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

After Jiang Hua left, her bodyguard and assistant drove her home.

He didn't hear a single word of the maid's greeting and absentmindedly went upstairs.

In the bedroom, Jiang Hua stood in front of the full-length mirror. Her long, slightly wavy hair was smooth and shiny, draped over her shoulders. Seeing her reflection in the mirror, her eyes were dull and gray. A thought struck her, and she reached out and brushed her hair aside, as if she could see the scar that had once been on her snow-white shoulder.

Whether it was a car accident or an injury inflicted intentionally, it was all completely erased from her record.

The scar has now disappeared, and there is almost no trace of it.

She loves beauty and cannot tolerate even the slightest flaw on her body.

It's gone, but for so many years, Jiang Hua's injured hand has been unable to lift heavy objects.

Even when I pick up Ah Xun, I can't hold him for too long. If I do, I feel a tearing pain in my shoulder.

Even the most seemingly perfect exterior can have its scars.

Once something existed, it cannot be erased.

Including the heart that exists in her chest.

With each beat of its heart, it thought of the Zhou family and Zhou Xu, as if telling her that she had borrowed someone else's life and stolen her own.

She had never thought about these things because she dared not think about them, dared not... admit that the heart beating in her chest belonged to Zhou Xu.

She was afraid, and she tried to run away from it.

It seems she... can never escape the Zhou family.

As long as that heart is inside her, she can't escape being in their shadow.

It made her uneasy.

In the vast ancestral home, only Jiang Hua was there. The servants came to the bedroom several times, but seeing that she had her eyes closed as if she were asleep, they did not disturb her and left.

I waited until 3:30 p.m.

The maid brought afternoon tea upstairs and saw Jiang Hua still resting. The maid sensed something was wrong and remembered the expression on Madam's face when she returned. It seemed that she had something on her mind.

Just as she was about to use the landline on the tea table to dial that number…

At that moment, Pei Zhan had just come out of the conference room. Seeing the incoming call, the man put the phone to his ear and answered, "Speak."

The maid said, "Sir, you should come back. Madam seemed a little off after she came back from her trip at noon."

"He didn't say a word and just locked himself in his room."

Pei Zhan frowned slightly. "I understand."

Hang up the phone.

He spoke to Huo Ling, who was following behind him, and said, "You will be in charge of the matters that follow."

"Yes, has something happened to your sister-in-law?"

Pei Zhan: "Hmm, I'm worried, I'll go back and check."

"Call me if you have any questions."

Huo Ling nodded: "Go ahead, big brother."

Pei Zhan walked out of the company and went to the underground parking lot. Kagel, who was behind him, reported some news: "Today, Mr. Jiang suddenly suffered a heart attack and developed complications. When Madam went to Yulong Bay to take Mr. Jiang to the hospital, she happened to encounter Madam Zhou, who was having a heart attack. At the time, we didn't know what happened, but Madam Zhou rushed onto the main road and got into a car accident. Unfortunately, Madam happened to witness this scene."

"It seems that the reason for Madam's bad mood is related to Madam Zhou."

Pei Zhan's brows furrowed with icy coldness. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Kagel calmly analyzed, "You were in a meeting at the time. I think even if you appeared in front of Madam now, the Zhou family matter would only upset her."

"How about we give Madam some time to be alone with her?"

A shadow of gloom settled in Pei Zhan's eyes. Sitting in the car, the man closed his eyes to rest for a while, but an unshakeable sense of unease lingered in his heart.

The car came to a steady stop in the courtyard.

A maid approached and said, "Sir, you're back?"

Pei Zhan: "Where is Madam?"

Maid: "I just went upstairs and checked. It seems that Madam is still asleep."

Jiang Hua wasn't actually asleep; she was just used to it. For the past five years, her father had always told her that if she was unhappy, she could just sleep it off.

A good night's sleep will make your unhappiness disappear.

She forced herself to close her eyes and try to sleep for a while, but... no matter what she did, Jiang Hua couldn't fall asleep.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, the man stepped forward and carefully picked up the woman who was lying on the tatami mat covered with a thin beige blanket, and placed her on the bed. "It's uncomfortable to sleep there, you'll easily catch a cold."

Pei Zhan knew she wasn't asleep.

As he picked her up and put her down, lifted the blanket and placed her in the bed, Jiang Hua had already opened her eyes. "Why are you back so early?" she asked, her voice soft and weak.

Jiang Hua sat up, and Pei Zhan placed a pillow behind her so she could lean on it.

"Not very busy."

Jiang Hua clutched the blanket, her eyes lowered as if deep in thought. After a long while, she told him what had happened: "When I took Dad to the hospital for a checkup, I saw Zhou Xu's mother."

"Is her illness...still not better?"

The Jiang Hua in Pei Zhan's memory was not a sentimental person, but today's Jiang Hua is really different from the one he met five years ago. During these five years of being single, Pei Zhan felt as if he was facing a Jiang Hua who was both a stranger and a familiar one.

Five years later, she has changed a bit.

Pei Zhan sat down beside her, reached out and pulled her into his arms, holding her hand and gently enveloping her soft hand. "She's alright."

"Pei Zhan...she was in a car accident."

"I know."

Yes, how could he not know?

Pei Zhan has made arrangements around Zhou's mother, so if something happens to her, she will definitely be the first to know.

