The Finale
Five days after Tang Hui and Shen Bining officially established their relationship, Tang Hui received a call from prison guard Xie Feng, saying that Zhou Nianhua had woken up.
Tang Hui immediately put down his work and drove to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, he found that Shen Bining, who lived closer to the hospital, was already there; Xie Feng must have also notified her.
The two jogged to the detention ward, where Xie Feng was already waiting at the door.
"The attending physician went in to do some tests. According to the doctor, his wake-up this time was basically a temporary respite before he passed away. He probably won't make it through the night. Be prepared, and ask him anything as soon as possible," Xie Feng said to Tang Hui with some sadness.
Tang Hui's expression changed upon hearing this. After a moment of silence, he asked, "I would like to stay here tonight to keep watch. Is that alright?"
"I'll apply to the higher-ups, there shouldn't be any problem." Xie Feng patted Tang Hui on the shoulder to comfort him, then turned and went to the side to make a phone call to ask for instructions.
Amway said that patients' family members are not allowed to stay overnight, but since Zhou Nianhua is already on his deathbed, the prison should allow it out of humanitarian considerations.
Death row inmates are allowed to see their loved ones one last time before their execution.
Xie Feng quickly finished his call and returned to Tang Hui, saying, "It's been approved. You can stay with your father in the ward tonight, but you only have one chance. If he pulls through tonight, your application to stay overnight won't be approved again. Think it through. Are you sure you want to use this opportunity tonight?"
"Tonight then," Tang Hui replied decisively without the slightest hesitation.
As they were talking, the attending physician and nurse came out of the ward. After seeing Tang Hui, they shook their heads and said, "He's not going to make it. Family members should prepare for the worst. But he's still relatively conscious, so you can go in and see him."
As soon as he finished speaking, Tang Hui had already flashed to the door, with Shen Bining following closely behind, and the two entered the ward.
Zhou Nianhua had indeed woken up, but his condition wasn't very good. He lay in bed, relying on a ventilator to stay alive. The room was quiet, except for the sounds of various sophisticated instruments.
It's likely that Xie Feng had informed Zhou Nianhua beforehand that Tang Hui would be coming to see him. When Zhou Nianhua saw his son, he was excited but not overly shocked.
Zhou Nianhua struggled to remove the respirator, and stretched out a trembling hand to Tang Hui, two streams of cloudy tears flowing down her face.
"Little Hui, Little Hui, you've come, my son..."
As he spoke, he even tried to get up, but he only managed to lift his body a few centimeters before falling back down.
Tang Hui quickly went to Zhou Nianhua's side, hesitated for a moment, and finally held his father's hand tightly. "Lie still and don't move. Tell me slowly. You can't get emotional right now." He spoke in what he thought was a calm tone, but the tremor in his voice was so obvious that he couldn't deceive himself.
Zhou Nianhua hadn't seen her son for twenty years. Her eyes were practically glued to Tang Hui, and she looked him up and down, tears streaming down her face from the moment he entered.
“Xiao Hui, you’ve grown so much! You’re even taller than your dad now. You look like your mom, and you’re beautiful.” Zhou Nianhua’s voice choked and trembled, revealing his inner excitement.
Upon hearing this, Tang Hui's expression darkened, and he loosened his grip on Zhou Nianhua's hand considerably. He stared intently at the old man on the hospital bed, his eyes suddenly sharpening, and his tone becoming somewhat aggressive. "Do you still remember what your mother looks like?"
Zhou Nianhua shuddered and immediately understood—his son had not forgiven him, nor did he genuinely want to see him off on his final journey. The reason he came to see him every day was to force him to reveal the truth about his mother's death.
"Officer Xie said you've been coming every day since I fell into a coma. I know you're waiting for me to wake up. You want to ask me why I killed your mother." Zhou Nianhua cried, turning his face away, unable to look at Tang Hui, because he felt he had no face to face his son.
"Since you understand, then please tell me the truth. It is said that a dying man's words are kind, so I hope you will not lie to me," Tang Hui said coldly.
Zhou Nianhua cried even harder, recounting the truth of what happened back then, word by word.
“Back then, your mother’s illness was very torturous. In the later stages, it was like living a life worse than death. In addition, our family’s financial situation was not good, and I couldn’t afford expensive imported medicines to save her. I could only watch her live in pain every day. Several times she even secretly attempted suicide.”
