After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, the fake heiress binds herself to a rough-looking man

Huo Li stared at his phone screen.

He sat on the metal chair at the back door of the repair shop.

There was a disassembled gearbox at my feet, and my hands still had some engine oil on them.

The morning sun shone in at an angle.

Dust floats in the light and shadow.

Old Li poked his head out from the front: "Huo Li, the Passat on East Street is coming to be picked up this afternoon. Have you checked it yet?"

"I've finished watching it."

"Then what are you doing sitting here daydreaming?"

Huo Li held his phone in his palm, stood up, and wiped his hands with a rag.

Old Li glanced at him twice, smacked his lips, and asked, "Are you dating someone?"

Huo Li ignored him.

Old Li chuckled: "Alright, I won't ask. Anyway, even though you've been looking grumpy these past few days, your soul's not even in the car."

Huo Li tossed the wrench back into the toolbox.

Pick up your phone.

Huo Li: [Does your wound hurt?]

Jiang Yu: [It hurts.]

Huo Li stared at that word.

The cigarette pack in his hand was dented and deformed from his grip.

He rarely regrets things.

But that day at the hospital entrance, watching Jiang Yu'an carry her away, he regretted it.

I regret not just grabbing the person and getting them on the bus.

From the outside, the Jiang family's place looks like a luxurious mansion halfway up the mountain, but looking inside, it feels completely devoid of human warmth.

Huo Li raised his hand and dialed a number.

The other end answered very quickly.

There was noise in the background, with people arguing and the clattering of mahjong tiles.

Li Beichen's lazy voice came: "Young Master, what are your instructions now? I just sat down, and I haven't even warmed up the cards yet."

Huo Li cut to the chase: "The Zhao family's project with the Jiang family isn't hot enough yet."

There was a two-second silence on Li Beichen's end.

"I like hearing that. How is it not enough?"

"Make the Zhao family betray us again before tonight."

Huo Li paused, "Don't loosen the supply chain either, and pick the most troublesome clauses in the contracts."

"Are you going to mess with Jiang Yu'an?"

Huo Li picked up the lighter.

He didn't light a cigarette, but just twirled it in his hand.

"Have him stay at the company tonight."

Li Beichen let out a "yo".

"Ideally, the kind where you can't get home overnight?"

"Um."

"Tsk tsk."

Li Beichen grinned smugly, "Young Master Huo, I could hear your scheme all over the East District."

You used to be involved in serious business dealings. Now, to meet up with someone's sister, you're creating overtime pressure for your brother-in-law.

"Enough with the nonsense," Huo Li interrupted coldly.

The chair made a sharp sound as it scraped against the floor.

"Okay, okay, I'll take care of it."

Li Beichen's tone became more serious, "However, Jiang Yu'an isn't a fool. If you block his project, he'll eventually find out that someone is stabbing him in the back."

"Then let him touch half of it."

Li Beichen understood.

"Old fox," Li Beichen cursed.

Huo Li ignored him and hung up the phone.

As soon as the call ended, Jiang Yu's message popped up again.

School starts next week.

Although my brother said he would take me there and even withdrew his accommodation application, once I'm in school, I'll have some freedom.

Universities, great universities, the last refuge of human civilization.

Huo Li looked at the long string of words.

I can immediately picture her spoiled, nagging self while glued to her phone.

Delicate and spoiled.

Still being stubborn.

He replied: "Don't be too happy yet."

Jiang Yu: [Why do you talk like my brother?]

Huo Li: [I'm different from him.]

Jiang Yu: [What's different?]

Huo Li stopped typing.

It's different everywhere.

Jiang Yu'an wanted to keep her under his control.

Huo Li admitted that he wasn't a good person either.

He also wanted to possess her, to keep her by his side, and to make her seek him out first every time she felt pain or laughed.

Huo Li deleted the text that had been typed in the input box.

I only sent a short reply.

I'll let you run.

There was a half-minute silence on Jiang Yu's end.

