When Chi Yao was about to get off work, he suddenly told his managerr that he wasn’t feeling well. Over time, Chi Yao had honed his acting skills, and the manager, who already had a good impression of him, noticed that Chi Yao did seem unwell. So, the manager let him leave early to rest and even offered to take him to the hospital. Chi Yao shook his head, saying it was an old problem and that he had medication at home, so he would be fine after taking some pills.

Chi Yao quickly left the bar and rushed to a hotel across the street. He had already booked a room there in advance for emergencies. With a key card in hand, he went straight to his room. He had also bribed one of the hotel staff, who had sent him a message with the room number of the people he was tracking.

Before confronting them, Chi Yao set a small fire in his own room, lighting the curtains with a lighter. Once the fire began to spread, he quickly left and ran to the targeted room, knocking on the door urgently.

“Fire! Fire! Is anyone inside? Please get out immediately!”

After knocking for a while, someone opened the door—a man with his shirt off. Chi Yao explained that there was a fire in another room, and all the guests needed to evacuate immediately. The man hurried back inside, grabbed his clothes, and rushed out with the others.

They quickly decided to leave behind a person lying unconscious on the bed, as taking them would hinder their escape. They ran toward the elevator in a panic.

After they left, Chi Yao walked out from a corner, entering the now open room. On the bed lay a young boy, completely stripped, who didn’t seem to be an adult yet. Chi Yao pulled a blanket over him and sat at the bedside, clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles cracked.

Chi Yao called Xue Zhongming and asked him to come to the hotel, and he arrived quickly, bringing some clean clothes. When Xue Zhongming saw Chi Yao’s dark expression, he didn’t dare ask what had happened.

Xue Zhongming dressed the unconscious boy and they left the hotel. As they walked through the lobby, many people were standing outside, and Chi Yao wanted to leave quickly. Just as he quickened his pace, he suddenly stopped. Looking to his left, he saw Fu Rong standing there unexpectedly.

Why was he everywhere?

Chi Yao’s gaze shifted to the side and noticed the hotel manager standing next to Fu Rong, looking worried and speaking softly to him. Chi Yao came to a realization—this hotel was probably owned by Fu Rong.

Otherwise, why would Fu Rong be here, and clearly not just passing by?

Chi Yao recalled that when he had previously tried to check the surveillance footage, he was told there had been a temporary issue with the cameras. At the time, Chi Yao was suspicious, but since nothing further happened, and no one came to blackmail him after that night, he thought it was just a coincidence.

But now, seeing Fu Rong and the hotel manager’s uneasy demeanor, he thought maybe it wasn’t a coincidence after all.

This man probably knew something he had never shared.

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Disguised as a Waiter – The Rival Appears in the Bar

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The issue with the surveillance cameras was too suspicious, and Chi Yao began to suspect that Fu Rong had likely known who was with him that night in that room, meaning he knew who the other father of Chi Yao’s child was.

But then, why did Fu Rong show up to handle his body after his death in the previous life? It didn’t make sense.

Did they have some deeper connection?

Other than being rivals, constantly at odds with each other?

Could it be that Fu Rong secretly liked him?

The thought made Chi Yao laugh at himself.

There was no way Fu Rong liked him. If he had, he wouldn’t have just come to collect his body.

There were too many unanswered questions from the previous life. After a brief pause, Chi Yao continued to walk away from the crowd. Xue Zhongming had already placed the unconscious boy into the car. Chi Yao turned in a different direction and got into his own vehicle. He then made a call to the hotel employee he had bribed. The employee reassured him that the surveillance system for that floor had already been tampered with, and the cameras elsewhere had malfunctioned due to a temporary short circuit, so nothing had been recorded.

Chi Yao didn’t say much, just hung up and transferred another sum of money to the employee.

As he drove away, Chi Yao thought about the fire he had started in the hotel. Originally, he had planned to pay for the damages, but now that he knew the hotel belonged to Fu Rong, he decided that Fu Rong had plenty of money and didn’t need his.

Chi Yao continued driving, heading toward the hospital.

He had already registered at the hospital and planned to get the tumor in his stomach removed as soon as possible. For now, the tumor was still benign. In his previous life, it was discovered too late, and something that could have been cured rapidly worsened into cancer. Within a year, it became terminal.

Even after his cancer diagnosis, Chi Yao, perhaps resigned to his fate, discovered he was pregnant—though he didn’t even know who the father was. After Shen Ling found out about the pregnancy, he visited Chi Yao, but they didn’t talk much. Shen Ling only told him to cooperate with the treatment, then left the country.

From others, Chi Yao later learned that Shen Ling had gone abroad with Fu Rong, and the two of them went on a trip together, enjoying their “two-person world.”

In that moment, Chi Yao felt as if his entire world was crumbling.

The person he had always viewed as a beacon of warmth and light had left him because of the pregnancy and was now with someone else.