May your future life be peaceful and smooth, filled with joy and health.

Zhou Shiyu’s meaning wasn’t difficult to understand.

Simply put, they were very suitable for marriage.

Sheng Sui needed a partner with a gentle personality and stable emotions; Zhou Shiyu hoped his partner could treat his brother kindly while having no intersection with his life to prevent any conflicts of interest.

Looking at it this way, Sheng Sui, being Zhou Yi’s homeroom teacher and having an especially simple private life, was indeed an excellent choice.

No wonder the man would say she was the only person he’d ever thought about marrying.

Sheng Sui was very self-aware. She knew Zhou Shiyu’s last point was meant as a summary, not an expression of romantic feelings.

This was also what she wanted.

For herself, compared to the cage of marriage, Sheng Sui was even more unwilling to fall into the whirlpool of emotions. According to neighbors’ revelations, even her parents had once loved each other passionately, and now only cursed and despised each other.

She just wanted her life to be plain and simple.

The topic was thus concluded. The two naturally began chatting about family situations. Sheng Sui honestly discussed her parents’ divorce and briefly mentioned her mother’s new family.

Zhou Shiyu was even more concise, calmly discussing how his parents died early and that he had lived with his grandfather since age sixteen.

When talking about the old man’s methods of urging marriage, some were so outrageous that even Sheng Sui found them ridiculous. But just from Zhou Shiyu’s descriptions, it wasn’t hard to hear the old man’s concern and love for his grandson.

Unconsciously, the orange-red sunset outside the window was replaced by vast twilight. Even Sheng Sui was surprised by how quickly time had slipped away.

During her conversation with Zhou Shiyu, she could feel a relaxation from within.

The man’s speech was gentle and polite without being rigid. His every gesture reflected good upbringing.

Sheng Sui looked at Zhou Shiyu’s outstanding features and marveled that there really were people in the world without any faults to pick at. She suddenly said: “Mr. Zhou, I actually envy you very much.”

Zhou Shiyu paused slightly: “Why?”

“You’re different from everyone I’ve met,” Sheng Sui frowned as she thought seriously, struggling to describe: “I think only someone who grew up surrounded by love could be as tolerant and gentle as Mr. Zhou.”

“Growing up surrounded by love, hm.”

Zhou Shiyu murmured, repeating the first half of her sentence. With unclear emotions, he curved his lips in a smile, his eyes gaining a few touches of teasing: “If I remember correctly, one of Teacher Sheng’s criteria for choosing a spouse is a gentle personality.”

“So can I understand the compliment just now to mean I very much meet your criteria for choosing a spouse?”

The suggestion was too strong. Upon hearing this, Sheng Sui’s ear tips grew warm. She thought to herself how this person couldn’t take compliments well, picking up food while avoiding eye contact: “…I take back what I just said.”

After the meal, the two walked out of the wooden house. Zhou Shiyu no longer insisted on taking her home, only personally called a taxi for Sheng Sui.

Thoughtfully opening the car door for her, as Sheng Sui sat down in the back seat, she heard the man’s low voice calling her name from above: “Sheng Sui.”

Under the bright moon and sparse stars, the cold night wind made Zhou Shiyu’s voice particularly hoarse. Sheng Sui looked up at the flush on the man’s face that hadn’t faded all evening, belatedly frowning as she sensed something was wrong.

“You—”

“No one’s original family is perfect,” facing her worried gaze, Zhou Shiyu only smiled slightly, his eyes gentle like stars in the night sky:

“If there’s no family, then rebuild one yourself.”

“……”

Watching the taxi drive out of sight, Zhou Shiyu closed his eyes. Exhaustion swept over his entire body like a mountain collapse, his forehead burning hot while his body felt waves of cold.

Returning to his car, he took out the thermometer from the compartment. Hearing the beep and seeing the number approaching 40 on the screen, he expressionlessly threw it back.

It wasn’t a nervous disorder causing hallucinations—just a simple fever.

Fortunately, he hadn’t lost composure in front of her tonight.

The high temperature blurred his memory of their interaction details. Zhou Shiyu started the car and left. Along the way, he remembered that in just a few hours it would be tomorrow—Sheng Sui’s 27th birthday.

