One could hardly blame Ning Xiaolan for punishing Su Ziyu so harshly.
The last time the Qingyun Mo family cornered Su Ziyu, she hadn't told her family and had faced it alone.
This time, when the Tiandong Lan family pushed her to the brink—
She had still kept it from her family!
"You are a piece of flesh that fell from me, I am your mother."
"You are your father's greatest and proudest creation in this life."
"You are Qianfan's wife, the wife who is meant to support him through thick and thin and grow old together."
"The three of us are the closest people to you in this world."
"If you face any storms alone without telling us, do you still consider us your closest people?"
"If you had told us earlier that that scoundrel Lan Yunhai was after you, even if our whole family couldn't resist him, at least your father and I could have died with you!"
"Have you ever thought about what meaning it would have for us to live another hundred years if you died?"
"You would only condemn us to a life worse than death, filled with endless grief!"
"This is not you bravely taking responsibility."
"You are simply trampling on my and your father's hearts."
"Do you know how I endured the ten hours and sixteen minutes after I was kidnapped this morning?"
"I, Ning Xiaolan!"
"Lying there, like a concubine awaiting a man at any moment!"
"At that time, the person I hated most was not those beasts."
"It was you—"
"Su Ziyu!"
Tears streaming down her face, Ning Xiaolan was reminded of those ten-plus hours of despair, her eyes filled with lingering terror.
She had lost control of her emotions.
She didn't know what she was shouting or crying about, nor how hard she was hitting.
Finally.
After an unknown amount of time, Ning Xiaolan gradually regained her senses.
*Thud.*
The belt fell from her hand onto the floor.
Su Ziyu, who was kneeling at her feet, was so badly beaten that blood had soaked through her white sleep robe.
Su Ziyu neither dodged nor flinched, only weeping and repeatedly apologizing.
Ning Xiaolan was stunned.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I was wrong. From now on, no matter what difficulties I face, I won't force myself anymore."
Su Ziyu's eyes were unfocused, and she continued to apologize and admit her mistakes.
"How could I have beaten Ziyu this badly?"
Ning Xiaolan stared blankly at her daughter, murmuring to herself.
"Ziyu, you, you mustn't move. Please, please don't move."
Ning Xiaolan, now clear-headed, knelt down and hugged her daughter.
Then, as if shocked, she let go and jumped up, rushing towards the door: "I'll go find a doctor, get a doctor to treat your injuries! Wait for me, you must wait for me!"
Realizing she had severely injured her daughter (physically), Ning Xiaolan's mind went blank.
Driven by instinct, she rushed out of the house.
She had no idea where to find a doctor.
*Beep beep!*
A piercing honk startled Ning Xiaolan from her daze.
She then realized she had left the residential compound and was on the busy street.
"Watch where you're going!"
A driver cursed at Ning Xiaolan, who was dazed and had run a red light.
Startled awake, Ning Xiaolan didn't even think of retorting. She turned and ran back towards the compound.
She had been so terrified when she ran out that she hadn't taken her car or her phone.
"How could I have severely injured Ziyu, and then run out? Will she get desperate and jump from the building? If Ziyu dies, how will I explain it to old Su and Qianfan?"
Ning Xiaolan rushed back into the compound at top speed.
She truly feared seeing her beloved daughter's lifeless body at the foot of the building.
Thankfully.
There was no body—
Ning Xiaolan burst into the building's lobby and happened to see a woman in white entering the elevator, just as the doors were about to close.
"Please wait!"
Ning Xiaolan shouted.
The woman immediately reached out, and the closing elevator doors reopened.
"Thank you!"
Ning Xiaolan jumped in and, as she thanked the woman in white, she paused.
The woman sharing the elevator with her was dressed in a white Hanfu.
With the resurgence of cultural confidence, more and more women were wearing Hanfu on the streets.
However, those wearing Hanfu were generally young girls.
Ning Xiaolan had never seen a woman of her own age wearing Hanfu.
No!
This wasn't the current popular style of Hanfu, but a simple white robe.
Spotless.
Even the shoes the woman wore were handmade, with white silk uppers and layered soles.
The woman's beautiful, silky hair was loosely tied back with a white silk ribbon.
Ning Xiaolan had never seen such attire before.
Most importantly, Ning Xiaolan's sharp eyes, which had solved countless cases, couldn't discern the woman's age.
At first glance, the woman looked to be in her late thirties.
Then, she seemed to be in her late teens.
Looking again, she appeared to be almost sixty.
