Could you please provide the text you would like me to translate?

Tongfu was not in her hospital bed; only Xiao Juan and Lin Ruoyi sat at the bedside. Xiao Juan spoke animatedly, leaving nothing out as she recounted every detail of what had happened between Li Mingzhi and Tongfu. As Lin Ruoyi listened, she glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw Huang Qi arriving.

Huang Qi looked at her warily and asked Xiao Juan, “Where’s Tongfu?”

“She was taken by the nurse for some tests,” Xiao Juan replied.

Lin Ruoyi stood up and spread her hands at Huang Qi. “Don’t look at me like that. I just came to visit. I haven’t done anything to her. There’s no reason for women to make things difficult for each other, right? Besides, I have a right to know about this.”

At the head of the bed still sat the fruit basket and bouquet Lin Ruoyi had brought. Judging by how Xiao Juan now regarded her as an ally, she had evidently won her trust. Huang Qi set down her laptop bag and asked, “How did you find this place?”

Lin Ruoyi said, “A girl from the south with the surname Zheng, recently admitted to the hospital, not far from our university—that’s plenty to go on. It wasn’t hard to find.”

Huang Qi had heard that Lin Ruoyi’s family was well connected, and she must have a wide network in the city. Finding someone was surely no challenge for her. “So you know everything now? How do you feel about it?”

Lin Ruoyi shrugged. “It would’ve been better if you’d told me sooner.”

Huang Qi muttered under her breath, “How was I supposed to bring up something like this?”

Just then, the nurse wheeled Tongfu back in, accompanied by her attending physician, a kind-faced middle-aged woman. Huang Qi and Xiao Juan helped the nurse settle Tongfu back in bed. Tongfu kept her eyes fixed on Lin Ruoyi, so Huang Qi introduced her, “Oh, right, this is Lin—”

“I know,” Tongfu interrupted. “Miss Lin was already here before I went for my tests. We’ve already met. I just wanted to see for myself… what kind of girl he’d fall for.” Her eyes dropped with a hint of self-doubt.

The doctor approached, and Huang Qi asked, “Doctor, how is she doing?”

The doctor replied, “She’s recovering well—after all, she’s young. If she wants to keep the baby, she can stay two more days and then be discharged to rest at home, making sure to take care of her health and nutrition. If she doesn’t want the child, at twenty weeks, only induction is possible now. These days, the procedure is quite advanced—no surgery needed, just medication, and it won’t cause much harm.”

Huang Qi had never heard Tongfu say whether she wanted to keep the baby. She had only been hoping for a full recovery. Now, the question was out in the open; with each passing day, the child grew, and it couldn’t be ignored.

The doctor added, “You need to decide soon. The further along, the harder the procedure, and the higher the risks.”

Patients have a natural trust and dependence on their doctors, so Tongfu asked tentatively, “Doctor, do you think I… should do it?”

The doctor sighed. “That’s a decision for you and your family. I can’t interfere. But, just between us, I know your situation. You’re only nineteen. Although induction is more taxing on the body than an abortion, young women recover quickly. In a few years, when things have faded, you’ll be just like any other woman in her twenties—dating, marrying, having children. It won’t affect your future life. You have two more days here; think it over and let me know.”

Huang Qi understood the doctor couldn’t sway the patient’s decision, nor take on that responsibility. Even so, the older woman had gone as far as she could from the standpoint of an elder. None of the four young women in the room had any experience with such matters, making the issue weigh even heavier.

Xiao Juan, forthright and simple in her thinking, spoke up once the doctor had left. “Tongfu, you’re not really thinking of having the baby, are you? Are you crazy? For a bastard like that, you’d still want to have his child?”

Tongfu instinctively cradled her belly. “I… I don’t know.”

Huang Qi said, “Tongfu, you’ve seen for yourself how hard it is to be a single mother. Your own mother only divorced your father after you were born, but you aren’t even married yet. People will talk. Not only will there be the pressure of raising a child, but also the pressure of public gossip. Can you bear that? It’s fine if you don’t listen to us, but at least you should tell your mother and make the decision with her.”

