Chapter 473: This time the Gu family can't protect you

Song Shiwei had just been helped to sit on the sofa by Gu Zhiyan; after repeated strikes from Jiang Lai and Gu Zhiyan, her upper half slumped onto the sofa armrest, her hair disheveled, her eyes bloodshot, her face even looking ferocious.

She seemed to want to say something, but she couldn't make a sound; her throat felt blocked by a wad of cotton.

Many words could not burst out, only held back in her chest, suffocating her.

Realizing she couldn't speak, Song Shiwei's eyes filled with terror; she clutched Gu Zhiyan's arms tightly, tears streaming nonstop.

Song Shiwei's gaze was complex.

She wanted to refute that what had just been said was all fake.

She wanted to ask if her son's body was alright.

She wanted to ask Gu Yinxue whether these things were really true!

Anger, panic, collapse, pain played out in turn on her face, like one thorn after another piercing her body, her heart, even scrambling her brain into a tangled mess.

Gu Zhiyan stood up and said, "I'll go call the doctor."

No.

No!

Song Shiwei desperately tried to grab Gu Zhiyan, but she still dared not look at Jiang Lai beside her; her body began to tremble, she neither wanted nor dared to stay in the same space as Jiang Lai.

Although Gu Zhiyan had completely lost hope in his mother, he could not ignore his voiceless mother at this moment; he pushed her hand aside to call the doctor.

Only three people remained in the ward.

Song Shiwei frantically pulled her hair to cover her face, to cover her eyes, just like the day she abandoned the baby.

She dared not look at the baby's eyes, nor let the baby see her, constantly trying to shield her face with her hair.

"You still dare not look at me?" Jiang Lai approached Song Shiwei and asked calmly and composedly.

Song Shiwei could not speak; she could only scream wildly in her mind, curling herself into a ball on the single sofa.

Looking at her, she indeed looked pitiful.

But Jiang Lai couldn't muster pity, and she didn't want to keep wasting time here with Song Shiwei.

"You wanted to see me; now you have, and you know many things. Is there anything else you want to say? If not, then let's never meet again in this life."

After speaking, Jiang Lai felt her voice had turned cold, devoid of any humanity.

She turned to leave.

Song Shiwei suddenly reached out, about to grab Jiang Lai's hand.

Another hand came faster, prying open her arm.

"Don't touch her." It was Ke Zhongyu, his voice eerily cold, his face dark as unmeltable ink.

Jiang Lai reached out, pulled Ke Zhongyu's hand, and drew him slightly toward herself, intending to keep Ke Zhongyu away from Song Shiwei.

Song Shiwei's outstretched hand froze in midair; she didn't know why, at the moment Jiang Lai said she would leave, she felt the urge to reach out and grab her.

Jiang Lai didn't glance at Song Shiwei again, and left together with Ke Zhongyu.

Ke Zhongyu's peripheral vision swept over Song Shiwei.

Just after leaving the ward, Gu Zhiyan came with the doctor; seeing the two about to leave, he first let the doctor go in to check his mother's condition, then he himself stopped.

He looked at Jiang Lai: "Leaving?"

Jiang Lai looked over, her eyes writing two words: "Otherwise?"

Gu Zhiyan felt the same; otherwise, what would he stay here for, to watch the one who caused him to grow up in an orphanage and drift for over twenty years, the chief culprit?

"Take care on the road." After saying that, he stepped aside to make way, saying nothing more.

Gu Zhiyan watched Jiang Lai's receding back until she disappeared, then entered the ward and heard the doctor say they would transfer his mother to another department; his mother indeed should go to psychiatry.

The result was that his mother's loss of voice was a psychosomatic disorder triggered by severe psychological trauma.

Twenty-eight years ago she suffered from postpartum depression; although treated and seemingly cured, the emotional lesion had actually lain dormant, and the diagnosis two or three months prior had already become bipolar disorder.

