Chapter 248: Si Rong's Cruel Heart

Xiao Yu, sleepy and dazed, held a flashlight and asked Si Rong, who had just come down from upstairs, "Ma'am, should I open the door?"

Si Rong said cautiously, "Don't be in a hurry yet."

She raised her voice and asked, "Who is it?"

The sound startled Jiang Sinian; when his father left, he had instructed him to take good care of his mother and sister.

Now he was the only man in the house.

"It's me." A familiar, deep voice sounded from outside the door.

A massive sense of surprise nearly overwhelmed Si Rong; just as she was about to open the door, she was pushed back toward the living room by her son.

"Mom, step back, let me open the door."

He was a man, and this was what he was supposed to do.

As soon as the door pushed open, he saw a man with a stubbly beard.

"Who are you? I have a gun!" Jiang Sinian aimed the toy gun in his hand at the thin, familiar man.

Jiang Cheng:...

"You brat! That's not how you play with a gun."

Jiang Cheng disarmed him of the toy gun with one hand, tossed it back to him, and finally hugged Si Rong tightly as she threw herself into his arms.

"You finally came back..." During this time, Si Rong had been repeatedly tormented by nightmares, and her spirit was nearly collapsing.

If it weren't for the fact that the children still needed looking after, she felt she wouldn't have been able to hold on any longer.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Jiang Cheng felt his wife's tears soak directly through his military overcoat onto his chest, and his heart ached terribly.

He didn't dare tell his wife that while he was on a mission to protect a special high-ranking official, he had been infected with the F Virus.

He had been receiving isolation treatment at the Capital Hospital and was only confirmed cured and no longer infectious a week ago.

But in the early stages of treatment, because the doctors had no experience with this virus, they had used a large amount of antibiotics to save his life.

Although he was cured now, he could feel the weakness in his own body.

This weakness made Jiang Cheng feel a sense of panic he had never experienced in his fifty-plus years.

Perhaps he wouldn't be able to accompany Rongrong until they were old.

He could only try his best to walk with her for a little while longer.

"Um..." Jiang Sinian rubbed his sleepy eyes.

His parents ignored him and went upstairs, embracing each other.

Jiang Sinian had no choice but to silently repeat the phrase, "Parents are true love, the son is an accident," in his heart, and then locked the front door of the house.

Look, if it weren't for him, what would this family do?

Si Rong pulled Jiang Cheng into the room and looked him over carefully; he wasn't missing any arms or legs, and that was enough.

It was just easy to see that Jiang Cheng hadn't had a good time during this period, as he had lost a lot of weight; when they hugged, she felt his bones digging into her.

"It's good that you're back; the children and I have been hoping for your return."

After the initial surprise and joy passed, Si Rong suddenly remembered she didn't know how to tell Jiang Cheng about the passing of Jiang Aiguo.

Logically, a father's passing was a major event; even if a mission was urgent, the military would have tried their best to notify him.

Before Jiang Aiguo's funeral, Si Rong had called the military, but the communications officer there said Jiang Cheng was on a secret mission.

"I missed you all too, so very much."

During the time Jiang Cheng was at his sickest, he dreamed of his wife and children almost every night, dreaming of many, many things—all of which were his attachments to this world.

"Wife, let's go to sleep early; tomorrow, accompany me to go see Mom and Dad."

While he was in isolation at the hospital, he had also had a very bad dream about his father.

Si Rong truly couldn't control her emotions, and a tear rolled down from her eye.

"Did something happen to Dad?"

His tall body stiffened. "It's okay, Rongrong. Tell me, did Dad have some kind of serious illness?"

"Dad had a cerebral hemorrhage; it was an emergency, and he's already gone."

Si Rong held Jiang Cheng's body, hoping to offer him some comfort.

Birth, aging, sickness, and death were common occurrences; everyone's death was foreshadowed from the moment they were born—everyone understood this principle.

But when death truly descended upon oneself or the most intimate person in one's life, few could accept it calmly.

"Dad didn't suffer much. Yanyan's health is poor, and Mom was very sad, so I brought her to live at our house."

Si Rong felt the body of the man leaning on her shoulder trembling; she knew he was experiencing the most painful moment of his life.

She heard Jiang Cheng's restrained, sorrowful sobbing.

In their sixteen years of marriage, this was the first time she had seen Jiang Cheng cry.

When they woke up the next day, Jiang Cheng's eyes were swollen.

Si Rong didn't fare much better; her tired eyelids had turned into triple folds.

Last night, the couple spoke their minds, saying everything they hadn't been able to say during the months they were apart.

Hu Qian was very pleasantly surprised to see her eldest son return.

Upon seeing each other, mother and son inevitably thought of Jiang Aiguo, and they were sad together for a while.

Si Rong accompanied Jiang Cheng to his father's grave to perform a belated act of worship.

Jiang Cheng knelt before the grave for a long, long time.

Only when his body couldn't hold up and he began to cough did he listen to advice and stand up.

Not being able to see his father one last time was his lifelong regret.

Li Xuan was finally released from the isolation zone and returned home; she had spent these past few months feeling very stifled.

It turned out she had misunderstood that she was infected with the F Virus, but in reality, she hadn't been infected at all.

However, because someone reported her, and she indeed had symptoms of a cough, Li Xuan was sent to an isolation hospital for examination, and then she became infected with the F Virus during the examination; the months of treatment and isolation nearly tortured her to death.

It must have been Si Rong who reported her!

Li Xuan guessed, otherwise why was she reported right after she had just thought about infecting those two children?

Si Rong truly has a cruel heart!

After losing a layer of skin in the hospital, she now feels very weak and cannot wait to find her son and daughter-in-law, and incidentally ask for some money.

While passing by the vicinity of the Junshuyuan, she was stunned when she saw a young girl on the side of the road.

At the age of fourteen or fifteen, she was in the prime of her youth and beauty, but what caught Li Xuan's attention was not the girl's beauty.

It was her face, which resembled her daughter Shen Yuan's during her own budding youth.

How could they be so alike?

If the age didn't mismatch, she would have thought it was that wretched girl Shen Yuan who abandoned her own mother.

As she continued walking toward her son's house, Li Xuan appeared somewhat preoccupied.

She counted on her fingers, thinking that the little girl she had sent to the Fuliyuan back then should be about this age now.

However, it should just be a coincidence.

Li Xuan comforted herself this way; after Lin Meixi finished her postpartum recovery and wanted to find that child again, the director of the Fuliyuan said the child had been adopted by someone from out of town.

It is impossible for her to be in Huaiyang.

Besides, there are so many people in this world, it is inevitable that there will be two similar faces; this is nothing.

Li Xuan arrived at her son's house and saw Kong Nuo playing with a mobile phone in the yard.

Blood relations are truly strange things; she didn't even feel as close to this child as she did to that girl just now.

"Nainai, you're here!" Kong Nuo greeted her.