Chapter 59: I Told You to Get Lost

“I’m warning you—if you keep stirring up trouble for no reason, I’ll call the cops. If there’s something to discuss, we can do it over the phone. Don’t show up in person,” Ji Zhenshi snapped right after, giving him no better treatment. She shot him a fierce glare, tossed out her words, and turned to walk back alongside Li Yunli.

Li Yunli’s father, Li Ying, was someone they rarely saw—maybe once in a blue moon. His lifelong passion revolved around mahjong tables and shady entertainment spots with zero oversight. He wasn’t exactly idle by their generation’s standards; he’d held down a proper job for a few years and life had been looking up. But once he got hooked on gambling, he never did an honest day’s work again, drifting aimlessly through the years.

Word had it he hadn’t always gone by that name. He’d changed it to “Ying”—meaning “win”—hoping it would bring him luck at the cards. Too bad his fate wasn’t strong enough; a lifetime of gambling hadn’t won him a thing.

Ji Zhenshi had only met him a handful of times, but each encounter shattered her understanding of shamelessness anew. She’d long since lost any respect for him.

“If you won’t talk here, how about we head to the coffee shop?” Li Ying said unhurriedly, as if he had Li Yunli’s weakness firmly in hand, utterly unperturbed.

“You think blocking me means I can’t find you? The one who’ll lose face then will be you, Store Manager. I’d love for everyone to weigh in and tell me what’s what. Your own flesh and blood refusing to acknowledge her father—what kind of heartless person does that?”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Li Yunli had no choice but to stop in her tracks.

Her hands clenched tightly at her sides, her frail shoulders trembling as she fought to suppress her fury.

She desperately wanted to walk away, but she couldn’t let him cause a scene at the shop.

Turning back, she fixed him with a cold stare. “I won’t give you any more money. If you want, sue me in court. I’d be happy to oblige.”

Ji Zhenshi halted alongside her, glancing at Li Yunli’s bloodless face before turning a disgusted frown on him.

“Don’t think I won’t. Isn’t supporting your own father your duty?” Li Ying declared righteously.

“How can you have the nerve to act so entitled in your old age? Don’t you have any idea why she won’t recognize you? Don’t you know what you’ve done? This is the modern world—do you really think you can guilt-trip her? No money means no money. Can you stop yapping?” Ji Zhenshi couldn’t hold back a second longer. Without thinking, she fired back, standing protectively behind Li Yunli and becoming her spokesperson.

By rights, Li Ying was her elder—her girlfriend’s father, no less—and she should show some respect.

But Ji Zhenshi’s resentment toward the man had been building for years. He’d never treated Li Yunli like a daughter, so she wasn’t about to lecture her on propriety or hierarchy.

She’d never forget how he’d thrown his daughter into the fire for a mere sixty thousand bucks.

Li Ying eyed the fuming Ji Zhenshi, who seemed even more worked up than Li Yunli herself. He couldn’t resist a snide jab. “What’s it got to do with you? Is your family just greedy for more? You’ve already taken two hundred thousand from her, and now you’re still leeching off her? This is between me and my daughter—mind your own business. I haven’t even asked her to pay back what she’s given you. And here you are, biting the hand that feeds you?”

He’d argued with Li Yunli over Ji Zhenshi more than once. Why keep funding her when she had parents of her own? Wasn’t that just throwing money away?

Even if Li Yunli saw her as part of the Ji family, Ji Zhenshi’s relationship with her own kin was abysmal. Wasn’t Li Yunli just asking for trouble?

Li Yunli grew visibly angry—a rare occurrence—and argued back. “Can you stop saying things like that? How I spend my money is my business. Besides, Xiao Zhen’s working now. I haven’t given her any, and I never plan to ask for it back.”

In the past, when Li Ying had brought this up in private, she’d explained herself once, but he’d remained stubbornly pigheaded. After that, she’d stopped bothering to respond.

But with Ji Zhenshi right there, she couldn’t let him speak that way.

Hadn’t Ji Zhenshi borrowed money for her sake out of guilt over the cash she’d spent?

But what they had between them couldn’t be measured in money.

“You tell me it’s your business, but don’t forget—her good-for-nothing brother took two hundred thousand from you. After all you’ve poured into her, has she ever thought to ease your burden? These past few years, you’ve just been raising an ungrateful wolf.” Li Ying kept harping on the two hundred thousand. Deep down, he resented how Li Yunli had shelled it out to avoid marrying Ji Tingjun, then claimed she had no cash when he came calling.

He’d only taken sixty thousand from their family, and she’d paid back two hundred.

