Chapter 7

She poured out all the resentment she’d built up over the years in a stream of curses.

She even yanked out her IV and rolled off the bed onto the floor.

Jiang Hui rushed to help her, but Liu Qingqing bit her hard.

“Chenchen, I did it for your own good. I wanted you to live a rich life.”

She was sick of hearing that excuse.

Whenever she couldn’t stand living with the Zhou family, Jiang Hui would say the same thing.

But this time, she truly couldn’t take any more.

Liu Qingqing lay in the hospital bed and recounted all the hardships she’d suffered over the years.

Jiang Hui covered her mouth as tears streamed down her face.

“I didn’t know. I really didn’t know Ye Zhenyan could be so cruel.”

Ye Zhenyan wasn’t cruel. She was stupid—and tireless.

With someone like her, you never knew when she might quietly bring disaster down on you.

There was no way to guard against it.

By the end, Liu Qingqing was physically and emotionally spent.

She looked at Jiang Hui and said, “This is all your fault! I hate you! Get out!”

Jiang Hui wiped the tears from her face and told her daughter, “Chenchen, I’m back now. I won’t let you live like that ever again.”

Jiang Hui went to my parents and demanded that they let her take Liu Qingqing home.

“Chenchen is my daughter too. I gave your daughter back to you, so you should give mine back to me.”

My father gave a scornful laugh.

“As far as I know, you haven’t had a job since you got out of prison. If we handed Chenchen over to you, could you even support her?”

Jiang Hui was at a loss for words.

“That’s none of your concern!”

“Chenchen is registered as part of our household. She’ll always belong to the Zhou family.”

My father made the decision then and there.

Jiang Hui had no way to fight back.

On the day Liu Qingqing was discharged, she screamed the moment she saw my parents.

She flailed and wouldn’t let anyone near her.

“Sweetheart, it’s Mom! What’s wrong?”

The sound of Ye Zhenyan’s voice made Liu Qingqing feel sick. She screamed even louder.

Jiang Hui stood outside the hospital room.

Hearing her daughter’s anguished screams, she felt as if a knife had been driven through her heart.

She pulled out the small knife she always carried and rushed at the person she blamed for everything.

“You bitch! Die!”

The blade plunged into my mother’s abdomen.

Blood instantly soaked her pink dress.

My father came to his senses and lunged at Jiang Hui to drag her away.

Instead, he was slashed several times.

“Hahaha! That’s right! Stab her! Kill her! Mom, kill her for me!”

Liu Qingqing curled up on the hospital bed, laughing like a madwoman.

At the sound of that one word—“Mom”—a look of satisfaction crossed Jiang Hui’s face.

It was the first time, and the last, she’d ever hear her daughter call her Mom.

The nurses heard the commotion and called security.

After Jiang Hui was restrained, my parents were rushed to the emergency room.

They saved my mother’s life, but she’d lost so much blood that she barely pulled through.

Whether she would ever wake up was left to fate.

My father had only minor injuries.

When he learned that his beloved wife had fallen into a vegetative state, he was so devastated he didn’t want to live.

Jiang Hui knew she would face grave consequences this time. She broke free from security and jumped from the upper floor.

I was at school when I heard the news.

I replied with just two words.

“I know.”

Liu Qingqing was committed to a psychiatric hospital.

My father didn’t want to see her anymore.

Four years of college passed in the blink of an eye.

As soon as I graduated, I returned home and joined the family company as an intern.

My father really was a devoted husband.

He went to the hospital to care for my mother every day.

Now that I was back, he was even more at ease handing the company over to me.

I took a little time to visit the hospital.

My mother lay silently in bed, still as beautiful as ever.

But I felt no pity for her.

Not everyone deserves to be called a parent.

My mother might have been foolish, but she wouldn’t have been this way without my father enabling her.

The two of them had both helped bring about this ending.

I left the hospital and went straight to the company.

The secretary greeted me respectfully.

“Mr. Zhou.”

I stood in the office and looked down at everything below.

My life was only just beginning.