Chapter 9
I'm serious about living the life I want for myself.
Even if every day is exhausting.
Still—there's happiness in it. Fulfillment.
It turns out, when you start treating yourself kindly, life really does get better.
That is… when no one interrupts it.
Today, after finishing a batch of experimental data in the lab, I glanced at my phone—over a dozen missed calls from unfamiliar numbers. I'd had it on silent all day.
I called back.
The one who answered was Zhou Zeyu.
"Shen Xi, come to the hospital. Our son was in an accident—he's been hospitalized."
I hesitated for a moment.
But I still went.
No matter how little love is left, Zhou Yiran is my biological child. Even without affection, there's still responsibility.
Just as I reached the hospital room, I heard raised voices inside.
"Zhou Zeyu!" Lin Yaqi screamed. "How long are you planning to keep that child around?! If you don't send him away, I'll die by his hands! I swear—one body, two lives!"
"I've already told you—Yiran doesn't dislike you! Why are you so fixated on blaming him? He fell down the stairs and broke his leg. And you don't even care!" Zhou Zeyu's voice was just as loud, full of fury.
"So what, you'd rather I fell down the stairs?! That way you can go running back to Shen Xi, right? Get your perfect little family back together again?"
"Enough, Lin Yaqi! Stop being unreasonable—Yiran needs to rest!"
"Then let me show you what truly unreasonable looks like!" she shrieked. "Here's my bottom line: either you get rid of that boy, or I'll jump off a building with the one inside my belly!"
"He's ten years old, where do you expect him to go?!" Zhou Zeyu shouted, voice shaking with fury.
"I don't care!" she snapped. "I just never want to see him again. Otherwise—you can expect a corpse!"
And with that, Lin Yaqi stormed out of the hospital room.
Only to run straight into me.
She froze when she saw me.
So did I.
Was this really the slim, delicate girl from two years ago? Now, holding her swollen belly and trembling in rage, she looked more like a woman in the throes of a mental breakdown than the young, youthful girl I remembered.
"Shen Xi, what the hell are you doing here?" she snapped like a ticking bomb, ready to go off at anyone in sight.
"Zhou Zeyu told me Yiran was in the hospital. I came to see him."
"Oh, really? You came to see Zhou Yiran—or was it Zhou Zeyu?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "What, you think just because I'm pregnant, you can seduce him while I'm down?!"
…This woman is truly unwell.
But honestly, I wasn't even surprised. With Lin Yaqi, a meltdown could happen anywhere, anytime.
I hadn't seen her in two years, true—but Zhou Zeyu and I were together for so long, we still had mutual friends.
From them, I'd heard plenty.
Ever since Lin Yaqi found out she was pregnant with a son, she'd been acting out constantly.
If Zhou Zeyu's company hired a young, attractive female employee? Lin Yaqi would barge in, accuse her of seducing Zhou Zeyu, and pressure her to resign.
She wouldn't allow him to attend business dinners either. And if he dared to go, she'd show up at the restaurant and create a scene. I lost count of how many big contracts Zhou Zeyu had reportedly missed because of her.
They all said the same thing:
Zhou Zeyu is being driven insane by Lin Yaqi.
At the time, I found it a little amusing.
Driven insane?
Come on. Zhou Zeyu loved Lin Yaqi's "vibrance," didn't he?