Chapter 172: Really... Really...

Candy’s words made Mo Jingchun laugh out loud.

Fortunately, he wasn’t eating or drinking anything, or he might have sprayed Xu Pengfei and Li Wanning all over their faces.

Li Wanning was also blushing from Candy’s retort.

"Old Xu, here, it’s for you."

Mo Jingchun smiled and handed the painting in his hand to Xu Pengfei.

"Boss, this?"

Mo Jingchun shook his head, "Just take it, every time I look at it here, I feel it insults my intelligence."

"I won’t disturb you guys anymore, I’m taking Candy back to sleep."

"If I don’t go to sleep, my uncle will probably nag me half the day tomorrow."

After Mo Jingchun left with Candy, Xu Pengfei looked at the blushing Li Wanning.

"What are you looking at, never seen me blush before?"

Xu Pengfei nodded and said, "I haven’t seen you jealous like this before."

"I don’t want to talk to you anymore."

Just as Li Wanning was blushing and closing her eyes, and Xu Pengfei was about to kiss her, Li Wanning’s phone rang at an inopportune moment.

Hearing the ringtone, Li Wanning quickly pulled her head back.

She was about to explain to Xu Pengfei that she wasn’t ready, but when she saw it was a call from her mom, she panicked.

A bad feeling rose in her heart.

When you’re away from home, what’s the most fearful thing?

A call from home in the middle of the night.

Thinking about her family’s situation, Li Wanning became flustered, her face turning pale.

If not for Xu Pengfei’s quick reflexes, Li Wanning would have ended up weakly slipping under the table.

"What’s wrong, Wanning?" Xu Pengfei asked anxiously.

Li Wanning took a deep breath and mustered the courage to answer her mother’s call.

"Hello, mom?"

There was some silence on the other side of the call.

Her mom didn’t speak for a while, and Li Wanning didn’t dare make a sound.

After a long time, a somewhat hoarse voice came from her mom on the other end.

"Talk to your boss nicely, and try to come back overnight."

From her mother’s tone, Li Wanning heard exhaustion, sadness, and relief.

But not comfort.

"Mom, my brother, he..."

"Be good, we’ll talk when you get back."

Li Wanning trembled all over, even her voice was shaking.

"Okay, mom."

After hanging up, tears flowed uncontrollably from Li Wanning’s eyes, like a breached dam.

Xu Pengfei, who didn’t know how to comfort people, could only hold Li Wanning tightly.

No one dared to approach the leader who was crying uncontrollably among the evening employees having supper around them.

After Li Wanning calmed down for a moment, Xu Pengfei called Boss Mo Jingchun.

In the apartment, Mo Jingchun had just lain down on the bed and turned off the lights.

He was about to go to sleep.

If he hadn’t been holding his phone, which was already on silent, Mo Jingchun might not have seen the call from Xu Pengfei.

"What’s up, Old Xu?"

"Boss, Wanning and I need to take a few days off, maybe three to five days."

"There’s something wrong at Wanning’s home."

Mo Jingchun paused for a moment, "Then accompany Li Wanning back, don’t worry about the company, Su Wenyan and I are here."

"Thank you, boss."

It was Li Wanning who said it this time."

"No problem, you haven’t rested for a long time. Consider this a holiday for the both of you."

"Stay safe on the road."

"Okay."

That night, Li Wanning and Xu Pengfei took nothing with them and booked a car to Bashu overnight.

The sedan was cruising on the highway, and the driver was happy to have a big order tonight.

But in the back seat, Xu Pengfei and Li Wanning remained silent the entire way.

A sense of sadness lingered around Li Wanning.

In the early morning, Mo Jingchun lay wide awake.

Something had happened at Li Wanning’s house, and she suddenly went home.

Mo Jingchun could roughly guess that someone in her family was about to die, or most likely, had already died.

This inevitably reminded Mo Jingchun of his mom and dad.

When his mother passed away, at least he got to see her one last time.

But when his father died, Mo Jingchun rushed back from school only to find his father cold, lifeless, pale as if he was merely sleeping.

Mo Jingchun knew that this was after he had been cleaned up.

Later, Mo Jingchun found out that under the cover, his father’s body was already a bloody mess.

Li Wanning’s brother had died.

After a long journey using various modes of transportation, by the next afternoon, Xu Pengfei and Li Wanning finally arrived in a rural area of a small county in Bashu.

Upon arriving home, Li Wanning saw that most of the relatives who usually came to gather were already there.

Her father was sitting alone on a rock at the doorway, smoking a cigarette.

At his feet lay a pile of cigarette butts.

Looking at his returning daughter, Li Peng said, somewhat desolately, "You’re back?"

"Go and see first."

Li Wanning, who could barely stand, somehow found the strength to run into her brother’s room inside the house.

The largest room in the house was filled with people.

As she rushed in, Li Wanning saw her mother holding a basin to catch her brother’s vomit.

As she approached, she collapsed to the ground.

It wasn’t vomit at all; it was bright red blood.

Looking at her daughter, Lu Lanfen could no longer cry.

Over the past year, Lu Lanfen couldn’t count the tears she’d shed. Now, faced with her devastated daughter and her son waiting to die in misery, Lu Lanfen felt too overwhelmed to speak. Even so, she couldn’t cry anymore.

"Cough, cough... Sis, you came back."

"That’s good."

"That’s good."

In the room, everyone watching the sibling bond between the two tearful siblings couldn’t help but cry, none could hold back their sorrow.

Wiping the blood from her brother’s lips, Li Wanning murmured in a trembling voice, "Why did it come to this?"

"Why did it come to this?"

"Weren’t they saying there was improvement?"

Li Wenbo looked at the strange man who came in with his sister, his pale face showing a smile as he said:

"This must be Brother-in-law."

"My sister won’t have someone to lean on in the future; you better not bully her."

"Promise!"

Li Wenbo looked wistfully at Xu Pengfei, "A real man keeps his word."

Blargh~

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Wenbo coughed up another mouthful of blood, his face turning even paler.

"Whew, whew~ Brother, I’m begging you, please stop talking, okay?"

Li Wenbo tried to reach out and wipe the tears off his sister’s face.

But his hand had long lost its strength.

Seeing this, Li Wanning quickly grabbed her brother’s hand and placed it on her face.

"Sis, thank you."

"I dragged you down."

"I know it all, I know it all."

"If it weren’t for you and mom and dad, I wouldn’t still be here today."

"Maybe it’s better to die."

"It’s too painful."

Li Wenbo’s strength gradually faded; he couldn’t even lift his eyelids.

"Sis, I’m so tired... Ah..."

"Really..."

The skeletal hand slipped from Li Wanning’s hold onto the bed, and Li Wanning stood there, dazed.

In the small village, the sound of firecrackers endlessly echoed through the valley.

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