Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 52

Ling Yu had barely been back in the country for two days when she booked out an entire nightclub.

By the time the news reached Ling Taiguo, it was already the following evening.

“It’s all my fault for being too softhearted. I’m always worried about clashing with Xiao Yu.” Yu Xin raised her meticulously maintained fingers and wiped away a tear.

The cat in her arms stared with large, bewildered eyes and meowed.

It seemed curious why the woman who had been smiling radiantly moments ago had suddenly become so sorrowful.

Yu Xin stroked the startled cat’s back and raised her chin halfway toward Ling Taiguo.

Though she was in her forties, not a single wrinkle marked her face. However, the hyaluronic-acid injections had left her features stiff, making her tears look less than convincing.

Apparently realizing this, she used the motion of wiping her tears to conceal half her face.

When Ling Taiguo showed little concern, genuine worry entered her voice.

“Honey, Xiao Yu’s wild behavior isn’t anything new. Ordinarily, it wouldn’t matter. But this is a crucial period, and you’re preparing a marriage alliance with Gangcheng. What if…”

Two years earlier, Ling Yu had already become infamous in their circle as a female player.

The upper-class circles of Jiangcheng and Gangcheng did not completely overlap, but their members were businesspeople from across the country. There were inevitably Jiangcheng bosses with countless connections to Gangcheng’s wealthy merchants.

The married couple exchanged a glance.

Before Yu Xin could finish, Ling Taiguo realized the seriousness of the issue.

Ling Yu’s reputation mattered more than anything now.

Her two years abroad had allowed her notoriety to fade from the social circle. Now that she had returned, every eye would be upon her.

If she behaved outrageously and became the subject of wealthy wives’ gossip, word would reach Gangcheng, and all his previous efforts would be wasted.

Ling Taiguo slammed a palm onto the coffee table, sending the fruit platter crashing to the floor.

He rose and glared furiously toward the second floor.

“That little beast still hasn’t returned tonight?”

“No.”

Yu Xin lowered her head, concealing the calculation that flashed through her eyes as her long nails scratched idly against the cat’s neck.

As expected, Ling Taiguo’s gaze softened when he looked at her.

“Darling, help me keep an eye on Ling Yu. Some problems have arisen with Taikang Private Hospital’s finances. I promise it’ll take no more than a week.”

Ling Taiguo took Yu Xin’s hand, failing to notice the disgust flashing through her eyes. He patted the back of her hand.

“Put up with the inconvenience and watch that little beast for me. Don’t let her go out fooling around again. I promise I’ll take her away in a week.”

Yu Xin lowered her eyes and obediently agreed.

Then she lightly pounded his chest and asked with feigned casualness, “Honey, is the situation at Taikang Hospital serious? It’s actually serious enough for you to handle it personally? Songsong hasn’t seen you for so long. He asks me every day why Daddy won’t play with him.”

At the mention of his biological son, affection finally entered Ling Taiguo’s eyes.

He sighed.

“It wasn’t anything major originally, but the police called me several days ago. They requested an interview and records of the hospital’s recent incoming funds. I’m still actively cooperating with the investigation…”

Hearing the word interview, Yu Xin murmured an absent “Oh.”

Perhaps distracted, she dug her long nails into the cat’s back.

The pure-white Persian cat immediately released a miserable yowl.

Ling Yu owned several properties in Jiangcheng, which she had previously entrusted to her eldest aunt from the Xu family.

Several days earlier, while discussing her career plans with Old Master Xu, Ling Yu had revealed that she had accepted the University of Gangcheng’s invitation to become a professor.

Barring unexpected circumstances, she would spend the next five years developing her career in Gangcheng.

Coincidentally, the Xu family had also been actively expanding into Gangcheng over the past two years. Their future development would gradually shift in that direction.

Old Master Xu suggested that if Ling Yu did not plan to build her career in Jiangcheng, she should sell several properties. Keeping all of them would serve little purpose.

After thinking it over, Ling Yu agreed.

Selling the properties and transferring ownership took two days.

With the Xu family’s connections, the transfers were completed discreetly. Almost no one knew.

Ling Yu had just finished the paperwork with her assistant, Xiao Yang, when Ling Taiguo called.

“What did you feed your brother?”

Ling Yu held the phone as his furious voice thundered through the receiver, making her eardrum tremble.

She immediately moved the phone away and raised her eyelids.

Even through the call, Ling Taiguo’s rage was palpable.

Ling Yu could guess with her toes who had fanned that anger.

