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

"Oh dear, Mingzhu, what are you saying?"

“We’re best friends, how could I laugh at you? I’m just concerned about you! I heard things weren’t going well for you, so I called to check on you.”

"care?"

Yin Mingzhu sneered, her laughter devoid of any warmth. "Xu Siqi, stop with your hypocritical act. Is there any sisterly affection left between us?"

A brief silence.

"Mingzhu, what you said... is too hurtful." Xu Siqi lowered her voice, with a hint of helplessness that seemed to come from the bottom of her heart. "I called because I really wanted to help you."

To be honest.

She had always regarded Yin Mingzhu as her good friend, best friend, and even older sister, and never thought that one day she would fall out with this good friend, best friend, and older sister.

But at this moment, facing these questions from the other party, she couldn't help but get angry.

Why should she be falsely accused before she has even said anything?

Is she making this call to see Yin Mingzhu make a fool of herself?

Couldn't it just be out of concern for you, Yin Mingzhu?
Everyone else has let go of the past, but you, Yin Mingzhu, can't let go and keep clinging to things from the past.

Lu Yang was someone you gave up on back then. I didn't steal your man. You were the one who didn't want him and took the initiative to break off the engagement, giving him to your own sister. Even if you want to resent me or hate me, it should be your sister Mingyue who hates me.

What right do you have to hate me or resent me?

Okay, since you put it that way, then I'll just pretend I really want to see you make a fool of yourself.

Thinking about this...

Xu Siqi's voice suddenly rose, and the deliberately sweet tone was replaced by an offensive sharpness.

“Mingzhu, I’ve always considered you my best friend. We lived and ate together for four years of university. I considered you my own sister! I never imagined we’d end up like this! But what about you? Before I could even say anything, you’ve already used such vicious words to speculate about me and wrong me?! Don’t you think that’s going too far?”

"Injustice?"

Yin Mingzhu scoffed, her icy mockery almost overflowing.

"Sisi, stop with your fake sisterly affection! 'Big sister'? I don't have a sister like you. Me, Yin Mingzhu, breaking off the engagement? Because I didn't want it? Ha! Even if I was blind back then, that's between him and me! What right do you have? What right do you have to stand here and point fingers at me like a victor?!"

Her words came like a barrage of bullets, each one like a knife, completely tearing apart their past friendship.

In her view, Xu Siqi's phone call at this moment was nothing short of an insult from her "best friend" following Lu Yang's precise strike.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Xu Siqi was completely enraged. She uttered three consecutive "Fine!"s, her voice trembling with exasperation: "Since you insist on thinking that I'm here to laugh at you, then I'll just come here to laugh at you! Yin Mingzhu, you deserve it! It's your own fault for not being able to let go, for repeatedly provoking Brother Lu Yang! It's your own fault for pushing yourself to the brink! You can't blame anyone else!"

"Did I provoke him?"

Yin Mingzhu's voice was distorted by extreme anger.

"What did my starting a business do to him? I earn my living through my own abilities, so why does he keep suppressing me like he's crushing an ant? This time it's even worse; he's directly using money to cut off my livelihood!"
Xu Siqi, tell me, isn't this his way of ruthlessly eliminating us?
And you, fawning over him, playing the role of a gentle, understanding confidante, then turn around and use my company's 'evidence of plagiarism' to stab him in the back! You two are truly a match made in heaven!

"You're talking nonsense!"

Xu Siqi screamed, her voice cracking with excitement.

"What groveling and begging? What stabbing in the back? I'm calling you out of old friendship, because I don't want you to lose too badly! Mingzhu Media plagiarized the program format of my Sifei Media, and the evidence is irrefutable! Our legal department has already prepared everything! I wanted to tell you in advance so you could be mentally prepared, perhaps... perhaps we could still leave some room for maneuver before officially sending the letter! But what did you do? You just stood there biting people like a mad dog! Treating everyone as your enemy!"

"Give me a heads-up? Leave me some room for maneuver?"

Yin Mingzhu seemed to have heard the most absurd joke; her chest heaved violently, and her breathing became heavy and irregular.

"Xu Siqi, do you really think I'm a three-year-old? Your so-called 'reminder' is just you wanting to see my panicked expression before I'm done suffering, isn't it? Plagiarism? Conclusive evidence? Ha, when you're determined to find fault, you can always find a pretext! Aren't you just trying to completely crush me? Lu Yang used his capital to cut off my path, and now you're using the law to finish me off! What a brilliant tactic! What a brilliant tactic! You two are working together flawlessly!"

