Chapter Six / Section Four: Times Have Changed
They knew this day would come, and they shouldn't have been so heartless as to abandon them. The moment Chen Yao died was the beginning of him paying the price.
Jing Tongyu had just graduated from university and went to a bar with his classmates. There, he met Chen Yao, a bartender. She stayed up all night with him, and he eventually took her home.
Back in his freshman year of college, Jing Tongyu got a female classmate pregnant after drinking. To protect Jing Tongyu, the girl claimed that she had seduced him and gotten pregnant. That girl was Chen Yao's younger sister, Chen Xue, who had a family history of insensitivity to pain. After leaving school, Chen Xue disappeared from Jing Tongyu's life.
When Chen Xue saw Jing Tongyu again, she already knew that her older sister, Chen Yao, was with him. Her younger sister, Chen Yao, didn't have much time left; she had contracted SARS.
That day, Jing Tongyu ran to the hospital and, through the glass of the isolation ward, held Chen Xue's hand one last time with humanity, his eyes filled with tears, and he kept muttering words of regret.
"Chen Xue, don't die... What will happen to me and our child if you die?" Jing Tongyu said.
"Don't worry, the child looks just like you, sleeping soundly in the nursery. It's just that I won't be able to be with you for the rest of your life. If the child asks who their mother is in the future, just say she's my older sister, Chen Yao..."
"Chen Xue! Chen Xue! Didn't you say you wouldn't abandon me? Have you forgotten?"
"I haven't forgotten, but this time you'll probably have to forgive my selfishness... I can't be with you anymore. Our future, no matter how much we talk about it, is just a fantasy. Jing Tongyu, the child's name is Jing Mozhan. Don't you really like the Four Treasures of the Study? Do you like this name?"
It was only when Chen Xue uttered the words "Four Treasures of the Study" that Jing Tongyu realized that he was the only selfish person. He shouldn't have restricted her freedom, and he shouldn't have let her suffer the final pain.
As Jing Tongyu watched Chen Xue's heart rate gradually decrease on the computer screen, he rushed out in a panic to call a doctor. The doctor wheeled Jing Tongyu out, his eyes already brimming with tears.
Doctors repeatedly performed CPR on Chen Xue using electromagnetic pulses, but her heart rate continued to drop...
That day was the most painful moment for Jing Tongyu. When the doctor pushed open the door, took off his mask, and announced that Chen Xue could not be saved, Jing Tongyu was utterly desperate, and from then on, he never experienced true joy or sorrow again.
He went to the children's room and saw that the child, Jing Mo Ran, looked remarkably like himself. But at that time, he was only 21 years old, didn't know how to be a father, and had nothing but money at home.
At 24, fresh out of university, he met Chen Yao, a bartender. After getting drunk, Jing Tongyu mistook Chen Yao for Chen Xue, hugged and cuddled her, and eventually took her home, where he sexually assaulted her.
The next day, Jing Tongyu woke up to find Chen Yao naked, hugging herself without any covering. She wept uncontrollably, sobbing.
"What are you doing in my house? Don't you know that men and women shouldn't touch each other? You stalker!" Jing Tongyu said.
"You're trying to play the victim! Didn't you drag me to your place to spend the night yesterday? Stalker? You even sexually assaulted me! You drunkard, you have to take responsibility for me..."
"Take responsibility? What responsibility do I have? Take this card and get out of my sight."
Chen Yao knew there was no point in talking to this drunkard now; he had acted recklessly while intoxicated. She took the card, got dressed, and left. She knew it was shameful, but she had already slept with the man in front of her. If she got pregnant, she didn't know how she would make a living in the future.
After leaving Jingtongyu, Chen Yao took her money and went to Yantai, Shandong to start a business, where she built a successful career. She married another man and gave her child his surname. However, that man died in a car accident a month after their marriage, and she never remarried.
She hired Haiyang as her housekeeper to take good care of Xiong Yingguang. Haiyang is Chen Yao's cousin. He took Xiong Yingguang to Nanning to study, where she met Cang Ruoxi, Lu Xiyao, Lu Xixue, Mu Xinghe, and Jing Moran, who was related to her by blood and also suffered from painlessness.
They knew where he went wrong. His mistake was that he shouldn't have acted recklessly while drunk; otherwise, she wouldn't still be missing him and feeling heartbroken in another world after falling for someone else.
No matter how much he once liked or loved that person, that person's heart already belonged to someone else. The warmth he gave was only fleeting, while the cruelty he left behind became a pain that could never be erased.
Forget it. No matter how good she was to him before, no matter how kind she was, that's all in the past. When he saw her gentle demeanor, it proved she had a reason to love someone and leave so heartlessly. What's the point of still remembering her now that time has passed? She doesn't love him as much anymore. He should find someone who treats him well.
Her heart may wither, but her pain will forever linger in its death throes. Before her heart dies, she only seeks a reason to leave completely and convincingly.
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