Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  Nan Nan’s family relationship was shallow, and so was his. No matter how much fame, fortune, and power he had, he still did not have any family by his side.

  Nan Nan’s appearance truly filled a gap in his life.

  He had lived for eighty-odd years, but only in the ten-over years after accepting Qiao Nan as a disciple did he really feel that he was living a good life.

  Old Lin always wondered why he had to ‘leave’ his good life so quickly in a blink of an eye after having endured so many hardships throughout his life.

  Every time he did not allow Qiao Nan and her three children to enter his house to see him, he saw the expressions on their faces. The person who was the most miserable from this was Old Lin. The moment Qiao Nan and her children left, Old Lin would lock himself in his room and not even open it for the auntie who took care of him.

  Even though Old Lin had made mental preparations, he still felt as though he was being stabbed when he finally opened up to Zhai Sheng. “Zhai Sheng, I entrusted Nan Nan to you. If you don’t take good care of Nan Nan and let her suffer, I’ll never let you go.”

  He no longer had any energy to continue protecting her. No matter how painful it was for Old Lin, or how much he could not let her go, he could only pass this sweet burden on to Zhai Sheng.

  “What illness?” Zhai Sheng did not reply, but Lin Yuankang knew that Zhai Sheng had agreed. After all, it was Zhai Sheng’s wife and children they were talking about. Looking at Old Lin’s frail body, Zhai Sheng shut his eyes and asked somberly.

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  “Stomach cancer.” In the face of his incurable disease, Old Lin replied calmly. “It’s in the late stage. There’s no way of curing it.”

  “How did it happen? Didn’t you notice it earlier?” Zhai Sheng knew that if it was in the early or intermediate stages, it could still be cured.

  At this point, Old Lin was able to speak calmly with Zhai Sheng about his health problems. “I did find out about it early.” With Qiao Nan as his disciple and his three lovely little apprentices, Old Lin thought that his life was a bed of roses and that his life was getting better and better.

  But as soon as one knows that his end is near, he will naturally start to appreciate life.

  Knowing that he was no longer young, he knew that there were parts of his body that were sure to ‘malfunction’ and need ‘fixing’. This was the only way to ensure he would lead a long life so that he could spend more time with Qiao Nan and her three children. And so, with such consciousness of his health, Lin Yuankang went to the hospital for physical examinations from time to time.

  Actually, the first time that the doctor found a problem with Old Lin’s stomach was four years ago. That was the last time Old Lin went abroad for a business trip for the country while protected by Peng Yu.

  At that time, Old Lin not only completed the task that had been assigned to him by the state, but he had also gone to confirm his health status. After receiving the same diagnosis, Old Lin bought the treatment plan from foreign doctors and returned to China for the Chinese doctors to treat him.

  At that time, Old Lin was suffering from only intermediate stomach cancer.

  As long as he removed the tumor and the tumor did not recur, Old Lin would recover.

  After a round of surgery, the doctor observed Old Lin for half a year and declared that Old Lin had recovered. But the doctor also reminded Old Lin that even though he had recovered, he should continue to return to the hospital for checkups just in case so as to avoid the recurrence of cancer and a late discovery.

  Although the first few years had been fine, when Old Lin returned to the hospital last year for his checkup, he was not only informed that his stomach cancer had recurred but that his cancer had skipped the early and intermediate stages and had reached its late stage! There was no cure for it!

  After contracting cancer, Old Lin was willing to endure chemotherapy and medications. But there was no way his old body could endure such torture. Gradually, Old Lin was afraid that Qiao Nan would notice something amiss, so he made up the excuse that his legs were weak and asked the caretaker to push him around in a wheelchair. In this way, Old Lin put on more and larger clothes and covered his legs with a blanket, saying that his legs were frail and could not withstand the wind blowing on it. Moreover, even when the two of them met, Old Lin never allowed Qiao Nan to stay in his presence for long.

  After half a year, Qiao Nan indeed mentioned occasionally that Old Lin had lost some weight. But every time she asked Old Lin about it, he would deny it. Once, Old Lin even said, “I’ve lost weight, but it’s quite normal. I’m already old and I don’t exercise much. My appetite is also not as good as you youngsters. People who gain weight at my age probably don’t exist, right?”

  With that, Qiao Nan thought for a while. Indeed, she had never seen anyone who had gained weight at Old Lin’s age. And so, Qiao Nan dismissed her suspicions. How would she have known that Old Lin would play a silly trick and put up a false front, successfully cheating her? After all, she had never thought negatively and was thus naturally less suspicious.

  The caretaker auntie had been working for Old Lin for several years. Although Old Lin did not have any family, his temper was good and he was quite a good man. Whenever the caretaker auntie faced any troubles, like financial problems at home, Old Lin would always extend a helping hand.

  Thus, knowing that Old Lin wanted to hide it from Qiao Nan, the caretaker auntie helped out. Without her help, Old Lin would never have been able to hide it from Qiao Nan up until today.

  Hearing that Old Lin had admitted to Zhai Sheng that he was critically ill, the caretaker auntie could not help but cry out. “Now, Old Lin practically can’t eat anything.” A few months ago, Uncle Lin used to eat and then throw up, and then eat again.

  Because Uncle Lin knew that if he did not eat, he would be weak and without energy. Such an intelligent lady like Qiao Nan would definitely suspect something.

  Watching Old Lin force himself to eat in pain, the caretaker auntie was tempted to tell Qiao Nan the truth from time to time or snatch the food away from Old Lin. It’s said that living is better than death, but living in this way was simply excruciating.

  Now, Old Lin’s illness had reached such an advanced stage that he was no longer able to eat.

  Old Lin could no longer eat. That was a given. With his health condition, even if he deteriorated slowly, he would still deteriorate as long as he was still alive. In a mere two to three days, Old Lin, who was not fat to begin with, lost so much weight that he seemed like a skeleton.

  How could Old Lin allow Qiao Nan and her children to see him in such a state?

  Old Lin was a man. He did not care about beauty. But even then, he could not accept his appearance, let alone others. Hence, when Zhai Sheng entered Lin’s house and found out about it, he found that there were no reflective glass surfaces in the entire house, much less a mirror.

  The caretaker auntie had been watching how Old Lin lived every day in pain and torture. Today, seeing that Zhai Sheng had come to visit, she was actually rather happy. She hoped that Zhai Sheng would be able to convince Old Lin to make up his mind and free himself. Really, it was much better to die than live like this.