And he still wasn’t sure if they would meet again.

At exactly 8:30 PM, the taxi stopped downstairs from Sheng Sui’s home.

Living on the fourth floor without an elevator, she had almost reached her front door when she unexpectedly received an urgent call from her mother, urging her to go to the hospital to care for Xu Yanze.

“That brat got injured at school and didn’t say anything. Only when the infection caused a fever and he had to go to the hospital did we find out.”

Yu Xuemei was breathing heavily on the phone, as if running quickly: “I’ll take the earliest flight back in five minutes. Before then, please go to the hospital to watch your brother and don’t let him run around.”

“I’ll go now. I can reach the hospital in about ten minutes.”

Sheng Sui confirmed the hospital address and comforted her anxious mother: “Your health isn’t good either. Don’t be too worried.”

“You don’t understand because you’re not a mother,” Yu Xuemei’s mind was full of her sick son: “As long as you see your child sick and suffering, which mother wouldn’t be anxious?”

Upon hearing this, Sheng Sui opened her mouth several times but in the end only silently hung up the phone. In the cold wind, she pulled her thin shawl tighter and hailed another taxi on the street.

After contacting Xu Yanze’s teacher, Sheng Sui was afraid Xiao Ming would worry about her late return, so she called to tell her to sleep first without waiting.

“Be careful this late at night,” Xiao Ming heard her low spirits and comforted her: “Children’s fevers go away in one night. In a few hours, it’ll be your birthday—the birthday girl should be happy.”

Sheng Sui smiled: “I’m fine. Rest early.”

“Alright, call me if anything happens.”

Rushing to the hospital without stopping, the emergency room during the early spring season change was packed with people. Sheng Sui looked left and right among the crowd and finally found Xu Yanze and his supervising teacher.

“The doctor has examined him. It’s confirmed to be high fever caused by bacterial infection. He just started the IV drip and it’ll probably take three to four hours.”

“Okay, okay. Thank you, teacher.”

After thanking the school teacher, Sheng Sui quickly sat on the long bench beside Xu Yanze. Afraid he was cold, she started to take off her coat.

“No need, I’m not cold,” the sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy was at the age of showing off. Xu Yanze turned away and refused the clothes. Glancing at Sheng Sui who was wearing light makeup, he said in a muffled voice: “Did you go on another blind date?”

Sheng Sui saw him frowning uncomfortably and slowed the IV drip speed: “If you feel bad, sleep. I’ll watch over you.”

“How was the other person?” Xu Yanze persisted: “Will you two get married?”

“Mom is on her way back. About school—”

“Why is it so hard to ask you a question?”

The teenager was annoyed by her repeated evasions. After speaking, he realized his tone was too harsh and turned away to cough: “…Don’t always treat me like a child.”

“I don’t treat you like a child,” Sheng Sui saw her brother’s forehead covered in fine sweat from the fever. She took out a handkerchief from her bag to wipe it clean, half-coaxing and half-helplessly sighing:

“I don’t know either.”

“What do you mean ‘don’t know’?” Xu Yanze was verbally defiant but obediently stayed still for Sheng Sui to fuss over him: “If you don’t like him, dump him quickly. Why get married?”

Sheng Sui didn’t want to discuss this with Xu Yanze. First, the siblings weren’t close, and second, she really hadn’t decided whether to marry Zhou Shiyu.

The man’s intention to marry was obvious, and his reasons for choosing her were convincing. Even so, she still lacked a sense of reality.

Young and accomplished with a happy family, Zhou Shiyu’s life was already approaching perfection. Marriage was optional for him—even alone, he would have few regrets.

But her first half of life was like stagnant water, and her future days could be seen at a glance. Getting through them alone might be the best ending.

In this marriage, Zhou Shiyu could provide her with abundant material conditions and ample emotional value, but what she could do for him was very little.

Sheng Sui could feel the resistance deep in her heart—weak but definitely present.

After slowing the IV drip speed, Xu Yanze’s tightly furrowed brow slowly relaxed. The teenager who had been running a high fever all day finally fell into deep sleep, his head nodding.

Sheng Sui carefully helped her brother’s head upright. After sitting up straight, she let Xu Yanze lean against her right shoulder to sleep.

