Chapter Seven / Section One: Yan Xinhe
Yan Xinyu woke up with a start, the image of her younger sister constantly haunting her mind.
"It wasn't me! It wasn't me who hurt you, it was that incident that hurt you..." she murmured repeatedly in her sleep.
The mother entered the room and gently comforted her, "Yan Xinyu, did you have another nightmare?"
“Mom, my sister’s death has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with me…” Yan Xinyu choked up.
"All these years, you've still thought about your sister. Didn't I say that your sister did something great?" the mother sighed.
“But Haiyang has always believed that I am the murderer who killed my sister,” Yan Xinyu said in a low voice.
She knew that no matter what she said, Haiyang wouldn't believe her. His heart was filled with resentment, convinced that she had killed his sister, even though she hadn't done it.
Just then, the phone rang, and Yan Xinyu answered it hesitantly. The voice on the other end of the line brought tears to her eyes. She covered her mouth with one hand, sobbing uncontrollably, as if she had finally found the source of her past regrets.
"Sister, do you still remember me?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked.
"You are Yan Xinhe? You are not..." Yan Xinyu's voice trembled.
“I didn’t die, I know everything. It was that beast Jing Tongyu who tried to rape me and frame me, but luckily I escaped.” Yan Xinhe choked up on the other end of the phone.
"Do you know? If you hadn't called me, I would have thought you had really disappeared, becoming a wound I could never erase for the rest of my life. You know that the person I will never forget in this life is you, but you will never appear at the most appropriate time," Yan Xinyu murmured to herself.
"Where are you now?" she asked anxiously.
"I am in Yantai, Shandong."
Suddenly, Yan Xinhe bumped into Lu Xiyao, and her phone fell onto the snow. Yan Xinhe heard a familiar heartbeat, and her cheeks flushed involuntarily.
She looked up and saw that familiar face, and memories that had been buried in her mind suddenly surged up.
"Are you alright...?" Lu Xiyao asked with concern.
"It's nothing, it's nothing..." Yan Xinhe replied in a flustered manner.
“You seem to be unwell…” Lu Xiyao said again.
“No, I don’t. By the way, young man, do you know this boy?” Yan Xinhe asked.
"Are you looking for Brother Haiyang?" Lu Xiyao asked back.
"Um……"
Lu Xiyao's intuition told her that the girl in front of her was Yan Xinhe, who had gone missing in the fire. She was still as beautiful as ever, but her face was no longer the same.
Yan Xinhe was disfigured in that fire. She was seven years old at the time, playing with her older sister, when they were unfortunately caught in the fire started by Xiong Yingguang and Jing Moran. The fire spread, breaking down large trees and hitting Yan Xinhe, burning her face beyond recognition.
"Sister will take you away, you must leave this place, I'll be alright, I'll definitely take you back." The older sister desperately held onto her.
"Sister, the fire here is so big..." Yan Xinhe cried out in fear.
"It's okay, I'll definitely be able to do it, sister."
Flames spread, a large tree broke and crashed down. Yan Xinhe pushed her sister, but she herself was crushed by the tree and burned repeatedly.
"Sister!" The older sister turned around, but could no longer reach her younger sister's hand. Even through the flames, the older sister's skin couldn't withstand the intense heat.
The mother arrived and forcibly dragged her older sister away. Yan Xinyu's eyes were full of reluctance.
"Mom, my sister is still inside! I can't abandon her!" the older sister cried out.
“With such a big fire, you’ll just be asking for death if you go in. Let the firefighters come. Going in will only lead to your death. If they don’t save your sister, you’ll lose your life too!” the mother explained painfully.
"Mom, how could you be so heartless..."
"I can't lose you again... You are my only remaining treasure, please forgive my selfishness."
As the fire grew larger, Yan Xinyu felt weak and incompetent, unable to even save her younger sister.
That day, firefighters arrived and found three children whose bodies were burned beyond recognition. Chen Yao received a call from Xiong Yingguang and rushed to the scene immediately.
She witnessed Xiong Yingguang and Jing Moran being burned and their skin rotting, while Yan Xinhe was burned beyond recognition.
Chen Yao took Xiong Yingguang and Jing Moran to the Second People's Hospital of Nanning for treatment. The doctor suggested that Chen Yao send Yan Xinhe to a better hospital for plastic surgery because Yan Xinhe's burns were very severe.
Chen Yao paid for Yan Xinhe to return to Yantai, Shandong, for cosmetic surgery and skin repair procedures.
The day Yan Xinhe woke up, she found herself wrapped in thick bandages in many places, like a mummy.
She knew that everything she had was given to her by Chen Yao. Without Chen Yao, she might not have had her full appearance, or she might have died in the fire, forgotten by everyone. Even though she had no blood relation to Chen Yao, she always told her that it was just a mother's love for her child, nothing more.
The trees are still, the wind has ceased, the water is deep, and the sky is far.
Yan Xinhe had never felt so lucky. In her most painful and helpless moment, it was a stranger, Chen Yao, who gave her the most selfless love. And this love, she could never repay in this life. If there were a next life, she would give her own life for Chen Yao's.
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