10"Xia Mo—!!" Jen's horrified face appeared from behind the hospital room door. The moment she saw who it was, she lunged forward, grabbing Xia Mo and pulling her violently out onto the small balcony adjoining the corridor. She stared, trembling uncontrollably, her voice thick with dread. "Is... is he dead?" Yin Xia Mo stared blankly back, shaken so hard by Jen that the small piece of clarity she had just regained dissolved into chaos again.

"He's dead... He is dead, isn't he..." Jen's face had drained of color. Since Shen Qi had uttered the news of Luo Xi's suicide, sheer terror had crushed her completely! She had been waiting and waiting for Xia Mo to return, but the longer Xia Mo delayed, the more terrible the reality must be, mustn't it?! And now, Xia Mo’s complexion was so pale—so pale that it seemed her worst fear had indeed come true! "I'm sorry..." Terror stole Jen's reason, and she instantly collapsed into uncontrolled, frantic sobs.

"... I caused Luo Xi's death! It was all me! I killed him! He called you—he called while you were walking past me during the wedding, right at the moment you were about to reach Ou Chen! I got the call. I'm sorry, Xia Mo, I had no idea he was near death then, I truly didn't know!" "...I didn't pass that call to you. I hung up on him, and I even deleted the call from your recent history! I'm sorry, Xia Mo! I killed Luo Xi! I am a murderer! Luo Xi died because of me... If I had given you that call... perhaps he wouldn't have died..." "Jen..." Her head felt like it was splitting open. The cold wind on the balcony sent waves of dizziness through Yin Xia Mo. Burning heat and icy chill churned inside her—it was unbearable. She struggled to steady her body, which was shaking like a gravely ill patient, and managed to say to Jen, "He's alive... he..." "Xia Mo, I'm sorry—!" Driven to the brink of madness by long-suppressed guilt and self-reproach, Jen couldn't hear a word Xia Mo was saying. Tear-streaked and incoherent, she wailed: "I was too selfish! I knew everything, I knew from the very beginning! I overheard everything you and Ou Chen said! You only agreed to marry Ou Chen for Xiao Cheng's kidney transplant—only Ou Chen's kidney was a match for Xiao Cheng's operation..." "You..." Yin Xia Mo gazed at her blankly.

So, Jen had known all along?

"That wasn't right, was it?" Jen wept. Heaven knew how her conscience had tormented her day and night, and Luo Xi's suicide finally left her unable to evade the truth any longer.

"Marriage should be born of love, not an exchange like that, right?!" "But I was so selfish..." "I didn't stop you! I knew exactly why you were marrying Ou Chen, yet I never tried to dissuade you! I wanted Xiao Cheng to live, but I stood by and watched you sacrifice yourself, even telling myself you would be happy! How selfish I am, Xia Mo, I don't deserve to be your friend..." Jen's vision blurred through her tears; she sobbed uncontrollably: "I thought as long as Xiao Cheng lived, any price was worth paying! But I was wrong! Happiness perhaps isn't something that can be bartered for... You married a man you didn't love, and I didn't even attempt to intervene! And knowing Luo Xi's pain, knowing how heartbroken he would be, I didn't tell you about his final call before he took his own life! I caused his death, I killed Luo Xi! It's all my fault! Xia Mo, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!..." Summer Bubble III