“Dad,” she called softly, lowering her voice until she sounded bewildered. “Why would you say that?”

Ling Yu already possessed the gentle cadence of a Jiangnan woman. When she lowered her voice, it seemed to scratch lightly across the heart, sounding desolate yet faintly stubborn.

“I’ve only been back in Jiangcheng for a few days. Aside from spending the first night at home, I’ve stayed elsewhere. I wanted to become closer to my brother, but the nanny stops me every time… What could I possibly have fed him?”

Ling Taiguo stood outside the emergency room and glanced at Yu Xin, who was crying heartbrokenly over their son.

He knew Ling Yu was telling the truth.

However, he was unwilling to retract the impulsive accusation he had already made.

Keeping his face rigid, he demanded harshly, “Do you think spending every day fooling around outside makes you right?”

Ling Yu was amused by Ling Taiguo’s mindless rage.

Her lips curved as she lowered her eyes and followed his lead.

“Fine, fine. You can scold me however you wish. Even when I’ve done nothing, you insist on blaming me. Sometimes I wonder—Songsong is your son, but perhaps I’m not your daughter at all.”

That sentence completely detonated Ling Taiguo’s temper.

“Shut up!” he shouted.

“See? You become angry as soon as I say two sentences.”

Ling Yu leisurely handed the final property-sale agreement to Assistant Yang.

Under his astonished gaze, she effortlessly summoned a pitiful sob.

“You dislike me so much… Going home would only upset you. Your daughter isn’t so unfilial that she’d deliberately anger you every day.”

Ling Yu had intended to use the incident as a legitimate excuse never to return home.

Unexpectedly, instead of Ling Taiguo’s roar, she heard the sound of a rubbish bin crashing to the floor.

Having prepared herself, she held the phone far away.

Yet the anticipated explosion never came.

Ling Taiguo’s voice contained suppressed irritation, but he ultimately did not direct it toward her. He seemed to inhale deeply and steady his tone.

“Come home.”

Ling Yu raised an eyebrow.

“No matter what, you’re my biological daughter. What grudge could exist between a father and daughter?”

Ling Yu wondered what kind of trick he was attempting now.

Ling Taiguo had begun playing the family-affection card, but he had always been crude and direct, without Yu Xin’s talent for subtlety.

Ling Yu casually drew out two more remarks and analyzed his intentions within a minute.

“Your brother ate something bad tonight and is in the emergency department of our private hospital.”

To demonstrate his position as a loving father, Ling Taiguo asked Ling Yu’s location for the first time.

“Where are you? I’ll send the driver to collect you. You’re his biological sister. You haven’t seen each other in years, so you should build a relationship. One day, when your aunt and I are gone, this family will depend on you siblings to support it together.”

Those words sounded like something a father ought to say.

Unfortunately, Ling Yu was not an innocent girl starved for paternal affection.

Resting her chin in one hand, she imagined Ling Taiguo remembering this call after discovering that Ling Song was not his biological son.

His expression would undoubtedly be spectacular.

Ling Yu’s lips curved.

Under Assistant Yang’s astonished gaze, she expressionlessly acted spoiled toward Ling Taiguo and gave him her location.

Her flawless changes of expression stunned everyone in the property office.

Wei Minjun had barely accompanied Gu Qing out of the police station when Gu Qing shoved her into the car.

The idiot had sent Wei Minjun a message three hours earlier. Not only had Wei Minjun failed to respond immediately, she had delayed for all this time.

There was no wife-chasing crematorium in the world handled as carelessly as hers.

Wei Minjun looked resentfully at the car key Gu Qing handed her.

After agonizing over her situation, she boldly protested to the workaholic before her.

“Attorney Gu, there’s at least another month before the next hearing. We really don’t need to keep rushing around through wind and rain—”

Before she could finish, a clear voice interrupted from nearby.

“Wait!”

Twisting herself awkwardly, Wei Minjun craned her neck and looked back.

Fifty meters away, a young woman in a floral dress and carrying a parasol was being pushed toward Gu Qing by her friends.

That damned Gu Qing showed no curiosity about the voice behind her. She shut the driver’s door and walked around to the back seat.

The young woman stopped awkwardly.

Seeing Gu Qing about to close the door, she flushed and tossed two large cups of fruit tea into her arms.

Wei Minjun stared at the drinks with envious longing.

This young woman truly understood how to give gifts—she had even remembered Wei Minjun.

For that thoughtfulness alone, Wei Minjun would absolutely create an opportunity for her to confess today.

