Ye Zhiwei obediently stayed by Ye Qingcheng's side at the dinner table, eating quietly. She had already been suspicious that Ye Qingcheng was hiding something from her, and now, after carefully observing their interactions at the table, she felt that something was amiss.

Ye Qingcheng mostly ate light dishes. Occasionally, when his chopsticks touched a slightly stronger dish, Jiang Jianian and Ji Shuli would glance at Ye Qingcheng, and Ye Qingcheng would return his chopsticks to the light steamed dishes.

Ye Qingcheng has a rather bland palate, but he will eat a little bit of other dishes as well. In the past, when Ye Zhiwei liked the dishes on the table, Ye Qingcheng never complained or disliked them. He would just occasionally ask the kitchen to prepare one or two simpler dishes.

This is already a big problem.

Although Ye Zhiwei's first reaction was to ask Jiang Jianian, after all, it seemed that there was some kind of secret code between Jiang Jianian and Ye Qingcheng that she didn't know about. Several times, when Jiang Jianian looked at Ye Qingcheng expressionlessly, Ye Qingcheng would do some unexpected little things.

No, that's not right.

When Ye Qingcheng visited Yanda last time, Jiang Jianian was very polite and obedient to him. How come the atmosphere between them seems to have changed now?

Ye Zhiwei felt increasingly uneasy, vaguely sensing that not only Ji Shuli knew about this, but Jiang Jianian probably also knew something about it, and it seemed that only she was kept in the dark.

The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became. Ye Zhiwei gripped her chopsticks tightly, knowing that if Jiang Jianian was unwilling to tell her, she wouldn't get anything out of him. So she decided to turn her attention to Ji Shuli.

After finishing their meal, Ye Qingcheng was about to ask the hotel staff to come and settle the bill when Ye Zhiwei pushed Ji Shuli up and said, "My cousin and I will go pay the bill. Dad, you can rest here for a while."

Without giving Ye Qingcheng and Ji Shuli a chance to refute, they pushed Ji Shuli away.

Going to pay the bill together was a pretense; the real purpose was to severely torture Ji Shuli.

As soon as they stepped out of the private room, Ye Zhiwei, who had just been a docile little rabbit in front of Ye Qingcheng, immediately turned fierce, grabbing Ji Shuli and asking, "Tell me, are you and Dad hiding something from me?"

Ji Shuli was caught in a dilemma. He had indeed considered telling Ye Zhiwei about Ye Qingcheng's illness, but he was also worried that his uncle would be angry. His uncle's meaning was very clear before: he absolutely did not want Ye Zhiwei to know about this.

Ji Shuli clenched her hands and smiled as she changed the subject, "Little cousin, are you having your final exams soon? After this meal, will you go home to rest and then go back to school to continue studying?"

"Ji Shuli!" Ye Zhiwei grabbed Ji Shuli and sneaked into an empty private room. She slammed the door shut, pushed Ji Shuli against it, and warned fiercely, "Cousin, if you don't confess, I'm going to get angry. You must know something, right? Is Dad sick? What is it? He..."

"Little cousin, you're so fierce." Ji Shuli really is unyielding. Ye Zhiwei had already guessed the key point, but he was still making jokes and didn't say a word of truth.

Ye Zhiwei immediately picked up her phone and threatened, "Fine, you won't tell, huh? Then I'll call Grandpa right now and tell him that you didn't graduate properly, didn't do your handover work properly, flirted with girls every day, and even bullied me with other girls!"

Only Old Master Ji in this world can control Ji Shuli.

Ji Shuli panicked, "Little cousin, how can you use Grandpa against me? We can joke around, but don't play with your cousin's life—"

"What exactly are you hiding from me?" Ye Zhiwei gritted her teeth. "Now that I've already sensed something, do you think I'll just sit back at school and not tell you the truth? I'll only think about it more and more, and the more I think about it, the more worried and scared I become... I..."

Ji Shuli sighed, "Little cousin, you can't just bully me because I'm easy to bully. Xiao Jiang clearly knows more about this than I do. Didn't you notice how Xiao Jiang's eyes would make even Uncle obedient?"

Ye Zhiwei: Coercion and bribery might work on Ji Shuli, but they will definitely not work on Jiang Jianian.

Ye Zhiwei grabbed Ji Shuli without saying a word or letting him leave, and just stared at him intently.

She already had a vague guess in her heart, but she still wanted to get the specifics from Ji Shuli.

After a long silence, Ji Shuli finally said, "My uncle is sick."

"What illness?"

Ji Shuli clenched his fist, and after a long while, he stroked Ye Zhiwei's hair and said, "Don't blame your uncle. He kept it from you for your own good. He didn't want you to worry about him too much. And you know, your uncle is a very proud person. He probably wants to always maintain an image of being able to protect you from the wind and rain, rather than..."

"What illness?" Ye Zhiwei asked through gritted teeth.

“Leukemia.” Ji Shuli paused for a moment, then looked at Ye Zhiwei, whose eyes had suddenly reddened, and continued, “Acute leukemia.”

Even though Ye Zhiwei had guessed that Ye Qingcheng was sick, and guessed that it might be a serious illness, she never guessed that it was leukemia. She had been holding onto Ji Shuli tightly and torturing him, but now that he had let go, she still seemed to be unable to recover from the news. Her eyes were red, and with each blink, tears began to fall.

Ji Shuli panicked. Seeing that Ye Zhiwei had been made to cry by her words, she immediately comforted her, "She's still in the treatment stage, it's not like she's completely hopeless, little cousin, don't cry."

"When did this happen?" Ye Zhiwei grabbed Ji Shuli and asked, "When did Dad's illness start?"

“I only found out recently.” Ji Shuli looked at Ye Zhiwei and continued, “My uncle should have found out when we went to Yenching University last time.”

Tears streamed down Ye Zhiwei's face as she covered her lips, completely unaware of what was happening.

“Jiang Jianian, he…”

“My uncle refused to go to the hospital for chemotherapy. He participated in the research experiment on chip therapy that Xiao Jiang mentioned before.” Ji Shuli looked at Ye Zhiwei for a while before continuing.

So, the reason Jiang Jianian has been so busy these days is because he often has to travel to S City, coming in the morning and going back in the evening.

She clenched her fist and asked again, "Why not get chemotherapy?"

“Chemotherapy may have side effects, and my uncle wants to take care of things at the company first…”

Even when he was sick, he was still thinking about company matters.

Ye Zhiwei's mood plummeted. She wiped away her tears, took a deep breath, and said directly, "Cousin, you go pay the bill first. I'll go to the private room to find Dad."

Ye Zhiwei clenched her fists and walked towards the private room. She pushed open the door, and Ye Qingcheng was still chatting and laughing with Jiang Jianian. When he saw Ye Zhiwei come in with red eyes, he asked with heartache, "What's wrong? Why are your eyes so red? Who bullied my daughter?"

When Ye Zhiwei saw Ye Qingcheng, the tears she had just stopped burst forth again. Wiping her tears, she replied, "It was you, Dad, you bullied me."

Ye Qingcheng now understood that Ye Zhiwei knew everything.