“If you want to go back and see Grandpa An, I have a way,” Mo Yunchen said, noticing Ye Shaohua’s distracted expression as they sat in the car. He couldn’t help but sigh.
Hearing this, Ye Shaohua turned her head slightly, taking a moment to process his words before replying, “No need. He’ll be fine.” Grandpa An had been taking his medication for over a month now. Although this incident was a shock, it wouldn’t have a significant impact on him.
Mo Yunchen frowned, glancing at her.
Ye Shaohua felt his gaze but didn’t turn to meet it. Instead, she stared out the window at the neon lights passing by.
After a long silence, Mo Yunchen heard her whisper, almost too softly to catch, “…Do people in this world really abandon their own children?”
The words were so faint that Mo Yunchen almost thought he had imagined them. But before he could respond, she closed her eyes, leaving him with a sense of unease.
Although she had never been part of his expectations, he had never felt this strongly about anything before.
While the mix-up between the Ye and An families had caused chaos, neither family had truly abandoned her…
Mo Yunchen glanced at her long lashes, his lips pressing into a thin line.
Perhaps… he was overthinking it.
**
The An family’s turmoil had spread quickly, and their longtime friends, the Yan family, rushed over to offer support.
An Tongtong, looking utterly defeated, followed Mrs. Ye as they left the An residence.
At the entrance, she spotted Yan Xu’s car and her eyes lit up. She hurried over, reaching out to grab his hand. “Yan—”
Yan Xu sidestepped her, avoiding her touch, and looked at her with a complicated expression.
“I’m your fiancée, don’t you remember, Yan Xu?” An Tongtong’s eyes widened, her voice almost hysterical.
“Grandpa An just announced that the engagement is off…” Yan Xu said as he walked toward the door. He paused mid-step, glancing back slightly. “Besides, that engagement was never meant for you in the first place.”
After saying this, he and Mrs. Yan entered the An residence, leaving An Tongtong standing alone at the gate, her expression twisted with fury.
“Yan Xu, what do you think of Shaohua?” Mr. Yan asked his son as they observed An Liguo’s condition. “Now that the An family is acknowledging Shaohua, your engagement would be legitimate.”
He had heard about Ye Shaohua from Grandpa An—a smart and obedient girl. Mr. Yan thought she would be a good match for his son.
Hearing this, Yan Xu was momentarily stunned. An image of a calm, elegant face flashed through his mind.
Before he could respond, Mrs. Yan spoke up, “Since Grandpa An said the engagement is off, let’s leave it at that.”
Mrs. Yan had always believed her son was exceptional, and no young lady from the prominent families in the capital was good enough for him. An Tongtong had been acceptable, but Ye Shaohua…
Coming from an ordinary family, she lacked the upbringing and status. Mrs. Yan didn’t want her son to settle for less.
Moreover, after the incident with An Tongtong, she felt uneasy about the whole situation.
The three of them couldn’t reach an agreement, and Mr. Yan decided not to bring up the engagement in front of Grandpa An. The matter was dropped.
The An family quickly announced to the media that Ye Shaohua was the true heiress of the An family. Shortly after, news broke that An Liguo was critically ill and hospitalized. The two events collided, causing chaos within the An family.
With An Liguo hospitalized, all the responsibilities of the company fell on An Tingjun’s shoulders.
He had to keep an eye on his grandfather’s health, worry about his father’s condition, and deal with the fallout from the Ye Shaohua situation. The An family’s board of directors, seeing the young heir struggling, began to challenge him, taking advantage of the turmoil.
An Tingjun was under immense pressure.
To make matters worse, An Tongtong suddenly turned against the family, convincing one of An’s major investors to withdraw their funds.
“An Tongtong, have you forgotten who brought you into the company in the first place?” one of Grandpa An’s longtime confidants roared in anger. “An Liguo trusted you so much. How could you stab him in the back while he’s in the ICU? Even if you’re not the An family’s daughter, they raised you! Don’t you owe them at least some gratitude?”
The An family had raised An Tongtong and An Tingjun in the same manner.
An Liguo, noticing her talent for economic management, had taken her to a negotiation meeting. An Tongtong used her keen intuition to guess the other party’s intentions and secrets, securing the deal and gaining control of the project.
