Chapter 96

The aftermath of the Huan Mountain car crash, like a boulder hurled into a deep pool, sent ripples spreading outward layer by layer until it finally overturned the entire surface of Beijing.

Beginning with that crash that had swallowed three lives, the forces lurking high above the clouds finally tore away the last thin veil of false warmth.

A full-scale confrontation had begun.

From the very beginning, Jin Zijin and Ye Jianlan had never once paid attention to the clownish Wang family.

They understood each other tacitly; all their firepower was aimed squarely at Hengai Twenty-Three Hospital, at the Lu family that stood at the pinnacle of the medical world and treated human lives as consumables.

Twenty-Three Hospital was the Lu family’s lifeline; it was also their dirtiest weak point.

The two joined forces and cast a net that covered the sky.

All suspicious death cases, organ donation records, and emergency transport files from the past ten years at Twenty-Three Hospital were dug up one by one. They pulled at every thread and refused to let go.

Every piece of evidence was like a poisoned dagger pressed to the Lu family’s throat.

Naturally, the Lu family would not sit still and wait to die.

They tried to fight back and splash dirty water onto Hengxing Group, hoping to use the intelligent-driving vehicles damaged in the crash to smear Hengxing’s system security and shake its foundation.

But the moment they made that move, they hit a dead end.

Hengxing Group’s intelligent-driving system had already dominated the globe two years ago. Its core algorithms had gone through countless iterations and upgrades; its computing power was far ahead of the rest, and it had even been included in a key national support program, becoming a pillar of public travel safety.

This piece of cake was territory personally guarded by the one above. Whoever dared touch it was courting imperial wrath.

The Lu family made several probes, but each one hit a wall. They didn’t even have the qualifications to get close.

With one plan failing, they immediately shifted their target and poured all their public-opinion fire onto the Wang family.

Press releases flooded the internet in a coordinated wave, all repeating the same line, all biting down on Wang Manyu.

Online, the slogan “leave the god-tier battles aside for now, but Wang Manyu committed murder and must pay with her life” was spammed wildly by paid posters until it dominated the top comments on every social platform.

The public’s anger was fully ignited. Everyone was baying for blood; the Wang family became the target of all criticism.

The already precarious Wang stock price kept falling, triggering circuit breakers again and again. More than half its market value vanished, and it was on the verge of being delisted.

Jin Zijin sat high above the clouds and watched coldly.

She even entered the fray personally, mobilizing capital and beginning to lay out a short position against the Wang family.

This battle without gun smoke was far more intense, far more lethal, than any they had faced before.

The loser would not only be ruined; they would be cast into utter destruction.

With the battlefield fully opened, Jin Zijin went into full wartime mode.

Suit and tie, quickened steps.

Conference rooms, airports, headquarters; she rotated through them endlessly, a chill always in her eyes, yet always certain of victory.

Wen Yan stayed at her side the entire time.

When Jin Zijin needed rest, Wen Yan would close the door and shut out the storm outside, giving her a warm harbor to return to.

——————

Amid the chaos, a phone call suddenly barged into Wen Yan’s quiet life.

The caller ID showed Wen Xinjian.

Wen Yan’s fingertips paused slightly. She answered, her voice flat and calm: “Hello.”

“Yan Yan,” Wen Xinjian’s voice was thick with exhaustion and urgency, as if something was pressing so hard on him that he could hardly breathe. “Can you… talk to your mom?”

Wen Yan lifted her gaze toward the heavy sky outside the window and asked softly, “Talk to her about what?”

“Tell her not to keep holding out!” Wen Xinjian’s voice suddenly rose, then quickly dropped again, as if he was afraid someone might hear. “This was never her crime. Why is she taking it on herself?”

“The procuratorate is pressing hard right now. If this goes on, she’ll really be sentenced to death!”

Wen Yan was silent for a moment.

The sky outside was gray and dim, as if covered by a layer of grime that could never be washed off. Her voice did not waver in the slightest. “I can’t talk her out of it.”

“Ever since I can remember, she only ever had the Wang family in her heart; only Grandpa and my uncle. She never listened to a single word I said.”