Then they sent me an emoji.

A white cat is holding dried fish, with the caption: "You're a pretty nice person."

Huo Li chuckled softly.

Old Li, who was drinking tea in front, choked on his drink when he heard the noise.

"It's over," Old Li coughed and shook his head. "We're really in deep trouble."

……

Hillside villa.

Jiang Yu, holding her phone, laughed so hard her shoulders shook.

The little ball of light sat on the bedside table, emitting an electronic sigh.

[Host, your heart rate just increased.]

Jiang Yu laughed so hard she almost touched her wound, and hissed in pain.

She looked down at her left arm.

The gauze was neatly wrapped around the wound, and a throbbing pain rose inside.

There was a knock on the door.

This time, Jiang Yu'an didn't open the door directly.

"Jiang Yu, time to eat."

Jiang Yu shoved her phone under her pillow and quickly sat up.

She shuffled over in her slippers and opened the door.

Jiang Yu'an stood in the corridor.

He changed into dark-colored loungewear, the collar slightly open, without the usual stiffness of meticulously groomed clothes.

But he was tall, and even standing against the light, he still had that reserved and unapproachable demeanor.

"Brother," Jiang Yu called out.

After calling out, she turned her face away, her gaze fixed on the pattern of the carpet in the hallway.

Jiang Yu'an didn't move.

His gaze lingered on her slightly evasive profile for a moment.

He didn't call out her awkwardness.

"Does your arm still hurt?"

"I feel much better after taking the medicine." Jiang Yu's gaze fell on the buttons of his pajamas, and her reply was rather dry.

"Go downstairs."

Jiang Yu followed behind him, slowly descending the stairs.

Looking at Jiang Yu'an's tall and straight back, she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

This person is really emotionally stable.

I scared her half to death last night, but today I can come and call her for dinner as if nothing happened.

If it weren't for that line, "You're not my biological sister."

She's probably already tugging at his sleeve, complaining about the pain in her wound, and asking him to have a couple more desserts made for lunch.

But then that one sentence came along.

Once some things are exposed, the surface calm is like a thin layer of ice, and stepping on it always makes people tremble with fear.

Jiang Ruoruo was already seated in the restaurant.

She learned her lesson today.

Upon seeing Jiang Yu'an enter, he even stood up and called him "Big Brother".

Jiang Yu'an hummed in agreement and pulled out the chair next to the head of the table.

"sit."

Just as Jiang Yu was about to sit further away, Jiang Yu'an glanced at her.

"Sit here, it'll be easier to reach for the food."

Jiang Yu: "My right hand isn't broken."

"Don't use your left hand."

Jiang Yu had no choice but to obediently sit down.

Jiang Ruoruo lowered her head to drink the soup, and the spoon in her hand hit the rim of the bowl with a crisp sound.

On the table were crab roe wontons, sweet lotus root with osmanthus, crispy pork, and several light stir-fries.

Jiang Yu picked up a piece of crispy pork and took a bite.

His expression instantly fell.

"This is supposed to be crispy pork? It's completely dry and not oily at all."

Jiang Yu'an took the bowl and ladled a spoonful of wontons for her.

"The doctor told you to avoid certain foods."

"Then you might as well let me gnaw on the gauze."

Wang Ma almost burst out laughing, but quickly held it in.

Jiang Yu'an glanced at her: "Don't talk nonsense."

The way those three words were spoken carried a hint of how he used to discipline her.

Jiang Yu lowered her head and ate her wontons.

Jiang Ruoruo watched this scene from the opposite side, feeling a tightness in her chest.

She didn't dare to make a scene.

Jiang Yu'an is not Jiang's mother; tears will not buy him any special privileges.

But the quieter it is, the more uncomfortable I feel.

Jiang Yu sat next to Jiang Yu'an, and without doing anything, she could take away all of his patience.

Jiang Ruoruo couldn't understand it.

In Jiang Yu'an's eyes, blood ties seemed to be worthless.