"So she's dead." Qiao Nian said directly, interrupting him.
Ji Lingfeng looked as if his neck was being strangled, his expression was in pain: "Yes, she is dead, and has been dead for many years. I was one of the people who fanned the flames, and I killed her."
If this had been said in the past, Qiao Nian might have believed it, but she saw the man on the hospital bed running his fingers through his hair and holding his head in agony.
She suddenly felt relieved.
"You don't have that ability."
Ji Lingfeng raised his head: "What?"
Qiao Nian crossed his arms across his chest, his eyes were cold and calm: "You are not cruel enough."
If you are not cruel enough, you cannot kill anyone.
Only a heartless and ruthless person like Nie Qingru could kill Ji Qing. How could a man like Ji Lingfeng, who was still sitting on the hospital bed and covering her face in pain, kill Ji Qing...
"How did she die?" Qiao Nian looked at him and asked the question she had always wanted to ask.
Ji Lingfeng seemed to be trapped in a huge painful memory. His handsome and mature face gradually wrinkled and twisted in the memory: "I don't know what happened that day either."
"When I heard the news that day, I rushed over as fast as I could. When I got there, I saw only a mess. Her body...was not even completely preserved."
Ji Qing died without a burial place, and even his body was not left behind. It was blown into countless pieces and fell into the deep sea to feed the fish. The whole scene was horrific.
Ji Lingfeng still remembers that he was on the verge of a mental breakdown at that time. He felt as if the sky was falling and he just wanted to avenge her at all costs.
But he couldn't do it.
Xie Yun had already given birth at that time. He held the baby in his arms the day before. The baby was very small and weak, lying in his arms, blowing bubbles at him, and reaching out to hold one of his fingers and clenching it. He could never forget that touch.
In addition to his newborn child and a wife whom he cannot let down, the entire Ji family is watching over him.
Some of the older generation knew what he was thinking, and that night they knelt outside the old house and asked him to give up his revenge. Some uncles even fainted from kneeling.
In the end, he let his love down and failed to get to the bottom of the matter and avenge her. He could only set her name as a taboo and not allow anyone to mention it.
Of course, he had also been looking for the child that Ji Qing had once told him she was pregnant with.
Before finding Qiao Nian, Ji Lingfeng couldn't even be sure for more than ten years whether the child was born or not. He just relied on numb belief to support him day by day.
"She had been researching a project that seemed very dangerous and affected the interests of too many people. At the time, many forces warned her openly and secretly that she was not allowed to continue the research, but she didn't listen and insisted on doing it. She even quietly left the Independent Continent and went to Beijing City under an assumed name for several years. Until... she was found again and her peaceful life was broken."
Ji Lingfeng tried hard to recall every detail of the past: "I don't know what project she was researching, but her death must have something to do with this project."
Qiao Nian seemed to have no reaction after listening to it. She sat at the head of the bed with an expressionless face. Her eyelashes did not even move, and she seemed to have no emotion.
But those who are familiar with her know that she is not calm inside, and may even be a little angry.
"Just because of this, she killed her own daughter?"
Ji Lingfeng was surprised: "You know?"
Qiao Nian did not answer directly, but looked at him with those clear eyes: "She didn't participate?"
Ji Lingfeng avoided her eyes and didn't know how to answer: "I participated."
(End of this chapter)