Chapter 32

Chapter 32

*

Yin Jihong had ignored Shen Yi earlier, and now he could just as easily pretend he didn't exist.

Whether he acknowledged someone was purely a matter of his mood.

He walked over to Shen Yi with long strides, hands in his coat pockets.

"You really like this hospital that much? Standing here like you don't plan on going home?" His tone was so dismissive it bordered on cruel. "How about I chat with Dean Wu and have him gift you this hospital? Don't mention it."

Shen Yi was silent for two seconds before saying, "Thank you for helping arrange Jin Yuan's situation."

"I don't buy that polite act, so save it." Yin Jihong raised an eyebrow, showing no mercy whatsoever. "Who I help and why is entirely because of Momo. She's Momo's friend, not some Shen family relative. Don't give yourself so much credit."

"Your brother was just messing around from the start, and now he sends you to clean up his mess with fake sincerity—and you actually showed up. Shouldn't you Shens be worried about missing out on an Oscar this year?"

"This is my brother's private business. Right or wrong, I don't question or interfere." Shen Yi's earlier warmth faded, and a cold sharpness crept into his eyes. "But since we're family, having each other's backs and closing ranks against outsiders is just what we do."

The pretense of civility finally shattered, and Yin Jihong's face turned ice-cold. "Your family may be morally rotten, but at least you know how to band together. Shen Gang knew Shen Yuan couldn't take me on, so he dragged you back from the States to help out. After all that time going up against Ke Qingteng, did you actually pick up anything?"

Shen Yi answered with just four words: "I learned a great deal."

"With all that learning, I'll do Ke Qingteng a favor and wait to see what you can pull off in S City." Yin Jihong shifted his tone. "I know I'm irresistible, and you Shens just can't get over me—I can't help that. But please don't let your feelings run wild and go after people you shouldn't."

At that, Shen Yi narrowed his eyes slightly.

"After all those years in America, can you still understand Chinese?" Yin Jihong cut to the chase, laying it all out with an unyielding edge in his voice. "Men's business should be settled like men. Don't drag women into this."

"Momo has nothing to do with our feud. If you're getting close to her to use her as leverage against me, that just makes me despise you and your family even more. No real ability, and all you can do is scheme against a woman."

Despite the taunts, Shen Yi didn't take the bait. Instead, he calmly countered, "If men's business has nothing to do with women, then why did you come down so hard on A Yang and Xiaopeng? Not only did you ban them from clubs and bars, you also shut down the factories backing them, so they can't reopen after the New Year."

That was one of the tasks Yin Jihong had assigned Cheng Shu before heading to Xinjiang.

Just thinking about those two clueless rich kids made his blood boil. Even if you temporarily cut off their fun and games, you couldn't cut off their ambition and greed, which were bigger than their bellies.

They dared to have dirty thoughts about Jin Mo today; who's to say they wouldn't move somewhere else tomorrow and keep harassing other girls?

Why just treat the symptoms when you can pull it out by the root?

Cut off their escape routes in one shot, strip them of their backing and resources, and they won't have the means to go out and hurt anyone again.

"Did a gym teacher teach you Chinese?" Yin Jihong frowned in irritation. "Can't even grasp cause and effect? Your scumbag friends messed with Momo, so of course I made sure they'd pay for it. But if they hadn't had those dirty thoughts, they wouldn't be in this mess today."

"I'm not like you Shens. I don't start trouble unless trouble starts with me, and I don't use dirty tricks to get what I want. I only fight fair and square to settle who comes out on top."

"I'm sure Chen Yuanshan has already given you a heads-up." He had no more patience to waste on Shen Yi and strode off toward the elevators. "When it comes to Momo, I have no tolerance and no room to negotiate."

"The treasure I've protected since I was a kid—nobody gets to lay a hand on her."

-

Jin Mo and Yan Qinxuan changed into sterile gowns and hurried into the ICU.

A brief thirty-minute visiting window was better than nothing. The two stood quietly by the bed, watching over the lifeless Jin Yuan.

Jin Mo noticed dried tear tracks still clinging to the corners of Jin Yuan's eyes, crusted on her skin like tiny, pale pearls.

Those little pearls stabbed another wound into her already aching heart, and her eyes instantly turned red.

Yin Jihong had told her on the way over that Jin Yuan had locked herself in her room for three whole days.

She couldn't bear to imagine what Jin Yuan had thought about alone in that empty room for those three days—how much despair she'd sunk into, how many tears she'd cried—before she made the unshakable decision to end her own life.

Dan Jingchuan had also had the police tech unit pull up the chat logs from Jin Yuan's phone.

Over those three days, she'd called Shen Yuan over a thousand times and sent over a thousand texts, but every single one stayed stuck on her phone—because Shen Yuan had blocked her ages ago.

