AHDIBCB Chapter 25

When Yuan Yi arrived home, the news that he had fought with Zhou Xingran at school had already spread. The school leaders were aware of Yuan Yi’s situation and were worried that something might have happened, so they immediately contacted Professor Jian and Principal Li.

They couldn’t reach Principal Li by phone. As soon as Professor Jian found out, she immediately put down her work and went to find Yuan Yi. She carefully looked him over from head to toe, and only after confirming that he wasn’t hurt did she finally breathe a slight sigh of relief and say, “You really scared Mom to death. How are you feeling now? Do you have any discomfort anywhere?”

Yuan Yi said, “I’m fine, Mom. He’s just a pampered young master raised in a greenhouse—he doesn’t have much strength, just putting on an act. But I was a bit angry at the time and fought back.”

Jian Yurou said, “If you fought back, then you fought back. Of course, we can’t just let ourselves be bullied. But you’re not alone now. If something like this happens again, you must remember to protect yourself first. Don’t worry, Mom won’t let you suffer any losses, but the most important thing is that you don’t get hurt—otherwise, it’ll be too late for regrets. That Zhou Xingran is nothing special; how can he compare to you? Getting injured over someone like that isn’t worth it at all.”

God knows how anxious she was when she heard from an old classmate that Yuan Yi had gotten into a fight with Zhou Xingran. If he had really gotten hurt—no matter how big or small the injury—she would have felt heartbroken!

Zhou Tandai heard the news, and his mind buzzed. He immediately contacted Fang Jing and angrily said, “I told you to keep an eye on our son—how exactly are you watching him?! Look at what he’s done! Are you two deliberately trying to drive me to my grave?”

Fang Jing had already heard the full story from the people she had sent to follow her son. She had been hesitating about whether to call Jian Yurou first to ask about Yuan Yi’s condition. But now, after being yelled at like this, she was furious. “You only know how to blame me and our son! Why don’t you ask what actually happened first? Our Ranran got his face injured by Yuan Yi! He’s an omega—if his face gets ruined, what is he supposed to do in the future?!”

“What is he supposed to do? You have the nerve to ask me that? Who told him to go looking for Yuan Yi and start a fight? Didn’t I tell you to keep him under control? Didn’t I tell you to make sure he stopped causing trouble?! Did he just throw my words to the dogs? Now, Professor Jian has taken Yuan Yi to the hospital. If anything happens to Yuan Yi, I’d like to see what you two are going to do about it!”

“At worst, we’ll apologize! Besides, Yuan Yi is just pretending. Ranran already said he didn’t even hit Yuan Yi, but Yuan Yi turned around and hit him instead. I haven’t even settled accounts with him yet, and now he’s shamelessly gone to the hospital?”

“Enough, enough! I can’t be bothered to argue with you. Get moving—take Ranran to the hospital and apologize to Yuan Yi!”

“I’m not going!” The communicator was on speaker mode, and as soon as Zhou Xingran heard that he had to apologize, he jumped up like he’d been pricked by a needle. “Why should I apologize to him? He was the one who hit me!”

“Who told you to start the fight first? If you hadn’t attacked him, would he have hit you? How did I end up raising such an idiot?!” Zhou Tandai, thinking of the mockery from his rivals both openly and behind his back, was so furious he wanted to rush home and beat his son himself. “Stop talking nonsense! If you don’t go, just wait till I get home—I’ll beat you to death!”

“Then just go ahead and beat me to death! Anyway, the only reason you dress me well and give me good things is because you see me as nothing more than a bargaining chip for your promotion! Mom, I’d rather die than apologize! It’s all Yuan Yi’s fault that I ended up like this—why should I be the one to apologize? I’m not going!”

“Fine, fine, you don’t have to go.” Fang Jing was also getting angry the more she thought about it. “Zhou Tandai, I just don’t get it. No matter how powerful Old Master Jian is, he’s about to retire. What’s the use of you trying so hard to curry favor with him? Yuan Yi has been married into the Li family for over a month now, but there’s not even a whisper about your promotion, while Yuan Yi’s arrogance has only grown! If Old Master Jian doesn’t pull you up while he’s still in charge, won’t all your efforts just be a ridiculous waste?”

Zhou Tandai also felt a headache coming on whenever he thought about this. But he had already chosen this path—switching allegiances wasn’t that easy. Forget about getting promoted—if things went wrong, he might end up as nothing more than a laughingstock in the military.

