Xue Rui really didn't understand where Huang Yi hid such big charisma to make Xue Yan lose his mind. How long did they know each other? How many times have they met? How the heck were they getting married!? Staring at Xue Yan's kissed marked chest, he opened his mouth but couldn't say a word.
When did Xue Yan find out that Huang Yi was a man? What was he going to do with Xue Jia? He wouldn't take revenge for Huang Yi, right? No, no way, Xue Jia hasn't done anything to Huang Yi yet, and it won't in the future, plus, if Xue Yan wanted to have the clan quickly accept Huang Yi, Xue Jia would be useful.
Xue Rui convinced himself, then finally choked out a congratulations.
"I oppose." Xue Zi Xuan's voice trembled, he seemed to be trying to suppress some great pain.
"What qualifications do you have to oppose? What is he to your family? Don't give me any bullshit about him being your adopted brother, I know exactly why you took him back to your house. I wonder what Xiao Yi will have to say to you if I told him the truth." Xue Yan leisurely puffed out a smoke ring.
"No, you can't tell him." Xue Zi Xuan's complexion worsened. Xue Yan had obviously caught on to his weakness, his greatest fear was Xiao Yi one day finding out the truth about why he'd brought him back. He would hate him, reject him, and never want to see him again.
Xue Yan sneered but didn't respond.
Xue Rui spoke softly, "Yan Ye, you can rest assured, we promise to treat Xiao Yi better in the future. We'll start looking for another heart for Jing Yi, and pretend this whole thing never happened. The clan members need to know that he has a background, so we'll take him back and do all the adoption procedures, then they won't oppose to the marriage as much, what do you think?"
Xue Yan stared at Xue Rui for a while, waiting for the other man to be drenched in cold sweat before putting out his cigar and saying, "I'll send Xiao Yi back tomorrow. Xue Rui, you must clear up Xiao Yi's identity as soon as possible. I want him to live in the light, not as your fucking heart donor. Whether your daughter lives or dies, it has nothing to do with Xiao Yi, do you understand?"
"I understand, I understand." Xue Rui nodded vigorously, cold sweating.
Xue Yan glanced at the wall clock and impatiently waved, "Get out."
When the two people left, he took the elevator back to the bedroom, and turned off the alarm clock. If he let it ring, the boy would jump out of bed like a spring and run around the house barefoot searching for him. He was too restless.
"They left?" Zhou Yun Sheng felt the bedside sink and asked in a sleepy daze.
"Gone. Why do you have to go back to Xue house? What are you planning?" Xue Yan pulled him into his arms, nuzzling his neck.
Zhou Yun Sheng shivered and wrapped his legs around the other man's waist, nuzzling back as he humphed, "I'm going back to collect on my debts. Did you really think I'd let them go so cheaply? Running back to be their cash cow after they treated me like livestock? In their dreams! I want them ruined and orphaned."
[Ruined and orphaned- Family bankrupt and the people dead (idiom); ruined and orphaned / destitute and homeless.]
"How ruthless." Xue Yan chuckled and pulled him in closer.
———–
In order to vent his anger, Xue Ru drove wildly. If he'd known that Xue Yan went for men, and he was perfectly able to perform, he wouldn't have sent Huang Yi to him, he really dug his own grave. Now he'd lost his daughter's heart, and also had to find ways to give Huang Yi an honorable identity, which would certainly provoke a lot of trouble. Huang Yi was not a nameless boy anymore, on the contrary, he was too famous, his face was plastered over numerous websites, almost everyone in the world knew of him. It was bearable if he just had to let him play the piano, but he had to get him an ID card and officially recognize him, which would immediately set off a big wave in Xue Jia.
Xue Rui gritted his teeth and ran through his options in his mind for a while, then his distorted expression unexpectedly started relaxing. Huang Yi was more talented than his daughter, and he was now a world-class treasure pianist that the country was focusing on promoting. If he shared of his eastern wind, he could catch up to the major ships, reaching a higher level in society. And if he could climb higher than that temperamental Xue Yan, his life would become more stable. On the other hand, if the boy died, he'd be left with a talentless daughter, and if the secret of the competition substitution was revealed, he would not only lose all benefits, he'd also have to find ways to clean up the aftermath.
Huang Yi was so famous, who knew how many people were watching him from the dark, cleaning up the aftermath would be very difficult, and if the truth about his death was found out, Xue Jia would be finished.
The more Xue Rui reasoned it out, the more he recognized the advantages of keeping Huang Yi alive. If he was alive, he could win over Xue Yan, stabilize his position in the clan, and also pull the boy's strings from behind the scenes to build bridges for Xue Jia, contending for glory and interests. There was simply hundreds of benefits without any disadvantages. But if he died, it'd cause all kinds of troubles, and the troubles were all beyond his ability to clean up. Xue Jia would inevitably suffer great damage, and who knew when it would ever be healed.
Xue Rui tapped the steering wheel, finally reaching a decision. As for his daughter's heart transplant, for now, they could only keep looking. It'd be perfect if they could find another one for her, but if they couldn't, it wasn't the end of the world. They'd raised her for sixteen years, fulfilling all her wants and needs, never ill-treating her.
