“Go abroad? Mom, what are you talking about? You know this is the critical moment when Dad is preparing to hand the company over to me. And you want me to leave the country?!” Yu Hongtu reminded her incredulously.
“If you’re dead, what will you inherit your father’s company with? Listen to your mother. Go abroad and lie low for a while. I’ve already had your things packed. Finish this bowl of porridge, then have Uncle Huang take you to the airport.” Tan Mengyun spoke as calmly as if she were discussing the weather. She picked up the bowl again, scooped up a spoonful of porridge, and brought it to her son’s lips.
“No, I’m not leaving! I’m going to kill Jiang Youli myself. I refuse to believe that little bitch has what it takes to kill me!” In his agitation, Yu Hongtu knocked the spoon out of his mother’s hand. “Mom, sending me abroad was your idea, wasn’t it? Dad doesn’t know anything about it!”
Tan Mengyun looked at her agitated son without the slightest change in expression. She simply stood up, took out her phone, and dialed the butler’s number.
“Uncle Huang, come in and take my son to the airport.”
With that, she hung up and glanced at her son. “This isn’t the time to throw a tantrum. Your father’s company will be yours sooner or later. Yu Linglong can’t take it from you. But if something happens to you, then your father’s company really will end up in Yu Linglong’s hands.”
“Your flight leaves at eleven twenty. It’s nine ten now, and it’ll only take until ten to drive there. We have more than enough time.”
“In half a year at most, your father and I will have everything here taken care of. Once Long Yuan finds a way to get rid of Jiang Youli, your father and I will personally go and bring you home.”
A middle-aged man entered the room. He first glanced at the elegantly dressed Tan Mengyun, then turned to Yu Hongtu, his eyes filled with concern.
“Young Master, I’ll take you to the airport now.”
As he spoke, he stepped forward to help Yu Hongtu up.
“I’m not leaving! Once I go, who knows how people in our circle will laugh at me behind my back? They’ll say I’m a coward, that I’m afraid of Jiang Youli…”
Butler Huang turned around and looked at Tan Mengyun with a troubled expression.
Tan Mengyun sighed and waved her hand. “Take him by force.”
A trace of reluctance flashed across Butler Huang’s eyes, but he still followed Tan Mengyun’s orders. He knocked Yu Hongtu unconscious, then pulled him up from the bed and carried him on his back.
As he passed by Tan Mengyun, Butler Huang said solemnly, “Madam, I’ll take Young Master to the airport, then.”
“Mm.”
Tan Mengyun watched from the window as Butler Huang carried her son to the car. Her son had been right—the decision to send him abroad was entirely her own. She had never asked Yu Zhanzhi.
It was a gut feeling.
She had made it this far by carefully reading people’s expressions and analyzing human nature. Her vigilance was precisely what had kept her alive.
Jiang Youli was simply too strange. She couldn’t let her son stay here and continue confronting her head-on.
…
Yu Hongtu slowly woke up on the way to the airport. His head was still groggy, and he stared blankly at the streets rushing past the car window.
Suddenly, as if he had realized what was happening, his expression changed drastically. He shouted furiously, “Uncle Huang, let me out! I’m not going abroad!”
Hearing this, Butler Huang silently groaned inwardly, but he still patiently tried to persuade him. “Young Master, stop being so stubborn. Just listen to your mother and go abroad for a while. Once some time has passed, she’ll naturally bring you back.”
But Yu Hongtu didn’t listen to a word. He grew increasingly agitated. “Uncle Huang, pull over! I’m telling you one last time—if you don’t stop, I’ll jump out of the car!”
Before he had even finished speaking, Yu Hongtu suddenly shoved the door open and leaned violently out of the vehicle.
Butler Huang was scared out of his wits. He hurriedly slammed on the brakes and turned on the hazard lights, preparing to ease the car over to the side of the road.
The moment the car stopped by the roadside, Yu Hongtu jumped out.
He refused to go abroad and hide like a coward!
But just as Yu Hongtu stepped out of the car, a passerby’s sudden scream rang out from behind him.
He turned toward the sound and was horrified to see a car speeding toward him at nearly seventy-five miles per hour.
His pupils instantly dilated.
The next second, the vehicle slammed into him. His body was sent flying into the air before crashing heavily back onto the ground.
The moment he landed, excruciating pain tore through his organs, but his vision remained faintly clear.
A sharp screech of brakes rang out.
Yu Hongtu watched helplessly as the car that had hit him made a U-turn and charged toward him again.
For some reason, Jiang Youli’s words from the night before suddenly flashed through his mind:
“I just want to see whether your skull is hard enough…”
…
Nine thirty in the morning.
Yu Linglong returned to the Yu family villa, a place she had not visited in a long time. The moment she stepped inside, she ran into Tan Mengyun in the living room.
Tan Mengyun was also startled to see her. Then she smiled and said, “Linglong, you haven’t been home in ages. What brings you back today?”
Yu Linglong looked at Tan Mengyun’s insincere smile and clenched her fists. “I haven’t come back all this time because I don’t want to see you.”
She would never forget the scene of this woman arriving at her mother’s house with her pregnant belly, deliberately provoking her.
Back then, Tan Mengyun had deliberately lowered herself, acting pitiful as she claimed she had no other choice and was merely begging her mother for mercy. But there had been nothing but provocation and confidence in her eyes, and her mother’s condition had continued to worsen from the anger.
And yet, in the end, her father had blamed her mother for upsetting Tan Mengyun and causing her to suffer abdominal pain. He had even threatened that if anything happened to Tan Mengyun’s unborn son, he would never forgive her mother.
What a shameless man and a vicious woman!
Yu Linglong walked inside. She was genuinely curious to see what kind of surprise Jiang Youli had meant when she said there would be one today.
“Oh, by the way, your brother said you were at the Nightless City last night too.” Tan Mengyun personally got up, poured Yu Linglong a glass of water, and set it in front of her.
Yu Linglong glanced at it but didn’t drink. “I was at the Nightless City. What of it? Are you here to blame me for not protecting your son?”
Tan Mengyun said, “You’re Long Yuan’s fiancée now. Your brother was seriously injured on Long Yuan’s own turf, and it was indeed somewhat inappropriate. But I’m not blaming you. You came back today specifically because you’re worried about your brother’s injuries, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I came to see just how badly he was hurt,” Yu Linglong said. “So where is he?”
Tan Mengyun’s eyes darkened. Seeing that Yu Linglong had not touched the water, she picked up the glass and took a sip herself before saying, “Your temper really is exactly like your mother’s—so unwilling to back down. But the more you resemble your mother, the less your father will like you. Why can’t you understand that?”
“If you would just show a little weakness, I might consider asking your father to treat you better…”
Before she could finish, Tan Mengyun’s phone began to ring.
She glanced at the number. It was her son, Yu Hongtu. He must have woken up and called to confront her.
Tan Mengyun sighed helplessly and answered the call. “Hongtu, have you reached the airport?”
“May I ask if you’re Ms. Tan Mengyun, the mother of the deceased, Yu Hongtu?” A man’s official, businesslike voice came through the phone.
Tan Mengyun froze, wondering if she had misheard him. “What deceased?”
