Feeling Guilty

Cai Leng Han's eyes darted around, assessing the "coordinates" before he spoke, asking for permission:

"Then... this pot... can it be placed by the window?"

"Mm."

Lin Qing Lian nodded slightly. Cai Leng Han walked towards the windowsill with a hint of awkwardness. He was not only shy due to his unfamiliarity with interacting with elders but also because he knew well that in this room, he was, in fact, an outsider.

Zhao Wan Ru looked at Cai Leng Han's stiff back, then turned to her mother's cold face. She wanted to use a potted plant to change her mother's impression of Cai Leng Han, but it seemed truly difficult. She picked up a fruit basket, whose donor was unknown, from the table and turned to Cai Leng Han, saying:

"Cai Leng Han, could you help me wash these fruits?"

"Okay."

Cai Leng Han carried the fruit basket into the hospital room's bathroom, where there was a faucet and a sink.

Lin Qing Lian tried to hold back until she heard the sound of running water before she whispered to her beloved daughter:

"Why is he here?"

Zhao Wan Ru frowned, asking back with a mix of affection and annoyance:

"Mom, he's my husband now. You're sick; how could he not come?"

Of course, he couldn't not come. Lin Qing Lian pouted. Her heart was conflicted like that. If Cai Leng Han hadn't come, she would have been furious, aggrieved, and hurt. But now that he was visiting, she wasn't happy either.

The discomfort festered in her heart, making her feel incredibly wronged. Lin Qing Lian sought an outlet:

"It's fine that he came. Why did you give him that potted plant to hold? Do you even know what kind of plant that is?"

Zhao Wan Ru smiled. She had been waiting for this question for a long time. Clearing her throat, she used her most serious and solemn tone, enunciating each word clearly:

"Mom, I know. That's a 'live forever' plant! Mom, I want to live forever with him!"

Lin Qing Lian's mouth hung open for a moment before she snapped:

"Don't talk nonsense! Don't forget, he forced you to marry him. You didn't know him, let alone love him, yet you had to become his wife. Do you know how worried I've been these past few days... how heartbroken I've been? I don't dare light incense for your grandparents! I'm afraid... they'll also be heartbroken, they'll blame your father and me for not being able to take good care of you and protect you... Do you know, Wan Ru?"

The more Lin Qing Lian spoke, the more agitated she became, her voice echoing loudly enough for all three people in the room to hear. Cai Leng Han, who had just turned off the faucet, heard it clearly. He stood stunned in the bathroom, looking at his pale face in the mirror, feeling both contempt and disgust for himself. He truly was despicable, truly vile. He had forced Wan Ru, had caused a loving mother like Lin Qing Lian such heartache, and had also hurt a respectable father like Zhao Zhi Hai. Suddenly, Cai Leng Han felt that he was truly burdened with countless sins.

While Cai Leng Han was still standing there, hating himself, outside, Zhao Wan Ru also flinched when the sound of water in the bathroom ceased. She worried whether Cai Leng Han had heard her mother's words. If he had... Zhao Wan Ru suddenly felt a flicker of anticipation. She hoped he would come out, explain to her mother, and clarify to her family the love he held for her and the affection he felt for the Zhao family.

But Zhao Wan Ru waited for a while and still did not see Cai Leng Han appear. Perhaps due to the distance, she could not hear his inner thoughts. Her anxiety grew. But before her was only her mother, panting with anger. Zhao Wan Ru had no choice but to suppress her worry and gently soothe Lin Qing Lian's mood:

"Mom, I'm fine. Don't worry."

"How can I not worry?" Lin Qing Lian, still agitated, snapped. "Why did you have to marry him? He could have made any condition; we could have given him all the Zhao family shares, but why did he repeatedly insist on marrying you? This marriage, in the end, receives no sincere blessings from anyone, does it? It only makes you a laughingstock, scorned and criticized by others. That scoundrel himself isn't content with being despised and hated alone; he wants to drag you down into the mud with him, to make you bear the same bad reputation and filth. How malicious!"

Lin Qing Lian spoke the longest stretch of words in her life. After speaking, she was still not appeased, patting her chest and panting. Zhao Wan Ru could not persuade her mother and had to look up at her father for help.