Lu Lingxi offered to lend Sang Yu money, but after asking about the specific amount, her face turned pale. With a look of great difficulty, she said, “If it were a few tens of thousands, I could help scrape it together, but hundreds of thousands all at once… I simply can’t produce that much money on short notice.”
There was no helping it; treating someone in a vegetative state was inherently an expensive endeavor, especially since Sang Yu had previously insisted on using top-tier equipment for her mother.
Consequently, as soon as the accident happened, the nursing home sent Sang Mother directly to the best hospital in the city. In the Intensive Care Unit alone, the associated costs were calculated by the hour.
Watching the minutes and seconds tick away, Sang Yu’s breathing grew rapid and her head began to swim. She dared not imagine losing her mother. Even though Sang Mother had never given any response over the years, Sang Yu at least had hope—was all hope truly going to be severed today?
With trembling hands, Sang Yu abandoned all sense of self-esteem. As tears fell, she wiped them away herself and dialed Song Yunsheng’s number.
She had never felt a ringtone could be so long, as if it lasted for an entire century. By the time she heard Song Yunsheng’s voice, Sang Yu was already sobbing uncontrollably, pleading with her.
“Can you… at least let me finish paying my mother’s medical bills, at least not at a time like this…”
It was too humiliating. It was clearly Song Yunsheng’s intentional doing, yet she had to be so humble and beg her. At the thought of this, Sang Yu couldn’t bring herself to say anything more.
Her fierce pride almost made her want to hang up immediately, but—she didn’t dare.
How could she dare?
Sang Yu didn’t even dare to notify her sister abroad. Their mother was the only spiritual pillar for the two sisters; if her sister found out that their mother was gone, would this family even continue to exist?
Sang Yu covered her mouth and wept bitterly. On the other end, Song Yunsheng sensed something the moment the call connected. Her expression shifted slightly as she asked, “Where are you right now?”
Fortunately, at this moment, Lu Lingxi could no longer stand by and watch. She snatched the phone from Sang Yu and spoke with exasperated rage, “President Song, if you have even a shred of conscience left, come to the First Hospital and pay the bills. How can there be such a thing in this world—insisting on making someone leave with nothing just because of a divorce?”
The person being yelled at on the other end, Song Yunsheng, clearly didn’t know what had happened. Her face darkened, but her assistant stepped up at that moment to ask:
“President Song, the driver is already waiting. Where are you going next?”
Song Yunsheng actually wanted to throw a bit of a temper, but remembering Sang Yu’s weeping voice on the phone, she couldn’t harden her heart. She could only instruct, “Push all the matters back. Go to the First Hospital.”
Hurrying to the hospital, Song Yunsheng finally realized how serious the situation was. She quickly had her assistant pay the fees and simultaneously contacted experts for a consultation.
Money was being spent in massive quantities, yet Song Yunsheng’s expression didn’t change once. Sang Yu had originally been in despair, almost certain that Song Yunsheng wouldn’t come.
Hearing the voice, she looked up in shock, but Song Yunsheng first noticed a prominent bruise on Sang Yu’s fair face.
A flash of astonishment crossed Song Yunsheng’s eyes, but at that moment, the doctor came out to have Sang Yu sign papers, while simultaneously moving Sang Mother to the operating room.
Sang Yu completely ignored Song Yunsheng, her heart and eyes entirely focused on her mother. The anxiety in her expression was practically overflowing. Song Yunsheng felt a bit uncomfortable, but she still exercised patience, walked over, and tried to soothe Sang Yu.
“Don’t worry, nothing will happen.”
Song Yunsheng couldn’t say much else, but she probably didn’t know that at this moment, Sang Yu didn’t want to see her at all.
Sang Yu simply pretended not to hear, staring intently at the operating room. She would look at the sky, the ground, or anything else, just unwilling to acknowledge Song Yunsheng.
Song Yunsheng only assumed Sang Yu was too worried about her mother and didn’t suspect anything else, nor did she wonder why Sang Yu—who supposedly had money—had asked her to come pay the medical bills.
The waiting room was filled with silence. Looking at this couple who shared a bed but had different dreams, Lu Lingxi also felt a bit of a headache. Fortunately, Sang Mother seemed like she was going to be fine. She sighed, stepped forward, and nudged Sang Yu’s arm.
On one hand, she was hinting for Sang Yu to be nicer to Song Yunsheng; after all, no matter what, Song Yunsheng had advanced the medical fees, allowing Sang Mother to receive timely treatment.
If Song Yunsheng hadn’t come, even if Sang Yu’s funds hadn’t been frozen, it would have been very difficult for them to gather experts for a consultation in such a short time, and Sang Mother’s situation would have been even more dangerous.
Secondly, even if Sang Mother was out of danger now, Sang Yu still desperately needed money. This forced Lu Lingxi, despite her reluctance, to advise Sang Yu to endure and not provoke Song Yunsheng at this time.
Sang Yu understood her meaning but felt even more miserable. Lu Lingxi soon left under the pretext of company business, while Sang Yu remained silent.
The only good news was that Sang Mother had passed the critical period. Although she still needed to be hospitalized for observation, at least they no longer had to pay tens of thousands an hour for emergency rescue. Sang Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
Song Yunsheng approached Sang Yu, racking her brain to offer a few words of comfort.
Unfortunately, Sang Yu still lacked any expression.
In the end, Song Yunsheng also felt a bit awkward. She cleared her throat and said, “Sang Yu, your mother’s condition is still unstable right now. My grandmother is also getting old and isn’t in good health. If she found out we were getting a divorce, she would definitely be triggered. Let’s put the divorce matter on hold for a while, okay?”
