Chapter 162: Liang Chaosu Swept Everything Away, But He Couldn’t Go Forward
Shen Lichuan’s face was solemn, staring at Father Shen’s gritting teeth expression.
Father Shen thought Shen Lichuan didn’t trust him, suspecting he was deliberately delaying.
In a fit of rage, he took it out on Liancheng, “What kind of femme fatale magic does she possess that drives you all mad? The Liang family father and son fight, turning against each other. Liang Chaosu is wicked and ruthless, driven to madness like this. Do you want to do the same to me and your mother? Stirring up domestic discord, turning us into sworn enemies?”
Shen Lichuan put down his luggage, “You are learned, what is a femme fatale? The Liang family today, it is they who have no integrity, they are violent and selfish. The evil of the wicked backfires on them. If you are not happy for the victims, do you want to blame the victim?”
Father Shen’s anger faltered, and he waved his hand.
“Let’s not talk about this, I only ask you—” Father Shen slapped the stair armrest, “The family crisis is before you, and you completely disregard us, disregard the clan, and fly to Iceland. Or stay, and deal with your oversight.”
Father Shen laid out the options, adding, “Liang Chaosu’s move was planned long ago, he didn’t act because he was afraid of alarming his father. Now, he has played all his trump cards, without the original scruples, his attack on you will be the most ruthless and quickest to put you to death.”
“Father is old, that fall on the internet, hit too hard, lost his spirit and pride, and most importantly, lost the mentality of having everything under control. The African business was handled by you, and it’s international trade, with extensive involvement. I can’t hold this down.”
Shen Lichuan’s grip on his luggage loosened slightly, then tightened again, his eyes lowered to the luggage.
On the stairs, below the stairs, a brief silence fell.
Seconds ticked by, Father Shen narrowed his eyes, becoming more direct.
“Lichuan, this trip of yours to Iceland, what chance do you have to directly defeat Liang Chaosu and save her?”
“I can tell you clearly, there is no chance of winning. Liang Chaosu has completely gone mad. He has prepared for four years, all for today. You can win against a person, but you cannot win against a madman.”
Shen Lichuan clenched the armrest of his luggage, veins bulging, his knuckles turning pale.
He understood the principles.
He understood that Liang Chaosu was attacking now, impatient to finish him off. He understood that the intention was to stop him from going to Iceland and getting in the way.
Even, Shen Lichuan could infer Liang Chaosu’s thoughts.
He was pedantic, he was cowardly, he had too many things he couldn’t let go of, as important as Liancheng – his parents, his older sister, the Shen family…
Under the same choice, Liang Chaosu could sweep everything away, but he could not forge ahead relentlessly.
……………………………………
Liancheng was engulfed in a sea of blood, mist all around.
A three-headed, small bean-like figure stood not far in front of her, a childish girl’s voice, “Mommy, I don’t want to tie you down, you need freedom—”
“—” She opened her mouth, but could not utter a name. In a panic, she reached out to hug, but the thick fog turned into substance, blocking her.
Liancheng beat against the invisible wall, her sobs in her throat finally turning into, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”
A chubby, fair arm stretched out from the thick fog, like a lotus root, with short fingers, a small palm. Across the invisible wall, it touched her palm.
“It’s okay.” The small hand gently patted her.
“It’s okay not to have a name, Mommy has always been too scared. It’s okay not to have been born, it’s not that Mommy didn’t want me, Mommy is already great.”
Liancheng was choked by the thick, sour bitterness, her lungs and heart being torn apart.
“I love you, Mommy.”
The small hand withdrew, and the figure dissipated.
Liancheng reached out to grab, but was held by a broad, burning hot hand, enveloped, the palm rough, the grip tightening.
She opened her eyes and forcefully threw it away.
Liang Chaosu’s hand was flung into the air, pausing there. He wore a mask, his face veiled by the backlight as he gazed at her.
