No reconciliation, no forgiveness! Mr. Pei leaves with nothing.

Chapter 293 "I regret it..."

When Jiang Hua first came to the Lan family's old house as a child, it was so lively and bustling. There was a swing outside the gate of the courtyard, and the walls were covered with bright red roses. Every spring, all the flowers would bloom in full glory. They were the ones her mother had raised from a baby. The flowers climbed over the wall and were so beautiful that it was hard to look away.

In winter, only the old tree roots clinging to the ground remain, and on snowy days, there is still a persimmon tree in the yard.

But now everything is gone. All Jiang Hua sees now is desolation. The Jiang family is dwindling in number, and Jiang Hua and her father don't know how many more years they can live, especially if she herself is no longer in this world.

So the Jiang family... is completely gone!

Jiang Hua used to only care about eating, drinking, and having fun, and only cared about the present moment. She thought that being happy was all that mattered. But now... Jiang Hua is thinking more about the future of the Jiang family.

If even I am gone, and those around me follow, will this place be nothing but ruins ten or a hundred years from now?

Uncle Lan said, "The master has been living here alone all these years and doesn't need many servants. He usually cooks his own meals. I just help him clean the house and take care of the flowers and plants in the yard. Not long ago, the people from the Supervisory Commission seized a lot of things, and the old lady also returned to the Wang family. Now, all the master has left is this house."

The old woman from the Wang family was Jiang Huai's second wife. She passed away when Jiang Hua was a few years old after divorcing his first wife, who was also Jiang Hua's first maternal grandmother. At that time, her father took her to her grandmother's wedding. Her grandmother's maternal family was once a prestigious family in the capital city, and all the members were well-educated ladies from scholarly families. However, later... the Jiang family declined...

Jiang Hua became the last descendant of the Jiang family.

Jiang Jia, who had never thought about having children before, suddenly wanted those three children for some reason. A dull pain shot through her chest. If she had kept the first child, would the child be walking by now?

After she dies, the lineage will not end with her; the Jiang family will have successors, passing it down from generation to generation.

Thinking about this, Jiang Hua felt that she was a real jerk in the past.

She used to think that as long as Pei Zhan could take over the Jiang family, the Jiang family would continue to exist. But she was wrong. These things could never represent the Jiang family. The only ones who could represent the future of the Jiang family were her offspring who shared the same blood as her—her children…

But... she was destined to have no connection with her own child in this life, and she could not have children, all because of that car accident, which ruined everything for her.

Pei Zhan sensed the worry and repression emanating from Jiang Hua, a faint sadness in her eyes. She was in pain, something he couldn't bear for her. Pei Zhan had long anticipated what Jiang Hua was going through and facing; it was something she needed to grow up and take responsibility for.

No one can help her.

Jiang Hua went up to the attic. The door to the attic seemed to have not been opened for a long time. The lock was covered with layers of dust and rust. When she opened it, she felt that the lock was extremely heavy.

Turning on the wall light illuminated everything, and Jiang Hua was shocked to see what was piled up there. A huge family photo hung on the wall, showing Jiang Huai when she was young, and her grandmother Luo Yuzhu when she was young. Jiang Qingcheng, wearing a blue cheongsam embroidered with clivia flowers, with her hair in braids, stood in front of the two, holding an ancient book full of jewelry and jade ornaments. At this time, her mother looked only thirteen years old, but she already had a graceful and stunningly beautiful appearance, exactly like Jiang Hua when she was young...

Jiang Huai was also a handsome man at the time, with striking features, deep-set eyes, and a penetrating gaze. She and her mother both inherited their grandmother's looks, with their eyes being almost identical. At this time, her grandmother, who was only in her twenties, had a gentle, scholarly, and elegant demeanor, just like Jiang Hua's childhood impression of her. Her grandparents were a perfect match, a handsome couple, but it's unclear why they separated later.

The boxes here must contain things that my grandmother and mother left at the Jiang family home, including clothes they used to wear and blankets. It seems that even after my mother and I left the Jiang family home, these things were never thrown away and have remained here intact.