This time, she had secured a 400 million yuan investment for the project.
It was also this incident that spread her reputation as a prodigy in economic management, earning her praise from everyone in the business circle.
No one had expected things to turn out like this.
“Gratitude?” An Tongtong sneered at him. “Instead of worrying about me and the An family, you should be more concerned about how to fill the financial gap now that the investment is gone.”
An Tongtong hadn’t planned to go this far, but even the Yan family had abandoned her!
If she was going to suffer, why should Ye Shaohua have it easy?
She wanted Ye Shaohua to know that even without the An family, she, An Tongtong, would still live a better life than her.
Want to be the An family’s heiress? She never had the chance before, and she never would!
The An family’s major project had a total planned investment of 1 billion yuan. With the withdrawal of funds, the project couldn’t continue, and the company’s cash flow was disrupted. Employees weren’t getting paid, and bankruptcy seemed inevitable.
As for finding new investors?
Not many people had 400 million yuan in liquid assets readily available, and even if they did, they wouldn’t dare take the risk with the An family in such disarray.
After all, the An family was in turmoil, and An Liguo was critically ill.
All the pressure fell on An Tingjun’s shoulders, and almost no one had faith in him.
The business circle had long known about the mix-up between the Ye and An families, but no one had expected the An family to announce it so publicly.
Many secretly shook their heads, saying that the An family had traded an exceptionally talented daughter for an average one. Not only was it a bad deal, but it seemed like the entire An family might collapse because of it.
The internet was buzzing with excitement.
Netizens were fascinated by the dramatic twists of this wealthy family’s saga. After the leaked audio of An Tongtong’s outburst, she garnered no sympathy online.
Some speculated that Ye Shaohua, the true heiress, was in a tough spot. She had just returned to the family, only to face the possibility of bankruptcy.
Others wondered if she would take everything An Tongtong once had.
Would she and An Tongtong fight to the death?
But no one could have predicted what happened next.
At 10:30 a.m., just as the online debates were heating up and An Tongtong was reveling in her schemes, an image swept across the globe.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Yan had just left the hospital after accompanying Mrs. An. Yan Xu picked her up and drove her to the An Corporation’s headquarters.
The black Bentley stopped at the foot of the tallest commercial building in the capital.
“The military hospital was unusually quiet today,” Mrs. Yan said, rubbing her temples. “Most of the cardiology experts were absent. Luckily, Grandpa An had connections, or else Chairman An might not have made it.”
It was strange. Although it was usually difficult to secure appointments with top specialists, given the An family’s influence, it shouldn’t have been this hard.
But today, with An Liguo in critical condition and no doctors available, Mrs. An had nearly broken down.
Hearing this, Yan Xu frowned slightly. He noticed the increased police presence at every intersection and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “It is odd. The city is on high alert today.”
Such a scene was rare in the capital, and Yan Xu couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
Moreover, there was no news or rumors about what was happening.
Yan Xu couldn’t help but think of the An family’s military hospital doctor, suspecting he might know something.
“These matters don’t concern us ordinary businessmen,” Mrs. Yan said, shaking her head. She opened the car door and stepped out. “Let’s go see how the An family is holding up.”
Yan Xu followed suit.
A director from the An Corporation stood at the entrance, looking haggard. When he saw Mrs. Yan, he quickly approached, forcing a bitter smile. “Mrs. Yan, Young Master Yan.”
“Tingjun is being too reckless. With Chairman An hospitalized, he’s overwhelmed. Shaohua hasn’t shown up at all. Even if she did, it wouldn’t make a difference. She never learned how to manage a company. If only An Tongtong were still here…” The director trailed off, shaking his head.
As he spoke, he noticed Mrs. An getting out of the car but not moving. She was staring up at the commercial building in shock.
“Mrs. An, what are you—” The director followed her gaze, and the rest of his sentence died in his throat. His eyes nearly popped out of his head.
The massive screen on the commercial building, which usually displayed high-end advertisements costing 100,000 yuan per minute, had suddenly changed.
In the blink of an eye, the screen showed an image with text that kept shifting:
[Ye Shaohua, the Prodigy of Medicine—The Future of the Medical World.]