Chapter 84

Yu Wan’s days were far from easy.

Her traffic had plummeted. She posted several videos in a row, but their view counts were drastically reduced. She even confronted the platform’s person in charge, demanding to know why they were throttling her content.

The platform staff initially didn’t want to respond. Driven to their wits’ end by her persistence, they finally said, “The content you’re posting really isn’t suitable for promotion… Look, all your videos subtly incite netizens to cyberbully Yu Xi. Is that appropriate? Besides, I have to focus on accounts that need promoting right now. I don’t have time to monitor your situation. I hope you understand—we’re all just working stiffs here.”

The staff’s words conveyed two key points.

The videos Yu Wan chose were dull and unengaging, unworthy of promotion.

Without a company managing her account, she couldn’t make it work on her own.

These days, the hottest self-media accounts were all backed by MCN agencies. These institutions guided account development, provided content support, and even handled promotions.

Back when Yu Wan first returned to the country, several MCN agencies had reached out, eager to manage her account. But she had turned them down.

She believed that agency-managed accounts mostly produced mere influencers, and there was a world of difference between influencers and top-tier celebrities.

At the time, Yu Wan had looked down on that path entirely.

But now, it seemed like her only option.

She swallowed her pride and submitted her resume to MCN companies.

Yet her applications went unanswered. When she tracked down a person in charge, the response was, “We’re indeed interested in your account, but you’ve already explicitly rejected us. We can’t sign you now.”

Yu Wan exploded in fury. “Rejected? I’ve been waiting for your reply all along. When did I reject you?!”

“I rejected them for you,” Yu Xi said casually when he came to visit.

Every few days, Yu Xi visited her, always bringing gifts and a bouquet of fresh flowers, making it feel ceremonial.

The staff praised him, netizens raved, but Yu Wan could no longer maintain her composure.

“What do you mean by that?!”

Yu Xi lifted his eyes, a smile at the corner of them, but none in their depths. “You need to rest, Mom. You don’t have to worry about these things.”

Yu Wan’s shoulders trembled. She raised her hand, grabbed Yu Xi by the collar, and yanked him forward. “Who gave you the right? Who are you to make decisions for me?!”

She was so furious, so enraged, that her voice shook uncontrollably. Her eyes bulged with near-madness as she glared at him, but all she got in return was that calm, indifferent gaze.

Yu Xi said nothing and offered no rebuttal.

Yu Wan was momentarily stunned.

Those words felt familiar.

She had once said something just like that.

—On the day Yu Xi eagerly prepared for his exams and received an acceptance letter from a foreign school, when the teacher wanted to discuss it with her and him, she had rejected the enrollment on his behalf.

“I rejected the school for you,” she had informed him coldly back then.

Words she had once spoken now pierced her like a sharp sword, delivered with the same icy detachment.

Yu Wan froze in a daze, her grip loosening bit by bit.

Yu Xi straightened his rumpled collar and said flatly, “Rest assured and stay here to recover. I’ll deposit the medical fees into your card on schedule. You don’t have to worry about anything.”

[I’m leaving. I’ll deposit living expenses into your card on time. Don’t worry about money. Take care of yourself.]

—That was what Yu Wan had told him before she left.

Her eyes reddened, her sockets burning. She didn’t want to cry—crying was an ugly expression. She could break down, she could scream, but she refused to shed tears, especially not in front of Yu Xi. Yet now, with red-rimmed eyes, she stared at him in disbelief, at the son she had once abandoned. “How can you treat me like this?”

[How can you treat me like this?] Yu Xi had asked her the same thing.

“I’m doing this for your own good,” Yu Xi replied.

[I’m doing this for your own good.] That was what she had said back then.

The scenes from the past overlapped with the present, but their positions had completely swapped.

Once, she had bound Yu Xi with her ideals, her status, her natural high ground.

Now, Yu Xi overshadowed her entirely with his towering presence and immense shadow.

Yu Wan suddenly felt drained of strength, slumping helplessly against the headboard.

Silence stretched between them, long and heavy.

Finally, Yu Wan spoke. “If I apologize to you, will you forgive me, Little Xi?”

Yu Xi was massaging her calves, his movements professional and gentle. The bedside was filled with things he had brought, the room blooming with floral scents. They were together, everything seemingly so natural and perfect, yet Yu Xi looked at her with those beautiful eyes, devoid of emotion. “I’ll never forgive you.”

Yu Xi’s fingers were strong, making the massage deeply comfortable.

She had once forced him to practice various instruments until his fingers blistered and healed repeatedly, the calluses thinning from endless days of practice.

Now, that thin layer of callus touched her skin, warm and faint.

