Can't Possibly Fall for My Wife Again After Rebirth, Right? - Chapter 69

Yao Jin’s face paled the moment she heard the news.

“Who let her in?” Yao Jin frowned, her voice laced with irritation. “What is she doing at my birthday party?”

“Jin,” Yao Heng looked at his daughter with a heavy, somber expression. “She is your mother. It is perfectly reasonable for her to attend your eighteenth birthday banquet.”

Yao Jin crossed her arms and let out a displeased “hmph.”

Seeing his daughter’s attitude, Yao Heng felt helpless. He rose and addressed the guests, “Please, everyone, continue eating. We’re going to step out for a moment to handle this.”

The guests nodded understandingly, offering polite smiles as Yao Heng went to deal with the family matter. Once the two had left, the people at the table began to whisper amongst themselves.

“Didn’t Boss Yao get a divorce?”

“Not yet. I heard the lawsuit is still ongoing.”

“Still? Hasn’t that been going on for over two years? Why can’t they just make a clean break of it?”

“It’s not that simple. Think of all the company finances, the debts, the family assets, providing for the elderly, and the child’s education. They are all major issues.”

“But I heard the reason it’s dragging on is because Boss Yao’s wife is asking for too much.”

“I heard that too. Shares in the company weren’t enough; she wanted to take Boss Yao’s various investments as well. He obviously won’t agree, so the marriage is stuck in limbo.”

“Why did they even get married in the first place?”

“Who knows.”

Listening to the gossip, Xu Yingran looked at Fu Qiao sitting beside her. “Let’s go take a look,” she whispered.

She still remembered the time they ran into Yao Jin’s mother at the mall and wondered what kind of situation this would turn into. Although Fu Qiao had never met the woman, she was very worried about Yao Jin, so she nodded and followed Xu Yingran out of the dining room.

A few steps later, they reached the living room. There, they saw Yao Jin’s mother, Lyu Qing, wearing a white mink coat, speaking to Yao Jin.

“Jin, today you are eighteen. Mama specifically came to see you.”

Lyu Qing looked at her increasingly beautiful daughter. She took a gift box from Xie Qing and held it out to Yao Jin. “Inside is a property deed and a necklace. The house is in the city center; I reserved the best unit in a new development for you to move into after you graduate from university. As for this pink diamond necklace, I saw it while on a business trip abroad and specifically bid on it for you.”

Yao Jin stared at the opened box. The pink diamond necklace sparkled brilliantly under the lights, clearly worth a fortune. Since today was Yao Jin’s birthday, this gift must have been in preparation for a long time.

Yao Heng looked at his indifferent daughter and said helplessly, “Jin, at least accept the gifts your mother brought.”

“I don’t want them.” Yao Jin kept her arms crossed, staring displeasedly at Lyu Qing. “You remember you have a daughter now? Where was this concern during all those years growing up?”

Lyu Qing knitted her elegant brows and said softly, “Mama was wrong in the past; I didn’t care for you enough. It was my fault. It won’t be like that from now on. I will make up for everything I missed. Jin, can you please forgive me?”

Yao Jin laughed at that. She looked at the woman in front of her with genuine curiosity. “What’s this? Ten-plus years of indifference, and suddenly you’ve found a conscience?”

Lyu Qing pleaded, “Jin…”

“You say you want to compensate me, but have you considered if I even want it?” Yao Jin stared her down. “If I can be bought off with a house and a necklace, wouldn’t that make me far too cheap?”

“Jin, I didn’t come here to fight with you today. I truly want your forgiveness.”

“Forget it.” Yao Jin sneered. “Ms. Lyu, today is my eighteenth birthday, and I don’t want to fight either. Go back the way you came, and take this trash with you.”

Lyu Qing felt her vision go dark. She swayed as if she were about to lose her footing, but Xie Qing, standing behind her, quickly supported her by the waist.

That movement instantly stung Yao Jin’s eyes.

“So, Ms. Lyu doesn’t forget to bring her little lover along even to her daughter’s birthday party?” Yao Jin said, her tone turning nasty. “Why are you being so touchy-feely in front of me? Who are you performing for? Me, or my father?”

Xie Qing looked up in surprise, her cool, handsome brows furrowing slightly as she tried to explain, “I am not—”

“Enough.” Yao Heng interrupted them, looking at Lyu Qing with a grim expression. “Your arrival today was too sudden; you didn’t give me any notice. If you had told me in advance, I would have made proper arrangements for you. After all, Jin is your daughter too.”

Lyu Qing clutched the gift, her eyelashes trembling slightly.

Yao Heng added, “Dinner has just started. If you want to stay, I’ll have two more seats added.”

“Add seats for what?” Yao Jin snapped. “Uninvited guests aren’t guests. She has no right to attend my birthday banquet.”

“Jin!” Yao Heng shouted sternly. “You are not to speak to your mother like that.”

Yao Jin grit her teeth and looked at her father. “If you want her to stay, fine. But I won’t be here. This house isn’t big enough for both of us!”

With that, Yao Jin turned and headed upstairs without looking back.

Xu Yingran and Fu Qiao watched her retreating back, then looked at the trio of Yao Heng, Lyu Qing, and Xie Qing. It felt like they were standing in the middle of a battlefield.

