Half an hour later, Jiang Yu went to see Lin Ting alone.
At that moment, Lin Ting was meeting with a lawyer at a café.
Coincidentally, the lawyer turned out to be her high school classmate, Song Lufeng.
Back then, Song Lufeng had a secret crush on Lin Ting.
Lin Ting and Jiang Yu were childhood sweethearts, deeply in love with each other.
Song Lufeng never even had a chance to confess his feelings.
Now, meeting again, Lin Ting had just been released from prison, was gravely ill, and was desperately seeking a family to adopt her child.
As for Song Lufeng, he had long since settled down, established his career, and had a wife with whom he shared a harmonious, if not deeply passionate, relationship.
Upon seeing Lin Ting’s letter to his law firm, pleading for help in finding a family for her child due to her illness, Song Lufeng was heartbroken.
Thus, he personally came to meet Lin Ting.
Knowing that Lin Ting loved purple lisianthus the most, Song Lufeng bought a bouquet on his way and handed it to her. “Xiao Ting, I hope you get better.”
“You must have read my file. I won’t get better…”
Lin Ting masked her sorrow with a forced smile.
“Lawyer Song, let’s get straight to business. If Mr. and Mrs. Zhou ultimately agree to adopt Youzi, what procedures need to be completed?”
“You can still call me Lü Feng, like before.”
“…Alright!” Reuniting with an old friend made Lin Ting feel even more keenly the unpredictability of life.
“Xiao Ting, the adoption process won’t be easy. As Youzi’s guardian, you don’t have the right to abandon her. Only after you…”
Song Lufeng couldn’t bring himself to say the word “death.”
How could someone as young as Lin Ting be facing death?
Even though she wore delicate makeup today, Song Lufeng could still see the bleakness of death in her eyes.
“You can draft a will, and only when that day truly comes… can we help your daughter with the adoption procedures. Xiao Ting, I will definitely help you with this.”
“Lü Feng, thank you.”
In the distance.
Jiang Yu stood at the entrance of the café.
He couldn’t hear what Lin Ting and Song Lufeng were discussing.
He saw them conversing happily.
He saw Lin Ting smile several times.
He also saw the bouquet of purple lisianthus—her favorite—that Song Lufeng had given her.
Song Lufeng wanted to help Lin Ting further, but in the face of life and death, he was powerless.
When it was time to leave, Song Lufeng hugged Lin Ting gently as a gesture of comfort. “Xiao Ting, contact me anytime if you need anything.”
Lin Ting: “Thank you, Lü Feng.”
After Song Lufeng left, Jiang Yu strode over.
The air around him felt heavy and oppressive.
His gaze on Lin Ting was almost predatory.
Lin Ting, holding the bouquet of purple lisianthus, sank into deep thought: If the adoption procedures could only be completed after her death and the drafting of a will, she wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Zhou would be willing to wait.
“Is Youzi just a burden to you?”
Hearing the voice, Lin Ting looked up and met Jiang Yu’s utterly disappointed gaze.
She didn’t want to answer.
She didn’t even want to see Jiang Yu again.
Picking up the bouquet of purple lisianthus, she stood up to leave.
Her slender arm was tightly grasped by Jiang Yu.
“Lin Ting, are you so eager to abandon Youzi just so you can find a new lover and start a new life?”
Lin Ting shook off Jiang Yu’s grip.
Hatred surged through every fiber of her being.
She bit her lip, holding back her tears. “If I told you I’m dying, that I’ve found an adoptive family for Youzi, and that Song Lufeng is helping me with the adoption procedures, you still wouldn’t believe me, would you?”
Jiang Yu: “Song Lufeng has thousands of lawyers under him. Would a small case like this really require his personal attention? Lin Ting, weren’t you two just on a date?”
Jiang Yu, with his imposing presence, wore a cold expression.
His icy tone was also filled with a sourness he himself was unaware of.
Jiang Yu remembered that man named Song Lufeng, who had harbored a secret crush on Lin Ting long ago.
Later, he rose to fame in the legal world.
But he already had a wife and daughter.
“What, to become his mistress, you’d even abandon such an adorable daughter?”
“If you didn’t want her, why did you give birth to her in the first place?”
Slap!
Lin Ting slapped Jiang Yu across the face.
“Jiang Yu… you bastard!”
It was he who, despite her desperate pleas, insisted on believing those paternity test results and refused to acknowledge Youzi.
Driven to a corner, she had no choice but to find an adoptive family for Youzi.
Yet he could slander her like this.
That slap seemed to drain all of Lin Ting’s strength.
Exhausted, her entire body trembled.
She leaned against the nearby coffee table to keep from collapsing. “Jiang Yu, I will never forgive you for the rest of my life.”
Her feeble voice seemed to tear through the air.
And it tore through Jiang Yu’s heart as well.
Her slender, frail figure finally mustered the strength to leave the place, fading into the distance.
Jiang Yu, standing where he was, touched his left cheek where he had been slapped.
Those words should have been his to say to Lin Ting.
He watched Lin Ting’s retreating figure, his gaze tangled with love, hatred, and obsession, unable to calm down for a long time.
Tuesday morning.
Lin Ting went to the art gallery.
The gallery’s agent had seen several of Youzi’s paintings and wanted to sign a representation agreement with Lin Ting.
Lin Ting went. “Ms. Chen, I can entrust those abstract paintings to your gallery on Youzi’s behalf, but this portrait is not for sale.”
It was a painting Youzi had made of her at twenty-nine, as a birthday gift.
She took the portrait back and signed the remaining agreements.
At that moment, Lin Ting received a phone call.
It was from Mr. and Mrs. Zhou.
Mrs. Zhou sounded deeply apologetic over the phone. “Youzi’s mom, we can no longer adopt Youzi.”
Lin Ting’s heart instantly sank into chaos. “Mrs. Zhou, why? Didn’t you say you really liked Youzi?”
“Youzi’s ears…”
“Mrs. Zhou, you were aware of Youzi’s ear condition before and accepted it. Why the sudden change…”
“It’s my mother-in-law. She threatened to jump off a building over this. I’m truly sorry.”
Lin Ting didn’t even notice when the call ended.
One sentence echoed in her mind: Youzi’s ears have a problem.
Because of this, many adoptive families were unwilling to take her in.
Her Youzi, so well-behaved and adorable.
Clutching the portrait of herself painted by Youzi, she walked out of the gallery in a daze.
A tall, imposing figure came into view.
The man in the tailored suit was Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu brushed past her.
The two seemed like strangers.
Lin Ting didn’t look back either.
Today, Jiang Yu had come to the gallery to pick up a painting.
The slender, frail figure behind him almost made him turn around several times, but each time, surging resentment kept him cold as ice.
He looked at her as if she were a stranger.
“Jiang Yu, I want to discuss a condition with you.” Lin Ting seemed to have made up her mind. This time, she didn’t address him as Mr. Jiang, but as Jiang Yu!
Today, she wasn’t here to beg him—she was here to “discuss a condition”!
Suddenly, Lin Ting stopped and looked back at Jiang Yu. Jiang Yu’s cool, distant figure also slowly came to a halt.