Returning - Chapter 188

Chapter 188: Exhausted

Thanks to the sleep aid in the painkiller, Ji Sui drifted off without realizing it. When he woke, he found Zhao Yu was no longer in the hospital room.

Although he had said earlier that her injuries hadn't fully healed and she didn't need to stay, now that he couldn't see her, he felt a vague sense of loss instead. Especially when he recalled her strange reaction this morning, his unease grew stronger and stronger.

Just as he was struggling to get out of bed, Zhuang Ye walked in. "Need the bathroom?"

Ji Sui paused, then asked, "Zhao Yu… where did she go?"

Zhuang Ye had been staying at the hospital these past few days to care for him, but that inexplicable awkwardness between them had never faded. Bringing up Zhao Yu now made him feel extremely self-conscious.

Zhuang Ye replied, "She's already left. She asked me to tell you that since your condition is stable, she won't bother you again from now on."

That inexplicable sense of loss deepened, but Ji Sui couldn't dwell on it. He asked urgently, "Did she leave with Xue Zi'ang?"

Zhuang Ye nodded, puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He just had a bad feeling, a sense that Zhao Yu wasn't in a normal state of mind.

After hesitating for a moment, Ji Sui couldn't help but unlock his phone and dial Zhao Yu's number.

He had always kept this number. Even if he had truly deleted it, he remembered those eleven digits clearly. But he dialed again and again, and still, no one answered.

Zhuang Ye also sensed something was off and said urgently, "Call Xue Zi'ang."

Ji Sui got out of bed with difficulty, continuing to dial Zhao Yu's number. "I don't have his number."

Zhuang Ye turned and hurriedly walked out.

Ji Sui didn't have Xue Zi'ang's number, and neither did he. He didn't even have Zhao Yu's phone number. Seeing Ji Sui's tense reaction now, he panicked immediately.

Fortunately, just as he was about to step out of the hospital room door, Ji Sui finally said, "It connected."

It was Xue Zi'ang who answered, which only made Ji Sui's anxious heart even more uneasy. "Where is Zhao Yu?"

"Meeting with a lawyer." Looking through the window at Zhao Yu inside, Xue Zi'ang asked with little patience, "What is it?"

Ji Sui breathed a sigh of relief. "Is she… okay? Is there anything unusual about her?"

Had he been too sensitive? Was he overthinking this?

Xue Zi'ang frowned and couldn't help but look at Zhao Yu inside again.

Compared to the low spirits she had shown days ago out of worry for Ji Sui, she seemed much more energetic now. Her mood even looked good. He had originally felt relieved by this, but after hearing Ji Sui's question, he couldn't help but wonder: was her current state normal?

After finishing her discussion with the lawyer, Zhao Yu walked out calmly. "Let's go."

Xue Zi'ang deliberately studied her for a few more moments but truly couldn't detect anything unusual. Instead, it was Zhao Yu who spoke up first. "I want to go to the hospital to see Weng Ruohua. Do you want to come?"

Weng Ruohua had been rushed to the hospital with a serious illness; Zhuang Yiqing knew this.

The company she had invested in had run into problems, and there were many matters requiring her personal attention. So, the bail pending trial that the company had jointly applied for on her behalf had been approved. She would inevitably use this opportunity to visit Weng Ruohua at the hospital.

Having just been through the police station, her complexion was noticeably worse. Seeing Zhao Yu, she wasn't surprised. She only said flatly, "What more do you want to do?"

Zhao Yu pointed toward the hospital room, wearing an innocent smile. "I was worried she hadn't been angered to death yet, so I came specifically to add fuel to the fire."

Zhuang Yiqing glared at her with fury. "My mother is innocent. If you have an issue, come at me."

Zhao Yu looked at her, amused. "Is she really innocent? My mother and Xiao Jin were the innocent ones. The child in my belly was innocent. I was innocent. Why didn't you think about letting us go?"

Just then, the doctor came out of the hospital room. Zhuang Yiqing instinctively wanted to ask about Weng Ruohua's condition, but seeing the playful look in Zhao Yu's eyes, she recovered her composure and continued to stare at her coldly.

