With her heart full of terror, Xi Rubao ran as she shouted for the little Ancestor to save her.

However.

Just as her foot crossed the threshold, the instant she stepped into the dark night, she was suddenly yanked back by a strange force inside her body.

"My sister went to save my brother-in-law, how can I call her back?"

Thinking of Bao Gucheng, who usually protected the sisters in every way, but was now alone, trapped in the mudslide deep in Qingcheng’s mountains, his life or death unknown, tears began to well up in Xi Rubao’s eyes.

She lowered her gaze to her broken arm, and thought of how all four of her limbs had been shattered back then, how she’d been unconscious in the hospital all night, and how she’d heard it was her sister who had personally set her broken bones. Back then the only medicine they used was...

Something to do with lotus root!

The life she should have lost half a year ago had been extended because she listened to Zuzi’s words and carefully did three good deeds a day, and in the end she’d lived these extra days.

So today the lotus root lost its effect—was this the calamity written into her fate?

Her sister had extended her life; how could she be so ungrateful as to beg for her brother-in-law’s life in exchange?

That strange force inside her body surged up again.

She bit down hard, turned around, and went back to the living room.

She grabbed a small blanket from the sofa and draped it over her shoulders to cover the dangling broken arm, so Gu Qiusha and the others wouldn’t worry when they saw it.

After covering it up, she scrubbed her tears away hard, pretended nothing had happened, and continued walking toward Mr. Gu’s bedroom.

"What’s wrong with Grandpa? Mommy, is there anything I can do to help?"

In the ward.

Mr. Gu’s condition was far from optimistic.

The numbers on the monitor were plummeting, and even adding an oxygen supply did nothing.

The family doctor said gravely, "Fifth Miss, actually, you can... give up resuscitation now..."

Before Gu Qiusha, whose legs went weak, could answer, Gu Yuzhi’s eyes were already red. "What are you talking about? We will never give up. Whatever treatment options there are, we want to try them all!"

The family doctor looked troubled. "The patient’s heart has already failed. Any treatment we use now will be very painful, and besides..."

This old body probably couldn’t withstand that kind of torment.

Just cardiopulmonary resuscitation alone carried an enormous risk of rib fractures, the broken bones piercing the heart and speeding up his death.

And then there was the irreversible damage to the brain from the lack of oxygen—strictly from a medical standpoint, brain death could already be declared.

Exhausting every method to force a rescue was nothing but the wishful thinking of the family.

Aside from prolonging a tiny bit of time, it was utterly meaningless.

Gu Yuzhi refused to accept reality. "Just now at the wedding, Zuzi brought Dad back from the brink. It would only be reasonable for Dad to live another ten or twenty years at least..."

Gu Qiusha’s trembling hands reached around from behind to hold the agitated Gu Yuzhi, her voice breaking. "Brother, have you forgotten what Dad told Zuzi? He said he raised us to adulthood and had no regrets in this life. He hoped everything would follow heaven’s will..."

"And he said he didn’t want to go to the hospital anymore, didn’t want all kinds of cold tubes stuck in his body to drag out the pain... He didn’t want to force anything. Brother, do you still remember?"

"Let Dad... say goodbye to us with dignity at the end, okay... sob..."

At her words, a sour ache stung Gu Yuzhi’s eyes. Even someone as steady as him couldn’t help but shed tears.

The doctor gently pulled a white brocade cover over Mr. Gu and removed the monitors that no longer showed any signs of life.

When Xi Rubao came in, she walked right into this scene.

She froze for a moment and subconsciously touched her broken arm.

The grandfather whose life had once been spared by Zeng Qiang was gone... 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

And she, whose life had also once been spared by Zeng Qiang, had broken her arm again...

Were these really just coincidences?

Would her legs soon break again too?