25: Chapter 25 I Became Sister Zhou's Husband?

The outpatient hall of Central Hospital was like a giant beehive; the smell of disinfectant mixed with the scent of sweat hit him in the face. Long, winding queues snaked in front of the registration counters, and the sounds of crying, calling numbers, and wailing infants were all jumbled together.

Zhang Fan pushed through the crowd, his inner anxiety growing like wild weeds. He didn't know where Zhou Yurou was, so he could only run toward the Obstetrics and Gynecology department based on his intuition.

Just as he turned the corner of the corridor, a harsh, brutal shout pierced his eardrums: "You vicious woman!"

Zhang Fan's heart sank instantly, and he shoved aside the onlookers to rush in—the scene before him made his eyes split with rage.

Yang Lei was gripping Zhou Yurou's hair tightly, slamming her head against the wall with a dull "thud."

Zhou Yurou groaned and went limp, but he still wasn't satisfied, raising his foot to stomp on her stomach: "It's all your fault! If you hadn't pushed Yuan Mubai, would the baby be gone?!"

Yuan Mubai stood to the side, clutching her lower abdomen and crying hypocritically: "Yang Lei, stop hitting her... Sister Rou didn't mean it..." Yet, a gleam of schadenfreude flashed in her eyes.

It turned out they had just finished an examination, and the doctor had said the baby in Yuan Mubai's womb had long since lost its heartbeat, meaning she had to undergo an abortion.

Without asking for the truth, Yang Lei was convinced it was caused by Zhou Yurou "shoving" her that morning. When he happened to run into Zhou Yurou, who had just arrived, his rage exploded instantly.

"Stop!" Zhang Fan roared as he rushed forward and yanked Yang Lei away. He was much stronger than he looked, and Yang Lei staggered back two steps, his eyes widening in fury: "Who the hell are you? How dare you interfere in my business?"

"Who I am doesn't matter." Zhang Fan blocked Zhou Yurou, his chest heaving violently, "Hitting people is wrong! Especially in a hospital!"

Zhou Yurou slumped on the ground, her hair disheveled, with a few strands of black hair still caught between Yang Lei's fingers, and tiny beads of blood seeping from her scalp.

Her face was swollen, and the corner of her mouth was split and bleeding, but the light in her eyes had completely extinguished. Like two dry wells, she stared straight at Yang Lei, devoid of hatred or pain, leaving only a deathly silence.

"She deserves to be beaten!" Yang Lei continued to shout, "This vicious woman was jealous that Yuan Mubai was pregnant with my child and intentionally caused her miscarriage..."

"You're lying!" Zhang Fan said anxiously, pulling out his phone to open the surveillance footage, "It was clearly your woman who fell on her own..."

Before he could finish, he suddenly noticed Zhou Yurou's pant leg—on her light-colored wool pants, a dark stain was rapidly spreading like a hideous flower, seeping onto the pale white tiles.

"Blood..." someone whispered.

Zhang Fan's pupils contracted sharply. He crouched down and tremblingly reached out to touch Zhou Yurou's shoulder: "Sister Zhou, you..."

Zhou Yurou didn't react, like a marionette with cut strings.

"Quick! Emergency room!"

Zhang Fan didn't care about anything else and scooped her up into his arms. Zhou Yurou was very light, as light as a feather, but she felt heavy as a thousand pounds in his arms. The warm dampness seeped through the fabric onto his arm, burning his heart with pain.

"Make way! Make way!" He roared as he charged through the crowd. The person in his arms suddenly moved and whispered in a voice as thin as a thread: "...the baby..."

Zhang Fan's footsteps faltered, his heart feeling as if it were being fiercely gripped by a hand.

Yang Lei watched them rush toward the emergency room, stunned for two seconds, before turning to help Yuan Mubai: "Yuan Mubai, are you okay? I'll take you to the ward to rest..." It was as if the glaring blood on the floor had nothing to do with him.

