Chapter 58 Liquidation All she needed to know was that from this day forward, her world...
Ye Yuying was in good physical condition and was discharged from the hospital after a few days. She then returned to the Cheng family with Cheng Mingdu.
The luxurious mansion that once made her feel constrained and uncomfortable has now become her only refuge. She had longed to leave this house, but now that Cheng Mingdu has returned, she feels that the house is not so cold anymore.
She dared not go out casually, for fear that Ye Jianguo might be waiting for her in some corner again.
After returning to China, Cheng Mingdu became even busier than before. He seemed to have endless official duties and meetings to handle, and he was still leaving early and returning late.
Occasionally, Ye Yuying would be awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of car engines downstairs. She would lean to the window and watch the familiar headlights on the distant driveway approach and eventually go out.
By then, it was often late at night and all was quiet.
She assumed that Cheng Mingdu would, as always, be entrusted with important responsibilities by his family after returning to China, allowing him to attend key occasions, appear before various prominent families, and promote exchanges among the younger generation.
After all, he had just won that highly prestigious world championship, making him the most talked-about figure among the younger generation.
Ye Yuying could roughly guess that, given Cheng Mingdu's family background and personal strength, he must be the kind of outstanding young man that the elders in his circle liked very much.
Those young ladies from prominent families who were his age and of equal social standing would likely be subtly pushed in front of him by their elders.
A gentle evening breeze pushed open the wooden window, dissipating the heat inside and making it a bit chilly.
Ye Yuying rested her chin on her hand by the window, thinking—it seemed that all the stories of arranged marriages that blossomed into love in the novels she had secretly read online originated from this.
The story revolves around a couple from similar social standing who meet through family arrangements. Their initial politeness and distance eventually blossom into love. This type of story is reportedly quite popular.
Now, the novel has become reality. However, she doesn't even qualify as a villainous supporting character. At most, she's just an insignificant orphan living in his house, someone who needs to be pitied. In the novel, she might just be a minor character who brings things to the protagonist and pushes the plot forward.
She knew that the school would soon send the report card and comments from the previous semester to the Cheng family. He would soon see her appalling grades and the comment that she was "proud and complacent, unstable, and her grades had plummeted."
She dared not imagine what his expression would be when he saw it. Would it be disappointment? Anger? Or would he think that she was still the same hopeless case, and that all his previous help and trust had been wasted?
It seems like she's going to ruin her newfound life again.
On Ge Jie's side, things were surprisingly quiet. She hadn't been able to spare Ye Yuying even during holidays, often sending her threatening messages.
But she was probably terrified by Ye Jianguo's fierce appearance last time, so she didn't dare to provoke him even once this winter vacation.
As the Spring Festival approaches, the Cheng family mansion is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, filled with a festive atmosphere.
Ye Yuying felt increasingly frightened.
She couldn't adapt. Spending the New Year at the Cheng family's house meant she would have to grit her teeth and deal with the social niceties that she was least good at.
The more people there are, and the bigger the scene, the more likely she is to make mistakes and appear out of place.
A few years ago, when Ye Jianguo was in prison, she spent the Spring Festival with her grandmother and aunt. Although they were poor, she felt at ease.
However, this year is Jiang Xinxue's first year of marriage into the Cheng family, and both emotionally and logically, Jiang Xinxue must stay here.
Two days before New Year's Eve, Cheng Mingdu called Ye Yuying to his study.
When Ye Yuying walked in, her heart was practically in her throat. She saw a document lying quietly on the desk, the cover bearing the name of her middle school.
What was bound to happen has finally happened.
Ye Yuying's heart leaped into her throat. She didn't dare to breathe, keeping her head down and waiting for Cheng Mingdu's thunderous rage.
Given Cheng Mingdu's character, it was indeed impossible for him to get angry, but more than getting angry, she was afraid that Cheng Mingdu would think she was hopeless and that his eyes would be full of disappointment.
She was even more afraid of being pressed by him to reveal the reason for her regression, what secret she was that she would be willing to risk her life to keep it a secret...
The study was unusually quiet, with only the steady ticking of the old-fashioned wall clock, as if it were counting down the final moments for her wildly beating heart.
He simply sat behind that large desk, using his slender fingers to gently, page by page, flip through the comprehensive report from the school that recorded her "evidence of wrongdoing."
