Chapter 317: Chapter 314 Indispensable Her
Seeing that Zhang Hao remained silent, Li Lan lowered her head.
"Doctor Zhang, if you have time, could you have a cup of coffee with me? Just twenty minutes would be enough."
Zhang Hao checked the time and it was still early: "Alright. There’s a nice one nearby."
At the coffee shop, the woman only ordered a simple cappuccino.
Zhang Hao, looking to refresh and wake himself up, ordered a cup of iced Americano.
"I suppose all the surgeons and nurses are probably talking about my situation now."
Zhang Hao had intended to be evasive, but Li Lan was a smart woman.
"What my husband did was indeed unclean, so it’s no surprise that something like today happened; it was expected long ago."
"I wanted to leave him a year ago, but he was too powerful. I had even fled abroad, yet his people brought me back."
"Tell me, with men like him, he could have any woman he wants, yet he insists on having me."
These words sounded somewhat boastful, after all, which woman wouldn’t want to be the one her man can’t do without?
Li Lan sipped her coffee as she said this.
Even with milk added, the acidity and bitterness of the coffee still came through.
"We’ve known each other since elementary school, middle school, high school, college..."
"No, there was no college. He had already started his own business before finishing high school."
"My family was poor, with a younger brother at home, and my parents couldn’t afford to let me continue studying."
"But thanks to him, he sent me money every now and then, plus my own part-time jobs and frugal living."
"Amazingly, I managed to finish college. I had planned to work afterwards and pay back all the money he gave me over the years."
Until one day he came to me, proposing marriage, at that time even my parents agreed."
"They said that since he helped me, I should go and work like an ox and a horse to repay him."
"I thought I would lead a life of taking care of someone, but after going there, I found out it wasn’t the case."
"He treated me very well. The day after we married, three maids were sent to our house. I didn’t need to worry about food, clothes, living, or transportation at all."
"All I had to do was satisfy his desires every night, and of course, desires are mutual between two people."
"But later, the things he did became increasingly inexplicable, and one day he told me he had messed with someone he shouldn’t have."
"It was a showdown; either he would die or his opponent would. I tried to persuade him for days, but he didn’t change, so I left."
At this point, Li Lan sighed deeply.
"The money he spent on me over the years, I returned every cent."
"Yet he said I was the only one in his heart, that I was the only woman for him in this lifetime."
"If I didn’t return to him, he would harass my family to the point where they’d have no peace."
"Although my parents were not good to me, they still gave birth to me and raised me; I couldn’t be indifferent to their feelings."
"So, I still came back, and just three months after my return, he had already been beaten and had one leg broken."
"I took care of him for over half a year, watching as he was finally able to get off the bed and walk around, recovering as usual."
"One night, I engaged him in a heart-to-heart talk, hoping he would reform and stop engaging in life-threatening activities."
"He promised me, but he did not keep his word. From then on, I began to entertain the thought of divorcing him."
"His actions were growing wilder and wilder, becoming so outrageous that the relevant authorities were already watching him, yet he thought this was protection."
"Others dared not act rashly against him, achieving a strange balance, but I was very afraid."
"I couldn’t not think about my own well-being; I couldn’t be dragged down with him. You can say I was heartless, or that I was ungrateful and disloyal."
"But put in anyone else’s shoes, would they continue with someone like that indefinitely? Fortunately, my lawyer is very capable."
"The divorce agreement has been drafted. Once he wakes up and leaves his fingerprint, it will take effect."
"I don’t want a cent of his money; the years spent by his side should suffice as gratitude for his past kindness."
The twenty minutes passed quickly, and Li Lan had poured out most of the bitterness in her heart.
However, she barely touched the coffee in front of her, probably because she didn’t like the bitterness.
That’s why she didn’t want to drink it.
"Thank you, Doctor Zhang, for listening to my nonsense here. I’ll treat you to this cup of coffee," she said.
"I hope you can take extra care with my husband’s situation."
Actually, Zhang Hao had always had a question in his mind: to sign a divorce agreement, one must at least be conscious to sign or fingerprint the document.
If her husband couldn’t hold on in the end, it would be like that day when his condition suddenly took a turn for the worse.
"What will you do if your husband’s condition worsens later?" he asked.
Li Lan smiled faintly, "You need not worry about that, Doctor Zhang."
"My lawyer will take care of everything for me. It’s getting late; you should go back to work."
Seeing that Li Lan didn’t want to talk more about her husband, he didn’t ask further.
"If there’s anything you need, come find me in the Traditional Chinese Medicine department anytime. I’m almost always there unless it’s my day off."
Upon returning to his own department, Lin Wan and Qin Miaoke were fretting like ants on a hot pan.
"Where on earth have you been? You weren’t answering your phone, and there are patients here."
Zhang Hao looked puzzled, "Did you call me?"
He checked his phone and realized that it had been on silent mode without his knowledge.
There were indeed missed calls from Lin Wan.
"Sorry, my phone was on silent and I didn’t hear it. I’ll start seeing patients now."
Because of the delay, patients had formed a long line outside the department.
After seeing all the patients, Zhang Hao realized he had worked over two hours overtime.
Once he was sure there were no more patients outside, he began to pack up, ready to go home.
Worried that He Qianhui might be anxiously waiting, he quickly called home.
To his surprise, He Qianhui didn’t answer.
Could she be working overtime too? Weren’t these past few days supposed to be her days off?
Since their home wasn’t far from the hospital and he couldn’t reach her by phone, he decided to go home and check.
Upon arriving home, the lights were on, but there was nobody there.
He Qianhui’s phone was on the coffee table.
From the time he made the call to the moment he entered the house, only ten minutes had passed.
Where had this woman gone?
Would she go out without even taking her phone?
Just as he was about to go out and look for her, He Qianhui’s voice came from outside.
"Alright, alright, no problem. If you need help with anything like this in the future, just come to me."
He Qianhui turned around to see the front door open and thought Zhang Hao must have come home from work.
"You’re home late today."
"What were you doing? You didn’t even bring your phone."
"The neighbor next door needed help moving something. I thought it would only take a few minutes, so I didn’t bother to take it. Did you call me?"
Zhang Hao nodded, "I passed by a flower shop and wanted to ask if you wanted to replace the flowers at home, but I went ahead and bought a bunch. You can put them in a vase after we eat."
Looking at the bouquet, He Qianhui’s face showed a faint smile.
"I went back today to take another look and hired a part-time cleaner to tidy up the house."
"I suddenly noticed that there’s a very fine crack on one of the walls in the living room. Do you think we should do some renovations before we move in?"
"Do you want to renovate?" asked Zhang Hao.
"I think since the man of the house has changed, we should definitely change the decor style of that room, don’t you think?"
