139 Chapter 139 — Regrets

"It's an emergency, please move aside!" A paramedic shouted as he and a few others pushed the transport gurney down the hospital corridor. Patients and visitors alike moved out of the way as fast as possible in order to allow them move quickly.

A woman gently held her daughter's arm as the air generated by the people who rushed by made her plain muslin skirt billow. "That's another sad soul. I hope this person survives."

Her daughter had been in the hospital for more than a month and in that space of time, she had seen enough to know that emergencies didn't always end well.

The young girl frowned, "Shouldn't you worry about me first? My side is hurting again."

Her mother's attention was quickly diverted. "What? Since when? Is it on your right or left?" She said in worry while her daughter ignored her.

Wu Caiyu clucked her tongue as she watched the mother and daughter duo walk away. "Another ungrateful child! What, should your mother kill herself for you?

"And that mother of hers too, why does she indulge that brat? Tut-tut." She said, making a disparaging sound.

Carrying the cup of coffee she got from the vending machine in the hospital corridor, she went into a ward.

"Where are you coming from?" The frail woman on the bed rasped out. Reclining against the hospital bed, she looked older and frailer than her actual age.

"Sis, I didn't do anything, I only went to get a cup of coffee." Wu Caiyu said, raising the cup. "I've told you that I won't go to that son of yours anymore. That heartless boy, I should have left him on the road at that time."

"Shut up." The rebuke was meant to sound sharp, but it was weak due to her ill state. She began to cough harshly.

Wu Caiyu grumbled as she fed her some water. "Isn't it true? I told him that you were sick but he still didn't listen and threw me out just like that."

She frowned when the hand she was using to stroke her sister's head came away with many strands of hair that had since turned silver, an effect of the chemotherapy.

"Caiyu, I've told you not to go and see him again. I caused this myself, so I have to pay for my sins. It has nothing to do with him. If anything, I owe him a lot." Wu Zhaodi managed to say weakly after the coughing subsided.

The day she knew that Wu Caiyu went to the Li Conglomerate, she was so angry that her condition abruptly worsened.

She had sworn not to look for Li Chuanmo because she felt too ashamed to face him. Hearing that her sister went to make a scene only increased her guilt.

"I've heard you Sis. I won't look for him anymore." Since her sister got to know she went looking from him, she had been monitoring her movements and her phone calls, trying to make sure she did not contact him again.

"Anyway, he already said he doesn't recognize us as relatives." Wu Caiyu continued. She couldn't shake off the look in his face at the time. It still made her shudder even now.

"It's good that way. It's karma." Wu Zhaodi said sadly, tears trickling out of the corner of her eyes. "All I caused him back then was endless pain."

The ward was situated at the end of the corridor, and sunlight poured through the open windows, bringing brightness to an environment originally plagued with gloom.

It was a three bed ward, but two beds were currently empty as one of the occupants passed away a few days ago, while the other patient was rushed to the intensive care unit the day before due to her unstable condition.

Wu Caiyu walked back to the single plastic chair reserved for the caretaker and sat down as she spoke matter-of-factly.

"You really should have treated Brother-in-law better. You eloped and left the child with him. You didn't even come back after Brother-in-law died, despite knowing he had no family. How did you expect me to take care of a teenager by myself?"

She sighed, "Anyway, it's now no use crying over spilt milk. What has happened has happened. Shouldn't you try to reconcile with him?"

"No, there's no need. It's almost over anyway." Wu Zhaodi said. She could feel life slipping away from her bit by bit everyday. She was just happy to know that he was alive and doing well. Fortunately, he was living a good life. Fortunately.

All her life, her one wish was to live for herself. Growing up in a family that favored boys over girls, she had a miserable childhood. She felt that things would get better once she got married, but marriage wasn't like what she had hoped for.

The monotony and difficulty of living from hand to mouth everyday tore away at her sanity. Little by little, she started taking it out on her only child.

A frown here, a shout there. Soon it escalated to a smack on the shoulder and then one evening, a slap on his cheek. She would never forget the look of shock on his face that day.

It was now her nightmare.

But at the time, she didn't care. Her husband was a simple, average man who worked as a security guard in a construction company.

At the beginning, she felt they would be okay if they worked hard, but as time went on, she began to hate her life.

So when an executive in the company she was working for at the time made advances at her, it looked like something exciting, a change to her dreary, gloomy life.

She was his secretary, and before long, she became his mistress. When he got transferred to another city, she didn't think twice before going along with him.

Remembering how her husband and son cried and pleaded with her on the day she was leaving brought fresh tears to her eyes.

Pang Guolin. As useless as she thought him to be, she knew that he really did love her. He begged and begged that day, but she, seeing the bright future waiting for her, resolutely shrugged his hands from hers and walked away with her head up high.

She was already pregnant for her lover when she found out that he had a wife and two children. The shock and disappointment was acute, but she soon calmed down. She resolved that since she had already made her decision, she had to stick to it.

Rolling up her sleeves, she fought tooth and nail against his legitimate wife in order to become his wife. She finally succeeded and lived with him for many years.

But it was all for nothing.

The child she had for him died when he was less than a year old, and try as she did, she couldn't get pregnant again.

Immediately her new husband passed away, his children threw her out with nothing. It was then it occurred to her.

Ah, I have been living a lie all these while.

All the things she thought she had achieved, turned out to be nothing in the end. Now in a hospital room, wasting away due to illness, all the things she once felt were so important now looked so worthless.

She shut her eyes against the painful memories.

"If only I could turn back the hands of time, I would do things differently."