"Jojo, stop pretending to sleep, get up quickly!"
The voice near her ear was incredibly vivid. Meng Jo opened her eyes from a daze, and an elegant face appeared in her sight. Her beautifully furrowed eyebrows hid a touch of dissatisfaction.
Was this... her mother?
Meng Jo blinked, somewhat perplexed.
Hadn't she just been battling a ghost king in the cultivation world? Why did she return here as soon as she opened her eyes?
What was happening?
With a headache splitting her skull open, she instinctively reached to soothe the throbbing part of her forehead, but the stunning woman next to her only became more impatient.
"Your forehead has already been bandaged, and there's nothing wrong with you! Get up quickly, follow me next door to apologize to Xin Xin! Xin Xin is your sister. How could you push her down the stairs?”
Xin Xin? Pushed her down the stairs?
The stunning woman's words brought Meng Jo back to her distant past.
That was in her previous life, a hundred years before she was taken to the cultivation world by the system. She had lived a short but miserable life.
In that past life, she was originally the rich Meng family's beloved daughter, but ended up being swapped by human traffickers at a young age. After enduring unbearable suffering, she wound up in an orphanage.
Because she was born with the ability to see the supernatural – the so-called Yin and Yang eyes – she was constantly harassed by unclean spirits and no children wished to play with her, leaving her isolated.
After turning eighteen and without funds for schooling, she had to venture into society to work. To pay for rent and living expenses, she did all kinds of jobs from dawn till dusk. There was even a point where she fainted from exhaustion in her dilapidated rental room.
Yet at the age of twenty-two, destiny changed its course; the Meng family found her and brought her back home.
She went from a poor girl to the affluent heiress again!
Having never experienced familial love before, she cherished her newfound relatives. She was cautious, genuinely anxious, and devoted her heart to pleasing them, hoping to be part of a complete family.
Yet, they didn't seem to care about her, favoring the previously false heiress, Meng Xin, instead.
Meng Xin was their beloved darling, who had been well-educated since childhood. Her outstanding charisma and talent captured their hearts.
Whenever Meng Xin showed a bit of displeasure, they would unhesitatingly blame her, even regretting having brought her back home.
Under repeated rebukes and ignorances, she began to change her mindset, furiously envying Meng Xin and continually making life difficult for her.
Yet, every time, it only made her more embarrassed and caused the Meng family to loathe her even more.
Until the same day in her previous life, at a welcome banquet held by the Meng family, she got into another argument with Meng Xin, and both of them fell down the stairs.
While Meng Xin only got a few scratches, the Meng family was in a panicked rush to send her to the hospital.
As for her, she lay ignored in her blood, lost consciousness due to severe blood loss, and ended up being teleported to a world of cultivators, where she spent a full hundred years.
But now, as she opens her eyes, she finds herself back in this world, lying in a hospital bed.
Was this a rewind in time?
Fueled by vague memories, Meng Miao recalled, at the moment, she was gradually losing consciousness in her blood pool, it was the eldest son of the Meng family, Meng Yunzhou who discovered her and sent her to the hospital.
All her memories surged back, unsettling her previously calm mood.
"Why should I apologize to her?"
She propped herself up with one hand and sat up, leaning against the hospital bed, staring at the beautiful lady, Shen Muqing. Her pale lips curled into sardonic contempt.
"Why am I the one who has to apologize when she has merely a scratch, but I fainted due to excessive blood loss?"
"Did nobody see that after the fall, she used me as her cushion? Aren't we related by blood? How can you be so partial?"
"How have we been partial?" Shen Muqing trembled in anger, "You are my own daughter, how could I be biased?"
"Really?" Meng Qiao gave a hollow laugh, "While you were hurrying to bring the slightly injured Meng Xin to the hospital, who remembered me, the one she had pinned down, my body covered in blood?"
"This..." Shen Muqing was speechless and had tears welling in her eyes.
The expressions of the Meng family members changed slightly. Before they had time to speak, the door of the ward had already been pushed open.
