Xu Tingyu heard him call "brother-in-law" in a voice full of caution.
Each word was like the tip of a knife drilling deep into the bottom of her heart.
But she was the elder sister, the backbone of the family now.
Facing her frail younger brother, she couldn't tell him, as she had retorted to Zhang Qiu, that Qi Shifeng wouldn't.
It had been so long since the Xu family's downfall, and he hadn't even asked about it properly.
Moreover, Xu Jianmin's suicide by jumping off a building might even be related to him.
Now, she was a burden to the Qi family, a package to be discarded.
These unspoken words clogged her throat.
She bit her lips tightly and for the first time realized that she was extremely aggrieved.
After driving into the hospital parking lot, she quickly raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes.
"Jiajia, don't worry about the family's debts. This isn't something you should worry about. Sister will handle it."
"Sister promises you that a situation like today will never happen again. You also need to protect yourself, okay?"
She tried to slow down her speech, fearing that if she spoke too fast, the tears would well up again.
Xu Jia's tears kept falling.
He wiped them away randomly, but the more he wiped, the more tears there were.
"Sister, I'm so useless. I can't do anything and only cause you trouble."
"Sorry, sister, sorry..."
Xu Tingyu lowered her eyebrows and wiped his tears.
The way he held his head up was so much like Xu Jianmin.
However, that man who had been stubborn all his life never shed a tear in front of his children, even when he was so down and out that he jumped off a building.
"Don't say sorry. You're not a trouble. You're the man of our family."
Xu Tingyu raised her hand again to quickly wipe away her own tears and then called Xu Jia to get out of the car.
"What does it look like for a man to cry like this? Come on, let's go register first. Otherwise, the doctors will be off work soon."
Xu Jia didn't say anything else. He dried his tears and followed her into the outpatient building.
After the examination, Xu Tingyu finally let out a sigh of relief.
There were only a few minor abrasions. The bones weren't injured, so it wasn't a big deal.
Just be careful not to let the wounds get wet.
However, when she went to pick up the medicine, she ran into Liu Ning.
"Mom, what's wrong with you? Why are you in the hospital?"
The Qi family had their own hospital. Why would they come to this public hospital?
However, when Liu Ning rolled her eyes and looked at her impatiently, she realized that she had "overstepped" again.
In Liu Ning's heart, she was about to have nothing to do with the Qi family, and this "mom" wasn't for her to call anymore.
She took a step back, intending not to get in her way.
It would be better to just pretend not to know her.
Who would have thought that before she could continue to pick up the medicine, she heard Liu Ning give a soft snort. "Come to the old mansion tonight. I have something to talk to you about."
After saying that, without giving her a chance to refuse, she walked away directly.
Go back to the old mansion?
Did Qi Shifeng find the previous agreement unsatisfactory, so he wanted everyone to sit down and redraft it?
Xu Jia came over after getting his wound dressed. Seeing her in a daze, he pulled at the sleeve of her clothes. "Sister, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. Let's go."
Xu Tingyu came back to her senses and didn't explain. She went to pick up the anti-inflammatory medicine and then sent Xu Jia back to school.
However, to her surprise, in the afternoon, the news that the Xu family was being chased by creditors even made it onto a small hot search.
Photos of her sending Xu Jia to school were taken.
"The Xu family goes bankrupt. Xu Jianmin is personally in debt of hundreds of millions. Creditors are wailing. But his children travel in luxury cars and seem unaffected."
Although the license plate number was blocked, anyone could tell what brand the car was just by looking at its model.
The comment section was full of sarcastic remarks.
Some creditors also said that they had lent money because they trusted the Xu and Qi families. But now, they couldn't get their money back, and their own funds were also in trouble.
Some people didn't know the relationship between the Xu and Qi families and asked what it was.
So someone came out to "popularize" the knowledge and said that three years ago, the eldest daughter of the Xu family and the second young master of the Qi family had a marriage alliance.
Just as the comment section was being attracted by the Qi family, this hot search suddenly disappeared.
Xu Tingyu knew that these contents must have been the work of those creditors.
As for it being deleted, it was possible that these people just wanted to test the Qi family and didn't really want to offend them, so they voluntarily removed the hot search.
Of course, it was most likely the work of the Qi's public relations department.
After all, they were so experienced in doing free public relations for Xie Yu all year round.
Xu Tingyu wasn't affected by the hot search. She drove back to the old mansion.
When she entered, she didn't see Qi Shifeng but was startled by the decoration of the house.
In the magnificently decorated living room, white dust-proof cloth was everywhere, and seals were pasted on the doors and windows.
At the entrance, there was a long offering table with an incense burner and offerings on it.
An old white-haired man in a long robe was standing in front of the offering table, holding a copper coin sword.
When he saw Xu Tingyu, his turbid eyes rolled at her. His pale pupils were quite scary.
Xu Tingyu had never seen such a situation before. She didn't dare to move for a moment and just stood there, looking around for other people.
But apart from the strange old man in front of her, there was not a single soul in sight.
Even the family's nanny and driver were nowhere to be found.
She looked around to make sure she was in the right place and then tentatively spoke first. "Excuse me, what's going on here?"
"Evil spirit, get out of her body quickly. If I make a move, you won't have a chance to escape."
Suddenly, the old man shouted. He flipped his wrist and splashed a basin of liquid at her.
Xu Tingyu only felt a red blur in front of her eyes, and a stench assailed her. She didn't have time to dodge and was drenched from head to toe.
She was so scared that her whole body trembled. Looking down, she found that the liquid was actually blood.
Seeing her standing there in fright, a hint of pride flashed across the old man's eyes.
He then took the copper coin sword and waved it around her, muttering something.
Finally, Xu Tingyu let out a scream and took several steps back.
"Who are you? What do you want to do to me?"
The old man didn't answer her. Instead, he suddenly dropped the copper coin sword, took out a whip, and dipped it in some unknown black liquid.
"Since you're so stubborn and won't leave on your own, don't blame me for being rude."
With that, he raised the whip and lashed out at her fiercely.
Even though Xu Tingyu reacted quickly this time and dodged to the side, the end of the whip still left a red mark on her arm.
This person in front of her wanted to hurt her.
Realizing this, she immediately took out her phone to call the police.
But before she could dial the number, the whip came and knocked the phone out of her hand.
However, she was a young and agile person. After dodging a few times, the old man's subsequent whips all missed.
Just then, Liu Ning suddenly appeared at the door with a group of servants from the family, looking at her mockingly.
"Tingyu, don't dodge. I'm doing this for your own good."
"You must have picked up some evil spirits on you. That's why you've recently caused your father's death and made so many jokes."
"Let the master whip you ten times to get rid of the evil spirits on you, and then everything will be okay."
After saying that, she winked at the servants beside her, signaling them to step forward and grab Xu Tingyu.