The Scheming Ex-Husband's Courtship-Chapter 700 - 605: Marry Me
Nan Zhan returned to Jian Si’s hospital room, where Zhengzheng was sitting by her bed reading a book, marking the seventh day of Jian Si’s coma.
"Am I disturbing you?" Zhengzheng lifted his head, "I can make myself scarce."
Nan Zhan smiled: "Why would you?"
"Your pocket looks bulging, and judging by its shape, I can guess what it is." Zhengzheng blinked, "I’ve got my eye on you."
Nan Zhan ruffled his head: "You little imp."
After Zhengzheng left, Nan Zhan touched the pocket of his trousers with a smile. It seemed that his son had seen right through him, so there was no point in hiding it anymore.
Nan Zhan took a small box out of his pocket and sat in front of Jian Si to open it.
"The ring was just set today. I was planning to surprise you with it when you woke up." He took the ring from the black velvet box; the sunlight fell tenderly on the beautiful ring, a crown design elevating the shiny heart-shaped diamond at the center, with two abstract letters ’NJ’ etched into the back of the heart shape. The craftsmanship of the ring was unique and ingenious.
Nan Zhan picked up Jian Si’s right hand; she was noticeably thinner after one week, her white skin tight against her slender bones.
"The designer told me that, legend has it, the heart-shaped diamond ring is a gem from the tip of Eros’s arrow in Greek Mythology. The lovers who are lucky to be struck by Eros’s arrow will have a heart-shaped mark and from then on will be devoted to each other for life. I thought you would also like this shape, so I went ahead and ordered it. What do you think, isn’t it beautiful?"
Nan Zhan carefully slid the ring onto Jian Si’s ring finger: "Jian Si, will you marry me?"
The person on the hospital bed was quiet and unresponsive.
"Good, silence means consent." He laughed as he interlocked his fingers with hers, forming a hand-in-hand gesture. A simple-styled ring also adorned his own ring finger, matching hers perfectly. "This one was made from the offcuts of your diamond. Isn’t it beautiful too? Look, I don’t even mind that it’s secondhand."
With this ring on, everything I have is yours, and I am yours. From now on, I’ll be at the mercy of Mrs. Nan’s commands, unable to fight back or talk back—except in bed, I’ll listen to whatever you say. So, you need to wake up soon to exercise your supreme rights."
"Once you wake up, we’ll go register our marriage. What kind of wedding would you like, a Chinese or Western one?"
Nan Zhan was still talking to himself when suddenly the hand he was holding trembled slightly. At first, he thought it was his imagination. Soon after, that finger wearing the ring moved again.
Nan Zhan was elated; this was the first physical reaction she had shown in the seven days of her coma, having not reacted at all to anything he said previously.
"Jian Si, Jian Si." He gripped her hand tighter, joyfully looking at her while pressing the call bell at the bedside.
Jian Si was like she had been sleeping, a very long sleep, and she kept dreaming. The fragments in her dreams were disjointed. She dreamed of the once happy family of three, the tragic car accident, and Jian Hedong. When she felt hopeless, a hand reached out in the dream and grasped hers tightly. She wanted to see clearly who it was, but her eyes just wouldn’t open. She heard him constantly talking beside her ear, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. His voice was so nice; his words must be enticing love-talk, she thought. She strained her ears and gradually, his voice grew from a whisper to a clear sound, each word echoing into her eardrum.
"Will you marry me?"
"Everything I have is yours, and I am yours..."
She finally heard. It was Nan Zhan, her Nan Zhan. She wanted to open her eyes to see him; she wanted to tell him loudly, I will.
She was in a rush and unconsciously started crying.
Nan Zhan, Nan Zhan, I heard you, I heard it all.
Two streams of tears slid from the corners of Jian Si’s eyes. Nan Zhan was ecstatic, gently wiping away her tears with one hand while smilingly saying, "Jian Si, open your eyes and look at me."
Finally, Jian Si lifted her heavy eyelids and slowly opened her eyes. The handsome face in front of her, blurred at first, gradually came into focus. It was indeed her Nan Zhan.
She watched him with a smile, her slightly cracked lips moving faintly. Before she could speak, he kissed her. Jian Si’s gaze then shifted to see Zhengzheng, deepening the smile on her lips.
Zhengzheng walked to Nan Zhan’s side, both watching the doctor examine Jian Si. The waiting was agonizing, with both father and son’s hearts in their throats.
After a series of thorough checks, the doctor finally showed a smile: "Miss Jian’s vital signs have all returned to normal. In a moment, we will do a brain CT and a blood test. With my years of experience, I believe the hematoma in Miss Jian’s brain has largely dissipated."