What kind of idiot made a deal that lopsided? Was something wrong with Li Yunli’s head?

Li Yunli’s gaze turned icy. She really wanted to turn and leave.

She’d heard these pointless barbs more than once over the past six months, and she knew exactly what lay behind his quarrels.

Her cheeks flushed with anger. “It’s just that you’ve lost everything again, isn’t it? I’ve told you: beyond the agreed monthly support, I won’t give you another cent. No amount of tantrums will change that. How I spend my money is my freedom—you can’t control it, and you have no right to. Don’t dream of selling me off again. Go ahead and try—I won’t let you.”

She felt no familial love for this father, only hatred—bone-deep hatred, not mere dislike.

If not for his gambling addiction, her childhood wouldn’t have been shattered. She could have had a better life.

Someone who’d made it into a top-tier university despite being mute shouldn’t be stuck running a coffee shop, day in, day out, unchanging.

She wanted to see the world, go farther afield.

“Li Yunli, don’t you think you’re going too far? You gave that loser two hundred thousand, supported his worthless sister for years, and now you’re even opening a second shop? But you won’t help your own father? I did it for your own good back then. With your… condition, getting married young and securing a provider wasn’t a bad deal, was it?” Li Ying’s scruffy beard and rough speech gave him a menacing air.

Years in those dingy dives had stripped him of any humanity.

Ji Zhenshi let out a cold laugh, twin flames of rage flickering in her eyes. “Oh, you know he’s a loser? But it was you who tried to marry off your high-achieving daughter to a dropout with a middle-school education. Now you realize he’s trash? Let me tell you something—she doesn’t need to get married.”

If anyone was marrying her, it would be Ji Zhenshi herself. Only her.

Li Ying struck without mercy. “What can a woman do if she doesn’t marry and settle down early? You’ll end up marrying too, but with your unruly attitude, good luck finding someone who’ll have you.”

Ji Zhenshi gritted her teeth. “What’s it to you? You call Ji Tingjun a loser—why don’t you take a look in a roadside puddle next time it rains?”

She wanted to say Li Ying and Ji Tingjun weren’t so different.

One addicted to cards, lost in the game; the other spoiled into idleness. Neither man was any good—they’d both brought Li Yunli endless trouble.

“Shut your mouth! This doesn’t concern you. Don’t push your luck—I’m not arguing with you. Someone who doesn’t even recognize her own parents has no right to speak here,” Li Ying glared at Ji Zhenshi, clearly irritated by her barbs.

She had a sharp tongue, and he couldn’t match her with his bluster alone. She always left him speechless.

His goal today wasn’t to trade barbs with her, so he ignored her.

“I’ve said I have no money and won’t give you any. If you show up at my coffee shop making trouble, I’ll have to call the police. Xiao Zhen, let’s go.” Li Yunli, at the end of her patience, stated her position firmly and tugged at Ji Zhenshi to leave.

“Wait!” Li Ying couldn’t let her go just like that.

Ji Zhenshi stepped in front of Li Yunli, blocking him completely from causing more grief. Fury boiled within her, especially after seeing how the past still tormented Li Yunli. Her face darkened. “Wait for what? Can you have a shred of shame? You’re a real pain. And you question my right to speak? My family’s business is none of your damn concern. She said no more money—don’t you understand plain Chinese? Need me to translate it for you?”

“One word: Scram. Got it?”

Li Yunli silently endorsed Ji Zhenshi’s words, thin anger simmering in her eyes.

Draping an arm over Li Yunli’s shoulders, Ji Zhenshi pulled out her phone. “Step one foot in that coffee shop, and I’ll have you sipping tea at the station.”

“Li Yunli! Grown wings, have you? Think I can’t handle you anymore?” Li Ying lunged forward and grabbed Li Yunli’s hand.

She flung it off without hesitation, repulsion churning in her gut at even the brief contact. “The best distance between us is as far as possible. I won’t support you anymore, and don’t try to control my life. Don’t think I don’t know—you’ve got a son out there turning twenty this year, right? I’m not your only child. Stop clinging to me.”

Li Yunli was no longer that little girl.

Li Ying had other children, but she was the only one with a mother.

He’d stirred up trouble, then fled with that woman and his bastard, leaving her and her mom to face the fallout. After that, she’d endured endless scorn from that woman just to finish high school and college.

Li Yunli even suspected her reluctance to speak stemmed from not wanting to deal with them. Her trauma had left her mute, breeding such inferiority that she could barely love anyone properly.

She’d nearly pushed away the one person she loved because of it—nearly lost Xiao Zhen to her own self-doubt.

