Chapter 40

“Didn’t your lawyer tell you that even though my parents are deceased, I can still confirm my identity through the DNA of other relatives, such as my aunt?” 

Zhao Jianhui didn’t understand any of this; he turned and glared at his wife: “She wouldn’t dare!” 

“You don’t need to glare at her. Even if my aunt is unwilling to do a comparison with me to prove my identity, the DNA data of my parents, who were victims back then, is still stored in the police department’s database.” 

Before Lin Yuxi finished speaking, Zhao Jianhui’s expression had already changed. 

He could argue and control Ye Wei, but the police department’s database was something he could never tamper with. 

Lin Yuxi spoke clearly, “My dad’s name was Lin Sheng, my mom’s name was Ye Qiang, and I am Lin Yuxi. This is our family’s house.” 

Zhao Jianhui ignored her and stubbornly retorted, “Who are you trying to scare? Who’s afraid of you! I’ve lived here for twenty years; you want me to move, and I’ll just move? If you have the ability, go sue me!” 

“If you want to see me in court, I have no problem with that,” Lin Yuxi said. “My parents left behind more than just this house. They had savings of at least several hundred thousand in their accounts at the time. Where is that money now?” 

Zhao Jianhui’s gaze flickered for a moment. 

Her aunt said, “Your uncle lost money in the stock market…” 

Lin Yuxi guessed that Zhao Jianhui had been obsessed with stock trading at the time and had no clue what he was doing. 

Zhao Jianhui glared at Ye Wei to silence her. “You can’t just say it exists because you want it to! I could just as easily say you owe me five million!” 

“At the time, my dad had three cars in his name, some stocks, and investments. Adding those savings together, the total value is at least a million. These will also be calculated with inflation and investment appreciation, and you will have to return everything.” 

Lin Yuxi continued, “By the way, your intentional abandonment of a minor will surely be taken into consideration by the judge, and your actions might constitute a crime.” 

Her aunt seemed either panicked or still had a conscience, hastily saying, “We’ll move!” 

Zhao Jianhui immediately disagreed: “If anyone is going to move, it’s you. I’m not moving!” 

Her aunt shouted, “Do you want to go to jail or something!” 

Zhao Jianhui’s gloomy face fell silent. 

“Yuxi,” her aunt pleaded again, “we’re still family; there’s no need to escalate things like this” 

“I have no family left,” Lin Yuxi said. “One period of time; don’t forget.” 

As she turned to leave, she could still hear Zhao Jianhui’s curses behind her: “So eager to get the house; I bet she must have been kicked out by her rich family! With her worthless self, I wouldn’t want her either!” 

Lin Yuxi’s grandparents had both passed away before she was born. When she was little, her grandmother doted on her but soon died from a heart attack brought on by her aunt’s behavior. 

Thus, after her parents passed away, Lin Yuxi was left with only her aunt as her relative. 

At that time, her aunt and her family rushed over from another city. Lin Yuxi still remembered her aunt holding her and crying, telling her, “Auntie will take good care of you for your mother.” 

Her cousin had just been born, and the three of them moved into the large house that Lin Yuxi’s family owned in Qi Yue Mansion. 

Her aunt really did take good care of her. In the beginning, when Lin Yuxi often had nightmares, her aunt would sleep next to her. 

While caring for the baby still in swaddling clothes, she would also hold Lin Yuxi. 

But good times didn’t last long; after giving birth, her aunt had to take care of two children and could no longer work. Her uncle’s single salary was barely enough to support four people. 

Moreover, during that time, their company was not doing well, and there were widespread pay cuts. After losing all of Lin Yuxi’s parents’ savings in stock trading and accumulating a lot of debt, her uncle, who had already been resentful about raising Lin Yuxi, brought up several times the idea of sending her to an orphanage. 

Her aunt refused, and they frequently argued; Lin Yuxi could hear them clearly from the next room. 

Then one day, when her aunt went to the hospital for a check-up, her uncle took Lin Yuxi out to a city she had never been to and dumped her in an orphanage. 

As he drove away, Lin Yuxi ran after him, and he pointed at her menacingly, warning, “I know you remember the address of our home. If you dare go back, I’ll kill you!” 

At that time, Lin Yuxi was not yet seven years old, a child who had witnessed her parents’ murder, frightened and anxious, and haunted by nightmares every night. The threat from an adult man was immensely intimidating to her. 

Twenty years ago, abandoning a child was still quite easy. Lin Yuxi didn’t know if her aunt ever looked for her; all she knew was that she stayed in the orphanage for several years until a reporter came. 

Only after she grew up did Lin Yuxi slowly begin to understand things that children didn’t comprehend. 

For example, that house was her parents’ inheritance and belonged to her. 

She had once tried to get the house back from them. By then, her uncle had been unemployed for a long time, relying on her aunt’s job, while her cousin had just entered high school and got into a nearby prestigious school due to the school district zoning. 

Her uncle called her an ungrateful wolf, and her aunt would often cry and plead with her. They had no place to live, and her cousin’s education was at a critical time; if it was affected, it could ruin his future. Her aunt even knelt down to her, crying and pleading. 