Liancheng instinctively pushed herself up, propping herself on the pillow. The effect of the medication lingered; she had barely managed to turn over before her limbs suddenly lost all strength, and she slumped back down.
Liang Chaosu reached out to protect her back, slowly laying her down.
Liancheng struggled with all her might, her limbs like rotten wood tied with iron blocks, completely unresponsive.
She couldn’t grab his neck, couldn’t get out of bed, couldn’t rush out to find a sharp surgical knife, she couldn’t even land a single slap.
A heart full of deep hatred, forever powerless.
She was still foolish and unaware.
“Get out—”
Liang Chaosu looked at those eyes, no longer possessing their former clarity and brilliance. Dense bloodshot veins filled his pupils, the frost and swords pouring from the depths of his eyes, endlessly erupting, hatred ingrained to the bone marrow.
“Liancheng—”
He called her name, his voice muffled beneath the mask, with no follow-up. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and after a long while, he said, “The days are long, I won’t make you sad again—”
“Then go die.” Liancheng couldn’t move, so she could only lock onto him with her gaze, staring him down, turning into arrows that pierced him with thousands of bloody holes. “The moment I see you alive, I am sad for a moment.”
Liang Chaosu’s eyes were like two desolate, empty black holes, as if as he saw her clearly, he too was collapsing.
Collapsing in the end, withered, desolate.
He held her hand again, “…When your body has recovered, I will take you back home. It’s almost Spring Festival, and two months after Spring Festival is your birthday.”
“You’re twenty-three now. You used to say you wanted to get married at twenty-three. When the pine moon blooms, we’ll have a wedding, Chinese style, Western style, whatever you like.”
“After marriage, I’ll finish handling Liang’s affairs and then accompany you on a trip, how about it? Two years ago, on your European trip, you posted on your blog saying you particularly loved Provence. I bought a manor in a small town. June and July are the peak blooming season for lavender. You regretted not seeing the sunset over the flower fields. This time, I’ll accompany you, okay?”
Liancheng’s eyes showed a smile.
Liang Chaosu understood this smile, incredibly sarcastic, full of hatred, permeated with coldness, piercing directly into the depths of the heart.
“Liang Chaosu, I’m lying here motionless now, not because I want to hear your insincere words, but because I don’t have the strength to take your life.”
Liancheng’s breath was uneven, panting, but her tone was chillingly stern, like ice picks.
“Marriage, self-infatuation, looking at flowers, obsessive delusion. We only have two kinds of futures: either we meet in court, or I live and you die, or I die and you live.”
Self-infatuation, obsessive delusion.
Liang Chaosu sat by the bed, silent as a wax figure, a fissure growing from within his stiffness.
These were all things he had said when he coerced her to leave the Liang family before.
He had said them in public, and in private, in the harshest tone.
Even not long after a medical examination, when she thought he was pressuring her again, in a private room at White Jade Capital, he belittled himself in front of a group of dissolute second-generation heirs.
Shen Lichuan protected her, he oppressed her.
Liancheng detested his demeanor to the extreme, as if her every word and sentence was a life-threatening rope, a sharp poisoned knife, cruelly and heartlessly wounding this love-saint.
Suddenly, she froze for a moment, then abruptly demanded, “Where is Old Ghost?”
She hated fiercely, and her mind, instead, broke through the drug-induced haze and regained clarity, her nerves reconnected, and her memories became coherent.
Before she lost consciousness, Wells had personally confirmed that Old Ghost was downstairs. The gang members were pure Nordic people, their height absurd, their build robust, the sounds of their struggle could be transmitted upstairs.
Liang Chaosu remained silent.
Liancheng had a bad premonition, and she asked sharply again, “Where is Old Ghost?”
The door was suddenly knocked.
Xiao Da’s face appeared in the small window, his expression anxious.
Liang Chaosu stood up as the doctor came for rounds.
The moment the door was left ajar, Liancheng vaguely heard a word, “Shen—”
