CHAPTER 4: Biological Mom

“108-member boy band?” Yi Yao raised an eyebrow.

“The 108 heroes of Water Margin,” Yi Xiaoya’s brain worked quickly.

Thank goodness. The college entrance exam covered the Four Great Classical Novels, so high schoolers like her at least knew the general content.

High schoolers really did know a little bit of everything—from astronomy to geography.

Yi Xiaoya explained, “Lin Chong the Panther Head, Song Jiang the Timely Rain…”

“And?” Yi Yao prompted.

“Wu Song killing the tiger!” Yi Xiaoya looked up at the small stool above her. Don’t ask again—if he did, she’d end up saying Pan Jinlian and The Plum in the Golden Vase.

She hadn’t actually read The Plum in the Golden Vase, but her Chinese teacher had mentioned it once, so she remembered. She heard it used to be banned, but probably not anymore. Besides, it wasn’t on the exam.

“And who else?” Yi Yao crossed his arms.

“Just remember the one standing in the center,” Yi Xiaoya replied. “We won’t be asked to recite all their names in the exam—only the classic references matter. It’s a five-point question, and you get points based on hitting the key details. Not worth much, and even if I lose those five points, it’s no big deal.”

No one memorized every detail of the classics—not Yi Xiaoya, anyway.

“And that’s exactly why your test scores are so bad,” Yi Yao said. “Lose five points here, another five there…”

“Our teacher told us if we can’t do the final math problem, it’s better not to waste time on it,” Yi Xiaoya added. “Better to secure the easier points first.”

“……” Yi Yao stared at his daughter. Out of all the good study habits her teacher had taught, she remembered none—just these shortcuts. “You can have a tablet. You can even have a smartphone. I’ll even get you a computer for your room. But! If you don’t win a prize in the chemistry competition, all of it gets confiscated!”

Yi Yao wanted to see what his daughter could accomplish for the sake of these gadgets. He really didn’t want to be in a situation where classmates’ parents came to him asking for loan repayments. Some people even tried showing up at his company, but he ignored them. The last thing he needed was someone trying to win over his daughter as a workaround.

No wonder people said daughters needed to be raised richly. How else could this even work?

“That’s too hard,” Yi Xiaoya muttered. She seriously doubted she could win in a chemistry competition. “This is like getting a death sentence with a two-year reprieve but without the—”

“Death sentences can become life sentences,” Yi Yao said. “Life sentences can get reduced to twenty years. If you work hard enough, you can go from loser to genius in one shot.”

“You think I’ve been hiding my true strength all this time?” Yi Xiaoya’s eyes widened. Trash who suddenly becomes a genius? That’s not about hard work—they always had some overpowered hidden potential that only activated at a critical moment!

Yi Xiaoya figured she better start planning how to get some money. What if her dad decided she was too stupid and didn’t want to leave his fortune to her?

How deep could the bond between a halfway-reunited father and daughter really go, anyway? It’s not like he had to rely on her for old age care.

“You can be that person!” Yi Yao insisted. He didn’t believe that the girl who’d one day develop a drugs that would shock the medical world could really be a failure. If she could become self-taught and brilliant later, that meant she was already gifted in that area.

“Blind confidence…”

“Exactly. I believe in my genes,” Yi Yao interrupted Yi Xiaoya.

Yi Xiaoya fell silent. How could her dad be so thick-skinned?

That night, after returning to his room, Yi Yao received a call from his father, Old Master Yi. He had two older brothers and one sister—but that sister was adopted and not his father’s biological daughter.

His two brothers didn’t have daughters, only sons.

This setup really did feel like a villain’s backstory. After all, to justify everyone seeking revenge for a vicious supporting female character, there had to be a reason—like how the so-called male and female leads forced the only biological daughter, niece, granddaughter, or cousin in the villain’s family to her death. Then the villain’s family would think: “We finally had one girl in the family, and she was killed by others.”

Unacceptable. They had to avenge her!

Originally, Yi Yao hadn’t planned on telling his father or brothers about his daughter. Who would’ve thought he’d find his biological daughter through a dream?

“Bring her home,” Old Master Yi said.

“She still has school,” Yi Yao replied. “Can’t let her studies fall behind.”

“You’re in the same city. Just have her come back on weekends, she doesn’t even need to take a plane,” Old Master Yi said. “Even if she did—what, is your private jet just for show?”

Old Master Yi had only just found out today that he had a granddaughter—his youngest son was personally looking for tutors for her. For him to do it himself and not leave it to his secretary, that clearly meant the child was his biological daughter.

“She’s bad at school. When there’s a parent-teacher meeting and the teacher calls her out in front of everyone, how humiliating would that be for the parents?” Yi Yao said.

Old Master Yi didn’t think that was a big deal. It’s not like every family member had to be a straight-A student.

“She grew up outside. You’ve got all these expectations—are you brain-damaged or what?” Old Master Yi shot back.

