Hearing what Shen Qiang said, in an instant, not only did Purple's gaze tense up, Pan Zheng's wife Yun Lan suddenly stood up and snapped harshly, "Mr. Shen, my husband and I have been very polite to you, but don't go too far. You're not welco here. You can leave now."
Purple fell silent at those words, but Shen Qiang only smiled slightly and said, "Leader Pan, don't you want to say sothing?"
At this, Pan Zheng sighed, motioned for Yun Lan beside him to sit down, then spoke, "The rumors in the Cultivation World are terrifying, but what's truly terrifying is the human heart. This matter… it's already been eighteen years and nine months."
"You rember it that clearly?" Shen Qiang raised his brows in surprise.
Pan Zheng smiled and said to the tense Purple and the grim-faced Yun Lan, "Eat. We'll talk while we eat."
Yun Lan stayed silent.
Purple started eating subconsciously, extrely nervous all the while.
After a faint sigh, Pan Zheng said, "Not many people in the Cultivation World know my ex-wife, because back then, I was just a naless disciple of the Pan Family."
Looking at Shen Qiang, Pan Zheng said, "My ex-wife was the third daughter of the Ye Family in Shu. She had a fierce temper and was beautiful. Back then, you could say she and I fell in love at first sight."
Yun Lan was displeased and rolled her eyes at Pan Zheng.
Pan Zheng smiled and said, "That's all in the past now."
"Tell how she died," Shen Qiang said.
Yun Lan flared up a bit. "Mr. Shen, you're going too far."
Pan Zheng, on the other hand, calmly signaled her not to lose her temper, then said evenly, "The Ye Family in Shu was a very small Cultivation Sect. The Sect's strength could barely be counted as third-rate at best."
"And at that ti, the Pan Family of the Thirty-two Skillful Hands was clearly on a much higher level than her family. So my father didn't want to be with her. But you know how it is—young people only believe in love—so I still stayed with her."
"Then the following year, we had a daughter. Everything was great. We were very happy."
Pan Zheng's expression gradually dimd. "But after our daughter was weaned, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, already in the middle to late stages. At first, I took her for proper treatnt and she had surgery, but things didn't get better. They only got worse."
"The doctor said she had at most six months to live. Her mood plumted and she refused any more treatnt." Pan Zheng sighed. "After that, I took her and our daughter traveling everywhere, sightseeing, and I refined all kinds of Elixir Pills for her to take."
"I did everything I could to try to keep her alive. My Alchemy Skill improved by leaps and bounds, but a year and a half later, her life was still about to co to an end."
Looking at Shen Qiang, Pan Zheng said very calmly, "She was in agony, pain she couldn't bear. Every day I gave her all kinds of Elixir Pills, hoping one of them could cure her. Later, she couldn't hold on anymore. When my child and I weren't paying attention, she killed herself."
"We argued about it countless tis. I told her she had to hold on, had to live, that I would do everything possible to save her."
"But in the end, she felt that the daily tornt of pain was torture, and death was the only release."
Hearing this, Shen Qiang fell silent. He glanced sideways at Purple and found her staring blankly.
"And then?" Shen Qiang raised his brows.
After a brief silence, Pan Zheng said, "She beca hysterical. The large amounts of painkillers gave her uremia. Then she began trying to commit suicide. When I stopped her, she scread that I was a demon."
Shen Qiang sighed.
Without aning to, he noticed that Purple's eyes seed misty with tears.
"So she died on the hospital bed?" Shen Qiang asked tactfully.
Pan Zheng shook his head. After a mont of silence, he said, a bit agitated, "She jumped off a cliff. I will never forgive her for that!"
Hearing this, Shen Qiang asked in surprise, "Why?"
Pan Zheng took a deep breath. "By then her illness was in its late stage. She'd lost a lot of hair and was very thin. She knew she didn't have long left. Then one day, she dressed herself up very beautifully and told she wanted to go see the river."
"So I took her and our daughter there." Pan Zheng arched his brows. "She was sitting on the cliff by the riverbank. Our daughter started fussing that she needed to pee, so I put her down on a flat spot to the side. But right then, my ex-wife said to , 'I should go now. Don't try to save .'"
Shen Qiang frowned. "And then?"
Pan Zheng said calmly, "She jumped. Right in front of , just a few ters away."
"You should have saved her!" Purple suddenly cut in.
Pan Zheng gave a bitter smile, then said, "And then what? What would that change? She was bent on dying. She really couldn't hold on anymore—late-stage cancer, uremia. I'd already exhausted every thod I had, but I still couldn't save her."
"You still should have pulled her back up first!" Purple said angrily.
Pan Zheng sighed. "I didn't. Because in that instant, I had only one thought—that she really couldn't go on living, and I should grant her last wish, which was to die cleanly, without dragging it out."
Purple clenched her teeth, her eyes full of anger.
But in Shen Qiang's heart there was a trace of sympathy. After all, no one would choose such an extre way out unless they had truly reached a dead end.
"And then?" Shen Qiang asked in surprise. "You refuse to forgive her because she chose to jump off that cliff?"
At these words, Pan Zheng's eyes suddenly turned icy cold. He shouted, "Because when she jumped off that cliff, I lost my daughter! That's what I can't forgive her for!"
Purple's delicate body trembled.
Shen Qiang froze. "What do you an?"
Pan Zheng fell silent, but his face flushed red with anger. He shouted, "When she jumped, she didn't fall to the foot of the cliff, she fell into the river. The instant she jumped, I thought about granting her wish, but I regretted it imdiately. I still wanted her to live. Even if she died, I wanted to choose a good feng shui spot to bury her."
"The current there is very swift. I had to go into the water to save her right away. At the ti my Cultivation was only at the Nascent Soul Stage. I had no way to take my daughter into the water with ." Pan Zheng said furiously, "So I left my daughter on the cliff and told her to be good and wait there, that Daddy would bring Mommy right back."
Then Pan Zheng went on in a rage, "But when I finally found my ex-wife's corpse and ca back up to the cliff, my daughter was gone! She'd disappeared. I went mad and searched there for a full three years!"
"Every village, every fishing boat, every inch of the mountains and forests—I searched it all, but I just couldn't find my daughter!" Tears welled inexplicably in Pan Zheng's eyes. He looked at Shen Qiang very seriously and said, "If you can help find my daughter, whatever you want, I can give it to you!"
At this, Shen Qiang glanced sideways at Purple, who had tears in her eyes and was clearly even more worked up than Pan Zheng. He coughed lightly and said, "If I hear anything about her, I'll let you know."
User Comments
0 comments from readers