After the Fake Heiress Died, She Was Filled with Regret - Chapter 51
Chapter 51: Which of Us, Do You Think, Was Harsher to Her…
All media outlets were focused on the crashed airplane, with real-time updates on the situation locally on Weibo.
The plane, near X City, was suspected to have suffered a bird strike, and the failure of an emergency landing led to the accident.
The specific cause of the accident still required in-depth investigation and analysis by the inquiry team.
The passenger manifest was still being confirmed. The world mourned this sudden tragedy, anxiously following the subsequent developments.
Tang Yin sat in the airport waiting area, where she had been all day.
She watched people come and go, stopping and starting, sitting around her, occasionally discussing the accident.
“How pitiful, oh…”
“Yes, I’m too scared to fly now, but I have to fly to get where I need to go. It’s terrifying.”
“I’m taking the high-speed rail for domestic trips from now on! Safety is paramount.”
“But I heard that at the moment the plane explodes, a person is completely unconscious. It happens in an instant, so there isn’t much pain.”
“Who knows? To just vanish from the world without a sense of it is also a very cruel thing! And the pain is all left to the family and friends.”
“Plop!” A teardrop fell onto Tang Yin’s hand. She quickly wiped it away.
No, Xia Shinan wasn’t dead, so she wouldn’t cry either.
Tang Yin looked up at the distant exit, her gaze never leaving it.
No one would know how much she wished to see Xia Shinan’s figure emerge from there.
And then tell her: “Tang Yin, I didn’t leave.”
For whatever reason, as long as Xia Shinan didn’t board that plane.
But she waited all day and didn’t even see anyone who resembled Xia Shinan.
This seemed to be punishment from the heavens, leaving her without a glimmer of hope.
“Tang Yin!” Ming Jing and Qian Yu came to find her. “You haven’t eaten all day. Let’s go grab something.”
“I’m not hungry,” Tang Yin said, her gaze still fixed on the direction of the exit.
Qian Yu’s eyes were red. She scoffed at Tang Yin, saying, “Late affection is cheaper than grass. Who are you putting on a show for now?”
Ming Jing gently pulled her sleeve. “Say less.”
“What if I speak? It’s the truth!” Qian Yu said, tears welling up uncontrollably. “Before Xia Shinan left, who told her not to come back, not to meet again? So heartless, not leaving any room for compassion! Now look, Shinan… she really won’t ever come back!”
Tang Yin looked sharply at Qian Yu, her face pale. “No, she’s not dead.”
“I watched her go in with my own eyes.”
Qian Yu recalled the scene that day, sobbing: “I wish I had spent more time with her, hugged her more! No! I wish I hadn’t let her go!”
Ming Jing wanted to offer a word or two of comfort but found her heart was also full of regret.
Xia Shinan was a very good and gentle girl.
She should have mixed another delicious fruit wine for her, made her a cake she always wanted to eat.
“We… all need to be strong in our sorrow,” Ming Jing finally said softly.
Tang Yin stubbornly shook her head, repeating the hope in her heart.
“Xia Shinan is not dead. She won’t die.”
She had done so many bad things. She had hurt the best Xia Shinan.
Yet, she was still alive and well. How could Xia Shinan die?
Xia Shinan had just turned twenty-one. She would have a better life in the US, starting everything anew. How could it end before it even began?
Tang Yin didn’t believe it. Fate had already been very unfair to her; it wouldn’t be this way to Xia Shinan.
“I will keep waiting until there is news of her,” Tang Yin stared intently at the exit. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Finally, Qian Yu pulled Ming Jing away.
“Tang Yin is also in a lot of pain. No one wanted this to happen,” Ming Jing decided to say a few words for her friend. “She… has always struggled.”
“Is Shinan not struggling?” Qian Yu cried. “She didn’t have a good life either… unloved by her father, uncared for by her mother. The one relationship she finally had was a lie.”
“Now that something’s happened to her, what good is it for Tang Yin, the liar, to put on an act of deep remorse and guilt!”
“Serves her right! She should feel guilty for the rest of her life!”
Ming Jing sighed deeply and pulled Qian Yu into a hug.
Having spent these days together, she understood that Qian Yu was a sharp-tongued but very warm-hearted girl. “Little Yu Mao, you need to be strong.”
Qian Yu broke down crying when she heard the last two words.
In fact, like Tang Yin, she hoped for a miracle, that Xia Shinan hadn’t died.
She didn’t want to hear the phrase “be strong in your sorrow” at all.
In the dim room, only an aromatherapy lamp was lit.
Tang Yin returned to the apartment she had briefly shared with Xia Shinan. Unfortunately, Xia Shinan had taken all her things.
No, not everything.
She hadn’t taken the vase the birthday gift Tang Yin made for her.
She thought that on her birthday, they would go home together.
Then she would let Xia Shinan search for the vase, and she would find it on the round table by her favorite window.
Xia Shinan would surely be very happy, thank her profusely, and then they would embrace and kiss…
If only the vase had been given to her that day, how wonderful would that have been?
“It’s been almost a week. Why haven’t you come back?” Tang Yin held the vase tightly, weeping. “I was wrong. Just come back. I don’t care about the Xia family identity, okay?”
