After the divorce, he took care of his child and sold fried rice; his ex-wife was filled with regret

Her vision went black, and she gasped for breath.

Su Qing lay on the hospital bed, staring at the door that the doctor had casually closed behind him, feeling a chill run through her body.

She already has one foot in the circle of billionaires.

But now, she has been told that she has a rare, incurable disease and could become a vegetable at any time.

Her only lifeline was a stranger whose name she didn't even know, and a bowl of utterly absurd food.

What happened in those few short hours felt like a dream.

Su Qing lay on the hospital bed with her eyes open. Although it was almost midnight, she was wide awake.

The air in the ward was filled with the smell of disinfectant.

Normally, Su Qing wouldn't even want to step on the floor in a place like this.

But now, she could only lie stiffly on this hard iron bed, like a powerless person whose strength had been drained.

At this moment, the gaunt old man in the second bed next door started coughing violently, coughing so hard it felt like he was coughing up his lungs.

Su Qing frowned in annoyance, and was about to call for a nurse when she saw an old lady nimbly climb up from the chair next to her.

The old lady picked up the stainless steel tea mug, tested the water temperature with the back of her hand, and then carefully helped the old man up.

"Slow down, cough slowly. Here, have some warm water to soothe your throat."

The old lady's voice was soft, filled with deep tenderness.

She fed him water while stroking his back.

The old man took a couple of sips of water, his breathing calmed down, and he felt a little guilty:

"I woke you up again in the middle of the night. This illness can't be cured, and it's just making you suffer here for nothing."

"What utter nonsense." The old lady took out a tissue from her pocket and carefully wiped the phlegm from the old man's mouth.

The old man didn't say anything more, his eyes were a little moist, and he obediently closed them.

The old lady tucked him in, but instead of returning to her chair, she sat on the edge of the bed, holding the old man's hand that was receiving an IV drip tightly in both of her hands, warming it with her body heat.

Su Qing lay on the bed less than a meter away from the next bed, quietly watching this scene.

Her vision suddenly became blurry. Looking at the old woman's tightly clasped hands, Su Qing vaguely recalled the year she had just graduated from university.

Back then, the Su family was far from being as prosperous as they are now.

Her father, Su Ming, was swindled in a business deal, leaving the family with a mountain of debts and unable to even afford to send her abroad.

Su Qing was extremely anxious and frustrated, and after hitting walls everywhere trying to attract investment, she was caught in a downpour one night, which triggered acute pneumonia. She had a persistent high fever and was lying alone in a small clinic near a cheap rental house in an urban village, receiving intravenous fluids.

The clinic that night was just as cold as this crowded emergency observation room is now.

At that time, Lin Fan had just found an apprenticeship at a restaurant. He stood in the kitchen all day and was so tired that he couldn't straighten his back.

After receiving her call, he didn't even bother to change his clothes and stayed by her bedside all night.

In winter, the clinic has no heating, and the medicine in the IV drip is ice-cold, making my whole arm numb when it's injected into my vein.

Just like the old lady in front of him, Lin Fan held her hand tightly in his arms, using his body heat to warm the cold plastic tube little by little.

She remembered Lin Fan holding her hand, his eyes red, and saying:

"Qingqing, don't be afraid. Although we don't have money now, as long as we're alive, I'll go out and take on a couple more jobs, and we'll get through this."

Back then, Su Qing leaned against Lin Fan's chest, feeling that even if the sky were to fall outside, someone would hold it up. As long as Lin Fan was there, she was not afraid of anything.

But what happened next?

The Su family seized the opportunity during those years and gradually gained momentum.

She took over the company, moved out of the rented apartment, and moved into a large villa with a river view. She started wearing haute couture worth tens of thousands of yuan and attending various high-end parties.

As the number in her account grew longer, she began to dislike Lin Fan.

She disliked the lingering smell of cooking oil on him, disliked that he only cared about the stove and lacked ambition, and felt that the man who once warmed her hands with his body heat could not give her the social class and prestige she desired.

She personally kicked the man who only had eyes for her out of the house.

Su Qing closed her eyes. For some reason, her throat felt like it was stuffed with a clump of dry grass, which she couldn't swallow or spit out.

Perhaps because Su Qing's gaze lingered for too long, the old lady turned her head as if she sensed something, and her eyes met Su Qing's gaze.

The old lady was stunned for a moment, and then a hesitant apology appeared on her wrinkled face.

She slowly released her husband's hand, stood up, and somewhat awkwardly took two steps closer to Su Qing's hospital bed, lowering her voice to speak:

"Young lady, did my husband's persistent cough wake you up?"

Su Qing didn't speak, she just looked at her.

"I'm so sorry." Seeing that she didn't say anything, the old lady thought she was angry and quickly explained with a smile.

"His chronic lung problem makes him short of breath and feel suffocated in the middle of the night. It keeps you all from getting a good night's sleep."

Su Qing was used to hearing apologies from others in the business world.

Those people were either afraid of being fired because they made a mistake on a project, or they were wary of the background of the Su Group and the resources she had.

But the old lady in front of me, wearing an old sweater, looked at me with a face full of guilt just because her husband coughed a few times.

"It's nothing." Su Qing's throat was dry, and her voice was a little hoarse.

The old lady visibly breathed a sigh of relief when Su Qing spoke to her.

Using the dim light filtering in from the corridor, she examined Su Qing's bloodless face, then looked at the empty hallway and the accompanying chair beside Su Qing's bed.

"Young lady, did you come to the hospital alone?" The old lady lowered her voice, her tone revealing genuine concern.

"It's the middle of the night, and you don't even have any family members with you at the hospital? You look so pale, you must be suddenly sick."

Su Qing instinctively gripped the bed sheet beneath her, and didn't reply.

The old lady sighed, her gaze falling on the back of Su Qing's hand with the IV drip attached.

"Your hand is cold when you get an IV drip, isn't it? The medicine will feel really cold once it's injected into your vein."

As she spoke, the old lady bent down and pulled out a red rubber hot water bottle from under her simple folding chair.

The outer velvet cover has faded and turned white, but it still feels warm to the touch.

The old lady stood up and handed the hot water bottle to Su Qing's bedside:

"This is some hot water I just got. If you don't mind, you can use it to warm the area under your hand where you're getting the injection; it'll make you feel better."

Su Qing looked at the old hot water bottle handed to her, and felt as if something had hit her heart hard.