Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 208; Lu family 11

The casual cruelty of that statement made Shuyin’s blood run cold with fury.

"So she’s buried in the backyard of our mansion," Yuyan continued, her voice dropping to something softer, more reverent. "I know you haven’t seen that part yet, it’s at the very back of the property, away from everything else. Daddy built a small mausoleum for her there. Actually, at the time, he’d just acquired that piece of land and it was completely barren, nothing but empty ground. But it was the only place he owned, the only property that was truly his rather than family-controlled. So he buried her there because it was the only place he could guarantee she’d be safe, be respected, be honored properly."

She smiled through her tears, small and sad and proud all at once.

"He made it beautiful. The mausoleum, I mean. Even though he barely had any money at the time, even though he was grieving and trying to keep me alive, he made sure Mama’s resting place was worthy of her. Made it peaceful and lovely, with gardens around it that he tends himself. He talks to her there sometimes. I’ve heard him. Telling her about me, about how I’m growing, about how he’s trying to be the kind of father she would have wanted for me."

Shuyin felt her own eyes prick with tears at the image, Lu Yuze, the Frozen King, cold and ruthless to the entire world, kneeling by his late wife’s grave and speaking to her about their daughter with tender vulnerability he showed no one else.

"Even working in the Lu Conglomerate back then," Yuyan continued, her voice hardening again, "they treated him terribly. Demanded more work from him than anyone else, gave him the most difficult and thankless assignments, but paid him practically nothing. Peanuts compared to what other executives at his level received. They never actually treated him as family. Just as a convenient tool they could exploit because he technically carried their name."

Her hands clenched in Shuyin’s shirt.

"And when I was born weak and sickly, needing constant medical care just to stay alive, they didn’t offer any help. No financial assistance, no access to family resources, no support at all. They just watched and waited for me to die. Expected it, even. Thought it would be a mercy, the unsuitable wife’s defective child finally dying and removing that embarrassment from the family tree."

Anger flashed bright in her silver eyes.

"But I never died. Even though I spent more time in hospitals than in schools, even though the doctors kept saying I wouldn’t make it another year, I never died. I kept fighting, kept surviving, kept refusing to give them the satisfaction of proving their predictions right."

Pride crept into her voice despite the pain.

"And six months ago, everything changed. I collapsed into a coma, and the doctors couldn’t understand why. They tried everything, every test, every treatment, every experimental procedure, but nothing worked. I was just... slipping away. Fading."

She looked up at Shuyin with absolute gratitude shining through her tears.

"But you know what it really was, don’t you? You said I was poisoned by cold poison that doesn’t exist in humans. Something that no doctor would ever think to look for because it shouldn’t be possible. And you healed me. Gave me my life back when every medical expert in the country had given up."

Yuyan’s voice dropped to a whisper, intimate and fierce.

"You see, Momma, my father is really pitiful. He lacks love. He’s spent his entire life being rejected, being isolated, being treated as less-than by the people who should have been his family. The only person who ever truly loved him was my mama. And when she died, I became the only remaining piece of that love. The only evidence that he’d been genuinely loved and valued by someone."

Her tears were flowing freely now, her words coming faster as years of understanding poured out.

"How could he let me go? How could he accept losing me when I was all he had left of the one person who’d made him feel worthy and valued and human? And how could I leave him? I knew, even as a child, I knew, that if I died, he’d have nothing. No one. Just the memory of two people who’d loved him and then left him alone in a world that hated him."

She took a shuddering breath.

"After all the miseries he’d suffered, all the rejection and cruelty and isolation, I knew he would be completely devastated if I died. It would destroy something fundamental in him. So I fought. I fought to stay alive not just for myself, but for him. Because I was all he had."

Understanding crashed over Shuyin like a wave, this child had carried the weight of being her father’s only source of love and connection for her entire life. Had felt responsible for his emotional survival in addition to fighting for her own physical survival.

No wonder she’d pushed herself so hard.

No wonder she’d refused to give up even when death would have been easier.

"He created Yuyan Conglomerate solely because of me," Yuyan said, pride breaking through the sadness. "Daily hospital visits and endless medical admissions needed money, huge amounts of money that kept growing as I needed more specialized care. He knew no one in the family would come to his rescue, wouldn’t lift a finger to help keep me alive."

Her voice strengthened with admiration for her father.

"So he left them. Left their company, left their control, left everything familiar. Started from nothing and built an empire bigger than theirs just to prove they were wrong about him, wrong about Mama, wrong about me. Built something so powerful that they could never hurt us again, never deny us resources, never have any control over our lives."

She looked at Shuyin with eyes that held far too much understanding for someone so young.