Chapter 147: That Night Was Their Beginning, Yet Also Their End

“Because I was sitting in the car that killed her mother.”

Lan Si closed his eyes and spoke painfully, “I even testified for his father.”

The moment Lan Si said this, not to mention Bai Ci—who was both the victim and directly involved—wanting revenge, even Lin Qingyou couldn’t help but feel the urge to hit him.

“Don’t tell me… you and his father were in on it together?”

“Of course not…” Lan Si quickly explained, “At that time, Pei Mingzhu and my older brother were recognized as a couple. They even held an engagement banquet.”

“So naturally, I treated Pei Mingzhu’s father—who was my brother’s future father-in-law—as an elder. That day, he saw me and offered me a ride. I didn’t think too much about it and got in. But then…”

“Halfway through the drive, his brakes failed.”

Lan Si clenched his fists tightly. “He crashed into a middle-aged woman.”

“She died on the spot, without even a chance to be rescued.”

“At the time, it was clear that this was about to turn into a huge scandal. So, in order to protect me, the Yin family used all their power to suppress the news.”

“When the police investigated, I just told them what I saw at the time.”

Back then, he even thought that someone had sabotaged Pei Mingzhu’s father’s brakes to harm him.

“The police didn’t dare go against the Pei family or the Yin family easily, so they ruled the accident as an ‘unexpected incident’…”

“And that was the end of the case,” Lan Si said bitterly, mocking himself. “I was such an idiot back then, being used without even realizing it.”

Not only had he unknowingly testified for someone else, but he also dragged the Yin family into trouble.

Back then, everyone believed Pei Mingzhu’s father was also a victim and needed to investigate who had harmed him. So, it was mainly the Yin family who handled the car accident.

Because of this, in the limited information Bai Ci could find, it seemed like Lan Si had been the one who killed her mother. And since he was the Yin family’s heir, her mother’s death was left unresolved.

“So, when your mother tried to run you over with her car…” Lin Qingyou pursed her lips, “it was because she thought you were the one who killed her mother?”

Lan Si nodded, his face filled with pain and helplessness.

After all, who would ever suspect their own biological father of trying to kill their biological mother?

But back then, Bai Ci underestimated human nature.

And she underestimated the cruelty of her own father.

“Later, when she found out the truth, she was in so much pain that she wished she were dead…”

It turned out that her father didn’t just abandon her and her mother—he even killed her mother.

All the longing and expectations she had for her father turned into a blade that cut into her, poisoning her soul.

And it indirectly led to her mother’s death.

“If I hadn’t insisted on coming to find my dad, would my mom still be alive?”

“At that time, she wanted to kill herself… I stopped her.”

“After she figured things out, she came back to make amends…”

Lan Si turned to look at Yin Hanyu. “That’s why she chose to treat and take care of my older brother.”

But he never expected that his brother would fall so deeply in love with Bai Ci.

“And the rest of the story… you all already know.”

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When Yin Hanyu returned home, he remained silent.

Seeing his mood, Lin Qingyou didn’t know how to comfort him, so she decided to take him to the house where they lived as children.

The house had changed completely over the years.

But the owner of the house remained the same.

After her mother passed away, her father moved them to a new home, but this house was still theirs.

Across the yard was where Yin Hanyu and his mother had once lived. They had rented a small place, but later, Leng Yifeng and Lin Qingyou’s mother moved in.

For all these years, the house had remained under Leng Yifeng’s name.

Yin Hanyu slowly pushed open the door. A thick, musty scent of dust immediately filled the air, spreading through the entire room.

Lin Qingyou coughed a few times, and Yin Hanyu quickly waved the dust away with his hand.

This place was no longer the home he remembered.

Everything had changed.

Pei Mingzhu would never have allowed Bai Ci’s belongings to remain intact.

And after so many years, even the once pristine white paint on the walls had peeled away, leaving behind mottled scars. The furniture was covered in thick layers of dust, silently telling the story of time’s passage.

Yet, even in this ruined environment, the image of his mother remained vivid in Yin Hanyu’s mind.

With a heavy heart, Yin Hanyu slowly walked toward his mother’s study—the place she had spent the most time in.

But the moment he pushed the door open, his heart sank.

The floor was covered with scattered papers, many of them torn to pieces.

It wasn’t hard to guess whose handiwork this was—Pei Mingzhu.

Yin Hanyu bit his lip, anger rising within him.

Because those papers were his mother’s designs and writings.

Her design sketches and manuscripts were the essence of her creativity. And Pei Mingzhu had cruelly destroyed them all—this was the greatest blasphemy, the greatest wound to his mother’s memory.

At that moment, Lin Qingyou stepped into the study as well.

Seeing the mess, she crouched down and carefully picked up the dust-covered, yellowed papers.

Each time she picked one up, she would gently blow away the dust, then examine it closely, as if trying to piece together what it once was.

Yin Hanyu and Lin Qingyou stayed in the study for over ten hours.

Unknowingly, the sun had risen again.

By now, the scattered papers had been neatly arranged, even the torn pieces carefully pieced back together by Lin Qingyou.

Reading through the words, they realized—it was a novel written by Bai Ci.

But this wasn’t one of her usual works for money.

It was more like her own story.

After finishing the entire manuscript, Lin Qingyou sighed deeply.

They had always believed Bai Ci was the innocent one, while Yin Haoting was the villain.

But now, the situation was completely reversed.

Lin Qingyou looked at Yin Hanyu. “Actually… Mom really deceived everyone.”

Everyone thought she was gentle, kind, and pure.

But Bai Ci was ruthless.

Everything she did was calculated.

She intentionally drew Lan Si’s attention.

She made sure Lan Si fell for her.

And in the end, she delivered the final, fatal blow.

Even the night Bai Ci and Lan Si slept together—it wasn’t an accident, as Lan Si and Yin Haoting had believed.

They had feared that if she found out, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.

But in reality, Bai Ci had always known the truth.

She just never expected that Lan Si would care so much about Yin Haoting.

Though Bai Ci had set a trap for Lan Si from the start… somewhere along the way, she had fallen for him too.

She had thought that their fateful night together would be the breakthrough in their relationship, so she went along with it, surrendering to the effects of the drug and to Lan Si.

But she never imagined…

That night was the beginning of their story.

And also its end.

She never imagined Yin Haoting would love her so deeply…

So deeply that even after what happened, he still chose to propose.

Feeling unworthy of his love and unable to bear it, Bai Ci chose to disappear from his world.