“Senior Gu, it’s me. Tang Tang—from the school-bullying case. Do you remember?”

Gu Qing raised her eyes.

Her appearance was coldly stunning, with high brow bones. When she lifted an eyebrow and looked down at someone with her phoenix eyes, she appeared carelessly sharp and intensely abstinent.

Even without expression, Gu Qing would always be the most eye-catching person in any crowd.

Wei Minjun sighed.

She had watched countless women approach Gu Qing, but every one of them had returned defeated.

This one had no chance either.

As expected, Gu Qing merely hummed. She picked up the drinks and extended them through the window.

“I don’t drink sweet things.”

After so many years, Gu Qing still remembered her.

Tang Tang’s nervous smile relaxed, revealing dimples at the corners of her lips.

“Senior, one of them is unsweetened oolong tea.”

She paused.

Apparently knowing Gu Qing would refuse, she stepped back before Gu Qing could speak and ran toward her friends.

Her clear voice carried youthful cheerfulness beneath the sunlight.

“These aren’t only to thank you for helping me three years ago. Please give the other cup to your girlfriend, Senior Ling. My younger brother likes her, but it’s only a boyhood crush. He won’t try to steal her from you…”

The young woman deliberately emphasized the final sentence and ran away in her white shoes.

Within seconds, she vanished with her companions.

Wei Minjun looked at Gu Qing indescribably.

Gu Qing remained cold and distant, staring blankly at the fruit tea in her hands.

“If I remember correctly, you don’t drink this.” Wei Minjun smiled with shameless flattery. “Attorney Gu, why don’t I help you drink it?”

She had coveted the honey pomelo tea for quite some time.

Just as she reached for it, Gu Qing’s long fingers abruptly tightened.

She raised her head. Under the sunlight, her crystalline eyes rippled like a blade across flawless jade.

“Everyone believed she liked me.”

Wei Minjun froze.

“She? Who? Wait—who are you talking about? Damn, Gu Qing, do you actually have a girlfriend?”

“She’s in Jiangcheng?”

“That’s terribly unfair of you. I wondered why you’ve been working so hard these past few days—moving bricks, no, gathering evidence. It turns out you wanted time for a date. Is your partner a man or a woman? Or was the beautiful woman in glasses merely something to relieve your boredom?”

Having been oppressed by Gu Qing’s low pressure for several days, Wei Minjun had barely dared to speak.

Now that she had been released, her mouth fired questions like a machine gun.

Gu Qing suddenly laughed.

“You can laugh, but you still owe me an explanation. What’s this about a girlfriend?”

Wei Minjun adopted the relentless attitude of someone determined to get to the bottom of the matter.

Her own pursuit was progressing terribly. At the very least, she needed some nourishing gossip about someone else’s romance.

“I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Gu Qing leaned back against the rear seat and suddenly closed her eyes.

Her skin possessed the cold pallor of snow, and her lips were nearly colorless. Enveloped in shadow, she looked almost sick.

Large bluish-black shadows hung beneath her eyes.

Wei Minjun studied her seriously, then abruptly fell silent.

As someone equally dejected, she understood that expression.

She suddenly realized that all Gu Qing’s recent exhaustion and abnormal behavior had come from heartbreak.

Hiding her vulnerability and using work to numb herself was perfectly consistent with Gu Qing’s personality.

She had always concealed her joys and sorrows. Naturally, the way she endured heartbreak would differ from everyone else’s.

Gu Qing was so exceptional and devastatingly beautiful.

Wei Minjun could not imagine who possessed the ability to pull her down from her pedestal and stain her face with mortal desolation.

Everyone experienced heartbreak.

But the sight of Gu Qing, who could not cry, made Wei Minjun’s heart ache.

After a moment of silence, she sighed and drew the curtain across the car window.

Without another word, she entered Taikang Hospital into the navigation system and drove toward their next destination.

The car Ling Taiguo sent was an extended Rolls-Royce.

He normally used it when traveling for business.

When it arrived at the hospital entrance, a security guard hurried forward with his waist bent and opened Ling Yu’s door.

“Welcome, Eldest Miss.”

The guards stood in two orderly rows as though they had rehearsed beforehand.

Ling Yu was speechless.

Then she remembered Ling Taiguo’s love of appearances and found it unsurprising.

Taikang Hospital was a private hospital under Ling Corporation. Naturally, its security guards recognized Ling Taiguo’s car.

Many people were waiting to register.

Although it was nearly noon, the registration line remained packed.