His face showed none of the expressions Ye Yuying had expected—no anger, no impatience, not even... disappointment.
After a long while, he finally turned to the last page. He looked up, his gaze calmly falling on her, and spoke slowly, his voice clear and cold, yet without any hint of blame:
"I've finished reading it."
He gently closed the document and set it aside, then pushed another document, which he had printed himself and bound together on A4 paper, to the center of the table.
"This is a record of all your achievements in school and off-campus competitions, compiled by Uncle Li for you from the end of the provincial competition in September until the start of winter break."
Ye Yuying's body trembled slightly uncontrollably.
Cheng Mingdu looked at her, a hint of surprise in his eyes: "I compared them, and they're quite interesting."
He abruptly changed the subject, his gaze sharpening, "Starting in October, your academic performance, especially your English which had previously improved significantly, plummeted. At the same time, in November, you represented the school in two district-level invitational tournaments, finishing fourth in your group once and fifth in your group the other time, failing to even reach the finals."
“Ye Yuying,” he said, looking at her and emphasizing each word, “this doesn’t make sense.”
Ye Yuying suddenly looked up and met his unfathomable eyes, which seemed to see through everything.
"An athlete who has just reached the pinnacle of glory, whose spirit and fighting will are at their peak, will not suddenly and without warning collapse in both his best area and the area where he has just made a breakthrough within the next month."
His voice wasn't loud, but it struck Ye Yuying's heart like a heavy hammer.
"What exactly happened to you during this time?" he drawled, his deep eyes gazing at him.
Ye Yuying's lips began to tremble uncontrollably, and her face turned deathly pale.
“I also learned,” Cheng Mingdu’s voice lowered, “that your only friend, Ji Zi, also applied for a long-term leave of absence from school starting in October, citing ‘serious illness’.”
"Is it... because your friend is sick?" His eyes flickered with complex emotions.
Ye Yuying suddenly looked up, a fierce struggle flashing in her eyes.
A thousand voices were screaming in her heart, wanting to tell him the truth.
He wanted to tell him that Ji Zi wasn't sick; she had betrayed him. He wanted to tell him that his achievements and the competition were the result of being manipulated by another demon. He wanted to tell him what kind of world he lived in, one where he was threatened and enslaved.
But she couldn't.
Once the truth is revealed, it will inevitably lead to the most crucial secret, the one she risked her life to protect.
Despite her deep reluctance to face the name "Ji Zi," she slowly and with great difficulty looked away, nodded without uttering a word.
Yes, let him think that way. Let him think that she was so worried about her close friend's serious illness that she became depressed, neglected her studies, and lost the competition.
This reason sounds so reasonable, so much like what a normal, sentimental girl of her age would do.
This reason is also enough to cover up all those ugly truths about "betrayal," "coercion," and "forbidden love."
Cheng Mingdu looked at her tacit nod, which was filled with endless pain, and fell silent.
Seeing that she was already at her limit, as if one more straw would break her completely, he didn't ask any more questions.
"Brother, you must be very disappointed in me..."
Ye Yuying spoke softly, and subconsciously shrank her shoulders, as if awaiting the judgment that was about to fall.
"No." His voice, cool as always, fell clearly into Ye Yuying's ears without the slightest hesitation.
Ye Yuying's body stiffened slightly, and she slowly raised her head, which had been hanging down and felt as heavy as if it weighed a thousand pounds.
Just as she stared at him blankly, at a loss for what to do, he suddenly steered the conversation in a direction she had never expected—a direction that was both distant and warm.
"Do you want to go home? I haven't taken you to see your grandma yet this holiday."
Almost instantly, springtime from her childhood flashed through her mind, she could smell the gentle breeze of her grandmother fanning herself with a palm leaf fan on a summer afternoon, and she could hear the words "A-Ying" spoken in a southern accent.
Just when she thought she had messed everything up and was about to be completely abandoned by him, he simply asked her calmly if she wanted to go home.
Do you want to go to that only place where she can feel at ease?
When Cheng Mingdu said those words, it was like the warmest and most incredible light shining into her heavy and bitter adolescence.
Perhaps that's how it is; a person fills her entire barren and desolate youth, inch by inch, silently and without any deliberate effort.
She wanted to say "yes," but the word slipped out in her trembling.
He rescued her once again. She was terrified of spending the New Year in a foreign place, and he must have known that she couldn't handle it.
