Chapter 31

Bai Zifan insisted on taking care of me. He even dropped to one knee, grabbed my hand, and said, “Once the baby is born, I’ll marry you!”

He said he would go to my parents’ place and kneel until my dad agreed.

“As long as he’s willing to accept me, I’ll kneel as long as it takes!”

I was exhausted. I told him I felt so, so tired right now and didn’t want to think about this yet. My dad’s health was bad; I didn’t want to agitate him.

He said he understood and didn’t push it anymore. Instead, he fussed over me, taking meticulous care of everything and reminiscing about our past.

“You’re what Heaven owes me, and now it’s finally giving you back.”

He kept trying to paint beautiful futures for me:

“Once everything’s settled, I’ll take you away from Anzhou, away from the past, away from this place full of bad memories, okay? I won’t be Li Yunzhou anymore. I’ll be Bai Zifan. We’ll erase these ten years and go back to high school, start dating all over again. Where do you want to go? The Imperial Capital? Yunnan? We can find a small sunny county town and raise the baby there, let them grow up carefree. Don’t worry about money. I’ll take care of you both.”

Just like in high school, he became my driver again, picking me up and dropping me off every day.

He was tall, more mature now, his features sharper and more defined than before. The way he stood in front of the car and smiled at me was exactly the same as back then. It really felt like we’d traveled ten years back in time.

“Your carriage awaits, princess!” He suddenly bent down in an exaggerated knightly bow, and just as I reached out my hand, he scooped me up horizontally in his arms.

“Put me down! I can walk!” I protested as he carried me into the car.

“Didn’t we agree to delete those ten years and start again from high school? Then I have to carry you,” he said, laughing.

How moving those words were.

The scene was as beautiful as a carefully woven dream. Unfortunately, it was only a dream.

Zhang Man told me that Suhang’s father had a mistress. Later, someone anonymously reported him, exposing all his affairs. That was how his mother found out about her husband and his lover, Bai Zijun. She actually stepped up and testified that her husband was involved in corruption, and since she’d taken part as well, she went to prison too. They dragged each other down in a blaze of mutual destruction.

“Wait, what did you say his dad’s mistress is called? Bai Zijun?” I asked.

“That’s right.”

I’d heard that name before. She was Bai Zifan’s older sister.

Then I suddenly got the news: my dad’s heart had started bleeding. He’d been rushed into the ICU.

I went over immediately. Suhang and my aunt were already there, holding my mom up and murmuring comforts. Uncle Qiao arrived in a hurry, just a step or two behind me.

We all crowded at the ICU doors, anxiously waiting for news.

When Suhang saw me, he hurried to reassure me. “Don’t worry, he’ll be okay.”

“How did my dad suddenly end up like this?”

Uncle Qiao said, “Could it be he found out about the problem with the acquisition deal? That’s impossible. I just heard about it myself.”

He told Suhang that the commercial land Sheng Tang owned had actually been quietly put on the government’s ‘cleanup list.’ After the acquisition, it was basically invalid.

And Suhang had triggered the profit-sharing guarantee clause, so he had to pay out a huge sum to buy back shares.

If Li Corporation refused to honor the contract, they’d have to pay Sheng Tang an astronomical penalty fee instead.

“Li Corporation might be finished.”

Suhang was stunned. His voice began to shake. “Th-this can’t be… I saw the documents with my own eyes. There was nothing wrong with that piece of land. The policy was loosening up…”

Uncle Qiao’s regret was palpable. “Looks like we walked right into Sheng Tang’s trap and became their patsies. Are you sure the firm you hired to investigate was reliable?”

Suhang’s eyes went blank. “Impossible. No way. It can’t be. It just can’t.”

He was hit so hard that he staggered back a couple of steps, then wandered off in a daze.

Watching his back, Uncle Qiao let out a long sigh.

His brows were knotted tight, his voice dropping to a whisper. “What’s strange is, I never told your dad anything about this. Besides, we already had contingency plans. This shouldn’t have rattled him so badly…”

My mom’s eyes were red as she recalled it. “He said he was going out for a walk today. He ran into someone he knew and chatted a bit. Then he just… stopped. Said he couldn’t catch his breath and needed to sit on a bench and rest. And then suddenly…”

“What did that person look like?” I asked, my voice urgent.

“I didn’t see clearly. I only saw them from the back. Tall.”

Uncle Qiao and I immediately went to the property management office and pulled the surveillance footage of the garden. On the screen, my dad was talking to a tall figure whose back was to the camera. When the man finally turned-

I felt the blood in my veins freeze solid.

It was Bai Zifan.