Chapter 74: I’m sorry

Translator: Abo Dammen

☆

Case Four: Sicilian Defense

The crowd erupted in terrified screams. Reporters instinctively pressed their shutters, the intense rapid-fire flashes making it hard to keep one’s eyes open. The scene seemed to lose frames, the chaotic reality sliced into montage-like fragments—

He Yixun rushed forward swiftly, his figure taut like a black arrow, shoving through the bewildered crowd, his form disappearing into the frenzied strobe of camera flashes.

Behind the marble pillar, someone stood calmly holding a black pistol, a wisp of smoke curling from the muzzle, the barrel seemingly still retaining a scorching heat. 

The contrast between motion and stillness was stark. The lens ultimately focused where the gun was aimed, which was on the pure white cashmere coat, where a vivid, gorgeous flower had bloomed, spreading across the chest at an alarming rate, like a dahlia bursting into sudden, violent bloom.

The noise of the outside world felt muffled, as if separated by a wall. Lin Mei moved sluggishly, looking down at herself, her body swaying unsteadily. In her daze, she glimpsed a dark figure rushing towards her through the crowd. She raised a hand, wanting to touch him, but staggered and fell backward, the hem of her coat tracing a pale arc in the air.

“Drop the gun!” He Yixun shouted.

Xing Yong released the grip, letting the trigger hang from his index finger, and raised his hands without resistance. Officers swarmed him, pinning him to the ground. Excess officers formed a human wall in front of the reporters, preventing the lenses from recording the shooting footage without any bottom line. 

“Lin Mei.” He Yixun half-knelt beside Lin Mei, pressing hard with both hands against the bleeding gunshot wound. “Listen to me. Don’t fall asleep. We’re taking you to the hospital right now.”

Lin Mei slowly raised a hand, as if testing reality, and cupped He Yixun’s cheek. Realizing it wasn’t an illusion, she moved her lips, “I was about to turn myself in… I didn’t break my promise…”

“Don’t talk. It’s not important.” He Yixun used his bloodied hand to pull out a handkerchief, stuffing it into the bullet hole to staunch the bleeding, then moved as if to scoop Lin Mei up into his arms.

But as soon as he moved, Lin Mei coughed, and pink, frothy blood overflowed from her mouth and nose, staining her pale lips. 

Lin Mei’s lung was punctured.

She would soon go into hemorrhagic shock, ultimately dying from multiple organ failure. The nearest hospital was a half-hour drive away. She wouldn’t make it that long.

“It’s too late,” Lin Mei mustered.

Although the person in his arms still had faint breaths, residual warmth lingering beneath her skin, her life was slipping away rapidly, like sand through an hourglass. All the steps learned in first aid classes became useless knowledge, utterly unhelpful. True despair wasn’t facing death; it was having time left, yet still being unable to change the outcome. 

A sense of powerlessness pressed down on He Yixun, making it hard to breathe. His calm voice carried a barely perceptible tremor. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

If she had told him she wanted to talk, told him all of this, let him prepare earlier, it wouldn’t have ended like this.

“I…” As soon as Lin Mei opened her mouth, she coughed up more bloody foam. Her breath carried an abnormal gurgling sound—blood was choking her trachea.

The person in his arms was exceptionally aged, completely mismatched with the heroic and spirited woman from his memories. As a child, he always thought she was tall and imposing. But, holding her now, she felt so frail. 

“Don’t speak.” He Yixun couldn’t bear to watch Lin Mei struggling to swallow the bloody foam. He held her against his chest, raised his head, and silently stared straight ahead.

Matters having reached this point, he didn’t need any explanations from Lin Mei. He only hoped time would slow its passage, letting Lin Mei remain in his embrace a little longer.

“No…” Lin Mei suddenly clutched He Yixun’s lapel tightly, gasping for breath in large, ragged mouthfuls, as if burning through the last of her life. With immense difficulty, she forced three words from her throat, “I’m so sorry…”

“Son, Mom… is so sorry… to you.” 

It seemed she hadn’t said these words for so long that they came out haltingly.

Having mustered all her strength to say this, Lin Mei’s hand suddenly fell limp, like the last withered leaf on a branch, severing its final connection to the world.

Only then did He Yixun realize that for him, a single “I’m sorry” from Lin Mei was enough.

He didn’t lower his head, his expression quite calm. But his fingertips dug into Lin Mei’s shoulders, and a strange ache swelled beneath his lower eyelids. Transparent liquid trailed down his chin, dripping onto the blood-soaked clothes, disappearing without a trace. 

“Aunt Lin!” Luo You and Xu Pei finally pushed their way to the front, only to be stopped by the dutiful junior officers.

