Gu Yinxie had barely finished speaking when Ning Yuncheng stormed toward Ning Yunhuan with a glare sharp enough to slice steel. "What did Xie do to deserve this hatred from you? You already forced her into that absurd debt note years ago, and now she's done nothing yet you're trying to destroy her again?"

Ning Senior nearly lost his composure as the cane in his hand trembled with barely restrained anger. His son's words cut deeper than any physical strike could deliver. Ning Yuncheng was visibly seething now: "I've had enough of this madness! How can you be so heartless? Xie is merely a victim - and an innocent one at that. Any human being deserves the right to love another freely!"

The raw anguish in Ning Yuncheng's voice as he spoke about his beloved's ordeal was unmistakable. No man wanted to share his woman's body with another, least of all when it had been so brutally claimed against her will. This pain gnawed at him like a festering wound, yet he knew he must suppress every emotion. Gu Yinxie's fragile psyche could not withstand even the subtlest hint of weakness from him now - she'd barely emerged from suicidal thoughts and he couldn't bear to imagine losing her. At this realization, his spine stiffened involuntarily as icy dread coursed through him.

"Silence," Lan Lingyan's voice was a glacial blade cutting through the room. Ning Yuncheng froze mid-sentence under that piercing gaze. Every nerve in his body shivered violently, like someone had stripped every layer of warmth from him and thrown him into liquid nitrogen. He quickly averted his eyes, avoiding those cold, calculating orbs at all costs.

Gu Yinxie's heart was already torn between two opposing forces. She'd loved Lan Lingyan for years with the quiet desperation of unrequited desire. Yet Ning Yuncheng had always occupied another special place in her soul - a wealthy heir whose chivalrous protectiveness and striking handsomeness made every woman swoon. It was exhilarating to be the object of such an aristocratic man's affection, feeding her vanity in ways no other could satisfy. But now, watching them together... how had Ning Yuncheng become so intolerable?

The very traits that once enchanted her - his handsome face and broad shoulders - seemed suddenly crude beside Lan Lingyan's refined elegance. Where Ning Yuncheng radiated brash masculinity, the other man exuded a dangerous aura of sophistication laced with frost. And when confronted merely by a single sharp reprimand from Lan, Ning Yuncheng had cowered into speechlessness - how could such weakness coexist with that effortless air of command?

The contrast was damning. One roared like an enraged beast, the other sat in chilling silence yet dominated every space around him. Gu Yinxie's resentment deepened as she realized this. The shame of Ning Yuncheng's outburst burned her cheeks while Lan Lingyan's voice sent shivers through her spine - it was a voice that could command both armies and hearts.

Why did fate grant Ning Yunhuan effortless access to the man she'd longed for? Why had she endured all these torments - saving those children only to be violated, now carrying some monstrous child in her womb when it should have been Ning Yunhuan suffering this punishment? The injustice of it seeped into her thoughts like poison. For the first time in her life, Gu Yinxie felt genuine hatred bloom from that festering wound of jealousy.

Ning Yuncheng's efforts to secure funds for Xie's termination ended in ruinous failure. Father and son were expelled from home together - one broken-spirited, the other visibly trembling with repressed fury. The elder Ning's disappointment soon curdled into something darker as he began suspecting his son had lost touch with reality entirely.

After a quiet family dinner, Ning Yunhuan and Lan Lingyan finally returned to their car. As they settled in, she turned to him with knowing eyes: "You orchestrated that confrontation over Gu Yinxie, didn't you?" She'd recognized the hand behind it from the very moment Xie had revealed her sordid backstory.

Lan Lingyan said nothing but began massaging the injured ankle beneath his palms. His touch was deliberate - firm enough to soothe the aching muscles yet gentle enough not to cause further pain, avoiding any hint of condescension or impatience. He worked with quiet intensity as he always did when tending to her wounds.

In this moment, Ning Yunhuan felt something shift within her heart. No other man would ever be so unselfconsciously devoted to her comfort - no one else would consider tending to a woman's bruised ankle beneath the cold light of winter an act requiring his full attention and care. These small acts had long since merged into the fabric of their days, becoming second nature until she'd forgotten they were extraordinary.

Young Lan Yi's illness was improving steadily alongside the elder Ning's recovery. Even the family's longtime rival seemed to be in decline as Yinxie underwent her surgical ordeal. The procedure at two months' gestation posed significant risks, especially with no funds available - a fact that forced Ning Yuncheng into desperate begging among his former London elite friends.

The son who had once demanded whatever he wanted of his father was now reduced to shamefaced requests for employment in the city where he'd learned only excess. His fluency in English left him suited for translation work, but no self-respecting aristocrat would stoop to such menial wages. Unemployment forced him into increasingly desperate measures.

By contrast, Ning Yunhuan found herself admiring Yinxie's pragmatism - despite her dislike of the woman, she couldn't deny the other was working as a servant in high society homes rather than complaining about her circumstances. With son healthy again and family dramas subsiding, life with Lan Lingyan had settled into a quiet harmony woven with unseen threads of affection.

The estate buzzed with holiday preparations even before Christmas - twinkling lights and towering trees stood like sentinels against the December snowfall. Ning Yunhuan curled up with Lan in front of the fireplace as the first flakes began to fall, watching him work his magic on her aching joints without a single complaint about her constant neediness.

Their evening was interrupted only when Lan's private phone rang - an instrument few ever dared contact directly. He simply shut it off after answering once, but the call wasn't over yet. Moments later, the household phone began ringing with persistent insistence until the steward finally appeared with grim news from family headquarters.

Lan's amusement at this double interruption quickly faded into cold displeasure as he took the call. Whatever was said on the other end only deepened his frown before he snapped the line shut and stood abruptly: "We're going out."