After Bankruptcy, the Billionaire Asked Me to Marry Him!
Chapter 360: He Brought It for Her Specifically

Chapter 360: Chapter 360: He Brought It for Her Specifically

"Big Brother’s assistant."

Fu Yanci kept his words concise.

Ye Li paused for a moment. "So, she was supposed to be with him..."

"No."

Fu Yanci shook his head. "She was originally supposed to go, but she felt unwell before departure, so someone else from the President’s Office was sent in her place."

Ye Li quietly looked at him, as if silently asking why then she was buried here, and why her name as the one who erected the gravestone was not even present.

Fu Yanci said softly, "When word of Big Brother’s accident came back to the country, she felt half the blame was hers. Her condition worsened, and later... she couldn’t be saved. She passed away on the same day as Big Brother’s one-year anniversary of death."

Ye Li’s sadness deepened.

She had always known that life was fragile, but seeing a young, beautiful girl appear as a grayscale photo on a tombstone still left her with a feeling of being unable to accept it.

The phone dinged with an alert.

A message came from Wan Mingyi via WeChat.

[Lizi, the studio’s inbox received a prank email. Do you want to take a look?]

[Sure.]

Logging into the inbox directly, Ye Li immediately spotted the email titled "Reminiscence."

The sender’s name was a string of code, not even a standard email address.

The email had no contents.

Only an attachment containing four photos.

At first glance, they appeared to be the same photo, uploaded four times.

But upon closer inspection, subtle and minute differences revealed they weren’t identical.

On the dark tombstone, the words "The Tomb of Li Li" stood unmistakably clear.

Flowers at the base of the tombstone—calla lilies, daisies, jasmine flowers, African daisies—all in pure white.

No offerings.

Only a bouquet of flowers, delicately and pristinely placed in front of the tombstone.

The pureness of the flowers accentuated the serene beauty of Li Li in the photo even more.

A man stood in front of the tombstone, his posture upright—only his back visible.

Even so, Ye Li instantly recognized him. That was Fu Yanci.

"Fu Yanci, Li Li... Did she have no family? Today is her death anniversary. Other than you, did no one come to visit her?"

Ye Li asked as she put her phone away.

Even though she didn’t know Li Li, sympathy filled her expression—like thinking that even in death, one might still feel lonely, isolated, and cold.

Fu Yanci shook his head. "She was an orphan. Grew up in an orphanage—an orphanage supported by the Fu Family. Later, when she got into university, she came to the Fu Group and said she wanted to repay Big Brother for all the kindness he’d shown her..."

Seeming to recall something from that time, Fu Yanci’s face carried a hint of reminiscence. "That day, Big Brother and I entered the company together. She ran straight to him and knelt down in front of him, catching Big Brother completely off guard... She said she was willing to clean, or do anything at the Fu Group. Big Brother told her to study hard first, and they’d discuss it after graduation."

Ye Li seemed to have already guessed what had followed.

Hardworking, ambitious, and filled with gratitude—that kind of person, paired with someone as gentle and refined as Fu Mingzhen—Li Li must have been filled with admiration.

In her heart, Fu Mingzhen must have felt like a towering deity.

Her lifelong dream was entirely devoted to repaying the man who had provided for her and sponsored her.

So, after graduation, it was only natural that she entered the Fu Group, becoming Fu Mingzhen’s assistant and his right-hand ally.

If Fu Mingzhen had never had his accident, Li Li might have willingly dedicated her entire life to Fu Mingzhen, and to the Fu Group.

And yet, Fu Mingzhen’s accident happened, and she, as his assistant, was not by his side.

All that gratitude and ambitious determination to repay—once an unexpected tragedy struck—would turn into unimaginable guilt, wouldn’t it?

Perhaps she’d blame herself for not being there.

To Li Li, dying together with Fu Mingzhen in the accident might have been a better fate than surviving.

"So... she... ended her own life?"

Ye Li asked in a low voice.

Fu Yanci nodded.

A wave of somber, oppressive grief surged forth. Ye Li gazed at the winding mountain road ahead, her mood clouded and heavy.

