CHAPTER 145: CHAPTER 145;YOUR MOTHER....

— — — — — —

It was the second day, and Jin Shuren had been sitting there the entire time, his tall frame hunched in the chair, his eyes bloodshot from sleeplessness. He hadn’t moved except to light a cigarette that never reached his lips.

The door leading into the room suddenly banged open. Yueqin rushed in, her schoolbag bouncing against her back, her braids loose from running. Still in her uniform, she clutched the straps with both hands, breathless.

"Daddy!" Her voice cracked as she stumbled toward the bed. "Mommy hasn’t woken up? Will she?" Her wide eyes darted to Yueyao’s still form, pale and unmoving against the sheets. She didn’t even look at her father, too gripped by the fear twisting in her chest.

Jin Shuren’s jaw tightened. He had heard those words from every corner, be it the nurses, physicians, or even in his own thoughts, but hearing them from his daughter pricked a nerve raw. His voice came out low, edged with irritation.

"Don’t ask things you already see, Yueqin. Just sit quietly and patiently wait."

The little girl froze, her lip trembling. His tone wasn’t loud, but the weight of his words crushed her small hope. She pulled her schoolbag tighter to her chest, afraid that if she cried too loudly, it would disturb her mother’s fragile body.

Yesterday, the kids were waiting to see her mother escorting her to school, but due to her sudden condition, she hadn’t been escorted, and the kids had laughed at her.

Today, she had promised them yesterday that they would see her this morning, but it was just the same, when she told them her mother was sleeping, they began mocking her.

Yueqin bit down hard on her lower lip, trying to be obedient as her father told her, but her little hands balled into fists against her skirt.

Her eyes just wandered to the pale figure on the bed, lying motionlessly, her mother, unmoving, so still that it frightened her.

Her classmates’ voices from the schoolyard echoed in her head, sharp and cruel like tiny needles: "Your mommy isn’t coming back if she has been sleeping like that.... she is dead."

"You’ll always be the girl without a mother."

She swallowed the lump in her throat, pressing her schoolbag tighter against her chest as if it could shield her from those words.

Her gaze flicked toward her father, wanting to ask again, to demand reassurance, but the coldness in his tone moments ago silenced her.

Instead, she lowered her head, her little shoulders trembling faintly, fighting the tears that burned behind her eyes.

Jin Shuren leaned back in his chair, fingers pressed against his temple. He told himself he needed silence, but when he looked again, the sight of Yueqin’s hunched little frame pierced through the fog of his irritation.

Her head was bowed, chin nearly buried in the strap of her schoolbag, her small shoulders trembling despite her effort to stay still. She wasn’t making a sound, but he could see that she was trying not to cry.

His jaw tightened so hard that you could see the jawline. He had commanded boardrooms, silenced rivals with a single word, but seeing his daughter now, holding back her tears, too afraid to voice her pain, pressed against his chest with a weight fiercer than any corporate war.

"Yueqin." His voice came out rougher than he intended. He hesitated, then lowered it further, forcing the rough edges away. "Come here."

The little girl lifted her head hesitantly, eyes glassy, unsure whether he meant comfort or more scolding.

Tears immediately rushed down her tiny face as she scrumbled away. She was really afraid that they were telling the truth.

Jin Shuren stiffened looking at her body as she tried to scramble off, the sight stabbing at him deeper than he cared to admit. He hadn’t expected her to be this heavily affected; he thought that if Yueyao never woke up, it wouldn’t affect her, as they hadn’t spent that much time together.

He wasn’t used to being the one children ran away from, especially not his own daughter.

Before she could retreat further, his long arm reached out and caught her wrist, careful but firm.

"Yueqin," he said again, softer this time, almost foreign to his own ears.

She hiccupped through her tears, her small body trembling, her schoolbag slipping from her grasp and thudding onto the floor.

He pulled her gently toward him, setting her on his lap as though afraid she might shatter if handled wrongly.

She resisted at first, stiff and uncertain, but when he wrapped his arms around her, her tiny fists clutched at his shirt, soaking it with tears.

Jin Shuren lowered his chin to her hair, eyes tightening shut. His world had been crumbling for days, but right now, it was this fragile child’s sobs that undid him the most.

"Your mother..." His voice caught in his throat, but he steadied it, "She will wake up. Don’t listen to anyone else. She will."

The words weren’t a promise to her alone, they were a vow he forced into the silence of the room, as much for himself as for his daughter.

They sat there accompanying each other silently while he comforted her.

— — — — —

The third dawn broke in muted light, spilling across the latticed windows of the medical chamber.

Pale gold stretched across the polished floors, glinting off the tall cabinets and silvered instruments.

Doctors lingered at the edges of the room, their voices hushed; guards kept silent watch, their eyes heavy from three sleepless nights.

At the bedside, Jin Shuren sat slumped in an armchair, exhaustion carved into his features.

One hand rested near her arm, as though even in sleep he refused to let her drift from his reach.

Yueyao suddenly stirred showing signs of waking up. Her lashes fluttered before her eyes snapped open, hazy at first, then sharpening.

The first thing she saw was him, Jin Shuren, so close, as though he had been waiting for her. Waiting for her to wake up. He sat there quietly his eyes closed.