I didn't reply.

Not all regrets are worth forgiving.

Julian also came to see me once.

It was raining that day.

He stood under the Evergreen building without an umbrella.

When I came out of the building, he was soaked to the bone.

"Clara."

His voice was hoarse.

"I'm going abroad tomorrow."

I nodded.

Chairman Fu was sending him abroad to study management courses. It was called advanced studies, but everyone knew it was exile.

He looked at me, with many words in his eyes.

In the end, he only said one thing:

"Will you be happy in the future?"

I held my umbrella, watching the rain fall from the rim.

"I will."

He smiled bitterly.

"That's good."

He turned to leave.

After a few steps, he stopped again.

"If I had known who you were at the beginning..."

I said calmly:

"Julian Fu, you still don't get it."

He looked back at me.

I said:

"The problem was never that you didn't know who I was."

"It's that you didn't know how to respect someone who loved you."

The sound of the rain was loud.

He stood there for a long time without speaking.

Finally, he nodded.

"I'm sorry."

I didn't respond again.

The car door closed, and the curtain of rain separated the past from the present.

Half a year later, the new project for the Evergreen Public Welfare Medical Fund was officially launched.

The first batch of mobile diagnostic vehicles drove into the remote mountainous areas.

That day, I went to the scene with Gu Shi'an.

The children laughed around the diagnostic vehicles, and the elderly lined up to wait for check-ups.

The wind in the mountains was very clean.

Gu Shi'an stood beside me and said:

"This is what your father wanted to do back then."

I looked at the words "Evergreen Public Welfare Medical Fund" on the car body, and suddenly felt that a part of my heart that had been empty for a long time was slowly being filled.

"Then let's keep doing it."

Gu Shi'an tilted his head to look at me.

"Clara Shen, you really are suited for this place."

I smiled.

"I used to think I was suited to be a good wife."

He asked: "And now?"

I looked at the mountains in the distance.

"Now I think I'm suited to be myself."

Gu Shi'an didn't speak again.

He just handed me a bottle of water.

The wind blew the corner of his coat, and the sunlight fell on his shoulders.

I suddenly remembered many years ago, on the university playground, he had also stood beside me like this and handed me a bottle of water.

We were both young then, not knowing how long a road the future would take.

But fortunately, some people, after going around in circles, are still standing in the light.

The night the project ended, my mother called me.

"Clara, are you tired?"

"A little."

"Do you regret it?"

I watched the starry sky outside the window.

"No regrets."

On the other end of the phone, she smiled softly.

"That's good."

I paused and asked her:

"Mom, when you were holding things together by yourself back then, were you afraid?"

She was silent for a moment.

"Afraid."

"Then how did you hold it together?"

She said:

"Because I knew that when you grew up, one day you would stand by my side."

My eyes grew warm.

"Mom, I'm standing here now."

Her voice was gentle:

"I know."

20

One year later, Fu Medical completed its restructuring.

It did not collapse entirely, but it could never return to what it once was.

Chairman Fu retired to the background.

After Julian returned from abroad, he did not enter the company again.

Some say he went to a regular company in the south, starting from the bottom.

Others say he has become much more silent and has never appeared in any gossip columns again.

When this news reached my ears, I simply smiled and let it pass.

His ending has nothing to do with me.

Mina later vanished from the internet.

The exquisite life she had built with countless photos shattered completely like a bubble.

Sia married someone in another region.

Leung Pui-wan no longer attends socialite gatherings.

Those who were once high and mighty, looking down on me, all eventually stumbled over their own arrogance.

As for me, I officially took over as the head of the Evergreen Public Welfare Medical Fund.

In a certain interview, a reporter asked me:

"Ms. Clara, many people know you because of that sensational divorce scandal. How do you view that marriage?"

I thought for a moment and said:

"It wasn't a failure."

The reporter was a bit surprised.

I continued:

"It just made me understand that before loving others, you cannot lose yourself."

"Then, do you hate them?"

I smiled.

"I once did."

"And now?"

I looked into the camera.

"I'm too busy now; I don't have the time."

After the interview aired, my mother forwarded it to me with only two words:

"Beautifully done."

Gu Shi'an sent a message:

"Ms. Shen, tomorrow is the mountain project meeting; don't be late."

I replied to him:

"Understood, Mr. Gu."

He quickly replied again:

"Also, are you free tonight? Let me treat you to dinner."

I looked at that message and smiled for a long time.

The sunshine outside the window was perfect.

On the desk lay new project proposals, fund budget sheets, and an old photograph.

In the photo were my young parents, people who had been wronged by fate in their youth.

But now, everything is growing anew.

I picked up my pen and signed my name at the end of the project proposal.

Clara Shen.

From this day forward, I am no longer anyone's wife, no longer anyone's daughter-in-law, and no longer that silent, patient woman waiting for someone to turn back.

I am Clara Shen.

I am Lin Shu's daughter.

I am the successor of Evergreen.

And I am the captain of my own life.

The Fu family once thought that driving me out of their house was the beginning of their new life.

They did not know.

That day, the one who truly began a new life was me.

— End of Story —