Chapter 105: 105, Thoroughly beaten back to its original form!

“Mom, what should I do? What should I do…?”

After what felt like an eternity, the silently weeping Su Mengqing finally snapped out of her daze. She walked from the windowsill to the hospital bed, gazing deeply at her mother, Zhang Meili, who was lost in a coma.

Lin Fan will definitely not come back. That night, she hurt him too deeply, too harshly. Only now, having tasted the same bitterness, did she understand why he had suddenly changed so drastically.

Moreover, she had no money left for the medical bills.

Rather than being kicked out by the hospital tomorrow morning, it would be better to use the cover of night and leave quietly with my mother.

“Mom, I’ll take you home.”

Su Mengqing subconsciously grabbed her phone, intending to find someone to help move her mother. Then, she put it down dejectedly, her face a mask of despair and misery. She had no money to hire a temporary caregiver, let alone find a vehicle to transport her mother. Utterly helpless, Su Mengqing gritted her teeth, preparing to laboriously hoist Zhang Meili onto her back.

Is this… Lin Suxin’s handwriting?

The next moment, as the bedsheet was disturbed, a small scrap of paper fluttered out and landed before her eyes. She picked it up to examine it, and her expression changed slightly.

There’s no mistaking it. I could never mistake it. Lin Fan’s mother wrote with a beautiful, elegant script that was exquisitely unique.

The edges of the scrap were blackened, clearly the remains of something that had been burned. The words on it were the names of medicinal herbs!

Could it be… could this be a fragment of the prescriptions Lin Fan burned that night?

BOOM!

A tremor ran through Su Mengqing, her pupils constricting violently. She suddenly understood. This hospital wasn’t far from Suxin Clinic; it was the very same one where Lin Suxin had been hospitalized!

Even this very room… had she stayed here too?

An image suddenly surfaced in her mind: a grief-stricken man with reddened eyes, pulling out a lighter and setting a pile of prescriptions on fire. Then, watching helplessly as they turned to ash in the night wind…

Lin Suxin, are you trying to mock me, to ridicule me like this?!

Su Mengqing’s face turned deathly pale, and beads of cold sweat formed on her forehead. She clenched the scrap of paper tightly, feeling as if a mocking gaze were sizing her up from the shadows.

It was as if time and space had twisted together in an instant, making her understand exactly what had happened that night. This suddenly appeared scrap of paper was some kind of reminder from the heavens. Originally, if she had just squeezed out a little time to come here, she would have had everything she ever dreamed of. But now, everything had changed. Everything was different.

“Mrs. Lin, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have spurned your kindness…”

Su Mengqing bowed her head deeply, her shoulders trembling as cold tears rolled freely down her cheeks. At that moment, she finally accepted the cold reality, breaking down in remorseful tears.

But no matter how much she regretted it, no matter how unwilling she was to accept it, what could she do? Ultimately, one wrong step had led to all the others.

Isn’t the Su family now just like this scrap of paper in my palm? All our prosperity and wealth has been incinerated, as if by a great fire. We’ve truly been knocked back to where we started.

The once-magnificent villa was gone. All that was left was the old house in the urban village from when their fortune was just beginning four years ago, a place they could barely use for shelter.

“Mom, I’ll carry you home, back to our original old home…”

Su Mengqing wiped away her tears and carefully put the scrap of paper away. Though she now acknowledged Lin Suxin’s kindness, she would never forgive the deep hurt Lin Fan had caused.

Gritting her teeth, Su Mengqing struggled to get Zhang Meili onto her back. She laboriously left the hospital room and headed downstairs. One step, two steps, three steps… Every step was an ordeal. In just a few moments, she was drenched in sweat.

The midnight streets were cold and deserted. The occasional passerby simply cast a curious glance her way.

“What’s with that hospital, always kicking people out in the middle of the night? I saw a young man just a few days ago, carrying someone just like this!”

“Sigh, young people these days have it too tough. The moment a family member gets seriously ill, many can’t handle the expensive medical fees…”

The sighs came from a short distance away, where a few elderly night joggers had stopped to watch. Su Mengqing hung her head low, not daring to explain.

The young man they were talking about was most likely Lin Fan. It makes sense. The night Lin Suxin passed away, what spare money would Lin Fan have had for a taxi? The path I’m walking now, the suffering I’m tasting… it’s nothing more than what Lin Fan already experienced and endured!

Mom, is this what they call karma? Did I bring all this suffering on myself by ignoring Mrs. Lin back then?

Su Mengqing kept walking, her mind filled with silent whispers. She carried Zhang Meili like that, walking distractedly amidst the strange looks from passersby. She just kept walking and walking… even as her high heels rubbed her heels raw and red.

“Who are you looking for?”

Finally, after more than an hour, Su Mengqing, still carrying the unconscious Zhang Meili, stood before a three-story building in an urban village on the west side of the city. Staring at the closed, old, rusty gate, her eyes grew moist, and her heart clenched violently.

Four years ago, as Su Pharmaceutical began to rise, the whole family moved out. She had sworn to herself that she would never come back to live here, that she would only fly higher and higher. But fate had a cruel sense of irony. It was as if everything had returned to the starting point. All she had left now was this old house she had once despised.

“It’s me, Aunt Xu. I’m bringing my mom back to stay for a while.”

Forcing back her tears, Su Mengqing turned her head and managed a smile at the woman peering out from the neighboring doorway. This woman was an old neighbor of the Su family, someone who had practically watched Su Mengqing grow up. After the Su family moved out, the two families had lost touch.

“Oh my, the big boss is back!” Aunt Xu froze for a second before recognizing Su Mengqing, her voice a mix of surprise and delight.

“Please, don’t tell anyone. I’m just secretly coming back to stay for a little while…” Su Mengqing’s face burned. The title “big boss” stung her heart. Afraid of attracting more attention from old neighbors, she shook her head frantically at Aunt Xu.

“I get it, I get it. Mengqing, you’re a big shot now. You big shots all like to keep a low profile.” Aunt Xu nodded with a smile, then glanced curiously at the bandages wrapped around Zhang Meili’s head. However, she was tactful enough not to ask any questions. After saying her goodbyes, she closed her door and went back inside.

SLAM!

Su Mengqing fumbled in a crack in the wall and found the key to the old house. She opened the main door and pressed the light switch on the wall. In an instant, the bright light of an incandescent bulb illuminated the gray, dusty interior, like overturning a box of old memories.

Back then, Lin Fan and his mother had also lived here as tenants. Su Mengqing’s room was on the third floor, while Lin Fan lived in a small partitioned room near the rooftop. They often ran into each other in the early morning and, before they knew it, had become friends.

“Mengqing, my head hurts. I need a doctor… Where—where is this?”

After a few moments, Zhang Meili, who had been placed on the sofa, groggily opened her listless eyes. She groaned and clutched her head, and then her expression suddenly froze.

This wasn’t a hospital room at all. It was… the Su family’s dilapidated old house!

Damn it all, has our family fallen so far? We can’t even stay in the hospital and have to scurry back to this dump!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep