How many loves can be relived in the story of a devoted CEO pursuing his wife?

"Are you going to use those marketing accounts to spread rumors and maliciously smear the Lin family?"

He sat in his wheelchair, his back ramrod straight, and only slightly raised his eyes, his gaze fixed directly on Lin Lan's face. He added at the end, "You want to ruin me?"

Liu Sisi stood quietly behind him the whole time. Her long taro purple coat was fluttered by the wind, but her long hair, which was simply tied back, was not messy at all.

"...A rumor?" Lin Lan unconsciously clenched her skirt, her knuckles turning white. "I...I want an explanation for Zhiyuan!"

She practically shouted the last few words, spittle flying onto Lin Xuedong's neatly pressed shirt collar, but she seemed not to notice, her chest heaving violently, as if only in this way could she suppress her guilty conscience.

"Seeking an explanation?" Lin Xuedong's lips curled slightly, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Do you think those cobbled-together surveillance and recordings... are enough to compare to a stillbirth certificate?"

The words 'stillborn' exploded like a thunderclap on the terrace.

Everyone in the room except Ah Xiao changed their expression.

The child in Xie Xue's arms suddenly kicked his legs restlessly. She quickly lowered her eyes and gently pressed the back of the child's soft head.

"You're talking nonsense!" Lin Lan gasped sharply, feeling all her strength drain away. She could barely stand and could only stare at Lin Xuedong, her eyes welling up with tears, but she forced them back down.

"Mr. Lin has a medical certificate proving you gave birth to a stillborn child," Ah Xiao finally stepped onto the balcony to speak up for her boss: "The video you secretly recorded during your pregnancy only proves you were pregnant; the delivery room surveillance footage only proves you were in there for three hours..."

His voice was flat, his gaze fixed on Lin Lan's pale face: "But none of this proves that the child in your belly is Young Master Zhiyuan."

"Impossible!" Lin Lan's voice was hoarse and trembling, as if it had been sanded with sandpaper.

Staring at Ah Xiao as he walked towards her step by step, her pupils dilated with shock.

This assistant, who joined the Lin family around the same time as them and had been by Lin Xuedong's side for eight or nine years, had no trace of his usual calmness on his face at this moment. His expression was as cold as Lin Xuedong's in his wheelchair, and even his gait revealed a similar indifference.

My gaze unconsciously drifted back to the man in the wheelchair.

"You..." The pain from being pinched in her palm helped her regain some strength.

The wind was strong on the terrace, causing Lin Xuedong's black suit jacket to flutter loudly. The Oyster watch on his wrist gleamed coldly in the twilight. When the shards of light reflected from the dial swept across Lin Lan's pale face, she instinctively flinched.

Abruptly pulling her gaze away, Lin Lan grabbed Ah Xiao's sleeve, the wind whipping her disheveled hair against her face: "What stillborn? That's my child! My brother's... child! You're bluffing me, aren't you?"

Her voice grew louder and louder, but she couldn't help glancing at Lin Xuedong's face.

She desperately wanted to see even a hint of reluctance in his eyes, or even just disdain after being caught out.

But the man in the wheelchair only slowly raised his eyes. In those unfathomable eyes, there was no warmth, only control over his prey.

"It's Lin Xuedong's conspiracy! He doesn't want me to acknowledge this child, so he made up this lie to deceive me, didn't he?"

Liu Sisi frowned first, while A Xiao glanced down at her hand clutching his sleeve. Hidden within that calm was a detachment Lin Lan had never seen before, as if he were looking at an insignificant stranger.

Upon hearing her accusation of conspiracy, Xie Xue immediately handed the child to Lin Zhicheng, strode quickly to Lin Lan, and slapped her without saying a word.

"Crack, snap!"

Two crisp slaps echoed across the terrace.

Lin Lan's head was turned to the side after being hit, and a burning pain shot through her nerves to her temples.

"Lin Lan, how could I have raised such a wicked and scheming child?!"

"A conspiracy? Then how dare you try to target the Lin family and ruin our entire family?!"

After saying that, she grabbed Lin Lan's arm and shouted at the bodyguards, "Come here, take this woman down!"

Lin Lan tried to shake off Xie Xue's hand, but tripped and her heel got stuck in the drainage groove on the terrace floor.

She lost her balance and half of her body suddenly jutted out over the railing. The bustling traffic thirty stories below instantly magnified before her eyes, and the neon lights made her dizzy.

Fear gripped her heart instantly. Lin Lan clutched her violently heaving chest, her eyes filled with a mixture of grievance and madness. "Lin Xuedong is the one who framed me! He's wanted to kick me out of the Lin family for a long time. This is all his conspiracy!"

A gust of cold wind rushed into her throat, causing her to cough violently. "Cough cough... Mommy, when I gave birth to Zhiyuan... his cries were so loud, cough cough, he couldn't have been stillborn!"

"Harm you?" Amid the chaos, Lin Xuedong's voice rang out softly.

He leaned forward abruptly, his hand, which had been resting on the armrest, reaching out like an eagle's claw and precisely grabbing Lin Lan's hand that had been injured by the fork.

Her knuckles cracked from being squeezed so tightly, and the sharp pain from her reopened wound made Lin Lan cry out in agony: "Ah! Let me go!"

The man's arm strength was astonishing. He suddenly pulled inward, and Lin Lan stumbled forward unprepared.

Ah Xiao seized the opportunity and took over from the two bodyguards who caught up.

Lin Lan struggled frantically, the blood from the back of her hand mixed with her tears splattering onto the ground and onto everyone's clothes.

"Let me go! You bunch of liars!" Her screams were torn apart by the cold wind. She tried to push back with her elbows like a trapped beast, but Ah Xiao's arms were as strong as iron, holding her waist tightly without letting her loosen even a little.

When the shadows loomed over her again, Lin Lan looked up and was shocked to find herself pinned to the cold, hard ground by bodyguards on either side. The icy tiles pressed against her knees, making her shiver involuntarily.

“You must remember,” Lin Xuedong’s voice rang close to her ear, cold as ice, “a stillborn child can’t shake the Lin family, much less me. My crisis management has always been about protecting the Lin family’s reputation at all costs.”

"No..." Her voice suddenly weakened, and her struggling movements slowed down.

Two light pats suddenly came to Lin Lan's cheek. The force was not strong, but it felt like it was carrying ice shards, making Lin Lan's whole body stiffen.

Her gaze flickered, and she saw that the man sat upright, his fingertips lightly resting on the armrest, even the rise and fall of his breath was so faint as to be almost imperceptible. Although he wasn't staring at her much, she felt that all her struggles appeared sudden and unexpected in his eyes.

He had planned everything out in advance!

"After all, you didn't reveal a single word to the outside world from the time you were pregnant until you gave birth, did you?"

"Even though I gave birth to a stillborn child of unknown origin, I later developed severe depression because of the disgraceful things I did!"

"You have a history of hospitalization in a mental hospital and a history of manic-depressive tendencies that could intentionally harm others. Aren't these undeniable facts?"

"Lin Lan..." He called her name. Lin Lan's teeth chattered, and she had to bite her lower lip hard to barely suppress the sob in her throat.

"No one knows exactly what you've been through, but anyone with eyes can see that you're addicted to delusions, which is no different from being insane!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a stack of documents tumbled down in front of Lin Lan.

The top document was a medical certificate issued by the hospital. The red seal was glaring and the words "stillborn" were like poisoned needles, stinging Lin Lan's eyes.

The DNA test report was also attached below, and the comparison results clearly showed that she was not related to the so-called "Lin Zhiyuan" by blood.

Lin Lan's hands trembled as she reached for the document, her fingertips barely touching the paper before she abruptly pulled back, as if she had been burned.

She shook her head violently, her stray hairs clinging to her tear-streaked face, repeatedly muttering, "It's fake... It's all fake! You colluded with the hospital to fabricate this!"

"Does it matter whether it's true or false?" Lin Xuedong's voice came on the wind, the last syllable of his sigh barely audible, yet without a trace of reluctance.

He gave the sheriff a look, then turned back, his dark eyes, colder and deeper than the night, fixed on Lin Lan: "The script was written for you long ago. I'll say it again, Zhiyuan has nothing to do with you, and that means it."

Lin Lan's face was ashen, and she opened her mouth but couldn't utter a sound.

Those are all fake!

But when did he prepare all this? And why did he choose to confront him tonight?

Looking at the man in the wheelchair, then glancing at the documents on the ground, her mind was in a tangled mess, and she couldn't untangle it.

Fear surged within my chest...

She suddenly realized that from the day she handed him that spiked "lemonade," she was destined to be utterly defeated.

In the end, Lin Lan was escorted away by the police officers. As she passed by Xie Xue, whose face was ashen, Xie Xue looked at her with nothing but disappointment and heartache, without a trace of pity.

Before she could ask, Liu Sisi asked for her that very evening: "When did you prepare all that?"

After a whole night of turmoil at the police station, compounded by the intense training during the day, the man lying in the hospital bed just wanted to hold the soft thing in his arms and quietly let go.

"A long, long time ago..."