The True Record of a Flirty Omega's Failed Balancing Act - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

◎What could she be doing?◎

Although the rain outside was sparse, the wind was still strong. As soon as her biological mother finished speaking, the window, which wasn’t closed tightly, was pulled open, causing the wind that rushed into the room to completely swallow up the few words Ning Chanyue had just said.

So Ning Chanyue walked to the window and closed it. With her back to her biological mother, she said, “You’ve come all this way, why don’t you order?”

But as soon as Ning Chanyue finished speaking, there was a “thump” behind her, as if something had fallen. The table also made a scraping sound, causing Ning Chanyue to quickly turn her head to look—

She saw her biological mother had suddenly knelt on the ground. Ning Chanyue was startled. She quickly took two steps back, wanting to help her up, but her biological mother remained kneeling on the ground. When she looked up at Ning Chanyue again, the tears that had already filled her eyes now gushed out, spreading across her wrinkled face.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing that she couldn’t pull her up, Ning Chanyue pulled a few tissues from the table and quickly knelt down to wipe her tears, asking this.

“My child,” the moment Ning Chanyue’s fingers touched her cheek, her biological mother’s long-suppressed emotions seemed to finally erupt. With her trembling hands, she hugged Ning Chanyue and said, “It’s my fault, I’ve been looking for you for more than twenty years and only just found you. It’s my fault.”

For some reason, this action from her biological mother made Ning Chanyue feel as if her heart was being squeezed, and she felt a strange pang of sadness.

Ning Chanyue hugged her biological mother back in comfort and said, “But you’ve found me now, haven’t you? This is a joyous occasion, don’t cry… Mom.”

Ning Chanyue called her this name a little awkwardly.

But her biological mother still shook her head. The tears, like a broken string of pearls, rolled down her cheeks one after another. She looked up and put her calloused hands on Ning Chanyue’s face. She choked back sobs and said, “I shouldn’t have given you to Ning Xia.”

Ning Xia was her adoptive mother’s name.

When Ning Chanyue heard this, her hand, which was wiping her biological mother’s tears, suddenly stopped. She seemed to be in shock. She asked with a little uncertainty, “…Given away?”

Did her biological mother, who seemed to care about her so much, voluntarily give her to her adoptive mother?

In an instant, Ning Chanyue’s mind flashed with stories and images of parents who abandoned their children and then came back to find them after they had become successful.

But just as Ning Chanyue was hesitating, her biological mother’s eyes, which were as turbid as an old well, met Ning Chanyue’s gaze again. She seemed to have presbyopia. She squinted her eyes, looking at Ning Chanyue in front of her with great care, inch by inch. After wiping away a tear, she cried and said, “It’s my sin. I saw that she loved you, so I gave you to her to raise. But she…”

Then, amidst her biological mother’s constant accusations and sobs, Ning Chanyue listened to a story that she had no memory of but had caused her biological mother to live in guilt for the rest of her life.

Her biological mother said that when Ning Chanyue was two years old, her father suddenly passed away. The family’s main source of income was cut off. Not only was she raising three daughters, but she was also pregnant with another one. She was already ill, but after her husband’s death, she picked up the hoe that she hadn’t touched since her heart condition relapsed a few years ago and went to work in the fields with her pregnant belly.

But even with working from dawn to dusk, she still couldn’t do it all and was so poor she couldn’t even afford to eat. While she was farming that small plot of land by herself, she also had to take care of three sisters… and an unborn child in her belly. But seeing that her br3ast milk was getting thinner day by day and her three daughters’ faces were becoming thinner, after being persuaded by her neighbor Ning Xia a few times, she hesitated for a long time and decided to give her second daughter, who had already been weaned, to Ning Xia.

After all, her neighbor Ning Xia was also a good person. They often interacted, and the third daughter was also raised by the two of them. And Ning Xia’s husband worked in Nancheng, so their family was much wealthier than hers. Following Ning Xia, her daughter wouldn’t have to suffer.

Most importantly, Ning Xia had been married for many years without children. She said that she had even gone to a fortune-teller, but the fortune-teller said she would never have a child in this lifetime. Even though she had tried every method to have a child these past few years, her belly still didn’t get bigger. So she thought that if she gave her second daughter to her to raise, Ning Xia would probably treat her with all her heart.

So after Ning Xia promised repeatedly that she wouldn’t have any other children, she didn’t take the “thank you fee” Ning Xia tried to give her and gave her second daughter to her. She only asked Ning Xia to allow her to visit her from time to time.

In the next few months after the adoption, everything was normal. She often brought her daughter toys and snacks she had saved up money to buy at the market. Her second daughter didn’t become distant from her. She still remembered that the first word her second daughter said was “Mom” to her.

So she felt even more guilty.

But she had already heartlessly given her daughter away. The deed was done. She just visited more often. Ning Xia never stopped her and even joked that this child was going to have two mothers.