When the car stopped, Li Xueqing’s voice rang out. Ye Li snapped back to awareness.

Li Xueqing smiled as she looked at Fu Yanci, who had gotten out of the car. "Yanci, you’re back?"

"Mom..."

Fu Yanci nodded, taking Ye Li’s hand as they got out of the car. A small group headed into the house together.

Perhaps it was because they had gone to the cemetery earlier, but Ye Li had been in low spirits all afternoon, unable to muster any joy.

When she awoke from her nap, the bed beside her was empty.

Going downstairs, Ye Li saw Aunt Lan cooking soup, while her mother trimmed roses in the greenhouse.

When Aunt Lan saw Ye Li, she smiled. "Uncle Fu has gone out for something. He said he’ll come back later to pick you up."

Then, as if something occurred to her, Aunt Lan whispered, "Xiao Li, you and Uncle Fu... everything’s fine, right?"

Aunt Lan had a feeling that since they came home, neither of them had seemed very happy.

If she hadn’t known that Fu Yanci had just returned from a business trip the night before, and that yesterday they had hosted a dinner at the Fu Mansion for Xiao Bao’s classmates and their parents, Aunt Lan might have guessed that the two had quarreled.

When Ye Li mentioned today was Fu Mingzhen’s death anniversary, Aunt Lan finally understood.

"It’s fine, that’s good, it’s good that everything’s fine..."

Aunt Lan sighed in relief and busied herself back in the kitchen.

Ye Li sat alone in the living room for a long while before opening up her phone and re-examining those photos again.

Part of her felt, since today was Fu Mingzhen’s anniversary, of course Fu Yanci would visit him, and casually pay respects to Li Li’s grave as well. It was only natural.

It didn’t seem strange at all that someone took this photo.

Yet another part of her felt uneasy, like it couldn’t have been such a simple coincidence.

How could the photographer be so sure that after paying tribute to Fu Mingzhen, Fu Yanci would definitely visit Li Li’s tomb?

Li Li was just an orphan—as well as Fu Mingzhen’s assistant.

How could someone as prominent as Uncle Fu have remembered a mere assistant whom he barely interacted with?

But then Ye Li thought about the tombstone without a dedicating name.

And the bouquet of flowers.

The flowers were specifically brought for Li Li.

Li Li.

Reminiscence.

Specially.

Random keywords surfaced in Ye Li’s mind at that moment, and she abruptly pressed her phone screen off.

Her heart raced with a fleeting sense of panic.

Even Ye Li herself couldn’t quite articulate what she was panicking about.

The sound of an engine cutting off came from outside, and Ye Li looked up, just in time to see Fu Yanci step out from the driver’s seat.

His expression bore an indifferent gloominess.

In the past, no matter his mood, back at the Ye Family, in front of her, he could always pull himself together, hiding his emotions from both her mother and herself.

But today, even Aunt Lan had noticed his troubled mood.

Because of Fu Mingzhen?

Or was it...

Suddenly snapping back to herself, Ye Li took in a long breath.

She couldn’t continue down that train of thought!

She got up and opened the door, just in time to meet Fu Yanci as he climbed the steps.

Ye Li asked softly, "Where did you go?"

Fu Yanci approached her, naturally putting his arm around Ye Li as they walked inside. "Something came up at the orphanage; I went to take a look."

The orphanage.

Li Li.

Ye Li froze momentarily and stopped in her tracks. "Is... something wrong?"

"No."

Fu Yanci gently shook his head, turning to rub Ye Li’s head. "After joining the Fu Group, Li Li took charge of managing the orphanage. When she passed away, she was still thinking about the children there, and asked me to visit them whenever I could."

Too many responsibilities, too little time; he hadn’t been able to visit often enough.

Today, being her death anniversary, he knew he should make time.

To visit on behalf of Li Li.

Ye Li picked up on what Fu Yanci hadn’t explicitly said.

And she sensed the casual familiarity and warmth in his tone when he spoke of Li Li.

Ye Li lowered her eyes, feeling as if a little hammer had struck her heart.

Thump.

A dull ache echoed faintly inside.