Unexpected (GL) - Chapter 29

Qin Ning quickly explained everything that had happened today to Xie Jing from beginning to end. As she watched the endless tears falling down Xie Jing’s face, her heart ached like it was being pricked by needles.

“Xie Jing, please believe me this once, okay?”

“Okay.” Xie Jing said each word clearly. “Then… from now on, can you stop seeing her?”

Especially after work.

Xie Jing’s nose was red from the cold, and her vision was blurry from crying too much. Her enlarged pupils stared directly at Qin Ning, filled with desperate hope.

But Qin Ning suddenly fell silent.

Xie Jing knew her request was unreasonable. With support from several families, Qin Ning’s future could go much further. But right now, she just wanted a sign—one that said she was more important to
Qin Ning than anyone else. Even if it was just a lie, it would’ve comforted her.

But Qin Ning didn’t give her that.

“Xie Jing, there’s really nothing going on between me and her. If you’re worried, I can give you my phone and bank cards to check anytime.” Qin Ning said as she tried to unlock her phone screen, but
after several tries, the screen stayed black.

Her phone had long run out of battery.

“Qin Ning.” Xie Jing looked up with red eyes, tightly furrowing her brows, trying to force back her tears. “No need.”

“Let’s both calm down for a while.”

She opened the car door, turned back, and said, “Happy birthday.”

Then she flagged down a taxi and left.

Qin Ning watched her fading figure through the rearview mirror. She wanted so badly to open the door, run after her, pull her back, press her against the car door and kiss her until they couldn’t
breathe, and then tell her just how deeply she loved her—that she would give up everything for her.

But no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t move her legs.

It was as if her legs weighed a thousand pounds. She could only stand there and watch the taxi drive away.

“She said we should calm down.”

“Okay.”

“We both need some time to cool off.”

After calming down, Qin Ning reached into the back seat and took out the cake.

The two little fondant figures on the cake were already broken beyond recognition, but she could still tell—this cake was made by Xie Jing’s own hands.

After that day, their relationship hit rock bottom.

Xie Jing hadn’t been doing well since starting graduate school. Even though she’d been in the north for almost five years, she still had frequent nosebleeds, and sometimes she even spat out bl00d
when brushing her teeth.

She had lost a lot of weight.

Ms. Xie Ruzhuo had noticed something was wrong through their video calls and had urged her many times to take a break and come home, but Xie Jing always refused.

A week later, Ms. Xie Ruzhuo suddenly appeared in Jinghai.

In real life, Xie Jing looked even worse than she did on screen.

The once bright and smooth-skinned girl now had dark circles, red eyes, and a pale face and lips. Her overall condition was terrible.

Without saying a word, Ms. Xie forcefully helped her process a leave of absence from school.

On the day they left Jinghai, Qin Ning sent Xie Jing a message asking if they could talk.

For the first time in a long while, Xie Jing’s lifeless face showed a bit of emotion.

But she was already on a flight back to Jiangcheng.

After the plane landed, Xie Jing couldn’t help but send a message to Qin Ning:

“I’m home. See you in a month.”

Qin Ning replied:

“Okay.”

She would try to get the company’s business back on track during this month—and wait for Xie Jing’s return.

Back in Jiangcheng, Ms. Xie and Mr. Xie set aside time to be with her and planned a road trip.

Xie Jing had been feeling low. Ms. Xie saw it all, so she wanted to take advantage of this rare time with her daughter and help her relax.

They chose a coastal city for vacation and drove there as a family.

Since leaving for college, Xie Jing hadn’t gone on a trip with her parents.

So when the three of them stood by the sea, Xie Jing finally smiled again.

Ms. Xie didn’t ask why her daughter had changed so suddenly.

Her only goal now was to make Xie Jing happy.

No matter what they did, it would be according to Xie Jing’s wishes.

Maybe it was the vastness of the ocean or the purity of the seawater—

After this trip, Xie Jing felt lighter.

The gloom inside her heart had been washed away.

She suddenly realized how childish she had been, making such an unreasonable demand to Qin Ning.

She decided she would apologize properly when she got back to Jinghai.

On the way home, while thinking about how to apologize to Qin Ning, the car suddenly swerved sharply.

Then came a loud bang—

Xie Jing’s forehead slammed hard against the front seat. It hurt instantly.

But what hurt even more was seeing her parents, now covered in bl00d.

From her angle, she saw a thick steel bar piercing through her father’s temple. The rusted bar poked out from the other side, dripping bl00d onto his shoulder.

Her mother was next to him, unconscious, her face and head covered in shattered glass and bl00d.

“Mom—”

“Dad—”

Xie Jing’s mind spun.