The lights in the emergency room were blindingly bright. When the doctor took over Zhou Yurou and lifted her clothes, he gasped: "There's obvious bruising on the abdomen and heavy vaginal bleeding. Take her to the resuscitation room immediately!"

The nurse pushed the hospital bed inside, and Zhang Fan followed behind, hearing the doctor shout: "Did you check the HCG levels? The patient is at least two months pregnant! There are signs of a threatened miscarriage, we must perform a D&C immediately!"

Pregnant?

Zhang Fan was stunned on the spot, his brain buzzing. Zhou Yurou was pregnant, and not only did Yang Lei not know, but he had also stomped on her stomach...

"Family! Where is the family?" The nurse ran out holding a surgical consent form and immediately spotted Zhang Fan standing there in a daze, "Sign this quickly! The patient is in critical condition!"

"I..." Zhang Fan pointed at himself, looking bewildered, "I'm not her family!"

"If you're not family, why did you run over so anxiously?" The nurse glared at him and shoved the pen into his hand, "We saw you in the corridor just now. You're her husband, right? Now you're saying you're not family? Sign it! Can you take responsibility if she dies?"

"I'm really not!" Zhang Fan was sweating profusely with anxiety, "I was just passing by, I only brought her here because I saw her being beaten..."

"Would a passerby be this nervous?" A younger nurse chimed in, her eyes full of disdain, "You beat her until she couldn't keep her baby, and now you want to wash your hands of it? I've already reported you to the hospital security office. You can wait for the police!"

"Damn it!" Zhang Fan felt his scalp tingle.

He was clearly here to help, so how did he become the abusive husband? Why did he have to sign a surgical consent form for someone else? And now the police were coming too?

The door to the resuscitation room slammed shut, and the red light turned on, staring at him like a cold eye.

Zhang Fan clutched the pen, his hand shaking. The words "Patient Family Signature" on the consent form were like a red-hot branding iron, so searing that he didn't dare to touch them.

But the person lying inside was Zhou Yurou, the woman who had brought him medicinal wine, had red marks on her wrists, and always smelled of gardenias. She was now on the brink of death, the baby in her womb was gone, and she had to undergo a D&C...

"Are you signing or not?" The nurse urged, "If you delay any longer, the patient might hemorrhage!"

Zhang Fan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and signed his name in the signature field.

The sound of the pen tip scratching across the paper was as light as a sigh.

He didn't know if this decision was right or wrong, only that he couldn't just watch as something happened to Zhou Yurou.

The police from the security office arrived quickly. As soon as they entered, they asked, "Who is the assailant?"

"It's not me!" Zhang Fan waved his hands quickly, "The one who did the hitting is her husband, named Yang Lei. Just now in the corridor..."

"Yang Lei?" A police officer frowned, "Is it the one in the dark gray suit, accompanying a woman in a red dress? We saw them in the ward area just now and were about to go ask about the situation."

Zhang Fan breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to speak, the door to the resuscitation room opened. The doctor walked out, took off his mask, and said: "The surgery went smoothly, but the patient lost too much blood and needs a transfusion. In addition, she has a mild concussion and multiple soft tissue contusions on her body, so further examinations will be needed."

"Thank you, doctor!" Zhang Fan thanked him hurriedly.

"Who are you to her?" The doctor looked at him, "The patient's emotional state is very unstable after waking up, so you should try to comfort her. Also, domestic violence is illegal. I suggest you communicate properly, and if that doesn't work, take legal action."

"I'm really not..."

"Alright, say no more." The police officer patted his shoulder, "Whether you are or not, just cooperate with us and give a statement first. As for that Yang Lei, we will investigate him."

As Zhang Fan was being led away by the police, he looked back at the red light of the resuscitation room. The light shone through the glass and landed on the floor like a pool of blood that wouldn't fade.

He suddenly felt that the system's red intelligence prompt to "Help Zhou Yurou get a divorce" might not have been a task, but a prophecy.

Such a marriage should have ended long ago.

It's just that the cost was far too tragic.