Volume 1 Chapter 1: The Husband Accompanies the White Moonlight, She Suffers from Dystocia and Massive Hemorrhage

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Jiang Yunmiao had never imagined that the viral internet question would come to stand before her so brutally in real life: “If your husband is cheating and your own labor is so difficult it could cost both lives, which would you choose?”

On the cold street, the lights were dim and distant.

Across the road, inside a French restaurant, a couple by the window laughed and talked softly, savoring a romantic candlelit dinner. It was her husband, Duan Yixiao, and his first love, Chen Nianke.

Chen lifted a piece of cake to his lips, and he ate it with delight, his eyes shining with gentle joy.

Jiang Yunmiao’s eyes burned and her chest tightened. It was their third wedding anniversary. She had gone out, seven-odd months pregnant, to line up for his favorite fermented rice wine dessert.

Instead, she saw him and another woman in each other’s arms.

The wind cut across her face like a series of slaps.

“Where are you?” she snapped, fingers whitening around her phone.

“What is it?” came his cold, detached voice, edged with impatience.

She had no idea if her unborn child had felt her tension, but a sharp pain ripped through her abdomen.

There was a hard crack as the bowl of wine-topped sweet rice tumbled to the pavement, shattering into a mess.

“My—my stomach hurts, I think…” she managed.

Before she could finish saying “preterm delivery,” Duan Yixiao cut her off. “If you’re not feeling well, rest. I’m busy right now.”

And he hung up.

The pain became unbearable. Jiang Yunmiao sank to the ground.

Concerned strangers gathered quickly, but when they tried calling again, Duan Yixiao was unreachable.

At that moment, he was walking arm in arm with Chen Nianke out of the restaurant and into his car.

Just as he was about to step on the accelerator, a wave of dizziness hit him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small crowd gathering across the road about ten meters away, as if someone had fallen.

“Come on, what is it? If we leave now, we’ll miss the first few minutes of the movie.” Chen cooed, soft and enticing.

He shoved down the strange unease he felt and drove on.

Two minutes later, an ambulance approached from the opposite direction, and he involuntarily thought of the fallen figure by the roadside. Perhaps they had gone to help that person.

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Half an hour later.

In the operating room, every doctor and nurse was tense, no one daring to relax.

“The bleeding can’t be stopped. Contact the blood bank again. Call in a tertiary-level physician!”
“Issue an emergency critical notice to the family!”
“The family isn’t here. What if no one signs?”
“Keep trying. We must reach her family!”

Jiang Yunmiao lay on the table, half-conscious, as though life itself hung by a thread.

Would they be able to reach Duan Yixiao? If he knew one of her feet had already stepped beyond the gate of death, would he leave Chen Nianke’s birthday plans and come to the hospital?

She shut her eyes in hopelessness, and a single tear slipped out silently.

At last she understood: love forced by force is bitter and astringent, and no amount of careful tending can make it sweet.

All she could wish for now was for both her and the child inside her to be safe.

When she awoke, Jiang Yunmiao saw several hanging IV bags at the head of the bed and for a while only stared in a daze. The sharp smell of disinfectant drove home that she was in a hospital.

“Bed Six, you’re finally awake! Do you know how terrifying last night was? Our best obstetrics team was here. We had to transfuse all your blood to pull you back from the brink. You’re one of the lucky ones!” the nurse said, breathless with relief. “Lie down and rest. I’ll get the doctor.”

“Where is my daughter?” Jiang Yunmiao asked, voice thin and hoarse from sleep deprivation. In the fog of surgery, she remembered the nurse had told her she had given birth to a girl.

“Don’t worry. She’s doing fine. But because she’s premature, she needs to stay in an incubator for now.” The nurse said, then left to fetch a doctor.

After examining her, the doctor said she had no major complications.

“Remember to contact your family to come to the hospital as soon as you can,” the doctor said before leaving the room.

Jiang Yunmiao picked up her phone and tried to call Duan Yixiao.

The ringtone stretched on for a long while before it finally connected.

But it was Chen Nianke’s voice on the other end. “Yunmiao, is there something for A-Yi? He’s at a meeting. Do you want me to pass a message?”

Her tone was cold, proud, unchanged from before.

Jiang Yunmiao tightened her grip on the phone; the thin color in her lips curdled into a bitter smile. “Are you at my and Yixiao’s company?”

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Chen Nianke answered with flawless propriety: “Yes. I came on behalf of Morning Star Group to discuss a partnership with Yixiao.”

Partnership?

Absurd.

Morning Star Group’s business and Yijiangshan Group’s business did not even overlap. What partnership could they have?

For Duan Yixiao to bring Chen Nianke to the company so openly was a blatant humiliation of her.

Jiang Yunmiao suddenly changed her mind. She told Chen nothing about being in the hospital. She said nothing about her premature delivery. After a perfunctory exchange, she hung up.

After a while, her phone buzzed. She thought, for a heartbeat, that Yixiao’s conscience had finally woken and remembered he had a wife.

It was her best friend, Lu Shenshen, sending a message:
“Girl, how did last night’s third-anniversary celebration go?”
with a smug little laugh emoji.

Even through a screen, Jiang Yunmiao could feel her friend’s keen gossip radar.

After a brief thought, she replied with four short words: “Congratulations. I’m back from the dead.”

Half an hour later, Lu Shenshen burst into the ward in a storm of fury. When she learned what had happened, she couldn’t hold back: “That bastard Duan Yixiao, has his conscience been chewed up by a dog? Has he forgotten who helped him build a fortune from nothing? Has he forgotten who helped him gain a foothold in the Duan clan and become eligible to inherit it? He’s a dog, yet he thinks he’s still a loyal master! Leaving behind his gentle, affectionate young wife at home, he chooses to play lapdog to that scheming white-lotus queen?”

The more Lu spoke, the angrier she grew, pacing the room with teeth clenched.

“Calm down. A stranger might think the legal wife arrived in a rage to throw a mistress out,” Jiang Yunmiao said with a faint smile, gesturing toward the doorway.

Sure enough, someone was peering in at the door, hoping for gossip, and Lu Shenshen’s temper dropped a notch.

“How can you be so casual? You still have energy for jokes!” Lu planted her hands on her hips, unable to hold it in. “You just had to stand it?”

“If not, what else? Raise hell, kill yourself with anger, and make room for the mistress so they can live together in perfect harmony?” Jiang Yunmiao replied.

At that, Lu suddenly understood. “Right, right, right. Your first priority now is to recover your body. The rest we’ll consider carefully and handle in stages.”

Her calm lasted three seconds before she erupted again.

It was because she had just seen Chen Nianke’s post:
“The world can be sharp, but you are the brushstroke of gentleness.”

She had attached two photos: an ornate pumpkin-carriage birthday cake, and a bowl of longevity noodles.

“Look,” Lu said, enlarging the image in anger, “is that pig trotters meant for your husband?”