Chapter 359: Take care of yourself
She stopped.
For a moment, the air between them felt suspended.
Slowly, she turned her head—not fully facing him, but enough to acknowledge the sound.
She did not see the proud businessman.
She saw a tired, regretful man who had finally begun to understand what his inaction had cost.
In his mind, he had always believed he was not a bad father. Strict, perhaps. Distant. But not cruel. He had convinced himself that turning a blind eye was the same as maintaining peace. That avoiding confrontation was wisdom.
Now, regrets flooded him.
Every ignored bruise.
Every quiet plea.
Every moment he chose reputation over truth.
For Ling Mu’s death—though he had not wielded the weapon—his pursuit, his weakness, his silence had paved the road.
"I’m sorry," he repeated faintly.
Hua Jing did not walk back to him.
She did not embrace him.
She did not cry.
After a long pause, she spoke softly.
"Take care of yourself."
It was neither forgiveness nor rejection.
Just a closing.
Then she tightened her grip on Fu Jingrong’s hand and walked out.
Hua Mingrong remained seated long after the doors closed behind them, staring at the empty courtroom. For the first time in his life, he felt utterly alone. Everything he had built—his family, his reputation, his empire—had fractured within days.
And there was no one left to blame.
Outside, chaos erupted again.
Chen Li was escorted toward the prison transport vehicle as reporters swarmed the courthouse steps. Flashbulbs exploded in rapid succession. Microphones were shoved forward. Questions were shouted from every direction.
"Mrs. Chen! Any final statement?" "Do you regret your actions?" "Was this jealousy over Ling Mu?" "Did your daughter know about the murder?"
Chen Li kept her head lowered, but the cameras captured everything—her hollow cheeks, her trembling hands, the fury still burning in her eyes.
Within minutes, headlines began flooding the internet:
"Disgraced High Society Matriarch Sentenced to Life."
"Murder Beneath the Mansion: The Fall of Chen Li."
"From Socialite to Prisoner: A Shocking Downfall."
"Blood-Stained Secrets of the Hua Family Exposed."
Her image was plastered across every major outlet.
The once-envied icon of elite circles was now synonymous with scandal and crime.
Inside a crumbling house on the outskirts of the city, where the paint peeled from the walls and the windows were patched with old newspapers to keep out the wind, Hua Ling sat hunched on a broken wooden chair, the only light in the room coming from the screen of the phone in her trembling hands. The air smelled of dampness and dust, a far cry from the luxury apartments and five-star hotels she had once casually complained about. A thin mattress lay in one corner. An empty instant noodle cup had toppled over beside it. This was where she had been hiding for days.
The new phone she held was unregistered, bought with cash through layers of intermediaries. She had smashed her old one the night her mother was arrested, terrified of being tracked. She had thought she was being smart.
But none of it had stopped what was unfolding now.
On the screen, the news replayed Chen Li’s sentencing. The footage zoomed in mercilessly on her mother’s haggard face, on the moment she screamed in the courtroom, on the prison vehicle swallowing her whole. Reporters’ voices overlapped dramatically. Headlines scrolled in bold red fonts.
Life imprisonment. No parole.
Hua Ling’s fingers tightened around the phone until her knuckles turned white. Her lips quivered uncontrollably. Her eyes were wide, unblinking, fixed on the screen as if she were no longer inside her own body. She looked like something hollowed out.
They showed her mother again, being shoved through a sea of cameras.
The crowd shouting.
"Murderer!" "Shameless!" "Rot in prison!"
Her breathing became uneven.
Then suddenly, with a choked, animal-like sound, she hurled the phone across the room. It slammed against the wall and fell to the floor with a sharp crack.
"Hua Jing, you wench!" she screamed, her voice echoing harshly in the empty house. "I will kill you! What did you do to my mother? I will kill you! I will kill you!"
Her chest heaved violently. Her hands clawed at her own hair as she staggered to her feet. Everything had collapsed in a single day. One day. That was all it took. The empire she had built, the endorsements, the fans, the influence—gone. The carefully constructed image of the elegant, flawless star—shattered.
And now even the authorities were looking into her.
She had thought she was clever. She had thought she was always one step ahead.
But she had fallen into Hua Jing’s trap.
That woman... that woman she had trampled on for years. That woman she had watched fall into a coma. That woman she had believed was too soft, too naive to ever fight back.
How dare she?
Hua Ling began pacing the small room, her movements erratic. "I’m going to kill her," she muttered under her breath, over and over. "I, Hua Ling... just you wait... I will... I will..."
Her voice faltered, then rose again, unsteady and unhinged. She bit down hard on her fingernails until the skin broke, not even seeming to notice the sting. Something inside her had shifted. It was no longer simple anger. It was obsession. A festering hatred that drowned out reason.
Everyone had cut ties with her.
Brands had terminated contracts overnight. Her account had been banned. Her fan clubs dissolved like mist. Those who once called her goddess now called her disgrace. Even industry friends had deleted photos with her.
And then there was Xu Ming.
Her cracked phone lay on the floor. After a moment of frantic breathing, she bent down and snatched it up. The screen was fractured like a spiderweb but still responsive. Her thumb trembled as she reopened the news app and found the statement again.
Xu Ming.
Her fiancé.
He stood before cameras in a tailored suit, expression solemn. "Miss Hua Ling and I dated in the past," he had said calmly. "However, we broke up some time ago. The engagement was called off by mutual agreement between our families. I have had no contact with her recently."
No contact.
Hua Ling let out a hysterical laugh that sounded dangerously close to sobbing.
No contact?