“Once she attempted suicide by turning on the gas again, but I discovered her in time and saved her. She cried and said that she was living a very painful life and that she had dragged her family down with her. She was sorry to me and her son. Later she told me that she had bought an accident insurance policy a long time ago. If she died in an accident, she would receive a large sum of money, but if she died of illness or suicide, she would not receive a penny.”
“At the time, I didn’t take it to heart; I just comforted her and told her not to do anything foolish. Not long after, her condition worsened, and sometimes she was delirious. One day, she cried and told me that she wished she could die a violent death right now, whether it was a car accident, an accident, or murder, it didn’t matter, as it would be a relief and she could leave some money for her son. As she cried, she suddenly begged me like a madwoman to kill her, so she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore and could leave some money for the family…”
Tang Hui and Shen Bining were so shocked by these words that they couldn't close their mouths. They had considered countless possibilities of Zhou Nianhua killing his wife, but they never expected the truth to be so outrageous.
"So you killed my mother just to... commit insurance fraud..." Tang Hui was trembling all over, and his voice sounded even more unsteady.
He did receive the insurance money after his mother's death. His name was listed as the beneficiary of his mother's policy, so even though his father was the murderer, he still had a claim and received the money.
This amount of money may not seem like much to him now, but it truly helped Tang Hui, an orphan, and his aunt, who wasn't well-off, through their most difficult years twenty years ago.
Zhou Nianhua gasped for breath, struggling and sobbing as she said, “I’m sorry, your mother and I were truly desperate. We really had no other choice. Your mother was going to die sooner or later. I had been taking frequent leave to care for her, and I was already on the factory’s layoff list. Once your mother was gone and I lost my job, this family would truly collapse. What would you do then? You’re such a smart child. If you couldn’t even afford to go to school, your mother wouldn’t die in peace. I was driven to the brink, and in a moment of madness, I really killed your mother. I know my sins are grave. I killed my wife, I abandoned my son and made you an orphan, and I even conspired with your mother to commit insurance fraud… People like me deserve retribution. So, the moment I took action, I made up my mind that I wouldn’t run away or make excuses. I would take responsibility for my mistakes. Whether I’m sentenced to death or imprisoned for life, it’s what I deserve. I have nothing, so I can only use my life to create a future for you, and then use my life to atone for my sins…”
*
That evening, Zhou Nianhua died despite all efforts to save her as her condition worsened.
In his final moments, Tang Hui stayed by his side and, as he wished, called him "Dad."
It can be said that Zhou Nianhua left with a sense of relief and satisfaction. Before leaving, he even told Tang Hui to treat Shen Bining well.
Because of Zhou Nianhua's special status, no funeral arrangements were made, and he was cremated that very day. Tang Hui held his father's ashes, hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to be buried with his mother.
He made a special call to his aunt, who lived in the United States, and told her the whole story. Tang Keyi, on the other side of the ocean, remained silent for a long time before choking back tears and saying, "It turns out we've been misunderstanding him all these years. Although what he did was immoral, that insurance money did help us through the most difficult period of our lives. Xiao Hui, your father did not wrong you. He sacrificed his own life for your sake. So listen to your aunt and forgive him."
On the day Zhou Nianhua's ashes were buried, Tang Hui donated a sum of money in his parents' names to specifically help cancer patients from impoverished families, as a way of atoning for his parents' sins.
The insurance payout that was an astronomical sum for him back then was something he could easily come up with. Now that time has passed, he just wants to do his part to make up for his parents' mistake of insurance fraud.
*
Zhou Nianhua's matter quickly came to an end, and Tang Hui was not sad for long. After all, he had been separated from his father for twenty years and had no feelings for him anymore.
Everything returned to dust, and Zhou Nianhua's passing quickly dissipated like a wisp of smoke, as everyone's lives returned to normal.
Shen Bining and Tang Hui's relationship is growing warmer. The more time they spend together, the more compatible they feel. They seem to be each other's perfect match, tailor-made by heaven.
Tang Hui successfully met Shen Changqing's parents. Shen Changqing already treated Tang Hui like family, and with his enthusiastic "promotion," Shen Bining's mother naturally agreed to the relationship.
Another minor incident occurred during this period.
The culprits who spread the rumors that Shen Bining was a third party at the hospital have been identified. They are Liu Yiming, a man from a poor background who resented Shen Bining after she was rejected, and his petty and jealous girlfriend Xu Jie.
When Shen Changqing ordered a thorough investigation, he made it clear that he would not tolerate the malicious spread of rumors about colleagues. After the two men's actions were exposed, everyone thought that these two were finished.