An ambulance stood outside the emergency department, its lights flashing.

Ling Yu glanced at it, ignored the stares directed toward her, and walked toward the emergency ward.

Ling Song had just left the examination room. A full-body check found nothing seriously wrong.

When Ling Yu arrived, Yu Xin and Ling Taiguo were looking at him with concern. The hospital director stood beside them with a flattering smile.

For safety’s sake, he recommended discharging the boy that afternoon. Meanwhile, he would have the head of pediatrics prescribe traditional medicine for Ling Song to take slowly at home.

Ling Yu seemed entirely superfluous in the room.

Her eyes shifted.

After greeting Ling Taiguo and Yu Xin, she denied the director the opportunity to have someone deliver the medicine personally.

In front of Ling Taiguo, she acted out a scene of deep sibling affection and volunteered to collect her brother’s prescription herself.

Yu Xin’s expression turned ugly.

She clearly feared Ling Yu would poison her son.

But Ling Taiguo was pleased to see Ling Yu displaying affection for her brother, so Yu Xin could only suppress her anger and remain silent.

Taikang Hospital’s pharmacy was on the second floor.

The Western pharmacy stood on the right, while the traditional-medicine dispensary was on the left.

Following the signs, Ling Yu headed toward the latter.

After only a few steps, she stopped and studied a figure at the end of the corridor to her right.

The person looked vaguely familiar.

However, they were speaking with a pharmacy doctor, and after two glances, Ling Yu still could not identify them.

She continued toward the traditional-medicine dispensary.

When she handed over the prescription, the pharmacy window suddenly opened.

“Are you… that young woman?”

A middle-aged doctor in a white coat occupied the window. She examined Ling Yu again.

“It really is you, Miss Ling. I didn’t expect you to be in Jiangcheng.”

Ling Yu paused.

It took thirty seconds to remember who this doctor was—the kind department head who had delivered the glittering umbrella to her two years earlier.

Ling Yu displayed exactly the right amount of surprise.

“Director Qin?”

She remembered that this middle-aged doctor had headed the rehabilitation department at Yuncheng Central Hospital.

Yuncheng’s economy might not rival Jiangcheng’s, but the status of a rehabilitation-department director at its central hospital was unquestionably far higher than that of a pharmacy doctor.

Besides, why had a Western rehabilitation specialist suddenly become a practitioner of traditional medicine?

Ling Yu was surprised but quickly restored her courteous, friendly smile.

“What a coincidence. I didn’t expect you to remember me.”

Doctor Qin accepted the prescription.

With her back slightly stooped, she moved toward the final row of medicine cabinets and began preparing the herbs.

Her voice drifted from inside.

“Of course I remember you. If I remember Gu Qing, naturally I remember you.”

She was too far away, and Ling Yu did not hear clearly.

“What did you say?”

Doctor Qin turned around.

There seemed to be more wrinkles on her forehead than before.

“Nothing.”

Ling Yu watched her use a palm-sized scale to weigh herbs according to the prescription.

She offered a casual compliment.

“Director, I didn’t know you were skilled in both traditional and Western medicine. That’s incredible.”

“Why call me Director? I’ll never hold that position again. After Central Hospital dismissed me, I took the traditional-pharmacist examination so I could find another job.”

At those words, Ling Yu consciously stopped speaking.

“I’m sorry,” she said awkwardly.

Doctor Qin appeared to have long since accepted it.

She placed one packet of medicine before Ling Yu and turned to prepare the next.

Her voice traveled from within the dispensary.

“It doesn’t matter. If anyone is to blame, it’s the assailant who carried out the malicious shooting in my department at Yuncheng Central Hospital two years ago. Still, I bear some responsibility. Had I evacuated the patients in time, Gu Qing’s younger brother and mother wouldn’t have died…”

Ling Yu raised her eyelids, her dark pupils contracting.

She remembered Gu Qing’s expression whenever she faced that disturbed, pathological younger brother.

“Oh.”

Relief entered Ling Yu’s heart.

At least the two people whose oppressive weight had suffocated Gu Qing were gone from her life.

For Gu Qing, it could be considered a form of liberation.

Ling Yu was thinking it, but the words escaped her lips unconsciously.

“How could something like that possibly be liberation?”

Director Qin had returned at some point, carrying the second packet of medicine.

She looked meaningfully at Ling Yu, seemed to want to say something, then released a heavy sigh.

“Gu Qing has suffered more than any of us.”

