"Hoo."
Ning Jing, lying in the hospital bed, suddenly opened her eyes and gasped for breath.
"It's okay, it's okay, my darling," her mother, sitting beside the bed, gently wiped the tears from Ning Jing's eyes with a fine silk handkerchief.
But Ning Jing, usually so resilient, didn't cry enough as she usually did. She sniffled and then a smiling face appeared.
Instead, she hugged her mother and buried her head in her embrace, crying for nearly an hour.
Her mother was heartbroken, thinking that Ning Chen had frightened Ning Jing. Ning Jing, out of consideration for her and Ning Chen's father, couldn't refuse Ning Chen and felt so wronged.
Her mother fiercely wrote down several demerits for Ning Chen in her heart.
At the same time, her mother felt a sense of regret. She had finally reached a point where she didn't have to marry off her daughter and didn't have to worry about Ning Chen dying alone. Who would have thought that Ning Jing didn't like Ning Chen at all?
"Jingjing, it's okay. If you don't like Ning Chen, I'll make him go away.
Don't cry anymore, my dear."
Her mother gently patted Ning Jing's back, watching her cry breathlessly, and sighed deeply in her heart.
Hearing her mother say this, Ning Jing felt even more miserable.
Ning Chen didn't like her.
Why couldn't it be her?
Unrequited love is always a solitary battle.
To witness Ning Chen fall in love and bless him as family, how cruel was this to Ning Jing?
Ning Jing once thought she could do it, but now the mere thought made her suffocate with pain.
What Ning Jing didn't know was that the pair of eyes that had just appeared in her dream were now quietly watching the distraught Ning Jing through the hospital room window.
Seeing Ning Jing's inability to accept the situation with his own eyes, Ning Chen, who was usually so composed, couldn't articulate what he was feeling.
Only the desolation in Ning Chen's eyes and the oppressive gloom radiating from him made anyone feel breathless at a single glance.
A long time later, when Ning Jing calmed down, she lay on her side facing away from her mother and also away from Ning Chen.
Seeing this, Ning Chen could no longer bear it and slumped to the floor against the wall.
Did she feel fear towards him?
In her eyes now, he must be a pervert, right?
Was she worried he would force or threaten her?
Unluckily, such thoughts had been circling in his mind for a long time.
It was only when these thoughts began to appear that he realized he also had a wicked side within him. Sudan Novels Network
"Get up!"
Just as Ning Chen was struggling in agony, his leg was suddenly kicked, and his father's stern, oppressive voice boomed from above him.
The wrinkles on his father's brow had formed into a shape like rolling hills. "Come with me."
Ning Chen said nothing and followed his father into a quiet tea house nearby.
His father sent away the person serving tea, and Ning Chen took over the task of making it.
"Do you like Ning Jing?" His father always got straight to the point.
"You've noticed." Ning Chen admitted directly, his tone feeling like a long-held emotion finally had an outlet.
"She doesn't like you." His father's senses were sharp. He had seen and heard Ning Jing's crying clearly just now.
Ning Chen's hand paused as he poured the tea, remaining still for a long time without speaking.
"What do you want to do?" His father was not unreasonable. If Ning Chen could let go in time, his father wouldn't have been so angry and lectured him.
Emotions were the hardest to control, a fact his father understood deeply.
"We will get married." Ning Chen said indifferently, with a hint of imperceptible urgency in his tone.
"Married?" Hearing Ning Chen say this, his father's tone and expression immediately changed.
"What do you want to do!" His father slammed the table heavily and stared coldly at Ning Chen.
Before Ning Chen could say anything else, his father continued to question him angrily.
"You want to get married, so you'll get married?
I'm telling you, Ning Chen. Her father is my savior.
If it weren't for her father back then, I would have died on the battlefield.
I brought Wen Xin into our home not to be your child bride!"
Ning Chen listened quietly, offering no opinion.
"Are you listening, damn it?!" After a while, seeing Ning Chen, who remained expressionless and unyielding, his father threw the teacup onto the table again.
Ning Chen moved his lips, and the redness in his eyes slowly deepened.
"Dad, I will treat her very, very well. I would give my life for her."
This was the first time his father had seen his usually calm and composed son's eyes red. His expression softened involuntarily.
But after hearing Ning Chen's stubborn words that followed, his father's face immediately turned colder than before.
"You would give your life for her?
Do you think she cares?
What do you want to do? Threaten her with your life?
How could I have given birth to a son like you!"
Ning Chen: "What about Mom? If Mom were to be with someone else..."
"What the hell are you talking about!"
Before Ning Chen could finish, his father instantly grabbed the ashtray from the table and hurled it at Ning Chen.
With a crack, the ceramic ashtray grazed Ning Chen's neck and shattered on the floor.
Although Ning Chen had struck a nerve with his father, in the last moment of throwing the ashtray, he had adjusted the angle.
However, the ashtray itself had been accidentally broken before, causing a chip on the edge. As a result, Ning Chen's neck was still scratched by it.
Blood quickly seeped out.
Ning Chen wiped it away carelessly and said nonchalantly, looking at the blood on his hand, "Dad, what you couldn't do, I can't do either."
After Ning Chen spoke, his father pointed towards the door and spat out a single word through gritted teeth.
"Get out!"
Ning Chen obediently turned around, having no intention of staying.
After Ning Chen left, his father sat alone for a long time, calming himself. He then downed a large cup of tea before slowly regaining his composure.
His father remembered his own father's similar possessiveness towards his mother, and his own towards his wife.
They were all fortunate; his mother fell in love with his father, and the person he loved eventually loved him back.
But his grandfather was not so lucky. When Ning Sheng was very young, he often heard his grandmother struggling desperately and his grandfather's possessive and aggrieved voice in the old house.
Ning Sheng's father said that the men of the Ning family, generation after generation, were like this, as if cursed. Once they fell in love with someone, they would stay by that person's side until death.
His father couldn't let Ning Jing be the next grandmother. But thinking of Ning Chen... his father squeezed his temples hard.
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"My darling, I love you so much, I only love you.
Really, baby, you are the best."
In Qi Yuan's bedroom, Mu Qi lay on the bed, his face pale. Yun Shuzhuan knelt beside the bed, holding Mu Qi's hand and softly comforting him.
After speaking, Yun Shuzhuan felt it wasn't enough. She heavily kissed Mu Qi's hand twice more.