Love For Life

15. He Won't See Her One Last Time

At Xia He's desperate pleas, Gu Zechuan simply stared at her coldly. He hugged Qinglian as if she was the only thing that mattered in the world. Without even sparing an eye for the woman kneeling on the floor, he said, with disdain in his voice, ''Xia He. Playing the innocent one yet again. I haven't even began with you for stabbing my little Lian, and already you jumped right in to playing the victim? Have you not even the slightest sense of shame?! Stay here and reflect on your crime!''

With that Gu Zechuan turned and left the room with Yang Qinglian in his arms. He never looked back, at Xia He, now lying sprawled on the floor.

Overwhelmed with pain, Xia He laid on the floor, squirming. All strength had left her, but still she struggled with whatever she still had. Desperately, she crawled to the door, or tried to, to leave her room. The caretaker that Xia He hired, who saw everything that had happened, was scared out of her wits. The last thing she wanted was having someone's life on her hands. When she saw that Xia He was truly at the brink of her death struggling to hold onto her life, the caretaker immediately called the emergency line of the hospital, and only then was Xia He finally taken to the hospital.

It was already midnight when Xia He was finally admitted to the hospital's emergency department. By that time, the cancerous cells in her had already begun spreading to every part of her system.  Coupled with the child that was coming prematurely, there was no hope of even postponing the cancer. The only choice the doctor had, was either to save the immediate life of the adult, or that of the infant.

Since long ago, Xia He knew already that her days were numbered. Now that there was still a chance for the child, she chose the life of her child over her own without a second thought.

As an aged saying goes, seven lives while eight dies. According to an old midwives tale, if the premature child was only seven months old, there was a good chance that the child will live. But if the child was eight months old, then n one could say for sure whether it will o'live or not.

Lying on the stone cold operating table, as Xia He remembered her final scene with Gu Zechuan, how he turned his back to her and went away holding tightly onto Yang Qinglian in his arms, her heart pained as if even her own heart wanted to send her on her way sooner.

But, as she remembered the child inside of her, her child that was yet to be born, a vigor returned to her heart as it once again pumped forcefully.

In the end, it was a successful delivery for Xia He. In this moment, the child had been inside her for all this time finally came into this world, and it's at this exact same moment, that Xia He's own life entered a countdown to her death with each passing second.

According to the doctor,  Xia He still had three days remaining of her life. There was still time for her to see her child with her own eyes, and to be with him for the final stretch of her life.

In the end,  Xia He still wanted to see Gu Zechuan just one last time. She knew that, he must be at Yang Qinglian's side at this moment. But, she didn't have lone to live now. She wanted to see him on last time before she finally died.

Xia He found her phone, and made a call to Gu Zechuan. It rang, and rang, for a long time, before Gu Zechuan finally picked up her call.

At this point, Xia He said, with all the gentleness in the world, to Gu Zechuan at the other end of the phone, ''Gu Zechuan, our child is born. He is a boy. Can you come and see him? And while you're at it, I want to take a look at you.''

At the other side of the phone, Gu Zechuan fell silent, and Yang Qinglian's voice sounded instead.

''Zechuan, please Zechuan, don't leave me. I'm scared. It's scary all by myself. Won't you stay here with me? Don't leave me.''

And finally, Gu Zechuan broke his silence. He said gently to Yang Qinglian, ''Alright,I'm right here with you. I'm not going anywhere.''

At this point, Xia He already knew in her head that Gu Zechuan wouldn't be coming. But, in her heart, she still held on to that final thread of hope.

''Gu Zechuan, I'm about to die. Won't you come to see me one last time before I go?''

Hearing Xia He's words, Gu Zechuan immediately began suspecting that Xia He was up to something again. So he said to Xia He, at the other side of the phone, without a thread of mercy in his voice, ''I don't ever want to see your face again. You'd do the world a favor if you died right here and now.''

With that, Xia He calmly hung up the phone. So it really was true all along. There were never any rooms for her in Gu Zechuan's heart. He would only feel better if she had died.

'Gu Zechuan, within your chest, the heart that beats within your chest, does it feel the same way you do?'

In the end, Gu Zechuan never came to see Xia He, even when he was in full knowledge that she had bore him a son. In the final three days of Xia He's life, the only one that kept her company was the little life that had been with her for seven months.

In the final moments of her life, she laid on her sickbed and coughed, and coughed, and coughed. As her cough continued, as blood came splattering with each and every single cough, her sight began to blur and distort. As sunlight fell onto her eyes through the window and the mesh, in a blur of whiteness, she felt as if she saw a face. His face, the face that was carved into her soul, that she longed and yearned for, that gave her all the warmth in the world.

''... Attempt to CPR... unsuccessful. The patient has passed away. The time of her death is...'' The doctor pronounced her death, though meticulously and methodically, his voice was filled with great sympathies.

Inside the ward, the doctors and nurses gathered around Xia He, looking at her passing away before their eyes. They sympathized with her. They pitied her. It was a difficult life she had lived. Until her death, even after she had died, her husband never appeared. He never once came to see her, or the child she had bore for him.

Gu Zechuan stayed with Yang Qinglian. A days went by, unrest began to grow in his heart. Perhaps he had finally found it in his conscience. He reasoned that, though Xia He was calculating, deceiving, and committed horrendous and horrible acts, she did bore him a son. The child is innocent. Even if he won't see Xia He, he should at least go to see the child. Xia He had said, with confidence, that after the child was born he can perform DNA if she wished to. So in his heart, he believed Xia He, he believed that the child was indeed his.

Gu Zechaun had to ask the caretaker in his house, to finally know just which hospital Xia He had went to. He hurried to the hospital, and asked for which room Xia He was in.

Seeing that Gu Zechuan had finally appeared, the doctor locked his eyebrows into a frown. Everyone knew this man. The only thing the doctor didn't know, is that the Mrs. Gu who had frequented the hospital so much in the passing months, was actually The Mrs. Gu!

''Doctor, which room is Xia He in?'' Gu Zechuan asked.

the doctor only stared at Gu Zechuan strangely. 'Doesn't he now that his wife had died?'

Gu Zechaun's patience began to wear thin, ''I'm asking you, which room is Xia He's room. Are you deaf?''

The dotcor was frightened by the amount of ill will on Gu Zechaun's expression. But to such heartless man, he had no patience for him either, Quietly, the doctor gave him only one word.

''Morgue.''