Zhao Yu approached her and said slowly, "I came to tell you this: I will arrange for people to be waiting for you in prison. Even if you go in, don't expect a moment's peace. But don't you even think about committing suicide. If you dare to die, I will make your mother wish she were dead."

Watching Zhuang Yiqing's fist clench, she smiled again. "Actually, since you were capable of doing all those things, couldn't you just be a little more ruthless? If you just disown your mother, don't care if she lives or dies, then you could completely avoid going to prison. I know someone like you would definitely rather die than suffer that kind of humiliation in prison. It's a pity…"

She glanced toward the hospital room and sighed helplessly. "It's a pity that, once you're dead, there will be no one to take care of your mother. Your lawyer should have told you about the current state of your Zhuang family, right? Thanks to you, your father is still under investigation. Who knows, he might even keep you company in prison. The companies you invested in have suffered huge losses and are suing you now. That bit of Lanxi equity you hold isn't even enough to cover your debts. As for the other debts, who knows if all the assets under your name are even enough to offset them."

"I did hear that Zhuang Ze managed to get out of it. Although his net worth isn't what it used to be, he can still live comfortably. But I wonder, given that you mother and daughter never gave him a pleasant look, would he be willing to occasionally help look after your mother? If he won't help, I wouldn't mind arranging for someone to do it in his place. It'd be best if it happened frequently…"

The raised slap hadn't yet landed when Zhuang Yiqing's wrist was caught and she was shoved hard to the side. Xue Zi'ang looked coldly at the woman who had stumbled and fallen to the ground. "Did you really think I wouldn't hit a woman?"

Zhuang Yiqing's eyes were red as she glared fiercely at Zhao Yu. "Just try touching my mother!"

"Tang Xi!" Hating Tang Xi bitterly, Zhuang Yiqing glared at her, then suddenly pulled a cold smirk from the corner of her mouth. "You think it's only my fault? I never even thought about killing your mother or killing Yu Jin in the beginning. It was you…"

Before she could finish, Xue Zi'ang had already clamped her mouth shut and shoved her far away again. The chill in his eyes intensified. "Say one more word, and I'll dare to make your mother choke and die right now."

They had been reluctant to let Zhao Yu meet with Zhuang Yiqing precisely because they feared Zhuang Yiqing would say something like this to provoke her. But when he tensely looked back at Zhao Yu, he saw her face was still perfectly composed, showing no reaction at all.

"Zhao Yu." As they left the hospital, he tried to offer some comfort, but he didn't know what to say. After a pause, he continued, "Don't worry. Even if she only gets twenty years, when she comes out twenty years later, she'll just be an old woman with nothing. When that time comes, I'll help you deal with her again and make her life worse than death."

Zhao Yu, however, smiled. "For someone like her, as long as she doesn't die, spending twenty years in prison will be enough."

Xue Zi'ang was surprised by her calmness today. "Are you… really okay?"

After all, based on Zhuang Yiqing's actual crimes, the sentence should have been at least life imprisonment. This had always been a point of grievance for Zhao Yu. But now, it seemed she had suddenly come to terms with it.

"I'm fine. I just thought about it from a different angle. By the time she gets out of prison, the world will have completely changed. Maybe that's even worse than letting her spend her whole life locked up. Who knows, she might not even make it out—she could go mad from the torment before then. And besides, aren't you all still here? I know you won't let the Zhuang family off easy. Now, it's just waiting for her sentencing, waiting for the Zhuang family to face their mountain of lawsuits, waiting for those debts to leave them with nowhere to go. An ending like this… it's pretty good. I'm satisfied."

A cool breeze blew past. Zhao Yu stood on the steps, spread her arms wide, and took a deep breath. "With this culprit dealt with, it's time to move on to the next one."

"What?" Xue Zi'ang was facing into the wind, and her voice was extremely soft. He couldn't hear her clearly.

Zhao Yu turned to look at him and smiled. "I said, I'm a little tired. I want to go back and get a good night's sleep."

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