Chapter 30: How Unfortunate

Zhao Yingyue pushed the door to her house open and was met with agitated shouts coming from up the stairs. It was obviously her mother and father arguing, and very loudly at that. She listened in, knowing that it would be nearly impossible for Gu Yanya to escape the fury of her husband. They had to have just gotten home or been arguing all night.

"Gu Yanya, you've lied to me for the entirety of our relationship! Not only have you been with another man before me but you'd even had a child by him? How can you still stand here and believe that our Yingyue is the one who needs to be punished?"

Zhao Yingyue shook her head. Of course her mother would still try blaming everything on her, even with all that happened. She clutched her marriage license in her hand and inched in a bit more. She wondered where Bai Xinyi was.

"Xiang, you don't get it."

"No Gu Yanya, you don't get it! You don't have the right to call me that anymore. I put up with so much just so that I could be with you! And you were never the woman that I thought you were. You have made the fool of me for the last time!"

"I didn't do anything! Why do you not believe in the words of your wife when I have never given you any reason to not trust me?"

"Is that what you call what happened tonight? You hurt my daughter to protect your own. You even let her hurt my Yingyue!"

"Don't act innocent. You had to have known I've been punishing our daughter and chose not to care. With as many times as she's 'been sick'. It was a punishment—not abuse!"

"Gu Yanya, what we saw were really bad bruises. Do you believe that my child would stand before all those people and lie? Besides, we heard your voice tell us so much. Will you stand here and say that is also fabricated?"

"I told you that I was just angry!"

"I don't care how extreme your anger is! It should never reach that point! Besides, you lied about Gu Yan this entire time! I told you that prior children are a deal breaker for me! So you waited until the day of our wedding to finalize the adoption!"

"What did you want me to do?"

"What I expect is that you not lie to me every single day of our relationship!"

Zhao Yingyue couldn't help but chuckle as she made her way up the stairs. Her mother and dear old sister would finally get what was coming to them. They deserved nothing less than the utmost worst.

She bounced her hand that held her marriage license with joy. She was, after all, officially married and nothing could change that.

When she reached the top of the steps, Gu Yan stood there with tears streaming down her face and an extremely angry expression on her face. Everything was falling apart for her.

Zhao Yingyue shook her head with a mocking expression on her face as she looked at the pitiful woman. After all those years of having to act small, she was the one who came out on top in the end. Bad people never did come out on top.

"Are you happy now, Zhao Yingyue? Mom and I will struggle very hard from now on because of your stunt! How could you show your face here after that unfilial performance you put on earlier? We are family!"

Zhao Yingyue slid the marriage license into the pocket of her sweatpants. She wasn't sure if she'd show it off to Gu Yan just yet. And she didn't want to fight what was left of this fight while seemingly hiding behind her husband's name. Wow. She still couldn't believe that he was officially her husband.

"Gu Yan, you still have the face to stand before me? It's obvious that you knew everything all along yet you did nothing to show any grace. You should have been grateful to have the life that you had instead of letting hatred and envy win over you. That is not my fault."

"This all could have been avoided if you had left me alone. If you and mother never pushed me to this point, would I have to retaliate in such a fierce manner? Don't you know what happens when you play with fire?"

Gu Yan took two angry steps toward Zhao Yingyue, but this time, she wasn't scared. She took two steps toward her in return. Never again would she cower to someone who didn't even deserve a single thought.

"I'd be careful what you do as your next move. Understand this. In my world, you can always fall further. Get it?"

Gu Yan was angry but she understood the meaning of Zhao Yingyue's words. The more she did to react, the more Zhao Yingyue would make her hurt. She couldn't even rely on Gu Yanya to protect her anymore.

"Now, you should probably go worry about your next moves. I wonder what would happen if father kicks you out. With the way you always spent every penny you made, I doubt you have any savings to fall back on."

"How unfortunate."