Jiang Hua's peripheral vision fell on a rather inconspicuous corner, where a row of glass cabinets held several framed photos. These were snapshots of Jiang Hua at the Jiang family's old house, catching dogs, wrestling, and sleeping on the grass, taken at some unknown time.

One of the photos shows Jiang Huai sitting in a grand chair, wearing a black robe and a chain around her neck, holding a baby girl with a serious expression. The child looks like a younger version of herself... When she looked up at the cabinet above, she found that it was full of birthday gifts prepared by her grandfather, with dates marked on them. For her first birthday, there was a set of festive red clothes, a set of gold jewelry, and a longevity lock.

At two years old, she also had a set of clothes, a top-quality jade pendant, and an unassuming rattle drum…

At three years old, Jiang Hua wore a pair of tiger-head shoes embroidered with gold thread and a hat. By then, she was already running all over the place.

Then came her twenty-first birthday presents, and even her twenty-second birthday presents, which were already prepared and placed in this cabinet.

On her eighteenth birthday, looking at the familiar gift box, Jiang Hua lowered her head and tears suddenly fell. Her eighteenth birthday was the only birthday she ever celebrated. At that time, she was still living a life of extravagance and lavish spending. Suddenly, she received a gift from who-knows-where, supposedly for her. When Jiang Hua opened the box and saw what was inside, she immediately told the waiter to throw it away.

She didn't know... it was from him.

Jiang Hua always thought that her maternal grandfather disliked her because her birth seemed to have brought misfortune to the Jiang family. Every year on her birthday, it was the anniversary of her mother's death.

My maternal grandfather never accepted my father back then and always tried to prevent him from being with my mother. Later... it wasn't until my mother became pregnant with him that he finally accepted my father.

So... when her father disliked Ji Liangchuan and wanted to send him abroad, Jiang Hua never dared to resist, because she knew that everything about her family was more important than her own personal feelings, and she didn't want to follow in her parents' footsteps.

She believed that her existence was hated by her father and her grandfather...

The Wang family gave my mother a choice: if she removed her own child and accepted the arranged marriage, she could live. But... my mother didn't. She lost her life protecting her.

If her mother hadn't given birth to her but instead chose to keep her, her mother could have survived that day.

From childhood to adulthood, Jiang Hua felt that she shouldn't have been born.

Without her, none of this would have happened.

So she blamed her mother's death entirely on her maternal grandfather. If he hadn't insisted on separating her parents, her mother might not have died. This was what Jiang Hua used to think. But later, Jiang Hua realized that her maternal grandfather wanted her mother to marry into the Huo family so that her mother would have someone to rely on in the future and wouldn't be targeted by the Wang family.

But these were facts that Jiang Hua refused to believe; in reality, she had no right to hate anyone…

The person she should hate is actually herself…

She wished... that she was the one her mother had chosen to give up on back then.

If...the one who died was her.

Hearing Jiang Hua's sobbing coming from the room in the attic, Pei Zhan pushed open the door without thinking. He saw Jiang Hua slumped on the ground, helpless, her hands covering her face, even her cries were so cautious, and her body was trembling slightly.

He stepped forward, knelt down, and embraced her. In truth, the blame for his mother's death lay entirely with the Wang family. His grandfather hadn't done anything wrong; he had wanted his mother to marry into a powerful family.

Father, for the sake of Mother Jiang, you made Ji Liangchuan leave and forced her to marry Pei Zhan. Father wasn't wrong...

Everyone has something they want to protect, but Jiang Hua wasn't as brave as her mother, who was able to choose to be with her father without hesitation.

If she had hardened her heart and been with Ji Liangchuan back then, the Jiang family, including the Jiang Corporation, would have been swallowed up by the Wang family, and she and her father would have become puppets of the Wang family, just like her mother ended up.

The Wang family wielded immense power, so much so that even the Shen family had to avoid them. If the Wang family wanted to do anything to her and her father, they would have no chance to retaliate.

She didn't dare to gamble, and she didn't have her mother's courage to be with her father regardless of everything, even risking her life.

Although she didn't love Pei Zhan the way she loved Ji Liangchuan, at least... Jiang Hua preserved the Jiang family, causing this large, corrupt family in the capital city to collapse overnight.