So, how old was this woman in the white robe?
And!
The woman in the white robe was beautiful, truly beautiful.
She possessed the kindness of an elder, the charm of a mature woman, and the playfulness of a young girl.
Ning Xiaolan stared intently at the woman in the white robe, motionless for a long time.
The elevator had long since stopped on the fourth floor.
The woman in white smiled: "Director Ning, you should go home."
Ning Xiaolan snapped back to reality and stammered, "You, you know me?"
The woman in white nodded: "I saw your photo with the director on Director Su's desk."
Ning Xiaolan finally understood.
Then, she suddenly realized something and reached out to grab the woman's left hand: "You, are you a doctor at Guangming Hospital?"
"More precisely, I am an applicant for a position at Guangming Hospital."
The woman in white said, "I was supposed to apply for a surgeon position at Guangming Hospital yesterday afternoon. But the director's secretary mentioned that the director was out. The director isn't working today either, so I thought I'd pay you a visit."
"You're a doctor, that's great!"
Ning Xiaolan grabbed the woman in white and hurried out of the elevator, speaking incoherently, "Quick, quickly help me see Ziyu."
The woman in white paused and asked, "What happened to the director?"
"I, I had a fit of madness and severely injured her myself."
As Ning Xiaolan said this, tears of regret began to flow again.
The woman in white's expression changed.
Ning Xiaolan bent down, retrieved a key from under the doormat, and kept cursing herself as a scoundrel.
With trembling hands, she unlocked the door: "Ziyu, Ziyu! Are you okay? Mom, Mom has invited a doctor for you."
Su Ziyu was fine.
She was still kneeling on the sofa, elbows resting on it, continuously apologizing to her mother.
Ning Xiaolan was scared witless.
Su Ziyu was beaten into a stupor.
Sigh.
The woman in white hurried inside. Seeing the bloody patch on Su Ziyu's sleep robe, her eyebrows twitched, and she bent down to pick her up.
She held Su Ziyu, weighing about fifty kilograms, as easily as if she were cradling an infant: "Which room is hers?"
Ning Xiaolan rushed to the door of the spare bedroom and opened it.
As the woman in white carried Su Ziyu into the bedroom, she said, "Go to a Chinese herbal medicine shop and buy three qian, xue jie, hong hua, mo yao, and dang gui—eight qian of each. Hurry! If it's past the hour, stronger herbs will be needed to prevent scarring."
"Okay, I'm going right now!"
Ning Xiaolan grabbed her phone and car keys from the table and turned to leave.
As she opened the door, she suddenly remembered something: "By the way, Doctor, what's your name?"
"My surname is Yang, Yang Xiao."
The woman in white used her left foot to hook the door, closing it.
"Yang Xiao? That name sounds like a man's name."
Ning Xiaolan remarked casually and hurried towards the stairs.
As soon as she exited the building, she saw a car slowly driving up and parking in her family's parking spot.
"Director Ning."
The car door opened, and Mo Hongti, dressed in a red dress, stepped out: "Where are you going? Has Ziyu woken up? I came to see her."
"Director Mo, you're here at the perfect time!"
Ning Xiaolan ran over, opened her car door, and got in: "Quick, quickly accompany me to find a Chinese herbal medicine shop to buy medicine."
Mo Hongti quickly got into the car and asked, "Buying Chinese medicine? What's wrong?"
Ning Xiaolan started crying again: "I had a fit of madness and severely injured Ziyu."
"Ah!?"
Mo Hongti shuddered in shock.
But she didn't have time to ask more and quickly started the car.
Regretting her actions, Ning Xiaolan, tears streaming down her face, explained how she had gone mad and injured Su Ziyu.
Uh.
After hearing the story, Mo Hongti didn't know what to say.
Did Ziyu's actions warrant a scolding from her mother, Ning Xiaolan?
Yes!
But Ning Xiaolan shouldn't have beaten her so severely.
Everyone pities their own daughter, that's true.
But everyone also pities their own wife.
What would Li Qianfan's reaction be if he knew his wife had been beaten so badly by her mother-in-law?
When the car stopped in front of a Chinese herbal medicine shop, Mo Hongti suddenly remembered something: "Oh, Director Ning. Who is looking after the injured Ziyu at your place right now?"
"A doctor who just applied to Guangming Hospital."
Ning Xiaolan opened the car door and jumped out: "She happened to come to see Ziyu. She's the one who told me to buy these herbs."
A doctor who just applied to Guangming Hospital?
