Rose Hotel 27 (End)

She wanted to draw closer, yet lacked the courage to do so.

"Why are you so foolish? I was already dead... I was clearly already dead, why did you have to follow me down..." Su Yuye's throat choked, unable to utter a single complete sentence.

With trembling hands, she reached out and grabbed Li Xing's hand, their fingers intertwining. Li Xing's hand shuddered slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Miraculously, he was not yet dead, though he was clinging to life by a mere thread.

He looked at Su Yuye, wanting to offer some comfort, but the moment he opened his mouth, only gouts of bloody froth bubbled out. His vision had already turned entirely blurred, and he could barely even hear Su Yuye's voice anymore. In the end, a helpless, bitter smile formed on his lips, and he forced out a few words with immense strain, "Yuye, don't cry. I'm going ahead."

Yet Su Yuye only wept louder, gasping for breath, "Don't die, Li Xing. Please don't die. You aren't allowed to die, I'm begging you."

Instinctively, she lifted her head and looked toward Su Man's position, seeking help.

She said nothing, but from her gaze, Su Man understood her intent. She wanted Su Man to save Li Xing once more. However, that was impossible; setting aside the fact that she no longer had any of that injection left, even if she did, she would not save Li Xing again. She had already done everything in her power.

If Su Yuye were to actually ask, it would only be courting humiliation.

Su Yuye's lips moved, but the plea that had reached her lips was ultimately swallowed back down. She truly lacked the pride to speak those words aloud again.

She lowered her gaze to look at Li Xing, who was rapidly losing all response, and then raised her eyes once more to look at the faces of everyone staring down from above. Her gaze lingered for a moment on her mother's guilt-ridden face, and finally, she managed a faint smile toward Su Man. Her lips parted, and she silently mouthed two phrases: "I'm sorry. Thank you."

Then, amidst the gasps of horror from Kang Fu and the old woman, she threw her body hard against the exposed section of the railing, without the slightest hesitation.

She could no longer save Li Xing. Since they could not live together, they would die together.

She was even staking Li Xing's life alongside her own. Having done this much, she could be considered to have repaid her mother's grace of upbringing, and she was finally free—in an entirely different way.

If there were an afterlife, she would willingly serve as an ox or a horse for Li Xing to repay his kindness.

The luster in the depths of her eyes gradually faded. The lingering obsession in Su Yuye's heart slowly dissolved into nothingness, and her body transformed into scattered specks of starlight that vanished into the air. The hand gripping Li Xing's also slowly dissolved into points of light, slipping away silently through the gaps between Li Xing's fingers.

Only Li Xing's corpse remained on the railing. Had it not been for the ring engraved with Su Yuye's initials rolling upon the ground, it would have seemed as though a person named Su Yuye had never existed at all.

"She's gone..." It took a long while for Kang Fu to find his voice, and he turned his head to speak to Su Man. But before he could finish a complete sentence, he cried out in shock, "Su Man!!"

Su Man had jumped down right under his nose.

He immediately leaned his head over the edge to look, but fortunately, Su Man was completely unharmed.

"Miss Su, what are you trying to do?" he shouted, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Su Man paid him no mind, instead bending down to pick up the ring from the ground and pressing it firmly into the palm of Li Xing's hand.

"A freedom that belongs to you both."

This was her final act of fulfillment.

And of course, there was one more crucial point.

She swept a dagger across Li Xing's corpse. A halo of light radiated from the blade, and it seemed as though something had been absorbed into it, though perhaps nothing had changed at all. Su Man could be certain that whatever the dagger had absorbed was definitely not a malevolent spirit; it felt somewhat akin to negative energy.

She did not fully understand it and figured she might have to ask Zhou Miaomiao about it when she had the time.

Having finished this, Su Man focused her intent, hurling the dagger against the wall. Using it as a stepping stone, she made a single, soaring leap, stepped upon the dagger, and vaulted back up onto the rooftop.

Having undergone physical enhancements through several resurrections, her current physical fitness was quite impressive. Feats that had previously been utterly impossible for her could now be accomplished without the slightest effort.

With a thought, the dagger flew back into her hand.

Splendid, her blade technique was also coming along nicely.

The moment she landed steadily, Kang Fu hurried to her side and whispered in a low voice, "You left me stranded over there, and I genuinely thought I was about to be murdered by those two."

As he spoke, his gaze kept darting toward the old woman and Lin Hui.

"They wouldn't have," Su Man replied with absolute certainty. She had already established earlier that the crux of the issue did not lie with Kang Fu.

Moreover, Su Yuye's death would leave them with no mind to pay attention to Kang Fu.

Lin Hui was now completely lost in her own world like a madwoman, crying one moment and laughing the next, endlessly repeating, "Su Yuye is dead. Finally dead. Completely dead. She deserved to die, serves her right, I did nothing wrong."

As for the old woman, she seemed utterly shattered by Su Yuye's death. Supporting herself against the rooftop wall, she remained frozen in the same posture for a long time.

Perhaps because Su Man's gaze upon her was too direct, the old woman was the first to snap out of it. She stared blankly ahead, her eyes filled with immense grief. "It was I who truly killed Yuye."