“Go find Wen Chen,” she said lightly. “Maybe she’ll listen to what her son says.”

Wen Xinjian let out a heavy sigh on the other end, full of helplessness. After a long while, he muttered a muffled “I know,” then hung up in a hurry.

Wen Yan held her phone; her fingertips were slightly cold.

She didn’t know whether Wen Xinjian would listen, and she didn’t care.

Some obsessions ran too deep. They weren’t something a single word of persuasion could cut through.

She suppressed the complicated emotions surging in her chest, forced herself back to calm, and quietly waited for the farce the Wang family had ignited with their own hands to reach its end.

——————

This Spring Festival holiday was the most chaotic, most grueling one Wen Yan had ever spent.

The travel plans she had originally made were all put on hold; every beautiful expectation was crushed under endless scheming, public opinion, and calculation. By the time she came to her senses, the holiday was already over, and life had been forcibly dragged back onto its tracks.

Wen Yan returned to the hospital, put the white coat back on, stood beside the operating table again, and plunged back into her busy work.

Jin Zijin was waging war up in the clouds as well.

She traveled across the country, and the airplane became her mobile office. Even seeing each other once had become a luxury. Sometimes when a video call connected, Wen Yan only had time to see the fatigue in her eyes before a meeting cut them off the next second.

Wen Yan never minded; she would just tell the darkened screen to take care of herself, then set down her phone and keep reading papers.

Days passed like that, one after another.

One day, after finishing work, Wen Yan dragged her exhausted body back to her six-hundred-square-meter duplex.

The moment the elevator doors opened, she lifted her eyes and saw a figure standing by the door.

It was Wen Chen.

He looked as though he had come straight through wind and dust; his eyes were bloodshot, and a faint blue stubble had broken out along his jaw. Clearly, he had been on the road nonstop and hadn’t rested at all.

Wen Yan was not surprised in the slightest, as if she had already expected him to come.

She unlocked the door with her iris scanner and stepped aside, her voice softening. “Come in.”

Wen Chen nodded, changed into the disposable slippers Wen Yan had prepared, and went inside.

Wen Yan turned and went to the kitchen, reheated the food the housekeeper had sent over that day, and brought it to the table. The steaming dishes sent up wisps of white vapor, warm and fragrant under the yellow light, making the room feel especially cozy.

Wen Chen hadn’t eaten a proper meal in a long time. As always, he ate ravenously, clearing the table in no time.

Wen Yan sat opposite him, holding a cup of water, quietly watching without speaking.

Once he was full, Wen Chen set down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and looked up at Wen Yan. He hesitated, as if choosing his words, then finally said, “I’m going to the detention center to see Mom. Do you want to come too?”

Wen Yan lowered her eyes and gently traced the rim of her cup with her fingertips.

The water in the cup had already gone cold, but her palm was still warm.

After a long while, she slowly shook her head. “I’m not going.”

“I don’t think it matters what I say; she won’t change her mind.”

After all these years, she had long since grown used to it.

Used to sacrifice. Used to compromise. Used to putting her younger brother, putting the Wang family, above her own life and above her own children.

This deep-rooted favoritism toward sons had long since become her fate. She embraced it gladly; no one else could save her from it.

Wen Chen looked at his sister’s calm expression, and a trace of pain flashed in his eyes.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end he only nodded lightly. “All right. Then I’ll go by myself.”

He got up and walked toward the door.

When he reached the entryway, Wen Chen suddenly stopped and turned back to look at Wen Yan, who was sitting quietly at the dining table.

The warm yellow light fell over her, wrapping her entire figure in a soft glow. Her expression was restrained, as though she saw everything, yet also like a bystander used to standing outside it all.

Hesitating, he spoke with a cautious hint of probing, “So… you really don’t have anything else to say to me?”

Wen Yan lifted her gaze to meet her only blood relative.

Perhaps because she had inherited the Wang family’s blood, and because the trash genes of the Wen family had offset it a bit, the two siblings were, overall, both exceptionally cold-blooded people.

To put it nicely, they were heartless. To put it bluntly, they were selfish and ruthless.

Only when it came to their mother could they never completely let go.