“I never blamed you for Grandmother’s matter…”
A few days later, the US police announced that all 172 people on board the plane had perished. 156 victims had been DNA-matched, and 113 bodies were transferred to their families…
Tang Yin looked at the news, tapping the screen to exit and re-enter, as if this action could change the words on the screen.
Perhaps there were survivors who hadn’t been reported yet, or perhaps the four words “all perished” could disappear.
But where was the magic of thought in this world?
No matter how many times she reopened it, the words remained stark and cold.
A message from Qian Yu popped up on her phone. Tang Yin immediately opened it, but froze completely upon seeing it.
It was a转发 from the Xia family regarding the funeral date for their beloved daughter, Xia Shinan.
It was tomorrow.
Funeral…
No! Xia Shinan wasn’t dead. Why have a funeral!
With this thought firmly rooted in her mind, Tang Yin stood up and stumbled out of the room.
She took a taxi to the gate of the Xia family’s villa.
This was her second time here. The first time, she came to take Xia Shinan away.
She deliberately drove the motorbike a bit fast, wanting Xia Shinan to hug her tighter, yet always checking the girl’s expression in the rearview mirror, worried that Xia Shinan might be afraid, only to see her smiling.
Xia Shinan said she felt free.
Auntie Zhang opened the door for Tang Yin, as if she knew she would come.
“Madam is upstairs, in Miss Xia’s room.”
Mentioning Xia Shinan, Auntie Zhang couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret.
“Thank you.”
Tang Yin followed Auntie Zhang up the stairs, step by step, to Xia Shinan’s room.
Xie Wan was sitting gracefully at the piano, playing a piece.
When the piece ended, she rested her hands elegantly and turned to look at Tang Yin.
“This piece is called ‘Liebesleid’ (Love’s Sorrow). It was Xia Shinan’s favorite. Did she ever play it for you?”
Tang Yin shook her head. “I rarely heard her play.”
A flicker of sorrow crossed Xie Wan’s eyes. “Is that so? That’s a pity. Her piano skills were excellent. If she could have continued, she would have certainly achieved something.”
She stood up, looking at the pale Tang Yin.
“This is Xia Shinan’s room.”
“One of her bedrooms is probably bigger than your whole house, isn’t it? This piano cost over 1.3 million. And the clothes I prepared for her in the closet—there’s no telling how much was spent.”
“Do you want these?”
Tang Yin pursed her lips and shook her head.
“All I want now is for Xia Shinan to come back.”
Xie Wan smiled. “Your tone is much less confrontational now. But Xia Shinan can’t come back… Are you here for the funeral, or to return to the Xia family and become my second daughter?”
Tang Yin sneered, challenging her: “Neither! I came to ask you, how can you be so certain Xia Shinan is dead? Why hold a funeral? Perhaps she’s still alive!”
“Or maybe… the Xia family is happier with her dead!”
Xie Wan’s face darkened. “I contacted the school in the US and the host family. Xia Shinan never contacted them.”
“But it’s possible she didn’t go to the US! Could she still be in A City, hiding somewhere and watching us?” Tang Yin explored countless possibilities in her mind.
Xie Wan walked to the window, suddenly took a cigarette from the table, lit it, took a deep puff, and slowly blew out a smoke ring. This was a sight Tang Yin had never seen before.
“Tang Yin, do you truly believe that when you say it?”
Tang Yin stood frozen.
“You poor, foolish girl,” Xie Wan tilted her head, sighing softly. “You think Xia Shinan is naive and silly. But you yourself are more naive, only capable of being led by the nose.”
“You’re even worse than that silly girl!”
Tang Yin tightly clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palm, yet she felt no pain.
“Then what about you? You were her mother for twenty-one years. Were you ever sincerely good to her? You knew what she disliked, yet you never respected her. She was trapped in a cage here!” Tang Yin choked up. “We both failed her.”
Xie Wan looked incredulous. “You say I wasn’t good to Xia Shinan? If you hadn’t been so calculating in approaching her, how would things be today?”
“She would be obediently the Xia family’s heiress, married and having children, enjoying a lifetime of wealth and luxury! But what did you do? You ruined her reputation and ultimately caused her to die on that plane, without even a body to bury!”
“Tang Yin, you are the one who caused all of this!”
“Which of us, do you think, was harsher to her?”
Xie Wan’s words were like massive stones, pushing Tang Yin back until she heavily hit the wall behind her. She cried, shaking her head, “What if we hadn’t been swapped back then…”
“Swapped?”
Xie Wan extinguished the cigarette and walked toward her, step by step. “Who told you that you and Xia Shinan were swapped? And who gave you that paternity test report?”
Tang Yin’s inner world had collapsed. She spoke slowly.
“She… was Qi Ning.”
“Qi Ning?” Xie Wan narrowed her eyes. “But I’ve never heard that name.”
Tang Yin was bewildered. She hadn’t heard of her?
Then how did Qi Ning know so much about the Xia family, and how did she manipulate all this…
What was her motive?
Just then, the sound of steady footsteps and a familiar woman’s voice came from behind.
“Tang Yin, you are mistaken.”
The woman walked into the room, still dressed in her old-fashioned, plain attire.
She adjusted her glasses and offered a slight smile, her eyes full of coldness.
“Qi Ning is the name my mother gave me. After returning to the Xia family, my name is Xia Tong.”
“Sister-in-law, of course you wouldn’t know.”
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