Author: DawnMachine Translation
‘If I can’t scrape together the money for the medical bills in three days,’ Zuo Aiai thought to herself, ‘I might be driven to do something unimaginable to get it.’
She took a deep breath, trying to recover from the despair her father’s heartlessness had thrown her into.
She felt like she could count on nobody, like there was nothing left for her to look forward to.
‘Zuo Aiai, the only person you can rely on now is yourself,’ she thought.
Steeling herself for the worst, she raised an arm to knock on the door to the study again. When he answered, Zuo Tianhao’s voice was even angrier than before.
“What are you doing here again?!” he snarled.
She straightened her back and looked him straight in the eye, responding coldly, “I’m here to take the deed for my flower shop. It belongs to me. I’ve kept it in the safe in the study. Please retrieve it for me, Mr. Zuo.”
Although she was the eldest daughter of the Zuo family, ever since Lin Huiyue had entered the house, she’d watched all of her valuable things disappear.
Before her mother’s illness, Lin Huiyue wouldn’t have dared to be so brazen. Her father was also afraid of her mother, so he was careful not to show her his true, selfish nature when she was around.
But now he was so pampered by his mother that he was as proud as a peacock.
If he wanted a luxury car, he could buy one whenever he wanted. But he never thought that he would sell the flower shop that his mother had left him to support himself.
When Mo Chen first fell ill, Zuo Tianhao acted like a good husband for a few days. But when he found out she was paralyzed and could do nothing to control him, he ceased pretending. He took all the assets of the Zuo family and handed them over to Lin Huiyue.
At that time, Zuo Aiai had been furious. She’d lived a charmed life up until then and had been completely caught off guard by Zuo Tianhao’s selfish behavior. How was she supposed to know how to protect herself from such a person when she’d been treated so well all her life?
She could only watch as Lin Huiyue slowly took over the Zuo family. Every day, she would lie in her mother’s bed and cry. She was helpless.
It had been five years. Since then, she had matured and grown up. Now she knew how to be humble, work hard, and stand on her own two feet.
The Zuo family wasn’t home to her anymore. It was just another place.
After selling the flower shop, she would use the money to treat her mother’s illness, using whatever was left over to rent a small house for the two of them. After that, she would consider her mother to be her only remaining family member. She would have nothing else to do with the rest of the Zuo family.
This was the plan she had come up with for herself and her mother. It was the best and (and as far as she could see, only) way out.
But…
“YOUR flower shop? Who said it belonged to you?” Zuo Tianhao sneered.
Zuo Tianhao could see that Zuo Aiai was stunned, but that only made him smile even more widely.
“Well, since you asked, the deed of the flower shop is gone. I’ve already mortgaged it to our partner company as a loan. It’s just a 180-square-meter flower shop, why do you even want it?” he said. “Now go back to your room and stop bothering me!”
Zuo Tianhao said this impatiently, moving to slam the door in her face.
But when he did, it was blocked by something and didn’t quite close.
Zuo Tianhao frowned, turning back around to see Zuo Aiai’s bleeding fingers keeping the door slightly open. But she didn’t betray any trace of pain, standing her ground and glaring at her father.
“My mother left me that shop! Zuo Tianhao, what right do you have to mortgage it?” Her voice was trembling with anger.
The shop had originally been left to Mo Chen by her grandmother after her mother left the Mo family. She’d felt sorry for her mother’s reduced circumstances after marrying Zuo Tianhao and had secretly given it to her.
Later on, their circumstances improved, and the shop was no longer needed to make money. However, Mo Chen was reluctant to sell it and decided to open a flower shop anyways.
Her mother had always missed her grandmother. However, her grandmother was too old to travel and the Mo family refused to let Mo Chen go back to visit, so all she could do was endure the longing.
