Stepdaughter of a wealthy family? The little darling of a Beijing tycoon

Startled by Bai Zhi's casual words, Bai's mother said urgently and guiltily, "How can an ordinary jade pendant be the same! That jade pendant can't be lost! It concerns Hao Hao..."

She was speaking when she suddenly realized she had almost revealed her biggest secret. She immediately cut herself off, suppressing her panic, and firmly commanded, "Enough talk! Get to the hospital right now! Come immediately!"

After saying that, she hurriedly hung up the phone.

Bai Zhi gripped her phone, her eyes cold and indifferent. She showed no intention of moving, turning back to sit at the table, and gave Shen Jingshu and Ye Shuang a nonchalant smile: "My mother is getting anxious."

"With the formation broken, the stolen fortune was completely severed, and the backlash manifested on Bai Haochen. His current state is the result of karma."

In her haste, Bai's mother let slip that the two jade pendants were not ordinary amulets, but rather evil magical artifacts designed to absorb her luck and nourish Bai Haochen.

Looking at her calm demeanor, Ye Shuang couldn't help but ask softly with concern, "Are you... really alright?"

Bai Zhi shook her head, her eyes filled with only relief and indifference: "I'm fine. From beginning to end, it wasn't me who was wrong, it was them. My life, luck, opportunities, and blessings, which should have been smooth sailing, were forcibly taken away by my own parents and given to my younger brother. I didn't go to them to demand an explanation; that's already more than enough."

After the three of them finished their dinner in a relaxed manner, Bai Zhi drove alone to the First Municipal Hospital.

Meanwhile, Bai's parents paced anxiously in the hospital room, unable to sit still.

Bai Hongwen kept glancing towards the door, his face dark and gloomy. He said impatiently, "Bai Zhi clearly promised to come right away, but it's been almost an hour, and there's still no sign of her!"

Mrs. Bai was agitated, gripping her phone and gritting her teeth: "I'll call her again and urge her! That ungrateful wretch!"

"Need not!"

As soon as Bai's mother finished speaking, the ward door was gently pushed open.

Bai Zhi walked in with a tall and straight figure, her expression calm and without a trace of anxiety or worry.

Bai's mother immediately exploded, bombarding her with questions: "What have you been doing! Why did you take so long to come? We've been waiting for you for over an hour!"

"The place to eat is far away, and there's traffic on the way," Bai Zhi replied casually.

Her gaze swept past the two of them and landed directly on the hospital bed.

Bai Haochen lay quietly, his face as pale as paper, his eyes closed, lifeless, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep. Various monitoring instruments beside the bed beeped softly, and although the vital signs on the screens had temporarily stabilized, they exuded a deathly weakness.

Just then, Bai Hongwen, who had been silently scrutinizing her, suddenly spoke, his gaze sharp and full of scrutiny and suspicion, locking onto Bai Zhi: "Bai Zhi, do you know something?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Zhi slowly raised her eyes, smiled gently, and calmly met his suspicious gaze, neither looking away nor avoiding it: "Dad, what do you think I should know?"

Bai Hongwen was enraged by her frank and composed attitude. Unable to suppress the anger in his heart, he coldly demanded, "Did you do something to Hao Hao to make him like this?"

"Don't play dumb! Have you discovered the secret of those two jade pendants?!"

Listening to his distorted and self-righteous questioning, Bai Zhi finally laughed out loud. Her laughter was cold and sorrowful, and the grievances and heartache she had accumulated over the years erupted at this moment.

Her words were clear and sharp, each sentence piercing to the heart, tearing away their hypocritical and selfish true colors:

"What secret does the jade pendant hold?"

"Dad, why don't you tell me?"

"Are you saying that you're willing to sacrifice your own daughter to defy fate for your precious son?"

"Or are you saying that you've been using an evil formation to plunder my destiny, longevity, and fortune over the years, forcibly transferring all my life's luck to Bai Haochen?"

These words struck like a thunderbolt in the hospital room.

Bai Hongwen's face turned deathly pale instantly. The composure and toughness in his eyes shattered. He stood frozen in place, his lips trembling slightly, unable to utter a single word.