Because no matter how they tried to brainwash themselves, they always remembered that it was their mother who had carried them for ten months and given birth to them.

It was their mother who had given them life, blood, flesh, a body…

They could not erase that.

So no matter how much they hated their mother, how much they resented her, they still loved her.

It was instinctive; it was pure; there was nothing adulterated about it.

Whether it was her or Wen Chen, neither was any exception.

Mother was Wen Chen’s only weakness.

At this very moment, her brother from the same womb stood far away, dusty and worn, eyes full of exhaustion, stubbornly waiting for her to speak.

Waiting for her to admit that they shared the same weakness.

After a long while, Wen Yan finally parted her lips and said flatly, “Actually, I do love her a little too.”

“I hope she’ll listen to you.”

Wen Chen’s eyes turned red at once.

He blinked hard to force back the moisture surging up, then nodded heavily. “All right. I understand.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he opened the door and left. It shut softly behind him with a faint click.

Wen Yan sat alone in the empty living room.

Warm yellow light spilled down, stretching her shadow long and long.

In her mind, countless fragments flashed uncontrollably.

When she was little, if there was anything good to eat, it always went to Wen Chen first. She would stare at it longingly, and Wang Manyu would say, “Your brother is still growing. When it’s your turn to grow, you can be the one who eats first too.”

But Mom, he and I are clearly the same age.

If she made a mistake, she was always the one to take the blame. It was clearly Wen Chen who broke the vase, but Wang Manyu would say, “Boys mature later; you should keep an eye on your brother.”

But Mom, I’m a child too.

…

There were too many such things. After chewing them over and over until they were ground to pieces, they still came down to just four words: favoritism toward sons.

Those four words ran through Wang Manyu’s entire life and split apart every trace of warmth between mother and daughter.

Her mother had been consumed by it all her life; in turn, it had affected the next generation.

And now, for the sake of her younger brother, she was even willing to stake her entire life on it.

Wen Yan’s feelings were too complicated to put into words.

Not hatred, yet she could not be close.

Not love, yet she could not sever herself completely.

She sat properly at the dining table and remained still for a very long time.

——————

Two quiet days passed.

That night, Wen Yan was on night duty. Just after finishing an emergency surgery, she leaned exhaustedly back in the chair in the break room, eyes closed, not even wanting to move a finger.

The next second, her phone suddenly began vibrating wildly.

Wen Yan snapped her eyes open. When she looked down, the caller was Wen Chen.

Her heart clenched violently. In an instant, a bad feeling swept through her entire body. Her fingertips moved faster than her mind, pressing the answer button as a tremor slipped into her voice: “Brother?”

“Yan Yan!”

Wen Chen’s voice was frantic, sounding on the verge of collapse. “Mom… Mom suddenly had a heart attack and was rushed into the emergency room!”

Boom—

Wen Yan’s mind went blank.

Her pupils shook violently; all the blood in her body seemed to freeze instantly, going cold from her fingertips all the way to the bottom of her heart.

“No way…” she murmured, her voice trembling. Every word was squeezed out of her throat. “Mom has physical exams every year; she’s always been in good health and never had any heart problems. How could she…?”

“It’s murder!”

Wen Chen was crying so hard his voice broke apart; even through the phone, she could hear that he was shaking all over. “The procuratorate is pressing too hard! Dad said they’ve already started talking to Uncle and digging deep into the truth!”

“Grandpa… Grandpa even warned Dad to think about the children before he says anything!”

“Yan Yan, they want to silence her!”

“They’re afraid Mom won’t be able to hold out and will tell the truth, so they want to force her to death.”

“Using public opinion, using their power, they’re trying to force the police to close the case quickly and make Mom die in Uncle Wang Jinyu’s place!”

Silencing the witness.

Those four words exploded like thunder in Wen Yan’s ears.

She shot to her feet, trembling all over with rage, her fury blazing so fiercely that even her eyes reddened. “Crazy…”

Wen Yan was shaking from head to toe. “Have they really gone crazy?”

“Has Grandpa lost his mind? For Wang Jinyu, he doesn’t even want his own daughter’s life anymore?”

“He wants to silence her, cover everything up, and really thinks there’s no law in this world?”

