Chapter 3455: You Must Stay Alive

Ten minutes later, Sun Mengmeng walked out of the Wuliang Hall with two talismans, overjoyed.

Xiao Churan was still dazed outside the hall at that time, not noticing Sun Mengmeng until she came up to her.

Sun Mengmeng leaned close to Xiao Churan, deliberately pretending to be curious as she asked: "Ms. Xiao? What are you thinking about?"

Xiao Churan snapped back to her senses, flustered, saying: "Oh, nothing... nothing, you're done?"

"Done!" Sun Mengmeng happily nodded, shaking the talisman in her hand, saying: "I already got it, let's hurry back! Can I hitch a ride with you?"

"Sure." Xiao Churan readily agreed, though she remained absent-minded; at that moment, her heart was filled with shock, confusion, and pain, and she just wanted to hurry back to the company, lock herself in the office, and have some quiet time.

On the drive back to the company, Xiao Churan kept zoning out several times, and only thanks to Sun Mengmeng's reminders beside her did she avoid causing several scraping accidents along the way.

After narrowly making it back to the company, Xiao Churan headed straight to her office, when an administrator approached and asked: "Ms. Xiao, what time is today's meeting?"

Xiao Churan waved her hand, looking worried, and said: "You organize today's meeting and have everyone attend; I won't be joining. Also, I'm feeling a bit unwell today—if anything comes up, you decide, and if you can't decide, just wait for now—don't come bother me."

Seeing her bad mood, the administrator quickly said: "Then Ms. Xiao, please go back to your office and rest for a while; I'll tell everyone later to keep the office noise down, and you can contact me anytime via WeChat if anything comes up."

Xiao Churan nodded, and the administrator, indeed perceptive, said: "Thank you for your hard work."

Then she hurried back to her office alone and locked the door from the inside.

At the moment the door was locked, Xiao Churan's tears burst forth.

Those bright, moving eyes, like a string of crystal-clear crystal necklaces, had tears as big as beans forming a line.

Xiao Churan felt an excruciating pain, as if an invisible pair of large hands were forcefully squeezing her heart, causing her entire chest cavity to ache physiologically and spasm.

She felt all her strength drained, her legs went soft, and her body slowly slid down the door to sit on the ground, unable to stop crying.

Xiao Churan recalled a joke Ye Chen had once made with her—he had once asked her, if one day she discovered he had been deceiving her all along and was actually a super-rich tycoon, what would she do?

Her answer at the time was that she would definitely leave him without hesitation.

Back then, she thought Ye Chen was just joking with her, never imagining that when he asked that question, though it seemed like a joke, it actually came from the heart.

In truth, she did not want to leave him.

These years, having him by her side, she truly felt the feeling of being cared for, and she had even once wavered, wondering if she should just follow her mother's advice, have a child with Ye Chen early, and become a family of three, or even four.

But now, what she faces is not just Ye Chen's deception, but also the enemy who killed his parents, and Ye Chen's self-sacrificing path of revenge.

Besides leaving him, what else could she do?

Although she loves him, she cannot hold him back.

Moreover, this is a matter of life and death—no matter what, she must make way for Ye Chen's future, so he has no worries behind him.

But what about the future?

If she leaves Ye Chen, will she still have a chance to see him in this lifetime?

Thinking of this, she choked back tears with red-rimmed eyes and said: "Ye Chen, it doesn't matter if we never get to see each other again in the future, but you must stay alive! Promise me, you will definitely complete your revenge, return to the public eye as the young master of the Ye family, and by then, whether you still have me, this insignificant Xiao family daughter, in your heart doesn't matter—the hardships you suffered in the Xiao family, the toil you endured, and the discrimination and injustice you faced are truly too much; if you never want to see me again in the future, I can accept that, but please, you must stay alive..."

Xiao Churan stayed locked in her office at the company all day without going out; during that time, she ate nothing, drank nothing, just sat alone in her office chair, recalling everything from when she met Ye Chen to their marriage and up to now.

In between, she didn't even know how many times she had cried, her eyes already red and swollen from weeping.

In the evening, company staff had already left work; Sun Mengmeng knocked on the door of Xiao Churan's office and softly asked: "Director Xiao, aren't you leaving work yet?"

Xiao Churan said: "I'll leave in a bit; you go ahead and leave first—are there still other colleagues outside?"

Sun Mengmeng said: "No, just me left."

Xiao Churan breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Alright, Mengmeng, you go first—I'll leave in a moment."

"Okay, Director Xiao, then I'll leave now."

After Sun Mengmeng said goodbye and turned to leave the company, Xiao Churan waited another ten minutes, thinking everyone in the company should have left by now, then she dragged her weary body out of the office.

Looking at the spacious and tidy office area, she also felt deeply reluctant to leave.

Leaving Ye Chen and living in obscurity would mean temporarily disappearing from this world.

By then, her design company would have to close down.

Many projects were still unfinished; in the coming month or so, she would have to rush to catch up on progress, though it was unlikely she could finish all the projects, but at least she could complete some.

For projects that truly couldn't be finished, she would have to arrange refunds of project fees and pay liquidated damages before she left.

Paying large amounts of liquidated damages might mean all the money her company earned during this period would be lost, but in Xiao Churan's view, whether she had money or not was already irrelevant.

She drove alone back to Tang Chen Yi Pin, returning once again to this mansion worth nearly two hundred million, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

Parked in the courtyard was the Rolls-Royce Cullinan that her father, Xiao Changkun, used for daily travel in the past.

She used to think that no matter whether it was the mansion or the luxury car, they were things Ye Chen earned by giving people feng shui readings.

Now, looking again, she finally understood—there had always been a hidden truth here that she knew nothing about.

She sighed as she parked the car, opened the door like she had lost her soul, and walked into the house.

Xiao Changkun and Ma Lan were sitting on the sofa at that time; although the TV was playing, neither of them was paying attention to the screen—instead, each was holding their phone, eagerly discussing the topic of the Maldives.

Seeing Xiao Churan return, Ma Lan immediately exclaimed excitedly: "Churan, I saw they like to go snorkeling in the Maldives, I'm preparing to have your dad take me tomorrow to buy a set of snorkeling gear—do you want to come along and take a look?"

Xiao Churan shook her head and said: "You two go ahead; I'm not interested in superficial things, and since this trip to the Maldives won't last many days, I want to use this opportunity to rest properly and clear my mind."

Ma Lan said with a silly grin: "You and your son-in-law are usually so busy with work, and it's rare to have a chance to go to a beautiful tropical vacation—you really should relax properly, but I and your dad are different—we have nothing to do all day, full of energy with nowhere to put it, so for these few days in the Maldives, I definitely want to pack the itinerary full—besides snorkeling, I also plan to go chase dolphins, go sea fishing, they say experienced captains can find pods of Bryde's whales, and by then we'll go take a look too!"

Xiao Churan nodded, didn't go over to the two of them, and just said wearily: "Mom and Dad, you two take your time researching—I'm a bit tired, I'm going upstairs to rest first."

Ma Lan also didn't think much of it, and said regretfully to Xiao Changkun: "This time we picked an island that's indeed the best in the whole Maldives, but the only regret is that we can't take a private plane this time..."

As Xiao Churan was walking up the stairs, she heard her mother's sigh, and her heart suddenly felt annoyed and stifled.

Her mother had always been like this—her vanity was so strong it was frightening, and sometimes she was indeed recklessly bold.

Ye Chen's bank card with hundreds of billions, she dared to transfer the balance away—if you really wanted to rush up to her face and ask, just how dare she do that?

Moreover, she had never even considered whether doing this would embarrass her own daughter.