Chapter 257: You’re Very Selfish Too
“Look!” Qiao Jiuyin tightly pursed her lips, her tone self-deprecating.
She tightly grabbed her hospital gown’s pants with her hands and said to Qiao Sen, “Even you were frightened by me. Then I must look very scary now.”
Qiao Sen went against his conscience and said, “No, it’s not scary…”
Qiao Jiuyin softly snorted. She did not believe him.
Qiao Jiuyin did not ask what Qiao Sen was doing here. The police would take her away the next day. Other than saying goodbye and catching up, Qiao Sen would not come here at this time.
Sure enough, Qiao Sen said, “Ah Yin, you’re going… in… tomorrow. Do you have any wishes?”
When Qiao Jiuyin heard this, she finally reacted.
Wishes?
She did have.
“I want to… hug the child.” She had not hugged that child since he was born. When she had to leave Binjiang City, Fang Shan was still in the Intensive Pediatrics Department. Later on, she had requested to visit Fang Shan, but Fang Mu had rejected her.
She was a mother, but she had never hugged her child before. Qiao Jiuyin felt regretful.
Qiao Sen nodded and said to her, “I’ll call Fang Mu and tell him. As for the outcome…”
“Just call him and inform him of my request.” Afraid that Fang Mu would reject her again, Qiao Jiuyin added, “Just say that I want to see the child before I go in.” If that person still had a little conscience, he would probably bring the child to see her.
Qiao Sen agreed.
“Do you have any other wishes?”
Qiao Jiuyin thought about it and said, “About Grandfather…”
“Grandpa doesn’t know about you guys, and I won’t tell him.” How would Qiao Sen dare to tell Qiao Yunfan about this? He was afraid that the Old Master would die the next second after hearing about it.
Qiao Jiuyin heaved a sigh of relief.
“It’s good that you wouldn’t tell him.” Qiao Jiuyin felt terrible at the thought that she might not be able to see her grandfather for the last time if she went in.
She lowered her head. There were many things in her heart, including regret and sadness.
At this moment, she could not help but ask herself, How did I get to where I am today?
“Ah Yin, w-why did you do that to Xiao Sheng?” Qiao Sen still could not understand why his two sisters would want to kill each other.
Just for a man?
Then he was really charismatic. Qiao Sen could not help but look at Fang Mu in a different light.
Qiao Jiuyin was silent for a long time. Perhaps, she understood that she had reached the end of the road. She suddenly had the desire to vent all the grievances she had suffered over the years.
Even though she could not see anything, Qiao Jiuyin still raised her head and said self-deprecatingly in Qiao Sen’s direction, “Why? Because I’ve been giving in to her since I was young! Fang Mu is the only person I can’t give up!
“I love him more than Xiao Sheng!
“Big Brother, ever since we were young, you’ve always made me give in to Xiao Sheng. Have you thought about how I felt all these years?” Qiao Jiuyin pointed at her chest and roared. “I’m human too. I have feelings too. I get sad too. Ever since then, all of you wanted me to give Xiao Sheng what she wanted first. When Xiao Sheng was unhappy, you made me cancel my birthday banquet with just one sentence. Xiao Sheng, Xiao Sheng, no matter when, whenever it involved Xiao Sheng, you always thought of her first!
“What about me?”
Qiao Jiuyin wanted to cry, but she could not. “Am I not your sister? Why are you so good to Xiao Sheng and so perfunctory to me even though we are both your sisters?” After Qiao Jiusheng roared, Qiao Sen saw tears squeezing out of her sunken eyes.
He stared blankly. He did not expect Qiao Jiuyin to have such a deep prejudice against him.
His lips moved. After a long while, he asked in a hoa.r.s.e voice, “Do you blame me?”
Qiao Jiuyin’s throat choked. She wiped her tears but did not deny it.
Yes, she blamed him.
All these years, she had been pretending to be obedient, sensible, and considerate. However, only she knew how much she blamed Qiao Sen and her parents.
Hearing this, Qiao Sen became dispirited.
He sat down on the stool and took out a lighter to keep stoking the flame. He looked at the flame and felt exhausted. “Ah Yin.” His voice was very low. Qiao Jiuyin heard him, but she did not say anything. Qiao Sen took a deep breath and suddenly said, “It’s not what you think.”
