Yun Yiyi said resolutely, "There's no need for that. Don't worry. I'll handle this myself. Alright, I'm hanging up now. I'm driving..."
Zhang Xue'er asked, "You really don't need me to accompany you?"
Yun Yiyi said with a slight smile, "Yes, don't worry."
Zhang Xue'er said, clearly worried, "Remember to call me if you need anything."
Yun Yiyi said before hanging up, "Okay."
After hanging up the phone, Yun Yiyi drove home.
The sky was exceptionally clear. The leaves from the sycamore trees in the city had fallen on the ground. The passing car would stir them up, giving them an air of melancholy as they fell down again.
Yun Yiyi's home was in the suburbs of Jiang City. It was a three-story old house with a yard.
She opened the rusty iron gate and walked in. She saw packed luggages in the yard. Clearly, her mother had not unpacked yet.
"So you're finally home!" Qiao Xi sat in the living room. Her face that was exquisitely made up was livid as she glared at Yun Yiyi when Yun Yiyi walked into the living room.
Yun Yiyi could feel her mother's anger as soon as she stepped into the living room. However, she only indifferently took a seat.
Qiao Xi gritted her teeth as she glared at Yun Yiyi. Seeing Yun Yiyi's indifferent expression, she was further angered. She screeched, "You ingrate, I raised you for so many years in vain! Is this how you repay me? If I knew you're going to turn out like that, I would've strangled you to death when you were young!"
Yun Yiyi felt as though someone had just used a blunt knife to stab her heart. 'Ha… Is she really my biological mother?'
Qiao Xi became angrier and angrier when Yun Yiyi did not respond to her. She began to scold without restraint, "Yun Yiyi, take a good look at yourself. Who do you think you are? You're just a mere senior editor. Why do you act so arrogantly? Your monthly salary is only a few thousand yuan. You'd probably earn more than that if you sell your body! The Gu family doesn't even mind that you come from a poor family and welcomed you into their family. What right do you have to make Young Master Gu angry?"
Yun Yiyi was infuriated by her mother's words. "What did you say?"
Sell her body? How could her biological mother say such words to her?
Qiao Xi sneered. "What did I say? You're not deaf, don't pretend you didn't hear me..."
All the grievances and pain that Yun Yiyi had suppressed in her heart suddenly exploded. "I don't care about being the young mistress of a rich family! I only know that you sold your daughter to the Gu family for money so that you can live an easy life!" She held back the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes and straightened her back as she said, "You dare to call yourself my mother? Tell me, how did you raise me? Yes, you worked hard to pay for my tuition fees. However, after I started work, I gave you all of my money. I didn't even leave a single cent for myself to spend! I've never attended any work dinners unless they were absolutely worried. After all, I don't even have 50 yuan to spend. Have you ever asked me if I was tired from work? If I was happy? You don't even know what my favorite food is! In your eyes and heart, there's only money, money, and money!"
Qiao Xi replied, unbothered, "That's right. I can't live without money! I don't care if you're tired or happy. I don't care about you. I only care about how much money you can bring me!"
Yun Yiyi sneered. "That's right. I'm your money-making tool. Even my marriage to Gu Jingyan was orchestrated by you. Tian Ya gave you so many benefits, after all. How could a person who loves money like you not agree to her request? Do you honestly think you can hide it from me forever? Do you really think I'll keep quiet and do as you wish for the rest of my life?"
Qiao Xi said as a matter of course, "You're my daughter. It's your responsibility and duty to be filial to your parents! I gave birth to you and raised you, it's only natural that you have to repay me with money!"
"Repay you?" Yun Yiyi laughed out loud. She said coldly, "If it weren't for the fact that you're my mother, you wouldn't even be able to stay in that villa with servants serving you!"
"So you still know that I'm your mother? Then, go and apologize to Young Master Gu immediately!"
Yun Yiyi said, "Apologize? Just because I'm your daughter, you think you can sell me to the Gu family? Just because I'm your daughter, I have to make sure you live a luxurious life? Just because I'm your daughter, you think you can ruin my life? You don't deserve to be my mother, and you're not fit to be a mother!"
Qiao Xi slammed her hands on the table angrily. Her expression was livid as she said, "Yun Yiyi, no matter what, I'm your mother. This is a fact you can never change. My blood flows in your body. You have the obligation to support me. You have the obligation to make sure I live a good life!"
Yun Yiyi retorted, "You're right. It's my obligation to support you, but you want to live luxuriously? Dream on!"
"You!" Qiao Xi was so angry that her chest heaved heavily. She said angrily, "How can you say I'm selling you by letting you marry Young Master Gu? What's wrong with being the eldest daughter-in-law of the Gu Family? You have wealth and glory. What are you so dissatisfied with?" She did not wait for Yun Yiyi to reply and said domineeringly, "You will return to the Gu family now and apologize to Young Master Gu. Even if you have to kneel or beg, you have to make sure he forgives you!"
Yun Yiyi said firmly, "Impossible!" Kneel and beg Gu Jingyan? Not to mention in this life, even if it was in the next life, it would still be impossible!
Qiao Xi was stunned by Yun Yiyi's obstinance. She walked up to Yun Yiyi and raised her hand to slap her. "What did you say? Impossible? It seems like I have to teach you a lesson to make you see sense!"
Yun Yiyi's eyes flashed coldly as she grabbed her mother's hand. "My salary has been around a million yuan per annum for quite a while now. I've been filial to you all this time. From now on, you can stop expecting me to be filial to you. From today onward, we no longer have anything to do with each other!"
Qiao Qian's eyes widened and turned red. "What did you say? How dare you say that you want nothing to do with me?"
Yun Yiyi replied indifferently, "You heard me!"
At this moment, Yun Qiao, Yun Yiyi's brother, and his girlfriend, Song Zhuang, entered the living room hand-in-hand.
Song Zhuang glared at Yun Yiyi and said righteously, "Yun Yiyi, how can you speak to your mother like that? Are you still human?"
At this moment, Qiao Xi tugged her hand free of Yun Yiyi's grip. She was so angry that her daughter ruined her opportunity of living a luxurious life that she seized the opportunity and shoved her daughter.
Yun Yiyi crashed against a corner of the table. She inhaled sharply and her face paled immediately. Her waist was in excruciating pain.
Upon seeing this, Song Zhuang's eyes glinted coldly. She looked at Yun Yiyi and continued on her self-righteous tirade, "Your mother is advanced in age now. How can you be so unfilial and hit your mother? You're really worse than an animal!"
"..."
Did Song Zhuan just say she hit her mother? She always knew Song Zhuan was good at stirring up trouble, but now, it seemed like she could even stir up trouble irrationally. Her mother had shoved her and caused her to fall, but Song Zhuang twisted things around and said she hit her mother?
At this moment, Yun Qiao placed the bag in his hand on the table and regarded Yun Yiyi with a complicated gaze as he called out, "Yiyi..."