Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

"...We are a family."

She spoke the last few words exceptionally slowly, with an indescribable bitterness in her voice.

Yin Mingzhu's back seemed to straighten even more.

She turned around abruptly, her movements carrying an almost resolute air.

Those eyes, almost identical to her sister's, were now filled with frost, like a deliberately constructed dam, isolating her surging emotions.

She didn't want to see any emotion on that similar face that could soften her heart.

"Family?" Yin Mingzhu's lips curled into an almost mocking smile, her voice still cold and hard. "Yin Mingyue, do you think we can still be considered 'family' now? Isn't Mom's choice the best answer?"

Her words were sharp and went straight to the heart of the matter.

Ma Xiulan's departure itself created a huge chasm between the sisters.

Yin Mingyue did not immediately refute, but quietly looked at her sister. In the depths of her gentle eyes, there was pain, as well as an almost stubborn persistence.

"Just because of Mom's choice, we're no longer sisters? Just because of... what happened in the past?"

She avoided the more central name, but both of them knew it.

"Something from the past?"

Yin Mingzhu repeated, her gaze sharp as a knife: "You think that's just 'something of the past'? It changed everything! It ruined two of my startups, ruined my life plans, and even..."

Her words came to an abrupt halt, as if she realized that the words she was about to utter would tear open her most unbearable wounds.

She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her surging anger and humiliation, and abruptly changed the subject: "Forget it. Didn't you want to talk? This isn't the place. Let's go to the coffee shop downstairs, ten minutes."

After saying that, she stopped looking at her sister's reaction, turned around first, and her high heels clattered crisply and rapidly on the marble floor, as if she were escaping, or perhaps making some kind of declaration.

Yin Mingyue watched her sister's resolute figure disappear around the corner of the corridor, sighed softly, a trace of weariness flashing in her eyes, and then followed after her.

The coffee shop on the first floor of the five-star hotel is elegant and filled with soft piano music.

However, the atmosphere in the corner booths by the window was completely out of place with this leisurely style.

Yin Mingzhu had already sat down and ordered a black coffee.

She tilted her head slightly, her gaze fixed on the dazzling city lights outside the window, seemingly uninterested in her younger sister who had just sat down in front of her.

A delicate leather handbag sat at her side, and her black business suit made her appear exceptionally cold and unapproachable under the soft lighting.

Yin Mingyue didn't order anything; she simply placed her hands together on the table covered with a beige tablecloth, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing against each other.

She looked at her sister's cold profile, unsure how to break the heavy silence.

Time passed in silence, each second feeling exceptionally long. The aroma of coffee filled the air, but it couldn't dispel the chill between them.

Finally, Yin Mingzhu picked up the small white porcelain cup in front of her and took a sip of the piping hot black coffee.

The bitter liquid slid down her throat, but her gaze remained fixed on the past, her voice as calm as if stating a fact unrelated to herself:

"Mom is doing very well now."

This abrupt statement shattered the ice of silence.

Yin Mingyue was slightly taken aback, then realized that this was an answer to her earlier question about her mother.

Her fingertips stopped stroking, waiting for what would happen next.

Yin Mingzhu put down her cup, her gaze still fixed on the flashing neon lights outside the window, and continued in a flat tone: "Back then, she insisted on giving all those millions to your sister, saying it was for starting a business. Ha..."

She let out a very soft, ambiguous sneer, "Those mere few million are probably not even a drop in the ocean for your good husband, right?"

Yin Mingyue opened her mouth, as if to say something, but ultimately swallowed it back.

She understood her mother Ma Xiulan's personality.

"But Mom doesn't think so."

Yin Mingzhu finally turned around, her gaze landing directly on her sister's face for the first time, with a sharp, insightful look. "She gave me all her savings, even for her funeral. When she stayed at your house again, she felt extremely uncomfortable around you, especially around Lu Yang. She always felt inferior and couldn't breathe. Later, she lost money in the stock market and incurred a debt of several million yuan to the bank, which you guys covered..."

She paused, as if choosing her words carefully, "This thorn is now completely stuck in her throat. She feels like a burden, like you are giving her charity."

Yin Mingyue's eyes dimmed slightly.

She knew her mother was strong-willed, but she never imagined that behind that strength lay such deep, almost pathological sensitivity and guilt.

She recalled her mother's restlessness and hesitation before she left.

“Until…” Yin Mingzhu’s lips curled into a subtle smile, whether it was sarcasm or something else, “until she heard that I, the eldest daughter she had ‘dragged down,’ had actually ‘made a fortune,’ and after selling the company, I became a billionaire.”

She specifically emphasized the word "billionaire," saying, "Of course, I told her that the money belonged to the whole team, not just me. But in my mother's eyes, her unmarried daughter had made a fortune, so it was the Ma family's money. She, the old lady of the Ma family, no longer had to live under someone else's roof and have to look down on her son-in-law."

Her tone was calm and descriptive, yet it clearly depicted her mother's state of mind at the time.

"So, she packed her things overnight and came to me without looking back." Yin Mingzhu picked up her coffee cup and took another small sip.

Yin Mingyue's heart clenched suddenly.

She recalled the countless times she had called her mother, wanting her to come back and stay for a few days to see her grandchildren, but her mother always made excuses, saying she wasn't feeling well or was too busy to leave.

So that was the real reason. An indescribable bittersweet feeling welled up inside me.

"Is she alright now..." Yin Mingyue's voice was a little hoarse.

"I told you, she's fine."