Qiao Jiuyin did not believe him at all and thought that Qiao Sen was finding an excuse for his favoritism.
She was indifferent, her face filled with sarcasm.
The flames danced in Qiao Sen’s eyes, flickering and making him look a little lonely. He suddenly asked Qiao Jiuyin, “Do you still remember the two years when both of you were 13 and 15 years old?”
Qiao Jiuyin was stunned for a moment, then hummed in agreement.
“Then do you remember that Xiao Sheng was always easily agitated at that time? She often screamed and cried in the middle of the night.”
Qiao Jiuyin thought for a while, then nodded and said, “I remember.”
“Do you know why she did that?”
Qiao Jiuyin was speechless.
She thought about it and softly asked, “Didn’t the doctor say that she was too stressed and mentally unstable? That she would be fine after more rest?”
“She was so carefree and easygoing. What pressure could she feel?”
“That is…?” Could there be something else?
Qiao Sen looked up and stared at the silent Qiao Jiuyin. He finally revealed the secret that he had hidden for ten years. “Our parents didn’t die on the plane.”
Qiao Jiuyin did not understand what Qiao Sen meant for a while.
What does he mean by ‘our parents did not die on the plane?’
She clearly remembered that the news agencies had reported the deaths of her mother and father. How could it be fake?
“Then they—”
Before Qiao Jiuyin could finish her sentence, Qiao Sen finally revealed the truth that he had hidden from her all those years ago. “That time, you had attended the piano compet.i.tion. I had just graduated and was busy with work. Our parents brought only Xiao Sheng to Meng Hai. In the end, they happened to encounter a domestic coup in that country. To show their might, the leader of the rebel army kidnapped our parents and…
“Father was killed by a rebel with a gun, and mother’s head was… cut off…”
Even though many years had pa.s.sed since that incident, Qiao Sen still remembered the shock and sorrow he had felt on seeing his mother’s sutured body. His beautiful mother had died so tragically.
Qiao Jiuyin’s expression drastically changed.
“W-What did you say?” Her lips moved slightly as if she were shocked but also afraid. “N-No way!” Qiao Jiuyin could not believe that the truth was so tragic. She tried to deny this fact. She said, “What happened to the news broadcasts? The news broadcasts will not broadcast fake news…”
“Because of Xiao Sheng.” Seeing Qiao Jiuyin’s confused expression, Qiao Sen explained, “When our parents were killed, Xiao Sheng had been watching from the side. She saw Father being killed and Mother’s head being cut off…” Qiao Sen covered his face with his hand, his eyes shockingly red.
“Xiao Sheng always woke up in the middle of the night during those two years. She would cry and shout without any warning. It was not because she was mentally unsound due to stress, but because she was stimulated by witnessing the truth of our parents’ deaths.”
Qiao Jiuyin was dumbfounded. She could not believe that this was the truth.
No wonder!
No wonder Elder Brother, who was originally like me and was dissatisfied with our parents’ love for Xiao Sheng, became different after Xiao Sheng returned from Meng Hai.
It turns out that there was such a truth behind his indulgence and love for Xiao Sheng.
Qiao Jiuyin was stunned for a long time. When she regained her senses, she asked him slowly, “Why didn’t you tell me back then?”
Qiao Sen asked, “Could it be that in your heart, I only treat Xiao Sheng as a sister and don’t have you in my heart?”
Qiao Jiuyin was stunned.
Qiao Sen looked very tired. He said, “Xiao Sheng is my sister, and you are too. I couldn’t bear to tell you the truth. I hoped that you could grow up healthy. But you…
“Ah Yin, you only saw your sorrow and injustice, but you didn’t notice the pain and suffering that Xiao Sheng had suffered for those two years. You didn’t notice that I’ve been taking care of you all as a father and mother all these years. You also didn’t notice your grandfather, who had been unable to recover from the sudden sea incident, was weakening day by day.”
Staring at Qiao Jiuyin’s face, which was stained with deep sorrow because she had suddenly learned the truth, Qiao Sen said in a cold and disappointed tone, “At the end of the day, you’re also very selfish.” With that, Qiao Sen left.
