If You Could Hear My Heart

The doctor was utterly confused and said in English, “Sir, please calm down, what happened?”

Shen Chi did not waste words with him and grabbed the doctor’s collar, marching straight into the ward.

He pointed at the empty bed and said, “Where’s the patient? Where’s that girl?”

The doctor’s eyes widened too, and several young nurses also ran in.

“I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t see the patient leave. Please calm down for a moment, we’ll have someone help you look for her. Maybe, she went to the restroom or stepped out to buy breakfast.”

“Bullshit!” Even the refined Shen Chi could not help but curse at this moment, “For such a big hospital, aren’t there any doctors on duty? Are you using this kind of excuse to fob me off?”

“Sir, our hospital is relatively liberal, and moreover, this kind of thing has hardly ever happened. Please wait a moment, we’ll definitely get back to you with an answer.”

The doctor was also very anxious, but no matter how anxious, there was nothing they could do.

All he could do was give the nurses some instructions in the local language, and soon, the young nurses immediately dashed out of the ward to look for the missing person.

Wen Zhiyuan had also arrived, not expecting such a thing to happen.

Xu Chaomu still had injuries, how could she have run off on her own?

“Fourth Young Master Shen, don’t panic, let them look for her. I’ll also send people to help you search.”

“Wen Zhiyuan… do you know, that feeling has come back.”

Shen Chi suddenly seemed very dejected, clenching his fists as he stood in the ward, his eyes deep, his thin lips tightly pressed together.

Looking up from behind, Wen Zhiyuan saw the straight and slender line of his back, which now appeared exceptionally forlorn and desolate.

This was the proud and assertive Fourth Young Master Shen, seen by outsiders as a favored son of heaven who always maintained a calm and collected demeanor no matter the time or place.

But now, he had crumbled.

The importance of Xu Chaomu in Shen Chi’s heart was self-evident.

Wen Zhiyuan stepped forward and patted Shen Chi’s shoulder, “Fourth Young Master Shen, I’ll stay with you to search. She’s still injured and couldn’t have gone far.”

“Last time, she left without saying goodbye, and this time, she left without a word again. It’s all the same, here in the hospital, we can’t break this curse. Tell me, does she really hate me that much?”

“Don’t think nonsense, maybe she just went out to clear her mind.”

“No…” Shen Chi let his hands drop powerlessly, his gaze losing its focus and shine.

This time the feeling was even stronger than the last, carrying a sense of final parting.

His mind flashed back to the words she said when she took a bullet for him; back then, she clearly did not intend to survive.

Anyone would probably go mad under such circumstances.

The two people she had been closest to, her third and fourth brothers, had deceived her so completely that she was battered and bruised.

“Mumu…”

He walked over to the bed, she had hardly taken anything, only the medication and a doll.

“Sir!” A few of the young nurses ran in, “I’m sorry, we’ve searched the nearby area and haven’t found Miss Xu.”

“We also checked the surveillance, but… it was too dark at night, so…”

The lower they spoke, the softer their voices became; they did not even dare to lift their heads.

Shen Chi gave them a cold glance, his eyes filled with an icy chill.

A chilling glare swept over, and the young nurses immediately fell silent, frozen like cicadas in winter.

“What use are you then?” Shen Chi said coldly.

“Sir, after I came to change Miss Xu’s dressing yesterday, she fell asleep. I really didn’t expect her to disappear,” one nurse defended herself.

“If a hospital can’t keep an eye on one person, they might as well burn it down!”

Another nurse lost her patience and, mustering courage, looked at Shen Chi, “I’m saying, sir, you’re the patient’s family, and it’s your responsibility if the patient goes missing. Why didn’t you yourself watch her twenty-four hours a day?”

Suddenly, the surroundings fell silent, the atmosphere growing extremely tense.

The ticking of the clock on the wall sounded clear and distinct.

Wen Zhiyuan stepped forward and shot them a look: “Why are you not leaving yet?”

The nurses left with a pout, visibly displeased.

Shen Chi stopped talking, his face showing nothing but boundless sorrow.

Yes, they were right. He was her husband, yet he had failed to look after her. What right did he have to blame others?

The coldness in his face slowly turned to profound pain and self-reproach; his eyes filled with a limitless desolation.

“Fourth Young Master Shen, don’t mind what they said, they’re just trying to shift the blame,” Wen Zhiyuan tried to console him.

“They’re right. I, Shen Chi, am the root cause of the disaster.”

“You don’t have to blame yourself like this, we can’t control this. I’ll call the police,” Wen Zhiyuan said.

“Hmm.”

Wen Zhiyuan stepped out of the ward to call the police and his friends.

Shen Chi was left alone in the ward, overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness.

As he stared at the bedsheets, Xu Chaomu’s smiling face appeared before his eyes; her sweet voice spread in his ears as memories unfurled one by one.

“Fourth brother… my head hurts.”

“Endure it.”

“I can’t.”

“Endure it even if you can’t!”

“It really hurts, wuwuwu, I’m gonna die…”

Shen Chi’s face was filled with exasperation as he finally reached out to rub her forehead. “Does this feel a bit more comfortable?”

She moved closer to him gradually, inching toward his side, slyly taking advantage of him.

Thump, she wrapped her arms around him, hiding in his embrace, laughing mischievously: “Now it doesn’t hurt anymore!”

“Get lost.”

Back then, he always felt teased by her, full of frustration, getting up and walking away.

Shen Chi felt as though a millstone was grinding over his heart, back and forth, over and over, the pain unbearable.

Feeling a heat in his eye sockets, he pursed his lips tightly as tears began to flow from the corners of his eyes.

In his life, he had never shed tears for anyone.

“Mumu… Mumu…” He called her name, the pain in his chest unrelenting.

Never before had he felt such pain, as if his heart was being gouged out with a knife.

“Mumu… do you remember our first meeting? I said you were skinny and ugly, just like a monkey. I found you annoying, troublesome, and everything about you irksome. But only I know, you are the sun in my life, the eight years I spent with you, you have no idea how happy I was…”

“Eight years have gone by… just like that, eight years. But Mumu, what I wanted was a lifetime…”

With his face streaming with tears, Shen Chi’s sobbing could no longer be heard.

A strong feeling in his chest told him that this time Xu Chaomu had really left him forever.

Her smiling face still floated before his eyes, he reached out a hand, wanting to touch her, but what he grasped was only the air.

The voices from his memories echoed in his mind.

“Xu Chaomu, what right do you have to order me around?”

“Right, I have no right. You are a Shen, and I am a Xu. So, from now on, don’t you dare order me either!”

“It seems you haven’t had enough of the sun!”

“Bastard Shen Chi, I’m telling you, I won’t listen to you anymore; you think you’re somebody because you’re rich and capable. I was just someone adopted by the Shen family. One day, I will leave you!”