1.2.40: Worth it?

Ten or so minutes after Xiao Yunhua left, Qiang Luo suddenly began to feel a tightness in his chest. His heart was thumping at a rapid speed, and he was beginning to feel abnormal fatigue. A wave of dizziness hit him and it seemed like his heart wanted to burst out at any moment, causing him to breath heavily.

He was feeling exactly as how he felt when he had his first heart attack. He could vaguely sense that there were people rushing in and out of the room, but his senses were beginning to get blurrier and blurrier until everything became numb.

The pain was so overwhelming that like a madman, he only desired relief and for it to cease.

As he closed his eyes, memories flashed before him. From the first time he had inherited the position of the Zhou family butler, to the moment that he had met her.

With her long, black hair, ruby red lips, and glittering black eyes, she was a beauty. Unfortunately, many had perceived her as an evil beauty, but only he knew that she was merely stuck in an endless cycle of unrequited love.

He saw as she stared at her best friend in envy and that envy drove her to make decisions that haunted her, even to this day.

He saw his younger self slowly falling in love with her, willing to do anything to make her feel happy. Yet just like she experienced the cruel reality of unrequited love, he did too. Just like that man was blind to her love, she was blind to his.

One day, she had met with him, to ask him to do a very cruel thing. She had told the younger him that her words were slowly beginning to turn that man, and that she would finally be able to gain his love.

She was sure that if he abandoned that woman, that man would surely fall in love with her even more.

So even though the younger him didn't want to taint his hands, he agreed for the sake of her happiness.

They staged an accident and she finally became that man's wife. Even though she knew that he didn't marry her out of love and only married her so she would be a mother to his young children, she still deluded herself.

Qiang Luo saw the scene shift to his most precious memory. That night, she had drank too much due to the guilt of destroying her best friend's happiness for hers and they ended up doing something unimaginable.

Up to this day, she didn't know that the child she was pregnant with was his. That she didn't know that she her precious Zhou Hua was the daughter of a dead mother in the hospital.

That she didn't know that Qiang Yue was indeed, her flesh and blood...

This secret, Qiang Luo had kept it with him for three decades. He had even broken the long tradition of having a Qiang son be the butler of the Zhou family, so that Qiang Yue nor her would figure anything out.

But just in case, Qiang Luo has hidden a letter for Qiang Yue to find out much later. If he didn't, then Qiang Luo didn't mind for his son to continue to think that his mother had passed away in an accident, but if he found it... then the contents of the letter, he hoped that his son would forgive him.

The memories shifted and darkness overwhelmed him. Qiang Luo saw a figure emerging.

When he saw who it was, he felt his heart shake in guilt or horror, he could not figure out.

A young Han Mi, wearing the same clothes as when she had her accident, walked in his direction.

Qiang Luo saw that her eyes were containing the same kind glint that she always had when she talked to him. Her aura was every bit of the aura of the matron of the Zhou family; her beauty unparalleled.

"M-Madam Zhou..."

Han Mi only shook her head, gently denying his words. Qiang Yue understood what she meant. He had helped to strip away that title from her, so how could he be so hypocritical?

Earlier, he had merely had false confidence in front of the young woman. He couldn't allow her to see how much her words weighed him down. His deepest insecurity, she has resurfaced it and he could do nothing about it.

Suddenly, the young Han Mi opened her mouth and softly asked, "Was it worth it?"

Indeed, was it worth it?

He had gained a son, the woman he had lived all these years had gained a position, yet the price was too much. They had contributed to the suffering of an innocent person...

The speechless Qiang Luo watched as the dignified Han Mi rapidly aged and then the old image he had seen at the hospital resulted.

The shame in his heart intensified when her old image was shown on a hospital bed, weak and dying. There had been no one, not even the young woman from earlier, to be with her at her death moments.

After he saw such memories, his surroundings darkened completely.

Qiang Luo bitterly chuckled. It seemed like it was his time to go. The young woman earlier had spoken of retribution, yet who knew that it would arrive sooner than expected?

And in the worst form—death.

With one finally breath, Qiang Luo lost conscienceless completely.

In the real world, the electrocardiogram waves of his heart ceased, and a long line replaced them...