After exiting the room, Nanchu faced the wall and raised a hand to cover her eyes.

 Her heart was deeply pained. It was as if something was stabbing it into smithereens.

 In her entire life, she would never be able to repay everything that she owed the Luo family.

 She had let too many people down. Even if she died 10 thousand times over, the blame would still remain with her.

 For the sake of the Luo family, she had always thought that whatever punishment she received would be just.

 However, in reality, no matter how she tried to make it up to them, she could never make up even a single fraction of the multitude of their loss.

 For example, it had been half a year already since her young brother last saw their father.

 Furthermore, while their father’s life hung in the balance, their last meeting might very well have been their last goodbye.

 Luo Zhiying walked up, held Luo Nanchu’s hand, and said, “Sister, let’s go see Papa.”

 Nanchu lowered her hand and looked at the forced smile on her younger sister’s face.

She nodded and replied, “Okay.”

 Luo Zhiying looked at Luo Nanchu’s eyes. The latter’s eyes were slightly red and watery, but she was not crying.

 Luo Zhiying remembered the day that Luo Nanchu and Fu Tingyuan got divorced. Luo Nanchu had gone to Fu Tingyuan to ask for money to pay for the medical fees, and Luo Zhiying had rushed over from the hospital to meet her older sister. After that, Luo Nanchu sent her back to school, telling her that she would handle everything else that came after and that she should concentrate on studying. She then told her that Fu Tingyuan had agreed to hand over the medical fees and, with a downplayed tone, mentioned that she had divorced him.

 Luo Zhiying could still remember the scenery from that day.

 It was a wintry December day in Tong City. The trees were bare; all their leaves had fallen, and the sky was overcast with gloom.

 Luo Nanchu had not been wearing much. There had only been a brown windbreaker on her thin body that made a flapping sound as the winter wind blew it around. Her face had been white from the biting cold, her eyes had red rings around them, but she did not cry.

 Her sister had always been extremely strong since she was little. Nothing seemed to faze her.

 She would handle everything well if she said she would.

 And she did.

 After the Luo family’s bankruptcy, Luo Nanchu worked to supplement their family’s income. Even though they had lost their luxurious lifestyle, the days had still seemingly gone by without a change.

 However, Luo Nanchu looked much thinner today than she had in the past. The baby fat on her face had receded, making the lines of her face too clean.

 “Sister…” Luo Zhiying looked down at their interlocked hands and stopped speaking.

 In the elevator, Luo Nanchu pressed a button for their floor and turned to look at Luo Zhiying after hearing the sound of her voice.

 “What’s wrong?” she asked.

 “I will definitely be famous,” Luo Zhiying said as she looked at her. “When I’m famous, you won’t have to work so hard to earn money anymore.”

 Luo Nanchu smiled and reached out to touch Luo Zhiying’s face.

“My younger sister is so pretty that she will definitely become famous. If Zhiying doesn’t become famous, this just means that the audience doesn’t have good taste.”

 Luo Zhiying held Luo Nanchu’s hand tightly and smiled softly.

 …

 In a room in the intensive care ward, Luo Juntian lay in a coma.

 Luo Nanchu stood at the door and said to Luo Zhiying, “Zhiying, go in and see dad.”

 Luo Zhiying looked at her and asked, “Aren’t you going to go in, Sister?”

 Luo Nanchu smiled, shook her head, and said, “I have no face to see him.”

 “Sister!”

 Luo Nanchu waved her hand and continued, “I’m really not going in. I’ll wait for you here, and I’ll send you back to school once you’re done.”

 Luo Zhiying was helpless against Luo Nanchu’s insistence. She bit her lip, but her eyes still reddened.

“Papa would never blame you, Sister,” she said in a low voice.

 “Yeah, I know.” Luo Nanchu turned her head away.

 Naturally, she knew that her family would not blame her.

 However, she was unable to forgive herself.

 She would never be able to forgive herself.