"Thank you, doctor," Nan Zhan thanked the doctor as he caught Jian Si’s gaze. They looked at each other tenderly, as if they had been through earth-shattering ordeals together.
What has been gained has not come easily.
After the doctor left, Jian Si, still weak, couldn’t get up immediately. She lay there obediently, looking at the large and small figures before her, feeling a happiness known as surviving a calamity.
She thought she was sure to die, but to her astonishment, she could still be alive to enjoy the fresh sunshine, to see the people she cherished and couldn’t bear to leave. She truly had to thank the heavens for giving her another chance to live. She was determined to make the latter half of her life even more vibrant and wonderful.
Zhengzheng noticed the ring on Jian Si’s hand and furrowed her little brows: "Some people are so unreasonable, proposing to you while you’re asleep, he must be afraid you’d refuse if you were awake."
Nan Zhan narrowed his eyes and rubbed Zhengzheng’s head with his large hand: "Am I that unconfident?"
"Men with higher intelligence often lack confidence when it comes to emotions." Faced with the surprised looks from Jian Si and Nan Zhan, he hurriedly explained: "Read it in a book."
Jian Si laughed: "Read fewer of those messy books in the future."
Zhengzheng shrugged her shoulders: "I’m going to play with the nurse sisters, you two keep whispering."
"Hey, don’t run off." Jian Si was worried.
Nan Zhan: "Let him go. He’s gotten very familiar with the nurses here these past few days. If he doesn’t come one day, the nurses even come asking after me."
"What does he talk to them about?" Jian Si felt somewhat embarrassed.
"What else? He tells them detective stories." Nan Zhan sat back down, holding her hand and kneading it repeatedly, "After the check-up, if all the indicators are good, we’ll go get our marriage certificate tomorrow."
Suddenly feeling a bit nervous, Jian Si looked at him: "Was I... did I...?"
"No." Nan Zhan knew what she was about to ask, "Do you not remember standing up to stop me from making a mistake while you were half-asleep?"
"Stop you from making a mistake? What mistake?"
Seeing her puzzled look, she probably didn’t remember it at all, or maybe it was just an instinctual reaction of hers, she tried with the last bit of her consciousness to stop him, then fainted and forgot everything afterward.
"Was it you who found me? But I can’t recall anything at all." Jian Si pressed her temples worriedly: "I only remember being attacked by that person, he wanted to kill me, then dragged me into the woods, my head hit a tree trunk, and then I don’t remember anything else."
Jian Si rubbed her temples: "So how did you find me?"
"I’ve been investigating your parents’ case all along. I got word that Li Guojing came to Aus City. I found the hotel he stayed at, and then he suddenly disappeared. By the time I got news again, he had already gone to the cemetery."
"You’ve been investigating all this time?" Jian Si’s mind worked quickly, instantly connecting it to the many suspicious points from the last time they went to Hengshan County for a case, "So you went to Dawang Village to track down the culprit from back then?"
Nan Zhan nodded.
Suddenly touched, Jian Si’s nose tingled, and she almost broke into tears, but the doctor had said she shouldn’t move about, so she could only look at him with wet, glistening eyes. No need for thanks, everything was said without words.
"Silly girl, if you’re so touched, hurry up and go register our marriage with me."
Jian Si cried and laughed, raising the hand with the ring to take a close look, which made her cry even more: "It’s so beautiful, beautiful enough to cry."
Nan Zhan smiled, his thumb caressing her teary eyes, the warmth of her tears making him feel both happy and heartache.
"This ring moves."
"Really? How does it move?"
Nan Zhan gently pressed the heart-shaped diamond in the center, and the diamond indeed began to softly pulse, like a human heartbeat, simple yet powerful. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
"It really moves." Jian Si tried tapping it lightly and suddenly exclaimed with delight: "This design is so beautifully done, it feels like you can sense the actual heartbeat."
"The designer said this ring symbolizes wholehearted devotion, but, I think he was being overcautious because I’ve always had only one woman, and that’s you – in the past, now, and in the future."
He gave her his heart, leaving no room for a second heart to waver.
"Yours is quite beautiful too." Jian Si took his hand and examined it closely: "It’s bold yet delicate, a true master makes even scrap material into a masterpiece."
Hearing the words ’scrap material’, Nan Zhan’s eyes suddenly lit up: "You heard that?"
Jian Si playfully blinked: "You were so loud at that time, I woke up because of you."
He silently looked at her for a while, then suddenly kneeled beside the bed on one knee, holding her hand with utmost reverence, the handsome man’s eyes deep and earnest: "Jian Si, marry me."
