Chapter 57: Stay Out of My Sight from Now On

“Hm? Why did you send Special Assistant Gao away? Do you have something to say?” Xu Yunzhu turned her head and looked at him curiously.

Pei Qiaonian frowned slightly, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I think your mother is a bit strange.”

“Huh?” Xu Yunzhu looked at him in confusion. “Hasn't she always been like that?”

In her memory, ever since she returned from her adoptive parents’ home, her mother had disliked her. Perhaps it was that rustic air about her that was unwelcome. But Xu Yunzhu thought, so what if she came from the countryside? She hadn’t stolen or robbed; there was no reason for her mother to treat her so coldly.

So Lady Xu responded to her perfunctorily, and she didn’t bother to curry favor either.

“No matter how harsh a mother might be, she couldn’t possibly treat her own daughter so poorly, while being so kind to an adopted child. The same goes for your father. He only saw you as a tool. Before you disappeared, you lived with them and there were feelings involved. But after you went missing, they adopted Xu Muning right away, and didn’t even put much effort into finding you. It’s as if they accepted your disappearance naturally. Don’t you find that odd?” Pei Qiaonian continued.

Xu Yunzhu was stunned. His words were a revelation, waking her from a dream.

Yes, if her own daughter went missing, how could a mother so quickly adopt another girl to replace her, and not even send people to search further, all under the pretense of avoiding painful memories? When the real daughter returned, their faces turned even darker, and they didn’t even bother with a paternity test. Just because she resembled Lady Xu by seventy or eighty percent, they grudgingly acknowledged her.

Xu Yunzhu rubbed her chin and narrowed her eyes. “So, what are you getting at?”

Pei Qiaonian glanced at her. “I don’t know how you even managed to grow up like this. Your family treats you so poorly and you don’t even react. You still stupidly run errands for them. Honestly, you’re hopeless.”

Xu Yunzhu: “…”

She was only a latecomer.

After absorbing the original’s memories, Xu Yunzhu retorted, dissatisfied, “But I do have people I care about. My adoptive mother—she suffered so much for me, even got beaten by my adoptive father to protect me. I can’t just think of myself and ignore her.”

She smiled at Pei Qiaonian. “You don’t know how hard it is for people at the bottom to find money for medical treatment.”

Pei Qiaonian’s gaze lingered on her smile. His lips moved, and when he looked up, he caught a glimpse of his own alluring face in the rearview mirror.

How could he not know what it’s like at the bottom? He’d lived for fifteen years in an abysmal, chaotic, and disgusting environment. Only after his true identity was revealed did he enter the Pei family. But even there, he wasn’t welcomed.

He didn’t know who in this world could truly accept him, unafraid of the darkness within him.

The person beside him, even their marriage was something he forced through threats, just because he feared Xu Yunzhu might stab him in the back. He couldn’t let himself be in danger.

At this thought, his eyes grew cold once more.

He closed his eyes. “I don’t want to meddle in your family affairs. When things are back to normal, investigate for yourself whether you’re really their biological daughter. And stay out of my sight as much as possible.”

Xu Yunzhu: “…”

What was his problem now?!

Faced with such a moody man, Xu Yunzhu could only keep silent and do her best not to disturb him.

She drove Pei Qiaonian back to his private villa.

Xu Yunzhu stayed in the car and didn’t get out.

As Pei Qiaonian closed the car door, he bent down and lowered his voice, “Tomorrow, go talk to President Yan about the new energy project. After the meeting, go back home.”

Xu Yunzhu dug at her ear with her finger. “Got it.”

“And stay away from Wei Zhichen. If he comes looking for you, avoid him, or just find a new hotel. I’m not interested in sharing a bed with a man.” With that, Pei Qiaonian finally shut the car door.

Special Assistant Gao, who had been waiting outside, only got back into the driver’s seat with a smile after Pei Qiaonian left. Not disturbing the couple’s private moments was part of his job.

As the car drove away, neither of them noticed Ning Qinghuan not far off, witnessing the whole scene.

She held a basin in her hands, her face pale as she watched the exchange.

She saw “Xu Yunzhu” step out of a luxury car, with the faint silhouette of a man inside. She bent down, their actions intimate.

She hadn’t seen the man’s face, but she recognized Special Assistant Gao! He was Pei Qiaonian’s right-hand man, always accompanying him wherever he went.

The basin slipped from her grasp. Only then did she take out her phone and unlock it, staring at the pinned account at the top. Clicking in, there was a long string of red exclamation marks. Later, that account had been deleted.

So was he ignoring her now because he’d found someone new?

Ning Qinghuan couldn’t help but snicker bitterly—Xu Yunzhu, oh Xu Yunzhu.

Pretending to like Pei Jin, but secretly playing such games.

She had really underestimated her.

“Qinghuan? Why did your basin fall?” A gentle female voice called out.

Ning Qinghuan quickly locked her phone and turned around as if nothing had happened, just in time to see the gentle and elegant Xie Zhiyuan approaching.

“I’m sorry, the basin was a bit heavy and I spilled the water halfway. I’ll go get another one,” Ning Qinghuan said apologetically.

Xie Zhiyuan stepped forward to pick it up for her, smiling warmly. “Who would have thought the water supply in the villa would suddenly be cut off? Let me help you.”

Ning Qinghuan smiled back. “Thank you, Sister Zhiyuan.”

She knew Xie Zhiyuan was considered a suitable match for Pei Qiaonian, a prospective partner arranged by their families. But Pei Qiaonian seemed to have rejected her.

She only knew because Pei Jin had told her.

Pei Jin said that someone like Pei Qiaonian had standards set so high he wouldn’t even consider Xie Zhiyuan, but Xie Zhiyuan was quite taken with him and was still trying to get close.

With her family background, she didn’t need to be so proactive.

But Pei Qiaonian was young, accomplished, and strikingly handsome. Even disregarding his family, his looks alone could drive countless women mad with desire.

Yet, despite his popularity, he remained solitary and untouched by scandal.

Perhaps that was what drew Xie Zhiyuan to him, and it was also what attracted Ning Qinghuan.

She knew what she wanted: the very best, in every aspect.

But she didn’t know what she had done wrong for Pei Qiaonian to lose patience with her and turn to someone new.

Xu Yunzhu riding in his car probably meant that man had already accepted her.

Ning Qinghuan clenched her fists. Xu Yunzhu had told her about her past—a violent adoptive father, a timid adoptive mother, even after finding her biological parents life hadn’t improved, and the only hope she had was her engagement to Pei Jin.

As for Ning Qinghuan herself, she had a gambling father, a mother with no opinions, and a younger brother still in school.

Their families were so similar, so why was Xu Yunzhu so lucky?

Why did Ning Qinghuan have to claw her way up on her own, step by step?

She glanced at Xie Zhiyuan, a shadow flickering in her eyes, and asked hesitantly, “Sister Zhiyuan, are you still in touch with President Pei?”

Xie Zhiyuan was slightly taken aback, but her gaze remained gentle. “Why do you ask all of a sudden?”

Ning Qinghuan replied candidly, “I think I just saw Special Assistant Gao nearby. Did President Pei know you were filming here and come to see you in secret? But he left soon after.”