“Dad, she has a terminal illness. Why waste money treating her?”
“Besides, if she hadn’t always stood between you and Mom, you two wouldn’t have been lovers kept apart!”
In a certain VIP ward, a young man stood by the bed, looking at the woman on it with disgust, as if she were some nauseating filth.
Su Qingran leaned against the headboard, the veins on her pale white wrists bulging. Her expression was numb, as if she were indifferent to it all.
“Are you deaf? Just look at yourself now. What part of you is worthy of my dad!” Seeing her like this, Lu Qin grew even more irritated.
“You venomous and hypocritical woman, you’ve stolen the title of Lu fu ren for so many years. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll hurry up and divorce my dad!”
“Xiao Qin, who taught you to speak like that? No matter what, she is your adoptive mother!” Qiao Manxue chided, poking Lu Qin’s forehead. She was dressed in a camel cashmere coat, her long, raven hair styled with exquisite elegance.
Though she was nearly forty, her skin was as smooth and lustrous as suet jade. Time seemed to have left no trace on her face, a world apart from the Su Qingran of today.
Lu Qin’s youthful brows furrowed tightly. “Mom, what did I say that was wrong? It’s clearly her who doesn’t know what’s good for her! Dad has already been so good to her, but not only is she not content, she even spreads rumors about you two everywhere!”
Beneath the covers, Su Qingran’s hands clenched into tight fists. Even though she had been taunted with such words countless times, an irrepressible, intense hatred still rose in her heart!
She and Lu Jingxuan had grown up together like childhood sweethearts. Later, Lu Jingxuan went away to be a soldier, promising before he left that he would return to marry her in three years.
For him, she had refused countless matchmaking attempts, only to be met with the news that he had been fundamentally injured on the battlefield and could no longer have children.
But even so, she had still married him.
Not long after the wedding, Lu Jingxuan brought home a child, Lu Qin. She treated Lu Qin as her own, doing everything in her power to give him the best life possible.
How could she have ever imagined that Lu Qin was actually the child of Lu Jingxuan and Qiao Manxue!
Only later did she figure it out. Lu Jingxuan’s affections had long since shifted!
But Qiao Manxue was the daughter of a capitalist. In that era, capitalists were denounced by everyone. Lu Jingxuan didn’t dare marry her, so he set his sights on Su Qingran instead!
From beginning to end, she, Su Qingran, was just a fool dragged out to take the fall!
What impotence? It was clearly a pretext he deliberately concocted to show his loyalty to Qiao Manxue!
Not only that, but she had also raised a son for them for twenty years for nothing!
A few days ago, she had accidentally stumbled upon the truth and wanted to get her revenge, but Lu Jingxuan already held a high position.
So he ordered someone to inject her with a drug. When she woke up again, she was in the hospital.
Su Qingran could feel her body growing weaker by the day. She figured she wasn’t far from death…
“The biggest regret of my life was raising you. You disgusting illegitimate child, what right do you have to criticize me? Get out! Get out now!”
Ever since learning Lu Qin’s true parentage, Su Qingran’s feelings for him had vanished in an instant, leaving only thick revulsion in her dark pupils.
“You! You bitch!” Lu Qin flew into a rage out of humiliation. “Serves you right that your whole family is dead!”
Su Qingran’s pupils instantly dilated. Her whole family is dead—
No, impossible!
They were all alive and well just a few months ago!
“Xiao Qin, go see why your dad isn’t back yet.” Qiao Manxue sent Lu Qin away and locked the door behind him.
She walked toward Su Qingran’s bed with a smile. “Qingran, children talk nonsense. Don’t take it to heart.”
“What did he mean by that!” Su Qingran’s head snapped up, her bloodshot eyes glaring at Qiao Manxue. “Tell me! Hurry up and tell me!”
Qiao Manxue put on a look of pity. “Sigh! I suppose I can’t hide it from you any longer, so I’ll be direct. A few days ago, your family came to the hospital to see you, but they were hit and killed by a truck.”
“But luckily, your eldest brother managed to survive. He’s still in the intensive care unit right now!”
A flash of triumph crossed her eyes. “But with his whole family dead, even if he’s alive, he must be in terrible pain!”
Everyone except her eldest brother was dead—
Su Qingran felt as if she had been plunged into an icy cavern, her whole body going limp on the bed.
“It was you—you did this, didn’t you! Why are you so vicious? Why would you do this to me?!” she roared hysterically.
Qiao Manxue’s expression changed abruptly. She leaned in and whispered word by word into her ear, “Who told you to discover my secret? To ensure my life of wealth and luxury for the rest of my days, I had no choice!”
“Besides, if it weren’t for my poor family background back then, you wouldn’t have even had the right to marry Jingxuan! In the end, you should be thanking me.”
With that, she chuckled softly and stroked the jade bracelet on her wrist. “But seeing as you raised my son so well and even gave me such a precious treasure, let’s just call it even.”
Su Qingran’s chest heaved violently, the taste of rust filling her mouth. “Bitch! I curse you to a horrible death!” she cursed viciously.
Qiao Manxue’s lips curled into a mocking sneer as she grabbed a handful of Su Qingran’s hair.
Her eyes held the thrill of vengeance. “You fool, you probably still don’t know that this jade bracelet is a space, do you! Ah—”
A fruit knife was plunged into Qiao Manxue’s heart. Su Qingran pulled it out and stabbed down again, blood instantly soaking the bedsheets.
“Go to hell!” Her hands trembled, but in the end, her eyes closed weakly.
The past thirty-eight years flashed by like a revolving lantern. She curved her lips in a self-deprecating smile. Was she about to die?
But she was unwilling. She hadn’t killed Lu Jingxuan with her own hands and avenged her family—
…
“Damn it, that bastard Lu Jingxuan! Little Sister fainted right next to him, and he still dared to go comfort another woman!”
“Don’t any of you stop me, I’m going to settle the score with that animal right now!”
“Who’s stopping you? Let’s wait for the Lu family to come and apologize, then we’ll teach him a harsh lesson!”
“Alright, all of you shut up. If anyone says another word, I’ll slap you silly!”
“Oww—”
Hearing her family’s familiar voices, Su Qingran thought they had come to get her.
But the more she listened, the more something felt wrong, so she opened her eyes—
On the gray wall hung a portrait of Chairman Mao and a yellowed calendar. A military green satchel, an old tin thermos—
Wasn’t this her room from before she got married?
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her mind. A trace of ecstasy appeared on Su Qingran’s delicate face. She had actually returned to the year she was seventeen!
Under her family’s watchful eyes, she rushed to the calendar. Seeing the large characters written on it—July 24, 1969—the ecstasy in her eyes intensified!
Thank goodness, thank goodness she was reborn before her marriage!
She then picked up the mirror on the wall and eagerly examined her appearance.
The young woman’s palm-sized face was covered with gauze. A pair of bright, moist, upturned peach-blossom eyes, healthy fair skin, a straight and perky nose, and cheeks flushed slightly from excitement.
She was tall and slender, with a well-proportioned figure and straight, long, jet-black hair.
“My dear Ranran, are you alright?” Zhao Lanzhi looked at her with concern, tears welling in her eyes.
“Mom…”
Su Qingran’s lips trembled, and the grievances that had built up for so long burst forth in an instant. It had been so long since she had seen her family.
This reunion felt like it was from another lifetime