Before ending her life, she'd written a message in her notes app:

[If I were a bright, beautiful flower that never wilted, and I'd met you on a sunny day ten years ago, would things have turned out differently? But none of that matters anymore. I never did you wrong in the slightest.

Momo, Xuan Xuan—you're the only two people I've ever let down in this life. I'm so useless, so ordinary, and yet you still loved me. Thank you. If there's a next life and you're still willing to be my friends, I'll make it up to you then.]

As they left the ICU, Jin Mo saw Yan Qinxuan raise a hand and roughly wipe the corner of her eye.

She knew Yan Qinxuan felt the same way—even though Jin Yuan had gone down the wrong path and wrecked her own life into this miserable state, they had never once regretted loving her or being her friend.

Every girl deserves to be a bright, beautiful flower, worthy of love and care.

When they changed back into their own clothes and came out, Jin Mo spotted Shen Yi still standing at the ICU entrance right away.

She'd noticed he hadn't left when she went in, and now that she was out, he was still waiting in the same spot.

Seeing her emerge, Shen Yi stepped forward slowly, lowered his head slightly, and asked in a soft voice, "Jin Mo, would you have a moment to talk? I only need five minutes of your time."

Jin Mo looked up and met his gaze, her feelings complicated.

He seemed to sense her hesitation and added, "If it's inconvenient or you'd rather not, that's fine. No problem at all."

She closed her eyes briefly, let out a quiet sigh, and turned to look at Yan Qinxuan beside her.

Yan Qinxuan immediately understood. "I'll wait for you by the elevator."

Jin Mo and Shen Yi walked together to the window at the end of the corridor. Outside, the night over S City had deepened, the entire city glittering with lights like a luminous pearl sinking into the darkness.

She and Shen Yi did share a certain "twisted fate"—the world was so big, yet they kept running into each other. And every encounter happened under such unexpected circumstances that it always felt like fate was deliberately playing tricks on her.

"I'm sorry." Jin Mo gazed out the window, but Shen Yi's eyes never left her face. "Please believe me—I absolutely did not want to see you again in a place like this, under circumstances like these."

Jin Mo was silent for a moment before turning her gaze back to him. "I believe you didn't know your brother's affair was with my best friend. But before today, did you really not know who I was?"

In the limited time she'd had, she'd replayed every detail of her acquaintance with Shen Yi. She'd actually had a vague feeling back in Xinjiang that he seemed to know more about her than he let on. Now that she thought about it, he'd probably known her true identity for a long time.

And of course, he'd known about her relationship with Yin Jihong.

With that reasoning, the motives behind his friendliness toward her were worth examining.

Shen Yi's gaze behind his glasses was deep. "If Yin Jihong hadn't made trouble for my friends, I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to find out who you were."

Hearing Yin Jihong's name, Jin Mo was taken aback. "...Made trouble?"

"He ruined A Yang and Xiaopeng—the two who were drunk and causing trouble at the KTV that day—pretty badly. They came to me for help, and that's when I found out who they'd provoked." He paused, then frankly admitted, "Yes, after I learned your identity, when I ran into you in Xinjiang, I did approach you intentionally at first, to see what kind of person you were—someone who could make the Young Master of the Yin Family go to such lengths, burning with rage for a beauty."

"But after getting to know you, I realized you're not the type of girl who stirs up trouble. Believe it or not, I genuinely want to be your friend now. That has nothing to do with your family background or your relationship with Yin Jihong."

Jin Mo hadn't expected him to lay his thought process out so plainly, without worrying about how she might perceive it.

Looking into his eyes, she felt he wasn't lying. Besides, given how awkward and delicate their situation already was, lying wouldn't do him any good anyway.

"I just wanted to tell you—separate matters should be handled separately. The Shen family may be at odds with Yin Jihong, but on the matter of Jin Yuan, our goals are aligned. No matter what my brother thinks or does, I'll stand with you to ensure Jin Yuan recovers and is discharged safely. All her medical expenses and subsequent psychological counseling should be borne by the Shen family."

“I’m truly sorry your friend had to go through so much.”

Jin Mo let her eyes fall shut briefly, then finally spoke slowly: “Just like I told you that night at the KTV, you don’t need to apologize for your friend. And by the same token, you don’t need to apologize for your brother now. Each person answers for their own actions—your brother lacks both guts and conscience, but I won’t hold that against you. I sincerely hope you’re not the same kind of person he is.”

Just then, Yin Jihong’s call came in, as if on cue.

She picked up and heard his lazy voice on the line: “Is Yan Qinxuan changing clothes for a whole century? Is she getting dressed for a costume drama or something?”

