Living Only For Myself: Make Those Who Hate Me Regret It-Chapter 168: The Zhou Family Raised a Lovesick Fool

Chapter 168: Chapter 168: The Zhou Family Raised a Lovesick Fool

But she couldn’t go back. The body rejected her attempts to enter, to even get close.

Xu Su watched Zhou Mochen spend a fortune hiring one team of doctors after another. Medical teams of all ethnicities came and went in waves. He grew more and more exhausted, the despair in his eyes deepening.

The sanity he struggled to maintain in front of others was on the verge of collapse. The occasional glint of madness showed that he was no longer the brilliant, gentle, and elegant young master of the Zhou family.

Zhou Mochen had always been one of heaven’s chosen, sitting high above the clouds and looking down on the mortal masses. Perhaps meeting Xu Su was the only tribulation in his life.

Just as Mrs. Zhou had said, she truly was the calamity that had ensnared him.

When Zhou Mochen had wanted to marry Xu Su, his parents had, of course, taken action. With the Zhou family’s power, they didn’t need to secure an alliance through marriage to another powerful family.

Mr. and Mrs. Zhou weren’t concerned about her matching their social status. Rather, with the wisdom of experience, they could see she didn’t care for their son. He had been the one forcing the relationship all along.

Before the wedding, Mrs. Zhou had spoken to Xu Su alone. It wasn’t the warning or threat Xu Su had expected. Mrs. Zhou was gentle and persuasive the entire time, a mother trying her best to convince Xu Su to build a good life with her son. She couldn’t recall the specific details.

The one thing that stuck with her was what she’d said: "Good child, take a serious look at Ah Chen. Even if he’s the one forcing this, just give him a chance. Try to really see him. My son is truly a good man."

’How did I answer back then?’

She had only given a faint smile, saying nothing.

’What was I thinking at that moment? Probably something defiant. Did I feel that controlling my body wasn’t enough for Zhou Mochen, that he was trying to control my heart as well?’

’Who could ever fall in love with someone who coerced them?’

Xu Su’s upbringing had forged a rebellious spirit in her. Submissively accepting her fate was impossible. Since Zhou Mochen chose to start their relationship that way, he was doomed to never earn her genuine respect.

But the Zhou Mochen of today was just too pitiful. In the dead of night, after washing her body, he would suddenly break down, burying his face in her neck and sobbing softly. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

This wasn’t the first time Xu Su had seen him cry. She had angered him to tears several times before, but this was the first time his crying made her feel so miserable.

It was even more painful than when she had seen Xi Zirong cry his eyes out. The ache spreading from the bottom of her heart made her double over.

’I’m an Apiao now, so why does it still hurt so much?’

Xu Su could have floated away.

Her greatest wish had once been to regain her freedom and escape from Zhou Mochen’s side.

Now, in her Apiao form, she had the freedom she had once longed for.

Xu Su’s current state was different from the ghosts of legend. She wasn’t afraid of sunlight, the presence of people, or the so-called astral winds. She could leave this villa at any time, but she never did.

She just kept floating in their marital bedroom, watching this once-arrogant man wither away bit by bit.

During this time, Mr. and Mrs. Zhou visited several times. Mrs. Zhou, who had been dignified and poised her entire life, cried her heart out at the sight of her only son’s condition.

"I’ve always regretted it. I never should have let you go to Chang City back then. I should have stopped you when you wanted to go."

She grabbed her son’s arm, crying hoarsely, "Ah Chen, snap out of it! Look at yourself right now! Is this still you?"

Mrs. Zhou was born in Chang City. A textile factory with tens of thousands of workers might have been a big name in Chang City, but it was nothing in a place like Beijing.

In her generation, university students were rare, and top students were even rarer. Yet Mrs. Zhou, a woman from a small town, had relied on her own efforts. After graduating from Beijing Political and Legal University, she had a meteoric rise and was now a top figure in Beijing’s political and legal system—an upright and incorruptible Iron Lady.

The Zhou family’s roots ran deep. Mr. Zhou was one of the few figures in Beijing whose name could not be spoken lightly. While the Zhou family’s support might have played a part in Mrs. Zhou’s success, her own excellence was undeniable.

Xu Su actually respected her mother-in-law a great deal. It pained her to see her with her hair in disarray and her face streaked with tears.

No one can predict the future. Mrs. Zhou would never have imagined that her perfectly fine son would go to Chang City for a single trip and become utterly bewitched by a girl, his every emotion tied to her, and now his very life hanging in the balance because of her.

But the girl in question had never cared for him, from beginning to end.

"You can’t go on like this. For my sake, please, pull yourself together. You love her, but you can’t just keep watch over her like this day after day. You’ll go mad... You’ll go completely mad." Mrs. Zhou collapsed into her husband’s arms, sobbing into her hands.

Zhou Mochen stood in silence, his eyes, already red raw from lack of sleep, now completely bloodshot.

’Say yes! Your elderly parents, the huge family business, your commercial empire—aren’t all of those things more important than me?’

Xu Su floated nearby, hoping from the bottom of her heart that he would pull himself together and live a good life.

She couldn’t return to her body now. She was as good as dead. Even if the body was fine for now, there was no telling when it would finally give out.

If Zhou Mochen didn’t start getting used to a life without her now, Xu Su had no doubt that he wouldn’t be able to go on living once that body lost all signs of life.

’He’ll die...’

’Right after I was reborn, I thought about this. If I died, Zhou Mochen would probably follow me in death.’

But now, seeing him driven to this state of madness with her own eyes, Xu Su didn’t want him to die.

’Live... Zhou Mochen, please, live a good life.’

But in the end, he remained silent, standing rigidly in place.

Mr. Zhou held his wife, silently watching the son who had once made him so proud. He’d hit him, and he’d cursed him. There was nothing more he could do.

His son had once said that girl was his life. He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, assuming it was just the boy’s first taste of love. He figured that after he’d been with more women, he would realize the one at his side was nothing special.

Only now did he finally believe it.

"Willing to throw his life away for a woman. To think my Zhou family raised such a fool for love." Mr. Zhou let out a bitter laugh.

He patted his son’s shoulder lightly. "I only have one request: don’t make your mother bury her own child."

Zhou Mochen didn’t move an inch until the old couple left the villa.

He stood there, stunned, for a long time before turning expressionlessly and heading upstairs, returning to the comatose Xu Su’s side.

Zhou Mochen stared at the person on the bed for a long while. He reached out and caressed the woman’s face, his thumb lingering on her lips, rubbing them slowly.

"It’s actually quite nice when you’re asleep. You can’t say those infuriating things anymore, and you won’t always be trying to escape from me."

As he spoke, as if overcome by a renewed fit of anger, he leaned down and covered her body with his.

But no matter how fiercely he acted, the person beneath him would have no reaction. Zhou Mochen froze. He buried his face in the woman’s ink-black hair and let out a whimper, like that of a dying cub.

Xu Su shot upright, gasping for breath. The pain in her chest was so real it felt physical. She clutched her chest tightly, her face, at some point, already streamed with tears.