In that moment, she remembered the past. She had lain in a hospital bed, resolved to abort the little life within her, but when the doctor handed her the pills, she suddenly sat up, threw them away, and insisted on keeping the child.

What had she been thinking then?

She couldn’t remember. She only recalled that instant filled with happiness.

Whatever her reason for wanting to keep the child, in that moment of decision, she had been happy, delighted.

—She had once deeply hoped this child’s birth would change her life.

But now?

Her child had succeeded, gaining the spotlight she had always craved.

Yet Yu Xi was ice-cold, arranging the best hospital, the best doctors, the best care, then sealing off all her avenues of struggle.

“Do nothing, and let’s not interfere in each other’s lives,” Yu Xi said. “We’ll be the perfect mother and son in everyone’s eyes, Mom.”

Yu Xi had a packed schedule and couldn’t stay long in the hospital. After a brief chat, he prepared to leave.

It was naptime now, and a group of young nurses clustered outside the room, whispering excitedly. Yu Xi was friendly to each one and thoughtfully ordered them afternoon tea.

Yu Wan lay alone in the hospital bed.

With Yu Xi gone, no one visited her anymore—not even Liang Shuo.

Her condition wasn’t suitable for dancing these days. After treatments, she could only lie in bed, idly scrolling her phone.

She kept coming across clips from Weekend Go Where.

The sixth episode had already aired.

It spanned three days, with guests visiting Yu Xi’s and Yi Chen’s homes.

Yu Wan had never seen Yu Xi’s place—this was her first glimpse.

Clean and tidy.

Yu Xi had always been neat and clean.

Back when she lost her temper and smashed things, he would meticulously clean up every piece. Even if she hit him until his lip split and blood trickled from his mouth, he would leave the house spotless.

In the livestream, Yu Xi introduced his home and shared his life.

—But everything he talked about was from after she left: the life he lived afterward, the friends he made afterward, the experiences he had afterward.

His life was neatly divided into two parts.

Before Yu Wan left, and after.

Yu Wan had become a chapter in his life he had no desire to revisit.

The production team wisely avoided Yu Wan’s family drama—no one mentioned her, neither in comments nor by Liang Shuo.

It was as if she had never existed.

Yu Wan watched the entire sixth episode, finding not a trace of herself.

She could return to the country with fanfare, brazenly demand Yu Xi “forgive” her, yet be erased completely, denied even a shred of attention or discussion.

Do nothing?

Be the perfect mother and son in everyone’s eyes?

I’m doing this for your own good?

She had once coerced and oppressed Yu Xi with those very words, using the flawless image she had painstakingly built to confine him. Now, everything she had done was turned back on her, and she felt the pain, the weight, the suffocation.

Yu Wan clutched her chest. Her inner turmoil manifested physically; her windpipe felt clogged with cement, air unable to pass, leaving her on the verge of suffocation.

No…

This couldn’t happen…

How could she be wrong?

She couldn’t possibly be wrong!

She contacted another hospital.

This was a private facility that had once approached her, offering a hefty endorsement fee to make her their spokesperson—provided her surgery was done there, turning her into their perfect case study.

Of course, she had scorned such an endorsement back then.

But now, everything was different.

This was her last resort.

The current hospital was arranged by Yu Xi. To leverage his traffic, she needed to occupy the moral high ground—guilt, or at least the public’s perception that Yu Xi should feel guilty, was her best weapon.

She had to leave this place. She couldn’t stay in a hospital Yu Xi had chosen for her.

“I’ll take your endorsement deal,” Yu Wan said.

“Great. Let’s set a time to discuss the contract and schedule your surgery,” the voice on the other end replied.

“Yu Wan has transferred hospitals and will undergo surgery at another facility,” the hospital staff informed Yu Xi.

The staff couldn’t quite understand Yu Wan’s decision.

He thought she was ungrateful.

The private hospital she transferred to was newly opened in the past couple of years, with questionable resources and techniques. Worse, they skimped on training medical staff to splurge on celebrities for endorsements—their standards needed serious scrutiny.

Yet Yu Wan was willing to risk an unfamiliar private hospital and unknown doctors just for that endorsement fee.

He couldn’t fathom it and had no right to advise her, so he simply passed the message to Yu Xi.

Yu Xi was somewhat surprised.

If Yu Wan wanted to fight him to the end, shouldn’t she heal her injuries first?

Her core strength wasn’t her persona or her fabricated stories—it was her dancing.

But since she insisted on transferring, he couldn’t force her to stay. To avoid interception, she had rushed to sign the contract and file it. By the time Yu Xi wanted to investigate, it was too late.

Yu Xi hung up the phone, turned off the screen, and rubbed his eyes.

Whatever.