Chapter 65.3: “Just marry me.”

Bai DuanDuan was feeling somewhat helpless. This was clearly supposed to be a confession, yet at this moment, she felt like the husband suspected of cheating and undergoing his wife’s scrutiny.

Ji Lin stared at her with an icy gaze, seemingly determined to find out the truth no matter what.

“I have no other feelings for Lin Hui. I endured his later style because of gratitude.”

Bai DuanDuan took a deep breath. “He saved my father’s life.”

She had originally not wanted to recall this past event. However, she decided to tell Ji Lin about it since she realized that her interactions with Lin Hui had caused such a huge misunderstanding.

“My father used to be an engineer responsible for testing high-tech equipment at a private enterprise. This enterprise was also co-founded with my father’s high school classmate, who had some money and connections. He persuaded my father to resign from the state-owned enterprise where he worked before and start this private enterprise with him. He was in charge of raising funds and running the business, while my father was responsible for technical testing, meaning that he was basically just putting together the pieces. But in fact, this friend was not very honest from the beginning of their startup. He concealed a lot of income and gave my father a lower share of profits. He always deceived my father, promising him a better future after a few difficult years of entrepreneurship. My father was an honest person and didn’t take it seriously. He didn’t even notice before the trouble started.”

“After resigning from the state-owned enterprise, he went to this private company. His salary and benefits have declined significantly. He really stuck with this job because of his passion and his dream of starting a business. At that time, our family happened to have just changed houses, with a big loan pressure, and we were living a very tight life. Luckily, my mother also had income from running a martial arts gym, which barely supported us, but we still lived in hardship.”

Looking back, Bai Duanduan even joked at himself, “I guess we really had to tighten our belts to make ends meet. My parents only ate pickled vegetables every day and saved money to buy me food.”

“But as for a startup company, you know, not only are the working hours irregular, but the labor protection that should be provided to employees is also not provided. As a result, the other party promised my father a bright future but instead, we received news of my father’s injury.”

Bai Duanduan took a deep breath, “Because of the old and faulty equipment, my father’s hand was crushed by a machine during weekend overtime work. Although it was clearly a work injury, that classmate grabbed onto a flaw in the evidence and distorted the overtime work as my father’s own unauthorized operation at the factory… Moreover, at that time, his company had already resumed normal operations and no longer needed my father. He originally wanted to find an excuse to kick my father out, but now he used my father’s loss of a hand as a reason to force him to resign…”

The more Ji Lin listened, the more his brow furrowed. He had always thought that Bai Duanduan had never experienced any hardships since childhood, but he did not know that she had also experienced such a depressing life. Although she described it lightly now, Ji Lin had also experienced hardships and knew that kind of difficult feeling.

“At that time, I was still in school and had not yet graduated. Although I studied law, I actually didn’t understand anything about practical operations. When my father had this accident, I didn’t know what to do besides crying. Originally, my father only lost one hand and had to have it amputated. We thought it was already the worst thing that could happen, but we didn’t expect that because of the delay in sending my father to the hospital, he was diagnosed with sepsis due to bacterial infection and was sent to the intensive care unit that night. How much does it cost for one night in the ICU? For me now, I think I can afford it, but for my family at that time, it felt like the sky had fallen.”

Speaking of this, Bai Duandan’s eyes converged and she tried to calm down: “At this time, I realized how important money is. Only with money can I save my father. Money is really useful, but unfortunately our family is struggling and we really have nothing left…”

“My mother and I cried and went to find my father’s classmate, but he shut the door on us. We also begged the doctors at the hospital, but they couldn’t help us. They couldn’t just give us a free pass because we were poor. There are too many unfortunate and pitiful people in this world.”

Bai Duandan said this, and finally Ji Lin started to care: “So it was Lin Hui who helped you at that time?”

Bai DuanDuan nodded lightly and said, “He was my university teacher at the time. He noticed that my eyes were swollen and my spirit was absent after a few classes. He talked to me and found out about my family’s situation. Then he gave me all the money he had prepared to buy a house, get married, and go on a honeymoon with his fiancée.”

“He didn’t hesitate at all and without a second thought, he let me go and save my father.”

Bai DuanDuan raised her head and glanced at Ji Lin. “He didn’t even ask me to write an IOU, and he didn’t say anything fancy. He just gave me the money in cash. Even if I wanted to deceive him, he didn’t have any evidence of bank transfer records.”

“Later, not long after, he gave me another sum of money, saying it was his agency fee from his part-time job as a lawyer, and he asked me to use it to relieve my urgent situation as soon as possible.”

“So your father was saved because of these few sums of money he gave you?” Ji Lin slowed down his voice, “So, even though he treated you badly later on, you still endured it?”

Bai Duandan nodded gently: “Although I don’t know why, but maybe you think Lin Hui is a very bad person. He has indeed done many things wrong now, and even his professional ethics have been distorted, but I always believe that he is not such a bad person inside, at least he was really good to me before.”

“He never told me that the money he saved was for his wedding. It was only because his fiancée accidentally revealed it that I found out. Because of my situation, their wedding was delayed and they had to simplify it. But in the end, they didn’t even get married and tragedy struck with Sister Zhaoxia’s death…” Here, Bai Duanduan’s emotions became very low, “I always feel like I owe Sister Zhaoxia. If it wasn’t for me, she could have had a dream wedding before she died. And because of this accident, I can never make it up to her in this lifetime.”

Bai Duanduan had never told anyone before, but she projected her debt to Ye Zhaoxia onto Lin Hui, hoping to repay it through him. Because Sister Chaoxia was no longer here, all she could do was repay Lin Hui and atone for her guilt.

“This is not your fault.” Ji Lin’s voice interrupted Bai Duanduan’s sorrow. He looked at her very seriously and said word by word, “Bai Duanduan, this is not your fault. You are good and you did well. It’s just an unfortunate event, but it has nothing to do with you.”