“There was an accident. The embryo didn’t implant in the uterus, but instead fell into the abdominal cavity and connected with the intestines, making the pregnancy process extremely dangerous.”
“We had to control the size of the fetus and monitor the embryo’s development at all times. If any single link went wrong, the pregnancy had to be terminated until the fetus was fully formed.”
“By the late stage of pregnancy, hospital monitoring revealed amniotic fluid contamination, so an early cesarean section was the only option.”
“The C-section was successful, but because the placenta wasn’t in the uterus, it couldn’t detach naturally and had to be manually peeled away, resulting in massive hemorrhaging.”
“After three days of resuscitation, she was gone.”
“Young Master Yu, the contract has been printed. Please look it over.” The voice broke the cage of memories, and Yu Xiang woke from his trance.
He took the contract and flipped through it carefully, his expression solemn. “Are you certain you haven’t told anyone else about Mr. Yan and his son?”
Yang Kexin shook her head. “No. Even the paparazzi and photo brokers don’t know.”
“Good.” Yu Xiang signed his name at the bottom of the contract, then turned both the contract and the pen toward Yang Kexin. “Sign it.”
Yang Kexin raised no objections, picked up the pen, and signed. The contract was drawn up in duplicate, with each of them keeping a copy.
After putting away the contract, Yu Xiang stood up and glanced out the window.
Today was another overcast day, with heavy, dark clouds hanging high overhead. The temperature had dropped to six degrees Celsius. It couldn’t compare to the sub-zero temperatures up north, but it carried a bone-chilling dampness.
“Let’s go.”
Boarding the plane and taking his seat in business class, Yu Xiang looked out the porthole, which mirrored the gloomy sky like a glass. What appeared before his eyes, however, was the expression Yan Hui had worn while recounting the past yesterday.
No pain, no reminiscing, only numbness.
He had spent a long time pondering why Yan Hui had issued a gag order regarding Yan Sheng’s mother, unable to come up with a suitable reason because any explanation felt too far-fetched.
He had specifically questioned Yan Hui also to look for discrepancies between the two answers, and the reasons behind them.
Who would have thought he would receive an answer so real it was almost terrifying.
From the results, the claim that Yan Sheng’s mother had passed away was far more credible than “Mom went to a very distant place.” It also aligned with the lack of photographs, the concealment of the mother’s name, the absence of a divorce, and details like the abdominal pregnancy.
As for what Yan Sheng had been told, it was merely a beautiful illusion woven by a father for his child.
Yu Xiang frowned, feeling vaguely that something was amiss, with the lingering intuition that a piece of the puzzle was always missing.
Everything else made sense, except for one point: Yan Hui didn’t seem to miss that woman at all.
She had died on the operating table just to give birth to their child, yet when Yan Hui spoke of her, the expression on his face was chillingly numb, devoid of the slightest trace of love, pity, or grief, like some cold-blooded, merciless monster.
Yet he clearly wasn’t that kind of person.
This intense sense of disconnect kept Yu Xiang’s brow furrowed tightly all the way until the plane landed.
Upon disembarking and seeing the Yu family’s car waiting on the tarmac, his face darkened instantly.
Taking a deep breath to suppress his surging irritation, Yu Xiang handed the laptop bag containing the confidentiality contract to Yang Kexin and said pointedly:
“Take it back and keep it safe.”
Yang Kexin nodded in understanding, watching her boss get into the Rolls-Royce Phantom and waiting until the car drove off before turning toward the airport shuttle bus.
In the car, Yu Xiang looked at the driver and said in a deep voice, “To Yunshan Garden.”
The driver chuckled and said, “Second Young Master, there is no need to go through all that trouble. Everything has already been prepared for you at Siyue Manor. You can just change there before heading to the Beijing Hotel.”
Yu Xiang stared at the driver’s face in the rearview mirror and repeated firmly, “To Yunshan Garden.”
The smile on the driver’s face froze for a moment before he finally answered with a compliant “Yes.”
Just as the car turned onto the beltway heading toward Yunshan Garden, Yu Xiang’s phone rang.
Seeing Chairman Yu displayed on the screen, Yu Xiang paused for two seconds before lifting a hand to answer the call.
