Chapter 365 - 181: Do You Believe in Fate?
"What did you say?" Su Ziceng looked at Yan Wuxu, whose grief was overwhelming.
"I only found out today," Yan Wuxu twitched uncontrollably, tears streaming down her pale face as she pulled out a death certificate from the handbag she had just brought back.
The report read: *Year* Month* Day, died due to meningitis, persistent high fever, untreatable.
"How could this happen all of a sudden..." Su Ziceng had only met that poor child once, but she had delivered the child herself, and he was her own younger brother. Apart from Su Qingzhang, he was her second kin in this world, and just like that, he was gone.
"The conditions in the mountain village are too poor, meningitis could not be treated," Yan Wuxu saw the sorrow in Su Ziceng’s eyes, and while twitching, she said, lifting her face from Su Ziceng’s knee a little.
Her hand quietly picked up Su Ziceng’s pack of cigarettes. "I think about the baby day and night, what mother doesn’t cherish her own flesh and blood. When I hear the crying of the children next door, I feel like my chest and head are going to explode. That night, you were not around, Qingzhang was just comforting the child, so I went out alone to get some air," Yan Wuxu, as if tired from crying, sat on the ground and refused to stand up.
"Lately, mother has been ignoring me too, she thinks I’m cruel, for the sake of the Su family’s status, I disregarded everything," Yan Wuxu grabbed Su Ziceng again, shaking her ceaselessly, defending herself.
"Wuxu, calm down first," Su Ziceng, seeing that Yan Wuxu was on the verge of collapse, said, "Tell me honestly, do you have someone outside?"
Yan Wuxu’s eyes darted to the side, as she thought deep down about how she could justify the affair she was bound to reveal, to make it appear more excusable.
"You are not me, you don’t know my pain." Yan Wuxu raised her head, her eyes devoid of tears, "He is no longer young, under the light, you can see his sagging belly, and his feet distorted from years of limping, your father, is now like a frail camel, always staring at me. He seldom makes love to me now, and when we are together, we hardly have anything to talk about," Yan Wuxu murmured.
"When you were with him, he was already like that, and you knew about the age and other differences between you," Su Ziceng did not want to hear any more of this from Yan Wuxu.
"But I didn’t know that he would be so busy that he wouldn’t even glance at me. I also didn’t know that I had always been a substitute for someone else, Ziceng, you know, don’t you? What lies between your mother and your father isn’t Chang Mei, but a woman named Ye Taina, I heard she was also your mother’s best friend, how ironic," Yan Wuxu felt a suffocating heaviness in her chest, no longer hiding, she reached out and pinched a cigarette.
"Don’t smoke anymore," Su Ziceng quickly snatched it away, looking at the pale face, she knew what Yan Wuxu knew, perhaps the Su family gave her too little, perhaps wealth and status could not fill the emptiness of a woman completely, "So you went to him."
Regarding the "him" in Su Ziceng’s mouth, Yan Wuxu did not deny it; she was essentially a person with moral sense, and she had an instinctive feeling for Fei Qing. That man was her first man, someone she knew even before Su Qingzhang, at least she had not gone looking for other men.
"Fei Qing?" From Yan Wuxu’s somewhat smug face, Su Ziceng guessed the name. If it was Fei Qing, Su Ziceng could vaguely understand Yan Wuxu’s feelings. She had also experienced such emotions; after she was reborn, the first thing she did was to find Hang Yishao, the man who had hurt her countless times. Women are always foolish in this respect.
"With him now, I’m relaxed, I don’t have to please deliberately like before," Yan Wuxu restrained her urge to smoke, when she spoke of Fei Qing, it was like she was telling a distant fairy tale. But this fairy tale was going to come to a temporary halt.
Sure enough, Su Ziceng soon said, "You must leave him."
"I promise you, I won’t see him again," Yan Wuxu knew that Su Ziceng had gradually fallen into the trap, indeed as Pello said, there is a weak part in Su Ziceng’s nature, both to herself and to others.
"And the child, what do you plan to do about him? The mother and son next door can’t stand your temper anymore." Su Ziceng really wanted to see the child who had been unlucky enough to fall victim, but Yan Wuxu only said that she would bring the child’s ashes back after a while.
"I no longer have a child, I swear, I will treat him as if he were my own son from now on," Yan Wuxu wished she could rush out now, putting on the guise of a loving mother.
"It’s already late, sit down for now," Su Ziceng’s heart was in turmoil, she knew well that continuing to hide the truth would lead to disaster, but in just one day, she learned too many "truths" and needed time to digest. And now, having just experienced "the pain of losing a child," if she laid everything out, it would be like pushing her onto a path of doom.
"Wuxu, I choose to trust you, but I hope, you won’t let me down," having listened to everything, the exhausted Su Ziceng stood up.
The thunder and lightning outside the window had subsided a bit, and a smile was already appearing on Yan Wuxu’s lips, Su Ziceng, you are indeed beyond foolish. Your closest friend, the man who seems to love you the most, are all fake.
When she opened the door handle and closed the door at that moment, Su Ziceng heard the crying from the baby’s room across the door and suddenly said: "Wuxu, do you believe in fate?"
The fate of the child in the baby’s room across from them would be different for the rest of his life because of the agreement the two of them had just made. He might go from a beggar to a prince, or he might change from a simple person into someone as domineering as Su Ziceng once was.
"I don’t believe in fate," Yan Wuxu had already lit a cigarette, hiding the ember behind her hair, and Yan Wuxu never was one to believe in fate. What she has today, all came from clawing her way up step by step. The red glow of the ember was absorbed by her orange diamond earrings by her ear, becoming even more dazzling.
"But I believe, I believe that there is always a reason for being alive. Remember this saying, ’One must do good deeds, otherwise one will not meet a good end.’" As Su Ziceng’s words fell, the door closed.
Yan Wuxu sat under the light, casually crumpled up the death certificate and tossed it into the trash can. Some things, like this piece of trash paper, should be dealt with as quickly as possible. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) and cast recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)