Shen Changqing was already very dissatisfied with Liu Yiming's harassment of Shen Bining, but at that time it was just a romantic entanglement between a man and a woman, and he, as the dean, should not abuse his power for personal gain.
Now Liu Yiming is maliciously slandering his colleagues and spreading rumors that are affecting the internal relations of the hospital. The consequences could be big or small, depending entirely on the hospital director's word.
Liu Yiming also realized the seriousness of his loss of composure. He understood that if Shen Changqing took this opportunity to vent his anger on behalf of his daughter, he would be completely unable to handle it. In desperation, he actually came up with a terrible idea to protect himself.
He ran to the dean's office to confess, emphasizing that everything was Xu Jie's idea and that she was the one who facilitated the spread of rumors, while he himself was at most just aware of it but failed to report it.
When Shen Bining learned of this, she was genuinely amused and annoyed. She had initially disliked Xu Jie, finding the woman's jealousy inexplicable. Now, however, she felt more sympathy for her; Xu Jie was truly blind to have chosen such an ungrateful person.
It's said that couples are like birds in the same forest, flying away separately when disaster strikes. But spreading rumors isn't serious enough to warrant being fired. Yet Liu Yiming couldn't sit still and betrayed his girlfriend without batting an eye.
Just when everyone thought Xu Jie was destined to take the blame, she delivered a decisive blow, leaving Liu Yiming, that scumbag, with no chance of redemption.
She directly presented the evidence that Liu Yiming had accepted bribes from patients, catching Liu Yiming completely off guard.
In recent years, major hospitals have explicitly prohibited doctors from accepting red envelopes from patients. If discovered, dismissal is the lightest punishment, while more serious cases may involve criminal cases.
As Liu Yiming's wife, Xu Jie could easily gather such evidence if she wanted to. She had long known that Liu Yiming was a wolf in sheep's clothing and not a good person, and had prepared a backup plan in case he turned around and bit her.
Once the evidence was presented, the entire hospital was thrown into turmoil. Shen Changqing quickly assembled an investigation team to thoroughly investigate Liu Yiming's acceptance of bribes.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, Liu Yiming had no way to deny it and ultimately ended up being dismissed from the hospital and the case being recorded in his personnel file.
Dr. Liu, who had finally managed to leave his small village and tried to gain a foothold in the big city but only wanted to take crooked paths, finally returned to where he started, looking disheveled.
Later, Xu Jie resigned. Shen Bining also heard that Liu Yiming had returned to his hometown and was working in a small hospital in the town. Although it seemed that he had been reduced to his original state and had no way to make a comeback, Shen Bining felt that Liu Yiming was able to thrive in such a small place with loose management and incomplete rules and regulations.
A selfish, hypocritical, ambitious, and greedy person like him will never have a bad life, no matter where he goes.
*
Half a year passed quickly, and Tang Hui and Shen Bining's relationship progressed rapidly. One day, Shen Bining overheard her father and Tang Hui talking, and they were actually testing each other to see when the other would marry her.
Soon, the day of Song Ziyi and Mu Ci's wedding arrived. Tang Hui, as Song Ziyi's best friend, and Shen Bining, who had become best friends with Mu Ci, naturally wouldn't miss this happy moment.
The night before the wedding, the four girls had a private get-together, which served as a farewell party for Mu Ci's bachelorette. During the party, the girlfriends "inadvertently" revealed a bombshell—they had learned from their boyfriends that Tang Hui was planning to propose to them after the wedding the next day, and that he had even already bought the diamond ring.
Shen Bining blushed, but was overjoyed. Despite her friends' "warning," she had to pretend not to know and save face for the man who was going to propose the next day.
The wedding on the second day ended smoothly and joyously. Tang Hui was very tactful and did not propose at the wedding ceremony to steal the limelight from the newlyweds. At the private party after the wedding, with all the friends' blessings and witnesses, he took out a ring and loudly asked Shen Bi Ning if she would marry him.
Shen Bining thought that since she already knew beforehand, she wouldn't be agitated anymore, but as it turned out, when this scene actually unfolded, her mind was still blank.
She cried bitterly, but smiled and reached out her hand, letting Tang Hui put the ring on her finger.
She thought she might never be destined for love in her life, but love quietly arrived around the corner.
Because she always cherished a heart that yearned for happiness and was optimistic, she firmly believed that life would not let down such a good girl like her, and that she would definitely live a happy life.
Therefore, what you keep in mind will surely come to pass. (The End)
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