To put it bluntly, Xue Rui was an unscrupulous, heartless businessman. He was very good at judging the situation and taking stock. As long as it didn't hinder his interests, he could be a kindhearted and refined man, but once it conflicted with his interests, he was more ruthless than Xue Yan, not even willing to spare his own family. He didn't even acknowledge his clearly troubled and dazed son, he just quickly drove home and called Xue Li Dani into his study to discuss. Xue Li Dani was naturally very reluctant to give up the opportunity to save her daughter's life, leading to a big quarrel. However, she was forced by the pressures of reality, and had no choice but to compromise. Xue Yan already knew their plans, if they really went ahead and touched Huang Yi, he would certainly dig out all their hearts.
The man had more than a dozen brothers all together, except for the 9th oldest who'd never mistreated him, all the others were either dead, incapacitated, or missing, yet no one could find out the causes behind these misfortunes. But the whole clan unofficially knew that this was Xue Yan's handwriting, the man was relentless.
Xue Li Dani left the study to ask her son for help persuading Xue Rui, but didn't expect to find him sitting dazedly on his bed. As soon as she finished weeping out her grievances, he slowly opened, "Mom, you want to save Jing Yi? Okay, I can give you my heart, please spare Xiao Yi." He got up and walked into the kitchen, searching for a paring knife to stab into his chest, if Xue Li Dani hadn't stopped him in time, he really would've pierced his heart.
Xue Li Dani was terrified, she didn't dare mention anything about the heart transplant to him again. She gently coaxed him back to his room to sleep, but Xue Zi Xuan couldn't fall asleep, he just stared at the ceiling all night, his eyes bloodshot the next day.
Xue Jing Yi noticed her family's abnormal attitudes the next morning. Her mother fawned over her with extra diligence, her father was very perfunctory, and her brother bluntly refused to look at her, leaving as soon as he heard her walking downstairs. She felt very aggrieved, her recently well-behaved heart once again squeezing in pain. Fortunately, her attention was diverted when Xue Li Dani called her over to take her to her physical exam.
The physical's results were very optimistic, the indicators were better than ever before, almost approaching the standards of normal people.
"Can I have the heart transplant now?" Xue Jing Yi excitedly asked.
Xue Li Dani had called Dr. Zhang in advance, telling him to forget about them finding the heart donor. Although it was to save someone's life, it involved taking the life of another person without good cause, even though the money Xue family paid him was substantial, Dr. Zhang's heart was still carrying a heavy burden. Now he didn't have to kill someone, but he still received the payment, so he naturally felt very satisfied. But in front of Xue Jing Yi, he pretended to helplessly say, "I'm sorry Miss Xue, the heart I'd arranged for you has already been given to someone else, you have to wait a while longer. We'll let you know as soon as we find a suitable donor for you."
"How is that possible?!" Xue Jing Yi shrieked. Huang Yi is still alive and well, how can you say his heart was given to someone else?
"For patients like you that need transplants, our hospital will give you a certain rank. The patients who are critically ill will receive a higher rank than you, so they'll receive a donor before you. Every hospital has such a system, we have no other way." Dr. Zhang explained while discreetly reading Xue Li Dani's expression, seeing her gloomy but not angry look, he immediately felt reassured.
"No, you're lying to me! Mama, didn't you say I can have the surgery in two months?" Xue Jing Yi anxiously pulled Xue Li Dani's sleeves.
"Jing Yi, please listen to me carefully. Your blood type is very special, it's not easy to find a matching heart. We can only go back home and patiently wait, there's definitely a suitable heart for you out there." Xue Li Dani quickly hugged her and comforted.
But Xue Jing Yi shoved her away and snapped, "Isn't Huang Yi's heart the most suitable? Or why else would you guys bring him home? What is the meaning of this farce? You're not going to save me?"
Dr. Zhang was stunned, Xue Li Dani was also stunned, they'd never expected her to know the situation so clearly. However, all this time, she pretended to know nothing, she even treated Huang Yi as her precious relative, always getting along with him.
Xue Li Dani found it difficult to accept her daughter having such a cold heart. She was an artist, although she was cruel and selfish, she'd always advocated truth, goodness and beauty. On the day she adopted Xue Jing Yi, she'd decided to raise her into the world's most elegant, kind and faultless woman. Human beings were so strange, whatever they couldn't do, they always wanted to accomplish it through their children. She didn't want her daughter to be contaminated by even the slightest filth, so she concealed everything from her and protected her in an ivory tower.
But now, she suddenly found that her daughter was not as elegant and kindhearted as she'd thought, in fact, she had long been stained by filth. No wonder she insisted on having Huang Yi substitute for her in the competition, no wonder her piano playing was full of malice, she'd known everything, and was more enthusiastic than anyone to receive Huang Yi's heart. While she smiled friendlily at Huang Yi, she was itching to gut him, to dig out his still beating, blood drenched heart.
Don't blame Xue Li Dani for describing it so gorily, Xue Jing Yi's current expression was very murderous, her facial features twisted in hatred, giving her the appearance of an evil spirit.
Before, Xue Li Dani was worried that her daughter would resist using her sibling's heart, but now, it seemed she had no resistance, on the contrary, she was ecstatic. They had always regarded her as a fragile glass doll that needed her family's protection, but in reality, she was ten thousand times crueler than they were. This realization instantly whittled away Xue Li Dani's pity for Xue Jing Yi, turning into spine-chilling apprehension.