After returning home with the child, her ex-husband knelt down and gently coaxed her.

A silence that lasted for several minutes fell over the living room.

It was so quiet that even heavy breathing could be heard. Lu Xiyan felt as if he were in an ice cellar, and the initial chill was long gone.

"Depression?" He looked at Xu Zhijun in disbelief, his voice hoarse. "How long has it been?"

"Four years."

Lu Xiyan froze, as if struck by lightning.

Seeing his surprised expression, Xu Zhijun knew that An Ning had not mentioned her illness to him.

He took out a bottle of medicine, placed it on the coffee table, and pushed it toward Lu Xiyan. "I came here today to bring her some medicine. This medicine can control her condition and prevent her from self-harming when she has an attack. She has been taking this medicine for four years now, and in these four years, instead of stopping, she has often secretly increased the dosage herself."

"Do you know why?" Xu Zhijun's tone was filled with barely concealed anger. "Because ever since she returned to Jinghai, you've been hurting her!"

"If you paid even a little more attention to her, you would have noticed the scars on her wrists! She's lying in your bed now, and you don't even know how many cuts she has on her wrists!"

Lu Xiyan's deep pupils suddenly contracted as he immediately thought of the tattoo on An Ning's hand, "Left hand, wrist?"

"That's right, she attempted suicide several times. If I hadn't discovered it in time, she would have been dead long ago!"

When Xu Zhijun took her pulse, he noticed the tattoo on her wrist. He laughed self-deprecatingly, "Even now, she's still comforting you, afraid that you'll be sad if you know about her illness. She even hides the scar from her self-harm, as if it never happened! I tried to persuade her to tell you about her condition, to clear up the misunderstanding between you two over the years, so that she can live on."

"But she won't listen; she always thinks of you!"

Lu Xiyan's eyes were already dark red, and his back teeth were clenched tightly.

That's why Anning went to the beach alone today.

She didn't succumb to this setback because of it.

This blow was just the last straw that broke her back.

Actually, she has been sick for several years and is barely clinging to life.

And then, with his last breath, he was gone.

If he had arrived even a minute later, she would have sunk to the bottom of the sea without hesitation and been swept away by the waves.

Thinking of this, the man clenched his fists tightly, wishing he could crush his own bones.

"There are some things that, if I don't tell you, she might really intend to keep from you forever."

Xu Zhijun looked around at the grand and luxurious decor and laughed, "Mr. Lu, while you're enjoying this comfortable life, have you ever thought about what kind of life your wife is living alone in Jining?"

"Ji Ning?" Lu Xiyan's voice trembled. "She's been in Ji Ning all this time?"

"Yes. She went to Jining four years ago and has been there ever since."

Lu Xiyan felt as if he had been punched hard in the head.

She's in Jining, in the country!

Then why can't he find her?

He used so many connections and searched for her frantically, turning almost the entire country upside down, but he couldn't find her anywhere.

He even searched places abroad, but there was no news of her; it was as if she had vanished into thin air.

For the past four years, she has actually stayed in China, in the most remote city of Jining!

"At that time, she lived alone in a small one-bedroom apartment, and the environment was very simple."

Xu Zhijun took out his phone, opened the photo album, and pushed it in front of Lu Xiyan.

"It's an old neighborhood, the houses are run-down, but the rent is very cheap. I think she rented it because the rent was cheap."

The phone felt like a red-hot branding iron, burning Lu Xiyan's hand.

In the photo, the tiny, cramped, and dimly lit room is kept clean and tidy, just as she always does.

Didn't she take the money and leave? Why doesn't she stay in a nicer place?

Thirty million is enough for her to rent a bigger house.

"I don't know what she went through or what kind of life she lived. But the first time she came to the hospital to register for my appointment, the Anning I saw was far from what it is now."

"She was so thin, she looked like she could be blown away by the wind. When she sat in my office, she had no vitality at all. I could tell she was very young, but that didn't stop her from being beautiful. So I don't understand why such a young and beautiful girl doesn't have a vibrant life force, but instead seems lifeless."

"The woman I saw was broken."

As Xu Zhijun spoke, he recalled the way he had first met An Ning four years ago. He became somewhat excited and took a few deep breaths to barely steady his voice and continue speaking.

"She lost a lot of hair. Due to prolonged lack of sunlight and malnutrition, she lost more than half of her long hair."

He looked up at the man opposite him, who was in no better shape. He listened to him silently, and although his handsome face still looked calm, the tear tracks on his face did not lie.

Such a hurt expression is not commonly seen on a young master like Lu Xiyan.

Do you know what her first words were?

Lu Xiyan raised his hand and wiped away the tears hanging on the bridge of his nose with his fingertips; his eyes were red.

Xu Zhijun smiled softly, a smile tinged with bitterness and heartache.

She said, "Dr. Hsu, I'm pregnant. I'm in very bad shape right now, but I want to live. Please help me, okay?"

"At the time, her condition was not suitable for pregnancy. The child would take away nutrients from her body, which would be even more detrimental to her recovery. But she insisted on keeping the child. She said she had nothing left but this child, and she couldn't live without it."

"During those four years, she was desperately trying to live for the sake of this child."

"I gave her her first psychological counseling session. To find the cause of her illness, I needed to know what she had experienced and what caused it."

Hearing this, Lu Xiyan looked up and met Xu Zhijun's gaze, feeling a pain in his bones.

He vaguely felt certain that the answer he had been searching for for four years was about to be presented to him, slapping him hard in the face.