Chapter 249: The Truth Behind the Car Accident Years Ago

"Let me put it this way, more than twenty years ago, in that car accident, the culprit fled, your sister-in-law died on the spot, and only your brother survived, but the situation at the time was very serious. Your brother’s internal organs were almost completely ruptured and damaged, hanging on by just a breath, and he could die at any time."

Song Qingwan hadn’t realized the situation was so perilous back then, her face turned pale.

Then, as if she remembered something, she trembled as she spoke:

"The culprit fled... Didn’t you tell me at the time that the culprit also died on the spot?"

It was because of this that Song Qingwan later wanted to vent her pain, but couldn’t find anyone.

"Shut up! Listen to me!" The old man shouted angrily, "You’re disrupting my thoughts."

"..."

This was definitely revenge!

The old man cleared his throat and continued:

"Back then, I thought the culprit fleeing was just an accident. Who would have known, after investigation, that the driver was a famous international mercenary, and the person who hired him was your brother’s nemesis, the Ming Family!"

Song Qingwan’s eyes widened.

Even Lu Junhan slightly squinted his eyes.

The Ming Family, once a commercial giant, could have claimed to be the richest family in Hai City.

At the time, the Lu Family was merely the most powerful family in Hai City.

"Back then, your brother had just founded the Lu Family not long ago, but the momentum of its development was very strong, and your brother seemed to be a natural entrepreneur. In my opinion, he surpassed that idiot president of the Ming Family by eight streets! People speculated that in two or three years, the Lu Family would definitely surpass the Ming Family."

The old man took a deep breath, his eyes showing disdain:

"Thus, the Ming Family targeted the Lu Family, and your brother became a thorn in the eye of the Ming Family."

At that time, the Lu Family, under the leadership of the old man, was already the most powerful family in Hai City.

If the Lu Family developed further, they would have both power and money, leaving no one in Hai City able to stop them.

Naturally, the Ming Family felt a sense of crisis.

Even willing to resort to murder!

"After the car accident, I was afraid the Ming Family would find out your brother hadn’t died and send someone to kill him. At that time, your brother couldn’t withstand any turmoil and whether he could be saved was still uncertain, so I directly declared publicly that the car accident was actually an accident and that Lu Qidong had already died. The Ming Family indeed let down their guard and believed it completely!"

"As for you, I told you the culprit had already died, just to prevent you from seeking trouble and disrupting my plan, adding to my chaos."

Song Qingwan: "..."

At the age of 21, she indeed would have impulsively charged in with a knife.

"Afterwards, I had someone kill that mercenary, and then began designing to destroy the Ming Family while traveling worldwide to find people to save your brother, so..."

The old man paused, but then fell silent.

Song Qingwan understood:

"So you were stretched thin, unable to care for Lu Junhan and Lu Anran. Moreover, you were afraid the Ming Family would target them, especially Lu Junhan, after all, he is your brother’s biological son. He might inherit his father’s business talent."

"To eliminate any future problem at the root, if the Ming Family knew of their existence, they definitely wouldn’t allow them to live."

"Therefore, you had no choice but to bring me back, because I have the surname Song. In the eyes of outsiders, I’m not seen as part of the Lu Family. With me raising those two children, the Ming Family would let down their guard, thinking they were my children, not my brother’s, right?"

As she spoke, Song Qingwan was somewhat resentful: "But you should have told me that my brother wasn’t dead, causing me to regret every day for the past twenty years, thinking I didn’t see him one last time."

The old man was furious: "Aren’t you seeing him now? And not just one last time, but two, three times!"

"..." Song Qingwan was indignant, "How can that be the same?"

The old man snorted coldly,

"Back then, telling you wouldn’t have helped. Moreover, during those years, the Ming Family had strong developmental momentum. Each additional person who knew meant added danger for your brother. Furthermore, I intended to wait until your brother got better to tell you, but during the first five years after the accident, your brother underwent thirteen surgeries. Each time, just as there was some improvement, the situation began to worsen. Several times, he almost died directly. Later, with Lu Qidong gone, I saw that you were adapting well... so I didn’t say anything."

"Afterwards, for more than ten years, your brother was always here receiving treatment. The number of times he woke up can be counted on one hand. I thought you were living well, so why disrupt your lives with him."

After all, that kind of pain, having a bit of hope and then suddenly turning to despair, wasn’t something ordinary people could endure.

Instead of letting them watch Lu Qidong suffer in such pain, it was better for them to assume he had died.

It was a short-term pain, although bone-deep, but time could heal it.

But the old man himself was enduring long-term pain.

That kind of endless, dense pain had no end in sight, with no indication of when it would finish.

For these twenty years, the old man had been tirelessly pulling Lu Qidong back from the brink of death.

But he rarely woke up.

Truth be told, after the car accident, Lu Qidong’s body was like a broken doll, never able to be restored to its former self, no matter how patched up.

The old man originally thought, why not just let him go.

So many surgeries, so many times of worsening condition, how could a person endure all of this?

But one time, Lu Qidong woke up and told him, if he could be saved, please save him.

Lu Qidong had always been a very gentle person.

He said, his sister, his children, and his... father, they must all be waiting for him.

If he could be saved, he pleaded with the old man to save him.

That night, the old man, who was always cold and emotionless, had red eyes all night.

"After all these years, I originally didn’t plan to tell you,"

The old man looked deeply at the man lying on the bed, his voice sounded calm, yet infinite sorrow seemed to permeate:

"But yesterday, the doctor told me, that your brother... might... never wake up again."

This long twenty-year torture, with no end in sight, finally came to an end yesterday.

He no longer had to watch his son suffer from illness, no longer had to see him hovering on the edge of death time and again on the operating table.

From now on, he would quietly lie in bed forever, without any pain.

But it also shattered the old man’s hope, which he had held onto for the past twenty years, for his son’s recovery.

"I just thought, of bringing you to see him, afraid that someday you won’t be able to..."

The old man paused, suddenly raised his hand and covered his eyes with the back of it:

"Moreover, your brother misses you all very much... No, he has always missed you all."

Yesterday...

No wonder the old man was drunk at the time.

At that time, she had found his drunken antics and wild boxing laughable and had almost wanted to beat him up.

Now she understood.

A person who never gets drunk was drunk, simply because he wished to be drunk.

Once drunk, you know nothing.

So, how heartbroken must Dad have been?

Song Qingwan staggered backward, opened her mouth as if wanting to say something, but couldn’t utter a word.

She could only bite her hand hard, suppressing her sobs.

She knew, her brother would not have liked it.