Ling Yu chatted with Doctor Qin for a while.

Before she left, Director Qin asked her for a favor.

“You and Gu Qing are still close friends, aren’t you? I could tell that child considered you a friend. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have begged me to send you her umbrella that night.”

Ling Yu stopped.

Her little finger curled.

She remembered the cold expression Gu Qing had worn two years earlier when she pointed at Ling Yu’s head and asked:

“Ling Yu, is something wrong with you in here?”

Ling Yu’s lips pulled into an unreadable curve.

“Mm.”

“When you have time, please talk to her. Miss Gu has lived a difficult life. You may be the only friend she has in this world…”

When Ling Yu returned, suppressed emotion lingered in her eyes.

It was already noon.

By the time she reached the ward, the earlier scene of maternal tenderness, filial affection, and towering paternal love had faded.

Yu Xin had gone to buy lunch.

Ling Taiguo remained with the chubby boy, who sat with drooping eyelids.

Perhaps he felt restrained around his father, because he appeared listless.

Only when he saw Ling Yu did happiness return to his face.

“Sister!”

Ling Yu answered lazily.

At the same moment, Ling Taiguo turned around.

His craving for a cigarette had emerged, so he ordered Ling Yu to watch her brother while he went outside to smoke in the designated area.

“Sister, I’m so bored.”

The chubby boy was not seriously ill. He had merely eaten something that upset his stomach and seemed slightly less energetic than usual.

However, he was a healthy young boy and recovered quickly.

Ling Taiguo and Yu Xin simply doted on him excessively. They made a mountain from a molehill and practically ordered the entire hospital to examine their precious young master.

The hospital director could hardly say the child was perfectly fine, so he tactfully recommended keeping him under observation for half a day.

“No,” Ling Yu refused decisively.

Yu Xin guarded against her like a thief.

If anything happened to Ling Song, Ling Yu could already imagine Yu Xin’s teeth-baring hatred.

She crossed her arms.

Unexpectedly, the chubby boy was as much a white lotus as his mother. Tears arrived instantly, and soon his eyes were swollen from crying.

The ward door stood open, quickly attracting attention from others in the emergency department.

Ling Yu grew unbearably irritated.

She clenched her fist and glanced at Ling Song.

He cried even harder.

She bent until their gazes were level.

The child hiccupped through his tears.

Ling Yu surrendered.

“If you can put on your shoes by yourself…”

Ling Song’s eyes lit up.

Ordinarily, the household nanny put on his shoes for him, so he spent a long time struggling without success.

Ling Yu stood with her hands tucked away and watched.

She was only trying to waste time, assuming Ling Taiguo would return after finishing his cigarette. Failing that, Yu Xin should soon return with lunch.

Unexpectedly, Ling Song genuinely managed to put on his shoes through his own efforts.

Holding his little football, he tugged Ling Yu’s sleeve.

“Sister, let’s go!”

People moved constantly through the emergency-department corridor.

Suddenly, a drunken man charged toward the crowd with a bottle in his hand.

At the same time, Ling Song pulled Ling Yu’s sleeve and ran forward.

Half the beer bottle had shattered. When the man thrust its jagged edge toward the crowd, Ling Song was dragging Ling Yu directly into its path.

The sharp glass pointed straight toward the boy’s face.

Fortunately, Ling Yu reacted immediately and raised an arm to block it.

Cries of alarm erupted from the crowd.

Security guards quickly arrived and restrained the violent man.

The chubby boy stared at the blood streaming down Ling Yu’s arm and burst into loud sobs.

Ling Yu wanted to tell him:

“Stop crying. You’re annoying me to death.”

Before she could speak, an even sharper female voice approached from the distance.

Yu Xin rushed over furiously and gathered the boy into her arms. She checked him repeatedly, and only after confirming he was unharmed did she straighten, her chest heaving.

She hid Ling Song behind her, turned toward Ling Yu, and asked with a smile that never reached her eyes:

“He only just suffered severe diarrhea and exhaustion from eating something bad. May I ask why you dragged him around to indulge your whims?”

Blood dripped from Ling Yu’s fingers.

She glanced at Ling Taiguo forcing his way through the crowd, then looked back at Yu Xin.

“He’s a child and doesn’t know any better. You’re twenty-four. Don’t you know any better either?”

Yu Xin noticed Ling Taiguo approaching from the corner of her eye.

She paused, restrained her anger, and instantly summoned trembling tears.

“Xiao Yu, I know I’m only your stepmother and have no right to criticize you. But have I ever abused you over all these years? Why do you hate me enough to take revenge upon my child?”

