CHAPTER 132: CHAPTER 132; SURROGACY

The unspoken words hung between them.

Grandma Lin.

The death that was orchestrated and pinned on her... but she wasn’t the cause.

The forged documents.

The share transfers Shuyin had signed in prison.....

Madam Chen’s expression hardened. "That won’t happen."

"How...."

"Because Shuyin is GONE." Her mother stood, smoothing her suit. "I saw her face today. She’s done with him. Done with all of it. She took his money and his property and she LEFT. That woman isn’t coming back."

"But what if she does?" Yueling’s voice was almost a whisper now. "What if she starts asking questions about Grandma Lin’s death? What if she looks into the medical records? What if...."

"Then we use THIS." Her mother tapped the folder with one perfectly manicured nail. "The infertility diagnosis. The surrogate story. It muddies the waters. Makes her look vindictive. Makes anything she says sound like a jealous woman lashing out."

"That won’t be enough..."

"It will have to be." Madam Chen’s voice turned cold. "Because the alternative is prison. For both of us. Do you understand?"

Yueling felt her blood turn to ice.

Prison.

Where Shuyin had spent a few weeks for a crime she didn’t commit.

Where Yueling and her mother belonged for the crime they DID commit, smothering an old woman.

Forging signatures on share transfer documents. Stealing millions while Shuyin rotted in a cell.

"So what do we do?" Yueling asked, her voice barely audible.

"We execute the plan." Her mother pulled out her phone. "We post the surrogate story now. We control the narrative before Shuyin has a chance to respond. We make you sympathetic, make Lu Zeyan sympathetic, and make any denial from Shuyin look like bitterness."

"And if she comes after us anyway?"

Madam Chen’s smile was cold. "Then we remind her that she signed those share transfers. That if she wants to destroy us, we have plenty of ammunition to destroy her right back."

"But that’s...."

"Mutually assured destruction." Her mother nodded. "Yes. And smart people avoid that. Shuyin is smart. She’ll take her billion yuan and her villa and disappear. She won’t risk losing everything just to drag us down with her."

Yueling wanted to believe that. She desperately wanted to believe it.

But the image of Shuyin’s face kept flashing through her mind, not the cold, distant expression from the press conference, but the hollow look in her eyes. The look of someone who’d lost everything and had nothing left to fear.

That kind of person didn’t play it safe.

That kind of person had nothing to lose.

"Mom," Yueling said quietly. "I’m scared."

For the first time, her mother’s expression softened. Just slightly.

"So am I," she admitted. "But fear without action is useless. So we act. We post the story. We change the narrative. And we pray that Shuyin decides her freedom is worth more than revenge."

She handed Yueling the phone. "Now. Record the video. You’re going to look tired but dignified. You’re going to explain the truth. And you’re going to ask for privacy for your family."

Yueling took the phone with shaking hands.

"And after?"

"After, we wait." Her mother began setting up the ring light she’d pulled from her bag, because of course she’d come prepared. "We wait, and we watch, and we hope that the woman who walked away from that press conference stays gone."

Yueling nodded slowly, feeling the weight of everything they’d done, the murder, the fraud, the lies, settling on her shoulders like a physical burden.

They’d killed an old woman and framed her granddaughter.

And now they were constructing an elaborate lie about surrogacy to cover their tracks.

And hoping, praying, that the woman they’d destroyed wouldn’t come back to destroy them in turn.

"Okay," Yueling whispered, straightening her hair, wiping her tears. "Let’s do this."

Her mother smiled. "That’s my girl."

But as the camera started recording, as Yueling began reciting the carefully crafted lie about sisterly love and selfless surrogacy, one thought kept circling through her mind:

What if Shuyin doesn’t stay gone?

What if she comes back?

What if she remembers?

"We execute the plan." Her mother’s voice steadied, businesslike now. "But first, Lu Zeyan. What if he denies it?"

Yueling’s breath caught. "I... I don’t know. What if...."

Her mother smiled, slow, predatory, razor-sharp.

"He won’t. He CAN’T. Because the documents are real. The timeline matches. And most importantly..." She leaned in closer. "This lie makes him look BETTER."

Yueling’s eyes widened as understanding clicked into place.

"Think about it," her mother continued, her tone taking on the quality of a teacher with a clever student. "Right now, he looks like a cheating bastard who knocked up his mistress during his redemption moment. But if you were carrying Shuyin’s baby? If this was all a plan to surprise her? Then he’s not a cheater, he’s a devoted man trying to give his infertile wife the family she desperately wanted."

"He becomes the good guy again," Yueling breathed.

"Exactly. The man who loved his fiancée so much that he arranged for her sister to be a surrogate. The man who kept it secret to protect her feelings. The romantic gesture that got twisted by a malicious leak."

A long silence filled the apartment, not suffocating now, but charged. Calculating.

Yueling felt her mind working again, no longer paralyzed but moving through possibilities, strategies, angles.

The internet would eat it up. The sympathetic sister. The misunderstood gesture. The evil leaker who twisted a private family matter into something sordid.

The narrative would shift.

Not completely, some would still hate her, but enough. Enough to survive. Enough to give her child a chance.

Enough to potentially still claim a place in Lu Zeyan’s world.

And most importantly, enough to keep Shuyin from digging into Grandma Lin’s death.

She stood slowly, legs unsteady but functional.

Wiped her tears, smearing her mascara.

Straightened her hair.

Lifted her chin.

"Okay," she whispered, her voice different now, steadier, harder. "Let’s fix my reputation."

Her mother’s smile was triumphant. "That’s my girl."