Life Plan

Chapter 44, My Favorite

Ever since Sun Zhixiao entered the room, Jiang Xiaonv's eyes had been following her. The other two people in the ward were lying in bed playing on their phones, while Sun Zhixiao moved a chair and sat down next to Jiang Xiaonv's bed, snuggling close to her like she used to when she was very young.

It seems that only when she was very young could she ask that question: "Mom, am I the person you love the most?"

Jiang Xiaonv reached out and tapped her forehead, then placed her hand on the back of her head, gently stroking her hair.

Sun Zhixiao didn't move, and asked like a child, "Is I really the person I love most? Is it the kind of love that surpasses all others?"

Jiang Xiaonv then tapped her brow.

"What about Sun Qiang?"

Jiang Xiaonv clenched her fist twice, and Sun Zhixiao knew that this meant "all".

Even though she knew the outcome, Sun Zhixiao was still very sad. Why did she have to love that scumbag?

She wanted to joke with Jiang Xiaonv, saying: "Mom, if you only love me the most, then we don't need to pay off our 20,000 yuan debt."

But in the end, she just rubbed Jiang Xiaonv's hand like a spoiled child: "No, Mom, you have to choose one! If you have to choose between me and Sun Qiang, who do you love the most?"

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Xiaonv grabbed Sun Zhixiao's little finger.

Sun Zhixiao was stunned for a moment.

Jiang Xiaonv's sign language was initially self-created and sufficient for simple daily communication. However, Sun Zhixiao, who had studied official sign language in junior high school, wanted to teach Jiang Xiaonv so she could communicate with more people. She hoped her mother would have more friends.

But Jiang Xiaonv could never remember, and Sun Zhixiao didn't want to make things difficult for her, so she put it aside.

There are many contradictions between the official sign language and Jiang Xiaonv's self-created sign language. For example, the little finger in the official sign language represents a "negative meaning" and is often used to express negative meanings such as "insignificant".

However, in Jiang Xiaonv's language system, the little finger represents "baby," and it is unique, specifically used to refer to Sun Zhixiao's "baby."

When Sun Zhixiao was teaching her sign language, Jiang Xiaonv was most unwilling to accept that the little finger represented "negative meaning." She showed Sun Zhixiao one of her few photos, in which the tiny Sun Zhixiao was holding her hand.

She was so small then that her whole hand could only grasp Jiang Xiaonv's little finger. Jiang Xiaonv said that her little finger was Sun Zhixiao's crutch, and Sun Zhixiao was the "flower" in her "heart".

Sun Zhixiao was amused by Jiang Xiaonv's exaggerated hand gestures. Since the little finger had a special meaning for Jiang Xiaonv and she usually never showed it to others, Sun Zhixiao figured it wouldn't be a big problem in social situations, so she didn't pay much attention to it.

At this moment, as Jiang Xiaonv held her little finger, she suddenly understood the meaning behind Jiang Xiaonv's resistance to her little finger.

But she just subconsciously repeated, pointing to herself, "Is it really me? Compared to Sun Qiang, to everyone in this world, to all the gold and silver, to everything else, do you love me the most?"

Jiang Xiaonv held onto her little finger tightly and nodded without hesitation. Her face was still bandaged, and smiling would pull on the wound, so she just squinted her eyes and looked at Sun Zhixiao gently.

Sun Zhixiao seemed to be overjoyed, but she didn't forget something more important: "So Mom, if Sun Qiang hits me, will you help me too?"

Jiang Xiaonv suddenly tightened her grip and quickly gestured: Did he hit you?

"Yes, Mom, he hit me." After being injured for so many days, Sun Zhixiao's grievances seemed to only belatedly surface. With red eyes, she lifted her trouser leg. The wound left from the fight and escape that day was healing, but it looked even more frightening—half of her calf was covered in a purplish-red bruise, a long gash left from either the shared bicycle or the fight.

Jiang Xiaonv only glanced at it before getting excited and wanting to get off the bed.

Sun Zhixiao pushed her back onto the bed: "Mom, you can't protect me forever. He'll hit me eventually. Unless he gets arrested. Mom, is what happened in October related to Sun Qiang?"

Jiang Xiaonv's eyes suddenly flickered, and she leaned back slightly.

But Sun Zhixiao grabbed her quickly, not giving her a chance to escape. "Mom, I don't know what exactly happened that day. But you saw it too, he would yell at you, and he would yell at me; he would hit you hard, and he would hit me hard; what he did that night could happen to me in the future. Mom, you love me the most, don't you?"

Those who weren't asleep in the ward perked up their ears upon hearing about the October assault case, but Sun Zhixiao ignored them, quickly walking out of the room and looking at Liu Chichi: "You don't need to tear up the IOU, you win. There's one more thing, we can call the police to take a new statement tomorrow."

"No need." Liu Chichi waved her phone. "I sent a message to Attorney Yan. He and the police should be arriving soon. Because of Jiang Xiaonv's health, the questioning will be conducted in a private room at the hospital. Tell her to prepare."

When Sun Zhixiao returned to her room, she seemed to have lost some of her gloom.

Liu Chichi looked up and saw Shen Shuyi with her arms crossed, looking up at her with a faint smile on her lips. Confused, she touched her face and asked, "Why are you looking at me?"

"Suddenly, I feel that this world needs some innocence to adorn it."

"I won't lose." Liu Chichi didn't know who she was talking to, but her tone became more and more certain. "In this world, a mother's greatest love is for her child."

Shen Shuyi shrugged as if she didn't care at all. "I hope so."

These are strange words. Liu Chichi felt that something was wrong, but before she could figure it out, Attorney Yan appeared in front of them with the police.

Attorney Yan walked past Liu Chichi and said in a low, quick voice, "Thank you."

It was almost 11 o'clock, and Shen Shuyi's phone had run out of battery. She patted Liu Chichi on the shoulder and said, "Let's go, I'll take you home. You're really born to be a CRC."

"what?"

"I'm praising you."

Liu Chichi was already feeling drowsy, and she dozed off in the passenger seat, clutching her seatbelt.

The roads were wide and empty at night, and the red lights were brief. Shen Shuyi turned the heater vent to stop the wind from blowing Liu Chichi's hair into a messy updo, which made her sleepy intermittently.

Shen Shuyi used to think that work was just work: project launch, work hours, overtime, and time off. From the inpatient department to the outpatient department, from vaccines and drugs to oncology drugs, she never gave the test subjects a second glance.

The patient was experiencing severe side effects, and she rushed to the scene to record the patient's condition. Some people complained that she was indifferent, but she only said that life and death were not something she could decide.

Back then, her previous mentor praised her as a natural-born CRC (China Research Correspondence Course) candidate. She also had excellent academic qualifications and a methodical approach to her work. No one could find fault with her in her position; she was as precise as a procedure executed to a set standard.

But she felt Liu Chichi was more suited to be a CRC (China Correspondence Conference Member), a thankless and unpaid job she did without pay, even contributing 20,000 yuan of her own money. She was even willing to take on tasks that other lawyers would handle. But how many people in this world remember her sacrifices?

For people, there is always a pursuit between fame and fortune.

For example, her previous mentor couldn't stand doing all the menial work, so he switched jobs from the R&D industry, only to return to R&D later. Most people, however, are doing this for a job to support their families.

She used to think that Liu Chichi might be doing it for the sake of face, but what face could be worth the 20,000 yuan she had saved up by scrimping and saving?

Shen Shuyi dropped the person off at their apartment complex. She could feel the person tense up immediately after getting out of the car, like a wary cat.

She couldn't help but wonder, was it to escape?