Chapter 1: No One Will Pity Him
Yao City First People’s Hospital.
“Mr. Jian, this is your diagnosis. I suggest you check in for inpatient treatment and begin medication. Where is your family?”
Hearing the doctor’s words, Jian An finally snapped out of his daze. His gaze fell upon the medical report in his hands.
He skimmed through the dense lines of clinical analysis, but the conclusion written in stark black characters pierced his eyes.
It read: Severe Depression.
How could it be like this…?
He tried so hard to live optimistically every day. How could he suddenly suffer from such a mental illness?
Thinking of “family,” he felt, for the first time, how foreign the word truly was.
His biological mother was a gambling addict. From the moment she conceived him, she had viewed him as nothing more than a tool to collect debts from the Jian family. Though his father was the chairman of the Jian Group, he had never acknowledged Jian An as his son, treating him instead as a mere puppet for a commercial marriage.
Even his titular husbandâthe man Jian An had loved with humble, subservient devotion for three yearsâtreated him with utter indifference.
So… who did he have to rely on?
“Mr. Jian?” the doctor called out again.
Jian An closed his eyes and then opened them. A faint mist seemed to drift within his clear, watery eyes. A forced, fragile smile appeared on his delicate face as he spoke softly.
“I won’t stay in the hospital. Please, just prescribe me some medicine.”
The hospital was a cold place, colder than hell itself. He didn’t want to hear the agonizing wails here, and he was even more afraid that if he couldn’t see Ji Songting, he would have to endure the torment of the darkness alone.
The psychiatrist frowned slightly. “Mr. Jian, your current mental state cannot be underestimated. Hospitalization would be more effective in alleviating your condition. I hope you’ll reconsider.”
“No, thank you, Doctor.”
Jian An shook his head with quiet determination.
He didn’t dare imagine himself in a deathly silent ward, living a life worse than death.
By the time he finished queuing for his medication, a drizzling rain had begun to fall outside the hospital.
Jian An didn’t call a taxi. He walked alone along the roadside, shielding himself with an umbrella. He crumpled the diagnostic report into a ball and tossed it into a trash can.
The sky was overcast, and the rain drifted down in a hazy curtain.
His gaunt, thin frame seemed ready to collapse in the cold wind. His heart felt like a windowpane trembling under the battering rain, dragged down into the depths of an abyss by the boundless gloom.
He had been suffering from frequent insomnia lately and could barely swallow food. He would sit alone with the lights on from dusk until dawn, his mind filled with thoughts of the business-tripping Ji Songting.
Even though he knew that man hated him to the bone, he still chose to deceive himself:
As long as I hold on a little longer, as long as I work a little harder, he will see the good in me one day.
Jian An stared blankly at the surging traffic in the middle of the road. An unprecedented thought suddenly took root in his mind.
When the idea popped up, he startled even himself and hurriedly took two steps back.
At that moment, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang. To ensure he never missed a call from Ji Songting, he had set a special ringtone specifically for him.
His heart jolted, and a look of joy surfaced on his face. Just as he was about to answer, a car speeding past suddenly kicked up a massive wave of water that splashed toward him!
Jian Anâs first instinct wasn’t to dodge, but to shield the phone in his arms with his body.
The waist-high wave doused him completely, soaking his clothes in an instant. Cold droplets trickled down from his hair, leaving him in a wretched state.
Jian An couldn’t help but shiver. He immediately wiped his fingers dry and swiped to answer. His pale lips trembled as he spoke.
“Hello… Songting, are you back?”
The man on the other end of the line paused for a moment upon hearing that raspy, shaking voice. Then, he spoke coldly.
“Xiao Yan wants to eat a meal cooked by you. Make a portion according to his taste and bring it to the hospital immediately.”
Jian An wanted to say something more, but he only heard a string of “beep-beep-beep” disconnect tones.
It was like this again…
Only when he was needed would Ji Songting begrudgingly say a single word to him.
Even so, Jian An was willing.
His rain-soaked body was chilled to the marrow by the biting wind, the cold stinging like a knife.
He wrapped his thin, slender arms tightly around himself and hailed a taxi on the roadside.
Seeing his “drowned rat” appearance, the driver couldn’t help but feel a flicker of pity. He pulled out a few tissues and handed them over, asking:
“Where to?”
Jian An looked at the white tissues in his hand, a cocktail of emotions churning in his heart. He spoke weakly.
“Thank you. I’m going to Jinhao Residential Area.”
Translator’s Note: Hi everyone! Your translator here. Welcome to this absolute emotional rollercoaster of a story. We’re starting off with some heavy “dog-blood” (clichĂŠ melodrama) vibes! For those new to the genre, “White Moonlight” (ç˝ćĺ ) refers to someone’s idealized first love or the “one that got away.” Poor Jian An is already breaking my heart in Chapter 1. Let’s see how much more he can take… and how much Ji Songting will regret this later!
Letâs cry, be sad, and be angry reading this together! (hahahahaha It canât only be me) Prepare tissues~
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