Chapter 94: Chapter 88: May I Borrow Your Shoulder?
 

Teardrops the size of beans fell onto the back of her hand.

Zhan Qipei saw this scene, and his heart inexplicably clenched.

When it came down to it, this was the first time he had seen her cry.

In his memory, she always had a frosty demeanor, as if little could move her, and she definitely hadn’t lost control of her emotions like she was now.

“You—”

Before Zhan Qipei could finish his sentence, Qiao Jing stood up, grabbed her suitcase, and returned to her room.

Zhan Qipei kept gazing at the tightly shut door, and even though he couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t help but keep staring.

In the room, Qiao Jing plugged the USB drive into her laptop.

She clicked play.

The video showed a room filled with pink decorations.

Qiao Jing saw a baby lying on the bed—it was her.

“Baby, mommy bought you a new toy.”

Upon hearing the gentle woman’s voice, Qiao Jing’s pupils dilated, and tears gushed forth, immediately blurring her vision.

The woman finally appeared in the frame.

Fearing that she wouldn’t see the woman’s face clearly, Qiao Jing hurriedly swept her hand across her eyes with the back of her hand, wiping away the tears so that her view became somewhat clearer.

Finally!

She saw her biological mother!

She had seen photos of her mother before, but she had never seen such a vivid image.

The woman in the video, gentle and affectionate, placed the new toy in the small infant’s palm.

“Do you like it, baby? Mommy also bought you some yarn, and I’ll knit you a little sweater later. Winter is coming, and it’s going to snow soon. We can’t let our little treasure get cold, can we?”

While speaking, the woman gently rubbed her cheek against the infant’s face.

At this, a blissful smile spread across Qiao Jing’s face.

Her heart felt warm, yet tears continued streaming down her face.

In her hand was the very toy the woman had just placed in the infant’s hand. Though so many years had passed, she felt it still held her mother’s warmth.

This was the first video.

There were 21 more following it.

They recorded the 22 days she spent with her mother.

After those 22 days, she was abandoned in a snowy hollow in the countryside, left to fend for herself.

In the second video, the woman was sitting beside the sleeping infant, knitting a sweater.

The peacefully sleeping infant suddenly began to cry.

“Wah, wah, wah—”

“My darling treasure, don’t cry. Are you hungry? Mommy will feed you nainai.”

The woman tenderly picked up the infant, placed her on herself, and lifted her clothes to facilitate feeding.

Sucking vigorously, clenching her little fists, she appeared utterly content.

The smile on Qiao Jing’s face grew even wider, and her eyes once again shone with tears.

The third video… the fourth… until the fifth…

“Wah, wah, wah—” The infant cried fiercely, and no matter how the woman soothed, the crying wouldn’t stop.

Heartbroken, the woman held her, tears falling.

“My poor Dabao, why did you have to get sick with such an illness? It must hurt so much, right? If I could, I really wish I could take this pain for you…”

Upon seeing this, Qiao Jing knew the infant’s condition was getting serious.

In the videos that followed, the woman spent her days in tears, growing more haggard with each passing day.

“What do I do? What should I do? Who can save my child?” The woman prayed to the heavens, but no answer came. How heartbreaking and helpless that scene was.

Qiao Jing clutched her mouth and stopped the video, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

Outside the door, Zhan Qipei stood, listening to the sobs coming from inside. His eyebrows knotted, he raised his hand, prepared to knock, but eventually let it fall.

After wiping the tears from her face, Qiao Jing continued playing the next video.

One video followed another, and as days passed, the baby’s illness became more and more severe. The baby who could originally cry loudly in anguish, complaining of the pain suffered from the illness.

But later, the baby’s cries grew weaker, until finally, no sound could be heard at all.

Qiao Jing knew that the baby had cried itself hoarse and lacked the strength to cry; the baby’s life was rapidly slipping away.

On this day Qiao Licheng appeared in the video. She had watched over ten videos, and this was the first time Qiao Licheng had shown up, indicating just how derelict he was as a father.

“Don’t keep her anymore. If you continue, you’ll get infected!”

Qiao Licheng’s words deeply stung the woman, who swiftly picked up the baby and looked at Qiao Licheng with a wary, hostile gaze.

“What are you planning to do? She is our daughter, our first child! Where do you want to send her?”

“Don’t be nervous, I’m just sending her to the hospital.”

“You’re lying to me! Her illness is incurable, no hospital will take her!” Upon saying this, the woman’s pupils dilated suddenly, guessing something, “You… you’re going to abandon her?”

Qiao Licheng opened his mouth but said nothing, effectively admitting it.

The woman looked at Qiao Licheng in horror, her eyes filled with strangeness and disbelief.

“Qiao Licheng, your heart is so cruel, how could you? She is our daughter!”

“But she has caught an incurable infectious disease!” Qiao Licheng shouted back at the woman.

The woman, holding the baby, stepped back twice and leaned against the windowsill, “Even so, I can’t throw her away. She’s the child I carried for ten months, a piece of flesh that fell from my body, she’s my precious baby, and nobody can throw her away.”

“Fine! If you want to keep her, then you can take care of her alone!” With that, Qiao Licheng stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

The woman lowered her head to look at the baby in her arms; her expression softened once again.

“Xiao Jing, don’t be afraid, Mama won’t leave you behind.”

Qiao Jing moved her lips slightly; she had cried so much that tears were almost unable to flow anymore.

In the 22nd video, the woman kept coughing, half-lying in bed with a sickly face, feeding the baby with a milk bottle.

While feeding, her eyes closed, and she fell back onto the bed.

“Mom!” Qiao Jing suddenly stood up.

Zhan Qipei was about to leave when he heard this cry and immediately stopped, turning back to look at the door.

“Mom… Mama…” Holding the laptop, Qiao Jing’s eyes, already dry from calculating figures, once again erupted with unstoppable tears, more torrential and uncontrollable than before.

It was the 22nd video, the final one, and there it ended.

After that, there was no more, never again!

“Uh-huh-huh…” She could no longer suppress it, a sobbing cry came from her mouth.

Qiao Jing rarely cried from childhood to adulthood. On the rare occasions she did cry, it was limited to reddened eyes and seldom were tears shed, let alone crying out loud like now.

This showed just how painful she was feeling…

“Mama… Mama… sorry, it’s all my fault… sorry… uh-huh-huh…”

The crying grew louder.

She couldn’t help it, this kind of pain, if not loudly expressed, would suffocate her alive.

Zhan Qipei’s hand rested on the doorknob, maintaining this posture without moving, his expression sorrowful, his thin lips slightly pursed, his ears and mind filled with the sound of Qiao Jing’s crying.

It was inescapable, an unspeakable discomfort.

Finally, he could not bear it any longer, twisted the doorknob, pushed open the door, and saw Qiao Jing crying with her face covered in tears.

Qiao Jing was also stunned; she had not expected Zhan Qipei to come in.

“I look terrible like this, please go out and close the door.” Qiao Jing didn’t want to be disturbed; she just wanted to be alone to vent thoroughly.

However, Zhan Qipei did not leave as Qiao Jing had asked but strode over to her, took a deep breath, and let it out.

“May I lend you my shoulder?”