Chapter 89 Chapter 89
Lu Ye stepped forward swiftly, grasping An Jiyue's trembling fingers. The girl who had just smiled sweetly at him now had pale lips and panic in her brown eyes.
Lu Ye's eyes narrowed slightly. He didn't ask any questions, but simply opened his arms, pulled her into his embrace, and patted her gently to comfort her.
He had never seen An Jiyue like this before, like a frightened deer in the jungle.
Lu Ye looked down and saw the envelope that had fallen to the ground. The addressee was Yue Hui, the sender was Amber, and the postmark was from half a year ago.
He frowned, his heart sinking. It was a letter from her father. It turned out that the An couple, rumored to be missing, had actually been in contact with Yue Hui, and An Jiyue seemed completely unaware of it.
She had long since accepted the fact that her parents were missing, and as soon as she stepped out of school, she took on the responsibility of settling down as an orphan girl.
Lu Ye felt a little distressed and unconsciously hugged the person in his arms tighter.
Seeing that she had stopped shaking, Lu Ye gently asked, "Do you want to see it?"
An Jiyue's body trembled violently, and the fingers that were holding him suddenly increased in strength, and the fingertips turned white.
"No!" She refused in response, like a lost person in the darkness, unable to distinguish between good intentions and bad intentions, and could only helplessly push away all the tentacles that reached out.
Her parents disappeared without warning, leaving her alone overseas. Her father even nearly disinherited her. She still hasn't figured out what happened.
No one explained everything to her back then, and An Jiyue relied on her unyielding will to convince herself. She had finally managed to get everything back on track over the years, so what was the significance of this letter that appeared out of nowhere?
Perhaps this letter contains an overdue answer, but who can guarantee whether it will lead to light or a quagmire, a misunderstanding or a painful entanglement? If we don't open it, we can still be safe and still cling to our fantasies.
An Jiyue's mind was in a trance, and she didn't realize she had been helped to sit on the sofa. She had been holding onto Lu Ye's arm, never letting go, like a drowning person clinging to driftwood.
Her vision gradually became clear, and she looked into Lu Ye's calm and deep eyes with confusion and helplessness.
"I don't want to watch it." Her voice dropped, her eyes evasive. "It's hard enough to mentally prepare yourself, and then you have to tear it down and rebuild it again after watching it."
Lu Yemo's deep eyes were as still as a lake. He stared at her and reached out to touch her pale face.
"If you don't want to watch, then don't watch. But no matter what, I will be by your side this time."
Escape wasn't her style. Lu Ye knew it all. An Jiyue's choice at the moment was simply an instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm. Once she calmed down, her most likely choice would still be to face the truth in the letter.
Yue Hui kept these letters in An Jiuyue's office and set the password of the safe to her birthday, probably hoping that she would see them one day.
An Jiyue's eyes sparkled with twinkling lights again.
Yes, this time she wasn't wandering outside, her heart wasn't in the wilderness, she had Lu Ye by her side. It was Lu Ye who, just by walking beside her, could dispel all her anxiety, uneasiness, and fear.
If it really was a dark and messy past, he would lead her to fight against the flood of the past and rescue her from the shore.
An Jiyue picked up the thin envelope and moved it, along with the other letters from the safe, to the teak coffee table. She picked up the most recent letter and took a deep breath.
Lu Ye covered her hand: "How about I help you read one and then pass it on to you?"
An Jiyue nodded at him gratefully.
She watched as Lu Ye's slender fingers opened the envelope, slowly pulled out the two pages of paper as light as a cicada's wing, unfolded the fold, and quickly scanned them.
Lu Ye's expression went from calm to solemn in an instant. He turned around and hesitantly and worriedly put the letter into An Jiyue's hand.
"You'd better see it for yourself."
An Jiyue glanced at him in surprise, then lowered her head to read the letter. The handwriting was familiar, though it lacked the same vigor it once had. Her gaze froze, her heart gripped by a giant hand, and her breathing suddenly stopped.
Her father, Amber, wrote in the letter that his bone cancer had reached an advanced stage and he had decided to forgo chemotherapy. The letter also included his latest medical examination report.
-
An Jiyue sat in the VIP lounge, clutching all her letters, waiting for her flight. The tea beside her had once again gone cold. Without a word, Lu Ye brewed her a new cup and placed it within her reach.
It was already past lunchtime. They had been lazy today and had originally planned to have a leisurely morning tea after visiting Anshi. Now everything was uncertain. An Jiyue had no desire to eat. She felt a tightness in her heart and lungs, and even her legs felt heavy as if they were filled with lead.
She opened the letters one by one, reading them at different times, then carefully put them away. There was a tissue next to her teacup, but An Jiyue didn't touch it. She never shed a tear.
Lu Ye looked at her slightly chapped lips, and felt a dull pain in his heart: "Ji Yue, have some tea."
An Jiuyue shook her head, her brown eyes dim and lifeless. In just a few hours, her pretty face looked haggard.
He asked again: "So, juice?"
She continued to shake her head.