She tried to get up to check on them, but before she could move, she slipped off her seat and fell.

Terrified, her legs went weak.

She could only kneel and crawl toward them with her bloodied hands.

The broken glass had cut her hands all over.

After confirming that her mother was still breathing faintly, Xie Jing snapped back to her senses and shakily dialed 120.

Soon after, someone pulled her—covered in bl00d—out of the car.

“She’s still alive!”

The crowd helped Xie Jing sit on the side.

They smashed open the car window, trying to rescue the other two adults.

But the front of the car was so badly crushed that the doors were deformed.

Even with the window open, they couldn’t pull them out.

Firefighters, traffic police, and paramedics all arrived.

Xie Jing stared at the red and green flashing lights and stood there blankly.

Bl00d.

All she could see was bl00d.

How could someone bleed so much?

Were her parents still alive?

The doctors got here so fast—surely they could save them.

Xie Jing didn’t know how she got to the hospital.

When she came to her senses, she was already lying on a hospital bed.

Her injuries weren’t serious.

She had some soft tissue bruises on her legs and knees, and her hands were cut by glass.

Xie Jing sat up, using her heavily bandaged hands to support herself like she couldn’t feel the pain.

She slowly made her way to the hallway and stood alone outside the emergency room for a long time.

A doctor making rounds finally noticed her and led her to the door of the operating room.

The red light above the door was still on.

Xie Jing stared at it, and tears began to fall again.

It was all her fault.

She had caused this.

If she hadn’t come home, they wouldn’t have gone on that trip.

And there wouldn’t have been an accident.

Her body turned cold, her legs numb.

She couldn’t move at all.

It felt like an eternity before the light finally went out and the door opened.

The doctors came out, all with heavy expressions.

Xie Jing’s face changed.

Thud—

“Someone fainted—!”

“Come quickly—”

“A young girl passed out—”

Xie Jing heard the blurred voices around her before everything went black.

She lost consciousness completely.

When she woke up again, it was the next day.

She stared at the white ceiling as her thoughts slowly returned.

There had been a car crash yesterday.

Where were her parents?

Just as she asked herself that question, the memory came flooding back:

Her dad swerving left to avoid a child that ran into the road, slamming into the metal fence.

Her mom being crushed by an oncoming car, bleeding heavily.

She had survived in the back seat and been taken to the hospital.

Xie Jing jumped out of bed and ran out.

She found some doctors doing their rounds.

“Excuse me, the two people from the crash yesterday—how are they? Were they saved? Are they out of danger?”

None of them said a word.

As if silence could protect her fragile heart.

But the moment Xie Jing saw their eyes, she understood.

“Can you take me to see them? Please.”

A doctor took her to the morgue.

The steel bar had been removed from her father’s head.

Ms. Xie Ruzhuo’s once-proud face was now marked with glass cuts.

The moment she saw their faces, tears burst from Xie Jing’s eyes.

She slowly crouched down and rested her head near her mother’s ear, silently crying.

She hadn’t even properly said goodbye.

Why did Mom leave so suddenly?

Did she not want her anymore?

Losing both parents overnight shattered her.

She couldn’t tell what was real anymore.

She wished this were just a dream—

That she would wake up and find her parents still with her.

But everyone’s actions made it clear: this wasn’t a dream.

Her parents had really died in that car accident.

And she was the only one left.

In a daze, with help from relatives, Xie Jing handled the funeral.

Maybe she had cried all her tears in the hospital, because at the cremation and burial, not a single drop fell.

After everything was done, Xie Jing suddenly fell ill.

It was like fate was playing a cruel joke on her.

Bad luck kept piling on.

She hadn’t even had time to grieve properly when the news hit her—

She had leukemia.

Had her first 23 years been too smooth?

Was this the universe’s way of evening things out—with such a brutal twist?

The blow left her mentally and physically broken.

She became quiet, stopped talking, and couldn’t sleep for nights on end.

One morning, she walked alone to the hospital’s balcony.

Below was a lush green garden, full of blooming flowers, vibrant with life.

She reached out and grabbed the railing, her stomach pressed tightly against it.

She closed her eyes.

The wind brushed gently against her ears.

“Xie Jing?”

Suddenly, a strong force pulled her waist back.

She stumbled backward into a warm embrace.

“Xie Jing, don’t do something foolish.”

Shen Xinghe’s voice drew the attention of several nurses, who rushed over and helped take Xie Jing back to her room.

“Xinghe… you… why are you here…”

Her voice was hoarse and weak.

She looked at Shen Xinghe and frowned slightly.

Her vision was double.

The world was spinning.

Was she going to die too?