With her last ounce of strength, Yuan Shuna held Gu Susu's hand tighter. "I know... I know I'm dying, so I have to tell you these things. I want you to know the truth... and feel better..."
"Then who is my biological father?" Gu Susu asked, squeezing her hand back.
But Yuan Shuna seemed not to hear, her gaze becoming unfocused as she stared at something unknown. "After he brought you back, I wanted... I wanted to treat you well, but I didn't dare, I didn't dare... I knew he brought you back to the Ai family as punishment for me, to... to make me never forget my past shame..."
"Mom, who is my biological father? Who is he?" Gu Susu, still in shock, kept pressing.
"What did you just call me?" Yuan Shuna's face lit up with joy. "You called me Mom, you finally called me... He... he is..."
Her hand suddenly dropped, her eyes closed, a smile still lingering on her face. The heart monitor beside the bed emitted a steady beeping sound.
Gu Susu didn't know when her tears started to fall. She shook Yuan Shuna's hand desperately, unable to control herself any longer, and cried out, "Wait, you haven't told me yet, who is he? Who is he..."
Ai Yifeng, who was outside the door, heard the cries and immediately rushed in. He saw that Yuan Shuna had stopped breathing, and Gu Susu was still shaking her.
He forcefully pushed Gu Susu aside and threw himself onto Yuan Shuna, crying, "Mom, Mom... you can't leave me like this, you can't leave me, wake up, wake up!"
Gu Susu was pushed to the other side of the bed. She sat up, staring blankly at the sad scene, as if it had nothing to do with her.
Yuan Shuna's dying words were unclear, leaving Gu Susu with not only grief but also an indescribable shock.
Two nurses entered the room, removed the instruments from Yuan Shuna, and prepared to cover her with a white sheet.
Ai Yifeng refused to let them, and the two nurses couldn't persuade him. Gu Susu, slowly recovering from her shock, stepped forward to help pull him back, saying, "Ai Yifeng, calm down, she's gone."
A nurse took the opportunity to cover Yuan Shuna with the sheet. Ai Yifeng stopped struggling and turned to Gu Susu, "What did my mother say to you before she died?"
Gu Susu took a breath and said, "She didn't say anything, just apologized to me."
Ai Yifeng pushed her away and said, "Yes, our whole family is sorry to you. Now the group is gone because of you, and my mother is gone too. This is all our retribution. You truly have no more connection to our family, you can leave."
"Ai Yifeng, am I your biological sister or not? Do you know anything too?" Gu Susu hoped to clarify her background from him.
Ai Yifeng said with red eyes, "So what if you are my biological sister? Don't expect me to apologize to you."
Gu Susu saw from his reaction and expression that he probably didn't know anything either. More people came to help and wheeled Yuan Shuna's body out.
Ai Yifeng immediately chased after them, trying to grab the gurney to stop them from taking Yuan Shuna away.
A nurse holding a folder approached Ai Yifeng for a signature. Gu Susu called out to her, "Wait for him to go, I'll sign."
"But are you family?" the nurse asked.
Gu Susu said with a faint sadness, "I am the deceased's daughter."
The nurse said nothing more, signed for her, and then walked towards the morgue.
Gu Susu was left standing alone in the hospital corridor, her feet feeling as heavy as lead. The sound of the wheels pushing Yuan Shuna away grew fainter, but she couldn't take a step. Just as she tried to move, she couldn't even stand steadily and just wanted to find a place to sit.
At that moment, two hands touched her shoulders. Someone behind her asked, "Are you okay? That woman deserved to die."
Gu Susu didn't turn around, knowing that the person behind her was Yang Sijie.
The tears she had held back for so long finally broke free. She turned to face him, her fists raining down on him without order, "Are you even human? What is your heart made of!"
"Womanly kindness. Think about how she treated you back then, did she ever treat you like her own daughter?" Yang Sijie caught her hands and pulled her into his embrace.
Gu Susu lacked the strength to contend with him here. Sobbing, she said, "But she was my mother after all."
Yang Sijie released her hands, seemingly empathizing with her, and gently stroked her back, "Cry, cry your heart out if you need to. I've also experienced this kind of struggle between love and hate..."
...
Gu Susu walked with difficulty through a dense fog, unable to discern her direction. Just as she felt she couldn't go on, someone in the distance softly called her name, "Susu, come here quickly, come to your daddy."
She found renewed strength and happily ran towards the voice, but suddenly saw Ai Shunan's ferocious face.
He was waving to her, "Good daughter, come here, come this way..."
"No, no, you're not... not my father!" she shouted and suddenly woke up from her dream.
Yang Sijie, lying beside her, was startled awake by her cries in the dream. He sat up immediately and asked, "Did you have a nightmare? Are you thirsty? I'll get you some water."
Gu Susu regained consciousness and opened her eyes, feeling her lips dry and uncomfortable. She looked around the room, not remembering how she had returned to Yang Sijie's villa room.
She only remembered crying for a long time, too exhausted to do anything but collapse into Yang Sijie's arms.
Yang Sijie got out of bed, poured a large glass of warm water, inserted a straw, and tried to feed it to her.
But she had already sat up, weakly taking the cup from his hand and drinking more than half of it in one gulp.
Yang Sijie reached out and touched her forehead, saying, "You started running a fever as soon as we got back yesterday. Even with ice packs, it wouldn't go down, which scared me. I asked Allen, and he told me I could try giving you fever reducer. After taking the medicine, you finally broke the fever, thankfully."
Gu Susu remembered everything that had happened yesterday and looked up at him intently.
"What's wrong? Do I have sleep in my eyes?" Yang Sijie touched the corner of his eye, then his entire face.
Gu Susu frowned and asked, "Why did you trick me out of the Ai Group? The Ai Group isn't some exceptionally profitable large corporation; you shouldn't even care about it."
"If I didn't take it from you and temporarily manage it for you, would you have returned the Ai Group to Ai Shunan?" Yang Sijie retorted with some displeasure. "Besides, I got the Ai Group for you not so you could use it to help Qin Tianyi. I won't allow you to use my things to help that man, understand?"
Gu Susu lowered her head, not wanting to say anything more. He always had his own reasons for whatever he did.
Waking up, she finally realized that Yuan Shuna, who had always wanted to love her but dared not, had passed away.