When Will My Childhood Sweetheart Marry Me?-Chapter 241: Lin Zhen’s Suicide

She struggled desperately to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt as if they were burdened with an immense weight, her whole body spun, unable to break free from the invisible shackles.

Pei Yan had been calling her the entire time.

His voice shifted from its initial anxiety to a gentleness, with familiar touches coming from his fingertips against her cheeks.

Jiang Shuyao’s heart gradually calmed down.

The panic that had engulfed her before fainting slowly dissipated with his breath, and she knew she should be safe now.

"Yaoyao."

Jiang Shuyao made a strenuous effort to open her eyes, her blurred vision revealing Pei Yan’s face, full of fatigue and concern.

"I..." After uttering a single word, she could no longer make a sound.

Pei Yan grasped her hand anxiously, "Yaoyao, are you feeling unwell anywhere?"

Not wanting to worry him, Jiang Shuyao slightly shook her head.

It wasn’t discomfort.

It was just a complete lack of strength, so tired, so very tired.

Pei Yan picked up a cup of water with a straw beside the bed and let her lean against his chest. "Can you drink by yourself?"

She could.

If she couldn’t, would he consider using his mouth?

Jiang Shuyao couldn’t muster the energy to speak, but her inner world was still fairly active.

She had so many questions, but any attempt to recall certain fragments caused her mind to ache as though it was about to explode.

"Don’t think too much, just get a good sleep. I will investigate that matter thoroughly."

She was back in the soft bed, and Pei Yan whispered something in her ear. She didn’t catch it clearly, and not being able to hold on for long, she fell into a deep sleep once more.

When she awoke again, darkness surrounded her.

Relying on the weak moonlight filtering through the curtains, Jiang Shuyao moved her eyes slowly, recognizing she was at home.

Instinctively, she reached for the phone under her pillow, but found nothing.

Jiang Shuyao frowned, lifted the blankets, and slowly got out of bed. Her feet felt weak on the floor, and her head was heavy, as if she had a severe cold.

Opening the bedroom door, the lights in the living room were still on, and the sound of water running faintly reached her from the kitchen.

She stood dazedly at the bedroom entrance, looking around at the familiar surroundings, feeling as though last night had been nothing but a nightmare.

But the intense sensation of being smothered and the smell of the drug were still vivid in her memory.

It wasn’t a dream.

It definitely wasn’t a dream.

Lost in thought, the kitchen door opened from the inside, and Jiang Tingsong saw his daughter awake and hurriedly asked her to come and eat.

Old Jiang warmed food for her while chattering. "You, you should know your limits when you’re happy drinking. Are you feeling ill? Have some porridge first to warm your stomach."

Watching her father’s reaction, it seemed he knew nothing.

Jiang Shuyao sat at the dining table, sipping her porridge in small mouthfuls, and asked softly, "Dad, was it Pei Yan who brought me home last night?"

"Yes." Jiang Tingsong paused, "Not last night, this morning. Your mother was about to go to the hospital, saw you unconscious from drinking, and told me to stay and take care of you."

She didn’t reply.

Pei Yan hadn’t told Old Jiang about last night’s events, and naturally, she wasn’t planning to either.

Pei Yan must have confirmed she was okay during that brief moment of waking before taking her home.

But what exactly had happened last night? 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Where was Pei Yan now?

Jiang Shuyao said to her father, "Dad, let me use your phone to call Pei Yan."

"Not now," he replied, "you better not call him just yet."

"What’s wrong?"

Jiang Shuyao raised her head to look at her father, only to discover that Old Jiang’s face had become unexpectedly grave.

Panic surged once again in her heart.

Jiang Tingsong fell silent for a while before he spoke with difficulty, "Your godmother has passed away."

"... Dad, what did you say?"

The air fell dead silent.

Jiang Shuyao couldn’t believe her ears as her mind buzzed.

The news of Lin Zhen’s suicide had come at three o’clock in the afternoon. The hotel had contacted both Zhu Yun and Pei Yan at the same time because that was the last call record of Lin Zhen before her death.

Lin Zhen had taken a large amount of sleeping pills. By the time the hotel staff discovered her, it was the afternoon of the following day. In an urgent situation, the hotel immediately called 120 and sent her to the nearest hospital for rescue, but it was too late. The rescue was ineffective, and she passed away.

This was undoubtedly a devastating blow to everyone.

No one knew when Lin Zhen had arrived in Rong City, let alone why she chose to end her own life.

A person who was fine, who had video-called Zhu Yun half a month ago, whose health was gradually recovering after surgery, with Pei Yan slowly beginning to accept her, everything was getting better—why did she choose to take such an extreme step?

By the end, Jiang Shuyao could no longer hear what her father was saying.

Her feelings at that moment went far beyond mere grief.

She felt chilled to the bone, with the fingers holding her chopsticks growing so cold they lost all feeling.

Just last night, before she was drugged, Pei Yan had gone to see his godmother.

Yet the next day, after seeing her son for the last time, the mother stepped onto the path of death in despair.

If Pei Yan had known this would be the outcome, he...

Jiang Shuyao didn’t dare to think, didn’t dare to imagine Pei Yan’s state at this very moment.

Right now, she had only one thought—to find him and stay by his side.

Jiang Tingsong couldn’t reason with his daughter. After having only a small portion of her porridge, father and daughter hurriedly drove to the funeral home.

The October night carried a slight chill with its breeze.

A funeral home, probably the last place anyone would ever want to set foot in.

Having finished the procedures for holding the body, Zhu Yun and Pei Donghan were discussing Lin Zhen’s affairs.

Before committing suicide at the hotel, Lin Zhen had left a suicide note with only a few brief lines, instructing Pei Donghan not to hold a funeral for her, and additionally... to take good care of Pei Yan.

Even at the end of her life, her son was still the one she was most concerned about.

Pei Donghan stood at that door, lingering for a long time. The authoritative and decisive Zhizhen Corporation Chairman seemed to have aged ten years overnight after this ordeal.

Past affections, whether hatred or love, would eventually vanish like smoke and clouds this autumn, along with Lin Zhen’s departure.

To love without acquisition is, after all, the usual state for most people in this world.

Watching the slowly closing gates, the forty-eight-year-old man couldn’t help but shed two lines of tears.

When father and daughter arrived at the funeral home, Zhu Yun said they would honor Lin Zhen’s last wish not to hold a funeral, and also confirmed the cremation time for the body, which was supposed to be tomorrow morning.

Seeing everything before her, Jiang Shuyao finally accepted the reality of her godmother’s departure.

What she hadn’t expected, however, was that Pei Yan wasn’t there.

Both Uncle Pei and her mother didn’t know his whereabouts, and even his phone was unreachable.

Jiang Shuyao was anxious as she lost control on the spot.

The couple had never seen their daughter like this before. Concerned that something might happen to her, Zhu Yun quickly had Old Jiang take her back.

But Jiang Shuyao refused, crying and urging her father to drive around aimlessly, searching over and over in places where she thought Pei Yan might be, alas returning empty-handed in the end.

At three in the morning, having slept the entire day and barely eaten, Jiang Shuyao finally fainted from sheer exhaustion.

At that moment, the whole world fell silent.

Only Old Jiang’s anxious and worried gaze lingered briefly in her mind before she completely succumbed to darkness.