Yin Mingzhu put down her cup, her tone returning to its previous calmness, "I started an entertainment company, Mingzhu Media. It's not a big company, nothing like the one you get a license for, but there's still a lot to do. Mom can't sit still, so she often comes to the company to help look at documents or manage the young artists for me. Nobody knows who she is, and everyone likes her, calling her 'Sister Lan.' She seems to enjoy it, and she looks much more energetic than she did back home."

Seeing the concern and disappointment in her sister's eyes, Yin Mingzhu added, "She's quite happy now. She feels valuable and not a burden to anyone."

"I understand," Yin Mingyue replied softly, lowering her eyes, her long eyelashes casting a small shadow beneath them.

She could understand her mother's choice, but the sense of loss of being "abandoned" by her closest relatives still weighed heavily on her.

Another silence fell between them, broken only by the occasional soft tapping of the coffee cup against the saucer.

After a long while, Yin Mingyue raised her head, her voice pleading: "Sister...please ask Mom to come back and visit when she has time. Xin'er and Xiao Fan both miss their grandma. Xiao Fan keeps asking, 'Where did grandma go?'"

"I understand." Yin Mingzhu's reply was still brief, devoid of emotion.

Yin Mingyue took a deep breath, seemingly gathering her courage, and braced herself on the table to stand up: "Then... I'll go back first. Xin'er and Xiao Fan must be worried because they can't see me. And your brother-in-law..."

She paused for a moment, and when she mentioned that name, her voice unconsciously softened, "He...he can't see me, but he'll still look for me."

"Alright, you can go in now." Yin Mingzhu waved her hand, her tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible fatigue. "I'll finish this cup of coffee."

Yin Mingyue nodded, picked up the beige handbag placed beside her, and turned to walk towards the elevator leading to the hotel banquet hall.

Her silhouette remained elegant, but her steps seemed to carry a hint of urgency and a desire to escape.

Yin Mingzhu's gaze followed her younger sister's back as she watched her slender figure walk through the coffee shop and into the bright lobby.

Just before Yin Mingyue was about to step into the elevator, Yin Mingzhu, as if finally unable to suppress the turbulent undercurrent in her heart, suddenly opened her mouth. Her voice was not loud, but it pierced through the soft music in the coffee shop with exceptional clarity:

"Yin Mingyue!"

Yin Mingyue's steps froze instantly, as if she had been tripped by an invisible rope.

Yin Mingzhu stared at her retreating figure, and word by word, with an almost cruel bluntness, posed the most weighty question hanging between them:
"Are you even aware that he has another woman on the side?"

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Yin Mingyue stood still, her back to her sister, so her expression was not visible.

The bright lights in the elevator outlined her stiff profile.

The air around seemed to have stopped moving, with only the faint sound of a piano continuing to drift in from afar.

The silence that lasted a few seconds felt like an eternity.

Then, Yin Mingyue slowly and very slightly shook her head.

She didn't turn around, offered no explanation, or question her sister about why she suddenly brought this up.

He simply turned his back to Yin Mingzhu and gently shook his head.

Then, as if she had exhausted all her strength, or as if she had finally received some kind of confirmation, she lifted her foot and continued walking forward, her figure eventually disappearing behind the elevator door.

Yin Mingzhu's gaze remained fixed on the direction where her sister had disappeared for a long time.

She picked up the slightly cooled cup of black coffee on the table, brought it to her lips, but didn't drink it. The stirring spoon moved unconsciously in the cup, the dark brown liquid swirling.

A complex, self-deprecating smile slowly crept up the corners of her mouth.

"It seems that I am meddling in other people's business."

She murmured to herself, her voice so soft that only she could hear it.

There was no anger or accusation in his voice, only a deep weariness and understanding that came from knowing everything.

She recalled the overwhelming sense of betrayal she felt when she couldn't tolerate Lu Yang getting involved with her best friend.

It turns out that Yin Mingyue was the same.

She could tolerate Lu Yang having other women outside, just as she tolerated a "standard feature" of successful men in a business society, a "rule" she had to accept and maintain to be respectable.

But what she couldn't tolerate was that the woman was herself—her own blood-related older sister.

That touched upon her most fundamental taboos and dignity.

“Sisi…” Yin Mingzhu’s fingertips unconsciously traced the warm rim of the cup, her gaze sharpening and turning icy, as if piercing through the void before her to see the woman across the ocean, the woman she once considered her best friend. “Your Sifei Media, every time you’re perfectly positioned to ride the wave, always one step ahead of me. 'Day Day Up'? 'Chinese Paladin'? 'Super Girl'? One after another, inspiration flows like an inexhaustible spring, every idea flawless…”

She picked up her coffee and finally drank the last bit of bitter, cold liquid at the bottom of the cup in one gulp. Her throat bobbed as if she were swallowing something even more bitter.

“But, Sisi, I know…” Her voice was even lower, with an almost curse-like certainty, “This is definitely not your ability.”

The neon lights outside the window reflected shifting light and shadow in her cold pupils, just like the ambition and resentment churning in her heart at that moment.

She put down the empty glass, the bottom of which collided with the saucer, making a crisp yet lonely sound.

"I will defeat you." Yin Mingzhu declared war silently to the air, to Xu Siqi who was far away in Singapore, and to herself who seemed to be forever shrouded in the shadow of Sifei Media.

The vow, heavy with unspoken weight, settled in the brown stain remaining at the bottom of the coffee cup. (End of Chapter)