Chapter 57
Chapter 57
Liu Ruyan swayed at the news, unable to believe it.
She immediately called her parents, only to hear the familiar busy signal again.
All at once, she understood. The sound she had heard the last time she called did not mean they were still angry and refusing to answer. They had blocked her number.
Her vision went dark, and she nearly collapsed to the ground.
How was that possible?
Her parents were only angry for the moment. They could not possibly be so heartless.
The homeowner studied her face and said, “Miss, are you related to the family who used to live here? Look, I bought the place directly through an agency. I don’t have their contact information, so there’s no point waiting outside my home.”
Her face was deathly pale. He was afraid she might have some illness, and it would be a real nuisance if she fainted outside his door.
Li Nanfeng supported his wife and asked quietly, “What’s going on?”
Liu Ruyan sobbed. “My parents… They found out I donated a kidney to someone. They were furious and said they didn’t want me as their daughter anymore.”
“I thought they were only speaking in anger.”
Who could have known they would be this furious? They had abandoned the old home where they had lived for more than twenty years and left cleanly and decisively, without giving her the slightest word.
Wait!
Liu Ruyan’s eyes lit up. She remembered that she had still been able to reach her sister last time.
She called her younger sister, Liu Rulin.
Fortunately, the call connected.
“Rulin!” Liu Ruyan seized on her like a lifeline and hurriedly asked, “What’s going on with the family? The house has been sold. Where did everyone go?”
Silence held on the other end for a moment before Liu Rulin spoke. “Sis, Mom and Dad told me to tell you not to look for us. From now on, you can be the Li family’s Young Madam. Whether you live in glory or fall on hard times, none of it has anything to do with the Liu family.”
The words shook Liu Ruyan to her core. “Impossible! Mom and Dad could never be this heartless! Are you with them now? Give them the phone. I want to speak to them!”
“I’m at school,” Liu Rulin said. “Mom and Dad guessed you’d call me and gave me those instructions specifically.”
They had told her to delete her sister’s number too, but in the end, she had not quite had the heart to do it.
Liu Ruyan did not believe her and could not accept it. “How can Mom and Dad be so heartless? I’m their daughter! How can they do this to me?”
She said to Liu Rulin, “Rulin, tell me where they are. I’ll go apologize in person. Listen, your brother-in-law and I are doing very well now. Once you graduate, I can have him find you a job in the Li Group, and then you won’t have to–”
“Sis!” Liu Rulin cut her off. “I don’t need any of that!”
“Neither do Mom and Dad!”
Liu Ruyan froze.
How could Liu Rulin not have been holding in anger of her own?
Her voice hardened. “Our family isn’t destitute. Mom and Dad have savings and pensions. I go to a decent school, and I can find a job on my own.”
“I’ve made myself perfectly clear, Sis.”
“You are the Li family’s Young Madam, but our family is not related to the Li family by marriage.”
“There are some things I didn’t want to tell you, but since you refuse to give up, I’ll tell you everything.”
“Mom actually had something else for me to pass on.” Liu Rulin took a breath. “The day you donated your kidney, our entire family went to the hospital.”
Liu Ruyan’s eyes widened.
“The moment Mom and Dad learned the operation was already over, they gave up on you.”
Her voice was cold. “If you don’t even cherish the body Mom and Dad gave you, then they’ll act as though they never had a daughter like you.”
…
After the call ended, Liu Ruyan stood rooted to the spot for a long time.
Li Nanfeng, who had waited in the car for quite a while, sensed that something was wrong and came looking for her.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing his wife cover her face and cry, he assumed her parents had said something harsh. “Are your parents still angry?”
“Nanfeng!” Liu Ruyan threw herself into his arms and wailed. “My parents don’t want me anymore!”
It took some time for Li Nanfeng to understand what had happened.
His face turned ashen. He had not expected the Liu couple’s anger to run so deep that they would cut ties with his wife.
And they had followed through. They acted quickly, abandoning the old home where they had lived for years and moving the entire family away at once.
When he thought about why they had fallen out with Ruyan–
A faint sense of guilt rose in Li Nanfeng’s heart. He patted his wife’s back and soothed her. “Don’t be afraid. An entire family can’t disappear without a trace. I’ll help you find out where they’re living now–”
Barbara happened to be wandering around on patrol and overheard him.
It immediately ran to report the remark to its host.
When Zhu Yin heard what the Liu family had done, she was astonished. “So how did such a spirited, decisive family produce a freak like the female lead?”
The Liu family did not appear again later in the original plot.
If this was truly what happened, perhaps it was for the best. Then they would never learn what happened to Liu Ruyan later, and they would not have to grieve again over their daughter, whose brain had been consumed by love.
After all, seven years later, Liu Ruyan would return to life in someone else’s body. As far as the public knew, she would already be a different person. To the Liu family, their eldest daughter truly would have died seven years earlier.
After her rebirth, who knew whether Liu Ruyan ever thought of the parents who had raised her for more than twenty years?
Zhu Yin remembered her plan.
When she heard the male lead say he would use his connections to dig up the Liu family’s address, she clicked her tongue. “They’ve made themselves perfectly clear. They even abandoned their house just to cut off contact with you. Why go bother them again?”
The urge to stir up trouble writhed eagerly inside her.
She felt around in her pocket and pulled out a palm-sized glass bottle.
It was more than half full of fine, dark-purple sand. Every grain glimmered faintly, like motes of dust fallen from the stars.
She poured a little into her palm and blew gently toward the southeast.
The purple stardust transformed into points of light invisible to the naked eye and sped toward their target.
“Done!” She clapped her hands and narrowed her eyes in satisfaction. “If you manage to find the Liu family now, I lose!”