Meng Xin, with her pale face and tear-streaked cheeks, walked in.
"Mom, you all shouldn't blame Qiao Qiao. It's not Qiao Qiao's fault. It's me... I blamed myself for not standing firm and instinctively grabbed Qiao Qiao's hand before I fell."
"It's all my fault, if I had stood firm, no matter how anyone pushed, I wouldn't have fallen. Qiao Qiao wouldn't have been hurt too... I should be the one apologizing to Qiao Qiao..."
Meng Xin's face looked gentle and pitiful, making the Meng family's hearts ache instantly.
Shen Muqing's heart immediately softened and she hugged her tenderly, "Xin Xin, don't say that. It's not your fault; you are the victim."
The corners of Meng Xin's mouth curved into a small smirk. In a place unseen by the Meng family, she shot a triumphant and provocative look at Meng Qiao.
"Is Qiao Qiao okay? Will she blame me?"
Just as Shen Muqing was about to say no, Meng Qiao opened her mouth: "Of course, I blame you."
Shen Muqing was suddenly upset and angry, and turned her attention to Meng Qiao, "Qiao, you almost killed Xinxin! She is so kind-hearted, not blaming you, and even consoling you, on what grounds should you blame her? How can you act like this, child?"
"On what grounds should I blame her?” Meng Qiao stared at Meng Xin expressionlessly.
"She took away my parents, took away my life, took away all that I had. Not only do I blame her, I wish that she would die.” Once these words were spoken, the entire place was filled with gasps of surprise.
Shen Muqing was fuming, her face deathly pale. She shielded Meng Xin behind her, and glared at Meng Qiao angrily. "How could you say such things? Xinxin is innocent!"
Meng Qiao shook her head with a sarcastic laugh, a flash of hurt in her eyes.
"She's innocent? Her mother ruined my life. She unabashedly claimed what was mine. If she's innocent, what about me?"
"While she was enjoying the most luxurious life, a life that should have belonged to me, I was being ostracized in an orphanage, with no one to rely on, to the point where even getting a full meal was a luxury. Am I not innocent?"
"While she was pampered by my parents and brothers, I had to work several jobs and collapsed due to exhaustion in my rental room for three full days, with no one aware, no one caring. Am I not innocent?"
"While she was receiving the best education, I couldn't even afford college, I was always hungry and cold, even survival was a challenge. Am I not innocent?"
"Even when I returned to the Meng family, and longed for a loving, complete, and happy home, she could effortlessly attract all your attention and preference."
"Am I not innocent?" Meng Qiao's series of questions made the room exceptionally quiet.
Shen Muqing’s eyes started to tear up, the pain apparent in them: “Qiao, I know how hard it is for you. I will make it up to you. But all of this is not Xinxin's fault, she didn't wish for it to be this way…"
"I am not a saint, unable to show such magnanimity."
Meng Qiao closed her eyes, tears sliding down from the corners of her eyes. "When I was tumbling down the stairs, I was in great pain; the parents who hold blood ties with me, my siblings, everyone only had eyes for her, the injured one. When they were rushing to send her to the hospital with worried faces, I was in great pain.”
"It hurts too, when you are lying in a pool of blood, waiting for death.”
Such memories are too despairing.
She was enveloped in darkness, slowly succumbing to suffocation.
"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would rather not have come back. At least that way, I could still have some hope and anticipation for familial love. I could still dream that the parents and siblings who share my blood care deeply for me, love me."
Meng Qiao hooks up a smile at the corner of her lips. Her pallor illuminates her vulnerability, invoking pity in others.
Shen Muqing burst into tears, "Qiao Qiao, it is not like that…"
"Forget it, I don’t want to pursue this anymore. I need some quiet, I'm feeling dizzy," Meng Qiao said. "Could you all please leave?"
The Meng family members were quiet, after exchanging glances with one another for a moment, they left the room.
The moment the door of the ward closed, Meng Qiao's expression instantly returned to calm, no trace of weakness or disappointment could be found.
She tapped the bedside cabinet lightly and said softly, "System, come out."
