Chapter 158: Chapter 151: A Lifetime Is Not Enough to Make Amends 3
"Oh, but what do you want to buy? Let Uncle take you there."
"No need."
With that, Su’s mother left the house.
Su Xiaomeng and Yin Shixiu looked at each other, speechless, so they had to fend for themselves and went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Su’s mother hailed a taxi to the hospital.
Last night, when Su Xiaomeng asked Bai Shunyuan for the specific room number, she was right there.
She hadn’t planned to see her father; she knew he wouldn’t want to see her, but she couldn’t help it. Even seeing him from a distance would be fine...
The closer she got to the target ward, the heavier Su’s mother’s steps became...
That feeling of her heart trembling, her hands and feet going weak, was both fearful and hopeful.
The door to the ward was closed, and standing outside, she could faintly hear the voices of conversation inside...
Elder brother, and... Tan Qianmei.
"Dad, try to eat a little more."
Bai Zhengxiang’s voice held some helplessness, with a touch of pleading.
"Didn’t I already eat earlier? How much more do you want me to eat?"
Upon hearing her father’s voice, Su’s mother hurriedly covered her mouth, tears streaming down her cheeks!
His voice carried an indescribable sense of age and weariness.
"If Dad doesn’t want to eat, then don’t force it."
Tan Qianmei took the bowl from her husband’s hand and set it aside.
Bai Zhengxiang furrowed his brow, sighed, "The doctor said you’d be better off eating more. You’ve been eating less and less lately; how can you get better this way?"
The elderly man looked out the window...
Tan Qianmei and Bai Zhengxiang exchanged a glance, then said to Bai Fengmao, "Dad, once you get better, come live with us and Zhengxiang?"
"No."
Bai Fengmao just softly uttered those two words.
"Dad, you living alone at Yijing Manor, we’re really not at ease. You’re getting old too. If it weren’t for Second Brother visiting you and noticing your discomfort, the consequences could have been..."
Yijing Manor...
Su’s mother knew that Yijing was her mother’s name, who passed away in a car accident two years after giving birth to her.
So her memory of her mother isn’t very clear; her father raised her single-handedly...
Yijing Manor might have been bought by her father after she ran away from home... Is it on Jiuling Mountain?
Did he always live alone?
"If you’re worried, you can move to the mountain and live with me."
Bai Fengmao said calmly.
Tan Qianmei was a bit troubled, "Father, our house is also very big, why do you insist on living on the mountain?"
"Getting old, one desires peace and quiet; it’s unbearable to have children chattering around. If you have filial piety, visit the mountain more often."
"Father, why are you being so stubborn?"
"Qianmei." Bai Fengmao seemed a bit tired; he looked seriously at his eldest daughter-in-law and said word by word, "Don’t have designs on Yijing Manor."
Tan Qianmei’s expression stiffened.
"You do business, I don’t object, but whether you profit or lose, it’s your own. Even if you want to credit the benefits to this old man, you’ll have to wait until I’m gone; the lawyer will carefully distribute everything according to the will."
"Dad, what are you saying! Qianmei doesn’t mean that, don’t be overly sensitive."
"It’s not sensitivity, it’s just that I need to make some things clear."
Bai Fengmao took a deep breath, "I’ve spent my life in politics, leaving little wealth for you. Today, I’m not saying this specifically to the two of you. If Second Brother and Third Brother were here, I’d say the same thing."
"I’ve set my will long ago. My assets will be divided equally among you three brothers, but Yijing Manor, I want to leave to Xian’er."
Outside the door, Bai Sixian’s eyes widened; she bit her lip hard, almost drawing blood...
"Dad, that’s not fair!"
Tan Qianmei couldn’t hold it in at that moment and immediately shouted, "For all these years, it’s us who have been taking care of you; why does Little Sister get the most in the end?"
"The manor is mine. Do I need your permission to decide who I leave it to?"
Bai Fengmao’s expression hardened, and Tan Qianmei recoiled slightly, but her expression was filled with defiance and resentment.
"Dad, Qianmei doesn’t mean that."
Bai Zhengxiang quickly explained, "It’s just that Little Sister has been out of touch with the family for so many years. Even if you want to leave it to her, she has to at least show up..."
"If she doesn’t come back! I won’t die!"
Bai Fengmao roared with a loud voice! He slapped the cabinet beside the hospital bed, with veins popping out across his white-haired forehead, his face flushing red.
Su’s mother stood outside the door, covering her mouth tightly, her heart feeling as if it were in a meat grinder...
"When she left back then, she never intended to come back. Dad, stop hoping she’ll return! Little Sister is just that heartless!"
Tan Qianmei shouted angrily!
Bai Fengmao’s eyes turned red with anger, his mouth trembling.
"Qianmei!"
Bai Zhengxiang scolded his wife harshly!
"What? Am I wrong? Dad always doted on her, indulged her in everything, and in the end, she tore the family apart over a little gardener! She left and never came back for twenty years, without a single word! This is her father! How can a person do such a thing?"