Even Lin Ruoyi said, “Perhaps it’s not my place to say this, but if it were me, I wouldn’t hesitate—I’d end the pregnancy. I wouldn’t let a heartless man ruin my life.”

Tongfu’s eyes filled with tears. “I know what you’re all saying, but the child is inside me. I can’t bear to let go… Let me think about it. I’ll really think it through.”

The three of them gathered around the bed when suddenly someone called out from behind, “Ruoyi, what are you doing here?”

Huang Qi turned to see that it was Li Mingzhi. In just three days, he was a shadow of his former self—his usual arrogance and self-assuredness had vanished, replaced by defeat and awkwardness. He glanced at Lin Ruoyi, then at Huang Qi, his eyes full of resentment as he ground out, “Well, Miss Huang, you play a ruthless game! I’ve agreed to everything you people wanted. Why won’t you let me go? Are you so determined to ruin my life completely?”

Huang Qi was about to reply, but Lin Ruoyi cut in. “Li Mingzhi, do you really think you’re the only clever person in the world, and everyone else is a fool?”

Li Mingzhi pleaded, “Ruoyi, what did they tell you? Don’t just listen to their side—”

“They didn’t have to tell me anything. I found you myself. With the people I know, you really think you could keep this from me in this city?”

Li Mingzhi begged, “Ruoyi, I didn’t mean to hide anything. I just didn’t want this to happen… Can’t we go back and talk things over?”

Lin Ruoyi sat down in a chair. “I don’t want to hear anyone’s version in private. Since everyone’s here, say whatever grievances you have right now. You had the nerve to abandon her; surely you have the nerve to admit it?”

Now Li Mingzhi truly broke down. “So what do you want me to do? I got into graduate school and wanted to end things peacefully with my ex—was that so wrong? Am I supposed to be tied to her for life? She only finished junior high and works as a shampoo girl in a hair salon. How could I ever be happy with her? Who would think the two of us are a match? Is it so wrong to want to be with someone on my level, someone I can connect with?”

Huang Qi sneered. “Peaceful breakup? She’s pregnant and you just walk away, leaving her three hundred yuan to get an abortion on her own—that’s your idea of a peaceful breakup?”

Lin Ruoyi, calm and collected, said, “A hair salon worker with a junior high education wasn’t good enough for you, and you couldn’t be happy with her—but when she gave you money to support your studies, you never thought the money she earned in the hair salon was beneath you, did you?”

Li Mingzhi hung his head, speechless.

Lin Ruoyi continued, “You look down on her for being a junior high graduate working in a salon, and you, the graduate student from the School of Economics and Management at T University, think you’re not a match. By your logic, a country boy who’s made good wouldn’t be a match for a city girl from a privileged family with high-ranking parents. Does that mean you’re not good enough for me? How could I ever be happy with you?”

Li Mingzhi grew anxious. “Ruoyi, how can you say that? You know how I feel about you. I was honest about my family’s situation from the start. If you minded, why would you ever have been with me?”

“You treat me well, but did Zheng Tongfu not treat you well? You knew her background and her job from the beginning. If you despised it, why get involved with her?”

Li Mingzhi couldn’t win against Lin Ruoyi, nor could he shamelessly argue as he had with Tongfu. So he simply fell silent.

“You want someone on your level, someone you can connect with? That’s a tall order—frankly, I don’t see anyone else but you who’d meet those standards. To avoid anyone thinking I’m in your league, let’s have a peaceful breakup too.”

Li Mingzhi reached out to grab her, but Lin Ruoyi shook him off. Turning her back to him, she spoke to Tongfu, “Just now you said you wanted to know what kind of girl he’d fall for. You’re right—he likes girls who are pretty, well educated, who make him look good when he’s with them, girls from good families who can help him. Right now, he likes me, but if he climbs higher someday and decides I’m no longer useful, if he meets someone even better, he’ll leave me for her too.”