“Grandfather.”
“Come back.”
The voice coming through the receiver was low and hoarse, like a python poking its head out from the depths of its nest, as if daring Yu Xiang to utter a single word of refusal, upon which it would immediately lunge forward and sink its fangs into his throat.
Did Hao-ge feel this way too in the past?
Yu Xiang lowered his eyes, his tone softening a fraction. “I want to go back to see Mom and Dad, and after having lunch with them, I will head back to Siyue Manor.”
There was a prolonged silence on the line, followed by a series of beeps.
Yu Xiang let out a silent sigh and hung up the phone.
An hour later, the Phantom pulled into Yunshan Garden, located in Yunjing’s Second Ring Road.
The villas here weren’t large, but the plot ratio wasn’t low either, which gave it a livelier, more residential atmosphere than typical villa districts. As the car drove along, one could spot children playing in the snow, elderly people walking dogs, and young people riding toy cars to pick up courier packages.
After Yu Xiang went abroad to study, his parents had moved here from Siyue Manor. That decision had caused quite a stir back then, with many people unable to understand Yu Zhongbei’s choice.
It wasn’t as if they couldn’t afford a proper estate, so why bother squeezing the whole family into a small villa of barely two hundred square meters?
Yu Xiang hadn’t understood it either in the past, but now, he seemed to grasp his parents’ perspective.
Because even now, he was still savoring the feeling of sitting with Yan Hui and his son on a small three-seater sofa to watch television.
The car stopped in front of the villa. The moment Yu Xiang stepped inside, he saw his maternal grandparents anxiously pacing around a tree in the courtyard, fretting.
“Nannan, come down quickly! How did you get up there? What if you fall?”
“It is all your fault! I told you to be careful when opening the door and not let Nannan out, but you just wouldn’t listen!”
“Aiya, I just looked away for a second.”
“What should we do now?”
“The ladder is here. Xiang-xiang!” Yu Zhongbei had just stepped out carrying a ladder when he spotted his son standing at the courtyard gate. He immediately dropped the ladder and rushed over, his eyes scanning him up and down continuously.
“You’ve lost weight. Did the food in Jindu not suit your appetite? Come, come, Wang Ma stewed pigeon soup for lunch, just in time for you to build your strength back up!”
“Aiya! It really is Xiang-xiang! Xiang-xiang is back!” His grandparents couldn’t care less about Nannan stuck in the tree anymore, hurrying over to surround Yu Xiang.
“Dad, Grandma, Grandpa,” Yu Xiang greeted them warmly, following them into the house. As they passed the tree, he reached up and scooped a ragged doll cat down from the branches.
The cat seemed thoroughly terrified; the moment it was rescued, it buried its face in Yu Xiang’s grandmother’s arms, letting out soft, heart-softening meows.
Grandmother hugged the cat, coaxed it twice, and said to Yu Xiang, “Your mother raised it, but she is always out filming and never home. It is mostly your father and us taking care of it.”
Yu Xiang gave an affirmative grunt and asked, “Is Mom not home today?”
“She went out for a photoshoot, should be back soon.” With that, Yu Zhongbei shouted toward the kitchen, “Wang Ma! Add a couple of dishes for lunch, Xiang-xiang is back!”
Wang Ma poked her head out. “Xiang-xiang is back? Good, good, good! It will be ready in just a moment!”
In this small villa lived five people. Sitting in the living room, one could hear the clatter of pots and pans from the kitchen, and from the kitchen, one could feel the lively warmth of the living room.
Unlike Siyue Manor, which was so cavernously huge that speaking face-to-face required calling ahead just to confirm each other’s location.
Before long, Yu Xiang’s mother, Yan Zhen, returned. A woman well past fifty, she looked barely thirty, and standing close to her son, they could easily pass for siblings or spark tabloid rumors.
“Why do you feel like you’ve lost weight again? Are you eating properly? Recovering from a major illness means you need proper nourishment. Shall I go beg your grandfather to let you stay in Yunshan for a while?”
“Mom, I am fine.” Yu Xiang held his mother’s hand, speaking in a gentle voice. “There is something I want to tell you all.”
