You Are My Omega - Chapter 58

When Riceball questioned them, Lin Xinyi and Xu Shijiu did their best to comfort her. They said gentle and reassuring words, but deep down, they both understood clearly that the pain Riceball had suffered, the wound in her heart, was something no one could truly heal. No words could bring her any real sense of comfort or peace.

She was just a small child, and not long ago she had already been hurt. Now, she had suddenly fallen into this distressing situation. Xu Shijiu felt heartbroken. This once cheerful, lively little girl had become so sensitive and withdrawn, all because of her parents. Was this really something Xu Manyue and Liu Lingyan could bear to witness?

Whether Xu Manyue and Liu Lingyan could stand it or not, Lin Xinyi and Xu Shijiu didn’t know. What they did know was that they themselves could not bear it. Watching the child cry uncontrollably, their hearts shattered into pieces.

Even very late into the night, Riceball still tightly clutched the hands of her two aunts and refused to let go. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and her head was nodding from exhaustion, but she continued to hold on, refusing to sleep.

The last time she had believed her aunts and let go, all she got in return was a long and empty wait.

“Riceball, don’t be afraid. Go to sleep. This time, we won’t leave you,” Lin Xinyi whispered softly. She didn’t dare to raise her voice even slightly, afraid that any sudden sound would scare the half-asleep girl resting in Xu Shijiu’s arms.

Riceball didn’t answer right away. She suddenly opened her eyes wide and shook her head with all her strength. She reached for a toy block with her other hand and weakly waved it.

“Auntie, I’m not sleepy. I still want to play.”

She was determined to stay awake. Only by doing that could she make sure her aunts wouldn’t sneak away while she was asleep.

“Alright, our Riceball isn’t sleepy. We’ll stay right here and play with you,” Xu Shijiu said gently. She couldn’t bring herself to be firm. She understood what sleep now meant to Riceball. She also knew exactly what Riceball was so afraid of.

Liu Lingyan had actually been standing just outside the room the entire time, leaning against the wall beside the door. She listened to everything happening inside, a bitter smile on her lips and deep pain and guilt in her heart.

She had tried so hard to make her daughter happy. Seeing her behave so well and smile so sweetly every day, she thought her daughter was truly happy. But the truth proved that she had been completely wrong.

Terribly wrong.

Riceball wasn’t happy. She wasn’t being obedient out of joy. She was afraid. She was scared that if she didn’t behave, more people would leave her. She was scared that if she understood what was really going on, someone she loved would be gone. That fear had turned her from a lively, mischievous little girl into the quiet, mature child she was now.

Liu Lingyan’s heart ached terribly.

What made her feel even worse was that she knew exactly how to fix this. If she could go back to Xu Manyue and mend their relationship, Riceball would no longer have to pretend to be brave or grown-up.

But even though this was the only solution, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t get past the wall she had built inside herself.

She had once found happiness, only to be dragged into despair by cruel fate. If things were always meant to end like this, maybe it would have been better if they had never met, never fallen in love. At least then, Riceball wouldn’t have to suffer like this. She wouldn’t be so miserable and so unhappy.

“Will you sleep with me?” Riceball was still just a child, and eventually, her strength ran out. Her voice softened as she made a small request to Lin Xinyi and Xu Shijiu.

“Of course. I’ll sleep with you,” Lin Xinyi agreed at once. She gently picked Riceball up and laid her down on the bed. Riceball began to resist, and Lin Xinyi gave her a helpless smile.

“Riceball, you’re an Omega now. Auntie Xiao Xu is an Alpha. It’s not proper for you two to sleep together.”

“Why not? Auntie used to sleep with me before,” Riceball said, honestly confused.

“That was back when our Riceball hadn’t differentiated yet. You were still our little soft baby,” Xu Shijiu teased her on purpose. Lin Xinyi couldn’t help but smile. She patted the sleepy girl in her arms, gently lulling her to sleep.

If she hadn’t been so tired, Riceball definitely would have argued back.

In the middle of the night, both Xu Shijiu and Lin Xinyi’s phones rang at the same time. Lin Xinyi was lying beside Riceball, and Xu Shijiu had been dozing off in her wheelchair nearby. They both woke up immediately.

They each grabbed their phones and quickly muted the sound before answering.

On the other end of the line, the Xu family’s bodyguards spoke in urgent and panicked voices.

“The family head has been ambushed and injured. Miss Lin, please come to the hospital immediately with Second Miss. We may need Second Miss to sign a document.”

Xu Shijiu’s call was nearly the same as Lin Xinyi’s, except her call didn’t mention the possibility of needing a signature.

But Lin Xinyi understood what that signature meant. It was almost certainly a critical condition notice.

She realized how serious the situation was, but she didn’t dare tell Xu Shijiu everything.

Luckily, the auntie who helped care for Riceball lived in the house. That was a huge help. Lin Xinyi and Xu Shijiu knocked on her door, asked her to look after the sleeping child, and then quickly prepared to leave.

“What happened?” Liu Lingyan had been woken up by the commotion. She ran out barefoot, sensing that something was terribly wrong.

“Big Sister is hurt. We’re going to the hospital,” Lin Xinyi explained. Xu Shijiu by now was completely overwhelmed and disoriented.

