Pushing the door open, Lu Xuanxuan was utterly startled. The moment she saw Bai Song, tears began to stream down her face.
She tightly covered her mouth, afraid that her sobbing might disturb Bai Song.
Bai Song was almost amused by her cautious expression and beckoned her over. “Come sit. What brings you here?”
Lu Xuanxuan stood by the bedside, staring at Bai Song’s deeply sunken cheeks, her completely bald head from chemotherapy, and her haggard face. Choking back tears, she said, “Song, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I came too late.” She didn’t even dare to touch Bai Song.
Bai Song smiled. “What are you talking about? I’m just happy you came to see me.”
“I’ll take you away. I’m taking you away right now!” Lu Xuanxuan gritted her teeth. “Tong Yao is truly despicable. Is this how she treats you after taking you away? If I had known, I would have fought tooth and nail to stop her from taking you.” As she spoke, she broke down crying again.
Bai Song sighed helplessly. They say women are made of water, but this girl cried like a flood.
“No, you can’t!” Tong Yao, who had been standing outside the door the whole time, unable to suppress her unease, finally barged in upon hearing those words.
She shoved Lu Xuanxuan aside, blocking their line of sight, her eyes red as she glared at Lu Xuanxuan. “Lu Xuanxuan, I let you see her to cheer her up, not to take her away!”
“If I don’t take her away, should I just stand by and watch you destroy her?” Lu Xuanxuan shouted hoarsely. “Do you have to personally kill her before you’re satisfied?”
“I didn’t!” Tong Yao screamed, losing control. She couldn’t bear such accusations, especially coming from her rival, Lu Xuanxuan.
Lu Xuanxuan looked at her, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes, her lips curling into a mocking smile. “Tong Yao, stop pretending. Haven’t you hurt her enough? What right do you have to keep Song? You don’t deserve her love.”
Without mercy, Lu Xuanxuan tore away the veil Tong Yao had used to hide her ugliness. She sneered, enunciating each word coldly, “Song didn’t dare to undergo chemotherapy just to spare you the pain, to hide her illness from you. She missed the best treatment window because of it. She didn’t want you to be haunted by her memory, so she ruined her own reputation, branding herself as a heartless scumbag. She even planned to go abroad alone to die. And you? You tricked her into coming back and pushed her straight into hell!”
“No, I didn’t! I didn’t know! I really didn’t know!” Tong Yao covered her face, shouting in vain.
Lu Xuanxuan’s gaze was icy as she yanked Tong Yao’s hands away. “You didn’t know? As the person closest to her, you didn’t notice anything wrong at all? Stomach cancer such a severe illness, does it just appear out of nowhere? Were there really no signs at all?”
Of course not. It did appear out of nowhere.
But naturally, Bai Song wasn’t about to undermine her own act.
“She loved you so much. Even I would have doubted something as absurd as her cheating, yet you actually believed it. Tong Yao, I seriously question whether you ever truly loved Song at all.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?” Tong Yao’s eyes flashed with disbelief. The one thing she couldn’t tolerate was anyone doubting her love for Bai Song after all, she had nearly destroyed Bai Song in the name of that love before.
Her glare at Lu Xuanxuan was sharp enough to draw blood.
Lu Xuanxuan grew more impassioned as she spoke, sneering coldly, “What, am I wrong? If you don’t even trust her, how can you call yourself her closest lover? Tong Yao, if you don’t love her, why won’t you let me take her away?”
“Dream on!” Watching Bai Song’s wavering gaze, Tong Yao knew she had taken every word to heart. Regret washed over her, she never should have let Lu Xuanxuan come. She hadn’t helped at all, only made things worse.
She pulled out her phone, ready to call someone to remove Lu Xuanxuan.
Bai Song suddenly whispered, “Yao Yao, let me go.”
Lu Xuanxuan’s eyes lit up, while Tong Yao froze as if struck by lightning, staring at Bai Song in disbelief.
The color drained from Tong Yao’s face, her mind reeling.
She was terrified utterly terrified.
Lu Xuanxuan was right. It was her fault, all her fault.
If only she had noticed Bai Song’s struggles sooner, if only she had chosen to trust her maybe early treatment could have given Bai Song a chance to recover.
But she hadn’t. Instead, she had ruined Bai Song’s health beyond repair, leaving no room for salvation.
Tong Yao staggered back two steps, her eyes filled with torment. She looked at Bai Song, shaking her head frantically, unable to speak a single word.
Swallowing her tears with difficulty, Tong Yao choked out, “Song Song, I was wrong. I’ll never do it again. Please forgive me, let me stay with you. I love you. I can’t live without you. How am I supposed to go on if you leave?”
“Ha.” Lu Xuanxuan let out a mocking laugh. “Tong Yao, do you love Song Song, or yourself? Is it that you can’t live without her, or that you can’t live without tormenting her?”
“You’ve done such terrible things to her, trampling her heart underfoot. How dare you ask for her forgiveness!”
