He cared more about her than any other person in this world, but why… why would he harden his heart to be cruel to her time after time?
Song Qingchun suddenly remembered the one question she asked Su Zhinian at his company after she found the soaked present box in his house. "Do you have something you"re afraid of? Or do you have some difficulty that you can"t overcome?"
At the time, she had been sure that he had some dark secret that caused him to put up a front despite the fact that he loved her. However, her conviction was soon destroyed by his talk of a replacement. After that, her conviction was a wilted flower, destined not to bloom again.
But now… with these b.u.t.tons and his willingness to die for her… she knew that her initial conviction was right. Behind Su Zhinian"s aloof front, there had to be some sort of secret, a secret that prevented him from loving her even though he did love her.
…
That afternoon, a group of experts came to examine the still unconscious Su Zhinian. Then they proposed two possible surgery operations. After discussing with Auntie Su and Song Qingchun, they decided to go for the option that was more conservative. Whether Su Zhinian would wake up depended on the success or failure of the surgery.
Even though the group of experts were the best in their field, all surgery came with its own risk. Therefore, as the time drew closer to 8 pm, when the surgery would start, Auntie Su and Song Qingchun became increasingly anxious.
At 6 pm, the doctor came to check on Su Zhinian one more time.
At 7 pm, the surgery room was getting ready.
At 7:30 pm, Su Zhinian was wheeled into surgery.
Auntie Su, who followed behind the bed. almost collapsed several times from the weakness in her knees. Song Qingchun, who was equally worried, tried her best to support her as they walked to the surgery room door.
At 7:50 pm, the surgery room door was slammed shut. About half a minute later, the "Surgery" light above the door came on.
Song Qingchun helped Auntie Su as they moved to sit on the bench. Then, both of them turned in unison toward the closed door. Neither of them talked to each other, and they started to wait amid the dreary silence.
Before the doctor went in, he told them that if the surgery was successful, it would be finished in under two hours, but if the surgery dragged beyond two hours, the situation would be a bit complicated.
Therefore, for the initial two hours, even though they were worried, both Auntie Su and Song Qingchun still looked quite calm.
However, when the clock struck 10 pm and the surgery light was still on, time seemed to stretch to infinity. Each second seemed to slow down drastically. Song Qingchun and Auntie Su, who had suffered silently for two hours, started to fidget with concern.
Auntie Su was the first to give. At 10:10 pm, she started to mumble nervously. At every one minute"s interval, she would turn to ask Song Qingchun, "Why hasn"t the surgery over yet?"
At 10.15 pm, that one minute interval changed to tens seconds.