Jiang Jingyuan wanted to say a few more words to his daughter, but Zhong Zhuohua had already hung up the phone.
Sensing her low spirits, he didn’t bother her further and instead called the butler to inquire about the situation.
Butler Liu was trimming the flowers and plants in the courtyard. “I’ll go inside and take a look.”
The two maids were busy in the kitchen, and the living and dining rooms were empty.
The butler then checked Zhong Zhuohua’s painting room, where only the Yuer Shi was tidying up toys and books.
The Yuer Shi said, “Madam has taken the child back to her room.”
Jiang Jingyuan instructed the butler, “Turn on the computer. I want to video call Xiaozhong Yi.”
Once the video connected, only his daughter appeared.
Little Zhong Yi was lying on the table. When the video adjusted, she saw the person on the screen and excitedly leaned toward the camera. “Daddy! Daddy!”
The screen was filled with his daughter’s face, and Jiang Jingyuan smiled. “Sweetheart, lean back a little.”
“No! No! I want Daddy.” Xiaozhong Yi seemed desperate to crawl into the computer.
“Where’s Mommy?”
“Mommy…” Xiaozhong Yi suddenly faltered, tilting her head as she tried to recall.
Before coming to the study, Zhong Zhuohua had told her, “Mommy needs to look over the script. Sweetheart, you go video call Daddy by yourself, okay?”
“Mommy is looking at the book.”
Jiang Jingyuan understood perfectly—Zhong Zhuohua’s so-called script reading was just an excuse. She simply didn’t want to see him.
Xiaozhong Yi’s voice trembled with tears, “Daddy, come back quickly.”
“Daddy will be back tonight.”
In her childish voice, “So slow! So slow! Daddy, come back right now.”
Jiang Jingyuan coaxed her, “Okay, Daddy’s going to the airport now. You be a good girl and eat your meal.”
He was eager to return but still had some work to finish. He could only catch the evening flight home.
After ending the call, he steadied his mind and went back to work.
Since 2000, with the rapid development of internet technology and the surge of startups, competition against Jinghe Group had intensified, so he dared not be complacent.
At the same time, it was the perfect moment to invest in startups.
He had to manage Jinghe’s strategic direction while overseeing Tongxin Capital’s investment layout, wishing he could split himself in two to get everything done.
He had founded Jinghe before graduating university, mainly to escape his father’s control.
Back then, he never imagined the company would grow this big.
When Jinghe went public on Hong Kong Island, he didn’t even know Zhong Zhuohua.
He had borrowed money from friends to start the company.
Because he didn’t follow the life path his father planned, father and son were at odds, and he couldn’t get any money from home.
Zhou Yunlian lent him the money he was going to spend on a sports car, and Yu Laoshi transferred all her earnings to him, keeping only two hundred yuan for emergencies.
The company had severe funding shortages in its early years. Lu Jianbo once asked him how much he needed.
Without a word, Jiang Jingyuan held up one palm.
Lu Jianbo guessed, “Five million?”
“No.”
“How much? Fifty million?! You might as well sell me off!”
Lu Jianbo didn’t have that kind of money, so he went home and asked his father for it, but he was scolded harshly.
To support the company, his sister Jiang Rui sold the house their parents had bought her and took out all her saved red envelopes money, combining it with the house sale funds and gave everything to him.
After the company went public, Jiang Jingyuan gave shares to all those who had lent him money—except his sister.
She said too many shareholders would complicate management later.
Jiang Jingyuan gathered his thoughts and continued reading the project proposal.
His phone rang. He hurriedly picked it up, thinking it was Zhong Zhuohua, but it was the old family residence’s landline number, so he hung up immediately.
***
Half an hour later, there was a knock on the office door.
Before he could say “Come in,” Little Min Ting’s voice came from outside. “Third Uncle, it’s me!”
He hadn’t answered his father’s calls, so his father sent Min Ting to ease the tension.
In recent years, whenever he returned to the northern city, he only visited his sister’s home and never stepped foot into the old family residence.
Little Min Ting came in and hugged him tightly. “Third Uncle, why don’t you come to my house?”
“I was working overtime until midnight last night.” Jiang Jingyuan hadn’t seen his nephew in nearly two months and noticed he had grown taller. “Let’s see if I can still carry you.”
