Hospital 444
Chapter 473 - 1 Lu Mange (1)

Chapter 473: Chapter 1 Lu Mange (1)

A bright and sunny morning.

Lu Mange, who had got up early and changed her clothes, walked out of the bedroom and saw her husband, Li Zhixiao, making breakfast for her.

"It smells so good..."

Lu Mange, smelling the aroma, walked up behind Li Zhixiao and hugged him.

Lu Mange wasn’t very skilled with household chores, so since getting married, the vast majority of the housework had fallen on Li Zhixiao’s shoulders.

"Go sit over there first," said Li Zhixiao, his tone gentle, "it will be ready soon."

"Mhm, okay."

Then, Lu Mange went to the bathroom to wash up.

Before long, she heard the sound of the television from outside. Her husband always watched the morning news, a habit that had never changed. He was quite traditional, rarely browsing news on a phone or computer, preferring television news.

"According to our channel’s report, a murder recently took place in City K. A woman was found dead in a hotel on the outskirts of City K... The police investigation revealed that the woman had checked in with a man who appeared to be unconscious. The man’s whereabouts are currently unknown, our channel will..."

After freshening up, she walked out of the bathroom and sat down at the dining table.

"Husband..."

"Yeah?"

"Do you... remember what day it is tomorrow?"

"Of course, I do. It’s our wedding anniversary."

"There will be a surprise waiting for me, right?"

"Naturally."

Lu Mange smiled.

"Alright, I’m off now, husband."

After breakfast, she changed her shoes, walked to the door, and kissed her husband goodbye.

The thought of tomorrow’s wedding anniversary, which also happened to be the weekend, put Lu Mange in an extremely good mood.

Would he book a restaurant for them, or would he choose to prepare a candlelit dinner at home, she wondered?

Not to mention anything else, Li Zhixiao’s cooking skills were indeed impeccable. At home, he was mostly in charge of cooking.

Upon entering the subway, Lu Mange found a seat, sat down, and started browsing the news on her phone.

Just then, she suddenly heard a voice.

"Wife, what do you think about Dr. Dai dying in the morgue?"

Lu Mange was slightly startled and looked to her side.

It was a man and a woman.

"Right now, I just want to know what those people from the Curse Artifacts Department are planning to do with He Yan."

"They probably won’t mess around, with Yin..."

"What Yin Wuque is thinking, I really can’t understand! He... makes me so anxious I can’t even do my rounds properly."

All of a sudden, the woman looked towards Lu Mange who was sitting next to her.

Lu Mange was stunned.

After staring at Lu Mange for quite some time, the woman said, "You..."

"What’s wrong, wife?" the man asked.

"No, it’s nothing."

The woman then turned her head away.

This left Lu Mange feeling utterly baffled.

Did she mistake her for someone else?

Not long after, the couple got off at one of the stations.

Lu Mange thought about the way the woman had stared at her. The look wasn’t one of mistaken identity but rather as if her face had something dirty on it.

But when she opened her phone’s selfie mode to check, she found nothing unusual about her face.

"Really strange..."

Of course, this little incident didn’t occupy Lu Mange’s thoughts for long.

Soon, the subway arrived at her company.

Lu Mange was a project planner in an advertising company. Recently business had been somewhat sluggish, and the mood in the project team was somewhat somber.

However, Lu Mange was an optimist by nature, believing that difficulties were only temporary.

As an optimistic person, she easily got along with others, and most of her colleagues had a good relationship with her.

During the lunch break, Liu Yan, who was closest to Lu Mange, came over and said, "Isn’t tomorrow your wedding anniversary?"

"Yes," Lu Mange chuckled, "Back when we were in college, as soon as we reached the legal age for marriage, we went to get our marriage certificate. In the blink of an eye, it’s been ten years."

"That’s wonderful..."

"Back then, ah..."

"Hey, hey, hey, are you going to tell that first meeting story you’ve told hundreds of times?"

However, Lu Mange ignored her and continued with the story: "At that time, I was in the deep end of the school swimming pool and got a cramp in my leg. He just dove in to save me. I still remember it very clearly..."

"He already had an eight-pack by then, right?"

"Well, not that exaggerated..."

As she spoke, Lu Mange’s voice gradually softened.

"But, a lot of people said he wasn’t good enough for me, just because my family was better off and he came from a rural background. Yet, how many from the countryside could make it to graduate school like he did? I didn’t even pass the postgraduate entrance exam."

After thinking for a bit, Liu Yan said, "He’s saved you more than once. There was also that time right after you got married, wasn’t it?"

"Mmm, that time we were out for a drive. Suddenly a car came from the opposite direction, the driver might have been drunk or sleepy, and the car crashed into us. He threw himself over me... Thankfully, the car’s airbag deployed on time, and we were both buckled up. Otherwise, the consequences don’t bear thinking about..."

At this moment, another colleague came over and said, "There’s last-minute overtime, prepare yourselves, we’re going to leave late tonight."

Overtime again...

With no choice, Lu Mange ate quickly, hoping to finish early and close up shop sooner.

Afterward, she messaged Li Zhixiao, telling him she’d be late home and would sort out dinner outside.

At the same time, she also chatted with her best friend Xia Lu on WeChat.

Xia Lu had been her good friend since university days, and she had always looked down on Li Zhixiao, advising her against marrying him, saying it wasn’t good for a ’white, rich and beautiful’ girl to marry a man who was a ’phoenix’. Talking about incompatible values and that they were not suited for a relationship.

But Lu Mange didn’t take such words seriously at all.

To her, the term ’phoenix man’ was just prejudice. Are men from the countryside all morally inferior? She believed that as long as there was love, everything could be harmonized. Xia Lu, on the other hand, shook her head repeatedly, saying Lu Mange was love-struck, and warned that she shouldn’t come to her if she regretted it in the future.

"Xia Lu, how have you and your guy been doing lately?"

"We broke up."

"What? It hasn’t been that long, and you’ve split again?"

"Selective hiring, better to wait for the right one. Let’s not talk about this... How have you planned for tomorrow’s anniversary?"

"Heh, just wait for my Moments tomorrow."

"Showing off love in front of a single dog, you’re asking to be struck by lightning!"

After the conversation, she got back to work.

But unexpectedly, that overtime lasted until late into the night...

In the evening, she hurried home, opened the door gently, by which time Li Zhixiao was already asleep.

After washing up and changing into her pajamas, she quietly lay down next to her husband and fell asleep.

That night, she slept restlessly.

Not knowing how long she had wandered through her dreams, she finally opened her eyes. It felt as though she had just experienced a terrible nightmare.

"Phew, what kind of nightmare was that?"

She turned over and looked at Li Zhixiao lying beside her in the bed.

What had he planned for their wedding anniversary?

However, she soon had a vague feeling that something was off.

Since they were married, it was rare for a weekend to pass by where she would wake up before Zhixiao did.

Perhaps Zhixiao was also very tired from work yesterday?

So, she grabbed her phone, put on her earphones, and decided to watch a drama for a while, waiting for Zhixiao to wake up so they could get up together. For breakfast, she still wanted to eat something made by her husband.

After a while, she felt Zhixiao move beside her.

She then took off her earphones and looking at the waking Li Zhixiao, said, "Husband, are you awake?"

The waking Li Zhixiao rubbed his eyes and looked at Lu Mange in front of him.

Then, his expression instantly turned to one of sheer horror; he jumped up from the bed!

"Husband, what’s wrong?"

The terrified Li Zhixiao stood on the bed, staring at Lu Mange with an expression full of fear.

"You... you... you..."

Pointing at Lu Mange, he spoke in a chilling voice: "Who are you???"