Volume 1, Chapter 180: Proof of Deep Love

"Wanwan..."

When Lu Jinnian's voice sounded, Sang Wan had just dropped Lu Xiaomu off at kindergarten.

Turning around, she saw Lu Jinnian stepping out of the driver's seat.

Realizing that he had been sitting there quietly watching her get out of the car, watch Lu Xiaomu enter the kindergarten, and then watch her walk back, Sang Wan frowned.

Deep in her heart, that inexplicable sense of unease from the ski resort resurfaced.

When she spoke again, her tone was full of displeasure, "Do you need something?"

"If it has nothing to do with Xiaomu, please spare me your words on any other matter!"

She added this before Lu Jinnian could speak. Seeing his expression darken abruptly, she assumed he had come on behalf of Su Baohui.

Sang Wan turned and walked away.

"Wanwan..."

Lu Jinnian caught up in a few strides and grabbed her arm.

The exact moment Sang Wan wrenched herself free, Lu Jinnian abruptly released her and took a step back, as if making a statement, "I didn't come for my mother. I have handed that matter entirely over to my lawyer. Don't worry, I will not interfere! In the end, whatever the court rules, I will accept completely. Please rest assured!"

Sang Wan's expression softened slightly.

Lu Jinnian's face was etched with pain, "Wanwan, I know I was wrong! I also know that the wounds of the past are completely irreparable. But Wanwan, can you really be so ruthless as to sever everything we once shared?"

"We loved each other so deeply back then! You gave everything for this family... Wanwan, I truly know I was wrong. Give me a chance, let me spend the rest of my life atoning for my sins. Let's go back to how things were, back to the past, won't you? Wanwan, I'm begging you!"

For the past few months, Lu Jinnian had not slept a single sound night.

During the day at the office, staying busy left him no time for other thoughts, making the time feel slightly easier to bear.

At noon, his executive assistant would bring him lunch, and after eating, he would snatch a moment to doze off. That was the only time he could rest with a single-minded focus.

Yet from dusk onwards, he would fall into a state of utter aimlessness and agitation, drifting like a rootless duckweed, not knowing where to float.

He stopped going to business dinners.

He turned down gatherings with friends.

Only returning home offered a fleeting moment of peace, but that home—once his sanctuary—had now become a curse trapping him.

No matter where he walked, his mind was filled with memories of past warmth and happiness, which only served to highlight how his current plight was entirely self-inflicted.

Lu Jinnian had had enough of days like this!

"Wanwan, I'm begging you, won't you come back? You, me, and Xiaomu—I swear that for the rest of my life, I will love you well and nurture our family properly... I won't be like before, consumed only by work and neglecting home; my thoughts will never wander for even a second. Give me a chance to make amends, won't you? Wanwan, I'm begging you!"

Over the past few months, Lu Jinnian had turned these words over and over in his mind countless times.

He had thought he could only utter them in private when it was just the two of them, but Sang Wan had never once given him a chance.

At this moment, people were passing by in streams, frequently turning their heads to look. Among them were several familiar faces—parents of Lu Xiaomu's classmates.

Yet Lu Jinnian could care less about any of that.

As long as Sang Wan would come back, as long as she would give him this chance.

His pride?

To hell with it!

"Wanwan..."

Taking a tentative step forward, Lu Jinnian looked at Sang Wan's delicate face and pleaded, "Wanwan, we loved each other so deeply once. Inside my body, I still carry one of your kidneys—aren't all of these proofs of our deep love? Wanwan, I'm begging you, come back, won't you?"

Proof of deep love?

It would have been better had he not mentioned it, but the mere mention brought back memories of those solitary months she had spent lying alone in the hospital.

With an indifferent expression, Sang Wan took a step back. "Lu Jinnian, to you, that is proof of a deep love. But to me, it is the dark history of my own supreme stupidity and blindness."

Lu Jinnian's expression shifted slightly.