"Yin Mingzhu! You—you are unreasonable!"

Xu Siqi's voice trembled with anger.

“Look at yourself now, so stubborn, mean-spirited, and full of resentment! No wonder Brother Lu Yang…”

"Shut up!" Yin Mingzhu interrupted sharply, a metallic taste rising in her throat, and her vision blurred.

Xu Siqi's unspoken words, "No wonder Brother Lu Yang didn't want you back then," were like a poisoned dagger, precisely piercing her deepest old scar.

The immense humiliation and anger instantly overwhelmed the dam of reason.

She coughed violently, each breath accompanied by a tearing pain and a sharp wheezing sound.

"I won't argue with you!" Xu Siqi's voice turned cold, carrying a resolute determination to completely break off relations.

"Since you're so stubborn, there's nothing more to say. Get ready for your lawyer's letter! We'll see in court!"

"Fine!" Yin Mingzhu endured the burning pain in her throat and the suffocating feeling in her chest, and roared back with all her might. Her voice was broken by coughing, but it was filled with a ruthless determination to destroy everything.

"I'm waiting! Go ahead and sue me if you dare! If you win, I, Yin Mingzhu, will admit defeat! At worst, I'll shut Mingzhu Media down! That will also fulfill your evil intentions, you two scoundrels! Let's see who laughs last!"

"Bang!" She slammed the receiver back onto the landline, the loud noise echoing in the deathly silent office.

His body trembled uncontrollably from violent coughing and anger. His face turned from flushed to an abnormal cyanosis, and his forehead was instantly covered with fine cold sweat. Each breath he took was like pulling a broken bellows, producing a sharp and piercing wheezing sound.

“Cough…cough cough…Lu…Lu Yang! Lu Yang!!!” She coughed painfully as she screamed the name with all her might, as if she wanted to pour all her resentment, unwillingness and despair into those two words.

At this moment, old and new grudges erupted completely—her first entrepreneurial venture was ruthlessly crushed by him; her second venture, which was showing some promise, was also targeted by him, forcing her to let him acquire the company; now, for the third time, her painstakingly built Pearl Media was about to reach a new peak, but he joined forces with her "best friend," one using capital to cut off her support, and the other wielding the big stick of law to strike at the heart of the matter!

This is no longer just suppression; this is an attempt to plunge her into an abyss of no return!

Her heavy breathing made it almost impossible for her to stand. She staggered and grabbed the edge of the cold desk to steady her swaying body. Her vision was blurred, and her chest felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on it. Each breath was accompanied by an unbearable dull pain and a sharp scream.

She forgot, or rather, she simply didn't want to think about it. If she hadn't provoked Lu Yang again, if she hadn't spoken ill of her kind-hearted sister Mingyue, Lu Yang might not have made a move again.

As for the TV stations' "unauthorized actions," it was merely her last bit of stubbornness in refusing to admit that she had become a victim of the power struggle among capitalists.

"President Yin! President Yin, what's wrong?!"

Secretary Yu Li was already terrified by the tense phone call and Yin Mingzhu's screams, and had been standing guard outside the door.

Hearing the heart-wrenching coughs and terrifying wheezing coming from inside, he could no longer care about propriety and burst through the door.

Seeing Yin Mingzhu's painfully hunched over, her face turning purple and covered in cold sweat, she was so frightened that her face turned pale and her voice changed.

"Medicine...my medicine..." Yin Mingzhu squeezed out a few words with difficulty, her fingers trembling as she pointed to her briefcase, each breath feeling like dancing on a knife's edge.

Yu Li rushed over in a panic, frantically searching for the expensive briefcase.

Documents, notebooks, and pens were scattered all over the floor, and her fingers trembled violently with fear.

Finally, in the innermost pocket, she found the small, cold medicine bottle.

The English label on the bottle stood out starkly in the chaos—it was a powerful asthma control medication.

"Found it! Found it!" Yu Li cried out, her voice trembling as she unscrewed the bottle cap, poured out a few small white pills, and carefully held them to Yin Mingzhu's lips.

"Mr. Yin, hurry, hurry and put it in your mouth!"

