Chapter 136: How can a person be so wicked?

At this moment, all the scenes of the past flashed through Shi Runrun's mind. From their first meeting, to his marrying her and bringing her into the Xiao family, pampering her, protecting her... everything had been a sham, a product nurtured by the ugliness of human hearts, a web of conspiracies, and a source of profound despair.

Shi Runrun couldn't help but think back to the time when she had suffered a miscarriage from a car accident and fled to B City. He had traveled thousands of miles to chase after her, and she had been so foolish—so foolish that she believed he couldn't let her go and was unwilling to lose her, which was why he had pursued her to win her back. In reality, it had only been for the sake of the heart beating within her chest.

As she thought of this, it felt as if a blade had scraped across her heart, leaving her shivering with a chilling coldness. What kind of people had she encountered in her life? Her parents in the countryside, the Shi family who didn't care about her, the grandparents who appeared kind and gentle on the surface but harbored unknown intentions, and Xiao Xuezheng, who had been plotting to use her from the very beginning...

"Ah!"

Shi Runrun could no longer hold it in. She crouched on the ground and burst into loud, agonizing sobs. Her collapse was absolute; all her love and hate merged into tears, flowing out uncontrollably like a burst dam.

They were all lying to her. Everyone around her was lying to her. It was so sickening. How could people be this cruel? Why were the people she encountered so wicked?

Shi Runrun felt as though she had been cast into a dark abyss, never to see the light again. She would never smile again, nor would she ever trust anyone again. She had once thought that if she were kind to others, they would be kind to her in return, and that if she gave her heart, it would be reciprocated with sincerity. Now, it all seemed like a colossal joke.

As she wept, she ended up lying on the concrete floor of the hospital. Patients and medical staff passed by, pointing at her, but she no longer cared. When one’s heart is shattered and in extreme pain, does anything else matter? No, not anymore.

She lay curled up on the floor, her frail body trembling. A sharp pain bloomed in her stomach, as if the baby could feel its mother’s sorrow, her grief, and her heart-wrenching agony. But she endured it.

She cried while telling herself: "Shi Runrun, you must be strong. Everyone is plotting against you; everyone wants this beating heart of yours; everyone wants you dead. But you must struggle to stay alive... Hold on, for the sake of the babies, just hold on..."

The sky gradually darkened, and a moment later, a light rain began to fall. Shi Runrun couldn't remember when she stood up, nor how she managed to drag her listless, corpse-like body to hail a taxi and return to the Xiao villa.

On the way, the rain outside poured heavily. Soaked to the bone, she sat in the back of the taxi, her tear-reddened eyes wide and hollow, devoid of any expression. Her phone rang incessantly, and just before getting out, she answered it. It was the hospital asking where she was, questioning why she couldn't be found for the surgery that was about to begin.

Surgery. A heart transplant. The surgery she had once agreed to out of gratitude for her grandparents... Hearing it now, she felt an overwhelming sense of nausea. This surgery had been a meticulous scheme of exploitation from the very start. It laid bare the depths of human depravity. Shi Runrun felt she could not be more disgusted.

Gripping her phone tightly, she said to the doctor in an icy voice, "I am not going through with the transplant. Whether the elders of the Xiao family live or die has nothing to do with me!" With that, she hung up.

The taxi soon arrived at the Xiao villa. She paid mechanically, stepped out, and walked into the villa through the rain without an umbrella. Seeing the servants he had hired, especially Sister Li, stirred a complex mixture of emotions in her. What role had Sister Li played in this massive conspiracy? Did she know? She dared not guess, nor did she want to. She did not want to believe that Sister Li, who had always been so kind to her, could also be lying to her.

Xiao Xuezheng... he had stripped away her basic trust in humanity and robbed her of her ability to love.

When Sister Li saw her drenched, she immediately brought a towel to dry her hair. But the hollow-eyed, wooden-faced Shi Runrun only managed to utter a cold, strained sentence: "I am exhausted and going upstairs to rest. Do not come up to disturb me."

She pushed past Sister Li and went straight upstairs. Watching her trembling back, Sister Li was deeply worried and immediately called Xiao Xuezheng.

Once upstairs, Shi Runrun did not go into the bedroom but turned into the study instead. The words of Chi Wanwan still echoed in her ears. After locking the study door, her red-rimmed eyes immediately fixed upon the world-famous painting of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" hanging on the wall.

She didn't care whether the painting was real or fake; what mattered was what Chi Wanwan had said: behind this painting was a safe containing her medical records and heart-matching test results. If she found those two items behind the painting, it would mean that everything Chi Wanwan said was true.

The man she had loved for so long, the man she had been willing to give her life for, had orchestrated such a grand deception to lure her into his trap.

Shi Runrun bit her lip, took a deep breath, and approached the painting of the sunflowers, reaching out to move the large frame. Within moments, a hidden safe appeared before her eyes. Her breath hitched. It was exactly as Chi Wanwan had described.

She entered the code Chi Wanwan had given her, opened the safe, and several stacks of documents caught her eye. She pulled them out. The first document was labeled "Medical Examination Report" in bold characters. Her gaze moved to the name field, and upon seeing the words "Shi Runrun," her heart tightened with agonizing pain.

It was all true. It was all true. Everything Chi Wanwan said was real. This was indeed her medical report. The date on the final page was from when she had first been brought back to the city hospital after being picked up from the countryside. Xiao Xuezheng had obtained all her medical information back then.

Heh. How formidable he was; there seemed to be nothing he couldn't accomplish. He wanted her heart, so he set up such a grand deception to lure her in. Truly, a masterful scheme.

She set aside the medical report, and underneath it lay the next document, one she dreaded seeing but could not avoid: the heart-matching test report for her and her grandfather.