Zhou Yilin merely turned around and left.

She also wanted to live as Zhong Lin, but she couldn"t s.h.i.+rk the responsibility that belonged to Zhou Yilin. After all, the Zhou Family raised her for so many years. It was impossible for her to completely abandon Zhou Yilin"s ident.i.ty to live as Zhong Lin without accomplis.h.i.+ng her mission.

Even now, Ouyang Yi only likes to be with her when she"s Zhong Lin, but she couldn"t continue being Zhong Lin all the time. How can they be together in the future if he can"t accept Zhou Yilin as well?

One can"t bear having grit in one"s eye. Yet, there will always be some grit that one can"t pick out in a bowl filled with husked rice. If that"s the case, would he still tolerate this bowl of rice? No, he"ll surely throw the entire bowl away.

Instead of waiting for that day to come, it was better to break up sooner than later.

Zhou Yilin walked away in a straightforward manner. Ouyang Yi, however, was at a loss. He wanted to chase her, but it was as if his feet had taken root in solid rock.

In the following few days, Zhou Yilin became even more callous than before. She was more strict when reviewing the doc.u.ments her subordinates submitted. Moreover, Ouyang Yi hadn"t been seen picking her up after work, so rumours were spreading that Zhou Yilin had been dumped.

Manager Lin had been secretly in love with Zhou Yilin. When he saw the latter buried in her work, his heart ached for her. An Xiaotian, who had received his care many times before, noticed that he had a crush on Zhou Yilin and encouraged him to confess his feelings. Thus, he courageously went to Zhou Yilin and confessed.

Zhou Yilin originally wanted to reject Manager Lin, but a phrase suddenly popped up in her mind: If you want to break away from your previous relations.h.i.+p, you must start a new relations.h.i.+p as quickly as possible.

She accepted Manager Lin"s confession and went to the movies together. Afterwards, they went for a walk. Nevertheless, she still couldn"t convince herself to get close to someone she didn"t like.

After only one date, she admitted to Manager Lin that she had no feelings for him.

Manager Lin smiled bitterly. He had already noticed this on their first date. He looked at Zhou Yilin and said, "Can you give me a hug? From tomorrow onwards, I will put my feelings away and wholeheartedly be your subordinate."

Zhou Yilin walked forward and hugged Manager Lin.

This move triggered Ouyang Yi, who happened to be hiding in the dark. He rushed out without the slightest hesitation and pulled Zhou Yilin away.

"Let go of me." Zhou Yilin tried to shake Ouyang Yi"s hand off.

"I won"t! How can you let my Zhong Lin get intimate with another man!"

"So, are you saying that I can only make out with you?"

Ouyang Yi instantly halted in his tracks.

A trace of disappointment graced Zhou Yilin"s expression when he didn"t answer. She tried to struggle free again but was suddenly pulled into his embrace.

"That"s right, you can only be intimate with me," he whispered in her ear.

The episode ended at this scene, and then the ending theme song followed right after.

"Wowww~ That"s such a smooth line!" Zeng Huan excitedly exclaimed.

"Do you want to keep watching?" Sheng Jiaoyang"s hand stopped at the progress bar on the screen.

"Mm-hmm!" Zeng Huan repeatedly nodded.

Sheng Jiaoyang, however, turned off the screen and drove her away. "You can continue watching tomorrow, I"m sleepy."

The excited Zeng Huan felt as if she had just been poured cold water. She was very disappointed. T binge-watchers like her, the cruelest thing was to let them get stuck at a cliffhanger. The impulse to continue watching was making her anxious to death.

Seeing Zeng Huan looking back at her at every step, Sheng Jiaoyang was amused. "Go wash up and rest early. I"ll let you watch to your heart"s content tomorrow."

Zeng Huan got up early the next day and bought breakfast before Sheng Jiaoyang woke up.

Zeng Huan followed her like a pet dog waiting for her owner to feed it. She was waiting anxiously beside Sheng Jiaoyang as the latter washed up and ate breakfast at a leisurely pace.

Finally, Sheng Jiaoyang unlocked her tablet and placed it on the tablet stand. Zeng Huan instantly rose up with spirit when Sheng Jiaoyang was about to click on the next episode.

Judging from yesterday"s cliffhanger, the following episodes must be very sweet.

Sure enough, it didn"t disappoint.

The following scenes were different from when Ouyang Yi thought that Zhou Yilin had a split personality. Now, Zeng Huan could clearly feel that Ouyang Yi"s affection was growing towards Zhou Yilin. It was no longer because he cared about Zhong Lin, thus he had to put up with this "Zhou Yilin personality", but that he was sincerely starting to care for "Zhou Yilin".

It could be said that the whole drama revolved around the emotional changes of the male lead and female lead.

Afterwards, a subsequent event drastically changed their relations.h.i.+p.

Zhou Yilin was severely reprimanding and lecturing An Xiaotian for a mistake when the office door was flung open. Mrs. Zhou then rushed inside and hugged An Xiaotian, sobbing as she said, "Darling."

Behind them were Zhou Hua and Tang Feng.

"What"s going on?" Zhou Yilin froze.

Mrs. Zhou released An Xiaotian and slapped Zhou Yilin in the face.

"Pa!" A loud slap echoed in the room.

Zhou Yilin clutched her reddened cheek and looked at Mrs. Zhou with a startled look on her face.

An Xiaotian was also stunned. "Who are you? Why did you hit Deputy Director Zhou?"

When Mrs. Zhou heard An Xiaotian"s voice, she turned back and hugged her again while calling out "darling" a few times.

Realisation suddenly dawned on Zhou Yilin. "Mother, she"s not…"

"Shut up!" Mrs. Zhou angrily rebuked.

