When Jiang Nan Fang returned home, the children had already fallen asleep.
The house was temporary, and the children's room was set up according to the standards of an ordinary family with one child, with only one large bed.
But the four of them were used to sleeping together, and they still squeezed in.
The two elder brothers lay in the same quilt, with their sister beside them.
The four of them had their heads nestled together.
A small night light was on in the room, casting a soft glow on the walls, bathing their cute, childish faces.
Jiang Nan Fang pushed the door open and entered barefoot, kneeling by the bedside to gaze at their sleeping faces for a long time.
As she watched, she couldn't help but see Zhan Bei Jue's shadow on their faces again.
Their daughter was fine, but the two sons, their thin nostrils, high nose bridges, and the curve of their lips.
They were too much like him.
Recently, Zhan Bei Jue had given her too much companionship.
When sleeping at night, he would tirelessly let Jiang Nan Fang rest her head on his arm.
Jiang Nan Fang could feel his warm body with every movement.
But now...
She was used to being alone, and she didn't feel lonely without companionship.
What she feared was someone suddenly barging in halfway, making her accustomed to having someone by her side, and then leaving.
The immense loneliness, without a drink, under the erosion of the long night, was truly hard to resist.
Before the matter was resolved, with a heart full of anger, she didn't have much energy for sentimentality and didn't feel it was too difficult to bear.
Once she truly calmed down, and the outcome was decided, the aftereffects all rushed in.
Jiang Nan Fang couldn't describe the immense heartache and pain when she saw the children and thought of Zhan Bei Jue.
From childhood to adulthood, she was accustomed to enduring and restraining herself, ashamed to express weakness. She couldn't describe her pain.
Moreover, now, in front of her only two friends, she presented herself as an invulnerable female warrior.
A female warrior would not be sad or fragile; she would never let others know she could be fragile.
Only at times like this, when no one could see or hear, in the quiet of the night.
Could she dare to show her true self a little.
Her heart felt very empty and unsettled. She sat on the floor in the children's room and cried silently for a long time.
She began to have trouble breathing and felt dizzy, needing to go to the bathroom to clean herself up before quietly leaving.
After she left, the thoughtful children opened their eyes.
They hadn't slept because they were worried that Mommy hadn't returned yet.
Ge'er sighed first, "Alas, seeing Mommy so sad, I want to tell her the truth."
Tian Tian, "Daddy said it's not the time yet, forget it, let's bear with it."
"Then I'll send Daddy a message to tell him Mommy is sad. Otherwise, he won't know anything, and Mommy's tears will be in vain."
Seeing the message from his daughter, Zhan Bei Jue's heart was pierced.
He was working overtime to deal with a group business, preparing to finish this and personally investigate the person who framed him.
Work was bothersome, and he wasn't sleepy. Seeing Jiang Nan Fang upset, his heart sank, and he lost all desire to do anything.
He closed his laptop and stood forlornly by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the distant night sky.
The Zhan family villa was like a magnificent castle, with so many rooms that it could accommodate over a hundred people at the same time.
But now, apart from him and a few people who took care of his daily life, it was as quiet as a ghost.
In the past, when he returned from work, he could always see Jiang Nan Fang's smiling face and the children running around.
Now, standing alone in the darkness, did he not also feel lonely?
Especially since Jiang Nan Fang was disobedient and punished herself by drinking, which made him feel immensely burdened.
She had just had a miscarriage, didn't she know what drinking meant for her?
At the same time, he also hated himself for being born into such a family.
If it weren't for the messy relationships of the previous generation, if his mother hadn't used her tragic fate to morally blackmail him.
Would he have ended up with Jiang Nan Fang in such a situation?
After finishing a cigarette, the feeling of frustration not only did not subside but made him more energetic.
Tonight was destined to be sleepless, so he picked up his phone and called Lu Ming Zhe.
When Lu Ming Zhe was heartbroken a while ago, he and Jiang Nan Fang were inseparable.
It had been too long since he got over his heartbreak, and he had long forgotten what it felt like, only thinking he was useless.
At this moment, he felt he understood Lu Ming Zhe better than ever.
Lu Ming Zhe answered after the phone rang for a long time. The background was noisy, clearly indicating he was drinking in a bar again.
"Where are you? I'm coming to find you."
Lu Ming Zhe was already disappointed in his friend.
"Why are you looking for me? Shouldn't you be sleeping with your wife on such a beautiful night instead of coming to upset me?"
"Stop the nonsense. Are you still at the old place?"
"Where else would I be if not the old place? Going home alone is also f\*\*king boring..."
"Got it, wait for me, I'm coming to find you."
Soon, the two met.
Zhan Bei Jue didn't want to be stared at by people in the noisy crowd, so he pulled Lu Ming Zhe into a private room.
They didn't turn on the lights. One leaned on each side of the sofa, holding a bottle of wine in each hand, and chatted in low voices.
"What's wrong? Did you argue with your wife and come to me to vent?"
Zhan Bei Jue didn't answer him and slowly took a sip of wine.
"How long are you going to act like this?"
So he had come to persuade him.
Lu Ming Zhe immediately sneered, "It's none of your business how long I act like this. It's meaningless, life is meaningless."
"Every day, besides eating, sleeping, and earning money, it's just eating, sleeping, and earning money. Day after day, mechanically for decades, it's utterly meaningless."
"Whether you have money or not, whether you are respected or looked down upon, whether you succeed or not, in the end, you will die."
"You succeed your way, I fail mine, accepting the end early is quite good."
Zhan Bei Jue understood his self-abandonment.
There was a time when the workload was heavy, and there was no one close to talk to, and he also felt that life was meaningless.
No matter how much money he earned, how highly praised he was outside, when he returned home, he was just a lonely walking dead.
He understood the feeling of having no spiritual sustenance and not knowing what to strive for.
Fortunately, at that time, Jiang Nan Fang gave him two children...
"Since you miss her and can't leave her, go find her. You drink like this every day, getting alcoholic liver, dying, vomiting, what good will that do?"
Lu Ming Zhe naturally knew that this was useless.
He sneered and raised his arm to cover his eyes.
"Do you think I don't want to find her? You don't know how cleanly she left."
"I have people checking her whereabouts every day. For so long, there hasn't been any activity from her bank card or ID card. Where can I find her?"
"Damn it, I even checked all the hospital systems nationwide, thinking she might go for regular prenatal check-ups, but the hospitals couldn't find any news."
"Old Zhan, tell me, am I that bad? Why could she leave so resolutely, so cleanly? Is there really nothing about me worth remembering?"