Zhao Yingyue then smiled and walked further down the hall. She had originally wanted to go to her room but decided it would be more fun for her to give the deserving crowd an encore.

She stopped when she reached the door of her father's study. Her parents were still yelling at each other and Zhao Yingyue thought it would be more fun to further fuel their fire.

She wiped the smile off her face and took a deep breath, composing herself for what she was about to do. The acting classes that Gu Yanya had forced her to take for all the commercials she had to shoot would finally come in handy.

Zhao Yingyue raised her hand slowly knocked on the door softly.

While her mom was too busy screaming in defense of herself, Zhao Xiang heard the knock. He went to the door and opened it.

Zhao Yingyue came in and hugged her dad around his waist. It was time for her docile act to further bury Gu Yanya in the depths of her father's rage.

In a soft voice, she said, "I'm sorry, Dad. I came here as soon as I got home so that I could make sure that you were okay. I know I made our family matters public but I just couldn't let that cousin... well I guess, sister of mine, off. Even Mom had hurt me so much that I just couldn't stand it. I just didn't want to hurt anymore."

Zhao Xiang held his daughter delicately and lightly said, "It's okay Yingyue. I understand. If I were in your shoes, I may have even done worse."

Gu Yanya was angry. This daughter of her's was only here to make things even worse for her. Hadn't she already done enough damage? She was going to be married soon anyway so shouldn't she just give them some peace?

"You little brat! How can you act against your family in such a manner! He may be your dad but I am still your mother and you give me no apology? You better go clear this up to the public or else I..."

Zhao Xiang looked at his wife with a cold expression and his voice dipped. He was so angry that he didn't even have the energy to yell, which was fine since he didn't want to scare his daughter.

"Or else you'll what, Gu Yanya?"

Gu Yanya went silent after that. She was angry but she couldn't threaten Zhao Yingyue and even if she did, what power did she really have anymore? There wasn't much that she could do anymore. The woman had forgotten how it felt to be so powerless.

Still, she was too prideful to beg her daughter for forgiveness. Even if she lost everything, she could still keep her pride intact. It was too late to take anything back, after all.

Zhao Yingyue knew this, which was why she knew her mother's downfall was imminent.

"See, Dad? Even now she tries to hurt me. I really had no choice! But if you see it fit to punish me, I would understand completely!"

Zhao Xiang backed up with Zhao Yingyue in his arms, very protective over his daughter. Her offer to be punished had made his heart hurt so much. Who would she even believe that she deserved to be hurt any further? Had his wife truly broken their daughter to that extent?

"She won't ever hurt you again and you have done nothing wrong, my child. There are only two people in this house who deserve any kind of punishment—neither being you. Even I am higher on that list than you are."

Gu Yanya wanted to argue back but knew there was nothing she could say that would help her case. So, she instead bit her lip in anger. She just wanted the girl to leave so that she could at least earn some type of sympathy from her husband.

"Alright Yingyue, now you get back to your room. I'll deal with this from here. You shouldn't have to worry any longer, okay?"

Zhao Yingyue slowly nodded her head and made her way to the door. She made sure to take her time so that Gu Yanya could watch her leave untouched while she was left with the fallout of her pitiful act.

As soon as she was outside of the door and had it closed behind her, she started giggling as she made her way to her room. She had put on such a good act in there and she was sure that her mother wouldn't be easily let off.

It wouldn't be long before her father dealt with the mother/daughter duo and she had front row tickets to the show. She wondered what he'd do but she also had other things to worry about. After all, she was newly married and had a lot to look forward to in the future.

When she entered her room, she immediately pulled her luggage from her closet and started packing. Of course, she'd leave behind all the designer clothes that she never wanted to begin with—though she did keep a few that she actually liked.

She sung to herself as she bounced around her room to grab the things she wanted to keep and then prepared for her stream.

It would be her last one off this computer for a very long time so of course she was going to make it worthwhile.