EIP 69

Rong Lan Zhi’s tears flowed freely as she clung tightly to her husband’s sleeve, silently shaking her head in refusal. Zhou Jun couldn’t bear the sight any longer. Rising from his seat, he walked to the backyard, seeking solace in a cigarette.

The Zhou household felt emptier than ever. Though it was broad daylight, the silence weighed heavily, oppressive as death. Every now and then, the chirp of a bird broke through the stillness, offering a rare and fleeting comfort.

Zhou Jun’s boots sank into the snow as he stared blankly at the whiteness around him. In this vast stillness, his thoughts turned to Yong Jin. He remembered the trail of footprints Yong Jin left when he departed, each one soon buried under falling snow. He thought of the sound of fireworks in the background when they last spoke on the phone, and he smiled faintly. It had been half a month since he paid attention to any news about Yong Jin.

Maybe he hadn’t arrived yet. Or perhaps he was already there. Had the battle begun? When would it end?

The newspapers didn’t have much to report. After the troops left the city, the headlines returned to everyday topics, painting a peaceful facade, with little mention of the front lines. Zhou Jun absently rubbed his fingers, twisting them around his middle finger. Footsteps came from behind, and he turned to see his elder brother walking over, wrapped in a coat and carrying a hand warmer.

Zhou Yan asked for a cigarette. Although his elder brother used opium, he rarely smoked. Zhou Jun hesitated to give him the unlit one and instead handed over the half-burnt one in his hand. Zhou Yan glared at him but took it, taking a sullen drag. The two of them stood side by side under the corridor, staring at the sky, the snow, and the distant horizon. After a long stretch of cold silence, someone finally spoke.

Zhou Yan said, “Your sister-in-law is pregnant. It’s not easy to take care of her here. It’s better for her to go back. Don’t blame her.”

Zhou Jun licked his lips and laughed bitterly. “What is there to blame? She’s your wife.” No matter how much he resented the Rong family’s attitude, who could he confront about it? His brother already had enough on his plate. What good would causing a scene do? The one most reluctant to see his sister-in-law leave was his elder brother. And now, he was the one asking him not to blame her. His heart was probably as bitter as gall, yet he still had to think of what was best for his wife.

Zhou Jun felt stifled. The Rong family had seen their family’s decline and wasted no time taking their daughter back. They claimed it was to care for her during her pregnancy, but who knew when she would return? He even feared the Rong family might not let her give birth to this child, or remarry her. Maybe it was his modern way of thinking, but he felt that for today’s independent women, divorce was no longer such a big deal.

After all, his sister-in-law was beautiful and came from a good family. Remarrying wouldn’t be difficult for her. The more Zhou Jun thought about it, the more it troubled him.

Zhou Yan began coughing violently. It sounded so painful that Zhou Jun snatched the cigarette from him and stomped it out in the snow. Zhou Yan coughed for a while before finally managing a weak smile. “Don’t worry too much. I believe in Lan Zhi. She’ll come back.”

When he said those words, his eyes held a weighty warmth, as if they could melt the first layer of snow this early spring. Zhou Jun couldn’t help but smile along. “Of course, she’s your wife.” He repeated the words, but this time, his tone had softened from earlier bitterness.

Winter had just passed, and everything was waiting to come back to life. Recently, Zhou Jun had connected with some businessmen from the south. Officially, they were traders, but behind the scenes, they dealt in smuggling medicine. With the war escalating, supplies were scarce, and medicine had become a highly lucrative commodity. These southern businessmen wanted Zhou Jun to join their network, making him a supply contact in the region. They even proposed taking him along on a trip to show him the ropes.

Zhou Jun weighed his options carefully. There was no denying the danger involved. Beyond the risk of losing the goods during transportation, the constant fighting made the roads even deadlier. He was still hesitant when, at this critical moment, Aunt Li called his apartment. She told him his elder brother had collapsed at home and had been rushed to the hospital. She urged him to get there as quickly as possible.

Rushing to the hospital in a panic, Zhou Jun found that it was the family’s steward who had accompanied his elder brother there. His eyes red with tears. The diagnosis had come back. It was esophageal cancer, at advanced stage. Zhou Jun’s legs gave out and he collapsed right there in the bustling hallway.

