Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

"What good would it do not to forgive you?" Chen Shutang said with a touch of resentment. "Yang Ce, I wonder if I've been too indulgent with you."

Yang Ce patted Chen Shutang's delicate shoulder and said, "Mengyan, rest assured, I, Yang Puqi, will love you and treat you well for the rest of my life. You know I'm not the kind of man who casts off the old for the new."

Yang Shuoxuan knew that it was already no small thing for Chen Shutang to make such a concession today. Love is selfish—who would want to share their beloved with someone else? Unless there was something wrong with them.

Yang Ce had read plenty of urban wish-fulfillment web novels online—especially the books by a fellow called "Mingyue Fumingyue," which were all about one man with many women, with the heroines even helping the hero find more wives. But that was all fiction.

Women like that were hardly easy to find in real life. So Yang Shuoxuan did not mind that Chen Shutang sometimes got jealous and threw little tantrums—she was a normal girl, after all. How could she want her boyfriend to have other women on the side?

Of course, women with special experiences like Xiao Qing were the exception.

"Lan Ling, Lin Yanhe, Zhou Yanning... ugh." Chen Shutang sighed faintly.

"Zhou Yanning?" Yang Puqi was startled. He and Zhou Yanning—weren't they still a bit of a stretch?

Seeing Yang Ce's somewhat stunned expression, Chen Shutang frowned, and a surge of inexplicable anger rose in her heart. Yes, anger—Chen Shutang herself did not know why she was so upset, but seeing Yang Juehuan's expression, she truly felt indignant on Zhou Yanning's behalf. "Yang Ce, what kind of face is that?"

"What did I do?" Yang Moyi was baffled by Chen Shutang's sudden outburst.

"Hmph, and here I thought you really were a responsible man," Chen Shutang sneered. "Now I see I was wrong about you. I get it now—the women you like, you swear up and down to take responsibility for them; and the ones you don't like, you don't even bother, is that it?"

"What? What do you mean, I take responsibility for the ones I like and not the ones I don't?" Yang Ce was thoroughly confused by Chen Shutang.

"You like Lan Ling and Lin Yanhe, so you have to take responsibility for them. You don't like Zhou Yanning, so you just ignore her?" Chen Shutang's tone grew heated. "Zhou Yanning took a bullet for you—do you even have a heart?"

"..." Yang Cenbin finally understood—Chen Shutang was speaking up for Zhou Yanning. But Yang Ce was puzzled: this little jar of vinegar, who usually dreaded any other woman being connected to him, why was she taking the initiative this time?

But this time Chen Shutang really had misunderstood Yang Ce. He had never meant to ignore Zhou Yanning—he simply felt that since she had not woken up yet, it was too early to discuss such matters, and it would not be too late to make plans once she woke. What he had not expected was that Chen Shutang was more anxious about it than he was.

"Mengyan, when did I ever say I'd ignore her?" Yang Moyi was caught between laughter and tears. "If I were ignoring her, would I come see her so often? Would I be going to the hospital with you today?"

"Then what was that expression just now?" Chen Shutang said with a frown.

"Just now I didn't dare bring up Zhou Yanning with you again, did I? One Lan Ling, one Lin Yanhe, and you're ready to tear the roof down. Add a Zhou Yanning on top of that—" Yang Ce did not get to finish before Chen Shutang cut him off.

"When have I ever been as unreasonable as you make me out to be?" Chen Shutang said. "I think Zhou Yanning is really quite pitiful. Yang Ce, you should treat her well—otherwise, everything she has given up would be too much for nothing. It's been nearly a month and she still hasn't woken up. The doctor says she may have to lie in that hospital bed for the rest of her life."

At this, Chen Shutang's expression dimmed. "I know... thank you, Mengyan, truly. As long as you can understand me, that's enough," Yang Ce said, moved.

"Let's go—better early than late. It's almost ten, and who ever visits a patient at noon?" Chen Shutang smiled and said to Yang Ce.

"Ha ha, we're going." Yang Ce had not expected Chen Shutang to let him off so easily, and was somewhat surprised.

With the Zhou family's wealth, Zhou Yanning's hospital room was naturally the finest available—though no matter how luxurious, a sickroom was still a sickroom. If one were not ill, who would want to live in such a place?

Father Zhou had already returned to Europe, where business demanded his attention, while Mother Zhou stayed at Zhou Yanning's bedside every day, having handed the company over to a vice president.

Over this stretch of time, Yang Ce had become a regular visitor here. Seeing him enter, Mother Zhou gave him a nod.

"Aunt Hua, how has Jiajia been these past few days?" Though he knew the question was pointless, Yang Ce asked it anyway.

"The same as always—ah." Mother Zhou, once so elegant and poised, had grown haggard and worn, thinner by a full measure.

"Hello, Aunt Hua. I'm Yang Juehuan's girlfriend, Chen Shutang," Chen Shutang greeted Mother Zhou.

"Mm, hello." Mother Zhou nodded, then rose to her feet. "You two keep Jiajia company and talk with her a while. I'll step outside for a bit."

Mother Zhou now desperately hoped that those close to Zhou Yanning would come often to the hospital and talk with her. The doctors said that perhaps a miracle might happen this way.

Setting the basket of flowers beside the bed, Yang Ce and Chen Shutang sat down together at the bedside. Looking at Zhou Yanning's terribly pale face, Chen Shutang could not help but choke up. Zhou Yanning had been such a beautiful, lovely girl, one who ought to be enjoying her youth—and now she could only lie in a cold, sterile bed, possibly for the rest of her days. Thinking of her, then of herself, Chen Shutang felt that to be able to be happily together with Yan was already a great blessing. Her own life now might be nothing but a vain hope to Zhou Yanning.

And yet now it might not even be a vain hope—it had grown all the more distant and unreachable. Compared with that, what did she have left to quibble over?

Just then, a doctor in a white coat came in, followed by two nurses. Seeing Yang Ce and Chen Shutang, he said, "Would you two mind stepping aside for a moment? I need to perform the patient's routine examination."

To be continued.

683. Good Friends, Good Sisters

Hearing this, Yang Ce and Chen Shutang quickly stood and moved aside to let the doctor examine her.

The doctor recited some figures that Yang Xutang did not understand, having the nurse beside him record them, and then said to Yang Ce and the others, "All right, that's done. Call us if anything comes up."

"Wait, Doctor—how is she?" Yang Ce asked at once.

"The patient's condition is very stable. Her heartbeat and brainwaves are both normal," the doctor said.

"Then when will she wake up?" Chen Shutang asked.

"And you are—?" The doctor did not recognize Yang Ce or Zhou Yanning and did not know their identities. Unless they were the patient's relatives, there was only so much he could say.

"I'm Jiajia's good friend, and he's Jiajia's boyfriend," Chen Shutang said after a moment's hesitation.

Yang Xutang was startled by Chen Shutang's words and looked at her in some confusion, but Chen Shutang shot Yang Ce a glance, so Yang Ce had no choice but to swallow his questions for the time being.

"Oh, then come with me for a moment." The doctor nodded and walked toward the reception room next door.

Yang Ce and Chen Shutang followed the doctor into the reception room, and only then did the doctor say, "There is nothing wrong with the patient's body at present, but waking up will not be easy."

"Then what can be done?" Yang Yanchuan asked.

"What can be done—well, medical science cannot solve this problem yet. Whether she wakes up depends on the patient herself," the doctor said.