The next day.
Emergency Department.
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock sounded. Yi Changhuan stood up and saw three police officers, led by Chen Yao, enter the room.
Yi Changhuan had met Officer Chen before. On several occasions when Yi Qingzhuo was taken to the police station for questioning, Chen Yao had received her.
“Hello, Officer Chen.” Yi Changhuan stepped forward.
Chen Yao nodded. “Yes, hello, Aunt. We received word that Yi Qingzhuo is now out of immediate danger, so according to procedure, we need to come by and ask her a few questions.”
Chen Yao had encountered this mother-daughter pair quite a bit recently and had a general idea of the conflict’s origins.
It all boiled down to money.
He’d seen plenty of families like this—people who ignored kinship and resorted to violence over inheritance.
As for Yi Qingzhuo, his initial impression of her hadn’t been positive. She didn’t talk much, often sat alone in the interrogation room, her expression blank, eyes fixed straight ahead. When he asked her a question, she’d occasionally reply, usually with just a word or two.
Honestly, once he really understood what Yi Qingzhuo had been through, he—as an outsider—couldn’t help but feel a flicker of pity.
She’d nearly died because of it. When Chen Yao heard the news, his heart clenched.
Her life was full of holes, but if it had ended there, it would have been tragic enough to make anyone sigh.
“Ah, okay, okay.” Yi Changhuan stepped back toward the foot of the bed, nodding slightly in greeting to the two officers behind Chen Yao.
“Officer Chen.” Yi Qingzhuo spoke without much warmth.
“Yi Qingzhuo, how’s your recovery?” Chen Yao sat down on the chair by the bed. He didn’t immediately open the notebook in his hand. Instead, he tilted his head almost imperceptibly, studying Yi Qingzhuo as she lay on the hospital bed.
When she was standing, her spine was straight and unyielding. Now, lying down, she seemed shrouded in a layer of gloom.
That same aloofness that kept people at arm’s length was still there.
Her brows were drawn together. The plain-colored bandage on her face made her nonchalance look fragile.
“Not bad.” Yi Qingzhuo glanced at the badge on Chen Yao’s police uniform, her voice low.
Remembering Shen Chaoyi’s brief description over the phone of Yi Qingzhuo’s current condition, Chen Yao’s gaze swept to the area around her abdomen.
Three broken ribs, hemorrhagic shock, cardiac arrest—all happening to one woman.
Chen Yao couldn’t imagine how much pain Yi Qingzhuo had been in at the time. He only knew from the complicated expression on Shen Chaoyi’s face when she mentioned that day.
Yi Qingzhuo had incredible willpower. She never showed how much she’d suffered. She swallowed it all, hiding it behind that frosty barrier she put up.
He paused for a moment, then said, “Doctor Shen told me earlier that you barely made it through surgery. And you call that ‘not bad’?”
“I made it through, so it’s not bad.” When she heard the words “Doctor Shen,” Yi Qingzhuo’s expression shifted. Her hand clenched under the blanket.
It seemed Chen Yao had been in touch with Shen Chaoyi. But why had Shen Chaoyi never mentioned it to her?
From the subtle resentment in the nurses’ eyes when they changed her dressings these past two days, Yi Qingzhuo could tell her presence was causing trouble for the medical staff. At the very least, Chen Yao and his team had probably been bothering them.
And Shen Chaoyi, as her attending physician, would have been the most impacted.
Yet Shen Chaoyi never showed it.
“If you need to find me, don’t bother them. I won’t hide anything.” After a moment of thought, Yi Qingzhuo spoke.
She’d already caused Shen Chaoyi enough trouble. She didn’t want to owe anyone any favors.
It took Chen Yao a second to catch the implication in her words.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “This is just procedure. We need to understand your treatment progress and physical condition. There will be a medical assessment later, and all of that requires Doctor Shen’s cooperation.”
“I wasn’t talking about Doctor Shen.” Yi Qingzhuo added the clarification, but it only sounded like she was trying to cover something up.
It made Chen Yao’s smile deepen. “Yi Qingzhuo, you’re clearly a warm person. Why do you pretend to be so cold?”
At that, Yi Qingzhuo’s expression hardened. “Do you know me well?”
Her black hair framed part of her face. Even lying down, the sharpness in her eyes was unmistakable.
A chill ran up Chen Yao’s spine to the back of his head. He suppressed his smile, losing all interest in playing along.
He opened his notebook and got straight to the point. “What is your relationship with Wu Mingwei and Xu Jiangqin?”
Yi Qingzhuo turned her head to look at the ceiling. “No relationship.”
“Yi Qingzhuo!” Chen Yao paused his pen, his tone sharpening.
Every time he asked about her relationship with them, she gave the same four words.