Looking down at her brother’s flushed face, she somehow suddenly thought of tonight’s Zhou Shiyu, whose pale skin had also shown unnatural flush.

Uneasily opening their chat box, she found their last conversation was still her safety report before getting out of the car and going upstairs.

The person who usually replied instantly had no news until now.

Perhaps he was just busy.

Sheng Sui comforted herself, unwilling to admit she had been focused on eating all evening and hadn’t noticed the man was sick.

Xu Yanze slept for two hours until the nurse came to change the third bottle before slowly waking up, drowsy.

Seeing her brother’s complexion had improved, Sheng Sui asked the nurse to take Xu Yanze’s temperature. It had indeed dropped considerably—after finishing the IV, he could probably go home and sleep off the fever.

It was past 11:30 PM. Sheng Sui hadn’t taken her long-acting insulin yet that evening. She turned to her brother: “I need to go home for something.”

Besides injecting short-acting insulin before three meals daily, Type 1 diabetes patients also needed to inject a fixed amount of long-acting insulin daily to control blood sugar spikes.

Sheng Sui usually took her long-acting insulin at 10 PM. The medication was at home, and today’s emergency had delayed it until nearly midnight.

She had originally wanted to ask Xiao Ming to bring the medicine, but it was too late and her friend was already asleep. After calling three times, Sheng Sui couldn’t bear to wake her friend. Now seeing Xu Yanze had clearly improved, she proposed going home.

She promised: “I’ll be back within half an hour. Can you manage alone?”

“I told you I’m fine,” Xu Yanze waved her away to go home and sleep: “Don’t come back. I’ll go back to school myself after finishing the IV.”

Sheng Sui couldn’t possibly abandon her brother. She asked the duty nurse and a kind older woman to help watch him before quickly leaving.

After getting out of the car, she ran all the way upstairs, breathing heavily as she climbed to the fourth floor, her legs aching.

Type 1 diabetes patients could easily experience low blood sugar with intense exercise. Sheng Sui took chocolate beans from her bag and put them in her mouth, then quickly went inside to find her insulin pen.

She was too rushed while injecting. When she hastily pulled out the needle, several tiny drops of blood followed, seeping into her cream-colored knit sweater hem and instantly spreading.

Feeling guilty about leaving Xu Yanze alone and sick at the hospital, Sheng Sui didn’t bother dealing with her clothes. She grabbed a blanket from the closet and hurried downstairs again to take a taxi to the hospital.

Halfway there, she received a call from her mother who had just gotten off the plane, her tone anxious: “Has Yanze’s fever broken? You didn’t make his IV drip too fast, did you?”

“I slowed the drip. When I left, his fever hadn’t broken yet—”

“You left when his fever hadn’t broken?” Before Sheng Sui could finish, Yu Xuemei impatiently interrupted: “I asked you to take care of him. How could you leave him alone at the hospital? He has no money and is sick—what if something happens to him alone?”

In the confined car space, the woman’s sharp scolding echoed endlessly. Even the taxi driver couldn’t help but look through the rearview mirror.

His gaze was accusatory, silently condemning her selfishness.

Her mother’s complaints continued in her ear. Sheng Sui bit the soft flesh in her mouth and looked at the nearby buildings, saying softly: “…I’ll be at the hospital soon.”

Could you please stop shouting?

“Mommy rarely asks you to do anything, why can’t you put in some effort—”

“When I left, his temperature was 38.2 degrees.”

Handing over fifty yuan and getting out, Sheng Sui closed the car door and jogged toward the hospital, her rapid breathing trembling in the cold wind: “I went home because I’m also sick. I needed to get my injection.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar figure. She paused, watching her mother get out of a car at the hospital’s main entrance where parking wasn’t allowed and run quickly toward the emergency room.

“…My tone was bad just now,” on the phone, Yu Xuemei explained quickly while running: “I’m sorry, Xiao Sui, but when mommy was at her most difficult time, Uncle Xu saved me. People must know how to repay kindness.”

“You’ve always been a good child who can understand mommy’s feelings, right?”

Sheng Sui slowed her pace at the hospital entrance, staring blankly at the electronic clock outside the emergency room hall while listening to her mother’s guilty and earnest apology.