He bent down and struggled to lift his nephew. “Next year, I won’t be able to anymore.”
Little Min Ting grinned. “Third Uncle, next year I’ll carry you.”
Jiang Jingyuan put down his nephew. “Why didn’t you go to school today?”
“It’s Saturday.”
Jiang Jingyuan was momentarily confused, thinking it was Friday.
“Did Grandpa send you here?”
“Yeah. Grandpa wants you to come home for dinner.”
“I don’t have time. I have to rush back to see my little sister.”
Little Min Ting had only seen photos. “How much does your sister weigh now?”
He had heard from his mother that little Yi was born weighing just over two pounds.
“She’s almost twenty pounds now.” Jiang Jingyuan reminded his nephew, “Remember, don’t tell your friends you have a little sister.”
“…Third Uncle.” Little Min Ting was honest. “I forgot that day when playing. I won’t say it again.”
Jiang Jingyuan naturally wouldn’t scold a six- or seven-year-old. “It’s okay.” He asked casually, “Who did you tell?”
“I told Zhou Sujin and Zhou Shiyi. I said I have two little sisters, but they didn’t believe me. They said I should bring them to see her to prove it.”
Jiang Jingyuan smiled and ruffled his nephew’s hair. “Tell the driver to take you home for dinner. Tell Grandpa I’m busy.”
“Third Uncle, Grandpa wants to see little sister.”
“Little sister’s busy too, sitting on the boat painting every day.”
At 4:30 p.m., after finishing company affairs, Jiang Jingyuan grabbed the gift he bought for his daughter and headed to the airport.
He kept busy on the way, using every moment to handle emails.
At lunch, he texted Zhong Zhuohua, but she never replied.
At ten in the evening, the plane landed in Jiangcheng.
It had been raining all afternoon and hadn’t stopped after nightfall.
Zhong Zhuohua held her daughter close, lost in thought as she listened to the rain outside the window.
The child was already asleep in her arms, but she felt no sleepiness at all.
After wrestling with her thoughts all afternoon, she wanted to fight Jiang Jingyuan for custody, to take the child away herself so he wouldn’t have to worry or exert effort.
Yet she couldn’t bear the child losing her father’s companionship.
As she stared absentmindedly at the window, she faintly heard the butler and Jiang Jingyuan talking in the courtyard. She closed her eyes.
Jiang Jingyuan pushed open the bedroom door. The bed was empty. By the window leaned a brown suitcase, with her usual handbag on top.
The night before, she had only brought the handbag back and left the suitcase behind.
He tossed his suit jacket on the bench at the foot of the bed and went to the daughter’s room to find her.
Having been together so many years, he could tell at a glance if she was truly asleep.
Jiang Jingyuan gently took her hand off the child and lifted her up horizontally.
Zhong Zhuohua stopped pretending to sleep and opened her eyes, the familiar scent of the man surrounding her breath.
She lightly patted him. “Put me down. I’ll walk by myself.”
Jiang Jingyuan ignored her and carried her back to the master bedroom.
Zhong Zhuohua turned off the light, not wanting him to see how swollen her eyes were, as if showing she cared too much.
After adjusting to the dark, Jiang Jingyuan could finally make out her silhouette.
She didn’t ask any questions. The room fell into a brief silence.
“I only talked business with Yang Jiayuan.” Jiang Jingyuan broke the silence.
Zhong Zhuohua nodded.
He sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. “Can you say something? Please?”
Lying on the pillow, she looked at him.
“What do you want me to say? I rarely come back, and you can’t even spare a day for me. Your heart is already thousands of miles away. My daughter and I can’t stop you from rushing back.”
“I went back to sign a contract with Zhou Yunlian. It has nothing to do with her. She just happened to contact me this morning.”
Jiang Jingyuan pressed his forehead weakly against hers. “Can you trust me just once?”
Zhong Zhuohua didn’t answer but asked, “Does Yang Jiayuan know you have a child?”
“No. We didn’t talk about that.”
“Or that you have a—” Zhong Zhuohua hesitated, pushing his face away and meeting his gaze. “I don’t even know what our relationship is.”
“Boyfriends? Doesn’t feel like it.”
She stopped dwelling on it. “From now on, you take good care of Xiao Yi.”
Jiang Jingyuan’s heart tightened as he squeezed her hand. “What do you mean?”