Mentioning the illegitimate son set Li Ying off. Enraged, he shoved Li Yunli, defaulting to fists. “Say that again?”

Cornered, he lashed out because she’d hit a nerve.

Li Yunli met his gaze with chilling calm. “I’m reminding you: bigamy covers de facto marriages.”

Her mom was gone, and she’d been too powerless back then to press charges.

It wouldn’t change anything now, but Li Yunli didn’t mind throwing it in his face to disgust him.

“It was all legal—I have the papers,” Li Ying insisted.

Ji Zhenshi steadied Li Yunli and blocked Li Ying. “Will you never stop? Cheating and having a bastard—isn’t that fact enough? How do you have the gall to squeeze money from your own mute daughter? Forgot how you abandoned her and her mom like a coward? And wasn’t your own mom driven to death by you? Accumulate some karma, why don’t you? Touch her again, and I’ll choke you out—believe it?”

She whipped out her phone to call the cops, glaring daggers. She regretted wasting breath on him earlier.

“No cops!” Li Ying reached to snatch the phone. Ji Zhenshi kicked him square and dragged Li Yunli away.

Chaos erupted. Someone yanked Ji Zhenshi backward; her gripped hand slammed into the railing along with the phone, sending it tumbling down.

“Damn it,” Ji Zhenshi watched helplessly as her phone plummeted, nearly splashing into the pond below.

Enraged, she ignored Li Yunli’s protests, climbed the railing, and lunged at Li Ying. Despite the strength gap, she used her weight to trip him hard. They crashed to the ground, and she locked his neck with a self-defense hold she’d learned.

Onlookers gathered. Ji Zhenshi shouted, “Pervert! This creep’s harassing us defenseless women!”

She tightened her arm, heedless that he was Li Yunli’s father, strangling with all she had.

Thankfully, a few good Samaritans backed her up. Li Ying had no comeback for her accusations amid the growing crowd and slunk off, muttering curses.

“Thank you all. May good fortune follow you always,” Ji Zhenshi said with clasped hands and a grateful smile.

“No problem, miss. Check if your phone’s down there—might be salvageable.”

“Yeah, it’s not high up. With luck, it landed in the bushes.”

Ji Zhenshi smiled. “Got it, thanks.”

Peering over, she saw a landscaped river below. The phone had likely hit the grass; she could retrieve it.

“Xiao Zhen, are you hurt? Let me see.” Li Yunli grabbed her, ignoring the phone to inspect Ji Zhenshi top to bottom, deeply worried.

She’d been impossible to hold back and had leaped right over.

It was that same self-destructive style—harming the enemy at great cost to herself.

Ji Zhenshi shook her head and brushed off the dirt. “I’m fine, not that fragile. You’re the one—ignore him next time. Call the cops on sight. He’s just after money, no real guts. If I’m not around, dial them directly.”

Without a voice, reporting to police was Li Yunli’s best bet.

Ji Zhenshi flexed her left fingers surreptitiously. They felt off, a faint ache.

Recalling the earlier impact on her arm, the slight discomfort didn’t worry her much.

No visible injury meant no need to alarm Li Yunli.

“Forget him. He won’t come back if he can’t get cash from me. But are you sure you’re okay? Come here.” Li Yunli’s face was etched with concern as she turned over Ji Zhenshi’s hand, scrutinizing it. Just a bit of redness on the back—no other marks.

What kind of luck did Ji Zhenshi have? She’d only just bruised her waist not long ago.

“Really, I’m good. Look at me—fit as a fiddle,” Ji Zhenshi assured her with a confident look, stretching her arm and quirking a brow coolly.

Li Yunli exhaled in relief, finally relaxing.

“But my phone’s down there. I’ll go fetch it. Don’t worry—it’s fine. See? My self-defense lessons weren’t wasted. Proves I’m top-tier: brains, brawn, the works. Don’t pass up quality.”

Li Yunli still frowned at her, flipping the hand over for another look.

Seeing her distraction, Ji Zhenshi snapped her fingers, vaulted the railing with hands braced, and said deadpan, “Stay put. I’m jumping down to get it.”

She crouched to leap.

It was only a two- or three-meter drop from the little bridge; with her athleticism, she’d land fine, legs reaching the weeds easily.

But Li Yunli’s heart lurched. “Ji Zhenshi!”

Without thinking, she pinned both hands down, glaring in exasperation.

How could she go down like that?

Ji Zhenshi seized the moment for a smacking kiss on Li Yunli’s cheek, tilting her head with a roguish grin. “Kidding. I like living too much for that kind of punishment.”