Love For Life

31. She Lives

Two years went by...

On a bright and sunny day, a woman sat elegantly in a garden, playing and teasing a little two year old boy sitting happily in her arms, as the winds brushed gently at her delicate and yet pale face.

Then, a tall and yet gentle looking man came out from the house with a blanket, and laid it over the woman's body.

The man said gently, ''Though the weather looks fine, it'll still be a little chilly for a few days, careful don't catch a cold now.''

The woman shook her head a little, ''I like weathers like this, comfortable and warm. You won't catch a cold from these winds.''

''You won't, but aren't you afraid that the boy in your arms might?'' The man said, in pretended anger.

The woman laughed a little, then pulled and wrapped the blanket around her and the little boy in her arms. Then suddenly, she covered her mouth, and coughed softly.

When the cough receded, the woman turned her head to look at the man standing beside her, ''I really hadn't thought that I could have lived for two more years. But even now, I can feel my body decaying away day by day. I know, that I have no more than two months left. You don't have to hide it from me, I already knew. I only hope that, after I die, you'll be willing to adopt my child. I don't want my child to go back to his heartless man of a father. I know it's a lot to ask, but I don't have any other choice. My mother is in no shape to look after children.''

This woman's name was Xia He. She didn't die. 

Two years ago, after the doctors pronounced her death and that the operation had failed, she was dragged at the gate of death back into the world of the living by her friend who had just returned to the country, by now a renowned doctor in the field of medicine with a PhD degree. He was barely in time at the brink of her death, but he quickly took over the situation, and in the end he managed to pull her back to life.

After he saved Xia He, he quickly got her out of the hospital to another facility, and worked to make everyone believe that Xia He had really died.

By then, Xia He had lost all hopes through and through. She no longer hoped to return to Gu Zechuan's side. Gu Zechuan didn't love her, she could accept that. But, he had no love for his own son. Even if both the child and her had lived on, what reasons could there possibly be for them to go back to him?

Seeing the loneliness in Xia He's expression, the man called Qin Xuan couldn't help but say to her, ''I heard from your mother that, after Gu Zechuan knew that you were dead, he went crazy going all around different places trying to look for you. He couldn't accept the fact that you died. He regretted. I know you don't have much more time left, are you sure, that you don't want to see him one last time?''

Xia He could only smile bitterly. Remembering his final words to her, who refused her pleas on her deathbed to come and see her one last time, ''Would he have cared whether I lived or died? He probably went looking for me just to make sure that I really have died. That's how much he wanted me dead. If I appear before him again, I may not even be able to live to the end of the two months I still have left of my life.''

''But I heard from your mother, that he even begged her on his knees just so he can keep you ashes. You know how arrogant of a person Gu Zechuan is, he won't just go as far as kneeling in front of anyone if he wasn't desperate. I think, he really had regretted the way he treated you.'' Qin Xuan offered his point of view.

Over the two years, Xia He paid little attention to news about Gu Zechuan, and today was the first time in two years that Qin Xuan mentioned his name in his conversation with her. She wanted to forget about him, but she had loved him too deeply, so deeply that she just couldn't forget about him. Though it has been two years already, her feelings for Gu Zechuan lessened not one bit. But though she still loved him, she no longer wanted to see him again.

But when she heard what length Gu Zechuan had gone just so he could have her mother's permission to bring her ashes away with him, her heart jumped. There was no way that she could lie to her own heart, nor her heart to her.