Chapter 19: Living in Agony versus Departing with Dignity

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“Click.”

The door swung inward, and Wen Miaohan stepped out. “I’m fine. Let’s go downstairs!”

She was already heading out when Wen Miaoting glanced at her back and murmured worriedly, “Did Miaohan throw up again just now? She looks as though all her energy has been drained.”

Wen Miaoting hurried after her. When Wen Miaohan started down the stairs, she boldly looped her arm through hers. “Ah, now I have a little sister I can walk arm in arm with! I don’t have to envy everyone else for having an adorable younger sister anymore. I have one too!”

There was not the slightest bit of pretense in Wen Miaoting’s expression as she said this; every word came from the heart.

The Wen family, seated in the living room, looked up at the sound and saw the two sisters descending the stairs arm in arm. The warm sight left every one of them feeling utterly comforted.

Wen Mother most of all. During this period, she had felt deeply indebted to both her daughters.

Her biological daughter, Wen Miaoting, had not grown up by her side. Although her adoptive parents had cherished her dearly, the vast difference in their family backgrounds and the disparity in their upbringings had still forced her to endure hardships she should never have had to suffer.

The hardships Wen Mother was referring to did not mean that Wen Miaoting had lacked food or clothing. Her adoptive family could not compare with the Wen family, but they were still comfortably well-off, and her standard of living had been perfectly adequate.

What Wen Mother meant was that Wen Miaoting had never had access to the social circles she should have entered from childhood, nor had she been able to build the connections she ought to have developed.

For families of their status, social circles and connections were of the utmost importance. Although Wen Miaoting had returned to the Wen family, she had accompanied Wen Mother to several social events recently, and the discomfort of not fitting in was the hardship she was currently enduring.

The Wen family was powerful and wealthy, so the young ladies of high society did not snub Wen Miaoting at these gatherings. On the contrary, they went out of their way to court her favor.

Yet Wen Miaoting did not understand the things they discussed when they gathered together, while the young ladies of high society were equally bewildered by the subjects Wen Miaoting understood. The two sides simply had nothing to talk about.

If Wen Miaoting had grown up in the Wen family, she should have been as comfortable dealing with these people and situations as Wen Miaohan was. How could she have ended up in such an awkward position?

And that was not all. Her achievements would certainly not have stopped there.

People liked to say that even humble families could produce great men, but could children raised on entirely different resources truly be the same? Humble families could indeed produce outstanding children, but the circles they struggled to enter were places the children of great families had inhabited from birth.

By the time the child of a humble family first entered such a circle, the scion of an aristocratic family would already have reached its center and begun expanding outward through the connections made there.

That was the difference.

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Wen Mother had watched all the difficulties Wen Miaoting encountered after returning and felt every one of them like a wound in her own heart. In the dead of night, she often blamed herself. Why had she gone to the Wen family’s ancestral hometown when she was about to give birth? If she had not gone, she would not have delivered her baby in a small town, and the incompetence of the staff at the local hospital would never have led to the babies being switched.

Yet whenever she thought of that, she would also think of Wen Miaohan—the sensible, intelligent, filial child who had been so well behaved since childhood. If the babies had not been switched, Wen Miaohan would never have come to her.

And whenever she thought of Wen Miaohan, she would wonder how the child was doing after leaving the Wen family.

Outsiders all believed that the Wen family had cast her aside. Would she be bullied or made to suffer?

Wen Mother had to worry about Wen Miaohan while also feeling sorry for Wen Miaoting. Life had been truly difficult for her lately. In the dead of night, she would even greedily wish that she had been carrying twins back then, so that both children could have been hers.

But the moment that thought arose, her kind heart would remind her how cruel such a wish was to Wen Miaohan’s biological parents. Compared with them, who had never even seen their own daughter, Wen Mother felt she had been incomparably fortunate.

Now, seeing how close the two sisters were, Wen Mother felt that all the suffering she had endured before no longer mattered.

“Yes, having a fragrant, soft older sister is wonderful. It’s much better than having only a few stinky brothers before,” Wen Miaohan replied perfunctorily, forcing herself to sound spirited.

Wen Haoran immediately protested. “Miaohan, when have I ever been stinky?”

Wen Miaohan glanced at him. “Who was it that came back from playing ball drenched in sweat?”

Wen Miaohan had never carefully sorted through the original owner’s memories, and things that did not truly belong to her mind faded quickly even after she received them.

Her memories of the original owner’s interactions with her family were vague, and she did not much like rummaging through them. Still, even based on her general understanding of boys, there was hardly any boy who did not play sports while in school—whether badminton, tennis, table tennis, basketball, or anything else.

Wen Haoran was left speechless. No wonder Miaohan had refused to watch him play whenever he invited her before. So she disliked the smell of sweat!

“Miaohan, Miaoting, come sit beside Mom.” Wen Mother smiled and beckoned both girls over.

Wen Haoran pretended to be jealous. “So daughters are the ones Mom really likes! The three of us brothers have never been this valuable to her.”

“You want to be valuable, do you? Then come over here… come…”

Their father’s single sentence made Wen Haoran fall instantly silent. He did not dare say another word. His father’s affection was simply too profound for him to bear!

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The moment Wen Miaohan sat down, Auntie Wu brought over a bowl of bird’s nest soup and said affectionately, “Second Miss, it has cooled to the perfect temperature. You can drink it now.”

“Thank you, Auntie Wu!”

Under everyone’s watchful gaze, Wen Miaohan accepted the bowl and drank the entire serving. Fortunately, she had developed thick skin in her modern life; otherwise, she doubted she could have swallowed even a mouthful of the bird’s nest soup.

Even so, she could not taste a thing as she drank it. All she knew was that she had just consumed something expensive and nourishing.

The life of a wealthy heiress really was different. At such a young age, she was already eating bird’s nest soup.

If she truly could not return, perhaps living such an exquisite life would not be so bad after all.

After Wen Miaohan finished the entire bowl, Wen Mother was delighted. “Miaohan, your third brother has just returned from a meeting with the hospital directors. Your illness can still be treated. Would you like your third brother to explain the treatment plan?”

At the mention of serious matters, Wen Haoran’s playful expression vanished. His entire bearing changed, and he suddenly appeared exceptionally reliable.

Wen Miaohan raised her eyes to him, her expression becoming solemn as well. “Third Brother, does your treatment plan include anything that doesn’t require surgery or chemotherapy—something that can be cured simply by taking medicine?”

“You know me. I’ve always loved being beautiful. I don’t want to leave scars on my body. Not even the few marks from minimally invasive surgery would be acceptable, and losing my hair is even more out of the question.”

“Rather than suffer through every possible ordeal and leave this world covered in tubes, I would rather spend this final stretch of time living freely according to my own wishes, then leave with dignity.”

Her words plunged the entire Wen family into silence. Wen Haoran’s expression was the worst of all. He knew better than anyone that a complete recovery was virtually impossible for Wen Miaohan. Every treatment available existed only to prolong her life.

But if that extended life meant spending every day in agony, what meaning did prolonging it have?

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