Wen Yan was enraged beyond measure; it felt as if a fire was burning in her chest, scorching her so badly she could hardly breathe.

Her fingers trembling, she sent Jin Zijin an urgent message: “My mom has been hospitalized in an emergency. I’m sending you the address.”

After that, she quickly handed over her work, changed clothes, and rushed toward the hospital where Wang Manyu was receiving treatment.

——————

Outside the emergency room at First People’s Hospital, the lights were bright and the corridor was filled with noise.

By the time Wen Yan arrived, Old Master Wang, Wang Jinyu, and Wen Xinjian were all already there.

Old Master Wang wore a dark suit and stood in the middle of the corridor, his back straight, his face ashen.

Behind him stood several tall bodyguards in black, their expressions cold and hard, their presence oppressive; they occupied more than half the corridor.

That display did not look like a visit to a patient at all. It looked more like they had come to hold the place.

Wang Jinyu was cowering behind him; half his face was still swollen, but there was a barely perceptible smugness hidden in his eyes.

Wen Xinjian stood in the corner, face deathly pale, his fingers clenched so tightly they shook, yet he said nothing.

Wen Chen stood alone in front of the operating room.

His whole body was tense, his fists clenched, his eyes full of panic and despair; he was trembling uncontrollably.

He stared at the tightly shut door, as if he were trying to bore a hole through it with his gaze.

When he saw Wen Yan arrive, Wang Jinyu’s eyes lit up.

He immediately put on a hypocritically concerned expression and stepped forward, his tone so fake it nearly dripped. “Yan Yan, you’re here. Tell me, how did your mom suddenly come down with heart trouble? She’s always been in great health.”

Then he turned to Wen Chen and comforted him in a feigned gentle voice, “Xiao Chen, don’t worry. Your mother will be all right; good people are always protected by fate.”

“As for that crash, she didn’t mean it either. She was only confused for a moment. Once the case is closed…”

Before he could finish, Wen Chen suddenly raised his head.

A ball of fire was burning in his eyes, so fierce that the corners of his eyes were blood-red. He stared fixedly at Wang Jinyu and spoke in a low, dangerous voice, “Say that again.”

Wang Jinyu was unnerved by the look in his eyes and took a step back, but his mouth still kept going, unforgiving. “Your mom was just confused for a moment…”

“A moment of confusion?”

Wen Chen gave a cold laugh, his expression terrifying, like a demon crawling up from hell. “Uncle, look me in the eye and tell the truth: did my mom really drive into someone?”

Wang Jinyu’s face changed. He stammered, “The surveillance camera captured it. The car was hers…”

“It was her car, so the person who hit them was her?” Wen Chen stepped closer, his voice growing colder and colder. “My mom is sixty this year. The thing she hates most in her life is driving.”

“Ever since the day she got her license, she’s never been out on the road alone. Every time she went out, Dad drove. Everyone in the family knows that.”

Wang Jinyu’s face went pale.

“Also,” Wen Chen continued advancing, each step like it was landing on Wang Jinyu’s heart, “my mom is allergic to alcohol. One sip and she breaks out in a rash all over; if it gets bad, she has to be sent to the hospital. How could she possibly drive drunk?”

“You say she was speeding in the middle of the night? She never goes out after nine p.m. because her eyesight is bad and she can’t see the road clearly in the dark. That came out of her own mouth; did you forget?”

Cold sweat broke out on Wang Jinyu’s forehead.

“Not to mention that mountain road,” Wen Chen’s voice grew colder and colder, as if tempered in ice. “My mom doesn’t even dare take elevated roads. You expect me to believe she’d drive some winding mountain road at night? Wang Jinyu, at least make your nonsense sound halfway believable!”

Wang Jinyu’s lips trembled as he stammered, terrified, “Th-then… then your mom was at a business gathering, she went to a party, and people probably egged her on; she didn’t mean it…”

Seeing him like this, the rage Wen Chen had stored up for more than twenty years finally broke loose and could no longer be suppressed.

“Didn’t mean it!” He suddenly swung his fist and smashed it hard into Wang Jinyu’s face. “Of course she didn’t mean it!”

Bang!

