The woman sitting on the sofa wiped her tears with a handkerchief and turned her head to the side.
The man in a suit wrapped his arm around her shoulders, glanced at Yun Shu with reluctance, and said, “Let’s go. Don’t make your mother more upset.”
Yun Shu’s small face was pale, a faint pain coming from her heart. She covered her chest with her right hand, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Dad, Mom… can I not leave? I’ll get along well with my sister.”
The girl looked as fragile as a willow in the wind, dressed in a pure white dress. Her lips trembled, and her weak body seemed on the verge of collapsing.
Hearing her words, the woman paused and turned to look at her. After so many years as mother and daughter, it was impossible to say there were no feelings at all.
But when she thought of her biological daughter growing up in such harsh conditions, thin and frail, while Yun Shu, despite her poor health, had been carefully raised by them and had never suffered even a bit—
Though she was thin, she was exceptionally beautiful. In the past, when they brought her to gatherings with wealthy ladies, people often remarked that she didn’t resemble them.
She hadn’t thought much of it then, assuming her daughter had simply inherited the best features of both parents.
Now it was clear—this wasn’t about inheriting the best traits. She wasn’t their blood at all.
She hated Yun Shu’s biological parents to the core. Their own daughter was unhealthy, so they swapped her child.
They had made her raise a sickly daughter, while her own flesh and blood suffered in the countryside.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t Yun Shu’s fault, but she couldn’t help directing her emotions at her.
After so many years, she had truly loved Yun Shu. She couldn’t be completely heartless—giving her a place to stay was already the end of their mother-daughter bond.
“You should go. Since you don’t want to return to your biological parents, your father has bought you an apartment in Yunhai City. It’s already transferred to your name. You can live there from now on. Don’t come back.
We haven’t mistreated you all these years. You’ve been sick since childhood—I personally fed you medicine spoon by spoon. Don’t resent us.”
“Mom, how could I resent you? I remember all the kindness you’ve shown me. I just… I just can’t bear to leave you.”
“Mom, I’ll be good. I’ll listen. I won’t fight with my sister for anything. Please don’t make me leave, okay?”
As she spoke, Yun Shu knelt directly in front of the woman, clutching the hem of her dress and pleading. Tears streamed down her face, her voice choked with sobs.
“Just go!” the woman said as she stood up, brushing her hands away before heading quickly toward the spiral staircase.
The man quickly followed after her.
“Dad, Mom… do you really not want me anymore?” she murmured softly.
At that moment, the driver walked over and picked up her suitcase. “Miss, let’s go. I’ll take you to the airport.”
The driver had worked for the Yun family for many years and often drove Yun Shu around. He still cared for her, and seeing her like this made his heart ache.
Yun Shu looked at the silent staircase, wiped her tears with a tissue, and kept turning back as she reluctantly got into the car.
The car started and slowly drove out of the hillside villa area until her familiar surroundings disappeared from view.
In the car, as Yun Shu cried, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her heart. She grabbed her clothes tightly at her chest, gasping for air.
Gradually, her breathing became more and more difficult, her vision turning blurry. Her hand loosened weakly and fell.
She slowly collapsed onto the seat.
“Miss…!”
Seeing her fall through the rearview mirror, the driver immediately slammed on the accelerator. The car shot forward like an arrow, speeding toward the Municipal People’s Hospital.
…
At the entrance of the emergency room, the doctor came out, removing his mask.
“Who is the family member of the girl with the heart condition just now?”
The driver hurried over. “Doctor, how is our young lady?”
“The patient is stable for now, but she must avoid emotional stress in the future. Her heart is already weak—she needs proper care.”
When they had just brought her in, her heart had already stopped. Even after 20 minutes of resuscitation, there was no response. Just as they were about to give up, her heart suddenly started beating again.
“Thank you, doctor, thank you,” the driver said quickly.
“Alright. You can move the patient back to the ward for observation. She’ll stay overnight. If there’s no problem, she can be discharged tomorrow. Go pay the fees.”
“Okay, doctor.” The driver hesitated—he didn’t have money.
He nervously asked, “Doctor, how much is the hospital fee?”
“You’ll have to ask at the billing counter,” the doctor replied before leaving.
The driver felt anxious. What kind of situation was this? He checked his pockets—he only had 200 yuan. He didn’t know if it would be enough.
At the billing counter, he found out the total, including injections, was 3,000 yuan.
There was no way he could afford that. Every month, he sent all his money back home for his sick son and mother.
Taking out his phone, he nervously called Madam, hoping she would still help the young lady. Even if she wasn’t her biological child, after so many years of mother-daughter bond, she shouldn’t completely ignore her.
The call was answered—it was Sir’s voice.
“Sir, Miss had a heart attack on the way and fainted. I’ve brought her to the hospital for emergency treatment. The doctor said she needs to stay overnight, but I don’t have money to pay.”
“How much?”
“Three thousand.”
“Alright. I’ll transfer it to you now. Pay for a few extra days so she can stay longer.”
“Okay, Sir.”
He knew it—there were still feelings. Otherwise, Sir wouldn’t have agreed so quickly.
When Yun Shu slowly opened her eyes in the hospital room, all she saw was white.
An IV drip hung above her head, the liquid slowly flowing down through the tube.
Wasn’t she already dead?
She had been pushed down the stairs by Yun Shanshan, the biological daughter of her adoptive parents. She lay in a pool of blood.
What was going on? Why was she back in a hospital?
She clearly remembered seeing her soul slowly rise from her body. Looking up, she saw Yun Shanshan covering her mouth, staring at her in shock.
She tried to go over and confront her, but then she saw the jade pendant in Yun Shanshan’s hand absorbing the blood flowing from her body.
Suddenly, a flash of white light appeared, and an unknown force sucked her in, pulling her into a swirling vortex.
And now she was here again in this hospital room.
Had she been reborn?