“What is it? So serious?” Yan Zhen smiled as her son helped her over to sit on the sofa. Yu Zhongbei and her parents were also invited to take their seats.
Once the four elders were seated, Yu Xiang walked over to the single-seat armchair, sat down, leaned forward with his hands clasped together, and said in a calm tone:
“I want to resign as the General Manager of Zhengxin.”
The moment the words fell, the room fell into complete silence. Yu Zhongbei was the first to react, slapping his thigh.
“Good! I was against you studying abroad in the first place. Wasn’t Hao-hao’s affair a sufficient lesson? Resigning is a great thing. Look at your eldest uncle! Gets up earlier than a rooster and sleeps later than a dog, fifty-four years old and still working like an ox.”
“Alright, shut your mouth,” Yan Zhen interrupted her husband, leaning forward to grip Yu Xiang’s hand. “Xiang-xiang, no matter what decision you make, your mom and dad support you. But you need to think carefully. Once you resign, what you face won’t just be unemployment, it will be losing everything.”
Yu Xiang nodded. “I understand, Mom.”
Seeing that his mind was made up, Yan Zhen smiled. “Good, as long as you’ve thought it through.”
Hearing this, Grandmother couldn’t hold back any longer. “Xiang-xiang, have you really thought this through? Your grandfather is no pushover; he really won’t leave you a single cent!”
“Mm, I know,” Yu Xiang looked at his closest family members. “I am just worried that Grandpa might take action against you all, so I wanted to give you a heads-up beforehand so you can mentally prepare yourselves.”
“You don’t need to worry about us,” Grandfather waved a hand. “Your grandmother and I have our pensions, and your mother has earned quite a bit from acting. As for your father, with us around, he won’t starve either!”
Yu Zhongbei rubbed his nose awkwardly.
He hadn’t accomplished much in his life, holding a sinecure position at the company with no shares of his own, relying on fixed annual dividends to cover expenses.
Years ago, he had tried tossing money into various entrepreneurial investments to carve out his own path, but after losing everything down to the bare bones, he had finally settled down. Combined with his advanced age and low consumer drive, he had managed to save up a decent sum of money over the years.
“Your grandfather is right. Your mother has already stepped back into semi-retirement anyway, so not acting just means she can finally rest. The family can afford any penalty fees for breach of contract, and as for me, even without dividends, I won’t starve. It is just that your grandfather has such an overwhelming desire for control. If you defy him, he is bound to cut off all your escape routes, and your mom and dad won’t be able to help you even if we wanted to.”
Yu Xiang gave a soft grunt. “I was just worried you’d get dragged into this on impulse. This is my own decision; there is no need for the whole family to suffer along with me.”
Once Yu Xiang broke away from the Yu family, to prevent Yu Zhongbei from secretly supporting his son, Old Master Yu would undoubtedly sever the cash flow to Yu Er-shao’s household.
Stopping dividends and cutting off resources was only the first step. Subsequent tactics like freezing and seizing assets would escalate rapidly, all with the objective of ensuring not a single penny flowed into Yu Xiang’s pockets, forcing him to bow his head and admit his mistake.
“But what will you do then?” Grandmother felt the most heartache for her grandson, a layer of mist welling up in her eyes as she spoke. “Your grandfather really will drive you into a dead end!”
Yu Xiang offered a reassuring smile to his grandmother. “Don’t worry, Grandma. I won’t stay in Yunjing to let him suppress me; I am going to Jindu.”
“Jindu? What are you going there for?” Yu Zhongbei exchanged a confused glance with his wife, completely baffled. “Staying in Yunjing at least guarantees you won’t miss a meal. Running off that far, if anything happens, your mom and dad won’t be able to help you.”
“That’s right, Xiang-xiang. No matter how ruthless your grandfather is, he is still your biological grandfather, and with so many eyes watching in Yunjing, he won’t go too far. But once you are out of sight, if something goes wrong…”
“Dad, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa,” Yu Xiang tightened his grip over his mother’s hand, the corners of his lips curving upward as his eyes shone brightly, “I have to go to Jindu because Yan Hui is there.”