“An Ning, Mom has cancer. She might not have long to live. Your younger brother, Yuchan, is the only one left at home. Come back. At least you two siblings will have each other.”
A phone call from Li Chunfang reached all the way from Jinghai to the remote border city of Jining.
An Ning, who had vanished for four years without a word, thought she would never return to Jinghai in this lifetime. Yet, because of that call, she once again set foot on the familiar yet foreign soil of Jinghai.
The summers in Jinghai were as hot and dry as ever.
Even on an overcast day, the air was thick with a suffocating heaviness.
The first thing she did upon returning to Jinghai was go to the hospital.
“Your mother has breast cancer. It’s already in the mid-to-late stage,” the doctor told her. “The best course of treatment right now is surgery.”
Ever since learning of her condition, Li Chunfang had only been using common medication to alleviate the pain, with no intention of undergoing surgery. That was why she had made that call to An Ning, treating it as her last words.
In the doctor’s office, An Ning lowered her head to look at Li Chunfang’s medical records. Her long, thick lashes drooped, hiding the emotion in her eyes. Her already cool-toned fair skin seemed to pale even further.
“Can it be cured?” she asked.
“A complete cure will be quite difficult, but we can extend her survival period and improve her quality of life.”
The doctor’s words were tactful, but An Ning understood the underlying meaning.
An Ning’s eyelashes trembled. “Then please arrange the surgery as soon as possible.”
“The surgery and medical fees will be around three hundred thousand,” the doctor said, handing her a few slips. “You can go pay the fees first.”
An Ning clutched the payment slips tightly as she walked out of the office. Around the corner, she leaned against the wall and took a deep, forceful breath.
Three hundred thousand was no small sum for her.
Although Li Chunfang was not her biological mother, on account of her having raised her for over twenty years, An Ning couldn’t just watch her be tormented to death by illness.
She hadn’t lived a wealthy life in Jining City these past four years. She had been sending money back to Li Chunfang the entire time, and now, the total savings in her bank account amounted to only about eighty thousand.
She went downstairs to pay the fees and handle Li Chunfang’s hospital admission procedures.
Just as she reached the first-floor lobby, a clear, pretty voice rang out from behind her.
“An Ning?”
Lu Manni’s voice was loud and distinct in the noisy lobby.
Hearing the voice, An Ning’s breath caught, and her steps faltered.
Unable to pretend she hadn’t heard, she slowly turned around.
“It really is you!”
Lu Manni strode up to her, her eyes full of surprise. “You really are An Ning! What are you doing here?”
Lu Manni could hardly believe her eyes. She, too, had thought she was mistaken, but An Ning’s naturally beautiful face was simply too striking. Even in the hospital’s crowded throng, she could spot her at a glance.
Seeing Lu Manni, many familiar faces and events from four years ago flashed through An Ning’s mind like a movie.
She had thought she would forget.
She had also naively hoped that upon returning to Jinghai, she would have no more dealings with them.
Unexpectedly, on her very first day back in Jinghai, she ran into an “acquaintance.”
An Ning forced a smile and greeted her, “Manni—”
“Well, well, isn’t this our An Ning?”
Her unfinished words were cut off by a sharp, passive-aggressive voice.
It was Tan Xiaomin, a rich young lady and another one of An Ning’s former “acquaintances.”
She crossed her arms and sized An Ning up and down.
A bare face, without a trace of makeup, and an outfit so simple it couldn’t be simpler. Yet, on her, it didn’t look cheap. In the bustling hospital lobby, she seemed to draw more attention than Tan Xiaomin’s own meticulously styled clothes, which only infuriated Tan Xiaomin further.
“Back then, our little princess of the slums, An Ning, took so much money from Brother Xiyan and ran off. I thought you’d transform from a commoner into a phoenix, but you don’t look like you’re doing so well now, do you? Still the same shabby look!”
Xiyan…
Lu Xiyan…
The name, sealed away in the depths of her heart for four whole years, was brought up again so unexpectedly.
It was as if a hand had clamped around her throat, making it impossible to breathe.
An Ning’s hand tightened, creasing a corner of the payment slip.
The color drained from her face, and the blood in her veins seemed to freeze, her body turning as stiff as a rock.
