Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Bai Yan remained silent.

Sometimes, silence hurts more than the truth.

My hands, hanging at my sides, tightened.

“Bai Yan, you should have known when you brought this child back that some things can’t be avoided.”

Bai Yan closed his eyes, reopening them a few seconds later.

“I wasn’t trying to avoid it,” he said. “I just didn’t know how to bring it up.”

He asked me, “Do you still remember that angry remark I once said to you?”

I remembered.

He continued, “I knew it was just something said in the heat of the moment. Even you knew it was just an angry remark. But Xia Zhihuai took it seriously.”

Bai Yan had once told me: “As you can see, she is my girlfriend.”

Xia Zhihuai had taken it to heart.

She began to carry herself as Bai Yan’s girlfriend, telling everyone that they were together. She went out of her way to please and befriend his classmates and friends.

By the time Bai Yan realized what was happening, everyone assumed they were actually dating.

Xia Zhihuai had stood before Bai Yan holding a bouquet of flowers, announcing that it was their one-month anniversary and that this was a surprise for her boyfriend.

Everyone watched the scene with excitement, cheering and jeering.

“Kiss her! Kiss her!”

Humiliated and enraged by her stunt, Bai Yan exposed Xia Zhihuai in front of everyone. He stated that he had never been with her and that their so-called relationship was nothing more than her delusion.

“I wasn’t thinking much at the time,” Bai Yan said. “I just wanted to end the farce. But Xia Zhihuai suffered from a wave of public backlash because of it.”

The ridicule and mockery became unbearable. Eventually, she was forced to transfer schools and went abroad as an exchange student.

But going abroad didn’t save Xia Zhihuai; instead, it pushed her into an abyss.

A foreign environment, far from home-it wasn’t long before she developed bipolar disorder.

Later, during a night of drinking, she was assaulted and became pregnant with a stranger’s child.

By the time she realized she was pregnant, the fetus was already fully formed.

Furthermore, due to her health issues, this would likely be her only child.

So, she decided to give birth.

To support the child, she took a leave of absence from school to work. Between the immense pressure and her internal distress, her body eventually gave out.

“She suffered all of that because of me,” Bai Yan said. “Raising Ranran is her dying wish. Youyou, I have to do this.”

I fell silent.

I had originally thought this was an emotional issue, but now it had turned into a matter of moral values.

After a long time, I finally found my voice.

“Xia Zhihuai has parents,” I said. “We can give the child to them and pay child support.”

“When Xia Zhihuai decided to have the child, she broke ties with her parents,” Bai Yan replied. “They don’t like this child.”

“But it’s their daughter’s child. Blood is thicker than water; they can’t just sever that bond.”

Bai Yan went silent again.

His silence told me he didn’t agree with the suggestion.

My nails dug into my palms.

“Or we could find a good adoptive family for her,” I suggested. “Similarly, we can pay for her upbringing.”

Bai Yan looked at me, his brow furrowed with irritation.

“How can you be sure an adoptive family will actually treat her well?” he asked. “She’s only an eight-year-old child, and we are perfectly capable of adopting her. Why won’t you agree?”

“Because I’m pregnant!”

I stood up abruptly, screaming at him while trembling.

But Bai Yan’s instinctive reaction was to look toward the door. Then he said to me, “Youyou, keep your voice down.”

His reaction was so absurd it made me laugh out of pure anger.

I grabbed a throw pillow from the sofa and hurled it at him.

“Bai Yan, you’re really something.”

With that, I turned to leave.

“Youyou.”

Bai Yan tried to stop me again, but I barked, “Don’t touch me!”

His hand stiffened, and he froze.

I pulled the door open, only to collide head-on with the small figure standing outside.

She fell to the ground from the impact.

I quickly reached out to help her up.

But she acted as if I were a monster, scrambling backward on the floor while bursting into loud sobs.

Bai Yan brushed past my arm and ran out of the room.

He knelt down to help Bai Ranran up, asking anxiously, “Are you hurt?”