Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Due to the suspicion that she had towards Xu Huizhen and Ye Ning, Ye Fei didn’t dare to return home openly.
She softened her footsteps stealthily.
The Ye family lived in a mature residential building that had been around for decades.
There was no elevator to the sixth floor; the corners of the corridor were piled up with junk that every household in the building could not put into their house nor bear to throw away.
The soundproofing in this building wasn’t great as well—if someone said something in a loud voice, everyone upstairs and downstairs would be able to hear it very clearly.
As a result, gossip was rampant from each household.
Ye Fei’s family was on the fourth floor. Upon walking to the entrance, she carefully placed her ear onto the door to listen to the sounds in the house.
Soon after, she heard the rapid footsteps pacing back and forth from within the house.
“Why hasn’t that girl come back yet?” Xu Huizhen asked anxiously, “It couldn’t be that she took it so hard that she has gone to commit suicide, right?”
“That won’t happen. That girl is strong-hearted and can handle pressure especially well. No matter how serious the problem, she can continue living very well,” Ye Ning’s voice rang out.
“Can she succeed with one try?” Xu Huizhen asked again.
“If this one try did not pay off, then we can do it again. Anyway, as long as we can manipulate her once, we can manipulate her for the second and third time. After multiple times, perhaps she would acknowledge the reality of her situation on her own too,” Ye Ning said.
Ye Fei’s fingers clutched onto the door tightly and her fingertips turned white.
“Anyway, I’ve talked to Boss Liu already. As long as Ye Fei becomes pregnant with his child, he will give us 10 million dollars. If it’s a son, another 10 million will be added on top of that.” Ye Ning was radiating with delight as she continued, ” Boss Liu is already over 50 years old, but his wife at home hasn’t been able to give birth to a child all this while, let alone a son. Unfortunately, his wife isn’t letting anyone else give birth for him. Boss Liu already tried to do it secretly a few times, but was always discovered by his wife.”
“Tsk tsk, isn’t she forcing him to give up on having offspring!” Xu Huizhen shook her head as she curled her lip.
“That’s right,” Ye Ning said, “Boss Liu is already a regular at our restaurant. After some time, I discovered this problem. But isn’t this the opportunity that our family has been waiting for this whole time?”
“In the end, you’re still more capable. Unlike Ye Fei, besides spending the family’s money by going to college, she doesn’t know anything else!” Xu Huizhen huffed in dissatisfaction.
Ye Ning’s imagination wandered freely, “Our forefathers were a family well-known for living an extravagant life, with countless world-famous restaurants. We had also been an esteemed household several generations earlier. But to this day, our family has been left with such a small restaurant, and a cookbook left behind by our ancestors. What is the use of having that cookbook if we don’t have the money to do research on the dishes and recreate them?”
“Once we get the money, we can let Dad study the cookbook to his heart’s content. Doesn’t Ye Fei want to become a chef too? Then, we’ll just let her and Dad study it together. After that, we’ll open a proper high-class restaurant that specializes in selling superior cuisine. The dishes in the cookbook are the gems of our future restaurant.”
Ye Ning said in delight. “Mom, you have no idea how much money that restaurant I work at earns! I’m working there right now, so that I can learn the company’s business operation and their money-making expertise. When it’s time, we can use those skills in our family restaurant. We’ll definitely succeed!”
“My daughter sure is capable!” Xu Huizhen praised.
“Exactly! But… Ye Fei definitely resents me for this matter now,” Ye Ning lowered her voice.
“What right does she have to resent you? Since she doesn’t have the brains to think of a good idea herself, so we’ll just let her contribute her own body for the family. The family has raised her to this age; what right does she have to complain!” Xu Huizhen declared harshly straight away. “You have the brains so you’re in charge of coming up with the ideas. The remaining work can be left to those without the brains.”
“But if Dad finds out about this matter…” Ye Ning spoke once more.
“Hmph!” Xu Huizhen snorted off-handedly. “This is all for his family business, which had been passed down for generations. What objection can he have? Even if he finds out, what has been done is done, so what else can he do? Wouldn’t he still have to continue cooperating with us? No matter what, he can’t possibly ruin everything and let Ye Fei’s sacrifice go in vain, right?”
“That’s right, what does that Boss Liu look like?” Xu Huizhen asked again.
Hearing her mention the man, Ye Ning curled her lips in revulsion, “He’s fat and short, and smells of a whole mouthful of cigarette smoke. I really don’t understand how his wife can feel worried about his conduct. Originally, that Boss Liu wanted to get me to give birth for him. If he was just the slightest bit better-looking, I wouldn’t hand him over to Ye Fei either. I can even take advantage of his son to snatch a proper title for myself. But those features on him… I’m not satisfied at all, so I can only give Ye Fei to him instead.”
To put it bluntly, surrogacy was not allowed in China and Boss Liu was also afraid of getting into trouble. It was too easy for his wife to discover if he went abroad for surrogacy. In this case, he might as well just find a young girl and he would still benefit at her expense.
Ye Fei stumbled a few steps backwards.
Initially, she had even thought of seeking help from her father, Ye Dezhang. But it seemed like she didn’t need to anymore either.
How could Ye Fei possibly dare to return to such a family?
She rushed down the stairs and dashed into the opposite building. Then, she hid on the rooftop.
Not only wouldn’t she be found by anyone in this place, she could also see when Xu Huizhen and Ye Ning left the residence.
Ye Fei recalled Ye Ning’s description of Boss Liu just now, but it did not coincide with her memories.
She still had some memories of what had happened.
Although she couldn’t see that man’s face clearly, she certainly remembered that the other party was a young man.
Furthermore, he wasn’t obese at all. On the contrary, his figure was excellent; she had even touched his muscles.
Moreover, she remembered that the voice murmuring beside her ear was pleasant and captivating.
Furthermore, there wasn’t any nasty smell of cigarette smoke in his mouth.
He definitely wasn’t that Boss Liu whom Ye Ning had spoken of.
Ye Fei was sure that this wasn’t her hallucination.
In that case, something had gone wrong somewhere.
She didn’t know why, but even though what was lost couldn’t be recovered anymore, she was still thankful that the other party was not that Boss Liu.
Ye Fei waited for quite a while. In the end, Xu Huizhen and Ye Ning couldn’t wait for her return any longer.
Ye Ning could only go to work while Xu Huizhen also went to the small restaurant.
Ye Fei returned to her house furtively.
She packed all of her luggage and the money that she had secretly saved up from tutoring people who had missed their classes.
Because she had not spent a cent, the amount that she had saved up was quite substantial—all of it stored in a card.
While Ye Fei was dragging her luggage to the entrance, she suddenly remembered something. Turning around abruptly, she ran back to Xu Huizhen and Ye Dezhang’s bedroom.
Lifting up the mattress, she found that cookbook underneath the mattress.
There was no safety deposit box in her house, so Xu Huizhen had hidden the cookbook under the mattress.
Although it was an heirloom, the original version had deteriorated long ago as it could not withstand the test of time.
This cookbook was a copy that had been handed down afterwards.
Didn’t Ye Ning wholeheartedly want to rely on this cookbook to produce a booming business?
For this reason alone, her mother, father and older sister had offered her up for sale altogether.
In that case, she was going to take their only ‘hope’ away.
Even if she still had no way of recreating the cuisines in this cookbook for now, Ye Fei was certain that Ye Ning’s plan would crumble into ashes once she no longer had the recipes in this cookbook.
Ye Fei felt invigorated.
She carefully put the cookbook away and left with her luggage.