“She’s hurt…” Liu Lingyan’s heart immediately filled with fear and anxiety. She quickly followed them and said, “I’m coming with you.”

When they reached the hospital and stood outside the operating room, the doctors immediately urged Xu Shijiu to sign the critical condition notice. If Lin Xinyi hadn’t been holding her hand, if she hadn’t reminded herself that her sister needed her to stay calm, Xu Shijiu might have collapsed right then and there.

That single sheet of paper felt like a thousand pounds pressing against her chest.

When the doctor finally emerged, his clothes were stained with blood. The sight shocked everyone. Xu Shijiu turned to look at the bodyguards. They looked disheveled, but there wasn’t a scratch on them. There was no blood on them at all. Her face turned pale, filled with anger and despair.

“How could she get hurt? What were you all doing?” she shouted.

“We’re sorry, Second Miss. We failed to protect the family head. This was our responsibility,” the bodyguards answered without excuse. The Xu family had given them good jobs and futures. Many of them had only come this far thanks to the kindness of the family head. And yet, they hadn’t even managed to protect her when it mattered most.

“It is your fault. Of course it is. You couldn’t even protect my sister,” Xu Shijiu screamed, completely losing control. Her eyes were bloodshot with rage. Lin Xinyi stood beside her in silence, gently holding her trembling hands and letting her release her pain.

“Where was she hurt…” Liu Lingyan suddenly asked. Her voice was quiet, but her eyes were filled with emotions that were too complex to describe. Fear and dread dominated her expression.

She was terrified.

Terrified that Xu Manyue might leave them like this.

In her memory, there had never been a time when Xu Manyue was injured. The bloodstains on the doctor’s coat just now had shaken her heart and silenced all of Liu Lingyan’s swirling thoughts.

It wasn’t that she had never wondered if Xu Manyue might just be acting. Perhaps this was all just a performance meant to gain her attention. Maybe it was a way to get her to come back.

If that really were the case, Liu Lingyan thought she would probably feel even more disgusted with Xu Manyue. But now that she had arrived at the hospital and seen the glaring red blood on the doctor’s clothes, she found herself actually wishing that her suspicions had been true.

“The wound… it’s in her chest…”

“Her chest…” Liu Lingyan couldn’t believe it. Her body swayed and she quickly reached out to support herself against the nearby wall. A wound in such a dangerous place. No wonder the doctor’s face had looked so grim. No wonder the bodyguards looked so anxious and desperate.

“Sister will be alright. She will be alright!” Xu Shijiu’s voice trembled so badly it hardly sounded like her own. She gripped Lin Xinyi’s wrist tightly, looking at her with eyes full of desperation, as if clinging to her last hope. “Lin Xinyi, my sister will be okay, right? She’s going to be fine, isn’t she?”

“Yes. She will be fine. Your sister is such a strong person. Nothing will happen to her. We just need to wait patiently until she comes out. We’re going to bring her home. Everything will be alright.” Lin Xinyi was trying to comfort Xu Shijiu, but she was also trying to comfort herself. She did her best to hold back her tears.

She knew that if she broke down now, Xu Shijiu would fall apart completely. She had to stay strong.

Outside the operating room, the air was deathly still. Inside, the sound of the heart monitor echoed steadily, along with occasional murmurs between the doctor and nurses, and the clinking of surgical instruments.

Doctors were people who wrestled with death for a living. The operating table in the hospital had become the place where many people lay down and never woke up again.

Xu Shijiu hated hospitals. It was the hospital that had taken her mother away, that had taken away her legs, and that had changed the course of her life. Every time she saw a hospital, she felt nothing but resentment. But today, all she could do was silently beg and pray in her heart, hoping the doctors could save her sister.

Lin Xinyi didn’t have any particular feelings about hospitals. After all, her father had died under a white cloth in the police station. But right now, she was in agony. She had already come to see Xu Manyue as her real sister. Every minute, every second that her loved one lay in that operating room made Lin Xinyi feel like she was suffocating.

As for Liu Lingyan, she couldn’t even begin to describe what she was feeling. She was afraid of hospitals. The hospital had taken away two of the people closest to her. And now, lying in the operating room, fighting for her life, was the person who had once been responsible for causing that car accident.

If she still hated her, then she should feel at ease right now.

After all, her enemy was lying on the operating table, unconscious and critically injured. Whether she would even survive the surgery was uncertain. But the truth was, she didn’t hate her.

They all just hoped that the Xu Manyue on the operating table would make it through. They didn’t want her to remain on that cold surgical bed forever.

“Liu-jie, if my sister makes it through this, can you forgive her?” Xu Shijiu suddenly asked. Her voice broke the silence so abruptly that it startled everyone.

Was this pushing too far? Xu Shijiu wasn’t sure. She didn’t know. She only wanted to fight for one more chance for her sister.

She wanted Liu Lingyan to give her sister a chance. Even if Xu Shijiu never believed that Xu Manyue had done anything wrong, she understood that, in Liu Lingyan’s eyes, Xu Manyue had been the reason her family had fallen apart.

There was no response for a long time. Xu Shijiu and Lin Xinyi waited quietly, the hope slowly fading from Xu Shijiu’s eyes. Just when she was about to give up on hearing an answer, she suddenly heard Liu Lingyan’s hoarse and quiet voice.

“I can’t.”

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