Chapter 468 – They Would Never Get an Answer in This Lifetime
“It was him, it was really him! He’s the one who brought us here!” Xie Miaomiao’s previously weak voice suddenly grew louder.
“He means he found out that we were scheming against Xu Jinning, so he did this to us.”
“He just sent all of us to Country K!”
Xie Miaomiao’s voice was filled with disbelief—she never imagined the old man could be so ruthless.
“How could he do this? Is that Xu Jinning closer to him than we, his own blood relatives? He really did this to us for that woman?”
“Xie Jinnian, you’re truly cruel, truly heartless.”
“You treat us like this, aren’t you afraid my mom won’t rest in peace underground and will come to haunt you at night?”
Xie Miaomiao kept cursing and shouting.
“Honey, what are we going to do? I heard Country K is very backward and chaotic. We can’t stay here!”
“We need to get back home quickly!”
“Daddy, Mommy, I want to go home. I’m scared!”
Duan Wei anxiously looked at her husband, Xie Zeheng, who had been lying silently beside her.
Meanwhile, all the children were sobbing.
Even Fang Tong, who was older and considered herself cunning, had lost all her scheming thoughts after days and nights of being tossed around on the ship, trapped in darkness and fear.
In truth, she was only eighteen.
She wasn’t very old and had only learned how to scheme from Xie Miaomiao, but she had never seen the real world, nor had she ever faced any major events.
Now, she was completely panicked, scared, and full of regret.
If they had known their grandfather would be so heartless toward them, they never would have caused trouble. They never should have schemed against Xu Jinning.
They should have just lived their lives quietly and peacefully.
Even though their lives might not have been prosperous, at least it would have been stable.
There would have been opportunities for growth in the future.
But now, in the unfamiliar land of Country K, they were blind, knowing nothing and having nothing.
At that moment, Xie Zeheng’s voice broke the silence, carrying a hint of coldness. “What’s the point of crying now?”
“Think about how we’re going to survive in Country K from now on.”
“The old man wouldn’t have sent us all here if he had any intention of letting us return.”
“Didn’t he have that person relay the message? We’re on our own now.”
“No proof of leaving the country, no proof of residence, and no money.”
“Isn’t that what ‘on our own’ means?”
“We underestimated how important Xu Jinning was to the old man, and we underestimated his ruthlessness.”
“He’s even more ruthless than we thought.”
It had to be said that at this moment, Xie Zeheng also felt regret.
People don’t realize their mistakes until they reach a point of utter despair.
Now, with the old man throwing them into Country K, it was like being cast into the depths of despair.
Xie Zeheng resented the old man, but he also knew that complaining about him wouldn’t help.
In their current situation, it was as if they had entered the country illegally.
No country treats illegal immigrants kindly.
They had nothing to their name.
The only thing they could do now was figure out how to survive in Country K.
In truth, Xie Zeheng wondered—if they hadn’t made the decision to betray and abandon the old man, what would their lives be like now?
Would the old man have forced them to follow him to the countryside?
Or would there have been another arrangement?
Unfortunately, they would probably never get an answer to those questions in this lifetime.
*
A few days later, that person returned to the Xie family, standing before the old master.
“They’re all in Country K?” Old Master Xie asked.
“Yes.”
“And you said everything that needed to be said?”
“Yes.”
“Good, that’s all then.”
Soon, the man left, and the living room was once again silent, leaving Xie Jinnian alone.
The old man slowly stood up, leaning on his cane as he walked to his study. He opened a drawer and took out a framed photograph.
It was a picture of him and his wife when they were young.
His thin, wrinkled hand gently caressed the image of the woman in the frame.
A tear dropped onto the glass with a soft “drip,” blurring the old man’s vision.
“Amian, will you blame me for this?” Old Master Xie spoke slowly. “After all, those two… each of them were born after ten months of hard pregnancy. It was so difficult for you.”
Once, Old Master Xie had been filled with hope and love for their arrival.
Once, he had held their tiny forms in his arms, watching them with love, protecting them.
He had raised them, little by little.
He had planned every step of their future.
In truth, back then, when he felt the winds starting to change, he had known that his own fate was unavoidable. But aside from the son and daughter-in-law who had sacrificed themselves, he had already made arrangements for the others.
They wouldn’t need to follow him. They could have lived stable lives.
Even for Xiao An, he had everything prepared.
But just when he had everything in place, ready to speak to them, he suddenly saw the newspaper announcement where they declared their decision to sever all ties—father and son, father and daughter.
At that moment, Xie Jinnian’s heart truly ached.
It was the third time in his life that he had felt such deep pain in his heart.
It turned out, when sorrow reached its peak, the heart really could hurt.
The first time his heart ached was when his wife passed away, leaving him a widower in middle age.
The second time was when his eldest son and daughter-in-law sacrificed themselves, leaving him to suffer the loss of a son in his middle years.
The third time was this…
His wife and children had all left him in different ways.
Only the young Xie Ting’an remained, promising to stay by his side.
Old Master Xie sometimes wondered, if the timing had been different—whether a little earlier or a little later—would things have turned out the same?
But…
People are who they are.
Especially adults. Their thoughts, values, and personalities had long been shaped.
Hard to change.
So even if he had spoken earlier, and they hadn’t published that statement in the paper, and he had allowed them to live stable lives, as long as their true nature remained the same…
Then one day, if he were ever to fall from grace again, the betrayal would have happened regardless.
Thinking this way, Old Master Xie found peace with it.
Since that was the case, it was better to see their true colors sooner.
As it turned out, his decision had been the right one.
Otherwise, a decade later, they wouldn’t have had the audacity to shamelessly try to cling to him again, even without thinking they’d done anything wrong.
They had even tried to plot against Girl Ning, aiming to achieve their own ends.
“Amian, even if you hate me for this, I still had to do it.”
“When I join you in the afterlife, I’ll come personally to beg your forgiveness.”
“Is that alright…”
Old Master Xie slowly pressed the photo frame to his chest. He stood there, not knowing how long he remained in the study, until the sound of Xu Jinning calling for him from downstairs roused him as if from a dream.
He gently returned the frame to the drawer and slowly walked down…