“…Ah, the call’s stuck? Why is there no sound? Hello? Dad? Old man? Say something,” Yi Yao pretended.

“I found her a tutor and arranged remedial lessons. I’ll bring her to see you after she’s caught up a bit.”

Yi Yao didn’t want the old man coming over. In the past, the old man kept nagging him to get married and have kids early. That whole bunch doted on girls too much—he couldn’t let them spoil Yi Xiaoya into a useless person.

He’d rather his daughter become someone who could develop a life-saving drug than a girl who acted out just because she had a powerful family behind her.

“Xiaoya calls me ‘Dad,’ but she doesn’t acknowledge me in her heart,” Yi Yao continued rambling, ignoring whatever Old Master Yi might be saying on the other end. “If you all show up and scare her off, she might run back to her foster parents. Let’s wait until she’s a little more emotionally stable. The signal today is so bad… still no sound… maybe too many clouds?”

As he spoke, he hung up.

If the old man really came over, he might have to send his daughter to live somewhere else.

On the other end, Old Master Yi stared at his phone. He could hear Yi Yao just fine. Yi Yao couldn’t hear him?

A big-shot like Yi Yao, using a low-quality phone? Not likely.

Old Master Yi stepped outside. The stars were twinkling. No rain, not even thick clouds.

Poor signal? He figured it was his youngest son’s brain that was faulty.

He always said his youngest was a playboy. Sooner or later, he’d fall into a trap—and sure enough, someone had secretly given birth to his child. One kid was manageable. But if there were two or three out there? That’d be a mess.

Old Master Yi decided he still needed to investigate thoroughly. What if he had more grandsons or granddaughters out there, drifting around? That wouldn’t do at all.

—

On the other side, Yi Xiaoya’s biological mother, Xu Yanqiu, only came to the Lin family after learning that Yi Xiaoya had been acknowledged and even transferred schools. Xu Yanqiu didn’t dare show up at the Lin home right away. She was already married—to a man from a wealthy family, though that wealth still couldn’t compare to the Yi family.

Even so, Xu Yanqiu didn’t want a divorce. Back then, she was pregnant and tried to get Yi Yao to marry her, but failed. Yi Yao had even arranged for her to get an abortion. Fortunately, the doctor was someone she knew, so in the end, she didn’t go through with it.

After giving birth, she went to Yi Yao again, but he just assumed the baby wasn’t his—probably adopted from somewhere—and ignored her. She couldn’t risk her future for a child. At the time, she thought if she had given birth to a boy, maybe she could’ve gotten into the Yi family. But a girl? Useless.

Xu Yanqiu and Lin Mother were cousins. Lin Mother had a child earlier than Xu Yanqiu. Xu Yanqiu went to her cousin and even knelt down, begging her to take in the child. She said if her cousin didn’t adopt the child, her future would be ruined.

If her cousin refused, she’d have no choice but to send the child to an orphanage.

But she didn’t want that—she wanted someone to raise the child, thinking maybe the child could be useful in the future.

And now, when Xu Yanqiu heard from a relative that Yi Xiaoya had gone back to her biological father, she came to find Lin Mother.

“Cousin, you moved so quickly! Did Xiaoya’s biological dad buy this place for you?” Xu Yanqiu asked. “This place is way bigger than your old one.”

“Of course. It’s not like I picked up some abandoned baby girl from the street,” Lin Mother rolled her eyes.

Although the Lin family didn’t invite relatives over for a housewarming, once one relative knew, word got around quickly.

“Cousin, are you mad at me?” Xu Yanqiu asked, taking out a bank card. “Eight hundred a month in child support—there’s a total of a hundred thousand in here. It’s not that I didn’t want to pay before, but after I got married, my in-laws kept calling me a gold-digger, saying I only married for money. They were watching me constantly, not letting me spend freely.”

“How much was your handbag?” Lin Mother asked.

“Not expensive, just twenty thousand,” Xu Yanqiu replied reflexively. Then she realized she’d slipped up. “I need to socialize and attend banquets—you can’t show up to those with some ten-buck stall junk. Besides, if I hadn’t asked you to help raise the child back then, you wouldn’t have ended up with such a nice place now, would you?”

“We accepted the house because we did take care of Xiaoya and gave her an education,” Lin Mother said. “We even gave her the spare room and let her brother sleep in the living room.”

Lin Mother had always been strong-willed and sharp. She never intended to say things like “we don’t need money or a house” and then try to squeeze more benefits from Yi Xiaoya later. That wasn’t realistic. Taking these things now was fair and above board. If they came back for more later, it would just look like mooching and exploiting past kindness.

If they really acted like that, the Yi family would never let them near again.

“Xu Yanqiu, a person should know what shame is! Don’t act like a dog who rushes in the moment it smells like meat!” Lin Mother snatched the bank card. “Child support is your responsibility. But don’t think I’ll speak nicely about you to Xiaoya. Oh, right—didn’t you tell your husband you’ve never had a child?”