Chapter 5 — Calling Off the Engagement with the Master Surgeon

The medical report stated the findings with chilling clarity: every index was perfectly normal, with not a single trace of tumor markers present. Lin Wanwan did not have stomach cancer at all! She had faked her illness during the engagement party. Gu Jingchen felt his mind go blank. He recalled the fragile, pitiful appearance Lin Wanwan had worn that night. He remembered how, for her sake, he had discarded me in front of everyone, even going so far as to hurl the engagement ring to the floor. It turned out that the entire ordeal was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated deception. With a single lie, she had ruined his brilliant future and severed the strategic alliance between him and the Su family.

Gu Jingchen was consumed by regret. It gnawed at his heart like a poisonous snake. What he had lost was not merely a beautiful fiancee, but the immense medical and financial resources backing the Su family. Had he not called off the engagement, he would currently be the director of the city’s largest private hospital. With bloodshot eyes, he stormed out of the hospital like a madman and drove directly to the Su estate. I was sitting in the garden, enjoying my afternoon tea. Ignoring the security guards trying to block his path, he forced his way in. He stumbled to where I sat and collapsed to his knees with a heavy thud.

"Qianqian! I was wrong! I was so terribly wrong!"

Gu Jingchen wept, simultaneously slapping himself across the face again and again. The sharp, rhythmic sounds of his palms striking his skin echoed through the garden.

"I was deceived by that wretched woman, Lin Wanwan! She isn't sick at all; she was faking the whole thing!"

"Qianqian, please, can you forgive me? Let us get engaged again. I swear that from now on, I will treat only you with kindness!"

I watched his performance with cold detachment, my heart undisturbed by the slightest ripple.

"Gu Jingchen, do I look like a scavenger to you?"

Seeing my lack of response, Gu Jingchen grew desperate and reached out to clutch the hem of my dress. He looked up, his face streaked with tears, feigning deep affection.

"Qianqian, you have no idea how I have suffered during this time."

"Without you, I have been in agony, living a life worse than death."

"Every night, I miss you so intensely that my heart constricts with pain. Feel my chest, please, it truly hurts!"

He tried to take my hand and press it against his chest. I pulled away with disgust and used a wet wipe to clean my fingers.

"It hurts like a knife, does it?"

I locked eyes with him, the corners of my lips curling into a cold smile.

"If it hurts so much, then let’s make it hurt a little more."

Gu Jingchen’s expression shifted instantly. He let go of my dress, clutching his chest with both hands.

"Ugh..."

A strangled groan escaped him, and his entire body curled up on the ground. It felt as if his heart had been tossed into a high-speed meat grinder. With every beat, a wave of tearing agony ripped through him. He writhed on the grass in a frenzy, cold sweat instantly soaking through his shirt.

"It hurts... help me... my heart..."

Gu Jingchen gasped for air, his mouth agape, yet he could not draw in a single breath of oxygen. I rose to my feet, looking down at him from my vantage point.

"Doctor Gu, how does it feel to have a heart that truly hurts?"

"Enjoy it slowly. This is exactly what you asked for."

I turned away and walked toward the villa, instructing the security guards to toss this piece of trash off the property.

Gu Jingchen was thrown onto the main road like a dead dog. Passersby discovered him and called an ambulance, which transported him back to his own hospital. A specialist in cardiology performed a comprehensive examination, but the results showed that his cardiac structure was perfectly fine. However, he was suffering from an extremely severe form of psychosomatic angina. The pain was chronic and medically incurable. Any physical exertion or emotional agitation would cause his heart to feel as if it were being torn apart. Most fatal of all, his hands had begun to shake uncontrollably. For a lead surgeon, trembling hands meant his career was effectively over. Gu Jingchen was ruined. The hospital board, learning of his condition, revoked his surgical privileges without hesitation and reassigned him to the logistics department to manage medical equipment. From a lofty, elite surgeon, he had fallen to a mere warehouse clerk. Unable to endure such a massive decline in status, he resigned in a fit of rage. With no income, the funds for Lin Wanwan’s and Mrs. Wang’s medical treatments were immediately cut off. The hospital halted their medication and began pressing them for discharge. Lin Wanwan lay on her hospital bed, groaning in agony, while Mrs. Wang, clutching her broken leg, pointed at Gu Jingchen and launched into a shrill tirade.

"Gu Jingchen, you useless, pathetic waste! You can't even cover our medical bills; what kind of man are you?"

Gu Jingchen was driven to the brink of madness by her insults, and his heart began to constrict again. He clutched his chest, leaning against the wall with a hollow, bitter laugh.

"Why do you think I ended up like this? Isn't it all thanks to your daughter?"

"If she hadn't faked her illness, would I have ever fallen to this state?"

Hearing these words, Lin Wanwan’s heart plummeted in panic. She realized that Gu Jingchen knew the truth. If he abandoned her now, she would truly have nothing left but to wait for death. Blindly, she groped about until her hands snagged the hem of Gu Jingchen's shirt.