“But my dad…” Ye Yuying suddenly hesitated.
"Don't worry, he won't bother you during the Chinese New Year."
Ye Yuying reflexively asked "Why?", but Cheng Mingdu had already gotten up, and the question was left unresolved.
*
During the few days that Ye Yuying recuperated at the Dujiang County Hospital, Cheng Mingdu did only one thing.
He made one phone call after another. His voice was calm and clear, devoid of any emotion, but each call was like an invisible net, quietly tightening around Ye Jianguo's corrupt and filthy life from all over the country.
He used the Cheng family's top legal team and connections to secretly gather evidence that had not yet surfaced.
What he wanted was not simply to send Ye Jianguo back to prison.
He wanted to thoroughly investigate this man's dirty past, present, and potential future, and then nail him to the pillar of shame, never to rise again.
The investigation results were quickly presented to him:
After being released from prison, Ye Jianguo showed no remorse and quickly developed a new gambling addiction, accumulating hundreds of thousands of yuan in high-interest loans, which his creditors are now searching for.
He is suspected of multiple minor, unreported thefts and brawls.
Most importantly, in the case of intentional homicide in which he was given a lenient sentence due to "insufficient evidence," the investigators found a new and crucial eyewitness who had fled to another place out of fear of retaliation.
Holding this evidence that could send Ye Jianguo to prison for life, Cheng Mingdu's eyes showed no joy, only a cold, almost indifferent calm.
He had his butler give Ye Jianguo a bearer Swiss bank draft and "invited" him to the tea room of one of the most upscale private clubs in Chengdu to discuss further pricing.
When Ye Jianguo entered the tea room, he still carried a hint of smugness and arrogance.
He assumed that the Cheng family had finally come to their senses and were willing to pay for peace, negotiating with him, their biological father. He had even planned out his asking price on the way there.
However, when he saw the young man sitting alone behind the tea table with an indifferent expression, his arrogance inexplicably diminished by a third.
Cheng Mingdu was dressed in simple, high-quality casual wear. Compared to the innate nobility and oppressive aura of high society that he exuded, Ye Jianguo had never seen this person before, but he had heard that he was Cheng Jianian's only son.
No wonder that bitch Jiang Xinxue has been so hung up on that person all these years. It's not hard to guess what kind of father he is just from the person in front of you.
"Speak, young master of the Cheng family." Ye Jianguo pulled out a chair and sat down casually. "How much are you prepared to pay to stop me from causing trouble for that little beast... no, my precious daughter?"
Cheng Mingdu remained silent.
He simply pushed a brown paper document bag gently in front of Ye Jianguo.
Ye Jianguo opened it with a puzzled look and pulled out the document inside.
His face, as the papers were turned, changed visibly, from smugness to shock, then to deathly pale, and finally to utter terror, as if he had seen a ghost.
Inside were detailed accounts of his high-interest loans and creditor information, surveillance video screenshots of his petty thefts, and... a detailed witness testimony from someone he thought had long since disappeared, concerning that murder case from years ago, enough to bring him back to court.
"You...you..." Ye Jianguo's lips began to tremble, and he could no longer utter a complete sentence.
“Mr. Ye,” Cheng Mingdu finally spoke, addressing the man this way for the first time, his tone as calm as if discussing the weather, “Isn’t what I’ve given you enough?”
Ye Jianguo suppressed his guilty conscience, gave a disdainful smile, and pulled the bank draft from his pocket. "Who knows if this thing is worthless? Besides, your Cheng family is so wealthy and powerful, one draft isn't enough to buy the safety of mother and daughter..."
The bank draft, enough to drive anyone mad, was placed back on the table. Cheng Mingdu's face showed no emotion; instead, a faint, almost mocking smile slowly curved his lips.
"You'll never know whether this ticket is real or fake," he said softly, a hint of pity in his voice.
He took out a silver lighter from his pocket, lit it with a "click," and placed the promissory note directly on the flame. A cluster of orange-yellow flames danced quietly in his cold eyes.
"What...what are you doing! Are you crazy?!" Ye Jianguo screamed in disbelief.
Just as he was about to pounce, Cheng Mingdu raised his hand and neatly threw the half-burnt promissory note, along with the flames, in front of Ye Jianguo.
