Xuan Yanyu, who had been watching Yan Yunning’s every move, raised an eyebrow. He flipped his phone over, swiped open the screen with a fingertip, saw the unread message, and let his gaze drift leisurely onto Yan Yunning.

[Miss Yan, you’re overstepping.] The vindictive man sent that same line right back to her.

“Ding.” The moment the message was sent, Yan Yunning’s phone screen lit up.

Everyone glanced at Xuan Yanyu, who was holding his phone, then looked over at Yan Yunning — privately puzzling over the fact that sitting this close to each other, they were still sending messages back and forth. What could they possibly be saying that couldn’t be said aloud?

Yan Yunning read Xuan Yanyu’s message, a light laugh escaping through her nose. She stood up, politely said her goodbyes to everyone except Xuan Yanyu, and left the dining room.

Pei Shuluo muttered, “She’s full after just two bites?”

“I’ll be out for a moment — go ahead and eat.” With that, Xuan Yanyu went after Yan Yunning and left the dining room as well.

“Tsk — Miss Shi never got that kind of treatment.” Xie Yan savored a sip of the fine wine Xuan Yanyu had the servants bring out. “None of us noticed anything off before, either.”

“Come to think of it, if you really consider it — if they were mutually in love, how did Shiyao always end up having to read Brother Yu’s moods? And he never once served her food at meals. The dynamic was very polite, very distant.” Mu Heng raised his glass and clinked it with Yan Zhiyi’s.

Xie Yan laughed lazily. “Quit making excuses for yourself — you didn’t notice either.”

Mu Heng: “……”

“The real sister-in-law has arrived — hey, do you think Jingzhi moves up a generation now?” Pei Shunian smiled with amusement.

Xie Yan placed a peeled shrimp into Nan Chu’s bowl. “Jingzhi was already older than Brother Yu to begin with — it’s just that everyone called him Brother Yu, so he went along with it. Once Brother Yu and Ningning are together, it’ll just be a matter of switching what they call each other.”

“All right — go be affectionate at home, would you?” Yan Zhiyi rolled his eyes.

Xie Yan warmed to the subject and placed another shrimp in Nan Chu’s bowl. “What, jealous? If you’re jealous, go find yourself a girlfriend.”

Yan Zhiyi couldn’t be bothered to look at him anymore. He turned to Pei Shuluo and asked, “Where’s Tongtong? Haven’t seen her lately — wasn’t she always the most enthusiastic about coming to see Brother Yu?”

Pei Shuluo looked rather helpless. “She ran into someone who pays her even less attention than Brother Yu does, and she’s gone chasing after him all the way overseas.”

Yan Zhiyi laughed. “So it seems Tongtong was never that hung up on Brother Yu — she just likes people who ignore her?”

Pei Shunian: “……”

Pei Shuluo: “……”

Hospital.

Yan Yunning had slipped out of the dining room, retrieved the car keys from a bodyguard, and driven herself to the hospital. After parking in the underground garage, she went straight to the maternity ward — she wanted to find out exactly what Shiyao was up to.

Shiyao was in a VIP room. The corridor was quiet. Yan Yunning got the room number from the nurses’ station, thanked them, and made her way to the room.

The door was ajar. Yan Yunning closed her hand around the door handle, just about to push it open, when she heard the sound of Shiyao’s voice, ragged with desperation:

“Dad, Mom — the father of my baby isn’t going to live much longer. If Xuan Yanyu stops looking after us too, we’ll go back to living the way we used to. I can’t bear that.”

She had grown accustomed to the life she lived now. She could not go back to the way things were before.

“Then… then what do we do?” Shiyao’s mother gripped Shiyao’s hands with anxious urgency, wiping away her tears.

“Mom, Xuan Yanyu and the father of my child were close brothers. When Xuan Yanyu was growing up, the baby’s father looked out for him quite a bit. As long as Xuan Yanyu is still willing to help and take a little more care of the baby, we can keep living the life we have now.”

Shi Junshuai lounged with one leg crossed over the other, crunching into an apple and mumbling, “Then just have Xuan Yanyu look after her. His good brother is dying — shouldn’t he take care of the man’s woman and child? If he has any conscience at all, he should.”