“Um… Uncle Yao,” Xu Yingran said, still holding Fu Qiao’s hand. “We’re going upstairs to check on Jin. You guys… keep talking.”

With that, she and Fu Qiao hurried upstairs.

In Yao Jin’s room, they found her sitting on the sofa, seemingly stewing in anger. Her expression softened slightly when she saw it was just her friends. She pursed her lips and said, “Sorry you had to see that mess.”

“Don’t say that,” Xu Yingran sat beside her, offering comfort. “We know how things are with your family.”

Fu Qiao nodded as well. “It’s your birthday today. Don’t stay so angry. Eighteen is a big milestone.”

Hearing her friends’ words, Yao Jin’s face brightened a little. She let out a helpless sigh. “Actually, I don’t want to fight with her either, but I can’t control myself when I see her. I know she and my dad have no feelings for each other, but if they can’t make it work, they should just get a divorce. Once she’s divorced, she can be with whoever she likes. Why does it have to be like this?”

Yao Jin couldn’t wrap her head around it. She didn’t understand why a couple who were essentially strangers would fight so uglily over assets. In her eyes, as long as there was enough money to live on, that was enough. Life is only eighty or ninety years long; ordinary people can be happy, so why must they live like this?

It wasn’t that Yao Jin couldn’t accept her mother having a female lover; this was a modern era, and she was an adult now. She had long since come to terms with that. The only thing that truly bothered her was that Lyu Qing was willing to give her care and attention to strangers but wouldn’t spare a glance for her own daughter.

Was it because she was Yao Heng’s daughter? Because Lyu Qing hated him? But she was Lyu Qing’s daughter too—she was the one who carried her for ten months. Why ignore her so completely? Yao Jin could never understand.

Xu Yingran looked into Yao Jin’s despondent eyes. After a long silence, she said, “Actually… not all mothers love their children. Maybe your mother just loves herself more.”

Yao Jin slowly closed her eyes.

Right. Perhaps Lyu Qing had only ever loved herself from the beginning, and Yao Jin’s expectations had simply been too high. Because there was expectation, the realization that she wasn’t loved became unbearable.

Lyu Qing did not stay for dinner. She and Xie Qing left the villa shortly after. Yao Jin was in no mood for festivities and spent the rest of the evening looking dejected.

Xu Yingran eventually walked Fu Qiao home. They were quiet along the way. When they reached Fu Qiao’s door, Fu Qiao told Xu Yingran to keep an eye on Yao Jin and offer her some support; after all, she was still just a kid in many ways.

On Monday, Xu Yingran obediently went to school.

Her study plan was going very well lately. She had done quite well on the test papers she completed last Friday. Although it was just a classroom quiz, her progress was obvious, and she received generous praise from Li Yuwen.

Perhaps because of the birthday party, Yao Jin was listless all day. At lunch, she just had a few bites of ramen before heading back to the classroom. Xu Yingran, meanwhile, snuck out of the school gates to buy two steaming, fresh-from-the-oven roasted sweet potatoes.

The sweet potatoes were incredibly fragrant. After peeling back the charred skin oozing with syrup, the bright orange-yellow flesh was revealed. Xu Yingran blew on it while she ate, enjoying the treat immensely.

She planned to give the other one to Yao Jin.

As she ate, she couldn’t help but think of Fu Qiao. They used to do this whenever the weather turned cold—each holding a hot sweet potato, eating until they were warm all over.

I miss my wife so much. Why isn’t this damn senior year over yet?

Just as Xu Yingran was lost in thought, she spotted a familiar figure near the stairwell. A long-haired woman in a khaki trench coat stood on the stairs, carrying a black bag. Upon seeing Xu Yingran, she stepped forward and said in a low voice, “Student Xu Yingran, hello.”

Xu Yingran looked at the cool beauty before her and swallowed the sweet potato in her mouth. She said to Xie Qing, “Jin is in the classroom. I’ll go call her.”

“No,” Xie Qing said quickly. “I didn’t come for Yao Jin today. I came to see you.”

“Me?” Xu Yingran looked at her curiously. “What do you need me for?”

Xie Qing was silent for a long moment before speaking. “It’s about President Lyu—Yao Jin’s mother. If I went to see Jin directly, she definitely wouldn’t want to see me. That’s why I had to come to you.”

Xu Yingran asked, “But what good will it do to find me?”

“I want you to help me persuade Yao Jin,” Xie Qing said. “President Lyu desperately wants to repair her relationship with her daughter, and I want to help her with that.”

“Ah… but I really don’t think I can do anything,” Xu Yingran said. “I’m just a student.”

Xie Qing paused, then looked Xu Yingran in the eye. “Actually… President Lyu’s time is running out. That’s why I want her to receive Yao Jin’s forgiveness while she is still alive.”

Xu Yingran froze. “What do you mean?”

“Last month, President Lyu was in a minor car accident while on a business trip. It didn’t cause any external injuries, but we still took her for a full check-up,” Xie Qing explained. “During the exam, the doctors found an abnormality in her cranial cavity. After testing, it was confirmed to be a malignant brain tumor.”

Xie Qing continued, “The tumor is in the middle stage. The doctors say if the surgery is successful and the follow-up treatment and recovery go well, she might have another ten years to live.”