The bipolar disorder, overlaid with the activation of long‑traumatic memories, caused severe emotional dissociation and somatization; the subconscious generated a self‑defense mechanism that actively cut off verbal expression, resulting in psychogenic mutism.

His mother is currently in a semi‑insane state; one more stimulus would truly drive her mad.

Gu Zhiyan specifically asked the doctor why the phrase "long‑traumatic memory" was used; the doctor told him that memory was also a psychological trauma for his mother.

Thus, while harming others, his mother also harmed herself; knowing it was harmful, she did not actively heal or make amends, but instead persisted, ultimately expanding the harm and backlash—who else could be blamed?

Gu Zhiyan, mentally and physically exhausted, resettled his mother.

……

Gu Yinxue knew that what she had done would eventually be exposed to her mother by Gu Zhiyan, and her mother would surely believe Gu Zhiyan.

Because he was her mother's beloved son.

That was a piece of flesh truly fallen from her mother's body.

She had to find another retreat for herself, not just one.

The old master had also been angered into the hospital by Jiang Lai; she needed to go see him, and the old master here was also one of her retreats.

But when she appeared outside the old master's ward, the Gu family members looked at her with eyes utterly cold.

After she left, taking advantage of her mother's fainting, something else must have happened.

She did not know.

She sent messages to her other siblings at home; no one deleted her, but no one replied either.

The old master Gu had already awakened; hearing that Gu Yinxue was outside, he had his son Gu Kai call her in, as he had something to say to Gu Yinxue.

Gu Yinxue saw Gu Kai and, as usual, respectfully called him "uncle," but Gu Kai gave no response.

Gu Yinxue's heart rose; she entered and, likewise respectfully, called the old master.

The old master, no longer wishing to contend with Gu Yinxue, got straight to the point: "If you don't go outside saying that Jiang Lai was abandoned, the Gu family will give you an apartment, help you transfer your household registration out—you'll still have B City hukou, and the Gu family will purchase your studio outright and give it to you to operate independently; this way, when you leave the Gu family, you'll at least take something with you."

A thunderous boom rang above Gu Yinxue's head.

"You also want to kick me out of the Gu family? We agreed—I would keep the secret, and you wouldn't expel me from the Gu family."

Gu Kai beside him let out a cold laugh, full of mockery.

Gu Yinxue looked over at him.

Gu Kai: "You're tangled in your own lawsuit, yet you still want to stay in the Gu family and ruin its reputation? The Gu family gave you a house, registered your residence, and gave you a job—you should be satisfied."

"What lawsuit?" Gu Yinxue asked, and a vague suspicion arose in her heart. She recalled the way Jiang Lai and Ke Zhongyu had looked at her when she left—not like they were letting her go, but more like they were looking at meat on a chopping block.

She clenched her hanging hand, nails digging deep into her flesh, a pang of pain shooting up her palm.

Old Master Gu: "You instigated others to murder Jiang Lai—you know you're equally guilty? Moreover, the circumstances are even worse: the woman surnamed Lin is the knife, you are the one wielding it, which means you are the mastermind."

He stared coldly at Gu Yinxue: "Ke Zhongyu said he guarantees the Lin woman's appeal will succeed."

Having grown up in the Gu family since childhood, Gu Yinxue fully understood the meaning of these words: someone's overturning isn't necessarily due to exposure; another possibility is that an opponent wants to use this matter as a breakthrough to drag you down.

Ke Zhongyu will help Lin Shutong with her appeal, and Lin Shutong will of course succeed.

Gu Yinxue's mind stormed for a moment, quickly grasping the key point: "I'll keep it secret, but I want the Gu family to protect me!"

Gu Kai: "This time the Gu family can't protect you."

The Gu family also had no intention of protecting her; in fact, if something happened to Gu Yinxue, the Gu family would be done with once and for all.

Gu Yinxue never imagined that her most reliable fallback had already been cut off in advance by Jiang Lai and Ke Zhongyu.