Cutting Ties: What Good Are Your Belated Regrets?

“The sound of the household register being torn to shreds was louder than the thunder the day he knelt in the rain, begging for bone marrow.

Qin Ling stared at the scraps of paper scattered across the floor. Zhao Shuang's sobs pierced his ears. ‘Why are you holding such a grudge? Xiao Guan is your younger brother. His college entrance exams were important back then...’

‘Important.’

He cut her off and pulled a yellowed newspaper from his suit pocket. ‘June 7, 2015: Qin Guan takes the college entrance exams. June 8, 2015: my leukemia relapses, and I’m admitted to the ICU.

You said he needed to stay focused, so I was supposed to wait.’

‘But Xiao Guan did donate later...’

‘Donate?’

He scoffed, pulled out another medical report, and slapped it on the table. ‘The doctor said his bone marrow was a 95% match, but you insisted he was afraid of blood. I spent three months searching the bone marrow registry, and even volunteers with a 30% match were willing to save me. What did you do?’

He stepped toward Zhao Shuang. ‘You stood outside that volunteer’s workplace and called them a gold digger, saying, “My son would rather die than take someone else’s blood.”’

The living room fell silent.

Qin Ling bent down and picked up a scrap of the household register. ‘Now I have a house, a car, a company, and a team. I don't need you anymore.’

He turned toward the entrance. ‘But Zhao Shuang, I’ll never forget. While I was clawing my way back from death’s door, you were putting crab on Qin Guan’s plate at his celebration banquet.’