Faced with Lu Xuanxuan’s accusations, Tong Yao had no rebuttal. She felt as if all strength had left her, her body swaying unsteadily.
Her voice was hoarse as she gazed at Bai Song in anguish. “I didn’t know. I truly didn’t. I was wrong, Song Song. Back then, I was too busy yes, busy looking for a job. I wanted to give you a better future. I didn’t pay enough attention to you. I was too restless, too insecure. I should have believed you. I’m sorry, Song Song. I failed you.”
A metallic taste rose in her throat, and her vision blurred with red. Finally, Tong Yao faced her mistakes head-on.
Back then, she had plummeted from being the golden child into the mud, unable to adjust. Restless and anxious, unable to find work, she had relied on Bai Song to support her. Her ridiculous pride had made her blame Bai Song for her struggles while sinking into a spiral of self-loathing.
She had lost everything for Bai Song except Bai Song herself, she had nothing left.
But Bai Song wasn’t like that. She still had so much beyond Tong Yao.
Subconsciously, Tong Yao had wanted Bai Song to have nothing except her.
So the moment she heard Bai Song had cheated, for a split second, she had even felt a flicker of satisfaction.
Because this way, she could return to the Tong family without betraying her love, resume her role as the golden girl. Because this way, she could justify locking Bai Song away, ensuring her world revolved around her alone.
It was precisely these hidden thoughts of hers that directly harmed Bai Song.
Tong Yao couldn’t forgive herself, but because of this, she couldn’t let Bai Song leave even more.
Tong Yao cried as she tugged at Bai Song’s sleeve: “Song Song, you love me, don’t go.”
Lu Xuanxuan was so angry she gritted her teeth. Like a shrew, she grabbed and pulled at Tong Yao’s hair: “Tong Yao, have you no shame? Just because Song Song likes you, do you think you can hurt her without restraint?”
Tong Yao’s heart ached bitterly. Yes, even she felt her actions were despicably excessive, but she couldn’t relent.
However, Bai Song wearily closed her eyes and interjected: “No, Tong Yao, I don’t love you anymore.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the other two present were stunned, their expressions filled with disbelief.
After a moment of shock, Lu Xuanxuan’s face lit up with wild joy. She immediately said triumphantly: “Tong Yao, did you hear that? Song Song said it herself she doesn’t like you anymore. Now you don’t even have the last shred of pretense to hold onto. What right do you have to demand she stay? If you try to force her, I can sue you!” Others might not win such a case, but she could.
“No, Song Song, you’re lying to me.” The taste of blood filled Tong Yao’s mouth, and her vision twisted before her. “Song Song, I know everything now. You don’t have to pretend so hard anymore. I know you love me.” Tong Yao kept repeating, as if trying to hypnotize herself.
“Ugh!” Lu Xuanxuan was nearly driven mad with anger, her face anxious as she looked at Bai Song, terrified Bai Song might be swayed again.
But Bai Song’s expression was gentle, though her eyes were icy cold not an act, but truly devoid of any lingering affection.
Bai Song spoke softly: “Yao Yao, at the beginning, I did love you so much. That’s why, for your sake, I chose to hide my illness. Because I knew, with your personality, even if you found out I was sick, you wouldn’t leave me. But I also knew this illness was incurable. Back then, I was truly afraid that if you left the Tong family and I left you, how lonely you’d be all alone. So I did everything I could to make you believe I had betrayed you, scheming to send you back to the Tong family. That way, even without me, you’d still have your family. In the future, no matter what difficulties you faced, your family would always take care of you, be your strongest support, your warm harbor. Time would fade everything, and you’d slowly forget me and start a new life. That way, even if you later found out I had died, you’d only grieve for a while, because new important people would have already entered your life.”
She coughed twice, her pale face flushing slightly, a trace of blood seeping from her lips. Bai Song wiped her lips with the back of her hand and continued with difficulty: “When you tricked me into meeting you using your senior as bait, my heart was still happy. I thought, it would be good to see you one last time before I died. I missed you so much. If I didn’t see you, I feared I’d die with regrets.”
She let out a long sigh, like a tolling bell that struck heavily against Tong Yao’s heart, making it tremble violently.
“That was the worst decision I ever made.”
Every word Bai Song spoke was like a hammer, pounding mercilessly into Tong Yao’s heart, leaving her dazed. Tong Yao staggered, barely steadying herself against a nearby cabinet, her lips trembling as she stared at Bai Song.
No, that wasn’t how it was.
“Song Song, I truly love you. We are meant for each other, destined to be together.”
“Yao Yao, everything you’ve done has completely extinguished my love for you.”
“Whether out of love or hatred, the harm you’ve caused me is real and irreversible.”
“Yao Yao, at the end of my life, I just want to leave peacefully and freely. Please, let me go.”
Bai Song opened her mouth, her pearly white teeth stained with blood. Her smile was pale and weak: “At the very least, when I close my eyes, I don’t want to see you.”
She sighed softly: “Yao Yao, I hope I die far away, so that in our next lives, we never meet again.”