Chapter 871 - Who Is At Fault?
Early in the morning, Xin Zemin and Zhao Huan had left to visit the Qiu family house. It took days for Zhao Huan to gather the courage to face her sister. She had never thought she had done anything wrong that would make her lower her head before anyone but unexpectedly, the person she had wronged was her own sister.
The relationship between these sisters had been strained for decades now. And for the first time, Zhao Huan realized that it was because of her. While she had always thought they drifted away because of what Zhao Wei did to her but only now she got to know that her sister was completely innocent. And it was she who had wrongly accused her own sister.
Qiu Jiayi was surprised to see this pair at the door of his house but he soon invited them inside. After asking them to take a seat, he went to inform his wife. Soon, he came back and told them, "You can go and see her."
Zhao Huan looked at him gratefully before she walked past him and went over to Zhao Wei's room. This was her first time being here, so a maid had to direct her towards Zhao Wei's bedroom. As she walked through the hallway, she actually smiled seeing how every inch of this house gave off a familiar feeling. And she knew it was Zhao Wei must have decorated every inch of this house with her own hands.
Since her sister's likes and dislikes were exactly like their mother's, this strange familiarity gave her both a happy and sad feeling. Standing outside the bedroom door, she waited for a minute before knocking on the door. She took a deep breath and stepped inside with a heavy heart.
Zhao Wei was leaning against the headboard with her eyes closed gently. Just one look and Zhao Huan's heart clenched inside her chest. In just days, Zhao Wei seemed to have aged. Her skin looked pale and sallow. Her frame was boney, there was hardly any flesh on her bones. Her cheeks had squeezed in making her face slimmer. Even her head full of black hair seemed to have turned grey.
She walked over and pulled a chair beside her bed.
"Why are you here?" asked Zhao Wei without even opening her eyes.
Zhao Huan pursed her lips before she softly said, "I came to apologize to you."
Zhao Wei opened her eyes and tilted her slightly to look at her, "Come again? Mistress of the Xin family is here to apologize to me? Why?"
"Back then, I shouldn't have blamed my miscarriage on you without knowing the truth. Even if everything pointed at you, I should have trusted in you."
Zhao Wei stared at her elder sister and snorted, "Do you think that's why I hated you?"
Zhao Huan looked up at her, "Didn't you?"
"No," replied Zhao Wei. "Even though what you said had hurt me, it wasn't enough to make me hate you. I knew your mental condition was sensitive during that period of time. Having three miscarriages, anyone could breakdown and lose rationality. And it is a fact that the poison was inside the bird's nest that I brought for you. That's why I could never hate my own elder sister."
Zhao Huan was startled to hear that. All these years, she thought it was because of her words that Zhao Wei hated her so much. But she never thought that the one who understood her condition at the time was none other than her own sister.
"Then why?" she couldn't help asking.
"Because you took my parents from me," replied Zhao Wei. "When I went against our parents' wishes and married Jiayi, you said you'd do anything to make them understand. You'd never let them cut ties with me. But it was you who in the end made my parents hate me. They didn't even want to see my face because they thought I tried to harm you." She took a pause to swallow the bile that rose and said, "Do you even know what mom said to me? She said I was jealous of you. But why would I be jealous of my own sister? And why would I want to harm my sister? Exactly what did you have that could make me envious? I have a loving husband, an adorable son, and a daughter who let me down. But still, you had nothing that could make me envious of you. Was being the Mistress of the Xin family that big of a deal?"
Zhao Huan's heart hurt hearing all of that as she said, "I never said anything to them. Even if I blamed you at the time, trust me, I never said a word to mom and dad. I tried to make them understand repeatedly but they..." She broke down halfway through her sentence as her tears rolled down.
"You know, I always thought that my daughter doesn't listen to me it's a kind of punishment for hurting my own mom. No matter how hard I tried, my daughter kept walking away from me again and again. Maybe it was to remind me that once upon a time, I also walked away from my mother."
Zhao Huan held her hand and shook her hand, "It's nothing like that. Listen to me, mom and dad really didn't hate you. They could never do that. Maybe mom said some hurtful things to you but she didn't mean any of it. Between the two of us, she had always loved you more. How could she bear to hurt you? In fact, her anger was only momentary. They both had planned to go and see you but life didn't give them enough time. Their accident took their lives before they could reach you."
Zhao Huan took a pause as she looked into her sister's dull eyes and went down on her knees startling Zhao Wei, "If there is anyone who is at fault, that's still me. I should have never doubted you. You're my only sister, and even when I had all those doubts, I had never been able to hate you. I always asked about you whenever I met Xiao Zi. I just could never face you because I could neither hate you nor could I forget what happened back then. You can punish me however you want. I'm willing to take all of your curses. Because I deserve it." She sobbed as she continued, "In fact, Wen Ai used to say I'm naive. I always thought she was just being rude like she was. But she was right. I had always been too naive and that's why people always took advantage of me. Whatever happened to me was my own fault. It was my own naive self that destroyed me. I should have never pointed my finger at you. So, please forgive me! I'm begging you please forgive me."
....
"How is Xiao Zi doing?" asked Qiu Jiayi as he took a sip of the tea.
Xin Zemin also drank the tea without hesitation and said, "He is like his usual self." He frowned a little and added, "Actually, no. He had been a lot restless, vulnerable, sometimes anxious, sometimes cheery. It's hard to tell what kind of mood he is in. It's rare for me to even see that many expressions on his face that had always been like a calm stream of water."
Qiu Jiayi smiled at that, "And I believe that's all because of your daughter."
Xin Zemin looked at Qiu Jiayi and nodded his head, "It is indeed because of her." He took a pause and went on, "You haven't been contacting him lately? Not planning on doing so?"
Qiu Jiayi narrowed his eyes at Xin Zemin, "He is more of a brother to me than he had ever been to you." Xin Zemin felt like Qiu Jiayi just attacked him but he couldn't even bring himself to retort. "There is nothing that can come between me and Zimen. We are just giving each other time to solve the matters at hand. Currently, my hands are full because of my wife's health and Zimen is busy with his own stuff. There is no need for me to go and disturb him at this time."
Xin Zemin sighed out, "Right. I almost forgot just what kind of relationship you both have."
Qiu Jiayi smiled at him, "Our friendship had already gone through all kinds of tests over the years. This small matter between our kids won't be enough to destroy what we have."
"Your daughter is in jail," reminded Xin Zemin. "Is that really a small matter?"
Qiu Jiayi had just opened his mouth to reply when Xin Zemin's phone rang and he decided to not say anything at all. But just as Xin Zemin attended the call, his expressions changed.
"How is she now?" asked Xin Zemin in an anxious tone and after hearing the reply from the other side, he went on, "We are coming back."
"Is everything okay?" asked Qiu Jiayi when he looked at Xin Zemin's anxious look.
"It's my daughter," replied Xin Zemin vaguely. "Can you call my wife? We'll have to leave now."
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