lcionline Chapter 483 Mom, I was wrong
Chapter 483 Mom, I was wrong
Wang Aihua's nails dug deep into the back of her daughter's hand, but she was completely unaware. She looked out the window at the swaying sycamore leaves, her voice suddenly hoarse and distant: "Once he lost money gambling, so he hit you with a belt. You huddled in the corner crying your heart out, and the dull thud of the belt hitting you still rings in my ears." She trembled and pulled open her collar, revealing the hideous scar below her collarbone. "I rushed over to protect you, and he pressed the hot cigarette butt on me, saying I was a jinx who would only ruin his plans."
The daughter subconsciously tried to pull her hand back, but Wang Aihua's grip tightened. "I gave him all the gold bracelets and jade pendants I got when we got married, just to ask him not to touch you again." She suddenly started coughing violently, her knuckles whitening against her lips. "But those things were only enough for him to gamble for half a month. That night, he lost everything and dragged you out of bed, saying he'd sell you to the casino to pay off his debts..."
Memories flooded back, and Wang Aihua's pupils constricted. "I packed my bags overnight and took you to hide in the women's restroom at the train station. You were trembling all over, your hands bloodied from the belt." She pulled out her phone and pulled out a grainy old photo. In it, a little girl huddled in a corner, tears still etched on her face. "That was taken in the waiting room. You said, 'Don't be afraid, Mom. I'll protect you.'"
The dusk outside the window gradually thickened, and Wang Aihua's voice became erratic. "The divorce agreement was signed smoothly. He agreed to let me take you away, on the condition that you never come back. I even booked a ticket to the south in advance, fantasizing about opening a small noodle shop in a new city, and you studying in a bright classroom..." She suddenly bit her lip, and blood flowed from the corner of her mouth. "But when we arrived at the airport, he brought three thugs to block the security checkpoint."
"They said I breached the contract and secretly hid the family bankbook." Wang Aihua ripped open her sleeves, revealing the purple marks on her wrists. "They pinned me to the ground, right in front of you... You desperately cried and screamed as you rushed over, only to be kicked away." She suddenly lost control and grabbed her daughter's shoulders, shaking her. "I watched you being dragged away, listening to your cries fading away. It hurt more than my heart was being torn out!"
Hu Nianzhi broke free from her hand, staggered back two steps, and said in shock: "Mom, it turns out you didn't abandon me on purpose, but Dad drove you away. Mom, I'm sorry, I believed what Dad said and have hated you for so many years. Mom is sorry."
Hu Nianzhi was sobbing her heart out. Wang Aihua's son arrived at the hospital. Before Wang Aihua could respond to her apology, the door to the ward suddenly flew open. A young man in his early teens, carrying a canvas bag stained with cement dust and a dried blood scab on his forehead, rushed in, panting heavily. "Mom! The doctor said you're coughing up blood again..." He stopped talking, his gaze fixed on the two people hugging and crying.
Hu Nianzhi hurriedly wiped her face. This boy, who bore a striking resemblance to Wang Aihua, made her breath catch. Wang Aihua reached for her son, her voice trembling slightly, "Xiaolei, this is your sister... Nianzhi."
"Sister?" Chen Lei's knuckles turned white as he gripped his helmet. The canvas bag thudded to the ground. He took a step back, staring at the silver locket dangling from Hu Nianzhi's chest—the same one the little girl wore in the old photo his mother kept hidden under her pillow. The smell of disinfectant mixed with blood filled the air. He asked in surprise, "Sister, are you my sister? The sister I've been thinking about since I was a child? I've been searching for you all these years, but to no avail."
The smell of disinfectant lingered in the ward. Chen Lei stared at the silver locket swaying on Hu Nianzhi's chest, his Adam's apple rolling violently. He suddenly squatted down and pulled out a worn red silk bag from the innermost layer of his canvas bag. Inside was half a yellowed photo. The little girl in the photo, with pigtails, also wore the same silver locket engraved with "Long Live a Hundred Years" around her neck.
"It's really you!" Chen Lei's voice trembled, and his helmet clanked to the ground. He reached out to touch Hu Nianzhi, but froze in mid-air, his rough knuckles still stained with cement debris. "Actually, I'm not my mother's child. I'm an orphan. I was adopted by my mother and father. Maybe you don't know, but your father beat my mother up. At that time, my mother was already pregnant. Your father beat her so hard that she had a miscarriage and could not have children again. Later, she met my father, who took me in as an orphan. But because of my identity, they told others that I was their child. Sister, my mother has been looking for you all these years."
Hu Nianzhi felt her eardrums buzzing, and the regular ticking of the monitor suddenly became piercing. She came to Wang Aihua and asked in disbelief, "Mom, is what she said true? Is it because of my brother that he didn't have it? It's all because of me! Mom, hit me! If it weren't for me, you would have divorced Dad a long time ago. Mom, you have to be fine, okay? I already have a baby in my belly, and Tianyu treats me very well."
Wang Aihua lay in the hospital bed, her oxygen tube trembling slightly with her rapid breathing. Amid the shrill alarm of the monitor, her withered hand suddenly grasped Hu Nianzhi's wrist, her cloudy eyes filled with turmoil. "Zhizhi, don't listen to his nonsense..." Before she could finish her words, a violent cough tore through the air, and a little blood foam seeped through her fingers.
Upon hearing this, Fu Sihan quickly said, "Wang Aihua, you're an employee of my company. We know your background very well. Are you still going to lie to Nianzhi? You were very happy when you were with Nianzhi's father. Ever since he and his cronies got addicted to gambling, everything has changed." He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a stack of yellowed IOUs, the edges of which were worn and fuzzy. "These are the IOUs Hu Mingde signed at the underground casino from 1999 to 2009. With the interest compounded, they're enough to wipe out all your savings at the time."
Hu Nianzhi dug her nails into her palms, staring at her father's crooked signature on the IOU, as if the handwriting were burning her retinas. A sudden flashback to her childhood: one late night, she was awakened by the sound of an argument in the living room. Through the crack in the door, she saw her father kneeling before her mother, his forehead pressed to the floor. "Aihua, give me one last chance..." Back then, she hadn't understood why her mother's shoulders trembled as she turned.
Wang Aihua's Adam's apple rolled with difficulty, and the oxygen tube hissed with her rapid breathing. "Mr. Fu, please... stop talking..." Her hands, covered with age spots, groped for the corner of Hu Nianzhi's clothes. "Zhizhi, Mom regrets not stopping your father from breaking off relations with those bad friends. Ever since he started gambling, he's taken all the family money to gamble, and he also stole the money for your schooling."
Hu Nianzhi felt her legs go weak and she slid down the bedside table to sit on the floor. Wang Aihua's words were like countless steel needles, piercing deep into her memory. Those deliberately forgotten fragments suddenly became clear: when she was in junior high school, she couldn't pay the school uniform fee, and the head teacher mocked her. She earned the money to go to school by picking up waste and folding flyers for the stationery store. Later, when she was eighteen years old and was about to go to high school, her father sold her to a fifty-year-old man for a betrothal gift of five hundred thousand yuan. Later, she fled that so-called home. Looking at Wang Aihua in front of her, she burst into tears and said, "Mom, I was wrong."