CHAPTER 284: CHAPTER 274 WHAT ABOUT YOU

Su Ronggui went straight to the hospital.

Su Rongyu and Xin Wan were waiting at the entrance of the emergency room.

"What exactly happened?" he asked as soon as he arrived.

Su Rongyu appeared listless, his lips were pale, clearly not fully recovered, and he seemed too drained to respond to him. Xin Wan explained the situation, "We don’t know either. He went out in the morning and came back at noon without eating. He went straight to his room to sleep. In the evening, Auntie went to call him for dinner, knocked on the door with no response, and the fourth brother had to break in, only to find him unconscious on the bed with a pill bottle on the floor. We don’t know how many pills he took."

Su Ronggui sat down next to Su Rongyu and said to Xin Wan, "I’ll stay here. You should go home first."

Xin Wan hesitated for a moment, but considering the family’s current chaotic state, she nodded, "Thanks to you two brothers, I’m leaving. Call me if anything happens."

The entrance of the emergency room was very quiet, so quiet it felt like time had stopped. Su Ronggui kept checking his watch, feeling that each interval seemed prolonged, but whenever he looked, it had only been a few minutes.

Several hours later, the doctor came out and told him that the amount of sleeping pills ingested was not too much. The patient should be fine and was being moved to a ward for observation.

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at Su Rongyu’s pallid face, trying to convince him to go home, as he could manage alone here.

But Su Rongyu shook his head.

Seeing Su Rongyu’s exhausted appearance, he stopped trying to persuade him.

The night passed.

In the morning, Su Ronggui received a message from Tu Hengsha, asking if something had happened.

He left the ward to call her, and her gentle voice came through, "Xiao Xu, what’s wrong?"

He didn’t hide anything from her, "Little Sha, my mom attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills. She’s been rescued at the hospital. I’m still here."

Tu Hengsha’s relationship with Shang Qingmei and the Su family was truly complicated. The last thing the Su family wanted was to see her now, but Shang Qingmei was Xiao Xu’s mother...

She could only say, "Take care of yourself, don’t work too hard, and remember to eat."

"Okay, you too, don’t overthink, call me if there’s anything, and stay safe."

"Mm, don’t worry about me," she hung up the phone, prepared to go to work, but still sighed. What was fate planning? How had she and her future mother-in-law ended up like this?

Every girl begins with the most beautiful fantasies about love and marriage—being pampered by her beloved, a harmonious family—just like she initially had. However, not every dream becomes reality. The knots between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have existed for a long time, and the knot between her and Shang Qingmei was a dead one.

She believed Su Ronggui would not disappoint her. She also believed that, in fact, Su Ronggui had distanced himself from Shang Qingmei. Still, Shang Qingmei was his mother. He could move away from her, go against her wishes, and even stand entirely against her and the whole Su family with her this time. But the mother-son relationship could not be erased. He couldn’t ignore her life, illness, age, or death.

She didn’t know whether Shang Qingmei still loved this son, but she loved him so much that she couldn’t bear to see him in distress and wouldn’t make things difficult for him.

So she still put her full trust in him.

In the afternoon, Shang Qingmei woke up, still a bit groggy but aware she was in the hospital.

She gradually pieced together the events of the previous day in her mind.

In the morning, she went to visit an old lady friend, hoping to rely on a few people and hold on to a bit of hope, but instead, she overheard the women who usually greeted her with smiles mocking the Su family’s misfortune. They even said that Shang Qingmei looked sharp and mean, a woman like her wouldn’t bring prosperity to her family. They cited evidence that none of her husbands lasted, and now Su Zhen shared the same fate. They even said she meddled too much, it was all her fault that the Su family had fallen to this point, lamenting that Su Zhen was burdened by a woman.

She, being such a strong-willed person, couldn’t bear these rumors. She practically stumbled out of the meeting venue and locked herself in her room to cry her heart out under the covers.

These past days, she had been physically and mentally exhausted. After a cathartic cry, she was in a daze, partly asleep and partly awake. In her dreams, she saw many people and things; she saw Su Zhen, Su Rongcheng, and Su Rongxing surrounding her, accusing her of being a jinx, saying she ruined the Su family. In her dream, she crouched down covering her head, unable to even defend herself, only hearing their buzzing criticism. She also dreamed of Xu Pingzhang, covered in blood, floating towards her, calling her name, wanting to take her away. She dreamed of Mrs. Xu rolling down a slope, becoming a bloody figure, then suddenly standing up, floating in front of her, her face and hair covered in blood, and her eyes bulging as she demanded her life.

In her dream, she screamed, calling Su Zhen to save her. Suddenly Su Zhen appeared, but with a noose around his neck, tongue out, just like in a movie execution scene...

She woke up like this, her ears still seemed filled with the ghostly calls for her life. She was frightened and utterly despaired, unable to think straight and took the pills...

She never expected to wake up but found herself awake again, hearing all sorts of eerie laughter and screams. As she closed her eyes, Su Zhen, Xu Pingzhang, the previous granny-in-law, all drifting before her, each demanding her life.

She quickly opened her eyes, clutching the blanket, trembling all over.

A face appeared before her, faintly resembling Xu Pingzhang. She screamed and hit him, shouting, "Don’t come near! Don’t come near!"

"Mom! Mom! It’s me!"

Hearing something was not right, she took a closer look and realized it wasn’t Xu Pingzhang; it was her son.

She immediately flung herself into Su Ronggui’s arms, crying.

The commotion in the ward alerted the doctor. After checking on her, the doctor found no major issues but reminded Su Ronggui not to let the patient be subjected to any more stress.

After sleeping deeply again, Shang Qingmei gradually calmed down, though she still clung to the blanket, shivering; when asked, all she said was that she was cold.

Su Ronggui fed her some hot water. She stared at him with a peculiar expression.

After Su Ronggui put the cup away, she looked at him with tears in her eyes and said she no longer wanted to live.

Su Ronggui could only console her, "Mom, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. As for the company’s matter, face the necessary consequences. Regarding Dad, there’s no conclusion yet, please don’t overthink."

Shang Qingmei shook her head, "It’s all gone, everything is gone, what reason do I have to continue living? Your dad is in there, the company is finished. I’ve been strong all my life, and now at this age, I end up with nothing, what’s the point of me being alive? How can I face living?"

"How is it that you have nothing?" Su Ronggui said, "The company can start again, you still have the family and Rongyu, don’t you remember?" Rongyu carried the Su surname, he was her strongest reason to remain in the Su family.

But Shang Qingmei just wouldn’t listen, shaking her head endlessly. Su Ronggui continued to console her, talking for several hours, losing count of how much he said, until Su Rongcheng and Xin Wan came to visit her. Their manner was the same as before, especially Su Rongcheng—not particularly warm, but not hostile either—and only then did she slightly come around.

Su Ronggui sighed in relief, "See, you’re not without anything, aren’t you still with everyone?" There was a chasm between him and his mother, but he didn’t wish for her to choose death just like that.

However, Shang Qingmei looked at him with a deep expression, "And what about you?"