The high-quality receipt, which carried all his dreams of getting rich, curled up and turned black instantly under the licking of the flames. Then, the flames quickly spread upwards, greedily devouring the ink on it that represented astronomical figures.
“This ticket is real. It could have allowed you to live a peaceful and stable life in any small country.” Cheng Mingdu raised his eyes, his gaze sharp, completely dismantling Ye Jianguo’s last psychological defenses.
“But I’ve changed my mind. But someone like you doesn’t deserve a second chance.”
"By the way, just letting you know," he said, rising slightly, "the copy of your witness testimony, as well as all the new charges against you since your release, were delivered to Director Wang's office at the Municipal Public Security Bureau by my lawyer an hour ago."
"The police are already waiting for you at the door."
“I’m giving you this ticket just to buy an hour of your time,” he said, looking at the man across from him, whose face had turned completely ashen. “So that before you’re arrested, you can quietly dream of getting rich.”
"Ah—you fucking tricked me!"
Ye Jianguo finally broke down completely. His face, contorted with fear and rage, erupted in a beast-like roar. He violently overturned the entire tea table, intending to pounce on Cheng Mingdu and take him down with him.
However, he has not yet been able to get close.
The heavy, carved wooden door of the tea room was suddenly pushed open, and several uniformed police officers instantly pinned the still-frenzied Ye Jianguo to the ground.
"Mr. Cheng, excuse me." The lead policeman nodded respectfully to Cheng Mingdu.
Cheng Mingdu stood up, reverting to his original appearance.
Without even glancing at Ye Jianguo, who was being held down like a dead dog on the ground and still cursing him frantically, he calmly said, "For the rest of your life, you should stay in prison."
Ye Jianguo was forcibly taken away by the police, and his vicious, resentful curses gradually disappeared at the end of the corridor.
The tea room returned to silence.
He walked to the overturned table, bent down, and picked up the brown paper document bag from the mess of broken cups and plates.
His movements were calm, as if the thrilling duel just now was merely a farce that had nothing to do with him.
He returned to his seat, sat down, and then carefully took out the contents of the file bag, one by one, and organized them neatly.
It contained detailed accounts of Ye Jianguo's high-interest loans and information on his creditors. It also included screenshots from surveillance footage showing him participating in several minor brawls and thefts after his release from prison.
And then there's the detailed testimony from the new witness that could land him back in court on charges of manslaughter and send him to jail for life.
These are the one-way tickets he prepared for Ye Jianguo, leading him to hell. These tickets will soon be categorized and delivered by his lawyer to the police and creditors.
However, at the very bottom of these documents, there was a separate, slightly yellowed old document in a sealed bag.
Cheng Mingdu deliberately took it out.
When his gaze fell on the document, for the first time, a genuine, complex emotion—a mixture of disgust and pity—was revealed in his usually calm and collected eyes.
He used the deepest connections in the Cheng family to find a medical record in the archives of a township health center that had been sealed more than a decade ago.
The record shows a humiliating testimonies from a girl named Jiang Xinxue, who was only seventeen years old at the time, after being sexually assaulted. Originally, the child in her womb was supposed to be aborted as the child of the rapist.
However, records from another hospital later showed that the newborn was a direct blood relative of Ye Jianguo, who later became her husband!
Cheng Mingdu finally understood.
The perpetrator absurdly married the victim, but what exactly happened in between remains unknown.
He understood where Jiang Xinxue's hysterical hatred and fear of Ye Jianguo came from.
He also understood why Jiang Xinxue harbored such contradictory and distorted feelings towards her biological daughter, Ye Yuying, which were almost repulsive and indifferent.
Because Ye Yuying's very existence is the most direct and indelible proof of her humiliating past.
Ye Yuying, the girl who always stood like a hedgehog in front of him, yet inadvertently revealed endless inferiority and insecurity, harbored a deep-seated self-perception that she was "unworthy" and "dirty"...
Perhaps it stems from the silent, yet cruelest, hatred and rejection she received from her mother from a young age.
If this evidence were handed over, it would be enough to add the ugliest and most fatal stroke to Ye Jianguo's long list of crimes—rape.
With multiple crimes combined, he could die in prison, never to see the light of day again.
but……
Cheng Mingdu's gaze fell on the yellowed paper that recorded a girl's greatest humiliation back then.
He wondered what Ye Yuying would face if this evidence were made public and if the case from back then were reopened.
