“Rong Yuchuan, I absolutely refuse to have the baby delivered prematurely! Do you know what risks there are when a baby is only seven months old and is taken out of the womb?”
“Do you know how much harm an early C-section can cause? This is your child too! You can’t bear to do this to your own child, can you?”
“Besides, there is no reason he can’t wait until full term and be delivered naturally!”
“He can wait, but someone else can’t!”
“Perform the C-section and take the fetus out!”
“Oh no, Doctor Bai, the premature baby girl… I think she’s stopped breathing!”
“She was delivered far too early. Under normal circumstances, her survival rate was only fifty percent to begin with, and the baby was also congenitally weak. There’s nothing we can do to save her!”
Dawn was just breaking.
Inside the hospital room, Shen Chuhe sat clutching the urn containing her child’s ashes. She had spent another sleepless night.
The nurse who had come to change her medication had tried to comfort her the previous day, but now it was the second day. Aside from the intense emotional reaction she had shown when the urn was first brought to her, she had done nothing but sit there in silence, neither truly alive nor dead.
It was heartbreaking.
Not only had her daughter, who had been forced to be born prematurely, died, but Shen Chuhe had also suffered massive blood loss during childbirth and had her uterus removed. She would never be able to have another child.
“Be careful and don’t move around too much. You don’t want to pull at your wound.”
The nurse kindly reminded her.
Shen Chuhe did not respond. She simply held the urn tightly against her chest.
Today was the second day.
The second day since her daughter had died.
She would remember it forever.
When Rong Yuchuan arrived, it was already evening.
Shen Chuhe was still sitting in exactly the same position.
“The doctor said you haven’t eaten for two days. Shen Chuhe, what the hell are you doing?” The man’s voice was filled with impatience. After a pause, he continued, “If you’re doing this to get my attention, then I’m here now.”
But Shen Chuhe did not respond. This was the first time she had ever ignored him.
His eyes fell on the urn in her arms, and his gaze darkened slightly before he looked away.
“The child was simply unlucky. It was his fate.”
Shen Chuhe finally reacted.
What did he just say?
Fate?
Her child could have been carried to full term and born healthy.
Yet now he was actually saying that her daughter’s death had been fate!
Shen Chuhe raised her eyes. Her gaze was bloodshot with grief.
“Why?”
Why had her child been forced to be born prematurely?
He had said that someone couldn’t wait. Who was it that couldn’t wait?
“There is no reason. This child should never have come into this world in the first place. Even if he had been born, he would only have been called a bastard by others.”
His voice was cold and harsh, without the slightest trace of emotion.
It was the way this man had always been.
But when Shen Chuhe heard the word “bastard,” her heart still trembled inexplicably.
“It is better that he is gone now. At least you won’t be reluctant to leave.”
“What do you mean? Where do you want me to go?” Shen Chuhe asked in a trembling voice as she looked up at him, only to realize that the man’s expression was frighteningly cold and indifferent.
A deep, creeping fear spread through her heart.
“I booked you a flight to M Country at eight tomorrow morning. Shen Chuhe, I’m tired of you. I’ve done more than enough for you all these years. From now on, you will stay in M Country and never come back.”
“It’s because of Qiao Wan, isn’t it? Rong Yuchuan, you’ve slept with me for seven years, and now you want to throw me away like a piece of trash?”
Shen Chuhe was stunned for a long time before finally forcing the hoarse question from her throat.
She had actually heard some rumors.
He was getting married… to the woman he had truly loved all along.
Was he sending her away because he was going to marry Qiao Wan? Was that why he had allowed her daughter to die such a senseless death?
Rong Yuchuan stepped forward. He stood over her while she remained seated on the hospital bed, looking down at her condescendingly.
What kind of look was it?
Shen Chuhe saw it with absolute clarity.
Disdain. Disgust…
“Shen Chuhe, you don’t deserve to mention her. Don’t forget your place. Back then, you were the one who used every means necessary to climb into my bed.”
“To me, you’re dirtier than garbage.”
He said she was dirtier than garbage.
All because of that one mistake she had made back then…
Shen Chuhe closed her eyes and let the suffocating pain swallow her whole.
Rong Yuchuan, you really were cruel.
Every word was like the tip of a sharp knife, stabbing viciously into Shen Chuhe’s heart before driving deeper and deeper.
