On a stormy day in June, the sky seemed to have been torn open, and the rain came down in a sudden and violent torrent.
Xu Tingyu slumped numbly in the muddy water, soaked to the bone and looking extremely disheveled.
The raindrops hitting her body hurt, but it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
An hour ago, she rushed to the downstairs of Xu's Building.
A cordon had already been set up around the area. When she rushed in, she smelled a strong stench of blood.
Not far away, a body bag lay on the ground, and there were a few men in what looked like police uniforms standing around, talking in hushed tones.
She rushed over in a panic, but was stopped by Secretary Qian.
"Miss, don't look. Mr. Xu, he, he..."
He couldn't go on. With red - rimmed eyes, he turned his face away.
Jumping from the 30th floor, the body was mangled and incomplete.
No one could bear to look at it, let alone Xu Tingyu, who had always had a close relationship with her father.
But Xu Tingyu stubbornly rushed to the side of the body bag. She didn't believe that her father was really dead.
She reached out her trembling hand and unzipped the bag.
Inside, she saw her father's blood - stained face.
He had landed on his legs first, so his head was relatively intact.
She touched his face. The skin contact was numbingly cold.
She couldn't believe her touch. She lay down to listen to his heartbeat, but she heard nothing.
The warmth and heartbeat of her father were nowhere to be found.
She sat up numbly, her side face and ear smeared with blood. She anxiously questioned Secretary Qian, "Why wasn't he sent for emergency treatment?"
Secretary Qian's eyes showed pain. He quickly came over to pull her up. "Miss, the ambulance has already been here."
He was pronounced dead on the scene.
Before Xu Tingyu could say anything, she heard a commotion around her.
"Xu Jianmin committed suicide? Who's going to pay back my 50 million debt?"
"Damn it! He took the easy way out. What about the huge amount of money he owes us?"
"A debt must be paid. Don't think death will absolve him. The daughter should pay for her father's debts!"
...
A group of debt collectors tried to rush over, but after seeing the spattered flesh and blood on the ground, they stopped in their tracks and stood there cursing non - stop.
Secretary Qian quickly shielded Xu Tingyu and led her to an empty fire escape.
"Miss, there are all the creditors outside. It's not safe for you to show up now. Hide for a while."
"I haven't informed Madam and the young master yet. What do you think we should do next?"
Secretary Qian had worked in Xu's for more than twenty years. One could say that he had watched Xu Tingyu grow up.
At this moment, looking at Xu Tingyu, his eyes were full of pity and worry.
How could a delicate flower raised in a greenhouse bear the wind and rain?
Xu Tingyu's mind was in a mess, but she still grasped the key point in the chaos.
"No, don't inform the family yet. I, I'll handle it."
Her mother was even more delicate than her, and her younger brother suffered from congenital heart disease.
Neither of them could bear any shock.
She steadied herself and said to Secretary Qian, "Uncle Qian, I'll have to trouble you to send my father to the funeral parlor first."
Secretary Qian nodded and glanced at her again. "Miss, where's Mr. Qi? With him around, those people wouldn't dare to act recklessly."
Qi Shifeng?
When she received Secretary Qian's call and rushed downstairs like a madwoman, he had already disappeared.
On the way here, she had nervously called him countless times.
Without exception, no one answered any of them.
Now, reminded by Secretary Qian, she took out her phone again and dialed his number.
When a person is drowning, they always want to grab a life - saving straw.
She held her breath and quietly waited for the other end to answer.
However, all she got was the mechanical voice prompt: Sorry, the number you dialed is not answered for the moment...
She stood in the dim passage for a long time. Finally, she turned around and walked outside.
Outside, the heavy rain had started again.
The on - lookers had been dispersed. The cordon and the body bag on the ground had also been removed.
She took the umbrella the security guard handed her and walked numbly into the rain towards her car parked not far away.
On the ground, the rain was washing away the blood, which then converged into a small stream of dark red and flowed into the drain.
She was in a daze and didn't notice. She slipped and fell into the nearby green belt, splashing mud all over herself.
The umbrella was blown away by the wind, and the torrential rain poured down, making it hard for her to open her eyes.
"咔嚓" came a loud sound.
A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, followed by continuous thunder.
In the rumbling thunder, she finally burst into tears.
She no longer had a father.
She couldn't accept this cruel fact. The indescribable grief almost overwhelmed her.
...
The storm had stopped, and the sky cleared up.
Xu Tingyu was wearing a black dress with a white mourning flower pinned to her chest. She stood in front of a brand - new tombstone.
It was Xu Jianmin's tomb. A group of people were standing beside her. They were all relatives of the Xu family.
He had committed suicide due to debt. A group of angry creditors made it impossible to set up a mourning hall. He had to be quickly cremated and buried.
From the time of his death to the burial, it was less than 24 hours.
Xu Tingyu's eyes were blood - shot, and her face was pale.
Her hair was neatly tied up, but her fatigue was so obvious.
She half - squatted down and offered the last flower to her father.
As she turned around, she saw a group of reporters with long cameras rushing over.
"Mrs. Qi, your father jumped off a building because of debt, but your husband, Mr. Qi, went to watch his ex - girlfriend's performance. What do you think of this?"
"Your father is being buried today, but Mr. Qi didn't come. Are you two about to get divorced?"
...
The malicious questions came at her like snowflakes.
Xu Tingyu hadn't even figured out who the ex - girlfriend and what performance they were talking about.
Her mother, Zhang Qiu, standing beside her, was stimulated again and fainted.
There was a moment of chaos.
The reporters were afraid of causing a fatality. They just kept flashing their cameras and didn't ask any more tricky questions.
On the way to the hospital with her mother, Xu Tingyu finally understood what the reporters were talking about.
Her phone had gotten wet in the heavy rain and had been turned off all the time.
So she didn't see that while the news of her father's suicide had made headlines, the news of the second young master of the Qi family sitting in the front row, holding a bunch of fresh flowers and watching a dance competition, had also gone viral.
A competition that could attract the second young master of the Qi family must be quite a spectacle.
Sure enough, when the competition ended, Qi Shifeng went on stage to present flowers to the champion, Xie Yu.
The news about the two of them spawned several hot topics, squeezing the news of Xu's bankruptcy and its chairman's suicide out of the ranking.
At this moment, Xu Tingyu was looking at the picture of the two of them standing together on her phone.
Qi Shifeng was wearing a well - tailored Chinese - style black suit with silver - threaded auspicious clouds embroidered on the cuffs. He was tall, slender, and exuded an air of nobility.
Xie Yu was wearing a Chinese - style black dress. There were also silver - threaded auspicious clouds around her incredibly slender waist. She was pure and elegant.
Under this news article, there were all kinds of praises.
"Wow, it's a couple's outfit. I love the little gesture of showing their affection secretly."
"The gentle, rich and domineering CEO VS the graceful and agile dancer. I can't wait to ship them."
"I heard that they've known each other for many years and almost got married. But Xie Yu was determined to pursue her dream and went abroad to study, so they had a falling - out, and someone else took advantage of the situation."
"I heard that the woman in Mr. Qi's family is just a result of an arranged marriage. There's no real feeling between them. For all these years, the one he's always had in mind is Xie Yu."
"God, take a look at what you're doing. Why can't true lovers be together?"
...
A dull pain came from Xu Tingyu's chest, forcing her to close her eyes.
After taking a long time to calm down, she returned the phone to Secretary Qian.
"Secretary Qian, did my father leave any message for me?"