Yi Qingzhuo didn’t move. She didn’t even blink. She repeated, “No relationship.”
She was as steadfast as ever, completely unmoved.
Chen Yao bit his lip and glanced down at the body camera on his shoulder. “According to our investigation, Xu Jiangqin and Wu Mingwei are your aunt and uncle. They confessed that the dispute was over the house your father left behind. That day, they tried to force you to hand over the property deed and change the ownership. When you refused, they got angry and called over a dozen friends to corner you in the alley beside Ningchuan Garden. That’s when the malicious assault occurred.”
“That’s the sequence of events. As the victim, is there anything you want to add?”
“They are not my aunt and uncle. And I don’t have a father.” Yi Qingzhuo turned her head. Her eyes were bloodshot.
They wanted her dead. They left her no way out.
If Yi Qingzhuo said she didn’t acknowledge them, then she didn’t.
Chen Yao frowned, a flicker of displeasure crossing his eyes. “Yi Qingzhuo, according to your household registration, you’re twenty-nine years old. You’re not a rebellious teenager. You can’t be this reckless and disregard the bigger picture. This entire conversation is being recorded by my body camera, and there are two colleagues behind me. Every word you say is on record. If you don’t cooperate, it could affect the final judgment of the case, one way or another.”
“Child, be sensible. Don’t be stubborn.” Yi Changhuan, worried, walked to the other side of Yi Qingzhuo’s bed and grasped her slightly cold hand.
Her heart was aching.
After saying that, Yi Changhuan forced back her tears and managed a smile for Chen Yao. “Officer Chen, please don’t take it to heart. She’s just too traumatized by this. She can’t accept any relationship with them anymore. Please understand.”
After all, no one who had been hunted down by their own aunt and uncle like that would still be kind to them.
Chen Yao suppressed his frustration and spoke in a low voice. “The deed for that house is still in Yi Changhuan’s name, right?”
Yi Changhuan replied, “Yes, but I sold it a few days ago. Someone had been interested in buying it for a while. That day, when she needed surgery, we needed the money for the operation, so I sold it.”
“How much did it sell for?”
“Eight hundred ninety thousand.”
“So the deed no longer belongs to Miss Yi Changhuan?”
“We haven’t transferred the title yet. The buyer only paid a deposit.”
Chen Yao wrote quickly as he asked, “According to reports, over the past three months, Ms. Xu Jiangqin repeatedly ambushed Yi Qingzhuo at internet cafes, in alleys, and along her route home. Is that correct?”
Yi Qingzhuo stared at the pure white ceiling, her voice flat. “Yes.”
“So, what do you want now?”
Yi Qingzhuo let out a cold, mocking laugh. “I want to sue them. I won’t accept any private mediation or compensation. I won’t accept any form of apology. I want them to taste what it’s like to be labeled a murderer. As for evidence, I trust the surveillance footage from along that route will be the strongest proof. And… the news reports.”
Her phone was broken and unusable, but the TV in the ward, the whispers filtering in through the door cracks—even without actively seeking out the news, Yi Qingzhuo could imagine the frenzy.
But then again… she probably wasn’t as famous as she was ten years ago.
So she thought bitterly, her expression icy.
Chen Yao finished writing and looked up. “Anything else you want to add?”
“I have nothing else to add.” After a long pause, Yi Qingzhuo’s voice came out.
“Alright. That’s it for today. We’ll contact you as soon as we have any updates on the investigation. Keep your phones on and don’t leave the city.” Chen Yao closed his notebook and stood up.
Yi Changhuan followed them to the door. “Officer Chen, take care. Both of you, take care.”
Chen Yao nodded. “No need to see us out, Aunt.”
The door to the ward opened. Chen Yao turned back, his gaze lingering on that pale face. He pressed his lips together. “The tech department has already contained the spread of news and online rumors. Don’t take what those ignorant people say to heart. With a keyboard and no conscience, you can type anything.”
People who only see one side will naturally only judge that side.
Everything has cracks. Not everyone can see the story beneath the cracks, nor do they want to know why the cracks exist.
They only know that where there is a crack, it is no longer beautiful.
And if it’s not beautiful, how can it escape criticism?
The last sentence seemed to strike a chord with Yi Qingzhuo. She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow.
After a second, her voice was clear and cold. “Only a fragile mind fills itself with everything.”
A powerful retort, and it left Chen Yao—who had wanted to offer comfort but was confined by his role—momentarily speechless.
He froze for a second, then let out a faint smile. “Yi Qingzhuo. ‘Qingzhuo’—really does burn like fire.”
With that, Chen Yao turned and left.
Yi Qingzhuo said nothing in response to his comment. She closed her eyes, reining in all her emotions.