The pain shattered her reason, and she instinctively grabbed his hand.
Just as she had clung to this one lifeline seven years ago.
Her hand trembled slightly.
“Rong Yuchuan…”
You can’t say this about me!
Anyone else could call me dirty, but not you! Otherwise, what did all those nights of passion between us mean?
The words remained trapped in her throat. Shen Chuhe could not utter a single one of them, and all that remained were the hot tears endlessly spilling from her eyes.
So after all these years, his heart had never changed. He still hated her just as much as ever.
She had thought…
Rong Yuchuan’s expression remained cold as he forcefully shoved her hand away.
“I don’t have time to play along with your act. Seven years is long enough. I’ve had enough.”
He took a handkerchief from inside his clothes and vigorously wiped the hand Shen Chuhe had just touched.
In a daze, Shen Chuhe thought she heard the word “disgusting.”
When she lowered her eyes, she saw the expensive handkerchief lying conspicuously in the trash can.
It was the first birthday gift she had ever given Rong Yuchuan.
She had spent an entire year’s salary, earned through her own efforts, to buy it.
And now, it had been discarded into a trash can as though it were worthless.
She was just like that cheapened handkerchief, about to be completely thrown away by him.
Rong Yuchuan hated seeing her looking so sorrowful.
It irritated him.
“Stop playing games. Leave Beicheng obediently, or else you know what I’m capable of.”
Rong Yuchuan left, leaving two tall bodyguards behind.
He was afraid she would run away.
He wanted to make absolutely certain that she left this city and that he would never have to see her again for the rest of his life.
Shen Chuhe lowered her head and looked at the urn in her hands.
“I’m sorry. It was Mommy’s fault.”
“I should never have brought you into this world.”
Early the next morning, the two bodyguards arrived at the hospital room on time.
“Miss Shen, do you need to go back and pack your things?”
Before Rong Ye left, he had instructed them to make absolutely sure that Shen Chuhe boarded the plane. As for everything else, they could let her decide for herself.
Shen Chuhe did not respond.
The bodyguards exchanged glances before one of them spoke again.
“Miss Shen, there are still three hours until boarding. We can leave in no more than an hour.”
With that, they stepped back outside the room.
Shen Chuhe remained silent, without even the slightest change in expression.
It was as though someone had completely ripped her soul from her body.
Not long before, her phone had received two messages from an unknown number.
One read, “Do you want to know the cause of your child’s death?”
The other contained a long recording.
On the hospital rooftop.
November in Beicheng was bitterly cold, yet the woman wore nothing but a thin plaid shirt.
She stood barefoot, clutching the black wooden urn tightly against her chest. Her frail figure looked so thin and fragile that anyone who saw her would feel sorry for her.
She stood at the very edge of the rooftop.
When she looked down, the unfathomable height was enough to make anyone feel terrified.
Yet her pale face was calm, utterly devoid of life.
The recording, along with Rong Yuchuan’s voice, continued to echo through her mind.
She finally knew the reason.
From the very beginning, the reason she had been made pregnant with this child was to obtain umbilical cord blood to save the child Rong Yuchuan had with Qiao Wan. For the sake of that child’s safety, he had even refused to wait until full term and had ordered the C-section to be performed prematurely.
He knew the risks.
He even knew that her daughter might not survive.
And the reason he insisted on sending her to M Country was because Qiao Wan was ill and needed a bone marrow transplant. The attending doctor there was more familiar with Qiao Wan’s condition, so he simply disregarded the fact that Shen Chuhe had just given birth and sent her away anyway!
Rong Yuchuan, what exactly did you think we were?
As if possessed, Shen Chuhe dialed his number.
“Beep! We’re sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service.”
It was disconnected.
This was the phone number Rong Yuchuan had once specifically used to contact her.
He had canceled it.
At Rong Corporation’s office building.
Rong Yuchuan received a message from the bodyguards.
Shen Chuhe had gone to the hospital rooftop and appeared to be attempting suicide.
He rubbed his temples with both hands, his brows drawn tightly together.
He had always suffered from headaches, and now the irritation only made them worse.
He used his assistant’s phone to call her.
The call connected, and the sound of howling wind came from the other end.
“How many more tricks do you have waiting for me?”