Pei Zhan had already guessed Jiang Huai's purpose in bringing Jiang Hua to the Jiang family's old residence, but he hadn't expected it to cause such a significant emotional upheaval in her today. There was nothing he could do but comfort her, saying, "It's alright..."

Jiang Hua's heart felt like it was being pricked by needles, a pain far more painful than the feeling of being deceived and betrayed. These were things Jiang Hua had missed in her past life. She thought that... no one but Pei Zhan was someone she could rely on, but that wasn't true. There were so many people around her who cared about her so much.

Jiang Hua was indeed at her most distressed and pathetic moment. She tried to control her emotions in front of Pei Zhan, not wanting him to see her in this terrible state, but in the end, she still couldn't control herself.

At this moment, anyone but him would have been fine, but... Jiang Hua couldn't suppress herself.

Jiang Hua cried silently, her tears soaking a large patch of his chest. Whether in her past life or now, in front of Pei Zhan, Jiang Hua was always arrogant and aloof, and she had never cried so miserably before.

“Grandpa will be alright. Everything we missed can still be made up for. After you go back to the hospital, if you want to move here, I'll stay with you.”

“Everything was your mother’s own choice. She had already considered the consequences of every choice she made, including the Shen family… Compared to the Jiang family, the person she cared about more was actually you.”

"Her choice was not wrong, and neither were yours..."

However, she placed too many shackles on herself, carrying the entire future of the Jiang family on her own shoulders.

Jiang Hua's muffled and sorrowful voice came through, "If she had given up on me back then, she wouldn't have died, Dad wouldn't have suffered from heart disease because he couldn't bear Mom's death, and the Jiang family wouldn't have gradually declined."

"If I die, the Jiang family will truly cease to exist..."

Everything seemed to have been predetermined. If Jiang Qingcheng had chosen to give up on Jiang Hua back then, Huo Tingshan and Xia He wouldn't have ended up together, and neither would he and Jiang Hua have met in Wuchuan. Ji Liangchuan wouldn't have interfered so cruelly, causing them to be separated for so many years by unforeseen circumstances...

"No, Huahua is so shrewd. Didn't I sign a thirty-year indenture? As long as I'm alive, the Jiang family... will always be here."

“If you are really gone, there is still the Shen family… I will personally teach Shen Yebai’s children how to manage the Jiang family. In the future, we can also adopt a child ourselves, who will take your surname, so that the Jiang family will always exist.”

“Huahua… not all dead ends are dead ends. Even if there is no road ahead, we… can walk out step by step.”

In this life, things have probably really changed. These are the kinds of things Pei Zhan would never have said to her in his previous life.

"I regret it..."

"I regret not keeping my first child."

Jiang Hua didn't see the hint of hidden pain flash in Pei Zhan's eyes as he uttered that word of regret. He, too, had never been without regret...

Little did he expect that the consequences of Pei Zhan's actions would one day fall upon him.

Jiang Hua fainted from crying. Pei Zhan found her a room to sleep in and found it spotless. Many of the pieces of furniture were new, and even the dressing table was made of high-quality pear wood and handcrafted by him, including the wooden comb on the table…

At this moment, Uncle Lan came in from outside, glanced at Jiang Hua on the bed, and said softly so as not to disturb her, "All the wardrobes in this room, including this chair and this comb, were made by the master himself for the young lady many years ago. They were all made of the best wood, and he went to many villages to find these woods."

"Even this quilt is made of silk, and every single silk thread was made by the master from the very beginning of raising silkworms."

"Many of the craftsmanship techniques have been lost outside. What Miss sees today is only a small part. When Master learned that Miss was marrying you, he prepared a lot of dowry, as well as brocade and satin fabrics, all for Miss to make her wedding dress. Master wanted to give these to Miss personally after she was willing to return to the Jiang family's old house."

"Whether it's a birthday gift or an annual first birthday gift, nothing that should be given to the young lady has been missed."

"If you care about the association's affairs, pay more attention to the people around Mr. [Sir]. I always feel that whether it was Miss Qingcheng back then or the eldest daughter, this person was involved in all of them."

"Wang Jingyi?"

"Yes."