The Rebirth of the Socialite's Glory (GL) - Chapter 28

If this were a martial arts novel, perhaps she and Ye Qiu would be caught by tree branches when falling off the cliff, or by some twist of fate, enter a cave, and then obtain a secluded martial art from inside. Then, they would practice divine skills in the mountains, and upon achieving mastery, they would dominate the martial world, find a beautiful companion, become winners in life, and reach the pinnacle of existence.

If this were a martial arts novel.

Feng Hua barely opened her eyes. Although the pain in her body was unbearable, and she couldn’t move, she couldn’t help but smile when she realized she was still alive. She was actually still alive. Under these circumstances, she was still alive. Was her fate not meant to end?

Wait, where was Ye Qiu? Feng Hua’s face changed.

When the accident happened, Ye Qiu hugged Feng Hua. Protected by her, Feng Hua suffered virtually no injuries, but later, the two were thrown out of the car, and Ye Qiu separated from Feng Hua. Feng Hua tumbled all the way down, dislocating both her legs. Her chest felt extremely stifled and painful. Her whole body was bruised and purple from being hit by hard or sharp objects like branches and small stones along the way.

Ye Qiu… Thinking of this name, Feng Hua’s eyes fully opened. Turning her eyeballs, she took in the surrounding environment but did not see Ye Qiu.

They had rolled out together, and that person had held her so tightly. Why was she nowhere to be seen now?

As far as the eye could see, there were tall trees, and dense branches and leaves covered the sky. Only a few rays of sunlight shone through the gaps, mottled and indistinct. Based on the terrain, this looked like a forest. Based on the time, she had slept for a night, and it was approximately ten o’clock in the morning now.

After lying on the ground for a while to conserve a little strength, Feng Hua couldn’t stand up. She carefully crawled to a tree, held the trunk, and slowly stood up. This process was not easy, and the bone-chilling pain from her knees almost made her fall back to the ground. Let alone walking, just standing there was torture.

Feng Hua gritted her teeth and carefully sat back down on the ground, panting heavily. After about half an hour, Feng Hua felt she had regained some strength. She felt for the position of her leg bone, dragging her knees, which hurt upon touching, and with a forceful push, she reset the dislocated leg.

Feng Hua was drenched in sweat from the pain. After resting for a minute, she tremblingly felt for the other leg. With another ‘crack’ sound, it was reset. After that, Feng Hua could only lie weakly against the trunk, her eyes blank.

After the fight eleven years ago, Feng Hua had placed greater emphasis on practicing martial arts. Her current skills were the result of hiring genuine martial arts instructors and practicing diligently day after day. But generally speaking, she was still a person who hadn’t endured much physical suffering. She had only tried setting other people’s bones before. This was her first time setting her own, and the pain was indescribable.

When she had some strength back, Feng Hua dragged her tired body and began searching for Ye Qiu in the forest.

First, she followed the direction she had tumbled down. The traces of bl00d on her body stained the roadside grass and left some marks. Feng Hua could carefully identify and find the original path.

As the sun was setting, Feng Hua was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open, and her stomach felt a burning, searing pain, but she still hadn’t found Ye Qiu.

Where exactly is Ye Qiu?

Feng Hua found her bag on a patch of bare sand where the grass was missing. The screen of the phone inside the bag was smashed. Feng Hua took a chance and powered it on, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it still worked.

She immediately called Wang Ze, but the signal was very weak since this was at the bottom of the mountain. Left with no choice, Feng Hua had to find a large rock, stand on it, and redial. After a few attempts, the call was connected. “Uncle Wang?”

“Miss?” Wang Ze’s anxious heart, having learned of Feng Hua’s accident, finally relaxed slightly upon hearing Feng Hua’s voice.

That cliff was so steep, and it was rumored that the bottom was either a pile of strange rocks or an uninhabited forest with man-eating beasts. In short, due to the terrain, no one had ever gone down to check. With Feng Hua and the car tumbling down, everyone assumed that there was a ninety-nine percent chance Feng Hua wouldn’t return alive.

Wang Ze refused to believe Feng Hua was dead. He didn’t immediately tell Feng Heng about Feng Hua’s accident. Instead, he hired people to go down and search during the day. Even with just a tiny chance, he couldn’t give up.

People willing to participate in the rescue were found, but after finally finding the car wreckage, they discovered that Feng Hua and Ye Qiu were nowhere to be found. The area below was surprisingly vast, and it was difficult to conduct a large-scale search in this unfamiliar location. They could only cautiously explore and search bit by bit. They searched all day without finding anyone. If Wang Ze hadn’t offered a high enough price, those hired by Wang Ze would have quit long ago.

At this point, Feng Hua turned on her phone’s GPS location. Wang Ze finally found Feng Hua standing on a tall rock through the positioning.

Feng Hua sighed in relief when she saw Wang Ze, and as soon as she let out that breath, her body could no longer hold up. In Wang Ze’s terrified gaze, she fell from the rock. Fortunately, a tall, strong retired soldier caught her steadily.

Wang Ze looked at the man who caught Feng Hua with great gratitude. The man looked to be around twenty-five years old, tall, with a muscular build visible from his exposed skin, firm eyes, and a purely handsome face. Wang Ze nodded, intending to take her, but the man suddenly said, “She has many injuries on her body right now and shouldn’t be moved easily. I’ll carry her for now.”

