Epiphanies of Rebirth Chapter 70 (Part 1)
Translated by Pure (ko-fi)
Chapter 70.1 Jiang Qiaqia's heart throbbed painfully, as if she had cut off something with her own hands.
The medical bed rapidly descended the corridor of the hospital.
Jiang Qiaqia ran alongside the bed, her high heels tapped loudly on the floor, but was muffled by her anxious shouting of Qi Qing's name.
With a solemn face, the doctor opened Qi Qing's eyelids to assess his pupils. The entrance to the operating room opened like a black hole to another dimension.
Jiang Qiaqia was blocked from entering and could only helplessly watch as Qi Qing was pushed inside. She was close to collapsing from crying. With her face covered by her hands, Jiang Qiaqia slowly slid to the ground against a wall.
She was usually a beauty-loving and vain person and wouldn’t even leave the house if her nail polish was not perfect. But at this time, one of her heels had broken off, her hair a mess, and her clothes disheveled, but she didn’t even bother to tidy herself up or care.
Only her faint cry echoed in the dim corridor of the emergency room. Qi Kai hesitated for a moment, and in the end, he knelt down and comforted her, "Mrs. Jiang..."
"Waah..." Unexpectedly, Jiang Qiaiqaa cried even louder. She raised his head, tears all over her face, and begged, "He fell down all of a sudden...it must be about the loan!...Mr. Qi, you must help us..."
Qi Kai was in a dilemma. He rushed to the conference room as soon as he heard Jiang Qiaqia’s cry. The moment he saw Qi Qing lying on the ground, his original anger was overwhelmed by panic. No matter what, this was human life. Even though Qi Kai hated this couple, he never thought of killing them. But Jiang Qiaqia's request was not something he could easily accomplish.
If it was just a few years ago, when he was still making a lot of money by smuggling in Qunnan Province, let alone 90 million, 200 million was even doable. However, all his profits from that time have already been confiscated, and after returning to Yan City, all of his various business endeavors have not gone well. The profits from real estate were far less than that of the earnings from smuggling. So much so that even after so long, not to mention the bank loan, he had a hard time coming up with the 20 million yuan that Shi Nanxing wanted.
As if exhausted from crying, Jiang Qiaqia’s petite head tilted slightly to the side, and leaned against Qi Kai's arm. Although she was past her prime, Jiang Qiaqia’s figure was well maintained and she didn’t look a day past her prime. Her hair is still thick and smooth and her sobbing voice was like a nightingale's, "What shall I do if something were to happen to Qi Qing..."
Even though Qi Kai was a notorious player, he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed at this moment. The associate standing behind him frowned. He quickly leaned over, grabbed Qi Kai's arm, and lifted him up.
Jiang Qiaqia had put her weight to the side, so she almost fell to the ground with Qi Kai’s support. She quickly stabilized herself with her hands, and then raised her head, tears still streaming down her face.
Qi Kai's associate frowned and coldly reminded, "Mrs. Jiang, Mr. Qi had just been pushed inside."
Jiang Qiaqia didn't seem to understand the meaning of his words as the sound of her wailing became much louder than before. After a while, the lights in the operating room went out, and the doctor came out soon after.
Everyone rushed forward, and Jiang Qiaqia asked eagerly, "Doctor, how is he?"
The doctor stared at her for a moment, sighed, and shook his head.
"We’ve already done our best."
Jiang Qiaqia blanked out for two whole seconds, and then broke down. She grabbed the doctor's white robe and shook it, "How is that possible?! How could it be?! He was fine when he was sent in!!"
The doctor tried hard to gently break free from her grasp, but was cut all over by her sharp nails, so he quickly lost his patience. "He was fine when he was sent in?! The patient's heart had already stopped beating when he was in the ambulance! The patient's coronary artery had clotted and his heart had been receiving insufficient blood supply for a while now! He should have already experienced symptoms such as angina for a long time now. Are you his wife? Why have you never advised him to go to the hospital for a physical examination? If it had been discovered earlier, then he would have been admitted to the hospital for recuperation treatment. Then the ending would not have been like this!"
Jiang Qiaqia's face was overwhelmed by the sudden scolding. When she realized what the doctor had just said, she no longer could muster any strength to rebuttal. When Qi Qing's stiff body was slowly pushed out, she wailed and threw herself on the bed. Dread, sadness, fear, bewilderment... Countless emotions engulfed her like surging flames.
Qi Qing died.
He actually died…
Jiang Qiaqia had experienced various twists and turns in her life: divorce, abandonment of her son, severing ties with her father, etc., etc., but there had never been a single event that had caused her to become as frantic as she was now.
Qi Qing died. What should she do in the future?
It was as if a giant tree that had sheltered her for most of her life just fell down. Her world was now in chaos, and she had nowhere to go and nowhere to return to.
Affection was secondary, and such a thing had already been worn down by the various setbacks they encountered. But she had sacrificed a lot for this marriage. She and Qi Qing could be considered stranded people on the same lifeboat[1]. Qiqing Real Estate belonged to them both, regardless of profit or debt.