"Enough! Get out!"
Bai Fengmao pointed at the door.
Tan Qianmei frowned tightly, "You’re driving me, who has been diligently taking care of you, away for a daughter who will never come back? Dad, does that make sense?"
"If back then you and the second daughter-in-law hadn’t conspired to criticize Xian’er, if you hadn’t deliberately tarnished Xian’er’s reputation with that man... if I had just listened to Xian’er a bit more... I wouldn’t have driven her out..."
"Dad, are you blaming me? Your daughter did something outrageous, and in the end, you blame me?"
"I don’t blame you, how could I blame you... the one who told her not to come back, the one who said she was my disgrace — that was me... how could I blame you all..."
Bai Sixian, standing at the door, was already sobbing uncontrollably.
She... was wrong.
So wrong, unforgivably wrong...
Standing at the door, she slowly pushed it open...
The three people arguing inside turned to look at the door at the sound...
Tan Qianmei was stunned for a moment; with twenty years passing, she couldn’t immediately recognize Bai Sixian.
But Bai Zhengxiang recognized her, "Lit-little sister..."
Over there, Bai Fengmao watched Bai Sixian walk in, watched her step by step approach him, her sobbing incessant...
Just like many, many years ago, when she would stumble and cry after being wronged, walking towards him, hugging him.
She was his most precious little daughter...
"Sixian, Xian’er..."
He was really afraid he was dreaming, his voice trembling intensely as he spoke.
Bai Sixian nodded vigorously, "Dad..."
Bai Fengmao was dumbfounded, how could Sixian be here?
He couldn’t care about anything else, he only knew that he had waited for this moment.
This one word, Dad, he had waited so long for it...
"Ha ha..."
Bai Fengmao laughed twice, tears flowing from his clouded eyes. He opened his thin arms, "Come, come..."
Bai Sixian threw herself into his arms, unable to utter a single word, regret weighing heavily on her heart.
And then Bai Fengmao, laughing and crying, said, "It’s okay, it’s okay... you still look so young, Su Chengji has treated you well..."
"But Dad... Dad has grown so old... boohoo..."
The biggest mistake of Bai Sixian’s life was clashing with the father who loved her the most, her father...
How could she? How could she sulk with her father...
Time gone is irretrievable, and this mistake she couldn’t make up for, not in a lifetime.
"Dad has grown old... what shall I do?"
Bai Sixian lay in her father’s arms.
When she left, her father’s hair had only a few gray strands among the black, but returning, it was all white, not a single black strand to be seen.
When she left, her father’s chest was still muscular, but upon returning, it was loose and thin...
When she left, her father’s voice was still loud and magnetic, calling her name with robust energy. But upon returning, his voice had become hoarse, exerting great effort to speak loudly...
Bai Fengmao lightly tapped Su Ma’s head, "Old? Where am I old, huh? When a young girl came to see me today, she even said I looked young..."
"Pfft..."
When Bai Fengmao said this, Su Ma was amused, but simultaneously, the sourness and remorse in her heart intensified, tears flowing even harder.
"Lift up your face, let Dad have a good look."
Bai Sixian lifted her head, her beautiful and delicate face was covered with tears and snot. Bai Fengmao hurriedly took a tissue nearby and wiped her face...
"Oh my, look at you, right? At forty years old, you cry like a four-year-old..."
As her father spoke this way, Bai Sixian, through her teary vision, saw her father wasn’t doing much better with his crying.
She saw cloudy tears streaming down the lines carved by time on his face.
"Alright, alright, stop crying... it’s good to be back, it’s good to be back!"
Bai Sixian just wanted to nod when Bai Fengmao said, "Back then it was Dad’s fault, Dad was stubborn as an ox, letting my precious daughter be wronged..."
"No... no no!"
Bai Sixian desperately shook her head, "No..."
Bai Fengmao took the tissue to wipe his aged tears, "This time Xian’er is back, don’t hold grudges against Dad, okay?"
The more her father said this, the more Bai Sixian felt what she did twenty years ago was heinous...
"Please stop talking..."
Bai Sixian felt so uncomfortable that she couldn’t even make a sound.
"Okay, okay, I won’t say anymore, won’t say anymore."
Bai Fengmao reached out to pull Bai Sixian back into his arms, gently patting her back.
Next to them, Bai Zhengxiang took off his glasses and wiped away his own tears, "Dad, little sister, stop crying, Little Sister’s homecoming is a happy occasion!"
Bai Sixian lay in Bai Fengmao’s arms, eyes closed, utterly still, as if she were a seven or eight-year-old girl acting coy with her father...
Meanwhile, Tan Qianmei’s face had been stiff since Bai Sixian came in, while the father and daughter embraced and cried, her own heart was a mix of emotions.
For twenty years, she thought Bai Sixian would definitely never return.
Even if she did, it would probably be after the old man had passed away...