Chapter 14: Liang Wenfei Catches Them In The Act
Face-to-face conversations really only happened that one time during the traffic jam, but in private, ever since Liancheng returned from graduation, Shen Lichuan would deliberately take a detour every day to the company where Liancheng worked, just to catch a glimpse of her from afar.
Rain or shine.
“That’s enough,” Father Liang stopped her. “Husband and wife are one, trust is the foundation. When I got drunk at work, did your mother doubt me? Liancheng has seen Lichuan fewer than five times in all these years; the pregnancy is pure nonsense.”
Liancheng, coming downstairs, overheard the last sentence and her heart ached.
Father Liang was a strictly disciplinarian father, a man of few words, never smiling.
She never expected him to be the only one in the Liang family who believed her.
Bai Ying also entered the room.
The two of them huddled on a sofa on the side. Liancheng clasped her hands behind her back, and Bai Ying wrote on her palm, “Jingdu is inaccessible.”
Liancheng tensed instantly.
Bai Ying wrote again, “City First Hospital can.”
Liancheng lowered her eyes, quickly contemplating a plan.
The Head of Gynecology at City First Hospital had been bribed, meaning her medical examination was clear. However, the next hurdle was Mr. Bo’s pulse diagnosis, and Liang Chaosu hadn’t mentioned when Mr. Bo would arrive in Nan Province.
The medical examination could be tomorrow, or it could be postponed.
Tonight, she had to find a way to find out.
“I will find a master to reconsider the wedding date,” Shen Lichuan’s gaze subtly swept over Liancheng, a suppressed but surging emotion in his eyes. “But I hope the Liang family can agree that there will be no more tracking my whereabouts or making baseless accusations.”
Liang Chaosu remained silent, looking at Shen Lichuan, then at Liancheng, before catching Liang Wenfei’s pleading gaze.
“When any relationship goes wrong, it’s not purely one person’s fault,” he said, rising from the sofa, his gaze cold and stern. “It’s because you didn’t give Fei Fei enough sense of security, you avoid problems, ignore her unease, and punish her with coldness. Am I wronging you?”
Liang Wenfei’s eyes turned red. Her brother was, as always, her strongest support.
Liancheng’s heart, however, felt as if it were being cut by a knife. Whatever good Liang Chaosu gave to Liang Wenfei, he took it from her.
The sense of security Shen Lichuan didn’t provide, he made Liang Wenfei get it all back from her.
At this moment, Shen Lichuan and she were of one mind, and he coldly questioned, “So as her older brother, you have to torment others? I’m a man, my reputation has been damaged once already. What about Liancheng? She’s your sister too. Don’t you have any sibling affection for her?”
“No,” Liang Chaosu’s expression was sharp and gloomy. “Our bloodlines are different.”
No.
Different bloodlines.
Liancheng clenched her fists. Liang Chaosu had mentioned this many times before, but this was the first time he had publicly stated his attitude in front of outsiders.
So decisive, so resolute, without a moment’s hesitation, it was so harsh it made her heart tremble.
“I’m sorry, I was rude,” she pulled Bai Ying upstairs.
Behind them was a silence so profound that a falling pin could be heard. She felt all eyes on her back as she fled in disarray.
“Liang Chaosu is crazy,” Bai Ying locked the door and angrily pounded the wall. “And your parents, until we went upstairs, no one spoke a word in your defense.”
The small warmth Liancheng felt from Father Liang’s earlier words was frozen even deeper in just a few minutes.
She curled up on the sofa, forcing herself to stay alert. “What’s the situation with Mr. Bo?”
Mentioning Mr. Bo, Bai Ying paused in frustration, her face showing deep confusion. “Liang Chaosu invested two hundred million in Mr. Bo’s Chinese medicine project, and one hundred million of that was because of you.”
Liancheng was puzzled. “Because of me? Why?”
“To spare you the pain of acupuncture.” Bai Ying observed her expression. “He is determined to cure your illness and is afraid you will suffer. Could it be that he still cares about you?”
“Is that possible?” Liancheng retorted coldly. “You saw how he was just now. Does it look like he cares even a little?”
Let alone caring, his heartless and indifferent demeanor wouldn’t seem out of place even towards enemies.
Bai Ying was momentarily stumped. “Then why did he spend one hundred million?”
“What do you think?”
“He… he…” Bai Ying couldn’t recall any instance of Liang Chaosu treating Liancheng well, which could explain why he spent one hundred million on her. “He hasn’t gone completely crazy, has he?”
