A BITTER LIFE

PART 31

Jingyi and Jinling nodded. "Come on, let's go to the room," Cheng said, nodding to them before they all headed upstairs. As soon as they left, Katrina rushed over to Yibo, who couldn't help but embrace his mother tightly while crying.

"The inevitable has happened," Diego said as he walked into the living room. "Mom," Yibo called out to Katrina while holding her close.

Flashback: A few hours before Ebisu was kidnapped.

While Ebisu was watching over A-yuan, he spoke to him softly. "Little radish, Dada and I aren't fighting, so why isn't he answering Nana's calls?" he asked the one-month-old A-yuan. He had been trying to reach Eros all day, but he hadn’t answered, and he was beginning to worry since he hadn’t come home in days.

His anxiety was interrupted when he received a message from an unknown number. When he opened it, his hands started to tremble. It was a picture of Eros kissing a woman whose back was turned, followed by a three-second video showing Eros's hand moving down the woman's back. As Ebisu stared at the video and picture, tears began to fall from his eyes without him even realizing it.

He called the house helper to watch A-yuan for a moment and then stepped outside, desperately trying to reach Eros, but his phone was unreachable, and on his final attempt, the call was cut off. He felt like he was losing his mind, pacing around the house, not knowing what to do. He kept repeating to himself, "This can't be true. Eros wouldn’t deceive me like this. I know how much he loves me; I’ll listen to his explanation."

A moment later, he called her sister, asking her to come over, but Liying said she was busy. However, she agreed to meet Ebisu at a nearby park if he could wait. (Their current home wasn’t the one Yibo had built but the one their parents had given them. They planned to move into the house Yibo built once A-yuan turned one year old.) Ebisu agreed immediately. He loved her sister dearly and trusted her with everything, even sharing details of his first kiss with Eros.

Ebisu went back inside to inform the helper that he was stepping out for a while. "Auntie, please keep an eye on A-yuan for me. Here's his milk in case he cries," Ebisu instructed. He picked up A-yuan and cooed, "Little radish, Nana will be back soon. Don't cry, okay? Be good for Auntie." Baby A-yuan reached out to touch Ebisu’s face as if he understood what he was saying. "My sweet baby" Ebisu said, kissing him before handing him to the helper.

Before leaving, he kissed A-yuan again and, as he reached the door, he returned once more to hug and kiss him. "I’ll be back soon, little radish," he said before finally heading out of the house.

Minutes passed at the park, but her sister still hadn’t arrived, and the park was now deserted since it was late. "Where are you, Jie?" Ebisu muttered as he sent a message, just as he saw her sister approaching. But before he could reach her, a van suddenly pulled up in front of him, and men forcibly dragged him inside. He called out to her sister, but Liying just stood there, watching. They punched Zhan in the stomach, causing him to weaken. "Jie, help me!" Zhan screamed, but they covered his nose, and he began to lose consciousness.

Even as his voice grew weaker, Zhan didn’t stop calling out for Liying and Yibo, desperately seeking help. Despite the heaviness of his eyelids, he fought to stay awake. A man climbed on top of him, starting to tear at his clothes, and through his blurred vision, he saw her sister recording the whole ordeal instead of helping.

It was in that moment that Ebisu lost all hope. Tears streamed down his face as he realized the man kissing his neck was someone he once considered a friend. He looked at Liying one last time before his eyes finally closed, never forgetting the cruel smile on her sister’s face. "Yibo, little radish, be safe. I love you both so much," he whispered in his mind.

End of Flashback.

Gu Wei couldn’t hold back his sobs. "If I had known that was the last time I would hug my baby radish, I would have held him tighter that night. I wish I hadn’t gone out; maybe things wouldn’t have come to this. If I hadn’t left, Yibo and I might have had the chance to clear up everything that was happening." Gu Wei’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

On the other hand, Eros revealed everything he had told Gu Wei, leaving his parents in disbelief. "Yibo, how could you do that to him? I thought you loved him," Katrina said in shock.

"Mom, I was scared, and I lost the courage to tell him the truth," Yibo admitted.

Katrina stood up and then revealed that it was Liying who had orchestrated Zhan's kidnapping, but she didn’t tell Eros that Ebisu was still alive. This was because, earlier that morning, she had received a message from Gu Wei.

"Hello, I know you already know who I am, but I ask that you please don't tell Yibo who I am just yet. I understand that not everything is his fault, but deceiving me and choosing to believe what he wanted to believe in order to convince himself that he wasn’t the one who first made a mistake—that is his own fault, one he must face the consequences for.

Whatever his reasons, they won’t justify the pain I’ve endured over the past 11 years—or rather, 16 years, because to this day, I still carry the scars of what I went through."

Yibo’s eyes widened in disbelief at what his mother had just said. "You still don’t believe me?" Katrina asked softly. Enraged, Yibo stood up and headed for the door, but before he could open it, Katrina grabbed his arm. "It’s too soon for Liying to know that we’re aware of what she did," she said, looking at Eros with a serious expression. "You can make her pay in whatever way you choose, but don’t let her know that you’re aware of everything."

"Mom, is there something else you know that you’re not telling me?" Yibo asked, confused. His mother released his arm. "I love you very much, my baby" she said

"A-yuan, uncle superhero has something to confess to you" Gu Wei said while holding A-yuan's hand.

THANKS FOR READING IT 💚 ❤️ 😍