My Husband Regretted It After I Died in Childbirth

: Wicked Mother Vance

"Mom, you need to set her straight at home. She's gotten more and more demanding since she got pregnant."

That got Mother Vance all fired up.

"You have no idea. After giving birth, she thinks she's hot stuff, ordering me around to do this and that. One minute it's laundry, the next it's fetching her tea and water. Your own mother… I've become her personal maid."

Getting swept up in her own performance, she even managed to squeeze out a few tears, her voice thick with a sob.

"She smashed every pot and pan in the house, and that's not even the worst of it! She's forcing me to make clothes for the baby. At my age, how can my old eyes even see well enough for that? Waaah…"

Zane Vance's anger completely flared up.

"Mom, you've suffered. Don't enable her. I'll give her a piece of my mind when I get back."

This Zane Vance was a world apart from the brilliant, noble-hearted young man I remembered.

Before, he could never bear to say a single harsh word to me.

When he took me home to meet his parents, his mother threw a fit the moment she found out I was an orphan, absolutely refusing to approve of our relationship.

He pulled me into his arms, his voice resolute.

"She's marrying me, not you. I'm going to marry her no matter how much you disapprove."

After a huge fight with his mother, he turned right around and came to comfort me.

"Nina, my mom is just… unrefined. She's used to being unreasonable. I will marry you, I promise. Don't pay her any mind."

'Now, it seems he's long forgotten all that. In his heart, I'm the unreasonable one.'

Our past vows, eternal as the mountains and seas, now seemed like a colossal joke.

'Zane Vance, my only wish is that we never meet again in the next life.'

Because they were premature, my babies were supposed to be in incubators. But the cost was too high, and Mother Vance would never dream of paying for their hospital stay.

She raised a stink and forced the doctors to discharge them, signing the papers against medical advice.

She brought the babies home.

But she didn't care for the babies at all. All she cared about was mahjong.

The tiny babies, though not yet fully developed, could still feel discomfort, and so they cried.

The babies wailed and wailed, and when their cries annoyed her, she just shut them in the farthest room and went back to organizing her mahjong game.

Even the other players couldn't stand it.

"The babies are crying so hard. Aren't you going to do anything?"

"Do what? I didn't give birth to them. Whoever did is responsible. If you want to blame someone, blame them for having such a heartless mother."

I had no idea when she had last fed them. The two babies, exhausted from crying, even started gnawing on their own hands.

Their diapers hadn't been changed in a long time and were overflowing with filth.

Their cheeks grew flushed, showing the faint signs of a fever.

My heart ached beyond measure.

These were the babies I had carried for eight months, the babies I had risked my life to birth. They were my treasures, so precious I was afraid they'd shatter if I held them too tightly or melt if I kept them too close.

And now Mother Vance was treating them like a burden, tormenting them like this!

Watching their faces grow redder and their breathing weaker, I was frantic, about to break down completely!

'My babies, don't sleep! Look at Mama!' I desperately reached out to hold them, but my transparent hand passed right through their bodies.

A wave of helplessness washed over me, like a great mountain pressing down, crushing the air from my lungs.

'Save my children! Won't someone please save my children!'

I was frantic. A soul cannot cry, but at that moment, I felt as if I had cried myself dry.

I fell to my knees, clasping my hands together. I kowtowed to the heavens, one bow after another, piously begging the gods to perform a miracle and save my children.

But no one heard my prayers. The babies' cries grew louder and louder, a sharp sword piercing my heart and leaving it in tatters.

Finally! The babies' desperate, life-or-death wails finally alerted a neighbor.