Jin Mo couldn’t help but laugh: “Almost done. Are you in the parking lot?”

“I’m on the fifth floor.” He paused, then drawled, “I just went and bought you a can of insecticide. I’ll hand it to you later—if you ever run into a stinkbug, just spray it straight at it.”

…

Hearing that, her heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively glanced around—the entire corridor was empty, not a soul in sight.

Does he actually have a third eye or something?

Before she could say anything, Yin Jihong added: “If you don’t come up soon, I’ll come down to get you myself. I still have a fever, you know—are you really gonna make me run up and down like this?”

She knew he was just being a clingy drama queen, but her tone still softened involuntarily, with that usual soothing tone she used on him: “Got it, I’ll be right up.”

After hanging up, she looked back at Shen Yi with a serious expression: “I know it’s not nice to say this about your brother, but that’s just how I feel. You can choose not to be my friend, I get it—I understand your position.”

Her calm, pretty face was clearly reflected in Shen Yi’s eyes.

He gave a slight nod, and as the conversation wound down, he said in a low voice: “Thank you—for being willing to tell me all this.”

-

Jin Mo and Shen Yi walked together to the elevator.

After Shen Yi went down, Jin Mo reached out and pressed the up button. The moment her fingertip landed, Yan Qinxuan, who had been waiting nearby, immediately stepped to her side.

Yan Qinxuan had also been running around all day for Jin Yuan, without even taking a proper sip of water, her voice already hoarse. She stared straight ahead, as if she’d made up her mind while she was alone just now, and said in that raspy voice:

“Momo, once Yuan Yuan fully recovers this time, I’m not going to reason with her or try to talk her back anymore—none of that works. I’m going to keep an eye on her like a hawk. If she dares to contact that scumbag again, I’ll smash her phone, lock her in, and not let her step one foot outside.”

“It’s like quitting drugs—it’s gonna be painful as hell, but she has to do it.”

Yan Qinxuan’s words were blunt but made sense, and Jin Mo nodded in agreement: “Since she’s already had the courage and resolve to seek death, then only something this extreme can really help her get through it.”

As they spoke, the elevator doors slid open, and the two stepped in side by side.

Jin Mo had just hit the button for the fifth floor when Yan Qinxuan suddenly elbowed her.

Jin Mo turned her head: “What’s up?”

“Girl, you’re something else!” Yan Qinxuan winked at her teasingly. “Did the love life I prayed for you on New Year’s Eve already come through? First the Young Master, and now the second young master of the Shen family—just how much have you been hiding from me!?”

Jin Mo was completely speechless: “…There’s no progress at all. Quit guessing.”

The moment she said that, her mind suddenly flashed back to that morning in Xinjiang—that kiss: the warmth of Yin Jihong leaning in, the softness and heat of his lips… every detail so vivid it felt like it was happening all over again.

Her expression froze for a split second without her realizing it, and her ears quietly flushed.

“How am I guessing?” Yan Qinxuan caught every subtle change in her expression, her tone even more certain. “I saw it clearly—the way Yin Jihong and the second young master of the Shen family look at you, each one more suspicious than the last… How come I never noticed before that Yin Jihong looks at you like that?”

Jin Mo bit her lip and couldn’t help but ask: “…Like what?”

“How should I put it.” Yan Qinxuan tilted her head, thinking for a moment. “It’s that kind of look—like he wants to eat you up, lock you away, and not let anyone else get a single look?”

Jin Mo: “…”

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Author’s note:

Red envelopes are still dropping randomly! Keep hitting me with your collections, comments, and nutrient solutions—I love you all! Also, don’t forget to collect my author page! And feel free to check out my next new novel, *The Crane*, a Beijing circle story (might also switch to a Beijing circle ensemble piece)—either way, it’s all mature men and women with plenty of spice, haha.

Brother Xuan, oh Brother Xuan! As expected of you! You hit the nail right on the head! That little dog’s beastly heart is plain as day for all to see! This family would truly fall apart without you and your husband Shanmei! When the little dog and Momo get married, you two absolutely have to sit right on top of the little dog’s head!

I love watching the showdown between the little dog and Shen the Second! The little dog is so wild and handsome!! Absolutely killing it—this is genuinely the first time I’ve written a male lead this domineering, forceful, arrogant, and sharp-tongued, and it’s been such a thrill to write!!! He’s got firepower in his words and firepower in his actions, hahaha! Shen the Second! You better step it up too! See if you can make the little dog choke a bit??

I absolutely love writing a jealous little dog—men who know how to act cute have the best luck!!

Wishing everyone a happy May Day holiday! I’ll still be updating every day during the holiday! Heads up—the bonus chapter drops on May 3rd~ So get those passionate comments in!!! Let’s discuss the plot!