The blood Ling Peipei coughed into the handkerchief was black.
By nightfall, she knew the slow poison would finally kill her.
Ling Peipei lay weakly on the bed, her face as pale as a sheet of paper.
There was no color left in it.
Tears filled her beautiful eyes as she looked at her closest friend, Lin Yiyi.
"Yiyi," she said, each word faint enough to break. "I do not think I can survive tonight. After I am gone, please help me take care of Xue'er. She is still so young. This is all my fault."
"No." Lin Yiyi shook her head hard, crying until she could barely speak. "You cannot give up like this. We survived so much hardship already. You cannot leave me alone to take care of her. We are supposed to raise her together."
Ling Peipei had once been the first socialite of the capital.
Her beauty, bearing, and temperament were not something an ordinary wealthy daughter could compare with. The young masters of great families had once chased after her, one after another.
Who could have imagined that now, this was the end of her life?
"Yiyi, he gave me a slow poison." Ling Peipei knew her own body. "Being able to endure until today is already my greatest luck. Do not be too sad."
She lifted a trembling hand and gently wiped the tears from Lin Yiyi's face.
"There is a small wooden box under the bed. Keep it safe for me. Give it to Xue'er when she turns eighteen."
Her breath hitched.
"Do not tell her anything now. As she grows, tell her she must become strong. She must not become like us."
The words tore through her body. She coughed violently, and a mouthful of black blood spilled from her lips.
"No. Stop talking. I will take you to the hospital. They can save you. I will not let you die."
Lin Yiyi reached for her, desperate to pull her up.
Ling Peipei stopped her.
"It is too late. We discovered it too late. And going to the hospital would expose my identity."
She wiped the black blood from the corner of her mouth. Pain had already reached every part of her body, as if something inside her were about to explode. Her chest hurt most of all.
She knew she was almost at the end.
"Promise me. Please. You know me best. You know what kind of child I want Xue'er to become."
She forced the words out with the last of her strength.
"Tian'ao is too honest. He does not have the time or the ability to teach her. If I could, I would want Xue'er to grow up safe and healthy. But if she grows up like that, her ending will be the same as mine. I cannot let her end the same way."
When she finished, she nearly fainted.
She was waiting for her friend's promise.
Lin Yiyi was her best friend. The only person she could still trust.
"I promise you." Lin Yiyi stopped crying. "I will raise Xue'er into the kind of person you want her to be. The rest of my life will be spent taking care of her. Do not worry. I will never let her become like us."
Ling Peipei gave her a grateful smile.
She was so tired.
She wanted to sleep more than anything.
But she still could not.
"I will call Xue'er in. You must hold on."
Lin Yiyi ran out of the room. In the living room, she leaned against the wall and covered her mouth as she sobbed. The thought that her friend was about to leave made her chest ache so badly she had to press a hand over it.
But Ling Peipei had no time left.
Not even a second could be wasted.
Lin Yiyi wiped her tears and went to look for Yang Feixue.
She searched the house and could not find the child, so she ran outside.
At last, she found little Xue'er playing happily with the neighbor's children.
Yang Feixue was four years old.
From the day she was born, she had been obedient and sensible. Today she wore a white little princess dress. Her brows curved like willow leaves, and her round, bright eyes held a faint blue sheen.
If someone looked carefully into those eyes, they would feel inexplicably drawn in, wanting to approach her and trust her.
Her nose was small and delicate, her lips deep pink, her face still carrying a little baby fat. Even without any dressing up, she looked like a little princess who had stepped out of a fairy tale.
She had two small pigtails on her head.
She was only four, but anyone could see from that childish face what kind of beauty she would become when she grew up.
She looked too much like her mother.
And when Lin Yiyi thought of Ling Peipei's coming death, tears slipped down again.
"Xue'er, come quickly!"
Lin Yiyi wiped her face and called the child's nickname from a distance.
"Auntie, what happened?"
Yang Feixue turned at the sound, then ran toward her. When she saw Lin Yiyi's red eyes, confusion filled her small face.
"Nothing. Your mother is calling you. She has something to say."
Lin Yiyi avoided the question and pulled the child inside.
After she helped Yang Feixue sit on the bed, Lin Yiyi went out to find a way to notify Yang Tian'ao, Ling Peipei's husband.
Yang Feixue looked at her mother lying so weakly on the bed.
She did not understand.
This morning, her mother had clearly been fine. How had she suddenly become this sick?
"Mama, what is wrong?"
"Xue'er." Ling Peipei touched the child's small head with unbearable pain in her heart. "Mama has to go. I have to go to heaven. You must be good. Listen to your auntie. If you miss Mama, look up at the stars. The brightest one will be me."
The pain in her body could not compare with the pain in her heart.
Her Xue'er was still so young.
What would happen to her?
"Can Mama not go to heaven?" Yang Feixue's tears fell at once. "Xue'er will be scared alone."
She did not know what heaven was.
But she understood that her mother was going to leave her.
"When you grow up, you will understand why Mama must leave."
Ling Peipei's tears would not stop either.
"Mama will become a star and watch over you from the sky. Promise Mama a few things, all right?"
Yang Feixue heard that her mother was going to the sky, that she would become a star, and cried even harder.
"Mama, do not leave me. I will be good. Please do not go."
The child's heartbreaking cries cut Ling Peipei again.
This was fate.
She could not bear to leave her little princess.
She could not bear to go so early.
But those people had not let her go. Even after she hid in this small village, they had still found her.
She hated them.
She hated her own ignorance back then.
She hated her weakness.
She hated that she had been powerless.
Looking at the daughter she loved most, she regretted everything.
But time could not turn back.
No one could change this ending now.
"Xue'er, Mama will not really leave you. I will always be beside you. You just will not be able to see me. Mama has never lied to you, right? You believe Mama, do you not?"