The rain outside felt like it was hitting her, chilling her to the bone. The surgery had taken a long time, and Xia Wan had been waiting outside without even having lunch.

Even if you try to get her to eat, she can't, and if you force her to eat, she'll vomit.

She clutched her head, tearing at her hair in silence, enduring the pain. At that moment, she thought of Zhuang Yan again. If only Zhuang Yan were with her.

What is Zhuang Yan doing now? Is he with Lu Yan?

The assistant bought a cup of hot milk tea and handed it to Xia Wan: "Miss Xia, have some milk tea to warm yourself up."

Xia Wan stared stiffly at the milk tea in her assistant's hand until the assistant shook it. Only then did she reach out and take it. The warmth of the milk tea traveled from her palms to her back, slightly dispelling the chill.

"Thanks."

The assistant was worried about leaving Xia Wan alone here. As an assistant, it was his duty to do so. However, thinking about what had happened today, he didn't know how the Xia family would get through this difficult time.

Xia Qingshan is critically ill, and the Xia family is in dire straits. Xia Wan is so young and knows nothing. It would be good if she didn't cause any trouble after joining the company. Letting her take on responsibilities would crush her.

He watched the live stream video online. The two things Lu Yan announced at the banquet were undoubtedly pushing Xia Qingshan to his doom.

It perfectly illustrates the saying—strike while the iron is hot!

Lu Yan's methods were too ruthless. Without hesitation, everyone who attended the banquet chose to side with Lu Yan. Among them were many old acquaintances, those who had cooperated with the Xia family, and those who had been friends with Xia Qingshan for many years. They usually went fishing and played chess together and visited each other on holidays to exchange gifts. But after this incident, they all ran away.

It's understandable. In this circle, couples will abandon each other when disaster strikes, and even one's own son can be abandoned. So-called friends are maintained by interests. In such a situation, it's considered good if you don't kick someone when they're down.

Choosing to help Xia Qingshan at this time would mean offending Lu Yan, not to mention that Lu Yan is also cooperating with the mysterious CEO Yan online. It's not easy to offend either of them.

Who exactly is this Mr. Yan? People in the industry call him a "stock market god." He is said to have driven up housing prices this year, making hundreds of millions in profit in just one or two months.

This CEO Yan is mysterious and low-key. Like the previous Yi'an Group, no one has ever seen him before. He seems to have appeared out of nowhere. He does things that are even bolder than what Lu Yan did before. He dares to gamble and take risks.

No one knew his name or gender. Some suspected that this "Yan" was Lu Yan's alternate account, but this was quickly denied by the person involved.

Lu Yan said that President Yan is very capable and she admires him very much.

The person who is worshipped by Lu Yan, the boss of Yi An Group, can already be considered a god. The myth he created is unbreakable. When mentioning him, there is nothing else to say except to marvel at his strength.

The more mysterious someone is, the more powerful they are. Take Lu Yan for example, she's been mysterious for so many years, who would have thought she founded Yi An?

It's best not to offend someone like that, let alone someone who's cooperating with Lu Yan. With such a powerful alliance, who would dare to offend them?

People who were once close to Xia Qingshan now avoid him whenever possible.

The assistant didn't want to talk about these things, partly because Xia Wan was emotionally fragile and had a low tolerance for stress.

He didn't want to talk about it, but Xia Wan insisted on asking, like knowing there was a knife standing there but still running into it.

"Assistant Zhang, can you tell me what happened today? Why did my dad suddenly faint? He was perfectly fine this morning..." Xia Wan said while observing her assistant's expression, and she saw reluctance on her assistant's face.

The already tense atmosphere intensified, and my heart clenched even tighter. "Did something go wrong at the auction? I heard from my dad that he was going to auction off that piece of land in Xicheng to make up for it. Did that piece of land not sell?"

The assistant said helplessly, "They just can't sell them..."

"What's the meaning?"

The assistant, worried that Xia Wan might not be able to handle it, said, "Ms. Xia, let's not talk about work today. You just need to stay with Chairman Xia and wait for him to wake up."

"Assistant Zhang, I'm not a child. As the eldest daughter of the Xia family, I have the right to know what happened. I want to know why my father suddenly fainted."

The more Assistant Zhang hesitated to speak, the more serious the problem seemed; he was afraid that clarifying things at this point would hurt her.

Xia Wan gritted her teeth: "Assistant Zhang, I can hold on, just tell me."

Assistant Zhang and she looked at each other for three seconds, then he sighed and nodded, and told Xia Wan what had happened that morning.

"The situation at Xia's is not very optimistic right now, Miss. You should make plans accordingly."

What plans are in place? Like Zhuang Zhongming and Lu Yu?

Xia Wan clenched her fists, her nails turning white.

After listening to her assistant's words, Xia Wan's eyes reddened. The thing she had been worried about had still happened. She hated Lu Yan so much for being so ruthless and showing no regard for their past relationship.

The Xia family did make some mistakes, but not enough to warrant death. Why is Lu Yan so determined to drive them to their deaths?

Large tears rolled down her cheeks as she clutched her head. She had a very low tolerance for emotional distress; even though she had prepared herself, she still broke down after hearing her assistant's words.

The milk tea in his hand went cold before he could drink a drop. The rain was still falling outside, and the sky was foggy. Finally, the doctor came out and Xia Qingshan was sent to the observation room. He was still not out of danger.

His condition was not good, and there was a high chance of him being paralyzed by a stroke. When she heard the result, Xia Wan was stunned. She looked at Xia Qingshan being wheeled out of the operating room.

Fifty-year-old Xia Qingshan wasn't old; he was usually a handsome middle-aged man whose age was hard to guess. But now, his hair had been shaved off, and his face was pale and bloodless. She hadn't looked at her father closely in a long time. How could he have so many wrinkles on his face? His face had become thin and small. He looked calm and breathless, as if he might die at any moment.

When Xia Wan heard the words "stroke" and "paralysis," she was completely stunned, like a broken machine that had malfunctioned and stopped working.

This situation can be described as the body triggering its self-protective function, causing the person to curl up in a hard shell and lose their ability to respond to the outside world.

"No way... how could my dad be paralyzed..."

Xia Wan had seen people paralyzed by stroke. Her grandfather was one of them. He lay in bed needing care, unable to move, unable to speak clearly, and drooling with his mouth wide open. Because he had been bedridden for many years, his muscles had atrophied, and he needed help turning over to go to the toilet. He often cried because he couldn't defecate. He was very thin, but his belly was swollen and distended, like a fully inflated balloon.

Unable to live and unable to die, their final death was particularly gruesome.

When her grandfather was sick, she didn't want to visit him at all, afraid that she would become like him in the future, and also afraid that her father would become like him when he got old.

If she were paralyzed, she might as well be dead. But now the doctor is telling her that Xia Qingshan will be completely paralyzed in the future, unable to move anything below his neck.