Sang Wan said in a deep voice, "How utterly foolish was I to risk my own life to give you a kidney? And what was my fate in the end?"

"Lu Jinnian!"

Her gaze was icy cold, devoid of a shred of warmth.

Looking at him, Sang Wan said, "The Sang Wan who loved you deeply and whom you once loved deeply died in that hospital ward a long time ago. If you still have a shred of conscience left, if you remember what she once gave and how she treated you and that family, then please let go and stop pestering me!"

"Wanwan!" Lu Jinnian cried out in dismay.

Without sparing him even a glance, Sang Wan got straight into her car and drove away.

The tires rolled past him, and the cold wind sliced across his face.

Staring in disbelief at the direction in which the Ferrari had vanished, Lu Jinnian acutely seized upon the vital implication hidden in Sang Wan's words.

"Jinnian, I want to go home..."

"Jinnian, I'm dying..."

The Sang Wan on the other end of the phone had sounded weak and helpless, and that day happened to be Lu Xiaomu's fifth birthday.

She had been so desperate to come home and celebrate her son's birthday with him.

How had he responded?

He had told her to go to hell!

His heart began to pound wildly for no reason, and Lu Jinnian didn't even know how he had managed to walk back to his car.

When he dialed his attending physician's phone number, his hands were shaking.

Minutes later, Lu Jinnian's face was ashen.

Plop!

His phone slipped from his palm, sliding across the center console before dropping beneath the seat.

In Lu Jinnian's mind echoed the doctor's detached and icy recitation: "After Mrs. Lu donated a kidney to you, her physical strength continuously declined. By the time she returned to the hospital for a follow-up check, it was already end-stage renal failure. She practically died on the operating table; fortunately, a kidney source from Shanghai was delivered in time. She remained in a coma for three days and nights after surgery before waking up... What, Mr. Lu, you didn't know?"

He truly hadn't known.

He had only known that she was weak every day, assuming it was simply the body's reduced immunity resulting from donating a kidney to her husband.

Later on, when she was hospitalized and underwent multiple surgeries, he had simply rushed over to sign the papers, staying in the hospital room for only a fleeting moment before leaving.

What had he been busy with back then?

Busy with the company.

Busy with business dinners.

Busy with... enjoying the novelty brought to him by Lin Zhaozhao.

"Jinnian, I'm dying..."

"Lu Jinnian, the Sang Wan who loved you deeply is already dead..."

One voice was weak.

The other was icy and unyielding.

The two voices alternated and lingered in his ears. Lu Jinnian closed his eyes, his entire face wracked with the agonizing pain of bitter regret.

The car window was tapped.

A security guard urged him to drive away promptly.

Lu Jinnian started the engine and slowly pulled away.

When he walked into his office with a pale face, Lu Jinnian seemed oblivious to his surroundings. He mechanically pulled open a drawer, took out some stomach medication, and swallowed a few pills.

As the bitterness spread and the pain in his stomach intensified, the thought that this was merely a fraction of the suffering Sang Wan had once endured only deepened the anguish in Lu Jinnian's eyes.

Like a walking corpse, Lu Jinnian spent the entire day in a daze.

When his phone chimed insistently, Lu Jinnian glanced back at it and frowned, rejecting the call.

It rang again; he rejected it again.

Moments later, a knock sounded on the office door, and his executive assistant walked in, saying, "Mr. Lu, Miss Lin called to say that the young master is feeling unwell."

Lu Jinnian frowned.

The phone on his desk rang out insistently once more.

Lu Jinnian answered the call. On the other end, Lin Zhaozhao's voice sounded anxious, "Jinnian, Teacher Tingting just called me and said that Mu-ge has a stomachache. If you're busy, I can go pick him up."

"No need!"

Hearing that Lu Xiaomu had a stomachache, Lu Jinnian had already risen from his chair and headed toward the door.

He refused in a cold voice and hung up the phone.

On the other end of the line, Lin Zhaozhao swiftly typed and sent out a text message.