The surging emotions were quickly suppressed, and a few seconds later, her fair face returned to its calm state.
Tan Xiaomin’s voice was so loud that many people around them looked over.
An Ning knew Tan Xiaomin was deliberately taunting her.
Because Tan Xiaomin liked Lu Xiyan.
Back when Lu Xiyan had brought An Ning into their circle, Tan Xiaomin had never liked her.
After everything that happened later…
She naturally disliked her even more.
An Ning didn’t want to get entangled with her. She still had to handle the hospital admission and raise money for the surgery.
She had no time to “reminisce” with her.
She and Lu Manni used to be on pretty good terms. She looked at the other woman with a faint smile in her eyes. “Manni, I have something to do, so I’ll get going.”
Before she could turn, her arm was suddenly grabbed in a tight grip, followed by a harsh slap that landed squarely on her face.
The slap was so sudden that An Ning’s left cheek burned with a fiery pain, and the imprint of fingers quickly appeared.
She didn’t want to get entangled, but she wasn’t a pushover either.
Just as she was about to return the slap, she heard Tan Xiaomin’s furious voice explode next to her ear.
“I’m slapping you on Brother Xiyan’s behalf! I feel it was worthless for him to give you so much!”
The moment Lu Xiyan’s name was mentioned, An Ning could no longer bring herself to slap back.
She kept her head turned, listening as Tan Xiaomin continued to yell at her.
“An Ning! You’ve already been gone for four years, why did you have to come crawling back!”
“Did you see that Brother Xiyan has inherited the family business and become the president of the Oten Group, so you can string him along again? Weren’t the two years he spent with you miserable enough for him? What right do you have to come back and pester him!”
She gripped An Ning’s arm tightly, her eyes blazing with fury.
“Xiaomin, don’t be like this.” Lu Manni stepped forward to stop her. “This is a hospital. Don’t make a scene.”
“Manni, it’s not like you don’t know how skilled our Miss An is,” Tan Xiaomin sneered. “A poor girl from the slums, selling her blood, pretending to be innocent, all to wrap Brother Xiyan around her finger. Wasn’t it all for money? Poor people have a lust for money in their very bones!”
She wore a mocking smile as she looked at the silent An Ning. “You vanished into thin air for four years. What are you back for this time?”
Just as she asked this, her peripheral vision caught sight of a tall, upright figure entering through the lobby doors. He was dressed in a refined and well-tailored casual suit, exuding an air of understated nobility.
He walked a few steps forward with his hands in his pockets, his gaze falling on their group, and then he stopped.
He stood a few steps behind An Ning.
His handsome face was cold, his indifferent gaze fixed on the woman’s slender, frail back and lowered head, his eyes betraying no emotion.
From this angle, An Ning couldn’t see the person behind her.
She pulled her arm out of Tan Xiaomin’s grasp, lifted her face, and spoke nonchalantly, “Whether I come back or not has nothing to do with you.”
Tan Xiaomin sneered, glancing at the man’s figure and deliberately raising her voice. “You’re not thinking of getting money from Brother Xiyan again, are you? Or have you found a new patron?”
As Tan Xiaomin’s words fell, the hands in the man’s pockets clenched into fists where no one could see, his knuckles turning white. Yet his handsome face remained impassive, and a hint of contempt colored his indifferent eyes.
“So what if I am?” An Ning shrugged nonchalantly, admitting it openly. “I am here for money.”
Only, it wasn’t for Lu Xiyan’s money.
It was life-saving money for Li Chunfang.
Outside, the sky was gloomy, and gusts of cool wind blew one after another.
An Ning had no energy to continue this entanglement. She smoothed out the payment slip, which was nearly crumpled beyond recognition, and was about to turn and leave.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew the slip from her fingertips. It tumbled through the air before fluttering to the ground.
She quickly bent down to pick it up.
Just as she reached for it, a pair of shiny leather shoes stepped unceremoniously onto the payment slip.
A clean, cold scent reached her nose.
The faint, cool fragrance of cologne drifted through the surrounding air.
“Sorry, you’re stepping on my—”
An Ning looked up to alert him, but her voice died in her throat, and her face turned deathly pale.