The mother, standing to the side, trembled with fright and instinctively took a half step back, her eyes darting around in a panic, completely losing the domineering and accusatory aura she had just displayed.

Their supposedly flawless scheme, the secret fortune-changing array they had set up, had actually been discovered by Bai Zhi long ago!

In the deathly silent ward, the beeping of the medical equipment was particularly jarring.

Bai Zhi's gaze swept coldly over the two panicked individuals. Her voice was calm yet chilling, continuing to pierce their hearts with each word:

"Do you think you've covered your tracks perfectly? Do you think I'm easy to manipulate? That I've been sold out and I should be grateful and pave the way for my brother?"

"From the moment I put on that jade pendant, my luck got worse year by year. Everything went wrong, I was inexplicably tired, and opportunities kept slipping away. No matter how hard I tried, all the good things would inexplicably fall through."

"I never understood why, I thought it was because I was unlucky, until recently I finally realized—it wasn't that I was unlucky, it was that you stole my life with your own hands."

Mother Bai's eyes reddened with anxiety, a mixture of panic and fear washing over her. Finally, she tore off her mask of feigned kindness, screaming furiously, "We're doing this for the Bai family! For Hao Hao! Hao Hao is the only remaining member of the Bai family! You're the older sister, what's wrong with sacrificing a little for your brother?! It's just taking a bit of your luck, not your life! How could you be so heartless as to ruin Hao Hao like this?!"

"Give me a little bit of your luck?" Bai Zhi chuckled, her eyes completely devoid of warmth. "Years of good fortune, career success, marriage, and a smooth life—that's what you call giving me a little bit?"

"You used evil magic to lock my fate, draining my good fortune to nourish him, making my life mediocre and full of hardships, while he enjoys a life of ease and success. Your favoritism should have limits; I am also your own flesh and blood!"

Bai Hongwen forcibly suppressed his guilty conscience, maintaining his parental authority, and rebuked with a stern face: "Bai Zhi! Things have come to this, and I won't deny it! But Hao Hao is your own brother! He's lying in a hospital bed, his life hanging in the balance. You immediately restore the formation to its original state! Return the fortune to your brother!"

These words utterly extinguished Bai Zhi's last shred of hope.

She stared coldly at her utterly selfish parents, her heart completely broken: "Restore? Then who will restore the fortune that was stolen from me, the destiny that was damaged?"

"When you set up that evil formation, you never considered that I was also your child. Now, the formation has backfired, and the karmic retribution has fallen on Bai Haochen. It's the justice of Heaven; he deserves it!"

"You! How can you be so cold-blooded!" Mother Bai was so angry that she trembled all over.

"I'm cold-blooded?" Bai Zhi raised her eyes, her gaze sharp as a knife. "Compared to you scheming against your daughter and defying fate to raise your son, my cold-bloodedness is nothing more than one ten-thousandth of yours."

"I'm making this clear today. The formation is broken, the cause and effect are set, and there's no possibility of restoration. From this day forward, his good fortune will no longer be tied to me, and his life, whether good or bad, is none of my concern."

Seeing that neither persuasion nor coercion would work, Bai Hongwen's eyes flashed with ruthlessness. He gritted his teeth and threatened, "Bai Zhi, have you thought this through? If you insist on ignoring everything, you won't inherit a single penny of the Bai family's resources, assets, or connections! We'll pretend we never had a daughter like you!"

"As you see fit."

Bai Zhi remained calm and showed no trace of regret. "Over the years, thanks to my good fortune, you have already poured all your resources into Bai Haochen. There has never been a place for me in the Bai family. From now on, I, Bai Zhi, sever all ties with the Bai family and will have no further involvement with them."

After saying that, she stopped looking at the two men, whose faces were ashen and who were furious, and gave one last glance at Bai Haochen, who was still unconscious on the bed.

The last vestiges of sibling affection and longing for parents that remained in my heart vanished completely at this moment.

She turned around resolutely, without the slightest hesitation, and walked out of the ward.

The ward door closed gently, isolating the Bai couple inside from their rage and breakdown, and also completely shutting out her humble and forbearing first half of life.