An Xiaotian was completely dumbstruck. She heard Zhou Yilin calling the madam holding her "mother". If that"s the case, why did the madam hit Deputy Director Zhou while hugging me and calling me "darling"? Don"t tell me that she"s mentally ill…

"Yilin, I didn"t expect you to be so selfish." Zhou Hua said in a heartbroken tone.

Zhou Yilin knew there must be some misunderstanding, but she felt powerless to refute the criticism from her adoptive parents.

"Oh, it"s so lively here." Ouyang Yi came to see Zhou Yilin and saw several people inside the office as soon as he entered.

He walked towards Zhou Yilin and immediately noticed the red palm print and a few fingernail scratches on the latter"s face. His expression instantly turned frosty. He glanced coldly at the others before finally fixating his gaze on Mrs. Zhou, who was holding An Xiaotian.

"Did you ask for my permission before you hit my woman?" His cynical smile faded and was replaced with a cold and dangerous expression.

"Vice President Ouyang, this is a family matter," Zhou Hua stated.

"Family matter? Is this person also a member of your Zhou Family?" Ouyang Yi pointed at Tang Feng, who had been watching from the sidelines all this time.

Zhou Hua glanced at Tang Feng beside him and immediately choked his words.

"What"s going on?" Zhou Yilin calmly asked.

Tang Feng stepped forward. He then slapped a folder on the office desk and gloated, "Zhou Yilin, you clearly found out that An Xiaotian is President Zhou"s biological daughter who has been missing for 20 years. However, you concealed this fact just to grant yourself the right to inherit the Zhou Family"s business. Your behavior has bitterly disappointed President Zhou and Mrs. Zhou who have brought you up."

Zhou Yilin picked up the folder and opened it to see the results of a paternity test inside. She frowned when she saw the results. She sat down and browsed through her drawer to look for the paternity test results she got some time ago. When she found it, she hurriedly took it out to prove that she wasn"t hiding it on purpose. However, when she compared the two paternity test results, she noticed that they were different.

"This is impossible, it was clearly…" Zhou Yilin naturally didn"t think that she was mistaken.

"You clearly didn"t want to let Xiaotian return to the Zhou Family!" Tang Feng interrupted.

Mrs. Zhou angrily glared at Zhou Yilin. "Yilin, we have treated you well all these years, providing you with food and clothing, letting you go to the best school and providing you with the best living condition. Yet, this is how you repay us. I can"t believe you actually wanted to take my daughter"s place. No way, in your dreams! From now on, you are no longer part of our Zhou Family!"

"So what if she"s no longer part of it? You"re making it sound like she was begging you to be a part of it." Ouyang Yi then held Zhou Yilin"s hand and pulled her away.

Zhou Yilin was being dragged away by Ouyang Yi like a wooden puppet.

"Deputy Director Zhou?" An Xiaotian was a bit worried and wanted to go after them.

However, Mrs. Zhou grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Yiyi, she"s a bad person. She clearly knew that you"re my daughter but kept it a secret. She was scolding you earlier, wasn"t she? If I knew this earlier, I wouldn"t have adopted her in the first place!"

"No, Deputy Director Zhou is a very nice person. Besides, how can I possibly be your daughter? I have…" An Xiaotian originally wanted to say that she had a family, but it suddenly occurred to her that she was picked up by her grandmother.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yilin was dragged into the car by Ouyang Yi without uttering a word.

Ouyang Yi swept a glance at the distracted Zhou Yilin. He didn"t ask her where she wanted to go and directly drove to Rapha.n.u.s Courtyard.

He looked for the medical kit and personally sterilized the marks on her face with alcohol afterwards.

"Do you believe me?" Zhou Yilin suddenly asked.

Her eyes were fixated on Ouyang Yi, not letting go of the slightest change of expression on his face.

Ouyang Yi was earnestly dealing with the marks on her face and simply replied, "Of course. Who else should I believe in otherwise?"

Zhou Yilin was silent again.

Ouyang Yi found Zhou Yilin"s reaction strange, so he looked up at her. When their gazes met, he froze. Her eyes were as clear as water, filled with a trace of gentleness.

"I"m very happy today." No traces of sadness could be seen on Zhou Yilin"s expression. Her current bearing was exactly the same as Zhong Lin"s. No, she appeared even more relaxed, as if she had loosened her shackles.

Ouyang Yi couldn"t take his eyes off her. She now possessed both Zhong Lin"s easygoing appearance and Zhou Yilin"s tenacity, which made her appear all the more genuine.

Zhou Yilin then told him a story.

Old Madam Zhou took her four-year-old granddaughter to the children"s playground. As a result, her granddaughter got lost and went missing. No matter how long and how many people they sent to search for her, she was nowhere to be found. Old Madam Zhou then fell ill and remained unconscious, she was alive but in a vegetative state. Zhou Hua went to the orphanage to adopt a girl named Zhong Lin and said that he had found her daughter, Yiyi, in hope of healing Old Madam Zhou"s broken heart and for her to recover.

Old Madam Zhou unexpectedly woke up not long after. She was particularly kind to this granddaughter of hers. One day, she was in a better spirit than ever before and held the granddaughter"s hand, saying a lot of things to her. Lastly, she said, "Linlin, you are a good child. Promise grandmother that you"ll be obedient and help grandmother look after this family. When you grow up and have the ability, help grandmother find our poor little Yiyi." It turned out that Old Madam Zhou already knew that she was not her own granddaughter.

Then, Old Madam Zhou pa.s.sed away that night.

Zhong Lin also changed her name to Zhou Yilin and officially became a member of the Zhou Family.Previous ChapterNext Chapter