Chapter 46#

“Mama.”#

“Jian Yunchen!” The class monitor caught up to him just as he was about to leave. “Tonight is Zhou Rui’s birthday, and we’re planning to get together. Do you have time?”

The girl looked up with a fair, clean face, her cheeks flushed a soft pink. She slowly let go of the hem of his shirt.

Ever since Tang Qi had been expelled, Jian Yunchen’s popularity in class had gradually improved.

Particularly after his true identity was restored, even though he no longer bothered to masquerade as someone with Jiang Yunhan’s personality, many people still tried to get close to him.

He gave a faint smile, took out his phone, and sent a transfer to the class group chat.

“Sorry, I have something to take care of tonight so I can’t make it. Just a little something from me.”

The girl held her phone and stared at the pending transfer, her eyes widening slightly. Her tone carried a hint of regret: “Ah, that’s such a shame… What about tomorrow…”

“Sorry.”

“I won’t have time tomorrow, either.”

The girl pursed her lips and fell silent.

The driver had been waiting for him at the school gate for some time. Because his and Jiang Yunhan’s schedules were different, Jiang Sheng had assigned him a private driver.

He pulled out his phone to deal with the group messages, his eyes catching the word “Okay” sent by Jiang Sheng.

Jian Yunchen paused, then looked up and gave the driver a location.

The driver in the front seat frowned, glancing at him through the rearview mirror.

“President Jiang instructed that I am to take you straight home after picking you up. I cannot go anywhere else.”

The phone screen went dark, reflecting Jian Yunchen’s cold, grim face.

“I said go to ‘Qingxin.’ Did you not understand me?”

His harsh tone betrayed a suppressed rage. Ultimately, the driver turned the steering wheel and headed in the direction of “Qingxin.”

“Qingxin” was an obscure sanitarium under the Jiang family’s name. “Jiang Ming” was involved in many industries, having originally built its fortune on medical care.

Because of this, even though that first batch of sanitariums was no longer very profitable, Jiang Sheng still kept them.

The driver didn’t understand why Jian Yunchen was going there.

However, while waiting for a red light, he still sent a message regarding the change in itinerary to Jiang Sheng’s phone.

Jian Yunchen sat in the back seat, watching the driver’s movements without a word, his eyes growing darker.

Upon reaching their destination, Jian Yunchen stepped out of the car. Before closing the door, he said to the driver, “You don’t need to come back anymore.”

The driver froze.

Jian Yunchen’s expression was dark and sinister as he glared at him coldly, warning him one syllable at a time: “I said, you don’t need to come anymore.”

With that, he slammed the car door shut with a loud thud.

He was particularly dissatisfied with the fact that Jiang Sheng was still testing him even now.

Jian Yunchen tightened his fingers, hiding the gloom in his eyes and replacing it with a different expression as he walked into the sanitarium.

Jiang Sheng had given prior notice. As soon as Jian Yunchen entered, someone was there to receive him. The sanitarium wasn’t large and had few occupants; the wards were not full. After walking down the corridor for a while, the nurse leading the way knocked on a door.

Jian Yunchen pushed the door open.

He saw Jian Xin.

He stood at the door, expressionless, his eyes fixed on the figure lying on the bed.

It wasn’t until a few painful moans came from the bed that he suddenly snapped back to his senses and stepped inside.

He didn’t sit down. He simply stood by the bedside, his gaze lowered, watching her quietly.

the woman’s features were soft, revealing a glimpse of the beauty she possessed in her youth—otherwise, Jiang Sheng would never have chosen her. However, the years of addiction had rapidly depleted her energy. She was emaciated beyond recognition, her eye sockets were deeply sunken, and her gaze was hollow. Her wrists were shackled with iron chains, covered in countless deep scars and raw, abraded skin.

It had only been a little over a year since they last met, yet she was as strange to him as if she had never appeared in his life at all.

Jian Yunchen softly called out: “Mom.”

This address slowly ignited a light in Jian Xin’s eyes.

The brightness in her pupils gradually focused, slowly moving toward Jian Yunchen’s position.

Jian Xin’s lips moved slightly, her pupils constricted, and her expression shifted weakly and slowly. She seemed to be in disbelief, but her brain couldn’t support a fast reaction. She could only rely on a slow recovery of memory to recall who the person in front of her was.

“Jian… Yun… Chen.”

She spoke one syllable at a time.

Her struggling wrists caused the iron chains to collide, letting out a heavy clanging sound.

“Jian Yunchen!”

Jian Xin called his name again, this time with a gnashing hatred.

Under Jiang Sheng’s supervision, Jian Xin had been forced to go through withdrawal. As for the process, it was easy to imagine that Jiang Sheng would not provide a comfortable life for a woman who had secretly plotted against him.

Jian Yunchen had come this time just to confirm it.

A fire of anger and resentment, utterly incongruous with her physical state, rapidly burned in Jian Xin’s eyes. The power of that rage drove her to wave her arms, trying to grab Jian Yunchen.

She was like a vengeful ghost seeking a life, even her eyes turning bloodshot. “Jian Yunchen! You will die a horrible death! You actually… you actually handed me over to Jiang Sheng!”

“I won’t let you go even as a ghost! You beast! How could you do this to me! I am your mother!”

The shrill screams were saturated with grievance and hatred. Her withered hands flailed wildly in the air as she stared deathly at Jian Yunchen; she was only one step away from dragging him down.

“Mom.”

Jian Yunchen’s expression never changed. He was already accustomed to seeing Jian Xin like this. Whenever her cravings weren’t satisfied, the words out of her mouth would turn into various forms of abuse. Sometimes, Jian Yunchen truly felt she was like a malevolent spirit.

Or rather, a “Hungry Ghost.”

Never satisfied.

He had originally thought that after seeing Jian Xin punished, he would feel relaxed or even pleased.

The scars on his back, the years of verbal abuse, and all those foul sounds always haunted him like a nightmare.

He thought that was how it would be.

But when Jian Xin appeared before him in this state, Jian Yunchen’s first thought was actually:

When did she become so old?

She even had white hair now.

Hidden among the black strands, it was very jarring.

Facing Jian Xin’s resentment-filled eyes, he called out once more: “Mom.”

He didn’t know if Jian Xin truly counted as his mother.

But he had used this address so many times that it rose up even before his resentment.

It was the original “Mama.”

Jian Xin was a surrogate found by Jiang Sheng.

Jiang Sheng was obsessed with his career and had no interest in romance or marriage.

So, he found Jian Xin.

He had made it very clear: he needed a male infant.

A single male infant.

Nothing else was required.

Jian Xin was hidden away abroad by him. The check-up revealed two boys. According to Jiang Sheng’s wishes, only one needed to be kept.

She refused. She knelt on the ground crying, begging the doctor to give the child a chance to live.

Heaven has a virtue of loving life; the doctor happened to be a Christian.

With a softened heart, this grand lie began.

One male infant was taken back by Jiang Sheng to be raised as an heir.

The other boy, who was never supposed to be born into this world, was secretly taken away by Jian Xin and raised as her son.

The Jian Xin who had knelt on the ground crying and begging the doctor for the child’s life back then…

Was now lying on the bed with bloodshot eyes, reaching out her withered hands toward him.

“You will die a horrible death! Jian Yunchen! The thing I regret most is giving birth to you!”

“Jian Yunchen! You will definitely go to hell!”