The time had just passed midnight, arriving at a new day.

Today was her birthday.

The emergency room was busy and noisy. Sheng Sui stood alone at the hall entrance as people hurried past her, but no one paid attention to her existence.

A loud cry stood out from not far away.

Sheng Sui looked over and saw a sick baby crying incessantly in a nurse’s arms until returning to its mother’s embrace, when it stopped with hiccups.

Yes, which child doesn’t long for their parents’ scent and warm embrace?

This was an innate human instinct.

In the end, Sheng Sui didn’t go take care of Xu Yanze. She just stood at a distance holding the blanket, watching Yu Xuemei on the main hall bench put a coat on Xu Yanze and hand him the still-warm lean meat porridge she had just bought.

The usually rebellious teenager was also rarely obedient as he quietly drank the porridge.

She was no longer needed there.

Sheng Sui looked down at her phone still on call, knowing her mother had long forgotten someone was still waiting on the other end for her to speak. She hung up.

Looking at her tired face reflected on the screen, with fine sweat on her forehead and disheveled hair sticking to her cheek and ear, Sheng Sui suddenly smiled helplessly.

Was this how her 27th year would begin—in such disarray?

Someone rushed past shouting urgently. Sheng Sui stepped back to make room, turned around, and her gaze landed precisely on a familiar figure in the corner.

Despite the surrounding chaos and commotion, the man sat with his arms crossed and eyes slightly closed, leaning back against the chair with his long legs crossed. The pale skin of his neck was covered with a thin flush. Probably not wanting to be recognized, he wore a black mask with his head down, a black windbreaker covering his front. Even while sick, his noble and elegant bearing was undiminished.

If not for seeing him receiving an IV drip with her own eyes, one couldn’t tell the man had a high fever.

Sheng Sui thought she must be over-empathizing to feel the man was lonely just from glimpsing Zhou Shiyu alone in the emergency room receiving IV treatment for no reason.

She just couldn’t control thinking for a moment that perhaps the real Zhou Shiyu wasn’t as invincible as she had imagined.

This feeling was hard to describe. Far from feeling disappointed, the man’s image became more real because of this—no longer distant and unapproachable.

Zhou Shiyu sat resting on the long bench for a while, then took out his phone and lit the screen. His finger lifted but hesitated to fall. After a few seconds, he locked and unlocked the screen again, repeating this three times before raising his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Sheng Sui wasn’t clear what he was struggling with.

Zhou Shiyu didn’t seem like an indecisive person. Who could make him repeatedly hesitate in the deep of night about whether to make contact?

The man in the corner lit his screen again. This time, his fingertip fell.

Her phone vibrated in her palm. Sheng Sui looked at the man’s name on the screen, her expression showing momentary confusion.

So he was going to call her.

Among the noisy crowd, Zhou Shiyu’s hoarse, weak voice sounded, still gentle: “Teacher Sheng.”

“It’s me,” Sheng Sui thought the man was really sick—he hadn’t even noticed the noisy background sounds around her. She looked up at Zhou Shiyu in the distance and asked:

“Mr. Zhou, are you alright?”

Zhou Shiyu didn’t answer her question, only continued: “Your phone was unreachable just now.”

…Had he been waiting for her to answer the phone this whole time?

“I was on a call with my mother just now,” Sheng Sui explained softly, watching the man’s IV bag nearly empty while he remained unaware, frowning involuntarily: “Did you need me for something?”

“Nothing important.”

The low, husky male voice was clearly audible in the noisy environment, like a small hammer tapping her heart beat by beat:

“I just wanted to be the first person to wish you happy birthday.”

Sheng Sui didn’t know whether she should be surprised that Zhou Shiyu knew her birthday or that the man had called precisely at midnight despite being sick. She just stared at the man unblinkingly, seeing him sit up straight as he spoke.

Though he was looking down and she couldn’t see his expression, Sheng Sui knew his eyes must be gentle and sincere—one glance would drown her.

When no response came, Zhou Shiyu patiently repeated: “Sheng Sui, happy 27th birthday.”

“May your future life be peaceful and smooth, filled with joy and health.”