Mo Hongti froze, her alarm bells ringing: "Director Ning is completely beside herself, how could she trust a doctor who just applied? Leaving her alone with the injured Ziyu at home? What if that person was sent by the Lan family, wouldn't that be terrible?"
Her mind raced.
Mo Hongti pressed Ning Xiaolan, who was running towards the pharmacy: "Director Ning, what is that doctor's name?"
"She said her name is Yang Xiao!"
Ning Xiaolan replied without looking back.
Yang Xiao?
A man's name.
Oh heavens.
Director Ning severely injured her daughter with superficial wounds, and now she left a male doctor, who claimed to be applying to Guangming Hospital, alone at home to take care of her!?
Mo Hongti realized the gravity of the situation and quickly took out her phone.
She rapidly dialed Su Ziyu's office number at Guangming Hospital.
Soon,
Zeng Ting's voice, Su Ziyu's secretary, came through the receiver: "Hello, this is Guangming Hospital."
"I am Mo Hongti from Victoria."
Mo Hongti asked directly: "Do you have a doctor named Yang Xiao at your hospital?"
"Ah, President Mo, hello."
Zeng Ting replied quickly: "We don't have any doctors surnamed Yang at our hospital."
Mo Hongti's heart sank, and she said, "That Yang Xiao, she said she just applied."
"Just applied?"
Zeng Ting seemed to understand: "President Mo, so the Yang Xiao you're talking about is that strange auntie."
"Auntie?"
Mo Hongti asked: "Is Yang Xiao a woman?"
"Yes."
Zeng Ting replied: "She's an auntie. Very beautiful, and very strange. She came to apply for a surgeon position, but because the director was out, I asked her to come back today, but she didn't."
The secretary babbled on.
Mo Hongti, however, only focused on one point: "You said she's very strange? How strange is she?"
Zeng Ting replied: "It's hard to tell her age, and she wears a white robe and ties her hair with a white ribbon. She gives off the impression of an immortal from another realm. She's completely out of sync with our familiar urban life."
"Okay, I understand. That's all."
As long as she could confirm Yang Xiao was a female doctor, Mo Hongti felt a huge burden lifted.
But the fact that she was described as strange made Mo Hongti uneasy.
She feared the Lan family had sent someone to stir up trouble.
"No, I must inform my brother about this in advance, so he'll have some idea."
Mo Hongti muttered to herself and began calling Li Qianfan.
The call connected.
Li Qianfan asked, "Sister Hongti, is something wrong?"
Mo Hongti got straight to the point: "Your wife was injured by your mother-in-law."
"Ah?"
Li Qianfan paused, then chuckled: "Was my wife beaten badly?"
Li Qianfan had seen Ning Xiaolan beating her daughter with a belt many times after marrying into the Su family, so he didn't take it seriously.
But the next second, Li Qianfan trembled all over.
Because Mo Hongti said: "It's said her skin was torn, and blood stuck her sleep robe."
Li Qianfan immediately panicked and shouted: "No way? That bad? Watch over her for a moment, I'll be right back."
Hearing the urgency in Li Qianfan's voice, which revealed his concern for his wife, Mo Hongti quickly poured cold water on him: "Brother, you need to calm down. The one who beat your wife is your mother-in-law."
Uh.
Li Qianfan immediately calmed down.
"I don't know the specifics of what happened."
Mo Hongti seized the opportunity to explain: "But there's one thing I must tell you. After Director Ning sobered up, in her distress, she let a strange woman stay alone at home with Ziyu. That woman is a doctor applying to Guangming Hospital. I just called Zeng Ting, and she said the woman is very strange. Wearing a white robe, with a white ribbon tying her hair. Her surname is Yang, and her given name is Xiao. I'm worried that this Yang Xiao might be someone sent by the Lan family to cause trouble."
"Wait!"
Li Qianfan asked urgently: "You said that strange woman wears a white robe, ties her hair with a white ribbon, and is called Yang Xiao?"
"Yes, Zeng Ting said so, but I haven't met her yet."
Mo Hongti nodded, then realized something and asked, "Why, Brother, do you seem to know her?"
"Know her? I grew up under her care after I was eight years old."
Li Qianfan said with a wry smile, "I, I am her eldest grandson."
Mo Hongti was stunned.
She murmured, "That Yang, that elder, is our grandmother?"
——————
This chapter is over four thousand characters, essentially two chapters combined, not divided into two.
Working hard, another chapter will come at midnight.