Li Mingzhi still tried to defend himself. “Ruoyi, I would never do that. I’m sincere! I swear—if I ever betray you, may heaven strike me down!”

Lin Ruoyi didn’t even turn her head. “Tongfu, doesn’t that sound familiar? Didn’t he say things like that to you, just to make you trust him and work yourself to death supporting him? My mother always told me, you can’t judge a man’s character by how gentle and attentive he is when he loves you—you judge him by how he treats you when it’s over. Only when things turn ugly do you see how vile someone really is. If he can treat his ex-girlfriend like this and stand here swearing he’ll treat me well, isn’t he really just insulting me, calling me a fool?”

“Tongfu, do you understand now? You’re a beautiful young woman—kind, loyal, hardworking, and capable. There’s nothing about you that makes you unworthy of him. It’s he who isn’t worthy of you, nor of me. Men as despicable as him don’t deserve girls like us.

“My mother also taught me that a woman shouldn’t devote herself selflessly to a man, hoping he’ll be grateful. Sometimes, we need to be a little selfish, to treat ourselves well. Only when a girl values herself will a man respect her and not look down on her.

“The doctor was right—you’re only nineteen, in the bloom of youth, with a whole future ahead of you. You have many happy days waiting for you. Don’t let one bite from a mad dog along the way make you give up on yourself. Forget it, and look ahead. I can’t do much to help you, only offer these few words. Just remember to think more about yourself and your future, all right?”

In the end, Lin Ruoyi was the first to leave. Li Mingzhi tried to follow, but she warned him to stay away, or she’d call security and charge him with harassment. Xiao Juan remembered that Li Mingzhi still owed Tongfu money, so she detained him and forced him to hand over the remaining fourteen hundred yuan before letting him go. By then, Lin Ruoyi was already gone.

Huang Qi looked after Tongfu all morning. In the afternoon, a nurse came by and asked, “Bed six, the patient in room four has been discharged. There’s a free bed there. Would you like to move?”

Xiao Juan asked naively, “Move into the ward? Is there an extra charge?”

Huang Qi nudged her with her elbow. The nurse explained, “Extra beds and regular beds cost the same—first come, first served, assigned randomly.”

Room four was a double room with its own bathroom, much better than the beds out in the corridor. Xiao Juan looked it over. “Such a nice room and it costs the same as outside? Is it like getting a seat on a train—just luck?”

Huang Qi understood—it must have been Lin Ruoyi who arranged it. After Tongfu was discharged, Huang Qi ran into Lin Ruoyi at school and thanked her. Lin Ruoyi replied, “It was just a little thing—no need to thank me. Besides, I played a bit of a negative role in this, so consider it atonement. I don’t want to have unwittingly done harm by getting involved with a scumbag.”

Huang Qi placed the bouquet of white roses Lin Ruoyi had brought into a mineral water bottle by the bedside. The roses were just beginning to bloom. She looked at them, then at Tongfu lying in her hospital bed. “Truly, the age of a flower.”

Tongfu blushed at her words. “Miss Lin is really… a wonderful girl—beautiful, well-educated, from a good family, and so strong-minded. If I were a man, I’d surely like her too.”

Huang Qi replied, “That’s not necessarily true. Men don’t always like strong-minded girls. If I were a man, I’d like you—so kind, so attentive, always looking after me, never a worry at home. How wonderful!”

Xiao Juan teased, “That’s just because you’re lazy!”

The three girls laughed. Xiao Juan said, “I think she’s great too. That’s what a real university student from a top school is like! As for that Li guy, I don’t know what kind of luck he has—he’s trash, but he managed to date two such good girls. No wonder people say the best cabbages get eaten by pigs.”

Tongfu’s mood seemed much brighter. After a while, laughing and chatting, she said to Huang Qi, “Sister Huang, is the doctor still here this afternoon? Could you help me call her over?”

Huang Qi asked, “Do you feel unwell?”

Tongfu bit her lip. “I think you’re all right. I don’t want the baby anymore. I’ve decided to have the induction.”