UM CH 08

 Chapter 8

After thinking it over, I decided to send the money.
Once I found out which hospital Ji Zhihao was in, I bought some fruit and went to visit him the next day.

He clearly hadn’t expected me to come.
The moment he saw me, his eyes lit up and he shouted,

“Shuang Shuang!”

I couldn’t help but smile helplessly.

“Call me sister, will you?” I corrected him, for what felt like the hundredth time.

At nearly 1.8 meters tall, Zhihao looked far too big for the hospital bed.
But his face was still the same as I remembered — bright and boyish, eyes narrowing into happy slits when he smiled.

I sat down beside his bed, and right away he started asking how married life was — whether Yu Jin treated me well, whether I was happy.

What could I say?
Could I tell him I was miserable?
Knowing his temper, if I admitted how badly I was treated, he’d probably storm over to the Yu family’s house and flip it upside down.

So I just forced a smile and nodded.

“Everything’s fine,” I said.

But even as I said it, I felt tears sting the back of my eyes.

***

“And you,” I said, pretending to scold him, hands on my hips, “why did you fight again? Don’t you know Mom and I both get angry when you do that?”

He shrank a little, looking guilty.

“Don’t, Sis — this time it really wasn’t me who started it!”

“Doesn’t matter who started it. Fighting is wrong, period!”

“Okay, okay, I get it! I was wrong, I swear I won’t do it again.”

Zhihao pressed his palms together in mock prayer, his exaggerated expression making me laugh despite myself.
Then he added,

“I thought you wouldn’t come. Mom said you didn’t care about me anymore — that you didn’t want to talk to me again.”

“What?” I froze. “What did she tell you exactly?”

“Just that you’re married now, so you don’t care about me anymore.”
He scratched his head, then went on,
“She also said that if Uncle hadn’t given her 5,000 yuan, I wouldn’t even have been able to stay in the hospital.”

“She said Uncle gave her the money?”
I asked, fighting to keep my voice calm.

Zhihao, oblivious as ever, nodded cheerfully.

“Yeah, that’s what Mom said.”

I lowered my head, anger burning silently in my chest.

When he said “Uncle,” he meant his biological father.
He’d come to live with us when he was very young, and had always called my father Dad.
But his real father — the man who’d abandoned them — he still called Uncle.

So my stepmother was still trying to trick him into recognizing that man again, just to collect more money in the name of “child support.”

***

After that, I couldn’t listen to another word.
I stood up and walked out of the ward.

Just as I reached the corner of the hallway, I heard my stepmother’s voice.
She was on the phone — and the words were exactly the same ones she’d used with me the day before.

“Your son, Ji Zhihao, got into another fight. He’s in the hospital now. I don’t have any money. If you don’t help him, he might die here.”

I didn’t even need to think — I knew exactly who she was calling.

“Alright, just transfer the money to me,” she said sweetly before hanging up.

Then she turned around — and froze when she saw me standing there.
For a split second, panic flashed across her face.
But she quickly forced a smile.

“Ah, Yan Shuang, you’re here… I was just—”

“Having fun, aren’t you?” I cut her off. “Asking for money here, asking for money there — what do you think I am, your personal ATM?”

“That’s not what I meant—”

“You sold me off to that family, and now you’re still taking money from me? What are you, a vampire?”
My anger boiled over.
“How much does Zhihao’s treatment really cost? I just checked at the nurses’ desk — he’s fine! So what’s the one thousand, five thousand, ten thousand for? To treat him, or to feed your greed?”

Her face twisted with rage and embarrassment.

“So what if I ask for more money? You’re his sister, aren’t you? You should help!”