Beauty and the Beasts

As the happiness had come too quickly, Mu Ya almost thought that he was dreaming.

“This is wonderful. You can come home with me now.” He turned around and said to Shen Yin, his face filled with joy.

With her head lowered, one couldn’t tell if she was happy or sad.

Mu Ya blew upon the back of Shen Yin’s hand, then turned his head and said to the adults, “She’s injured. We’re going to the hospital first.”

“We’d been planning on doing so long ago. It’s just that she wasn’t willing to go with us.” Winston said, “I thought that since you should be here soon, we decided to wait here. Let’s go.”

Mu Ya lifted Shen Yin horizontally and was the first to run out of the private room.

The group of them arrived at the hospital soon after. Shen Yin was given six or seven stitches for her wound, and her left palm was wrapped up like a white bun as she lay on the bed and rested.

Seated beside the bed, Mu Ya held her injured hand, his heart aching for her as he said, “Does it still hurt?”

Shen Yin shook her head with a smile. She looked at the posh facilities surrounding her and asked worriedly, “Is it very expensive?”

Counting the money he had earned these few days, Mu Ya said, “Don’t worry about the money. I have it covered.”

Winston had left after settling the matters. As Mu Ya’s father, Muir naturally stayed around. Curtis hadn’t left, either.

“Are you still planning to let her work at the bar?” Seated by the side, Curtis suddenly asked.

Upon hearing his voice, Shen Yin trembled. She couldn’t get that image of Curtis twisting that man’s arm broken out of her mind.

Mu Ya pulled her into his arms and patted her back reassuringly as he said, “Of course I don’t want her to work there. But I couldn’t talk her out of it.”

Curtis looked towards Shen Yin, causing the latter to shrink more deeply into Mu Ya’s embrace.

“You don’t have to fear me. I’m the husband of Mu Ya’s adoptive mother. I can be considered his adoptive father, too.”

There was a world of difference in the way Curtis spoke to Shen Yin and the way he spoke to Mu Ya. He even sounded a tad more doting than when speaking with his own daughter. “But they’ve always called me by my name. Don’t follow him and do the same. Why don’t you acknowledge me as your godfather? I’ve heard about your family situation. You can cut off all ties with your father. In the future, I’ll be your family from your maiden home. If he bullies you, I’ll help you teach him a lesson.”

Mu Ya: “…”

So this was how a stepfather behaved? Never mind that he didn’t dote on his stepson, he even treated his stepdaughter-in-law better than his stepson. How very… willful.

Shen Yin glanced suspiciously at him and didn’t agree.

Mu Ya, however, knew how beneficial Curtis’s offer was for her. At least, it was more than what his father gave him.

From a young age, he’d had the mentality of taking nothing with him after leaving the nest, and he had never thought of inheriting any assets from his family. That was why he had been working so hard to earn money to support his family after he formed a spousal relationship with Shen Yin.

If Mu Ya was still single, he wouldn’t care for any shortcuts. But it was different now that he had a spouse. He couldn’t bear for her to suffer any hardships.

Hence, Mu Ya accepted Curtis’s kind intentions on her behalf. He said, “I thank you on Shen Yin’s behalf, then.”

Though surprised, Shen Yin didn’t refuse. It felt like a wife singing her husband’s tune.

Curtis said with a smile, “As a father, I ought to give you a gift on our first meeting. What do you want? Feel free to tell me. You can ask for a shop, or to go back to school.”

Shen Yin merely considered for a few seconds, before decisively saying, “I want a florist shop.”

Mu Ya was both surprised and slightly disappointed. “You don’t wish to continue your studies?”

Shen Yin shook her head. If she went back to school, she would be ostracized all over again and be unhappy. It would also make her appear inferior to the other girls. She was afraid Mu Ya would be disappointed in her with such a contrast.

Studying was merely to help her career. Since she could have a shop that provided her with a livelihood, why would she need to go back to suffering in school?