But letting things drag on like this wasn’t an option either…

Zhou Tandai asked, “That money I told you to transfer to Yuan Yi every month—ten thousand—have you been sending it?”

Fang Jing hadn’t expected her husband to hold back for so long only to come up with this. She felt nothing but disdain and said, “He ruined our gathering with the Bai family, and I’m still fuming over that. You think I’d still send him money? Do you take me for an idiot?”

Zhou Tandai never imagined that his wife had actually ignored this task. His head throbbed with anger. “I don’t even know what to say to you! Our son is just as stupid as you!”

Fang Jing snapped back, “That’s right! My son and I are both idiots! If you’ve got the guts, why don’t you divorce me?”

Bang!

Fang Jing slammed the communicator onto the sofa. “Unreasonable!”

Zhou Xingran flinched in shock and asked worriedly, “Mom, do you think Dad will actually come and hit me?”

Fang Jing’s face was dark with rage. “Hit you? He wouldn’t dare! Don’t be afraid—no matter what happens, I’m here. The only reason he’s been groveling like this is because Yuan Yi is carrying the Li family’s child. But tell me, what has our family gotten out of this? Your father is just a fool!”

Seeing her son’s face swell even more, Fang Jing felt as if she had been slapped herself, and her anger flared up again.

She had never once laid a finger on her son!

Grabbing her water cup, Fang Jing took a deep gulp before snarling, “That little bastard Yuan Yi—just because he’s carrying Li Heng’s child, he thinks he can walk all over us? He’s completely out of line! I’d like to see if he’s still this arrogant once he loses that child!”

The murderous glint in his mother’s eyes made Zhou Xingran shudder violently. “Mom, what… what are you planning?”

Fang Jing sneered, “What am I planning? If he won’t accept a toast, then he’ll have to drink a forfeit. I’ll make sure he never has children again! Let’s see who would still want him then. Don’t worry, Ranran—Mom will definitely make him pay for this. I won’t let you suffer this humiliation for nothing.”

Zhou Xingran frowned. “But Mom, he has soldiers around him protecting him. And what if we get caught…?”

Fang Jing’s eyes darkened. “What do you know? If you want to accomplish great things, you have to be ruthless. Besides, it’s not like we’ll be doing it ourselves—what’s there to be afraid of? You don’t need to worry about this. Your finals are coming up soon anyway. Just stay home and recover properly. Don’t go back to school this semester—it’ll only frustrate you to see those people. I’ll hire a tutor to teach you at home, and you’ll still be able to graduate just fine.”

Yuan Yi’s pheromones being altered, Bai Wanzhe standing him up, and now this failed attempt at revenge that ended with him getting beaten instead—Zhou Xingran had completely lost any desire to return to school. Honestly, he hadn’t wanted to go in the first place. The only reason he went was because he couldn’t stomach his hatred for Yuan Yi any longer without throwing a punch. Who would’ve thought that instead of venting his anger, he’d only end up with even more resentment?

Maybe his mother was right—only by making sure Yuan Yi could never have children in this lifetime could he truly vent his hatred!

Zhou Xingran was dead set on making Yuan Yi suffer a major loss, but at the same time, he was still afraid of his father. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Mom, how about I go stay at Grandpa’s house for a while? If Dad really comes back and tries to hit me, I won’t be able to fight back. Why don’t you just have the tutor teach me there instead?”

Fang Jing snapped, “What are you afraid of?! It’s because we’ve always given your father too much respect that he thinks we’re idiots! Listen to me—we’re not going anywhere. I want to see what he’ll do if we don’t apologize!”

Zhou Xingran thought about it and realized she had a point. If they kept backing down, there would be no end to it. It wasn’t like his father could actually beat him to death, right?

So, mother and son neither apologized nor left home to avoid the storm.

At the hospital, Dr. Luo personally examined Yuan Yi and confirmed that he was completely fine, and both babies were healthy. However, since there had been cases where no symptoms appeared immediately after an incident but signs of miscarriage showed up later, Dr. Luo recommended that Yuan Yi stay in the hospital for a day just to be safe.

This arrangement suited both Professor Jian and Yuan Yi just fine. So, Yuan Yi settled into a quiet hospital room, leisurely eating fruit while writing his self-reflection essay.

