Chapter 067: The Final Resolution

The abandoned old factory, after ten years of weathering, was now even more dilapidated and desolate.

Jiang Yao stepped out of the car, already drenched to the bone. She ran into the old factory, forcing open the heavy iron doors, and gazed at the monstrous machines inside, as if she had just unlocked the floodgates of memory.

Ten years ago, she had hidden here, only to be dragged back by Zeng Qiwen and her mother. Back then… she had hidden… Jiang Yao looked toward the second floor.

“Jiang Zhihua!” she shouted upstairs.

In the vast emptiness of the old factory, only her own echo answered her. Her body trembled, her breath ragged; she stared at everything before her and wiped her face, unsure whether it was rain or tears she brushed away, then called out again, louder, “Jiang Zhihua!”

The silence inside remained undisturbed.

Jiang Yao stepped cautiously onto the floor, thick with dust, making her way inside. She switched on her flashlight and soon spotted a messy cluster of footprints not far ahead.

They led toward the second floor.

A heavy sense of foreboding gripped Jiang Yao’s heart, but she steeled herself and climbed the stairs. The footprints above were even more chaotic.

She reached the spot beside the great machine where she had once hidden, and a strong scent of blood wafted faintly through the air.

“Jiang Zhihua…” she called her mother’s name in a trembling voice, approaching with apprehension.

There was no sign of her mother, nor of Zeng Qiwen.

Only a shocking pool of blood on the floor…

Jiang Yao crouched down, shining her flashlight over the blood. Her face turned deathly pale.

“Jiang Zhihua!” she cried out again, even louder, clinging to her last shred of hope.

“You’re really just as foolish as you were back then!” Jiang Yao muttered through clenched teeth, but tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.

She searched frantically, overturning almost every corner of the factory, but her mother was nowhere to be found.

She rushed out into the pouring rain, calling her mother’s name again and again.

There was not a soul on the rain-soaked street.

Her small, thin body stood alone between heaven and earth, appearing all the more forlorn.

The relentless downpour scoured the city, washing away her memories and all the resentment she held for her mother.

Jiang Yao had always said, never forgive those who have hurt you. But that person was her mother…

She ran desperately, as if she could comb through every street and alley nearby, as long as it meant seeing her mother again.

She wanted to say, if you appear, I can try to forgive you. So long as you appear, maybe we can start over.

But her mother was gone. She would never appear again…

“Jiang Zhihua!” Jiang Yao cried out in despair. Her foot slipped and she fell hard into the mud.

She lay there, staring up at the rain falling endlessly from the sky, overwhelmed by a despair she had never known.

She had once thought, even if her mother died, she would not shed a single tear for her. But now, her heart felt as though it were being torn apart.

“Mom!” she finally screamed, like the helpless child she once was. “Mom, where are you…”

She sat in the mud, scrubbing at her tears. “Mom, you promised you’d never leave me again… Mom…”

She called out again and again into the night sky that would never answer her.

A figure appeared above her, holding an umbrella.

Jiang Yao stared blankly at the umbrella, then slowly looked up along its handle to the person behind her.

In the pouring rain, He Yunqing stood there, his face white as paper. He held the umbrella over her head, letting the rain soak him instead.

He gazed at her, his already solemn features now even more grave. Slowly, he reached out a hand to her.

Jiang Yao, clinging to the last thread of reason, lost it all the instant she saw He Yunqing.

She broke down completely, sobbing like a child.

“He Yunqing… He Yunqing… My mom, my mom is gone…” She curled her frail body into a ball. “What do I do? She’s gone again. How will I ever find her? Tell me, how can I find her?”

He Yunqing looked at her pain, her panic, her utter helplessness, and the sorrow in his eyes was impossible to hide.

He crouched down, tossing the umbrella aside, and wrapped her tightly in his arms. “I’ll help you find her. I’ll help you…”

At that moment, all Jiang Yao’s defenses collapsed. The terror, the repression, the agony of recent days overwhelmed her, and she clung to He Yunqing with all her strength.

Time seemed to fold in on itself.

It was as if she had returned, all at once, to ten years ago.

Ten years ago, when she fled in panic and crashed into He Yunqing, he had looked at her frightened little face and gently wiped the rain and tears from her cheeks, over and over, with his large hand.

“This time, I’ll hold on to you tight. I won’t let you go. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again…”

After a long while, Jiang Yao’s phone rang.

“Miss Jiang? We’ve found the body of a woman by the moat. We’d like you to come and identify her…”

In the morgue.

Jiang Yao saw the “woman’s body.”

All life had long since left her. Jiang Yao stared blankly at her mother’s face, and suddenly it felt as if something in her own life had finally, irretrievably, slipped away.

The medical examiner spoke softly at her side: “She suffered eight stab wounds. The fatal one was to the heart.”

Jiang Yao clenched her jaw, hard.

She knew: this was the ending her mother had foreseen.

Whether Zeng Qiwen died today, or her mother, there would always be an ending to this matter.

Her mother had died, and Zeng Qiwen would become a murderer, never again able to intrude on her life.

This time, her mother had finally protected her in this way.

But was this what Jiang Yao wanted?

Would the grievances between her and her mother truly end with her mother’s death?

“We examined her. Aside from the knife wounds, she also had pancreatic cancer. Even without the stabbings, she didn’t have long left. Miss Jiang, I don’t know if this will bring you any comfort.” The examiner’s gaze was full of pity.

Jiang Yao slowly crouched beside her mother, reaching out to gently stroke her face.

“Who told you to end everything this way?” Jiang Yao sniffled. “You’ve been selfish your whole life. Couldn’t you have been a little more selfish at the end?”

“What does this count for now? Are you trying to make me feel guilty for the rest of my life? Jiang Zhihua, I haven’t forgiven you. Get up…”

Her mother lay there quietly, her bloodless face wearing a faint smile.

“You’re free now, but what about me? How could you just leave like this?” Jiang Yao wiped her tears away. “You haven’t even heard me call you ‘Mom’ yet…”

“Get up, Mom… get up!”