Until… Until she gave birth to her fourth daughter, and after her confinement period was over, she again carried a large bag of things to visit Ning Xia’s house after not seeing her for a month. But Ning Xia’s door, which was always open, was suddenly tightly shut. In the next few days of visiting, she was repeatedly rejected.

She thought Ning Xia was out, but she could occasionally hear a child’s crying from inside the door.

Thinking that something had happened to her daughter, she panicked. Since she couldn’t knock on the door, she often waited outside Ning Xia’s door. Finally, one midnight, she saw Ning Xia’s husband, who worked away from home, return.

“Where’s my child?” She still remembered asking him this when she saw Ning Xia’s husband.

“What do you mean, your child?” Ning Xia’s husband’s tone was quite unfriendly. After knocking on the door twice, he squinted his eyes, looked her up and down, and then spat on the ground where she was standing, forcing her to take two steps back. Then he said, “Your child came to my house to find you? Aren’t all your children with you?”

Of course, he was referring to her daughter Chuntao, whom she was holding by the hand, and the two daughters she was holding in her arms.

“Where’s Chunxi? Why won’t Ning Xia let me see her anymore?” She asked again, a little out of control.

As soon as she finished speaking, the door suddenly opened. The yard behind the door in the evening was as dark as a black hole, as if it was going to devour all of her hopes and expectations. But Ning Xia’s husband glared at her again and was about to step inside.

…And then slammed the door shut.

But she wouldn’t give up. The moment the door was about to close, she handed her youngest child to her eldest daughter Chuntao to hold and tried to squeeze into the door. But Chuntao was either scared or didn’t hold her properly, and her youngest daughter, who had just been born and hadn’t even been named, was dropped on the ground by Chuntao.

It was a downhill slope. The child rolled several times down the slope. Her still-young and tender body rolled over the muddy ground and wet straw after the rain. Finally, with a thud, she stopped in front of a rock.

Her youngest daughter had always been very quiet and well-behaved. She didn’t like to fuss or cry during her confinement period. Even after such a violent tumble, she didn’t cry at all. She just kept her eyes tightly closed, as if she was still in a dream.

The two people who had just been shoving each other suddenly fell silent. She clung to the door frame, looking in the direction of her youngest daughter. Ning Xia’s husband seemed to be startled as well. The foot that had stepped halfway into the door didn’t move.

What came before action and sorrow was the coldness that spread from her head to her feet, as if it could freeze her.

“Oh my goodness!” Ning Xia’s voice, which she hadn’t heard for a long time, suddenly came from inside the door. It seemed she had seen what had just happened. Ning Xia pushed away the two people standing in front of the door. She ran a few steps to the rock, picked up her youngest daughter, checked her breath, stomped her foot, and shook her head, saying, “It’s no use. What a sin.”

Then she heard a burst of crying. It wasn’t hers. It was her eldest daughter Chuntao’s. Then came the crying of her third daughter Chunxi, who was in her arms. One after another, their cries echoed through the sky, startling the surrounding neighbors who all turned on their lights.

But she didn’t make a sound. It was as if she couldn’t even cry or breathe.

What followed was chaotic. Not only was the scene chaotic, but her thoughts were also chaotic, making her memory a little unclear. Her biological mother said she only remembered staring blankly down, but her gaze was fixed on Ning Xia’s obviously bulging lower abdomen. But before she could even ask anything, she fell straight down. When she opened her eyes again, she had already been sent to the county hospital by the villagers.

She was in a hurry to go back, but the doctor said that her heart condition had relapsed and she needed to stay in the hospital for a major surgery, otherwise her life would be in danger at any time. So in the next few days, she was forced to lie in the hospital, spending her time with the bunch of white tubes on her body and the pale ceiling that was the only thing she could see when she opened her eyes.

She had thought about secretly sneaking away to see her youngest daughter, whom her relatives said was already buried near her husband’s grave. She also wanted to go and ask Ning Xia if she had really betrayed her and gotten pregnant and then go and bring her second daughter home.

But as a villager, even if she was anxious to escape, how could she control the crooked tubes inserted into her? Every time she saw that no one was around and tried to secretly pull out the tubes to leave, the nurse would rush in from outside and press her back onto the bed.

This situation continued until she was discharged from the hospital.

When she finally returned to the village a month later, she couldn’t wait to go to Ning Xia’s house. But she found that Ning Xia’s door was open this time. She pushed the door and walked in, but the yard and the house were already empty. She couldn’t even find a single piece of clothing or a pair of chopsticks. The only thing left was the tall grass in the yard and butterflies flying around.

That’s right, spring had arrived, and all things were reborn. But her newborn daughter had died, and Chunxi was gone.

“Mom, Mom. What’s wrong with you?”

Her biological mother hadn’t finished her story, but she suddenly covered her heart, leaned tightly against the back of the chair, tilted her head back, and desperately gasped for air.

“Medicine, medicine…”

She squeezed out a few words from between her teeth. Her withered hands fumbled to reach into her coat pocket, but her body was twitching, and she failed several times.

