Chapter 1402: Chapter 1402: It’s Time to End This (4)

When they got to the kids’ room, they saw Lingxin’s small hand pressed to his chest, his little face as white as paper.

Gu Nuan held her son in her arms, not knowing what to do, her fingers shaking along with his.

Ou Yanan rushed over, took the child from her arms, laid him flat on the bed, and began to examine him.

"Lingxin, Lingxin?"

Hearing his uncle call him twice by his ear, Lingxin opened his eyes in a daze. Seeing all those anxious faces, his little mouth opened and closed. Ou Yanan leaned in to listen and heard the words that came out of his mouth: "It’s not me—"

It was telepathy between the twins.

Mingli’s pain had been transmitted to him, the older brother.

What Ou Yanan had just heard, he didn’t dare tell Gu Nuan. He only said, "It shouldn’t be anything serious. He’s probably just hungry, stomach empty for too long."

Tonight everyone had been busy waiting for someone and hadn’t had time to eat.

Gu Nuan couldn’t help blaming herself. She got up and went to the kitchen to fix something for her son.

Once Gu Nuan walked away, Zhang Sanfeng and Zhan Dapeng both looked at Ou Yanan, clearly feeling that there was something off about what he’d just said.

Ou Yanan didn’t say anything. He just told them to get a cup of warm water, then used one hand to prop the child up and slowly fed him the water.

After swallowing two mouthfuls of water, Lingxin’s eyelashes drooped.

Ou Yanan wrapped his arms around his small body and gave him a little hug.

In the kitchen, Gu Nuan busied herself, thinking that Zhang Sanfeng and Zhan Dapeng surely hadn’t eaten either, so she needed to cook more dishes.

Seeing that Ou Yanan remained tight-lipped, Zhang Sanfeng had Zhan Dapeng push her wheelchair over to Zhong Qiaohui’s room first.

By now, Zhong Qiaohui had slowly come to. When she saw Zhang Sanfeng sitting by her bed, her mouth opened: "Why are you still here?"

"Do you know where this is?" Zhang Sanfeng said.

"Where?"

"My sister-in-law’s place. Dr. Ou just did an endoscopy on you."

Hearing this, Zhong Qiaohui seemed to jolt. Her eyes flew open, and then she saw the IV hanging from her arm. "I—"

"Don’t ever pull a stupid stunt like that again. You really think swallowing that thing will end everything once and for all? If you get yourself killed, it’ll only break your grandpa’s and your mom’s hearts. What, you think the thing will just vanish because you swallowed it?" Zhang Sanfeng couldn’t hold back and started scolding her.

Seeing his face nagging on and on like her mother’s, Zhong Qiaohui spat out, "You worried about me?"

"Yes. Why wouldn’t I worry about you?"

"Pointless." Zhong Qiaohui said. "There’s long since been nothing between you and me."

"You couldn’t be more wrong." Zhang Sanfeng’s face darkened slightly. "The truth is, it’s not a problem between you and him. It’s a problem between him and me. As long as he and I sort out our business, none of this will have anything to do with you."

Zhong Qiaohui’s eyes went wide as she stared at him in disbelief: What did he mean, it had nothing to do with her at all?

Right then she wanted nothing more than to kick him over with her foot!

"Focus on getting better. I’ll be the one keeping this thing." Zhang Sanfeng issued the order.

"What did you just say!" Zhong Qiaohui stared at him even harder. "It’s mine. Why should you be the one to keep it!"

"That’s something he gave you. Which means that originally it belonged to the Zhang Family, which makes it mine. Your surname isn’t Zhang, it’s Zhong."

To Zhong Qiaohui, these words were far colder, cut far deeper, than anything any member of the Zhang Family had ever said to her.

Zhang Sanfeng sighed. "You’ve always been a strong, independent woman. Why throw yourself away just because of which man you married, why kill yourself for him? If it were someone I loved, I would never use love to tie them up the way he did. That kind of love drains the life out of a person. There’s no difference between that and death."

The room fell silent. Only their two pairs of eyes stayed locked on each other.

Zang Xiaolian finished washing the thing, put it in a box, and carefully carried it over to Zhang Sanfeng. "Third Brother, you’re the one keeping this, right?"

Clearly Zang Xiaolian had heard everything they’d said just now.

Zhang Sanfeng reached out to take the box, and Zhong Qiaohui rasped out, "You can’t give it to him—"

Zang Xiaolian said to her, "If I give it to you, what can you do with it? You couldn’t do anything with it, that’s why you swallowed it, isn’t it? Forget it, let Third Brother have it."

Zhong Qiaohui opened and closed her mouth, but for the moment she was speechless.

A strong gust of wind whipped past the doorway.

They heard a car. Zhan Dapeng and Zang Xiaolian both ran out to look.

In the kitchen, Gu Nuan stood as if she hadn’t noticed a thing.

Lingxin lifted his head and hesitated a moment over whether to get out of bed. Ou Yanan pressed down lightly on his small shoulder and said, "Let’s wait and see first."

Zang Xiaolian pulled open the door and saw Xiao Yebai and Wei Changqing walking back. "Second Brother, Sixth Brother," she called.

Zhan Dapeng’s brow furrowed. Seeing the expressions on the two who’d just come back only confirmed the bad guesses they’d had earlier.

Lingxin jumped off the bed, and Ou Yanan held his hand and led him to the doorway. From there, he saw his father coming in through the door.

His father was covered in dust, his face grimed with dirt.

His father and uncle stood there wordlessly at the door, and Lingxin’s small heart clenched tight. If it weren’t for his uncle holding his hand, he would’ve lost control and burst into tears.

Dad was back. Little brother wasn’t. Even he could tell something was wrong.

Ou Yanan twisted his small body and lifted him into his arms. At the same time, his gaze, full of worry, went to Gu Nuan in the kitchen, who seemed as if she hadn’t realized anything.

Standing in the entrance, Xiao Yebai took in his older son in one glance, and in the same glance saw his wife in the kitchen.

The way his son and his wife were waiting for him made him feel like he could hardly breathe. But he was the man of this house, so he had to go in and face it all.

"Nuannuan."

Hearing her husband’s voice, Gu Nuan drew a breath, turned back to him, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly. "You’re back."

Seeing that calm expression on her face, Xiao Yebai felt as if his internal organs were being gripped tight. He strode over in a few large steps, wrapped both arms around her, and said, "It’s okay."

"I know." Gu Nuan said. "The worst didn’t happen, I know. He’s just going through the same thing you did when you were little, that’s all."

Hearing how steady she sounded, everyone knew that in her heart she’d already reached the answer—earlier than any of them.

Things had returned to the original starting point. The son had stepped back into the fate the father had once lived through. Or maybe it was that because things hadn’t been settled decades ago, now there had to be a real ending.

Whether it was Xiao Yebai or the other brothers in the room, their expressions were equally grave: It was time!