Ling Yu clicked her tongue inwardly.

She certainly knows how to perform.

Ling Yu did not answer immediately.

She intended to wait until Ling Taiguo drew closer before changing her expression.

Her hand was still bleeding.

Was Yu Xin blind, or was her heart simply incapable of seeing?

How dared she call black white?

Ling Yu had been wrong to take the boy outside today, and she could apologize for that.

But persecution?

Who do you think you are?

That was what she thought, and what she intended to say.

A smile hovered in her eyes as she waited for the bullet named Ling Taiguo to travel a little farther.

Yet the expected confrontation never came.

At some point, while Yu Xin was distracted, the chubby boy had slipped into the crowd to retrieve his fallen football.

The onlookers automatically opened a path for him.

Unexpectedly, a woman was already standing beside the ball.

As the crowd parted, her face emerged from the shadows as though she had stepped from an ink painting.

Chestnut curls cascaded down her straight, satin-smooth back, revealing a perfectly proportioned waist.

Fragmented light scattered across her cool white skin, making her appearance seem both intensely cold and devastatingly beautiful—two qualities from entirely different dimensions woven together.

For one brief instant, the noisy crowd fell silent.

Gu Qing crouched and picked up the football at her feet.

Perhaps her frosty, intimidating presence frightened him, because the chubby boy did not dare approach.

The adult and child looked at each other.

Gu Qing spoke first.

“Is this yours?”

Ling Song nodded.

Gu Qing suddenly raised her eyes and gestured toward Ling Yu with her chin.

“Is that your sister?”

Ling Song nodded again.

Gu Qing’s gaze traveled from Ling Yu’s profile downward and settled upon the small pool of blood on the floor.

Her pupils contracted.

Suppressing her emotions, she said, “She brought you out to play, didn’t she? She also protected you from the bad man’s attack… And now your mother is scolding your sister until she nearly cries.”

Gu Qing withdrew her gaze and brought her blue eyes level with Ling Song’s.

Speaking very slowly, she asked one word at a time:

“Little brother, do you want to lose her because of this?”

Ling Yu did not know what Gu Qing whispered into the chubby boy’s ear.

When Gu Qing raised her head, her blue eyes met Ling Yu’s gaze in midair.

A moment later, she strode away on her long, slender legs.

Ling Song, meanwhile, charged like a powerful little calf and placed himself between Ling Yu and his parents.

In his childish voice, he demanded:

“Why are you hitting Sister? Daddy and Mommy made Sister bleed! Songsong was the one who made the mistake…”

Everyone instinctively looked over.

Only then did they notice the shocking pool of blood dripping from Ling Yu’s fingers.

The crowd immediately erupted.

“I personally saw that young woman shield her brother from the beer bottle.”

“This is monstrous!”

“There’s an old saying—once you have a stepmother, you soon have a stepfather too…”

“They can’t tell right from wrong! The young woman is so lovely and clearly treats her brother well. She stood there being scolded for so long without defending herself. What kind of heartless parents could treat her this way?”

Ling Taiguo valued his reputation more than anything.

Nothing enraged him more than being accused of abusing his daughter.

He looked at Ling Yu’s bleeding fingers, then at the furious Yu Xin.

He swung his hand and slapped Yu Xin heavily across the face.

“So this is the promise you made me.”

Suppressing his heartache, Ling Taiguo watched Yu Xin fall to the floor from the force of his slap.

With a stern face, he berated her.

“Who gave you the courage to abuse my biological daughter?”

Blood appeared at the corner of Yu Xin’s mouth.

Hatred surged within her eyes, but she swallowed the humiliation, covered her swollen cheek, and apologized.

“I’m sorry, honey. I misunderstood.”

Ling Yu watched the married couple perform for each other with an ambiguous smile.

Using her uninjured hand, she covered the chubby boy’s eyes and pulled him into the ward.

At the doorway, Gu Qing leaned against the frame holding a bag of disinfectant and alcohol swabs.

Ling Yu glanced at her.

Their gazes met in midair and remained locked for three seconds.

Then Ling Yu stepped aside, silently inviting Gu Qing inside.

For one moment, she thought she saw a trace of triumphant relief—or perhaps sunlight after rain—crack across Gu Qing’s coldly beautiful face.

Before Ling Yu could examine it, she turned and shut the ward door.

As she looked back, she brushed past the softness of Gu Qing’s chest.

Ling Yu: “…”