Wang Ze saw that the other person’s eyes were very candid. He only hesitated for a moment, and considering Feng Hua’s physical condition, he agreed.

Feng Hua had a dream. She dreamed of Ye Qiu lying pale on a hospital bed, her head covered with various instruments, an oxygen tube in her nose, her body motionless, and even the rise and fall of her chest was extremely faint, like a person on the verge of death.

“Ye Qiu!” Feng Hua sat up abruptly in bed.

“Miss, you’re finally awake!” Wang Ze, who was resting on a chair by the bedside, immediately stood up and walked to Feng Hua when he heard her wake up, looking at her worriedly. “Miss, how are you feeling now? The doctor said you have very serious superficial injuries, a few broken bones, and the dislocation in your leg wasn’t set properly. The bone in that area has become inflamed due to the lack of timely treatment and friction. Now you must rest well, or there might be very serious sequelae in the future.”

Upon hearing this, Feng Hua nodded. She didn’t ask about her own condition but instead asked, “Did you find Ye Qiu?”

A trace of embarrassment and difficulty appeared on Wang Ze’s face. “We hadn’t found Ye Qiu before finding you. After finding you, we brought you straight back and didn’t continue the search for Ye Qiu.”

Feng Hua took a deep breath, looked steadily at Wang Ze, and said seriously, “She saved my life. I must find her, whether dead or alive.”

When Wang Ze heard that Ye Qiu had saved Feng Hua, his face showed a hint of shame. “Miss, don’t worry too much. I’ll send people to look for her right away. Good people are rewarded, Ye Qiu will be fine.”

“Mm-hmm.” Feng Hua nodded distractedly and lay back down on the bed.

Her condition now was even more powerless than before. Back then, she held onto a breath of determination, and she got used to the pain, but now all her injuries had been treated and medicated, which ironically made her feel utterly weak.

Ye Qiu… Ye Qiu… Where are you?

Wang Ze told her to rest well and not think too much when he left, but Feng Hua couldn’t make herself close her eyes and sleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, Ye Qiu’s resolute, loving, and decisive eyes flashed before her.

Even if Feng Hua wanted to avoid it, she couldn’t.

Ye Qiu loves her. This conclusion surged in Feng Hua’s mind, and she couldn’t pinpoint the exact feeling it brought.

If Ye Qiu died, she would occupy an irreplaceable place in Feng Hua’s heart, successfully ensuring that Feng Hua would remember Ye Qiu for a lifetime. But if Ye Qiu returned alive… Feng Hua didn’t know how she would treat Ye Qiu.

Gratitude and guilt would certainly be there, but accepting Ye Qiu’s feelings because of this was something she couldn’t do.

She firmly believed that she would not fall in love with a woman, and certainly not with Ye Qiu.

Absolutely not…

A long-sealed memory resurfaced in Feng Hua’s mind at this moment.

Although Feng Heng didn’t care about his ‘cheap’ daughter, he merely tolerated Ye Qiu’s handling of her and didn’t mean to personally kill her off. When Ye Qiu brought her back to Ye Qiu’s apartment, Feng Heng still didn’t interfere.

Ye Qiu’s attitude towards her was very bizarre.

Feng Hua thought Ye Qiu should hate her with intense fervor; otherwise, why would she have been dedicated to stepping on her before? Feng Hua wasn’t stupid. Of course, she could see that Ye Qiu was intentional, deliberately and systematically trampling her and stripping away everything that originally belonged to her. Feng Hua thought that Ye Qiu should hate her. From Ye Qiu’s perspective, her hatred was justified and beyond reproach.

But Feng Hua was not a saint. She could understand, but she couldn’t smile and watch Ye Qiu make her lose everything without resentment. Was Ye Qiu innocent, and should she, therefore, receive this retribution?

She had never met her own mother, nor had Ye Qiu met hers. Feng Heng was strict with her, providing for her material needs, but it was rare to see him even once a year. She was usually confined at home to study, barely getting to know anyone her age. After completing her studies, she began fulfilling her responsibilities, the responsibilities of a mingyuan, the responsibilities of the Feng family heir. She pushed herself to be the best, prioritizing satisfying Feng Heng, satisfying her friends, satisfying her teachers, and satisfying everyone, and striving for it.

But all of it was a joke. Ye Qiu’s appearance made all her persistence turn into bubbles. Without that bloodline, stripped of the veneer of the Feng family’s eldest daughter, she was nothing.

Ye Qiu easily took her place, and she could only be kept in an empty apartment by Ye Qiu. Yes, kept.

One thing even more unbearable than Feng Heng’s captivity was that Ye Qiu didn’t give her any freedom, being even stricter than Feng Heng.

Feng Hua wondered, If my mother hadn’t been greedy back then, and hadn’t swapped my identity with Ye Qiu’s, would I have lived a more authentic life? Perhaps life would have been filled with many disappointments, perhaps she would have been ordinary, but her soul would have been free.

She was less than thirty years old, yet she felt no anticipation for the future. In the glittering shell, her heart was empty. What was left?