"Knock, knock, knock—"
The sound at the door was clear and rhythmic, neither hurried nor slow, striking exactly three times.
Uncle Da was startled. He glanced at Chi Heng, who had already opened his eyes on the hospital bed, then turned his gaze toward the door.
"Young Master..."
He was worried that the group from earlier had returned, and equally afraid it might be the police coming to question them.
Chi Heng, however, seemed unsurprised, silently signaling with his eyes for Uncle Da to open the door.
Though puzzled, Uncle Da said nothing. Steadying himself, he pulled the door open.
But the moment he saw the visitor’s face, Uncle Da froze completely. His lips parted, and it took him a long moment to find his voice again.
"Miss... Miss Jiang, what brings you here...?"
Uncle Da could never have dreamed that Jiang Si would arrive at this exact moment.
Chi Heng had changed greatly over the years—his demeanor and appearance bore little resemblance to the boy he once was. Yet Uncle Da, standing before her now, was instantly recognizable to Jiang Si.
"Uncle Da, it’s been a long time."
As she greeted him, Jiang Si’s gaze drifted past Uncle Da, landing directly on Chi Heng.
He was propped up against the pillows, half-sitting on the hospital bed.
His upper body was wrapped in bandages.
His face was devoid of color.
Her eyes darkened with unreadable emotions. "Uncle Da, may I speak with him alone?"
Hearing this, Uncle Da instinctively turned to look at his young master.
Chi Heng’s eyes were fixed on the doorway. He gave a slight nod.
"Ah, of course, of course. You two talk... I’ll wait outside." As Uncle Da stepped aside to let Jiang Si in, he carefully closed the door behind her, then stationed himself at the corner of the hallway.
In an instant, the room held only the two of them.
Jiang Si pulled a chair to the bedside and sat down. Her expression was calm, but her words were as blunt as ever.
"Chi Heng, you deliberately exposed yourself, didn’t you?"
First, he had approached her and Third Uncle in a manner full of holes, raising her suspicions. Then, he’d used this near-self-destructive method to place himself squarely in her line of sight.
"Yes." Meeting her stunned gaze, Chi Heng admitted it outright—without hesitation or evasion.
"Why?" Jiang Si voiced the biggest question in her heart.
Before coming here, she had already spoken to the doctors.
Most of his injuries were old wounds.
They weren’t fatal, but they were excruciating—enough to make life unbearable.
She couldn’t understand. As the sole heir of the Qin Family, how had he endured such inhuman abuse for so many years?
And what was his purpose in doing all this?
Jiang Si was deeply perplexed.
At this, the corners of Chi Heng’s lips lifted slightly—a faint, bitter smile, or perhaps something closer to relief.
"Because only by catching your attention, by making you notice my 'deliberate' actions and the inconsistencies, would you investigate my past..."
"Only then could I find a chance to evade those watching eyes and truly... speak to you alone."
Those two short sentences revealed far too much.
Jiang Si understood immediately.
His seemingly clumsy attempts to approach her might have been nothing more than a forced performance—a play within a play—all to create a plausible, harmless opportunity that wouldn’t implicate her.
But one thing still eluded her. "Why didn’t you say any of this earlier, at the courtyard house this afternoon?"
Chi Heng fell silent for a moment before turning his gaze back to her. "If I had told you then, would you have believed me?"
"..."
Those words rendered Jiang Si speechless.
Chi Heng’s caution wasn’t unfounded.
To her, Chi Heng was little more than a long-lost neighbor, an older brother figure from childhood—one whose memory had grown hazy over time.
If he had confronted her with these revelations from the start, she likely would have distrusted him even more.
The weight of this realization settled heavily in her chest.
"This has nothing to do with you," Chi Heng said. "From the moment I stepped through your door, whether I spoke or not, those lashes were inevitable."
They had to be. Otherwise, the watchers would never lower their guard.
Though she already suspected the answer, Jiang Si asked anyway, "Who sent those people?"
As expected.
Chi Heng uttered three words: "My mother."
Jiang Si’s expression shifted to one of grim understanding.
Truthfully, Jiang Si had only vague impressions of Chi’s mother.
The scattered memories she did have were of a woman who never seemed pleased whenever she visited the Qin Family.
Chi’s mother was obsessed with propriety. The slightest misstep in Jiang Si’s manners would earn her a pointed correction.
Having been pampered since childhood, Jiang Si was unused to harsh words—let alone enduring such nitpicking.
Perhaps it was precisely because of her "lack of discipline" that Chi’s mother had never taken a liking to her.
Even as a child, Jiang Si had sensed the woman’s disapproval.
So, eventually, she stopped visiting the Qin Family altogether.
Still, Jiang Si was an outsider. It made sense that Chi’s mother wouldn’t care for her.
But Chi Heng was her only child.
Even a vicious tiger wouldn’t harm its own cub.
How could a mother bring herself to torture her own son so mercilessly?
Especially now that Jiang Si was a mother of two herself, she found such cruelty utterly incomprehensible.
Perhaps her confusion was too obvious, because Chi Heng offered an explanation. "My mother... her need for control is overwhelming. Her expectations for me are equally high."
"But that doesn’t justify her actions."
"I know. But I had no other choice."
Chi Heng continued, "After Father passed away, she took control of my grandparents. I had no alternatives."
The words struck Jiang Si like a physical blow.
She understood them, but their implications left her reeling.
After a long silence, Jiang Si voiced the question burning in her mind:
"Is she... really your birth mother?"