It sounded very sincere, but Sang Yu inappropriately thought of the card that had been cut off earlier. She subconsciously couldn’t help but fall into conspiracy theories.
Was all of this part of Song Yunsheng’s plan?
Cutting off her card to leave her powerless and forced to return to beg Song Yunsheng, then finally using help as an excuse and pulling the grandmother card to play the emotion card to make her stay.
But why was it necessary to go in such a massive circle? Clearly, Song Yunsheng didn’t even care about her; Sang Yu found it hard to understand.
Ultimately, she could only attribute it to Song Yunsheng’s desire for control.
It was rare for an Omega to have such a strong desire for control, but as an heir, she was indeed pestered to death by the family to marry and have children. When she originally proposed the marriage agreement, she specifically said it was to help her fend off all the annoying family matters. In fact, Sang Yu was used to it; she remained silent and stopped arguing.
Song Yunsheng thought her words had worked and uncharacteristically took the initiative to say a lot.
But the more she said, the more Sang Yu felt that Song Yunsheng was using both soft and hard tactics to threaten her—it was a blatant way of telling her that until the five-year agreement was up, she shouldn’t think about escaping easily.
Sang Yu felt bitterness in her heart but had no choice. Just as Lu Lingxi said, she had to stabilize Song Yunsheng now. Even if she had to be shameless, she had to persist for the sake of her mother’s medical bills.
At the end of the conversation, Sang Yu agreed to Song Yunsheng’s request to temporarily not mention the divorce, but she also put forward a condition.
She told Song Yunsheng not to interfere with her filming.
Song Yunsheng readily agreed to this. She indeed hadn’t liked being exposed to the media before, but the current Sang Yu was clearly different from before. She was a very realistic person and understood that she had to make some concessions at this time.
At the same time, remembering Su Miao’s tearful complaints on the phone earlier, she inappropriately brought it up: “By the way, I have nothing to do with Su Miao. Since you two are filming together, there’s no need to make things so tense over those groundless rumors.”
After hearing this, Sang Yu felt chilled to the bone. After suppressing it for a long while, she still couldn’t help but speak up sarcastically: “Song Yunsheng, sometimes I really can’t tell if you’re intentionally playing dumb or blatantly trying to provoke me. You say you have nothing to do with Su Miao, yet you believe whatever she says? Did you ever come to ask me? You act like you don’t know she slapped me so many times, but the moment I slapped her once, it’s me targeting her!”
The bruise on her face hadn’t faded yet, and large movements easily made it hurt. Su Miao had slapped her truly hard, and she truly dared to complain—what was she relying on? Wasn’t it Song Yunsheng’s unconditional favoritism?
Song Yunsheng fell silent for a moment, attempting to defend herself: “Sang Yu, can you be reasonable? Did I not call you? It was you who wouldn’t pick up my calls.”
Sang Yu remembered that Song Yunsheng had indeed called her, but she was used to Song Yunsheng’s previous defense of Su Miao and subconsciously assumed she was calling to interrogate her. She had been too exhausted to deal with her, so she hung up.
“I admit I hung up on you that day. But Song Yunsheng, you have eyes and ears everywhere. If you really wanted to investigate the truth, could you not find it? It’s just that you don’t think this matter is worth your effort! Since things have come to this, further talk is useless. Let’s each fulfill our promises. Please do not interfere in my filming matters again.”
Having said this, Sang Yu had reached her limit. She gritted her teeth and didn’t look at Song Yunsheng’s expression. As soon as the words left her mouth, she turned and left.
Song Yunsheng’s face was now full of astonishment.
She did have a certain preconceived pity for Su Miao; after all, the two had grown up together, and Su Miao had been seriously injured saving her years ago, leading to her being frail and sickly.
But the injury on Sang Yu’s face was clearly more serious than Su Miao’s.
Song Yunsheng didn’t chase after Sang Yu; instead, she went to find Su Miao, asking about the situation that day with a cold face.
Su Miao’s expression was very poor, secretly hating that Sang Yu had actually changed her temperament and learned how to complain—while simultaneously answering Song Yunsheng vaguely.
In her words, she only said that her own state was not good, causing that scene to be filmed many times without passing. She was also very self-reproachful, and the director had scolded her as well.
After speaking, Su Miao wanted to bring up the matter of changing the script again, but Song Yunsheng was no fool. In a face-to-face situation, she could clearly see Su Miao’s little maneuvers, and for a moment, she felt even more disappointed.
Song Yunsheng interrupted her unpleasantly, saying, “Su Miao, you saved my life. I will remember that for as long as I live. But that’s all—I treat you as a sister. You should be clear about what the appropriate boundaries are.”
Su Miao mumbled, not daring to speak further, only lowering her eyes and nodding.
Song Yunsheng gave her a faint look, then turned and left. She went back and cleaned up the matters regarding the slaps and the late-night door incident. The script was changed back, though some ambiguous scenes still underwent some clever, subtle modifications.
This storm seemed to pass quietly. Sang Yu returned to the crew with the others to continue filming. Although she had agreed not to divorce, she never contacted Song Yunsheng again, using the excuse of concentrating on filming to remain isolated from the world.
Every time Song Yunsheng called, the person who answered was Lu Lingxi. She would usually greet her awkwardly, saying, “President Song, I’m so sorry, Sang Yu is busy filming. I’ll have her call you back when she’s done…”
Every time she heard this sentence, Song Yunsheng would lose interest in continuing and could only hang up the phone decisively.
And as for “calling back when she’s done”…
Sang Yu was never “done,” and there was no further news at all.