Lu Ye pondered for a moment, stood up and went out. After a while, he came back with two bottles of coffee, cocoa and milk. After unscrewing the bottle caps, he handed them over silently.
An Jiyue took it and took a sip, her lips regaining some color. Lu Ye sat down beside her and put his arm around her shoulders with a look of reluctance and heartache.
The man's cold voice became gentle and soft at this moment: "Come here."
An Jiyue closed her eyes exhausted and leaned against his firm, reliable shoulders. The pleasant, sharp scent of cedar invaded her nostrils, briefly clearing away the chaotic thoughts in her mind.
"Lu Ye, my father almost deprived me of my inheritance rights back then." She murmured, finally opening her heart to him.
"At that time, you just started to get angry with me. I was packing my bags to go back to China to find you, but Yue Hui suddenly showed up.
"She said she was coming to take me back to do a paternity test with my father. My father, who raised me for twenty-one years, suddenly wanted to do a paternity test with me. How ridiculous! If I hadn't known her for a long time, I would have thought she was a liar.
"I called my parents, but no one answered. Yuehui didn't know what was going on; she was just following my father's instructions. I was furious and felt it was an insult, so I refused to go back.
"Perhaps because we hadn't left yet, a few days later, I received a notice from my lawyer in my mailbox. Dad had directly revoked my inheritance rights and was planning to divorce Mom next.
"My credit card was frozen instantly, my rent was due soon, and I had some school fees to pay. Yuehui paid for all of this. After she settled me in temporarily, she went back to China to find out what was going on.
"When she came back, she brought a bunch of documents for me to sign. She said my parents were missing, and that before my father passed away, he transferred all the company and property to me, so my inheritance rights were not deprived...
"Later, Nan Ge also came, and they began to guide me in the overseas market for Anshi. After it started to pick up, Yue Hui and I returned to China together. She restarted Anshi's business in China, and I tried my hand in the media industry again."
An Jiyue took a sip of cocoa milk. The memories were too bitter, and she needed this overly sweet, smooth drink to neutralize them.
She patted the stack of envelopes on her lap and didn't say anything else. Everything that remained was what she had just learned from the letter, something she hadn't even fully digested yet.
Anshi Capital once took on a shared office project. Amber felt that while the concept of sharing was trendy, the business model was essentially second-hand leasing, and that the time was not right to enter the real estate market.
He studied the project proposal and was about to reject it outright, but out of courtesy, he met with the founder. Unexpectedly, the man turned out to be An's mother, Chen Xian's boyfriend from over 20 years ago. The project proposal had also been introduced to him through An Jiyue's mother.
Despite her mixed feelings, Amber maintained her composure and explained the situation to both parties. Chen Xian expressed her understanding, but the founder was deeply devastated.
Back then, he insisted on building a career before starting a family, and he made up his mind to break up with An Jiuyue's mother. Now that he is middle-aged and his career is still blocked, the entrepreneurial project he is very proud of needs the help of his ex-girlfriend to introduce it to an investment institution, but in the end it was rejected by his ex-girlfriend's husband.
He wandered distraught downstairs at Anshi Capital until he ran into Amber. She kindly offered him a drink to soothe his nerves and honestly analyzed the problems with his project. But he was preoccupied with his own high, even revealing that Chen Xian had spent the night before their wedding.
That night, the drunkard at the table passed out, and the lights in the An family's house were on all night.
When An Jiyue was born, Amber had been married to Chen Xian for nine months. Amber, who had always been mild-tempered, finally lost her temper and yelled at Chen Xian all night long.
Since that night, Amber has never returned home. He can understand the recklessness of youth, but he cannot accept that his wife is still in contact with her ex-lover, and he cannot accept that the daughter he has cherished for more than 20 years is not his biological daughter.
Amber drowned his sorrows in alcohol every day. When he was furious, he even instructed a trusted subordinate to go abroad and bring An Jiyue back for an appraisal. Furthermore, he had his lawyer directly draft a notice of change of inheritance rights and send it to his daughter's email address across the ocean.
Everyone knew the Ans were a harmonious couple, but the news that Amber had been out all night had spread among their friends and family. Suspicions were rampant, and it wasn't surprising that some past incidents were being dug up.
Until one day, the frustrated founder jumped from the top of the building. The only thing he held in his hand was the project plan that he cherished so much.
Amber panicked upon hearing the news. He returned home that night, only to find it deserted. Chen Xian had left, taking nothing with her and leaving nothing behind.
Only a yellowed page lay on the bed in the master bedroom: a paternity test from twenty years earlier. Chen Xian had confirmed everything long ago, but she knew full well that when the embarrassing past was brought to light, their harmonious marriage of more than two decades would crumble, and a single test would be powerless to reverse it.
Amber collapsed, exhausted. Unlike that obsessive man, family always came first in his heart. Now, his once enviable happy family had been struck by an unexpected disaster, and his wife and children were torn apart.
Amber entrusted everything to Yue Hui who had just returned from abroad, asked her to take good care of An Jiuyue, and quietly left.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
