C18 Chapter 18

“Kitten, wake up. Hey—kitten.” Seeing Hee Yu collapsed on the floor, Jiaang Mingyi scooped her up in one swift motion.

Hee Yu opened her eyes and looked at the person in front of her. Her cheeks were burning red. Dizzy and out of it, she tried to stand, but between not eating for too long and the high fever, she didn’t have an ounce of strength left.

When she opened her eyes again, she was already in the hospital.

“Don’t move. You’re on an IV—you passed out from a fever,” Jiaang Mingyi explained.

“I swear, you’re unbelievable. Your clothes were soaked and you didn’t think to change before going to sleep?” he snapped, frustrated.

“Oh. So that’s why I got sick.”

“I’m going back to sleep.” She rolled over and lay down again, closing her eyes without caring whether Jiaang Mingyi had finished talking. It was like she’d shut the whole world out.

“Is Miss Hee okay?”

“It’s not her fault. I just wasn’t steady—I slipped,” Shi Zhixi said softly as she looked at Hee Yu lying in bed. Her brows knit slightly, and her long fingers lightly gripped the front of her shirt, careful not to wake the person on the bed.

“Door’s to the right. See yourself out,” Hee Yu’s voice came from under the blanket—muffled and nasal, and the cold tone made it clear she was in a terrible mood.

“We’re flying back tomorrow.” Yan Jin tossed out the line and walked away.

Behind him, Shi Zhixi followed him out.

Jiaang Mingyi stared after him in shock, like the words hadn’t just come out of Yan Jin’s mouth. Then his expression darkened.

“Could it be…” Jiaang Mingyi muttered, his chest tightening as if something had pricked him. Right now, he had no idea he might one day turn against his own brother because of this woman, become…

Of course, he couldn’t see the future.

After getting off the plane, Hee Yu stretched.

“Nothing beats the air back home. No matter how nice a place is, if you stay long enough, it starts to smell stale,” she said, glancing around with a quiet sigh. With her mom here, she wasn’t going anywhere.

Wherever her mother was, that was home. At least for now, she still had someone she could lean on and act a little spoiled with. Later on… she doubted she’d ever have that again.

Hee Yu thought about it as she got into the car with Yan Jin.

“I’m going home first. I’ll come find you when I have time.”

“Kitten, I’ll come find you and we’ll hang out!” Jiaang Mingyi said, then flagged down a ride and left.

“Drive.”

Yan Jin and Hee Yu were back at the villa in no time. From a distance, they could already see someone waiting outside the gate.

“Yu—it’s Dad.” Seeing his daughter in the car, Hee Zheng couldn’t sit still anymore. He took off running after it, hoping she’d stop and at least look at him for old times’ sake.

He was truly out of options. The moment his so-called friends heard he was in trouble, they couldn’t wait to cut ties—each one of them avoiding him like the plague. Now the only person he could rely on was his new son-in-law. Only Yan Jin could save him.

At the gate stood Hee Zheng, along with Hee Yu’s stepmother and her sisters.

No—her “sisters.”

Yan Jin turned to look at his wife, clearly curious how she planned to handle this little “surprise.”

“Take them to the sitting room,” Yan Jin ordered. With him speaking, Hee Yu didn’t really have a choice but to go along with it—especially since she still needed him.

Yan Jin had known for a while. Hee Zheng’s company had been involved in illegal practices that led to a worker’s death. Working at height was dangerous enough, but Hee Zheng had actually cut corners on safety. The nerve of him.

“Yu, Dad was wrong—really wrong. But back then, I was trying to protect the company’s reputation. That’s why I did it.

“And after all this time, I’ve finally realized something: no matter what you do, you’re still my daughter. That will never change.” Hee Zheng spoke with a face full of regret, looking at his daughter with desperate hope, thrilled at the thought that she might beg Yan Jin to help him through this crisis.

“Yu, it’s my fault too. If I’d tried harder to stop your dad back then, things wouldn’t have ended up like this.” The one speaking was Zhuh Qingwen. Her eyes were red-rimmed, the helplessness and bitterness of a mother written all over her face.

“Sweetheart, please forgive your dad.”

“Yeah. That’s your dad—how could he be wrong?” Hee Yimo and Hee Qianshi hurried to chime in from the side, afraid a certain man might not notice them. Every so often, they fussed with their hair and straightened their clothes.

Everyone had their own agenda, but thankfully they were all smart enough not to cross Hee Yu’s line.

“Dad, it’s not that I won’t help you. You know I haven’t been back long. Even if I wanted to help, there’s not much I can do.” Hee Yu shrugged, looking at them with a helpless expression.

“Besides, asking me won’t change anything. Right now, I pretty much do what Yan Jin says.” She glanced at Yan Jin. When he didn’t react, she leaned against him boldly, smiling up at him with easy familiarity.

“But I can talk it over with Jin first.” She looked at the man beside her.

“Mr. Hee, we can discuss the rest in the study.”

Hee Zheng didn’t have the bandwidth to worry about anyone else. He went straight to the study with Yan Jin.

The Hee Family had brought this on themselves. The fact that it had lasted this long under Hee Zheng’s management was a miracle. Back then, Mom worked herself to the bone to scrape together that money. If he can’t run things properly, then he might as well hand it over to me. For the sake of you still being my father, I’ll make sure you’re comfortable in your old age. As for everyone else—if they can add a little color to her life, why not?

A flash of cruelty crossed Zhuh Qingwen’s eyes. She set her cup down hard on the table—thud. The dull sound made Hee Yu look up.

“Do you even know how long you’ve been living in our house? Not that we can’t afford to keep one more freeloader around. But you need to remember—you’re a Hee. If Hee’s goes under and you, as the young Mrs. of the Yan Family, just sit back and do nothing, what do you think people will say?”

She was right. Hee Yu was Hee first, then Yan. The Yan Family wouldn’t allow even a hint of scandal attached to their young Mrs. And if her birth family’s company collapsed, Yan’s would get dragged into it, too. People would start questioning Yan’s.

“Yu, we haven’t been doing so great lately either. The Hee family’s hit a rough patch. As part of this family, you should be thinking about what’s best for the family.”

What’s best for the family—of course that’s what you’d say. Only you could say something that shameless. If we were really family, you wouldn’t have teamed up at that hotel to hand me over to that old man. And what kind of family goes on live TV at a press conference and publicly announces they’re cutting ties with their own daughter? Family—how do you even have the nerve to say that?

Seeing the looks on their faces made Hee Yu feel sick.