Not long after, when Zhou Yanjing’s grandmother fell seriously ill and her engagement with Zhou Yanjing was set, her uncle became even more unwilling to return the house. 

“Your in-laws are so wealthy and don’t lack for a place to live; why do they have to take ours? Are they trying to drive us to our deaths?” 

Throughout her education from elementary to university, she had been taught various principles and developed a noble moral character, but once she entered society, she realized that the world did not operate on reason. 

When encountering such unreasonable people, it was impossible to discuss logic. 

Lin Yuxi had asked for the house several times over the past few years, but each time she was unsuccessful. 

But now she was going to divorce Zhou Yanjing, and after that, she would no longer be connected to the Zhou family. 

She wanted to reclaim what belonged to her parents, to get back her home. 

Lin Yuxi wasn’t sure how her aunt convinced her uncle after she left, but in any case, a few days later, she received her aunt’s phone call. 

“Yuxi…” she said hesitantly on the phone, “I’ve already talked to your uncle; we’ll move out tomorrow. I know we’ve wronged you, but” 

Lin Yuxi interrupted her, “I’m at work. If you have nothing else to say, I’m hanging up.” 

“It’s fine, it’s fine; your work is important. I’ll come to see you tomorrow and give you the keys.” 

“Just send them to me via local courier,” Lin Yuxi replied. 

The keys were quickly delivered, and the process was smoother than Lin Yuxi had expected. 

This was best; while she wasn’t afraid of a lawsuit, it was still troublesome, time-consuming, and exhausting, and she didn’t want to have any further entanglements with them. 

But time has passed too long. Now that Lin Yuxi wants to inherit her parents’ estate, the process is a bit cumbersome. She needs to go to various offices and government agencies to gather the necessary documents. 

One day, after finishing her night shift, Lin Yuxi returned home in the morning. Aunt Chen chattered on, “Recently, the second young master has been coming home more often. You’ve been busy too. It’s like you both have an agreement: when you come back, he doesn’t, and when he comes back early, you’re on duty. If you had returned ten minutes earlier yesterday, you two could have met!” 

Lin Yuxi had indeed been busy lately, going out early and coming back late every day. 

“Is he coming back tonight?” Lin Yuxi asked after finishing her breakfast. 

“Well, I don’t know. He’s very busy with work at the company, so it’s uncertain. Why don’t you give him a call and ask?”  

“I’ll call him later.” 

Lin Yuxi was exhausted after working all night. After finishing breakfast, she told Aunt Chen, “You can take the day off today.” 

Lin Yuxi went to her room and took a nap, waking up at noon. 

The whole villa was unusually quiet. She leisurely went about her tasks, put the two cats into their carriers, and took them over to Building 12, personally handing them over to the elderly gentleman living there. She carefully reminded him of some cat care tips and left her WeChat contact, telling him to reach out if anything happened with the cats. 

The old man was nothing like Aunt Chen had described him as grumpy from living alone for so long; before she left, he insisted, “Why don’t you have a cup of tea before you go? The tea here is something you definitely can’t get outside.” 

Lin Yuxi smiled, “I’ll come back another time to enjoy your tea.” 

After returning home, she called Zhou Yanjing. 

At that moment, Zhou Yanjing was walking toward the conference room, followed by a group of high-ranking executives in suits. The custom-made Italian leather shoes echoed a crisp rhythm on the floor. 

When he saw the incoming call, he paused, raised his hand to signal the others to go in first, and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window to answer the phone. 

The setting sun outside cast a warm glow on his lazy brows and eyes. 

“What’s up? A busy person like you is calling me?”  

“Do you have time tonight?” Lin Yuxi asked. 

“Tonight?”  

Zhou Yanjing glanced at Yang Kang standing three steps away, who immediately reported his schedule for the day in a low voice: “Tonight, there’s a meeting with Director Wang from the Securities Regulatory Commission regarding private equity fund supervision.” 

Before he finished speaking, Zhou Yanjing replied into the phone, “I’m free tonight. What’s going on?” 

Yang Kang:  

On the other end of the line, Lin Yuxi said, “We haven’t properly discussed the divorce yet. Since you’re free today, let’s settle it all at once.” 

“Settle it all at once.” 

Zhou Yanjing felt a visceral discomfort at that phrase. 

“I was wondering why you suddenly care about me. You finished with your aunt and now you want to finish with me?”  

Zhou Yanjing smirked lightly in sarcasm, “Are you a doctor or the Grim Reaper, going around finishing people off?”  

Lin Yuxi:  

She had been driven to Qi Yue Mansion by Old Liu, so it wasn’t surprising that Zhou Yanjing knew that. 

However, Old Liu was quite double-standard; he couldn’t share Zhou Yanjing’s schedule with her, yet his own whereabouts seemed to leak with no pressure. 

“What time are you coming back?” Lin Yuxi asked again. 

Zhou Yanjing glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting to attend, and I’ll be home in about an hour and a half.” 

Lin Yuxi replied, “Okay. I’ll wait for you.”