Shiyao wiped at her tears. “That used to work. But now Yan Yunning has shown up, and Xuan Yanyu is very interested in her.”

“If they end up having children of their own, how would Xuan Yanyu be good to a child with no blood connection to him — another man’s child? How could he give extra care and attention to someone else’s baby?”

“Today, when I fell on the floor, Xuan Yanyu saw it happen. He didn’t lift a finger to help me. Today was my doing it on purpose — but what if it hadn’t been intentional? I would have been in real danger.”

“I had originally planned to make Xuan Yanyu feel guilty — guilty that Yan Yunning had nearly harmed the baby I was carrying — so that, following my plan, he would feel remorseful and look after us even more attentively. But Xuan Yanyu didn’t follow my plan at all.”

“His eyes are only for Yan Yunning. What do I do? What do I do?” Shiyao wept until she was nearly on the verge of fainting.

Shiyao’s mother’s eyes flickered. “Yaoyao, there’s one more option — are you willing?”

“What?” Shiyao looked up at her mother through swollen, tear-reddened eyes.

Shiyao’s mother poured a cup of clear water, then rubbed her thumb and forefinger together above the rim of the glass. “We need an illusion — one that only has to fool Xuan Yanyu into thinking it’s real.”

Shiyao shook her head between sobs. “We can’t — it’s not possible.”

Shiyao’s mother’s expression turned cold. “It would only be a pretense. I’m not asking you to actually do anything with him.”

“Mom, what are you trying to do? He’s the heir to the Xuan Group — he isn’t foolish, and neither is that father of his. There’s no one sharper than him. If we tried something like this, they’d have us hauled away the very next day.”

Shiyao was no fool either. After six months in the Xuan residence, she had seen everything clearly.

Drugging someone — that was simply out of the question. For someone like Xuan Yanyu, what he despised most was being schemed against. If you tried to scheme against him, it would only backfire — he would never tolerate someone who plotted against him living right under his nose, day after day.

Shiyao’s mother slapped her thigh. “Then what do we do?”

“That thing — whatever she’s called — Yan Yunning. Slip something into her drink. That’s possible, isn’t it?” Shiyao’s father narrowed his eyes. “Those wealthy families, don’t they set the most store by — what’s it called — what’s the word…”

Shi Junshuai tossed his hair back. “Reputation.”

“Ah, right — my son really is the smart one.” Shiyao’s father praised him with heartfelt sincerity.

“No.” Shiyao closed her eyes. “Yan Yunning is the second young miss of the Yan Group. And what are we? If something happened to Yan Yunning because of us, do you think we’d come out of it unscathed?”

Shiyao’s father clutched his chest in alarm, his voice unsteady. “The Yan Group — is it very powerful?”

The irritation in Shiyao’s expression was plain. “Yes. The Yan Group ranks in the top ten in Yuzhao Prefecture. They’re not people we can afford to provoke.”

Shiyao’s mother narrowed her small eyes and asked, “My girl, what about your baby’s father? He seemed like quite a capable young man — he certainly sent a lot of home during your relationship, and all of it was valuable.”

“Even if he doesn’t have long to live, he must still have quite a bit of money. Ask him for more.”

A shadow fell across Shiyao’s face. “That was before. Right now he’s nothing. If he had any ability at all, would he have handed me off to Xuan Yanyu and had Xuan Yanyu look after me? What a useless man.”

He had proposed to her, promised to marry her — and then fell ill, and it all came to nothing. The moment he got sick, his father immediately switched heirs. He couldn’t even look after himself, let alone her and the child she carried.

“How were you so foolish — finding such a useless man.” Shiyao’s mother jabbed her on the forehead in frustration. “And you still have the nerve to cry. I don’t want to hear it — figure it out yourself. In any case, I need money to spend.”

“Mom!” Shiyao was even more aggrieved.

Shiyao’s mother didn’t spare her another glance, and called out to Shi Junshuai and Shiyao’s father as she headed out of the ward.

“Excuse me, miss — why are you standing in the doorway? Aren’t you going in?” A nurse doing her rounds noticed Yan Yunning standing at the door with her phone in hand and asked in puzzlement.

At the sound of the nurse’s voice, Shiyao’s expression shifted inside the ward, and her eyes, cold as ice, turned toward the door.