The steward’s voice reached him as if muffled through water, trembling and distant. Zhou Jun sat on the floor, limp like a pile of mud, completely unable to muster the strength to get up. His limbs were numb, his fingertips ice cold. The word “cancer” was too terrifying. It wasn’t unfamiliar to him. His mother had passed away from it. Her final months in the hospital had been nothing short of agony.

He could never forget one visit to his mother. She had wasted away to little more than skin and bones, clutching his hand tightly and crying. The ever-strong and fearless Zhou family daughter, who had raised her children alone and never cowered before gossip, wept like a child, saying the pain was unbearable and begging him to ask the doctor to end her suffering quickly.

The steward tried to pull Zhou Jun to his feet, but he couldn’t stand. He crawled a few steps and slumped against the wall, hugging his knees as he curled up there.

He thought bitterly that he wasn’t strong enough yet. His elder brother couldn’t leave like this. His sister-in-law was newly pregnant, and his brother still had to see the child grow up and get married. How could he fall so gravely ill now?

He wiped at the corners of his eyes, his chest aching so intensely it felt ready to burst. He pounded on it a few times, forcing himself to take a deep breath to calm down.

He didn’t dare enter the ward immediately. Only when the numbness in his body subsided did he push himself up and go to find the doctor. Upon explaining who he was, the doctor told him he had been his brother’s physician all along. His brother had known about the illness for half a year and had been undergoing treatment.

However, the cancer had already reached the middle stage when it was discovered. More aggressive treatments required hospitalization, but his brother had refused and instead delayed matters until this latest episode forced him to the hospital again.

“Try to persuade your brother. His condition is extremely poor now, and hospitalization is essential. He keeps saying there are too many things he can’t leave behind, but nothing is more important than his life.” Zhou Jun nodded repeatedly, his heart heavy with guilt.

He recalled Dr. Wu’s earlier warning, which he had dismissed, believing his elder brother’s frailty was merely the result of opium draining his strength. He had thought that once he found a way to help him quit, everything would return to normal. But the cruel truth had revealed itself. His brother had hidden his condition from everyone.

When Zhou Jun went to settle the hospital bill, he wasn’t surprised to find it was an astronomical sum.

He had to step out to hail a rickshaw and make a trip to the bank to withdraw some money. As he sat in the rickshaw, he reflected on his current businesses. The storefronts he managed were barely scraping by, with modest profits each month. The factory, on the other hand, had been running at a loss for years.

After withdrawing money from the bank, he made a call to the businessman from the south. Over the phone, Zhou Jun agreed to take on the risky venture, but he emphasized that he urgently needed the money upfront.

The businessman was clearly unhappy with this condition. The two of them negotiated for quite a while before one side finally relented. The businessman agreed to pay half in advance but demanded a 20% reduction in Zhou Jun’s share. Zhou Jun gritted his teeth and accepted the terms. They set the departure date for the following Tuesday.

After hanging up, he rushed back to the hospital. Zhou Yan had already woken up and was half-reclined on the hospital bed, with the steward carefully feeding him water. The steward, who had watched over the two brothers since they were children and treated them as his own, was overcome with grief. Every so often, he would wipe his eyes with his sleeve.

Zhou Yan, unaccustomed to seeing the usually composed steward in such a state, softly tried to console him. Just as he was speaking, he noticed Zhou Jun standing at the doorway, his nose red like a child’s, staring at him with misty eyes.

The steward found an excuse to leave, giving the brothers some privacy. Zhou Jun sat down by the bedside but didn’t question his brother about why he had hidden his illness. Instead, he calmly outlined the arrangements he had made for the businesses during his brother’s illness: how he planned to manage the storefronts and that he had assigned Xiao Fu to oversee the factory.

Listening to Zhou Jun’s orderly plans, Zhou Yan nodded with satisfaction. “Not bad. You’ve done well,” he said.

Zhou Jun forced a faint smile, lifting the corners of his lips with effort. “Of course. I’m your younger brother, after all.”

His lower lip trembled, and his eyelashes quickly lowered to conceal the tears welling in his eyes. He blinked rapidly to clear the mist clouding his vision and tried to smile again. “I just finalized a business deal with someone. I need to make a trip to the south next week.”

Zhou Yan frowned in disapproval. “The world is so chaotic right now. It is better if you don’t go. What kind of business is it? Do I know the boss?”

Zhou Jun shook his head and replied, “Elder brother, I’m a grown man now. You don’t need to worry about these things. It is a good opportunity and very safe.”