White walls welcomed him as his eyelids flew open. Letting out a rasp groan, Ethan tried to sit up and remove the IV pierced on the back of his hand.

"Ah, wait, wait, wait!" Ethan's doctor, Song Zihao entered just in time to check up on his patient. ​​

Doctor Song Zihao is Song Mo Kun's cousin, and is one of Ethan's trusted friends.

At this moment, Ethan is confined at the hospital owned by the Song family, and most of the medical professionals here are surnamed Song.

Seeing the hospital-hating man about to rip his IV, Doctor Song opted to smack this stubborn one unconscious again. "What the hell, man?! Do you wanna die, huh?!"

Ethan ignored his good friend's exaggeration.

"If you remove those, I'm telling your wife."

"She knows?" He asked, obediently placing his hands on his lap.

"Of course she knows!" Doctor Song rolled his eyes, saying the most obvious answer to his question. "She's the first one your secretary called, but her phone was busy. Fortunately, Yifei was with her."

"What happened to me?"

"Eh, your old injury was acting up again. Have you been taking your medications? Like I strictly told you to do?" Doctor Song narrowed his eyes, giving him a suspicious look.

"En."

"You did not missed one?"

"En."

"Good. So the sleep deprivation and heat exhaustion triggered it. Also, you were dehydrated." Doctor Song clicked his tongue, letting out an exasperate sigh.

"You were out for about 6 hours, and according to Lian, you hadn't eaten anything and only had coffee for breakfast." Doctor Song grumbled, reading Ethan's health results on the clipboard. "For petty reasons, you didn't leave your office to take a break or eat lunch..."

"Are you trying to kill yourself, Ethan? I though your bad habits finally cease when your fiancée came around..."

Ethan's eyes snapped at him with a serious glare. "Don't tell her about my old injury."

"Eh? Why?"

"You know why."

"Ehm...about that, hehe..."

If he could, Ethan would've grabbed Song Zihao by the collar and strangled him.

"Yeah, uh...we kinda had this small talk...and I kinda told her everything..."

"Why would you tell her? I thought I told you not to let anyone know?" Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Bro, are you really asking me this? Your wife is scary, ok? My gut was screaming at me not to lie! Heck, I can lie to the parents, but I can't lie to the wife!"

"That look she was giving...it's like I'm being threatened!"

Ethan did not scolded his friend any further. His reasonings were valid, really valid that he almost pitied him.

"She was here looking after you as soon as she heard what happened, you know." Song Zihao removed the empty saline. Now that he's awake, he won't be needing it anymore so he heed to his wish and removed the IV.

Knowing him, he hates staying too long in the hospital.

Lucky bastard. Doctor Song really wanted to pummel this guy to the ground if he wasn't a doctor, and him, his patient.

How is it that this cold-hearted, emotionless man, successfully snatched a woman like Lillie Bai?

Heck, this guy's EQ is so low that even Lillie Bai misunderstood his "heartfelt" actions.

Yeah, he and Ethan were friends way back high school, and he knew the whole drama.

"Where is she?"

"She went out to buy something."

Ethan sat there quietly. He knew he cannot escape his wife's incoming questions.

***

Approximately 5 hours ago, Lillie arrived in the hospital, Yifei and Gabriel were left in the villa. They did not want to slow her down. Their clothes were wet, they had no time to change.

Lillie dashed out wearing her off-shoulder blouse, white shorts and sandals.

Her shoulders and legs were cold because of the air-conditioner and also because of anxiousness.

She met up with Secretary Yu in front of Ethan's hospital room, talking to the doctor.

Lillie recognized the man. He's Song Mo Kun's cousin and a good friend of Ethan's back in high school.

"Ah, Miss Bai!" Secretary Yu caught her approaching.

"Secretary Yu." Lillie nodded in acknowledgement.

"Miss, now that you're here, I'm afraid that I could not stay any longer. CEO Li's unexpected absence has left the company in quite the predicament. If it's not too impolite of me, I will be excusing myself to attend this matter."

"Go on, don't let me hinder you with your duties. I will take care of him from here." Lillie replied. "Thank you, Secretary Yu."

Secretary Yu bowed before leaving.

The hallway was now empty, aside from Lillie and Song Zihao.

Lillie demands an answer.

***

"Old injury?" She looked up at Doctor Song from her seat beside Ethan's hospital bed. He led Lillie inside the room to talk privately, as there were too many ears near them.

Doctor Song mentally cursed his big mouth,

Why did I told her that?! Not even Ethan's parents know this!

"Head injury." Doctor Song could no longer deny nor hide it. He's a doctor now, he's not that coward anymore.

And this woman is Ethan's future spouse, he had a feeling that even his good friend cannot hide anything from her.

Besides, this woman is terrifying!

"You know how hot-blooded that guy was when he was young. He would go around the dark alleys of the city to look for someone to exchange notes with."

Doctor Song once belonged to Ethan's group before, he was with him every time he and the others go with him to fight some gangsters. He knew that Ethan became infamous in the Underworld over the time, but did not know who he was among them.

Because of this incident, Doctor Song retreated and did not joined him any further with his fights.

He wanted to be a doctor, someone who save lives. This noble road would be destroyed if he joined him in a place that's filled with killers.

"With those kinds of people he's fighting, he would've expected that they are, by no means, fair."

"Seeing as the favor is not on their side, one of the thugs pulled out a gun. The bastard had a really horrible aim, and Ethan had successfully dodged most of the bullets, except one..."

Lillie's heart pounded through her chest. Without telling her, she already had this inkling idea in her mind.

"He was shot in the head."