Push Me Away When I Come, Don't Hold Me Back When I Leave - Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Jiang Ruhua Side Story – Like Two Flying Wings, May We Never Part in the Next Life

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“You should leave, young lady. Mr. Jiang said he won’t see you,” the mature secretary came out and shook her head at Jiang Ruhua, showing a helpless expression. “The old master also said if you want to marry that woman, you can, but you’ll have to leave the Jiang family.”

Even now, Jiang Ruhua’s grandfather, Jiang Zhennan, still had the final say in the Jiang family. Her father Jiang Wenjun and brother Jiang Huaiyun appeared to have some authority, but they couldn’t speak up in front of Jiang Zhennan.

Jiang Ruhua had knelt at Jiang Zhennan’s door for a day and night, until her knees were scraped raw.

Hearing this, Jiang Ruhua stood up, preparing to leave. Her body swayed unsteadily, as if she could barely stand.

That woman referred to was Xia Ruoming. At some point, she had truly fallen in love with Xia Ruoming, their relationship evolving from keeper and kept to something more like lovers.

A sheltered maiden she once was, led astray by fate’s cruel jest.

But the Jiang family had been grooming her as their heir, how could they possibly allow her to marry a woman, let alone one who had been her kept woman?

Jiang Zhennan could tolerate her playing around, but once real feelings were involved, he had to intervene no matter what.

In the end, the matter concluded with Jiang Ruhua’s compromise. Although she truly loved Xia Ruoming and envied how Ye Han could defy her family for Xu Fengwu, after weighing the pros and cons, Jiang Ruhua didn’t dare to do what Ye Han did.

Because she knew that her relationship with Xia Ruoming was just a transaction, just like the words she used to seduce Xia Ruoming back then. Xia Ruoming had sold herself to her not out of affection, but because she had her own ambitions and refused to sink into obscurity. Their relationship wasn’t as solid as that between Ye Han and Xu Fengwu. Defying the Jiang family would only break their arrangement, leaving her with nothing.

Jiang Ruhua needed to wait for an opportunity, one where she could maintain her arrangement with Xia Ruoming solely on her own.

But compromising with Jiang Zhennan wasn’t the most painful thing. What hit her harder was that Xia Ruoming disappeared.

Jiang Ruhua had elevated Xia Ruoming to the clouds, letting wealth and luxury thoroughly corrupt her. She had thought Xia Ruoming could no longer leave that high-society life. Due to her own petty nature, she decided to “teach a lesson” to the woman who never truly had her in her heart, pulling her down from the clouds and letting her fall hard, leaving her battered and bruised.

She wanted to get a small revenge on Xia Ruoming, revenge for treating everything as just a transaction, for not understanding her feelings at all. Apart from necessary occasions when Xia Ruoming would cooperate in doing things that lesbian couples do, she showed no interest in Jiang Ruhua at other times. Xia Ruoming would never initiate such intimate activities, nor would she act lovey-dovey with Jiang Ruhua like real lovers. In matters of love, Xia Ruoming was always coldly distant towards Jiang Ruhua.

Rather than acting lovers, they were more like friends with a strange relationship. Jiang Ruhua didn’t like this feeling.

Actually, after years together, feelings for Jiang Ruhua had also sprouted in Xia Ruoming’s heart, but she didn’t know Jiang Ruhua’s thoughts, so she never crossed that line. Xia Ruoming always acted like the perfect lover, even though she only came to Riverside Villa 2-3 times a week on average, she would prepare Jiang Ruhua’s favorite dishes every day, waiting until late night on the days Jiang Ruhua came to Riverside Villa. Then they would drink together while Jiang Ruhua complained about work.

When she learned that Jiang Ruhua had caused her downfall, she didn’t get angry, nor did she harbor resentment towards Jiang Ruhua. Instead, she chose to leave quietly. If anything, Xia Ruoming had always been grateful for what Jiang Ruhua provided her. She just thought Jiang Ruhua had grown tired of their lovers’ game, and was glad she never crossed that transactional line with Jiang Ruhua.