“It’s probably for the marriage alliance,” Liancheng felt weak in her limbs. “He’s been mentioning my marriage frequently lately. Curing me will bring returns to the Liang family. As for sparing me the acupuncture, it’s like slapping my face and then giving me a candy. Sweeten me up, and then I’ll willingly do things for the Liang family.”
At the same time, Liancheng knew that with a hundred million in cold hard cash invested, the chances with Mr. Bo were slim.
The room fell silent, highlighting Liancheng’s weak and difficult breaths.
Bai Ying listened in silence for a long while, feeling as if the air in the Liang family home was filled with frost and swords, a dire situation where Liancheng was a trapped beast, and she could only watch helplessly.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll take it one step at a time,” Liancheng leaned back against the sofa, gazing at the ceiling. “Today, I’ll first find out when Mr. Bo is coming to Nan Province. If it’s tomorrow, I’ll have to find a way to see him before the medical examination.”
No matter how faint the hope, Liancheng still wanted to fight for it.
Bai Ying thought that even if she could meet him, the chance was slim, but having hope now was better than waiting to die.
She also had to prepare for the deception regarding Liancheng’s blood draw tomorrow and didn’t stay any longer.
As she went downstairs to leave, she found the living room filled with warmth and joy. Liang Wenfei, with a sweet smile, invited Father Shen to stay for dinner.
Shen Lichuan had already agreed.
Eager as she was, Bai Ying couldn’t help but exclaim that she had misjudged the situation earlier.
And after she left, a shadow suddenly appeared in the corridor on the third floor, stopping lightly at Liancheng’s door and knocking.
Liancheng opened the door, leaving only a crack. The shadow stepped forward and forcefully squeezed inside.
The door immediately closed.
Shen Lichuan’s tall figure leaned against the door, upright and handsome, but filled with grief and anger, breathing rapidly, his eyes fixed on Liancheng like boiling lava about to erupt.
“Four years ago, you didn’t do it willingly, did you?”
“Liang Chaosu forced you, and you still have feelings for me, don’t you?”
Liancheng hadn’t expected him to be the one to show up, and she was caught off guard, frozen in shock.
“That night of the elopement, that phone call—”
“It’s all in the past,” Liancheng cut him off.
That year, both sets of parents had caught Shen Lichuan drunk and harassing Liang Wenfei. The scene was one of torn clothes, and there was even Liang Wenfei’s virgin blood on the bed. He had no explanation.
Only Liancheng believed that he hadn’t touched Liang Wenfei, but as soon as they went to find evidence, Liang Chaosu ordered her engagement to be called off.
By the time Liancheng had gone through countless efforts and managed to get information from the hotel waiter, the Liang and Shen families had already re-arranged the engagement between Shen Lichuan and Liang Wenfei.
Shen Lichuan had resisted fiercely but was suppressed by Liang Chaosu and the Shen family parents. Shen Lichuan was at his wit’s end and wanted to elope with her.
The day of the elopement coincided with a typhoon landfall. Gale-force winds and heavy rain snapped trees and power lines, and the city was flooded up to the calves, making travel impossible. Shen Lichuan had no choice but to postpone it by a day.
After Liancheng took the phone call, she continued packing her luggage in the room.
Liang Chaosu barged in, radiating a chill.
Later, when the typhoon stopped, Liancheng was naked and shivering, on the verge of a breakdown.
Liang Chaosu pulled her into his embrace and watched her call Shen Lichuan, saying she couldn’t bear to leave her family, couldn’t endure hardship, and was unwilling to foolishly elope with Shen Lichuan.
Wishing him a happy engagement with Liang Wenfei.
“The past is the past,” Liancheng lowered her eyes, calming her emotions. “I have no ulterior motives towards you now.”
“Do you have none, or do you not dare to have any?” Shen Lichuan bent down and stared at her. “You’re pregnant with Liang Chaosu’s child.”
He was so certain.
Liancheng’s scalp tingled, and she firmly denied, “No.”
“At Yun Ning Tea Restaurant on Ji’an Road, I was in the next room.”
At the same time, downstairs.
“Where is Lichuan?” Liang Wenfei asked.
“I think he went upstairs,” the servant beside her was unsure. “I saw Young Master Shen heading towards the stairs.”
Liang Wenfei was startled. Shen Lichuan had visited the Liang family many times, always polite and distant, and had never proactively gone upstairs.
Her gaze swept over the second floor; it was quiet and deserted.
Further up, a faint light was visible from Liancheng’s room.
Bitch, as expected, she’s restless.
She rushed up the stairs.