She paused, sorrow welling up from the depths of her heart. "Yuye was actually a good child. It was I who ruined her..."

Thinking of all the ways Su Yuye had treated her in the past, she could no longer squeeze out a single word and slumped to her knees on the ground, weeping bitterly.

One after the other, their fighting spirit had been entirely extinguished.

Seeing them in that state, Kang Fu forgot entirely how they had wanted him dead just moments before. He only felt that they were pitiable, and he hadn't the heart to utter any harsh words.

Yet when he looked up, he met Su Man's utterly calm expression, as if everything that had happened here had failed to stir even the slightest ripple in her heart.

Unable to help himself, he asked in a low voice, "Don't you have any other thoughts at all?"

"I do," Su Man said. "Now it's time to settle accounts with them."

Kang Fu: "..." That was not what he meant.

He scratched his head in frustration. Clearly, he was the ruthless businessman accustomed to navigating the corporate battlefield, yet why did Su Man seem far more suited to the role than he was?

Su Man cared not a whit about his vexation. She gave him a light kick, whispered a task into his ear, and then walked over to Lin Hui herself.

She rummaged through her pocket, pulled out a recording device, and pressed play. It was the conversation she had previously recorded with the old woman—the part concerning the candy and the university entrance that had weighed so heavily on Lin Hui's mind.

Lin Hui initially showed no reaction, but after the recording played twice, her eyes slowly focused.

"Lin Hui, your mother truly loves you," Su Man said. "There were some misunderstandings between you that built up without being communicated. She didn't love Su Yuye all that much; her feelings toward Su Yuye were merely guilt, because Su Yuye was someone she found to sustain your life."

Lin Hui looked at her in disbelief, and Su Man gave her a reassuring, affirmative look. "Everything in that recording is true. I recorded it secretly."

"If you had been willing to communicate more with your mother, perhaps you would have known this long ago."

"No, that's not right. You're lying to me." Lin Hui's guard was still high—or rather, her mother held zero credibility in her heart.

"I have no reason to lie to you," Su Man patiently continued. "For your sake, your mother was even willing to kill Kang Fu. Murder is a crime, as you well know."

"If she didn't love you, then what on earth has she been striving for all these years? Has she ever uttered a single word of resentment toward you?"

"Because of your existence, do you have any idea how difficult it has been to run this inn?"

She calmly stated the facts, leaving Lin Hui in a daze. "I knew none of this. If I had known..."

Lin Hui fell silent.

Su Man gestured toward the old woman behind her. "Your mother is right there. Whatever grievances you still cannot let go of, you can ask her."

The old woman's eyes were already red-rimmed. "Huihui, let's talk properly."

Following that, Lin Hui voiced many of the knots in her heart that she had never been able to let go of, and the old woman patiently explained every single one of them. When all was said and done, they were nothing more than a series of minor misunderstandings.

Yet those minor misunderstandings, piling up over time, had fermented into agonizing knots of resentment.

"So I had received so much love from my mother all along," Lin Hui said, her face bearing an expression that was neither a cry nor a smile. "It turns out I misunderstood everything."

She bit her lips hard, struggling to keep herself from crying further, and finally opened her arms wide toward her mother. "Mom, I'm sorry. One last time, hug me again, just like before."

The old woman opened her arms in response, only to grasp at empty air. Lin Hui's body dissolved into tiny specks of light that scattered into the air upon impact, slowly fading away into nothingness.

Lin Hui's true obsession had been her mother's love. She had always believed her mother did not love her; now that the misunderstanding was resolved, the obsession naturally vanished.

The old woman collapsed to her knees, staring into the empty embrace and crying out in heart-rending agony, "Huihui!!"

The next second, she scrambled up swiftly and hurled herself fiercely toward the wall at the side. She no longer had any reason to live, but Kang Fu, who had been watching her closely the entire time, grabbed her firmly by the collar and stopped her.

"Su Man left me with this one task, and I certainly couldn't fail it."

He looked at Su Man, fishing for praise. "She tried to kill herself, but I successfully stopped her."

Su Man nodded; she had anticipated this outcome long ago.

The old woman slumped miserably on the ground, a shrunken little bundle who seemed to have aged a decade in moments. Her withered eyes fixed upon Su Man, her voice bitter. "Why won't you let me die?"

"Because death is far too merciful for the likes of you. The evils Lin Hui committed, the evils you committed—they cannot be wiped clean simply by your deaths. It requires someone to live on in repentance and restitution. Lin Hui is already dead, so those debts fall upon you to bear. Living is not a gift; it is your greatest punishment, designed to make you taste the bitter fruit of the seeds you planted with your own hands."

The old woman stared blankly at Su Man, utterly speechless.

The barrier vanished without a trace, and the wail of police sirens drifted up from downstairs.

Bei Jia had arrived with the police.

Kang Fu and Bei Jia embraced and kissed. The police took away Li Xing's body and charged the old woman with premeditated murder and kidnapping; the remainder of her life would most likely be spent behind bars.