Wang Jinyu staggered backward from the blow and slammed into the wall of the corridor with a dull thud. Blood immediately seeped from the corner of his mouth, his face full of stunned disbelief.

“Because she never did it in the first place!”

Wen Chen roared, his eyes bloodshot, tears spilling out in torrents and streaking down his face. “The one who drove into people was you! The one who fled the scene was you! The one who killed three people was you!”

He lunged forward, seized Wang Jinyu by the collar, and drove his fist into his face again and again. “Why! Why should my mom take the blame for you! Why should my mom go to jail and pay with her life!”

Wen Chen vented as if his life depended on it. Wen Yan instinctively looked up, her gaze landing on Old Master Wang.

Old Master Wang stood off to the side, watching coldly, his brow slightly furrowed.

The bodyguards around him wanted to rush up, but he stopped them.

Wen Yan sneered inwardly at the sight: so he wanted Wen Chen to vent a little and then let it go?

A small sacrifice for a big return; not bad. As expected of some ancient corpse from the Qing dynasty, good at sucking blood all the way through.

Wang Jinyu was beaten so badly that he cried out repeatedly, covering his head and curling into a ball. Wen Chen kept forcing answers out of him; after being hit for a while, Wang Jinyu really couldn’t take it anymore and screamed in collapse, “It wasn’t me… it wasn’t me… she said she would take the blame herself!”

“She said she would take the blame for me! I didn’t say anything! She did it willingly!”

The moment those words fell, Old Master Wang’s expression changed abruptly.

He lunged forward, trying to stop them, but it was already too late.

Wen Yan stood frozen in place and heard that sentence clearly.

Her pupils contracted sharply; she instantly understood Wen Chen’s intention in forcing the issue open.

Without the slightest hesitation, Wen Yan rolled up her sleeves and rushed up. “Uncle!”

She grabbed Wang Jinyu by the collar and snatched him out of Wen Chen’s hands, slamming him hard against the wall. “Wang Jinyu, what did you just say? Say it again!”

Wang Jinyu was pinned so tightly he could not move, his face full of terror. “Yan Yan… Yan Yan, what are you doing… You want to hit me too? I’m your uncle!”

“I asked you a question!”

Wen Yan’s voice was sharp enough to cut through the air, carrying a viciousness she had never shown before. “The one who fled the scene was actually you, wasn’t it?!”

Wang Jinyu shook his head frantically. “No, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me…”

“Wang Jinyu!”

Wen Chen roared and rushed up, grabbing his hair and yanking his face around to face him.

“You still say it wasn’t you! The crash must have been caused by you!”

“You’re the one who should be dragged into prison! You’re the one who should die! Right, my dear uncle!”

His voice was so hoarse it nearly broke, his eyes red as blood; like a rabid beast, he hauled Wang Jinyu by the hair and forced him to look at him.

Wang Jinyu’s scalp was being torn at so hard that he screamed in pain. “Stop hitting me, stop hitting me…”

“It hurts, it hurts…”

Old Master Wang trembled all over with fury, his face livid, and he started to charge forward. At that moment, Wen Xinjian stepped in front of him, red-eyed and silent.

“Move! Get out of my way!” Old Master Wang bellowed.

Wen Xinjian did not move; he clenched his fist and faced him head-on.

Seeing this, Old Master Wang raised a hand and signaled to the bodyguards behind him. “Take them down.”

At his command, the bodyguards moved in; just then, Wen Yan turned her head and shouted with bloodshot eyes, “I’m Jin Zijin’s woman!”

“Let me see who dares lay a hand on me!”

Everyone in the security system knew exactly what status Jin Zijin held in the capital. The moment those words fell, the bodyguards actually looked at one another and really did not dare act.

Old Master Wang’s face flushed red. “You… you…”

“Wen Chen, Wen Yan! He’s your uncle; are you trying to rebel?”

Wen Yan glanced at him coldly. “It’s a new era; the common people are living good lives. No one is rebelling!”

“I just want to ask my uncle a question. Calm down, Grandpa.”

Though her tone was extremely even, it sent a chill down everyone’s spine. Old Master Wang was stunned by her aura; furious as he was, he did not dare make any unnecessary moves.

