Qin Xiaoye’s gaze paused on Jiang Wei’s rosy, full lips. His breathing quickened by half a beat as he said in a low voice, “Let’s drive. Head straight to the airport.”
Xiang Dong glanced at the materials he had long since prepared for the madam to choose a car. “Alright. Then the car selection…”
Qin Xiaoye looked at the materials and said slowly in a low voice, “She probably doesn’t want me to see what just happened.”
“Let’s go.”
Xiang Dong suddenly understood.
President Qin didn’t want the madam to feel embarrassed.
No wonder President Qin said they’d leave yesterday, and now today he said it again.
No one wants to be seen when they’ve been pushed to their limit.
Although, uh, Xiang Dong thought the madam’s fierce, murderous look was quite striking—imposing and majestic, with a cute yandere charm.
President Qin’s gaze had also been fixed on the madam the entire time, as if he couldn’t get enough.
Xiang Dong stepped on the gas and headed straight to the airport.
Qin Xiaoye’s business trip this time would last over ten days.
Luo Xue watched in shock as the police car took Shi Yuan away, her eyes wide as she exclaimed, “My god, are good Samaritans this dedicated now? They can list every illegal thing he’s done since childhood?”
Luo Xue tilted her head up to the sky, hands pressed together: “I need to make a wish to the good Samaritan, begging them to grace our hospital more often and show us more care.”
“If the good Samaritan could donate some money too, that’d be even better.”
Jiang Wei turned to Dr. Ding An beside her: “The black king snake needs a fecal test to check for parasites. It’s malnourished and needs nutritional supplements.”
She handed the snake to Ding An, who took it. “Got it.”
Jiang Wei said to the black snake: “Be good, Maomao. Make sure to get a proper checkup, okay~”
Maomao flicked its tongue, “Hiss hiss.”
Jiang Wei nodded and said softly, “Good that you understand.”
The young man was surprised: “You can understand what Maomao is saying?”
Jiang Wei looked at him strangely: “How could I possibly understand? As long as you can communicate, whether the communication is right or wrong doesn’t matter. Don’t sweat the details.”
The young man was stunned: “Ah…”
Jiang Wei walked into the hospital, put on medical gloves, took a delicate wooden pet coffin, and came to the hospital entrance. She placed the big black cat’s mangled body and eyes inside, her expression solemn and cold, carrying compassion and sorrow.
In the hospital’s backyard there were pagoda trees, pear blossoms, fringe trees, white magnolias, redbuds, Xifu crabapples, purple-leaf plums, and cherry blossoms. Beneath the trees, white, pink, and purple petals often carpeted the ground.
Along the edges were planted vibrant sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and morning glories…
Morning glories covered the small trellises.
There was also a small patch of open ground beneath the trees, specially used by the pet hospital for pet funerals.
Jiang Wei often said: Funerals are for the living to see, not for the departed life.
People can’t let go, people want to mourn, and that’s why funerals exist—to give their hearts a place to rest.
Coffins, funerals, gravestones—they are places for people to store their hearts.
Jiang Wei and Luo Xue together dug a small hole beneath the pagoda tree and buried the big black cat’s pet coffin under the tree, forming a mound of earth, which they sprinkled with colorful petals.
Only now did Jiang Wei dare to cry.
Facing the small mound covered in petals, she shed silent tears, cluster after cluster, rolling down along her lashes.
In the sunlight, they glistened especially brightly.
Small flowers drifted slowly down from the tree onto Jiang Wei’s shoulders and hair—exquisitely beautiful.
Luo Xue lowered her eyes, glanced at Jiang Wei, and let out a faint sigh. She turned and went back into the hospital, giving Jiang Wei time to cry.
The more rationally Jiang Wei behaved, the more she suppressed her emotions. She appeared calm and collected, but inside, her heart was already shattered with grief. She could try her best not to show it, but who didn’t wish their sorrow had a place to reside?
The owner of the black king snake, Maomao—that young man—had been watching from the side. He walked over, pressed his palms together toward the mound of earth, and said in a low voice, “Little cat, I wish you’ll be reborn in your next life as that bastard’s father, and beat him to death every single day.”
On Jiang Wei’s fair white face, tear tracks remained. She turned her head to glance at him, then turned away again. Tears dripped onto the ground, and she looked pitifully delicate.
The young man said softly, “You looked so composed earlier—I was about to make you my idol. How come you’re crying so hard now?”
Jiang Wei said quietly, “Because you can’t let them see your vulnerability, or they’ll swarm on you like wasps. Like starving wolves, biting off your flesh and blood piece by piece.”
The young man said, “You understand human nature very well.”
Jiang Wei said, “I understand beast nature.”
“Humans, sometimes, are more cruel than wild beasts—more beastly.”
She held a handful of flower petals in her hand and slowly scattered them over the mound. Multicolored petals dotted the earth:
“They only get excited when they see you cry. Look, I was right, wasn’t I?”
“You can only hide away to cry.”
The young man sighed softly. “If only everyone could live forever and never die.”
Jiang Wei wiped her tears dry. Her face in the sunlight was so white it was almost transparent, veiled in a halo of light: “Without death, people would never truly understand the meaning of being alive.”
“Under certain circumstances, we should be grateful for the existence of death.”
Jiang Wei turned and went back to the hospital examination room.
The young man followed her in. “My name is Sheng Huaiyi.”