Jiang Ruhua wanted Xia Ruoming to come beg her, beg her to take her back to high society, so she could better control Xia Ruoming.

But Xia Ruoming truly walked away from that life of luxury and vanished into the vast sea of humanity. When she came, Xia Ruoming’s bank account only had 6,000 yuan; when she left, she only took 6,000 yuan in cash.

Neither of them realized that if they had just taken one small step forward, perhaps the ending would have been different.

Jiang Ruhua had thought she would still see her beloved when she returned home, but when she opened the villa door with her key, she only saw a table of cold dishes. The property deed to the Riverside Villa that Jiang Ruhua had bought for her, along with the keys to luxury cars and jeweled accessories, were all neatly arranged in the middle of the table.

All the clothes in the closet had been washed clean and hung up neatly. Xia Ruoming hadn’t taken a single piece. The bags Jiang Ruhua bought for her were all left in the closet too.

Xia Ruoming only took that small amount of cash, along with her unfinished novel manuscripts and drawings.

On the chair was a paper weighted down by a jeweled pendant, bearing Xia Ruoming’s elegant handwriting. There were no long, touching paragraphs, just four short characters.

“Farewell, goodbye.”

Jiang Ruhua’s fingers, which were about to type in Xia Ruoming’s phone number, froze slightly, then her phone fell to the ground as it lost support, its screen shattering.

She knew she would never find Xia Ruoming again.

The last time she saw Xia Ruoming was as a cold corpse. Gossip news was filled with reports about how a former novelist, suspected to be the kept woman of Jiang family’s eldest daughter Jiang Ruhua, had died in a car accident.

The last thing Jiang Ruhua could do for her was to fulfill her past wish of being buried in Wei Jiang Cemetery, and then complete what Jiang Ruhua herself had always wanted to do on the tombstone.

【The Tomb of Beloved Wife Xia Ruoming】

If she couldn’t give her most beloved person status in life, at least let her rest in peace after death.

After Xia Ruoming’s passing, Jiang Ruhua’s spirit quickly deflated. Six months later, she handed over all her inherited assets to Jiang Huaiyun to manage. In just six months, her originally chestnut-colored hair had grown noticeably white in many places. Although she wrapped herself up completely when going out so it wasn’t visible, Jiang Huaiyun knew his sister had become frighteningly thin, to the point of being almost unrecognizable.

Jiang Huaiyun wondered if Jiang Zhennan felt any regret when he saw his once most beloved granddaughter become like this.

But never mind, that old traditionalist probably wouldn’t regret it.

That midsummer was Jiang Ruhua’s last visit to Xia Ruoming. She had become too weak to go out alone. With Jiang Huaiyun’s help, she picked white lilies she had grown and placed them on Xia Ruoming’s grave, then sat down leaning against Xia Ruoming’s tomb, saying many things that only they knew about.

After saying goodbye to Xia Ruoming, Jiang Ruhua looked at Jiang Huaiyun, and in those eyes, Jiang Huaiyun saw endless sorrow.

“Brother, can you promise your sister one thing…” her voice was extremely weak, to a heartbreaking degree.

“Say it, Ruhua. Whatever it is, your big brother will promise you.”

“After I die, please bury me next to Xia Ruoming’s grave.” Jiang Ruhua said word by word, her voice like a candle in the wind, seemingly about to be extinguished at any moment. “We couldn’t be together in the mortal world, please let us never part in the underworld…”

Jiang Ruhua no longer cared what Jiang Zhennan thought. She had already chosen her spot in Wei Jiang Cemetery. If her remains couldn’t be sent there in the end, Wei Jiang Cemetery would still erect a cenotaph for her. She had already decided what to engrave on her tombstone.

【The Tomb of Xia Ruoming’s Wife Jiang Ruhua】