By nearly 6:30 p.m., with Dr. Chen Yu personally demonstrating and guiding him, Yan Feifan had successfully treated three patients for their chronic hand tendon injuries.

As he was about to leave, he found his sister waiting for him in the family waiting area in the first-floor lobby of Trauma Surgery.

Yan Ziruo walked over to her brother and whispered, "Feifan, I got the fifty thousand yuan from Mr. Cheng, and I gave them the letter of forgiveness you wrote."

She added indignantly, "Mr. Cheng was alright, but Cheng Lezhi's mother was so passive-aggressive, acting like we were the ones who owed her something."

Yan Feifan just said, "Oh," and added dismissively, "If she were a reasonable person, her son wouldn't have been raised to be the way he is."

"That's true."

Yan Ziruo agreed, then sighed heavily. "Feifan, I heard this afternoon that Yang Di called the police."

"Not only that, but he's also forbidden Yin Yue from staying to take care of him."

"Whatever the outcome of this is, I don't think there's any way they can stay together anymore."

Seeing his sister's wistful expression, Yan Feifan tried to console her. "Isn't that for the best? It was a marriage of convenience to begin with, a union in name only. Splitting up now is a relief." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

When the worry on his sister's face didn't fade, Yan Feifan asked, "Sis, are you worried that it really was Yin Yue who poisoned him?"

Yan Ziruo nodded. "Feifan, I am worried about that."

"She was betrayed just days after her wedding. That's a tough pill for anyone to swallow."

"But then, just two days later, they were putting on a public display of affection."

"When something is that out of the ordinary, something sinister must be going on!"

Yan Feifan comforted her, "Sis, don't assume the worst. People who can actually bring themselves to poison someone are extremely rare."

Yan Ziruo sighed softly. "I hope I'm just thinking the worst of people."

The siblings were still talking as they arrived at the Emergency Department.

They waited a moment, then joined Yu Suye, who had just finished up, and walked toward the seminar room on the second floor.

The moment they set foot on the stairs, Yu Suye couldn't wait to share her story. "Feifan, Ziruo, you have no idea."

"A morbidly obese man came into the ER this afternoon..."

She said, her face animated, "He must have weighed four or five hundred pounds."

"The guy had three or four chins, and the fat on his stomach was just roll after roll. He looked so greasy and..."

Yu Suye had been about to say "disgusting," but considering how unprofessional that would be, she switched at the last second.

"...unsettling!"

She went on to explain, "He was brought in after a fall. He fractured his leg and his pelvis."

"It took seven or eight doctors and nurses just to barely get him onto the operating table."

"The second they made the incision, all you could see was glistening white fat."

"And what's more..."

Yu Suye exclaimed, "After they set the bones, there was no way to suture the wound or put it in a cast."

"With a patient like him, severe fat liquefaction is a hundred percent certainty."

Yan Ziruo asked curiously, "So what's the treatment? You just leave a wound that big open to the air?"

Yu Suye's tone turned sympathetic. "All you can do is put in a few loose stitches, tape the wound shut with medical tape, and insert a drainage tube for the liquefied fat. Then you just have to wait for the wound to slowly heal on its own."

"At the same time, you have to use an external fixation frame to immobilize the area and keep the fracture from shifting out of place again."

"Either way, that guy is in for a world of pain."

Yu Suye sighed again. "Then again, he could use this ordeal as an opportunity to finally lose some serious weight."

"To be that overweight at only thirty-five or thirty-six... it's unbelievable."

The three of them entered the seminar room at the end of the hall, where Yan Feifan and Yu Suye began to change out of their work clothes.

Yan Ziruo speculated, "For him to get that big, he must have suffered some kind of serious blow and just gave up on himself, completely letting himself go."

She looked at her brother and said with deep emotion, "I once had thoughts of giving up, too. I spent a while just binge eating and drinking."

"Luckily, I came to my senses in time."

Sensing where this was going, Yan Feifan met his sister's gaze and couldn't help but ask, "Was this when I was in a coma?"

Yan Ziruo hummed in affirmation. "It's all in the past now, so I won't hide it from you anymore."

"I came home one day, and the house felt so cold and lifeless. I was exhausted and starving, and there was nothing in the fridge."

"And just like that, I broke down."

She said, lost in the memory, "I cried my eyes out, and then I went to a restaurant and ordered a whole table of food."

"I was thinking, 'Life is just too hard. I can't do this anymore.'"

"'After I spent all our money, I'd take you and we'd jump into the sea together.'"

Yan Feifan pressed, "What happened then?"

"Then..."

Yan Ziruo raised a hand to wipe the corner of her eye and chuckled softly. "Well, we still had the apartment, right? I figured I couldn't just let someone else get it for a steal."

"So I went to Mrs. Tian, who's a real estate agent, and asked her to sell the apartment as quickly as possible, even at a low price."

"But then, instead of selling the apartment, Mrs. Tian rallied all the neighbors to help us."

"With all their care and support, I gave up on that idea."

"Of course..."

Yan Ziruo added with a look of immense relief, "Not long after that, Feifan, you woke up."

"Otherwise, I honestly doubt I could have kept going on endlessly, without any hope."

Seeing she had made the atmosphere too heavy, Yan Ziruo chuckled and said, "But that whole experience did make me realize something."

"When you feel like you can't go on anymore and you want to give up, it means you've hit rock bottom, the lowest point of your life."

"If you can just hold on a little longer, that's when things might just turn around. You'll see the light at the end of the tunnel."

With a heavy heart, Yan Feifan walked over to his sister and silently wrapped his arms around her.

Yu Suye knew about the siblings' past and what they had been through.

Even though she hadn't experienced it herself, she could still feel the helplessness, agony, and struggle Yan Ziruo must have gone through from her understated retelling.

Yu Suye felt her nose tingle. She walked over, spread her arms wide, and hugged them both...

"Alright, I was just getting carried away. You two don't have to get so emotional."

Yan Ziruo pulled away from their hug and said, a lingering fear in her voice, "Feifan, seeing you wake up and become so capable..."

"...I'm both incredibly grateful and terrified in hindsight."

"If no one had been there to help us then, if I had just... gone through with it..."

Yan Ziruo patted her chest and urged him, "Feifan, you're capable now."

"When you see someone in a desperate situation they can't get out of, if you can lend a hand, you should."

Yan Feifan nodded. "I will, Sis. I'm a doctor. I'll do everything I can."

"But don't overextend yourself!"

Yan Ziruo couldn't help but add, "You can't help people by dragging yourself down with them..."