After Qiao Sen left, the already stuffy air seemed to have something more invisible but suffocating.
Qiao Jiuyin was still sitting on the bed like a wooden person.
She did not know what she was thinking about, but she suddenly smiled bitterly and muttered to herself, “Why do you want me to know this… Why?” Couldn’t you just let me remain ignorant of the truth?
Before, she would convince herself that she was not wrong.
But now, her heart actually hurt a little…
The next morning,
Qiao Jiuyin had just taken off her hospital gown when the police came and took her away. When she arrived at the police station, she remained silent in the face of the police’s interrogation. She did not defend herself nor admit to her crimes.
She looked lifeless. No one knew what she was thinking.
Seeing that she did not cooperate or resist, the police officers frowned.
“Qiao Jiuyin, we have a recording of your conversation with one of the victims, Miss Qiao Jiusheng.” The police played the recording of the conversation, and Qiao Jiuyin finally reacted. She raised her head, closed her eyes, and listened to the recording. In the recording, she had asked and answered Qiao Jiusheng.
The recording was completely real and not fabricated. However, it deleted the words that mentioned Fang Mu.
Qiao Jiuyin frowned.
The policeman sternly asked, “The evidence is conclusive. Are you still not admitting it?”
Qiao Jiuyin was hesitating.
Should I expose Fang Mu’s crimes?
Fang Mu was also one of the planners of this kidnapping.
Qiao Jiuyin thought of something, but she still did not expose Fang Mu. She nodded and said, “I confess.”
That afternoon, Qiao Jiuyin was transferred to the detention center. The next day, she was brought into court and punished by the law under the gaze of many reporters and lawyers as well as all the other listeners.
Qiao Jiuyin had committed many felonies and had a terrible nature. She was a high-risk criminal. The judge sentenced her to life imprisonment and deprived her of her political rights for the rest of her life. Qiao Jiuyin would be sent to the third women’s prison by the prison guards of China’s third women’s prison that afternoon.
The third women’s prison was used to imprison criminals who were highly harmful to society. The people inside it were mostly evil.
The moment Qiao Jiuyin walked out of the court, she felt the heat wave coming from the pavement.
The sun roasted her face. She could not see the sun, but she could hear someone’s insults—
“b.i.t.c.h! Return my daughter’s body!”
“You’re really a beast. My daughter didn’t even die in peace. You’re really vicious!” The person who said this was the family of the deceased whose corpse Qiao Jiuyin had stolen.
In the crowd, a mother roared at Qiao Jiuyin, “You’re a mother in vain. You can even murder your own child. You’re really the sc.u.m of humanity!” Qiao Jiuyin thought of the child she had chosen to abandon, and her throat felt like a thorn was stuck in it. It was so painful that she panicked and even found breathing difficult.
In the park opposite the court sat an old woman with a small baby in her arms. The baby wasn’t six months old yet, but he was very handsome. He was dressed in a light blue one-piece outfit. There was a mini gold lock that symbolized longevity around his neck.
As the old lady fed the child, she said, “Longevity, you have to grow up healthy and live to a ripe old age…” The baby called Longevity moved his small hands and bit the pacifier with his small mouth, constantly swallowing.
When Qiao Jiuyin was brought into the car, she vaguely heard a baby crying.
She was stunned, and excitement suddenly appeared on her defeated face.
“Shan Shan?”
She began to desperately struggle, trying to break free of the prison guard’s hand. She wanted to run in the direction of the baby’s cry, wanting to hug the crying child.
Fang Mu hugged Fang Shan and watched this scene from afar with a calm expression.
The baby in his arms kept crying, almost pa.s.sing out from crying.
Qiao Jiuyin was escorted into the car by the prison guards. She did not even have the chance to touch her baby.
“Shan Shan! I’m sorry! Mom is sorry!” Qiao Jiuyin cried as she was stuffed into the car. When the car drove away, she used her hand to hit the car door. There was darkness in front of her, and her heart was filled with despair. The baby’s cries became farther and farther away, and she gradually could not hear them.
Seeing Qiao Jiuyin banging on the car door and walking away, Fang Mu frowned.
He covered his son’s ears, turned around, and coldly left.