After sending Jiang Ruo away, Jiang Zhou rushed back to the hospital. He was genuinely worried about Jiang Ruo, but he was also deeply concerned about his mother. In Jiang Zhou’s eyes, his mother was the most gentle woman—such a delicate mother surely couldn’t handle this heavy blow.
When he encountered his mother at the hospital entrance earlier, she appeared calm, but Jiang Zhou knew that had to be a facade. The mother he knew wasn’t that strong. He just wanted to get to the hospital as quickly as possible to comfort her, to make her realize that she still had him, her son.
Jiang Zhou hurriedly rushed into the hospital room, only to find medical staff performing a skin test on Jiang Huai. He immediately noticed that his father had bandages on his head and arm, with a bit of blood seeping through the bandage on his arm—clear signs of injury.
Although Jiang Zhou was puzzled, he didn’t pay attention to Jiang Huai and instead walked over to Feng Yun, softly calling, “Mom.”
Feng Yun looked up at him, “You’ve already sent Jiang Ruo away?”
Jiang Zhou didn’t realize that Feng Yun had already seen him with Jiang Ruo at the hospital entrance and assumed that Jiang Huai had told her. He nodded, “Ruoruo, she… she knew nothing about her true origins all these years. She always thought of you as her real mother.”
Feng Yun replied softly, “You didn’t know either. But now you do, and yet you still chose to stand by her, didn’t you?”
“Mom, it’s not like that, I—”
“No need to explain. From now on, you can treat Jiang Ruo however you like. I won’t interfere, even if you try to take your life again for her sake,” Feng Yun’s voice was cold, almost devoid of any emotion.
“…” Jiang Zhou was stunned. He had pretended to commit suicide in order to pressure his mother to plead with his grandfather, hoping that his grandfather would convince Jiang Li to donate her kidney to Ruoruo. However, not only did his plan fail, but it also led Feng Qi to reveal Ruoruo’s true parentage, bringing about the current situation.
If he hadn’t coveted Jiang Li’s kidney and had simply stayed by Ruoruo’s side during dialysis, none of this would have happened.
Ruoruo was his biological sister—this was an undeniable truth, one that his father was aware of. To prevent him and Ruoruo from getting together, his father would eventually have told him the truth. If that had happened, he would have been heartbroken, angry, and unable to accept the reality. He would have hated his father, but at least his mother wouldn’t be so hurt, and Ruoruo… Ruoruo could have remained a member of their family and wouldn’t have had to suffer alone like now, without even a place to call home…
However, it was too late to change anything. In his mother’s eyes, everyone in the family had turned against her. Her husband had betrayed her, the daughter she cherished was the product of his husband’s affair, and her own son had fallen in love with that illegitimate daughter.
Feng Yun no longer paid attention to the ashen-faced Jiang Zhou. She turned her gaze to Jiang Huai, her tone soft and gentle, “Your dear son has come to see you. I’ll leave now so as not to disturb your father-son conspiracy, but remember: this isn’t over. We’ll take it step by step.”
With those words, Feng Yun didn’t look back at the father and son as she left the room.
Jiang Zhou hurried to catch up with her, but Feng Yun turned around and, in a gentle voice, said, “A’Zhou, don’t follow me. Don’t force me to do something you would regret.”
“…” Jiang Zhou was completely stunned. The mother in front of him was still as gentle as ever, yet she felt like a complete stranger.
Back in Jiang Huai’s room, after the medical staff finished the skin test and gave him the tetanus shot, they left the room. The father and son sat in silence for a long time until Jiang Huai finally spoke, “Where did you send Ruoruo?”
Jiang Zhou gave him a cold look, “You actually care about Ruoruo?”
Jiang Huai sighed, “The cuts on my face and arm—they were made by your mother. She…”
“And you think she shouldn’t have?” Jiang Zhou’s voice was icy.
“A’Zhou…”
“Don’t call me A’Zhou!” Jiang Zhou’s face turned red as he shouted with fury. “If you really considered me your son, you wouldn’t have kept this secret from me. I could understand you hiding it from Mom to keep the family together, but you hid it from me, and from Ruoruo. Weren’t you afraid I might actually do something to her?”
If he hadn’t been concerned about Ruoruo’s health, he might have crossed the line with her on the first night he took her to the hospital in Beijing.
Thinking of such a possibility, Jiang Zhou was hit by a wave of fear. Even though the person in the hospital bed was his biological father, he still felt a deep sense of disgust. He didn’t want to stay there any longer—afraid that if he did, he might not be able to stop himself from lashing out at Jiang Huai.
After leaving the hospital room, Jiang Zhou pulled out his phone and called Jiang Ruo. He just wanted to check on her whereabouts. However, when the call went through, he discovered that her phone was turned off. He felt a surge of panic and immediately checked the location-tracking app to see where Ruoruo had gone after they separated. To his surprise, she had gone to the upper reaches of the Minjiang River after leaving home, where her location then remained fixed on a bridge.
Why would Ruoruo go there?
Since her phone was off, Jiang Zhou couldn’t be sure whether she had turned it off at the bridge or if she was still there now. Without even informing Jiang Huai, he immediately headed to the location shown by the app.
When he arrived, he saw a crowd gathered near the riverbank, not far from Jiang Ruo’s last known location. Clearly, something had happened. Suppressing his anxiety, Jiang Zhou walked over and immediately noticed a familiar suitcase lying on the shore, but it was soaking wet, with water still dripping from it.
Panic surged through Jiang Zhou as he randomly grabbed a middle-aged man, his hand trembling as he pointed at the suitcase and asked, “Wha… what happened here?”
The man quickly replied, “About twenty minutes ago, a young girl jumped into the river, and then a young man jumped in after her. This suitcase got caught on some branches and was pulled out.”
Jiang Zhou’s face turned pale. “And… and the girl? She was rescued, right?”
The man shook his head, “This area has one of the swiftest currents along the Minjiang River. Even skilled swimmers wouldn’t dare swim here. The girl clearly didn’t know how to swim, and once she jumped in, the chances of survival were slim. Someone called the police right away, but I doubt she made it.”
Jiang Zhou felt his world spin, and everything went black as he collapsed, causing those around him to cry out in alarm. Concerned bystanders quickly pulled out their phones to call an ambulance.
…
After stopping Jiang Zhou from following her, Feng Yun calmly walked out of the hospital, drove home, and went about her routine—changing out, eating dinner, taking a bath. Even though she understood that her actions might cause others to believe she had lost her mind, she was fully aware that she was not insane; she was very clear-headed. She simply wanted to take Jiang Huai to hell.
She had no fear of Jiang Huai’s possible retaliation—the worst outcome would be losing her life at his hands, but if such a thing was really to happen, her father would never stand by and do nothing. No matter how much disappointment she had caused him over the year, she knew her father would never allow Jiang Huai to go unpunished.
Just as she couldn’t bring herself to hurt her son the way she had hurt Jiang Huai, no matter how disappointed she was in him.
But if Jiang Huai didn’t dare push things to the breaking point, then he would have no choice but to endure her torture, since he deserved it.
After a shower, Feng Yun took out her phone, wrote a post, and published it on Weibo, even purchasing a trending spot to ensure it gained attention.
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Oh! She said we’re going to hell together!
You know what, even though I feel bad for her I don’t have much sympathy. But… it would be interesting if there was a story about the mom going back in time and being there for Jiang Li when she first appeared. Or better yet, never falling for that bum and had a proper family and gave Jiang Li the life she deserves. We don’t really see stories with middle-aged women going back in time or transmigrating, I think it would be interesting. And done in a completely different way then a younger heroine.🤔