She is exceptionally talented and already highly controversial. If this news comes out, it will inevitably attract media attention and a barrage of harsh discussions.
"The daughter of a rapist" will be a label that follows her for the rest of her life, one that can never be washed away.
It took him a lot of effort to pull her out of that hellish reality.
It took him a lot of effort to convince her that she could run towards the light and take control of her own life.
Turning his head, he relit the lighter and brought the yellowed medical record close to the flame.
Watching that last bit of paper, the most unbearable source of a girl's life, turn to ashes at her fingertips.
He thought that the crimes Ye Jianguo had committed were enough to ensure that he would never be able to turn his life around.
There's no need for the dirtiest secret in the world to further taint that girl's life.
All she needed to know was that from now on, Ye Jianguo would no longer exist in her world.
That's enough.
*
Cheng Mingdu kept his promise.
On that cold winter morning, he drove himself, carrying Ye Yuying, towards her beloved hometown in the Jiangnan water town.
When Ye Yuying returned to her grandmother's familiar courtyard and smelled the warm aroma of her grandmother's homemade cured meat mixed with the winter sun, her heart, which had been tense for months, finally found a moment of true relaxation.
Cheng Mingdu didn't linger. He simply settled her and all her luggage, exchanged a few words with her grandmother, and then drove back to Rongcheng, leaving this space that belonged to his family entirely to them.
As Lunar New Year's Eve approached, the house should have been at its liveliest, but Ye Yuying noticed that her aunt, who was always smiling and busy, had not appeared.
My aunt was originally from the Ye family. The two families should have been at odds, but Ye Jianguo had no other relatives. This scumbag happened to have a kind older sister who visited him often. Over time, my aunt became part of my maternal grandmother's side, even closer to her than Jiang Xinxue, her own daughter.
"Your aunt...she hasn't been feeling well lately and is staying at the county hospital." Grandma sighed as she prepared ingredients for the New Year's Eve dinner, her eyes filled with unconcealed worry.
Ye Yuying's heart was gently tugged again. It turns out that life never hesitates to give you more trials just because you've already suffered enough.
On New Year's Eve, Grandma got up exceptionally early. Unlike previous years, she didn't put up Spring Festival couplets or hang lanterns at home. Instead, she carefully packed the meticulously prepared New Year's Eve dinner into several insulated lunchboxes. There was fragrant braised duck, steaming egg dumplings, and Ye Yuying's favorite eight-treasure rice sprinkled with red dates and candied fruit.
"It's only New Year's when everyone is here," Grandma said to Ye Yuying. "Aying, let's take the New Year's Eve dinner to your aunt."
“Okay.” Ye Yuying nodded vigorously.
In the county hospital, the smell of disinfectant replaced the festive atmosphere of the New Year. The corridors were deserted, a stark contrast to the lively family reunions of every household, as if they were in two different worlds.
When Ye Yuying and her grandmother carried heavy lunchboxes and pushed open the door to her aunt's hospital room, her aunt, who was lying on the hospital bed, instantly brightened up on her pale face.
Since they didn't have a table, they used the small bedside table next to their hospital bed as their New Year's Eve dinner table. As soon as the insulated lunchbox was opened, the warm and abundant aroma of the food instantly dispelled all the coldness and loneliness in the ward.
Grandma served Aunt a bowl of hot soup, while Ye Yuying clumsily peeled an apple for her.
They chatted softly amidst the aroma of food filling the room. They talked about everyday things, about the neighbor's new wife, and the growth of the winter wheat in the fields.
Ye Yuying looked out the window at the night sky, which was faintly illuminated by the city lights, listened to her grandmother and aunt chatting warmly in their dialect, and ate the sweet eight-treasure rice in her bowl.
The three of them squeezed together in the hospital to watch the Spring Festival Gala.
Later, the Spring Festival Gala became increasingly boring, but this year's gala was still wonderful, with skits and crosstalk performances that made people laugh out loud.
This Spring Festival, spent in a hospital ward, was warmer and more like home than any she could remember, even though there were no fireworks or noise.
However, this is the last time the three of them will have the opportunity to spend the Lunar New Year together.
-----------------------
Author's note: 50~
I've discovered some plot points need further explanation and addition before transitioning to the urban setting. Each chapter estimate is slightly off, but those details still need to be written. However, I've already sped up the plot considerably; I'm practically running a train on my back QAQ
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