But now, Qi Qing let go and left, like a deserter abandoning his comrades from the same trench.
What about his family? What about the loan he left behind? What about the employees in the Qiqing Real Estate company who are constantly pestering her to be paid?
Qi Kai and the people from Dominion Properties had unknowingly left at some point, leaving Jiang Qiaqia alone in the room dumbly looking at Qi Qing's cold body. Qi Qing was always busy during this time, like a wind-up toy, he was constantly on the move. Jiang Qiaqia suspected that he hadn't slept for at least a week, but now he was finally lying here peacefully.
His ashened face remained the same, but his closed eyelids would never open again.
Jiang Qiaqia suddenly jumped up, rushed to the bedside, raised her hand and slapped his face several times——
The crisp sound echoed in the ward. The initially stunned nurse suddenly came to her senses, and stepped forward to hold her back.
"What are you doing!!! The patient has passed away!!! Why are you abusing the dead?!"
Amidst the nurse's reproach, Qi Qing's face stiffly turned from the beating, taunting her with the back of his head.
Jiang Qiaqia let out a cry. The fear surging in her caused her to abandon her usual elegant and delicate image as she bursted into another hysterical breakdown.
"Qi Qing!!!" She sat on the ground with her disheveled hair, crying and cursing, "You bast*rd!!!!"
*****
Qi Kai felt suffocated, everything had just happened all at once. The moment he stepped out of the hospital gate, his phone rang. He glanced at the screaming brick in his hand, and pressed the red button after a few seconds.
Shi Nanxing was almost driven crazy when he heard the busy tone coming from the receiver. He continued to call several more times in a row, but Qi Kai didn’t bother to answer any of his calls.
He glanced at the calendar; it was the fifteenth day of February, or otherwise the twelfth of the first lunar month. Sha Peng was to arrive in Yan City within three days at the latest.
His head was throbbing, about to burst. Shi Nanxing tossed aside his mobile phone and fell heavily on the bed, recalling the past acts of Sha Peng and his gang, his hands began to tremble.
He grew up in Zhongyun, so he had known Sha Peng for quite a while. The scope of Shi Family extended all over the southwest area of China, and could be considered the king of the land there, but they were still fearful of Sha Peng and his gang.
Sha Peng was originally from Thailand, and was active with several small countries by the southwest border. No one knew how many years he had been in the opium business. All Shi Nanxing knew was that more than 90% of the domestic routes were controlled by him. An organization of this scale, if it weren't for the Shi Family's power in the border of Zhongyun, Sha Peng would have never bothered with someone trivial like Shi Nanxing. Although he was now being more polite to him for the Shi Family's sake, if Sha Peng were to actually want to make a move, he could completely disregard the backing behind Shi Nanxing. If anything were to happen, he could just go into hiding. It was the opponent's base camp, so no one could do anything about it.
Shi Nanxing had traveled abroad with them a few times in the past. They carried guns and even shot cannons; this group of people really ‘regarded human life as if they were ants’.
It would have been ok to delay if the 20 million yuan was just for buying land, but this was the money for part of the deposit for Sha Peng. The latter had already used part of his own money to begin the process, so he was specifically coming to Yan City for the money. Would he really be willing to return empty-handed?
Shi Nanxing sat up. This can’t be dragged on any longer. And so, still limping with his plaster cast leg, he gave a random excuse to his family members, and went out to look for Qi Kai.
Everyone in Dominion Properties knew who he was, so no one dared to stop him. With that, Shi Nanxing made it straight into Qi Kai's office, unhindered.
Qi Kai was currently lying on the sofa, his arm covering his face.
When Shi Nanxing saw him like this, he was so angry that he grabbed a book on the desk and threw it at him. Qi Kai sat up suddenly after being hit. When he moved his hand, did Shi Nanxing notice tears in the corners of his eyes.
Although he had just been hit by a book, Qi Kai wasn't angry, instead he just stared blankly at the floor as if he had lost his soul. "Qi Qing is dead..."
"Who cares!!!" Shi Nanxing stepped forward and pushed him suddenly. "Where's the money!! Where’s the 20 million that was agreed before!?!"
Qi Kai allowed him to push himself down onto the sofa. He leaned on the armrest, motionless. "What is 20 million? You can go to the accounts, the company's money was all invested in the land by Wubao Mountain, we still owe the bank tens of millions. It would be a miracle if we can even come up with two million now.”
Shi Nanxing wanted to slap him to death. "Can you f*cking even do anything right for once?!! Huh!? Just once?!!!"
Qi Kai closed his eyes weakly, his mind still full of Qi Qing's closed eyes and lifeless face, he sighed, "You can say whatever you want."
.
.
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Footnote:
[1] stranded people on the same lifeboat (条绳上的蚂蚱) - literally translates to 'like locusts tied to one rope' (idiom) fig. in the same boat / in it together for better or worse / to sink or swim together
Pure: Ngl, I do feel somewhat surprised by QQ’s ending, but I do hope JQQ suffers an even bigger retribution!