Ning Chanyue understood. She quickly took a bottle of medicine from her biological mother’s pocket. After glancing at the instructions, she poured out two pills and, using the restaurant’s tea, put them into her biological mother’s mouth.

“Should I call 911?”

It was the first time she had encountered a situation like this, and Ning Chanyue was also a little panicked. She held her biological mother in the chair and asked.

Her biological mother shook her head. She seemed to be quite experienced with this. After swallowing the medicine, she desperately pressed her back down, with one hand on her heart. After a long time, she finally looked up. A little color returned to her cheeks. She looked at Ning Chanyue, who was helping her breathe, a little weakly and said, “I’m fine. You… sit down.”

But after such an ordeal, her biological mother was weak. It seemed that it wasn’t a good idea for the two of them to eat at the restaurant anymore. After her biological mother had recovered a little, Ning Chanyue offered to take her back to the hotel so she could rest.

“I’m staying at the Health Road Hil锐.”

While helping her biological mother into the car, she said the address of her hotel in Nancheng. When Ning Chanyue heard that, she looked up at her biological mother, but without much question, she took out her phone and searched for the navigation.

Feeling Ning Chanyue’s momentary gaze, her biological mother paused and said, “Little You booked it for me yesterday. Before… your sister Chunxi booked a hotel for me. Little You went yesterday and found it too shabby and unsanitary, so she insisted on changing it for me. Little You… she’s a good person. She even went to all that trouble to find me.”

When Ning Chanyue heard her biological mother’s last sentence, her temple twitched instinctively, but she was also uncharacteristically not questioning her.

Her biological mother’s place wasn’t on the way to Xu Guiyi’s house. Ning Chanyue chatted with her biological mother in the car. Then her biological mother seemed to be tired. Her voice became light, and then she was left with a steady breathing sound.

Ning Chanyue drove by herself, paying attention to the road conditions. But at the last traffic light, Ning Chanyue’s peripheral vision seemed to have caught something. She parked the car on the side of the road and got out by herself.

When she got back in the car, she was holding a bunch of fireworks of all sizes.

“What’s this?” Her biological mother, who had just been napping, had already opened her eyes. She sat up straight and asked.

“This is for my al…” But for some reason, Ning Chanyue’s pupils suddenly contracted. When she opened her mouth again, she changed her words. “This is for my future Alpha.”

Her biological mother’s interest was piqued. She leaned forward and asked some questions about Xu Guiyi. As they chatted like this, Ning Chanyue took her biological mother to the hotel. She stayed with her at the hotel all afternoon, talking to her until the last ray of sunlight faded from the room. After Ning Chanyue went downstairs to buy her biological mother dinner, she reluctantly said goodbye to her.

…

“I won’t be back tonight.”

When Ning Chanyue got home and closed the door and just put the key on the shoe cabinet, she saw this message that Xu Guiyi had just sent her.

But she had clearly said she would be back tonight.

Ning Chanyue’s eyes darkened.

She had already planned that if Xu Guiyi had time, she would hug her tonight and tell her about the joy and affection she felt after seeing her biological mother. She also wanted to ask her about that photo.

“Are you busy?” Ning Chanyue replied.

If she couldn’t say it in person, then a phone call would be good too.

But it was more than half an hour later that Xu Guiyi replied: Very busy. I have to work until after eleven tonight before I can go to the hospital to see my sister, so I don’t have time to go home.

But it wasn’t just today. It seemed that Xu Guiyi had always been quite busy.

Ning Chanyue sat on the sofa. She was obviously a little disappointed. She typed a few more words in the chat box, but before she could send them, she deleted them all.

But she hesitated for a while. After glancing at the green mountain in the distance, she sighed and still sent a message: The day after tomorrow is your birthday. Is my sister also getting discharged tomorrow? I want to take you to the mountains tomorrow afternoon. We can celebrate your birthday in the mountains. Do you have time?

After a while, she added another sentence: If you don’t have time, we can also celebrate at home.

But one minute, ten minutes, one hour… time passed quietly.

Ning Chanyue kept staring at her phone from time to time, but Xu Guiyi didn’t reply for a long time.

…

“Director, I’ve finished tomorrow’s work as well. Can I take a day off tomorrow?”

After taking off her white lab coat, Xu Guiyi knocked on the door of her director’s office, which was still lit, and asked this.

After the director agreed, Xu Guiyi chatted with her for a couple of minutes and then left the office. Only then did she take out her phone and see the message Ning Chanyue had sent her.

Xu Guiyi immediately replied: Of course, I’ll go.

After that, to save money, Xu Guiyi walked to the Second Hospital, which wasn’t far from the school. When she was about to get to the hospital, a light breeze blew through, moving the remaining clouds in the sky and shaking the withered willows on the side of the street.

It also blew Xu Guiyi’s hair.

At this moment, Xu Guiyi was looking down. She didn’t know how many times she had opened her phone screen, but Ning Chanyue still hadn’t replied.

What could she be doing?

Xu Guiyi rubbed the screen, unconsciously thinking this.