Jiang Wei looked down at the form and waved it. “Isn’t the owner’s name on here?”
Every pet had its owner’s name on it—after all, it was the owner who had to pay.
Sheng Huaiyi scratched his head and laughed. “Oh.”
Jiang Wei said, “The test results are out. No parasites. Maomao just needs some medication—the instructions are all written out. Just go pay.”
“Also, your feeding schedule is too monotonous. Add more variety.”
Sheng Huaiyi held the form. “Okay, thank you, Dr. Jiang.”
“Doctor, do you think it’s too cruel that I have to feed my snake little mice? Mice are lives too.”
The black king snake ate thawed mouse strips.
Jiang Wei tilted her head. “I also rescue birds at the hospital.”
She stood up and pointed them out to Sheng Huaiyi. “This one was brought in by a police officer who rescued it—a shrike.”
A small gray-black bird that looked quite handsome fluttered in its cage, its foot injured.
Sheng Huaiyi reached out to touch it through the cage. “It’s so cute.”
Jiang Wei stopped him. “Careful, this is a bird of prey.”
Sheng Huaiyi was shocked. “This little thing?”
Jiang Wei said, “Don’t underestimate it. It eats birds—many pet parrots have been caught and eaten by them. It even makes dried birds out of the ones it can’t finish and hangs them on trees. Very fierce.”
Jiang Wei led Sheng Huaiyi to another cage. “Look, this is a sun conure. Cute, right?”
The sun conure was chirping and playing with a bottle cap.
Sheng Huaiyi asked, “The shrike eats it?”
Jiang Wei nodded. “Mm.”
Sheng Huaiyi said, “So cruel.”
Jiang Wei said, “That’s the food chain. Just like humans—people eat pork, beef, and lamb. It’s the law of nature.”
“I can’t neglect the shrike just because it preys on parrots. It has to live too, and to live means to hunt.”
“I can only do my best to save the animals that come into my hands, to ease their suffering. That’s all.”
Sheng Huaiyi lowered his eyes, deep in thought. “I understand now. If you want Maomao to live well, you have to follow the laws of nature.”
He was still lingering, reluctant to leave, when a girl clutching a ragdoll cat rushed in, her expression anxious. “Doctor, please take a look at Naicha…”
Sheng Huaiyi was pushed aside. He stuck his head out to look at Jiang Wei, but the door was shut in his face.
He rubbed his nose sheepishly, went to pay the bill, and left with Maomao.
…
That evening, Jiang Wei went to the bushes nearby again, this time carrying a trap cage.
The adult cat had died. Kittens were too easy a target for abuse—she had to save it.
She went to the bushes, set the trap cage in place, and waited quietly.
The kitten didn’t come.
Instead, the figure of a burly man appeared, eyeing Jiang Wei with predatory intent, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “I know you.”
Jiang Wei tilted her head slightly, looking at him without a word.
The man: “You’re the one who got Shi Yuan thrown into detention?”
Jiang Wei narrowed her eyes.
The man smiled viciously. “You’re quite pretty, too. How about you take the cat’s place—I slice you to death, one cut at a time? That’d work just fine.”
“I’m not Shi Yuan. I won’t be that easy to deal with.”
“Your hospital? Forget about keeping it open. Beg me, and maybe I’ll let you off.”
Jiang Wei let out a cold scoff, her gaze contemptuous, treating him as if he were invisible. She picked up the trap cage and went elsewhere to look for the kitten.
People who abuse cats—aside from being psychologically twisted—also enjoy bullying the weak, watching them cry. So don’t let them label you as weak.
Fortunately, she found the kitten in a corner, starving and sickly. She carefully carried it back to the hospital for a checkup and only then felt relieved—it was just hungry.
Her hand stroked the little black cat. “Your mom is gone. I’ll be your mom, okay? Don’t be scared~”
The big black cat had only wanted to feed the kitten until it was full. Such a simple thing, yet it had come at such a brutal cost.
The little black cat clung to her with its paws, meowing, and fell asleep in her arms. Jiang Wei kissed it, and it slept even more soundly.
Jiang Wei was busy with the animals’ treatment at the hospital. Before she knew it, more than ten days had passed without seeing Qin Xiaoye. Sometimes she felt dazed, wondering if this person even existed.
It was just that ten days ago, Qin Xiaoye’s assistant Xiang Dong had sent her information on cars to choose from, asking her to pick one.
They were all high-end models worth over a million.
She politely declined, telling Xiang Dong she didn’t need a car for now.
The Qin and Jiang families had an alliance by marriage, and the Qin family had already conceded enormous commercial benefits to the Jiang family.
She couldn’t ask for too much from Qin Xiaoye.
Jiang Wei had been busy with work this whole time.
Luo Xue was getting busier and busier, looking anxious. Several donations had been withdrawn, and promised future donations had been canceled, making operations difficult.
The hospital was on the verge of closing down.
Jiang Wei saw it all.
After her identity as a fake heiress was exposed, she didn’t just struggle at home—the pet hospital she’d hoped to establish through charity work was also facing difficulties.
She had long since transferred all her savings to the pet hospital’s account in the name of donations.
Qin Xiaoye gave her a sum of money every month, but that money, according to the Jiang family’s demands, had to be returned to the Jiang family as compensation for raising her—after all, all her food, clothing, and expenses over the years had been paid for by the Jiang family.