Wen Yan gave him a sidelong look, then turned back to Wang Jinyu.

Both hands gripping his collar, she stared at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Wang Jinyu, my dear uncle, my mom is going to die…”

“She’s lying in there, has been under emergency treatment for so long, and we still don’t know if she’ll make it out…”

“All her life, for you, for the Wang family, she has suffered so much and endured so many grievances. Do you know that?”

“When we were little, she left all the good food for you. When you got into trouble, she took the blame for you. When you couldn’t study, she begged Grandpa to spend money sending you abroad. When your business lost money, she pulled out the entire Wen family to fill the hole.”

“Now you’ve caused another disaster this huge, and she’s even willing to give up her own life to take the blame for you, to die in your place…”

Wen Yan’s voice shook more and more; tears trembled in her eyes. “She’s about to die… and you don’t even feel guilty?”

“You aren’t sad at all?”

“Wang Jinyu, put your hand on your conscience. Is it still there?”

Wang Jinyu looked at her tears and froze completely. Every word Wen Yan had said stabbed into his heart like a knife.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out.

Wen Yan looked at him like that, and the last trace of warmth in her eyes was completely extinguished.

She let go and stepped back, her voice cold as ice. “My mom is going to die. My brother and I only want one thing: the truth.”

Wen Chen stepped forward, standing beside her as they boxed Wang Jinyu in, and looked at him with anger and despair. “Wang Jinyu, my dear uncle…”

“Tell me. Tell Wen Yan. That night, who told you to take that road?”

Wen Yan stepped forward too, fierce and relentless. “Who made a bet with you and had you speeding?”

“After you hit someone, why did you run?”

The twins worked with seamless understanding, one after another, and in an instant they shattered Wang Jinyu, who had been protected so well all this time.

Wang Jinyu’s face went white as paper. His lips trembled violently as if something had closed around his throat.

Wen Chen stepped forward and grabbed his collar, tears in his eyes as he roared, “Speak, uncle!”

At last, as if he could no longer endure it, Wang Jinyu screamed in collapse, “It was… it was people from the Lu family!”

“They told me to take that road. They said there was less surveillance on that road, and if I won, I’d get twenty million! They were the ones who got me drunk! They…”

Before he could finish, Old Master Wang shoved Wen Xinjian aside and rushed up, slapping Wang Jinyu across the face.

“Shut up! You unfilial beast!”

That slap used every ounce of his strength.

Wang Jinyu was knocked face-first to the ground; half his face swelled up instantly, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Lying on the floor, realizing what he had just said, his eyes widened in terror.

But the words were already out; they could not be taken back.

The corridor fell into dead silence.

Only the red light above the emergency room still burned in silence, blinking on and off like some mute verdict.

Wen Yan and Wen Chen turned around together and looked at the old man in front of them, saying coldly, “Grandpa, is what Uncle said true?”

Old Master Wang did not hesitate in the slightest. He directly raised a hand and ordered the bodyguards behind him, “Take them down and destroy all their communication devices.”

The bodyguards surged forward, about to rush at Wen Yan and Wen Chen.

The twins immediately took on fighting stances, waiting for them to come. They had long wanted to beat this family; now that the chance had come knocking, why not? They might as well beat the old fossil too.

Just then, a woman’s shout rang out from the corner of the corridor: “Let me see who dares!”

Everyone turned in unison toward the sound. There, Jin Zijin was arriving in a black suit with a group of tall female bodyguards.

Her expression was as cold as frost; a terrifying murderous aura radiated from her entire body.

Her gaze, cold as a blade tempered in ice, swept over the bodyguards about to pounce on Wen Yan. Frowning, she gave a command: “Pull them away.”

Jin Zijin’s bodyguards immediately moved. Their actions were crisp and efficient; in an instant, they subdued all of the Wang family’s bodyguards and pinned them tightly in place so they could not move.

The men struggled a few times and found they could not break free; they could only gasp like trapped beasts.

Jin Zijin strode forward and pulled Wen Yan behind her protectively, then lifted her eyes to sweep coldly across the room. “You even dare lay hands on my person, Old Master Wang? What great prestige you have!”