Zhong Zhuohua said calmly, “I won’t be coming back here anymore.”
Maybe he wasn’t entirely at fault, but she was sad and didn’t know who to blame.
The one she loved had loved someone else so passionately, and with just one phone call from that person, he had no hesitation meeting her—never considering if it would hurt Zhong Zhuohua.
She turned his hand over and held it.
“Don’t try to keep me. You can’t. I’ll leave the child with you. When I miss her, I’ll send someone to take her to stay with me for a while. You and I—let’s not see each other anymore.”
After saying that, she let go of his hand.
Jiang Jingyuan held her tightly. “We can fight, but no breaking up.”
Zhong Zhuohua didn’t push him away. She had already decided to leave; let him hold her a little longer.
She had never really thought about breaking up, so every time they argued, they still ended up back together.
But this time, there was no arguing her way back.
Jiang Jingyuan explained, “I met Yang Jiayuan because she’s been at my place for some time. If I don’t meet her, you’ll say I’m hiding something when you find out later.”
“Jiang Jingyuan, you’re not me. How could you know if I want you to see her? Is it that you’ve let go, or deep down you just want to see her one last time?”
Zhong Zhuohua stopped, unwilling to argue further. “For the last few hours, can we just not fight?”
For the sake of their daughter, she wanted to part amicably.
If she could do it over, she would choose never to meet him.
At that year’s business event, Ji Zong introduced them. When she shook his hand, in the noisy banquet hall, all she could hear was her heartbeat.
As she left, she couldn’t help but look back for him.
In the elegant, bustling banquet hall, he and Lu Jianbo were surrounded by people.
At that moment, she knew they were from two different worlds.
She never expected he would pursue her actively, giving her surprises from time to time.
The first few months together were sweet, but the following years had been full of bitterness.
Zhong Zhuohua patted him, “You’re suffocating me.”
Jiang Jingyuan didn’t move and held her tighter.
Outside the window, the rain still fell.
At three in the morning, the phone alarm rang.
Zhong Zhuohua hadn’t fallen asleep and reached out to turn off the alarm.
Jiang Jingyuan opened his eyes. “What time is it?”
“Three o’clock. You go back to sleep.”
Zhong Zhuohua pulled off her blanket and, using the phone’s flashlight, got out of bed.
Every time she came to see her daughter, it was late at night, and she left before dawn.
Today, wanting to spend more time with her daughter, she woke up half an hour earlier on purpose.
She quickly washed up, changed clothes, and went to her daughter’s room.
After a night of tossing and turning, the little one was now lying with her tiny feet resting on the pillow.
She gently picked up her daughter and straightened her out. When she kissed her forehead, tears streamed down her face.
Luckily, she worked in the entertainment industry. Even if she never came back, her daughter would only think she was away filming.
At 3:50 a.m., the sound of a car arriving at the front gate signaled her ride.
Zhong Zhuohua kissed her daughter again, gently closed the door, and left.
Jiang Jingyuan sat on the living room sofa for nearly an hour before seeing her come out. He stood up.
Zhong Zhuohua said, “No need to see me off. I don’t like goodbyes.”
Jiang Jingyuan grabbed the handle of her suitcase. “I share the Jinghe shares under my name with you. Don’t be angry, okay?”
Zhong Zhuohua gave a faint smile. “If you had sent me off earlier, I would have been very happy. Maybe I would’ve agreed to register our marriage right then.”
But now, money couldn’t make her happy anymore.
“I’m worried I won’t live to see the day our child grows up if I keep hurting like this. After finally giving birth to Xiao Yi, I want to see her grow up healthy, live freely, and find her own happiness.”
“Also, don’t wait for me at the Shanghai house. If someone sees us, I don’t want to be blamed for interfering between you and Yang Jiayuan after breaking up.”
Jiang Jingyuan said, “If I don’t wait for you, how will I…”
Zhong Zhuohua interrupted, “Respect me just once. You’ve always respected Yang Jiayuan’s feelings. You went to meet her just because she wanted to talk, but you never consider how I feel.”
She took the suitcase from his hand and, before leaving, reached out to hug him. “I was happy with you, too. It’s just that everything changed afterward.”
As the car left the small town, the rain continued to drizzle.
Thousands of families were still deep in their dreams.
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