Yin Mingzhu practically snatched the pill and shoved it under her tongue.

The bitter taste of the medicine spread rapidly in her mouth. She closed her eyes and forced herself to slow her breathing, even though each attempt was accompanied by tearing pain and persistent wheezing.

Cold sweat trickled down her forehead and temples, soaking her collar.

The only sounds in the office were her heavy, labored breathing and Yu Li's suppressed sobs.

Time seemed to stand still.

A few pills slowly melted under the tongue, and the potent drug began to work laboriously on the spasming airways.

The heart-stopping wheezing gradually subsided, changing from sharp and piercing to low and deep, and then slowly turning into heavy but slightly more steady breathing.

The cyanosis on Yin Mingzhu's face was slowly fading. Although she was still as pale as paper, the suffocating feeling of impending death was finally dissipating.

She slumped helplessly in the large executive chair, soaked to the bone as if she had just been pulled out of the water, her eyes staring blankly at the magnificent crystal chandelier on the ceiling, only her chest still heaving violently.

Yu Li knelt beside her, gently wiping the cold sweat from her forehead with a tissue, her voice trembling with relief: "President Yin, are you feeling any better? Should we... should we call a doctor?"

Yin Mingzhu did not answer, but simply shook her head wearily.

The physical crisis was temporarily averted, but the mental storm was just beginning to rage within her.

With its television channels frozen by capital and the sword of legal action hanging over its head, Mingzhu Media is truly at a critical juncture of life and death.

Just then, there was a rapid knock on the office door. Before there was a response, the public relations manager burst in, his face pale, clutching a heavy envelope with the "Sifei Media" logo on it.

"Mr. Yin...Ms. Yin!" The manager's voice was filled with obvious panic and disbelief. His gaze swept over the messy ground and Yin Mingzhu's exhausted state, and he was too frightened to go forward.

"I just...just received it! Sifei Media...their lawyer's letter...has officially...officially arrived!"

Yin Mingzhu stared intently at the letter that marked the official start of the legal battle, and her chest, which had just calmed down a little thanks to the medication, began to heave violently again.

Anger, humiliation, and a do-or-die determination burned in her eyes.

"Heh...cough cough...good...very good!" Yin Mingzhu's voice was hoarse, but it revealed a fierce determination.

"She was quick! Lu Yang had just cut off my escape route when she handed me the knife!"

She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the itch that surged in her throat again, and her gaze, sharp as a quenched blade, shot towards the public relations manager: "What's the panic?! We'll deal with whatever comes our way! Since they've made their move, we'll respond! It's just a lawsuit; Pearl Media isn't that fragile!"

She struggled to sit up, and Yu Li quickly stepped forward to help her.

Yin Mingzhu pushed her hand away and stood up by holding onto the edge of the table. Although she was still a little swaying, her back was straight. Her inherent pride and stubbornness were brought to the extreme in this desperate situation.

“Yu Li.” Her voice regained its usual, unquestionable authority, though it was hoarse with a sickly tone.

"Immediately! Contact the best intellectual property lawyers in the country! No! Hire the best legal team! The very best! Money is no object! This is Shanghai, the mainland! Not Singapore, and certainly not a place where Lu Yang can control everything! Pearl Media is the leading entertainment company in Shanghai, and a major taxpayer! I want to see what tricks they can pull in this lawsuit!"

"Yes, President Yin! I'll take care of it right away!" Yu Li was intimidated by Yin Mingzhu's imposing manner, nodded heavily, and turned to leave quickly.

Once again, only Yin Mingzhu remained in the office.

The intense emotional turmoil and her recently subsided asthma made Yin Mingzhu feel dizzy, forcing her to sit back down in her chair and close her eyes wearily.

However, beneath those tightly closed eyelids, the eyeballs were trembling violently, revealing that the turmoil within had not subsided.

Lu Yang... Xu Siqi... TV station... lawsuit... plagiarism accusations...

One noose after another is tightening from all directions.

Her breathing remained heavy, each breath carrying the lingering burning pain from the attack.

The sunlight outside the window was still blinding.

But this time, only a cold, blood-stained resolve remained on Yin Mingzhu's face.

During her years studying in Beijing, and later working at Beijing Television, she was affected by severe smog. Combined with a period of shock, her health deteriorated, she developed mild depression, and she also developed severe asthma. (End of Chapter)