Mr. Duan’s words successfully made Zhao Youlin stop in her tracks. She spun around and stared at the man in front of her with an obvious questioning look.

This man was in his early forties. He wanted to know about her mother. Could it be…

Zhao Youlin seemed to have suddenly thought of something. Her eyes suddenly lit up, and the way she looked at Mr. Duan changed in an instant.

“You want to know about the owner’s mother?”

Zhao Youlin’s sudden words shocked not only Mr. Duan. Even Mu Tingfeng raised his head and looked at her with equal confusion.

“Yes, I do.”

“May I ask why, Mr. Duan? The owner of that house’s mother passed away a long time ago, and even the owner passed away two or three years ago. Do you know that much?”

When Zhao Youlin said this, Mr. Duan’s expression fell, but not one out of surprise. He said bitterly, “I do.”

“What else do you want to know, Mr. Duan?”

“I… I want to know how she passed away that year?”

“Ha…” Zhao Youlin’s face suddenly displayed some mockery. “How did she pass away? That’s really a coincidence. I do know about it.”

Mr. Duan was stunned, and then he was ecstatic. “Then…”

“Breast cancer. She died of breast cancer back then. Without treatment, she died at home. She didn’t even have a funeral and was directly sent to be cremated. I do know which funeral hall it is. Mr. Duan, do you want to go and pay your respects?”

Mr. Duan’s eyes suddenly widened when he heard that. As if he was suddenly struck by something, his body swayed and he almost fell down.

“Sir…”

The bodyguard next to him wanted to support him, but he pushed him away. His eyes were filled with grief, but he did not want to move away from Zhao Youlin. His lips trembled a few times, and he asked with difficulty, “Why… Why did she not get treatment?”

Zhao Youlin coldly looked at Mr. Duan’s grief-stricken look. The corners of her lips curled up into an evil smile as she said word by word, “Because she did not have the money!”

Mr. Duan’s body trembled, and his body swayed even more violently.

After a long while, Mr. Duan asked with a trembling voice, “Which… which funeral parlor?”

Zhao Youlin softly uttered the name of a certain funeral parlor, and Mr. Duan seemed to be hit again. He suddenly became dispirited, as if he had aged over ten years in an instant.

Zhao Youlin couldn’t be bothered to look at his miserable look. She pulled Mu Tingfeng and left amid the chaos.

This time, Mr. Duan didn’t stop them because he had lost the courage and strength to stop them.

“Drive,” Zhao Youlin shouted at Mu Tingfeng as soon as she got into the car.

Mu Tingfeng was full of doubts, but he still drove the car and temporarily left this troubled place.

The car drove for a distance. After making sure that no one had followed, Mu Tingfeng stopped the car and turned to look at Zhao Youlin. He asked worriedly, “What happened? You and Mr. Duan…”

Before Mu Tingfeng could finish his sentence, Zhao Youlin interrupted him. “Who is Mr. Duan?”

Mu Tingfeng frowned, but he still answered truthfully, “He is the president of a large-scale machinery company. We met at a banquet earlier.”

“That’s it?” Zhao Youlin was obviously not satisfied with Mu Tingfeng’s explanation. “What about his family? Does he have a wife? Does he have children?”

Mu Tingfeng frowned. Although he didn’t understand why Zhao Youlin would ask such a question, he still told Zhao Youlin everything he knew.

“I heard that he was married. He married a not-so-pretty eldest lady and had two children, one boy, and one girl. However, the two of them divorced a few years ago, and the children all followed Mr. Duan. That eldest lady seems to have transferred the money to someone else after she took it.”

“A boy and a girl, what great fortune.” Zhao Youlin sneered, her tone full of mockery.

Mu Tingfeng unconsciously frowned when he heard Zhao Youlin’s words. He didn’t like this version of Zhao Youlin’s smile because Zhao Youlin often hid something from him when she smiled like that, and it was something that made him unhappy.

“Youlin, you and Mr. Duan…”

Mu Tingfeng spoke again, and Zhao Youlin finally calmed down a little. She met Mu Tingfeng’s inquisitive gaze. Suddenly, she raised her head and sighed in self-mockery. “No, you shouldn’t ask about me and him. You should ask my mother and him what their relationship is.”

Mu Tingfeng was stunned. Zhao Youlin chuckled. “My mother, who was also my foster mother in my previous life, lived a life of poverty. However, she adopted me without hesitation because she liked children and wanted to have children. However, she was unable to have a child of her own.”

“Unable to have a child of her own?”

“Yes.” Zhao Youlin leaned her head against the car window. She chuckled and said, “That’s right. She can’t have a child of her own with a man because she was involved in a car accident before. At that time… She had a child that was more than three months old. However, the car accident not only took away her child but also caused her to lose her uterus, making it impossible for her to have a child for the rest of her life.”

Mu Tingfeng’s expression finally changed when he heard this. Although he was a man, he could imagine how cruel it was for a woman who liked children to lose her uterus and be told that she would never be able to have a child for the rest of her life.

Zhao Youlin leaned against the car window. She chuckled again. “Because she was unable to have a child, her husband divorced her, and she was driven out of her husband’s home. Her parents were from the countryside, and they felt that it was a very shameful thing for their daughter to divorce someone, so she was abandoned. She was abandoned by her family, her husband, and even her parents. But even so, she still wanted a child. Even if this child wasn’t related to her by blood, it could at least be by her side and keep her warm.”

“So, at that time, she was so determined to tell herself that there would only be her and herself in this family and no one else.

“So, at that time, she would tell me that the reason why she chose me was because we had the same loneliness.

“Because we had the same loneliness, we could understand what drove each other’s remaining self-esteem that was buried in the bottom of our hearts, and we could keep each other warm when we only had each other.”

Mu Tingfeng listened to Zhao Youlin’s words. He had a hunch that Mr. Duan might be in a very important position in this matter.

“Mr. Duan, he…”

Before Mu Tingfeng could finish, Zhao Youlin had already guessed what he wanted to ask. She answered first, “My mother’s ex-husband’s surname is Duan.”