Gu Yanxin was so anxious that she bit her lips until they bled, and all the color drained from her face. She looked like she was about to collapse.

She could only watch helplessly as Qin Xiao took away her design drawings.

The sound of the door slamming shut seemed to hit her heart.

She slumped into a chair, dazed and confused, her mind buzzing. She bit her pale fingertips against her lips, her watery eyes filled with despair.

Yun Rujin rubbed her throbbing temples and said with certainty, "You stole these blueprints from Shi Miao."

"No, this is mine! You're lying! It's clearly mine!" Gu Yanxin's face was contorted, and her pupils trembled violently.

Yun Rujin looked at her sharply and said coldly, "You know the answer in your heart."

"Are you still my mother? How could you believe what that bitch Shi Miao said! I already told you this is mine, why won't you believe me?" Gu Yanxin stared intently at Yun Rujin's face with bloodshot eyes.

"I really wish I wasn't like that." Yun Rujin's eyes were filled with pain and regret. She never expected that the daughter she had carefully raised over the years would turn out to be this kind of thing.

"Heh, what? Regret it now? Now you realize how good Shi Miao is? Just because I'm not your biological daughter, you all treat me like this! You're the ones who made me this way!"

Yun Rujin's eyes blazed with fury as she raised her hand and slapped her across the face. "You are my biological daughter, Yun Rujin's daughter!"

"What did you say?" Gu Yanxin covered her aching face, her pupils suddenly contracting, her eyes filled with astonishment.

Yun Rujin closed her eyes wearily, as if all her strength had been drained away in an instant. "You are the child of me and another man."

Gu Yanxin asked subconsciously, "Where was Nao then?"

"Shi Miao is Gu Wanqing's daughter."

"What? How could this be? You must be joking!" Gu Yanxin was struck dumb. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she stood up abruptly, her mind a complete mess.

Yun Rujin ignored her, slightly raised her head, her eyes gradually becoming unfocused, and began to recount the events of that year:

When I was pregnant with you, Gu Yunbo accompanied me to the hospital for a check-up.

Then we went to a restaurant near the hospital for dinner.

After we finished eating and came out of the restaurant, he realized he had left his phone inside and asked me to go back to the car and wait for him.

I had just walked to the car parked on the side of the road when suddenly a woman rushed in front of me and shoved the child in her arms into my hands.

Gu Wanqing, who should have been abroad, actually appeared here, but she didn't seem to recognize me.

She looked extremely flustered, and kept muttering that someone was chasing her and that I should quickly take her child and leave.

Before I could react, she hurriedly ran away again.

In a daze, I carried the child back to the car, and through the car window I suddenly saw a group of men in black chasing after her in the direction she had left.

I was terrified; I had no idea who she had offended.

I didn't want to get into trouble, so I quickly got out of the car and left the child in a trash can by the roadside.

When I got back, I was very flustered, and I accidentally missed a step and fell down...

"But how can you be sure that Shi Miao is the child from back then?" Gu Yanxin interrupted her.

Yun Rujin rubbed her throbbing temples and said in a deep voice, "Later, a man found me and asked where my child was. I told him the truth. Not long after, Gu Wanqing returned unharmed, but she seemed to have no memory of what happened. She only wanted to marry Qin Chu, and I breathed a sigh of relief..."

After a few seconds of silence, she continued, "I thought this was the end of it... but that man contacted me again, telling me to do as he said, or I'd be a corpse. I had no choice; I didn't want to die, so I had to do as he said. First, he let the Gu family know you weren't their biological child... then he led them to Shi Miao... even the paternity test was tampered with..."

"Hahaha, so you're the one who exposed my identity? If you hadn't done that, I would always be the eldest daughter of the Gu family! You ruined my life!" A vicious glint suddenly flashed in Gu Yanxin's eyes, and her pale fingers trembled as she pointed at Yun Rujin.

She never imagined that the source of her becoming like this was her own mother.

Yun Rujin was stunned for a moment, then came to her senses and said coldly, "Why don't you ever look for the reasons within yourself? If you hadn't tried to poison Shi Miao, your hand wouldn't have been crippled, and Gu Yunbai and I wouldn't have divorced! You can't see any of what I've done for you all these years! Get out of here, and from now on I'll pretend I don't have a daughter like you!"

"Mom! Are you crazy? Even you don't want me anymore, where can I go?" Gu Yanxin's eyes trembled violently, her watery eyes filled with disbelief.

Yun Rujin stood up, grabbed her arm, and tried to pull her out the door.

"Mom! Let me go! I'm not leaving!"

Yun Rujin ignored her, forcefully dragged her to the door and pushed her out, then slammed the door shut.

Gu Yanxin collapsed to the ground, her face deathly pale, her mind buzzing.