Luo You, emotionally charged, frantically yelled, “Let me through!” while reporters shoved from behind, all concerned with one question: Is Lin Mei dead?

Peering over the human wall formed by the police, Xu Pei watched He Yixun’s back as he held Lin Mei. His heart felt like a sandbag filled with lead, weighing heavily in his chest.

Ever since witnessing Lin Mei kill someone with his own eyes, He Yixun had projected all his most negative emotions onto her, using the most vicious words to attack her. But seeing her life end this way, he had grown quiet, as if transformed back into a little boy who had lost his mother, his entire being radiating a profound sense of helplessness. 

Especially in front of so many media outlets, it seemed he was using his own body to maintain his mother’s final shred of dignity.

In the end, Lin Mei’s self-orchestrated drama had become reality. The day Xu Pei arrived, he happened to encounter Lin Mei being shot at, which seemed to foreshadow her eventual outcome.

The pure white coat, soaked in blood, had turned into her favorite shade of red, dyeing her departure with a tragic, heroic hue…

A little over ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived, but Lin Mei had already stopped breathing. 

In the hospital morgue, Luo You cried uncontrollably, blaming himself for not discovering sooner that the Progressive Society had sent a hitman. He Yixun, on the other hand, remained very calm the whole time, but the fact that he silently tended to Lin Mei’s appearance for her final rest still revealed his abnormal state.

“Yixun-ge, you must catch the mastermind behind this,” Luo You said between sobs.

“Mm.” He Yixun carefully wiped the blood from the corner of Lin Mei’s mouth with a damp tissue.

“I’m not leaving,” Luo You said, his voice firm after one last sniffle, his gaze resolute. “I’m staying to manage the charity foundation and fight against those old men.” 

Xu Pei couldn’t help but view this young master in a new light. To deceive Zhou Ye, he had pretended to be foolish, but in reality, he was sharp as a tack and had the courage to act on his convictions.

“Aren’t you afraid the Progressive Society will retaliate?” Xu Pei asked.

“Pei Pei-ge, the Progressive Society has been officially announced as dissolved,” Luo You corrected. “Even if they form a new organization, I’ll take them down, bit by bit!”

The news of Lin Mei’s shooting spread quickly, and people inside the hospital were also buzzing with discussion. 

No one could help but sigh with mixed emotions over the sudden death of the former mayor. Rather than discussing her political achievements, people clearly preferred conspiracy theories. The so-called ‘truths’ online weren’t far off from the actual facts, either.

After parting ways with Luo You in the parking lot, Xu Pei and He Yixun returned to the car. The doors closed, shutting out the outside noise.

Finally alone, Xu Pei took off his mask. The smell of dried blood was still within tolerable limits. He slipped his fingers into He Yixun’s palm, interlacing them. “Are you okay?”

He Yixun let out a slow breath. “No.” 

Xu Pein found it hard to gauge exactly how not okay He Yixun was, especially since the circumstances of his parents’ deaths were completely different from Lin Mei’s situation.

He wanted to ask but didn’t know how to bring it up. Unexpectedly, He Yixun spoke directly, “I regret that I couldn’t save her life. It could have been prevented. This regret makes me very uncomfortable.”

“Is it just regret?” Xu Pei asked.

As if seeing through his own facade, He Yixun shed the pretense of rationality. His slumped shoulders revealed desolation and fragility. “It feels like a piece of my life is missing… I don’t know how to describe it.” 

In truth, no matter how much conflict existed between this mother and son, there had always been an emotional bond connecting them.

Those were their unique shared experiences and memories. Although mostly negative, they constituted a part of He Yixun’s character.

Now that connection had been abruptly severed, and in such a regrettable way. It was only natural for He Yixun to feel distressed.

Xu Pei thought of many things to say, but they all felt inadequate. “You’re grieving. That’s normal.” 

He Yixun didn’t want to admit he could have such emotions. But the fact was, while reason told him Lin Mei had reaped what she sowed, emotion overwhelmingly overpowered reason, weighing heavily on his heart.

He began searching for a rational cloak for his feelings. “Lin Mei shouldn’t have died like this. She should have faced legal judgment, not revenge from those people.

“She owed explanations to others too… This isn’t right…”

“He Yixun,” Xu Pei interrupted him. “You can feel bad. You don’t need to find excuses.” 

He Yixun’s lips moved soundlessly. He turned and hugged Xu Pei. “Pei Pei, I feel so bad.”

Author’s Feed:

Originally planned to wrap up the arc this chapter and return to the ABO world next chapter, but ended up dragging on and didn’t get to the later plot points. Cutting it off here for now (°з」∠)

P.S. Luo You is just a little promiscuous ‘1’ who, even in bed, doesn’t like to ‘serve’ others, expecting them to do the work themselves…