

Liang Xiucheng raised an eyebrow. "Alright."

...

A nurse came in to administer an intravenous drip to Qiao Jiu. Qiao Jiu extended her arm; her wrists were slender, and the veins on the back of her hand were clearly visible.

Guan Wei cast a couple of glances at her. "Your constitution has always been decent. To fall ill so suddenly—did you run into some distressing trouble?"

Qiao Jiu turned her head away. In truth, she was exceptionally terrified of injections. In the past, someone always had to accompany her, holding her in their arms and covering her eyes.

After falling on hard times with no one to care for her, she discovered that she could endure it by herself.

Just as she used to be terrified of thunderstorms, once there was no one left to look after her, she simply gritted her teeth and survived it, eventually losing the fear altogether.

Once the nurse finished inserting the needle, Qiao Jiu spoke, "I didn't run into any distressing trouble. I probably just caught a chill while sleeping at night. People aren't made of iron; catching a cold and running a fever is completely normal."

Liang Xiucheng placed the blood test report to the side. Guan Wei caught sight of it immediately, walked around, and picked it up. "What's this?"

Unable to decipher it, she handed it to Qiao Jiu. "What are they testing for?"

Qiao Jiu recognized the test. During those two years when she had desperately wanted to conceive a child, she had scoured the internet daily for knowledge on the subject.

She explained, "The doctor was worried I might be pregnant and didn't dare prescribe medication without running a blood test to rule it out first."

"Pregnant?" Guan Wei blinked. "With Lu Fengzhou's child?"

Qiao Jiu let out a long breath. "We were intimate a few times without contraception, but perhaps my constitution isn't very good; I don't conceive easily."

Otherwise, how could there have been no sign of anything after two years?

As a thought occurred to her, she chuckled softly. "It's a good thing I'm not pregnant. If there were a child now, things would only be much more troublesome."

Had there been a child when the two of them divorced, Lu Fengzhou would never have let her have custody, and her actions would constantly be restricted.

Guan Wei looked down at the lab report again, and struck by some thought, she sighed. "Anyway, the two of you are divorced now, so consider my words as just passing wind—don't take them to heart."

Sitting down nearby, she turned the lab report over and over. "Have you ever suspected that your diet in the past might have been the reason you never got pregnant?"