Chapter 16.1 (1/2)

I wish I had something to say here, but… Read, and you will understand.

Chapter 16.1 – The Roles People Play (1)

There were doctors continuously coming and going from the room, and Zhousheng Chen had also stepped inside.

She felt even more panicked.

She forced herself to continue looking — at the sun s.h.i.+ning high and bright, at the mottled shade cast by the trees, at the handful of Interpol agents and Zhou family members downstairs. After a while, she reached unsettledly for her milk tea, and the ta.s.sel on the eighteen prayer beads around her wrist swayed with her motion, the rose-colored tourmaline decoration on the string of the ta.s.sel b.u.mping against the gla.s.s of the cup and producing a light, clinking sound.

For some reason, she seemed to sense that someone was watching her.

She sought out that uncomfortable gaze. It was Zhou Wenchuan.

However, when she located him, he had already s.h.i.+fted his gaze away and had gently stretched out his hand to stroke w.a.n.g Man’s abdomen.

w.a.n.g Man lowered her eyes to watch him, lightly placing her hand over his as both their hands covered the position where the baby was. The w.a.n.g family was not the large, wealthy family that the Zhou family was, but it had always been secure and stable. For Zhou Wenchuan, she had conceded again and again, but still she could not understand why matters were becoming more and more complicated… Those authorities downstairs had gradually narrowed their investigation down to him.

In the immense Zhou family, there were far more people than simply him, alone, who were involved in shady business. Yet, it was him, alone, who was embroiled in real troubles…

The door to Wenxing’s hospital room abuptly opened…

A middle-aged doctor strode out and, with an extremely grave expression, directed a nurse to call several other doctors. Everyone outside of the room stood up anxiously, watching the people dash in and out.

From early this morning up to now, there had already been three life-threatening instances. This was the fourth…

After a dozen or so minutes, Zhousheng Chen emerged from inside and cast a glance in the direction of Mei Xing and s.h.i.+ Yi.

s.h.i.+ Yi and Mei Xing walked up to him, and she gently reached out and took hold of his hand. He returned her grasp and said, “Wenxing wants to see the two of you one last time.”

Her throat clenched and tears nearly spilled over from her eyes.

Originally, this had been a sterile room, but it was apparent that later, the people who entered were no longer required to don isolation gowns. They pa.s.sed through two consecutive automatic doors and stepped inside. Her legs unable to hold her up anymore, Zhousheng Chen’s mother was sitting on one side of the room, continually wiping her tears with a handkerchief. Wenxing lay upon the bed, her eyes open and fixed on s.h.i.+ Yi and Mei Xing.

The two walked over to her.

Wenxing first took s.h.i.+ Yi’s hand in hers, and with great difficulty, she wrote several words in her palm: mobile phone, recording, listen.

s.h.i.+ Yi nodded, then turned to Zhousheng Chen. “Give me Wenxing’s mobile phone.”

Zhousheng Chen immediately strode out and very soon returned with a bag. From within, he pulled out the phone and handed it to s.h.i.+ Yi. Seeing that s.h.i.+ Yi had the phone in her hands, Wenxing slowly moved her gaze away to look at Mei Xing.

She no longer had the strength to speak. Inside the oxygen mask, a faint white mist could be seen forming recurrently.

Very faint. Even breathing required so much effort.

She only gazed at Mei Xing, her eyes unblinking.

Mei Xing crouched down to accommodate her eye level so she could look more comfortably.

s.h.i.+ Yi could not bear to watch any longer, and lowering her head, she turned on the phone and slipped on a pair of earphones.

In the voice memo list, there was a file named, “11.”

She knew it must be this one and tapped to open it. It was Wenxing’s voice:

Sister-in-Law, I’m sorry.

I’m a selfish person. If I’m to die, I’ll definitely leave all my last minutes for Mei Xing. I need to remember him so that next life, I can find him. That’s why I made this recording very early on, to give to you.

This recording… I don’t know where to start.

From really young, I grew up outside of the country, so I’m not really close to the people in my family. The only ones who were truly good to me were my two older brothers. Of course, the one who treated me best is, for sure, Big Brother. But, since I was a kid, I’ve had this sense that Mom doesn’t really like Big Brother.

Later, as I grew up, I found out a secret.

In the recording, there was the sound of Wenxing’s little laugh. After a slight pause, she continued speaking:

But, I can’t tell you the secret. I feel like anybody who knows it will have bad luck. Like me. Like Second Brother.

s.h.i.+ Yi listened, very baffled.

However, she could sense that the key points Wenxing wanted to say were coming later.

I seem to have said a bunch of useless things and started to waste time.

s.h.i.+ Yi, actually… I want to tell you, I’m very, very sorry.

Those few days you were in Wuzhen, my second brother wanted to do some bad things to you… I’m guessing Big Brother must not have told you this. If he hadn’t been prepared for it, you might have been hurt. After it happened, lots of people found out about it right away, but everyone chose to keep quiet.

Including me. I admit, the people in my family are all really selfish, and we just protect people in our own family.

Later on, before Big Brother could come back, only Xiao Ren went to Wuzhen… You know that in the Zhou family, Xiao Ren is very special, so him there with you meant no one dared get close to you guys anymore… I admit, I can’t compare with Xiao Ren.

And then later, you came to stay in our house.

I came back for my sickness…… And then…… You fell into the water. And you were poisoned and unconscious. None of those were accidents.

I don’t know how much you’ve guessed. Who could get close to you like that, or what was the reason for doing all those things? s.h.i.+ Yi, I really hope that you can guess because that way, my guilt would lessen, even just by a little bit…

The only people that Big Brother trusts completely are me and Mei Xing, right?

Actually, that’s not quite right. Big Brother even suspected Mei Xing for a bit…

s.h.i.+ Yi, you’re so smart. I’ve said so much, you should be able to guess who it is, right?

s.h.i.+ Yi raised her head and looked at Wenxing.

Her recording was still sounding in s.h.i.+ Yi’s ears, but now, her eyes only held Mei Xing.

Perhaps, only now, in this time, could she so brazenly use such a way to have Mei Xing stay with her.

I… never intended to hurt you, but I still ended up hurting you. Many times.