The self-reflection essay was written for the school, clearly stating that fighting was his fault and that he had violated school rules. However, he explained that when he was suddenly attacked, his first concern was protecting the children, so he instinctively fought back without much thought. He acknowledged that acting on impulse was wrong and expressed his willingness to accept the school’s disciplinary action.

The entire essay was written in a sincere tone, yet not a single word was dedicated to apologizing to the person he had hit. The message was clear: his only mistake was violating school rules, but fighting back was not wrong at all.

After reading it, Professor Jian chuckled and said, “Alright, send it out as is. But add a few lines about how you and the children were frightened.”

Yuan Yi added the details and sent one copy to the school’s disciplinary office and another to the school’s forum.

Before long, a helpful soul provided a video of the incident. The footage clearly showed that Zhou Xingran was the one who struck first. The two scuffled for a while, and even after that, Zhou Xingran refused to back down, which led to Yuan Yi hitting him in return.

The video was taken from a high angle, making every movement perfectly visible. Every detail was captured in full—there was no way for Zhou Xingran to twist the narrative.

With that, the students had a fresh topic of gossip for their idle conversations.

As night fell, Winter Wolf arrived with an update for Li Heng. “Madam has been hospitalized, but it’s nothing serious—just routine observation. Zhou Tandai has already returned home. It seems like he’s planning to divorce Fang Jing.”

“Divorce? Have you been tapping his communicator?”

“No, of course not. The risk would be too great. This came from within his own household.”

“That old fox… always scheming.” Li Heng continued polishing a stone in his hand. “He’s a garrison commander—does his house not even have a proper soundproofing system? Divorce isn’t exactly a cause for celebration, yet somehow the neighbors all know about it? He’s just trying to test Professor Jian’s reaction. Ever since Yuan Yi married into the Li family, his actions have changed significantly. That Zhou bastard must suspect that Professor Jian had a hand in it.”

“So, you’re saying he’s just putting on an act and doesn’t actually intend to go through with the divorce? I thought it would be better if he did. From what I see, the biggest problems when it comes to how he’s treated Madam are Fang Jing and Zhou Xingran. If they split up, at least on the surface, Zhou Tandai should treat Madam better as his nephew.”

“That’s not how it works. If he really divorces, Yuan Yi and the Li family will end up shouldering half the blame. People who don’t know the full story will say that this was all because Yuan Yi fought with Zhou Xingran, and that the Li family pressured Zhou Tandai into divorcing Fang Jing. Most of the time, rumors aren’t spread because people genuinely believe them, but because they want them to be true.

“If Zhou Tandai really divorces, and instead of rising in rank, he gets demoted, then the rumors surrounding Yuan Yi and the Li family will only get worse. No matter what, Yuan Yi was raised by them. The question is, will Zhou Tandai actually take that step? By ‘leaking’ the news of the divorce, he’s testing both the Li family and the Jian family’s response.”

“So, should we let him go through with it or not?”

“Of course not. Ever heard the phrase a bit*h and a dog, may they rot together forever? Trash belongs with trash. Why let them split up? And besides, Yuan Yi is pregnant—why should we let him be affected by this nonsense?”

As Li Heng finished speaking, he gently blew, dispersing the fine dust ground from the stone’s edges, revealing two small, round stones about the size of mung beans. Though tiny, they appeared to have flowing water within them, with starlight shimmering inside.

These were not products of Huamei Star but were brought back from an alien mission. They were called “Xinghai Jiaohe”(Star sea river)—a name that sounded ordinary, but despite their small size, they were absolutely priceless.

Winter Wolf recognized what they were and was secretly astonished.

Li Heng carefully placed the two tiny stones into a Starlit Crystal Bottle and threaded them onto a chain. “Go get Fei She (Scarlet Snake) to make an appearance and find something to keep the Fourth Defense Zone busy. Also, find someone to deliver a message to Fang Jing.”

Upon hearing this, Winter Wolf responded, “Understood. I’ll handle it immediately.”

Li Heng waved his hand dismissively. Once Winter Wolf had disappeared from the room, he lifted the newly crafted necklace, gazing at it intently. Then, for the countless time, he suppressed the urge to visit Yuan Yi at the hospital.

In the end, he did not go.

But that very night, Fang Jing personally went to the hospital.

She was there to meet someone.