No matter what the Zhou family was like, they still had the kindness of raising Pei Zhan.

He had been in Wuchuan for so many years, and it was the Zhou family who accepted him. Even though Pei Zhan had made some sacrifices, how could his relationship with the Zhou family just fall apart like that?

All of his time was less than the time Pei Zhan spent at the Zhou family's house.

Jiang Hua could never forget Zhou's mother, whose mental breakdown after losing her daughter had lasted for more than a decade.

This tragedy was all caused by Xu Zhoulan, and Jiang Hua was also a beneficiary of it; she couldn't escape the connection either.

Seeing that she remained silent, Pei Zhan was most afraid of her being alone. When something happened and he wasn't by her side, she would overthink things.

Pei Zhan reached out and pulled her onto his lap, holding her tightly. Noticing her low spirits, he sighed softly, "Don't overthink things, okay?"

"It's in the past."

"The compensation we've given the Zhou family is already more than enough."

"I will find someone to take care of her and provide for her until the end. I will no longer concern myself with other matters concerning the Zhou family."

"The only thing I'm worried about is Mrs. Pei. I rushed back because I was worried about you." Pei Zhan held her hand and looked down at her, noticing her torn clothes and injured arm. "What happened to your hand?"

Jiang Hua was upset and confused, as if she were enveloped in agitation. She couldn't hear any of Pei Zhan's sweet words. She pulled her hand away from his and said, "I'm fine." She stood up from him, gripping the sides of her skirt with both hands, her brows furrowed, staring at Pei Zhan. The moment their eyes met, she walked to the French window, turned her back to him, and crossed her arms.

Pei Zhan watched her every move quietly.

The air was silent for half a minute.

After a moment, Jiang Hua seemed to have struggled internally countless times before she finally spoke, "I don't need you to worry about me here. Go and check on her."

“If you want her to get better quickly, I don’t mind if you live with the Zhou family. Maybe that will help stabilize her emotions.”

Pei Zhan was most afraid of her being like this, overthinking things, yet unable to resist the guilt in her heart, pushing him away.

He slowly got up and walked forward, embracing her from behind.

"After missing out on so many years, shouldn't we have been together all along?"

Pei Zhan was most afraid of her saying these kinds of things.

He wanted to push her away.

“Huahua, I have no connection with the Zhou family anymore.”

“It’s over, it’s over. What can I do? What can I do? I didn’t want things to turn out like this. But I can’t change anything. Pei Zhan… Even if it’s all Xu Zhoulan’s fault, I can’t escape it. I can’t get over my own conscience.”

"I will feel guilty, I will feel sad..."

“I am the biggest beneficiary. Zhou Xu could have lived. It was my father who delayed Zhou Xu’s treatment so that he could transplant her heart into me. The Jiang family is not clean… The moment I closed my eyes just now, I could never forget the way Zhou Xu’s mother appeared in front of me, acting crazy.”

Do you know what I was thinking while you were gone?

"I was thinking, should I just return you to the Zhou family?"

“If we’re not together, will we be able to repay the Zhou family a little more?”

"Zhou Xu died, and I also lost half my own life and my two babies... I could be blameless, but I can't control myself!"

After Jiang Hua pushed Pei Zhan away, the emotions that had been suppressed in her heart for many years and that she had been trying to escape seemed to slowly be released and erupted, and her words became more and more intense.

“I keep telling myself, why should I feel guilty? It was her bad luck that she died, and the compensation the Jiang family gave her should be enough.”

"So I've been avoiding the Zhou family's affairs and haven't dared to face them. I've been taking this heart for granted."

"But... but that's not how it is."

"You used to say I was heartless, didn't you?"

Jiang Hua looked into his eyes, and her own eyes reddened slightly.

Overwhelmed by emotion, she couldn't stop her body from trembling.

“Now I feel like I have a heart. I’ve learned to think from the Zhou family’s perspective, and from the perspective of Zhou Xu, who has been dead for many years. If I were her, if I were still alive, how happy I would be.”

"With a brother as powerful and influential as you, with your doting love, and a mother who loves her so much..."

"If Zhou Xu hadn't died, she could have had a perfect life that others could only envy, and she might have lived a very good life."

“Xu Zhoulan plotted and manipulated Dad’s car to cause Zhou Xu’s car accident. He framed Dad.”

"But Zhou Xu wasn't dead at that time..."

"She's waiting, she's waiting for you to save him."

No one understands better than Jiang Hua how terrifying the process of waiting for death is.

At the same time, I desperately hope to survive.

Like the Jiang family, Xu Zhoulan was the executioner who killed Zhou Xu.

"Do you know what I saw in the instant she was in the car accident?"

“I saw it, Zhou Xu…”

"She was heartbroken when she saw her mother in a car accident."

"But she's dead, and I can't be by her side at all."

The moment Jiang Hua's tears fell, her heart ached as well, as if it were being cut by a knife.

Some people have blood on their hands, yet they can be the beneficiaries without feeling guilty.

But some people can't.

The Zhou family's affairs have never truly ended.

It has always been kept hidden in everyone's hearts without anyone knowing.

Pei Zhan understood all of this. The choice he made was simply because he loved her, so he had to force himself to abandon the Zhou family and choose to become an enemy opposing the Zhou family.