Chapter 173: Liancheng Is Forceful
It was the second day of the Lunar New Year. Liang Chaosu was transferred from the Cardiac ICU to a regular hospital room.
This hospital, in Iceland, is on par with the Xiehe Hospital domestically. The single room, comprising a living room and two bedrooms, offers facilities and dining services comparable to a five-star hotel. The hospital bed has a screen for ordering meals and calling medical staff 24 hours a day.
Lian Cheng is currently in the Obstetrics Department downstairs; the room layout is the same, differing only in color.
She held the documents, walked through the living room, and entered the actual ward at the very back.
Liang Chaosu was awake. The backboard of the hospital bed was raised to a high arc, allowing him to sit semi-upright. The electrodes on his chest and abdomen had not been removed, and he was still bare-chested. With each breath, his chest and abdomen tightened and contracted. He was thinner, but his lines were still strong and well-defined, exuding a deep, mature tension.
Lian Cheng stopped about half a meter from the foot of the bed.
His gaze was deep and intense, and a smile flickered at the corner of his mouth. “Why are you here?”
Lian Cheng looked at him expressionlessly. “Didn’t you force me to come?”
On New Year’s Eve and the Spring Festival, Lian Cheng and Bai Ying were in the ward downstairs, cutting out paper window decorations and watching a James Bond movie. Xiao Da went to pick her up but ended up staying to make dumplings with them.
Lian Cheng made seven dumplings, Bai Ying made three, and Xiao Da made fifty. In the end, the three of them cooked one pot, and there wasn’t even enough to share.
As Xiao Da left, he was dazed. It was unclear whether he was dazed by Lian Cheng and Bai Ying’s appetites or by the fact that not a drop of soup was left, and he didn’t know how he would report back.
By the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, Xiao Da came again, saying he was very busy. As a personal assistant, he really couldn’t keep up with the backlog of documents at the Liang Family.
Lian Cheng had already implicitly agreed to be his secretary. Although the contract hadn’t been signed, she could start working in advance.
Liang Chaosu understood. “Then you can refuse. No one can force you.”
Lian Cheng stared at him for a few seconds, a smile playing on her lips. “If I don’t refuse, won’t you understand the reason in your heart?”
Liang Chaosu’s smile disappeared. Her willingness to be his secretary stemmed from her distrust of him, and her desire to help Shen Lichuan to the best of her ability. When she delivered the documents, they contained information about the Shen Family, and she had certainly reviewed them before coming up.
He understood, but he hadn’t expected her to state it so directly.
Lian Cheng’s voice was as cold as ice. “How much of my phone conversation did you hear?”
Liang Chaosu’s eyebrows were high and his eyes deep-set. When those sharp, dark, intense eyes stared at someone, the oppressive feeling made one’s heart crawl.
Even without any wrongdoing, one would still fear him somewhat.
But Lian Cheng was now an ice cave. In Iceland, she had crumbled, and the person who had reassembled herself was a mix of Iceland’s unmelting icebergs and snowfields; she was Lian Cheng, and yet not Lian Cheng.
Liang Chaosu’s authority had never been able to subdue her before, and now she was even colder than him.
His chest heaved, then collapsed, continuing to collapse into a sea of emotions. “Shen Lichuan needs to learn a lesson, develop his strength, and give you freedom. You agreed.”
Lian Cheng remained silent with a cold gaze, yet she was as sharp and piercing as needles, coated in a poison that sealed death upon contact.
It pierced Liang Chaosu, causing his eyes to darken and his entire face to turn grim. Yet, he endured it all, saying, “Our agreement was that you would no longer have any entanglement with Shen Lichuan.”
Lian Cheng’s expression was one of utter annoyance.
The atmosphere was on the verge of shattering when the heart monitor by the bedside let out a sharp alarm.
The lighting in the regular ward was not as bright and penetrating as in the ICU; the color temperature was softer, emitting a warm white light. It fell upon Liang Chaosu’s stern, deep features, making him appear melancholy, piercing, and frozen.
Another fire burned within his chest cavity, transforming into lava that spread and surged within him, and with her long silence, almost tacit approval, it erupted, exploded.
Lian Cheng suddenly stepped forward and approached, placing the documents in her hand on the head of the bed. “He shouldn’t be implicated because of me. As long as the Shen Family is safe, that’s the end of it.”
The hard cover of the folder brushed against his arm. The foreign, ice-cold sensation was not comfortable. Liang Chaosu remained motionless. Xiao Da had reported that her physical recovery was in good condition.
At this close range, her face was no longer pale, the bloodshot in her eyes had subsided, and though the color on her lips was faint, it was undeniably there.
At this moment, the frozen ice and the melted fire were both disappearing. He realized it and let out a laugh. “When you first came in, what you said was intentional. You’ve gotten bad.”
Lian Cheng never directly confronted Shen Lichuan’s problems; she always protected him, hid him, and was eager to distance him immediately. She would never proactively mention Shen Lichuan to enrage him, nor would she maliciously delay things until the end to watch him suffer.
The fact that she could now bring him up proactively, and even use Shen Lichuan to counterattack him, showed a certain frankness.
Lian Cheng felt a sense of relief, stepping back to the foot of the bed. “Getting bad? It’s just fighting fire with fire.”
Liang Chaosu paused. She was purely mocking him, but he thought of Liang Wenfei.
When he protected Liang Wenfei, he allowed her to bleed profusely, which was far more vicious than her cold observation just now.
“It was my fault—”
Lian Cheng cut him off abruptly. “Your parents and your sister, whom you’ve always doted on, have arrived.”
“Your father learned from Uncle Bai that I intended to return to China under my original Liang Family identity and was extremely angry and indignant. Your mother immediately discharged herself from the hospital, booked a flight, and with your sister, arrived in Iceland on a private jet six hours later.”
Finally, she added, “Assistant Xiao is too busy to handle it. Do you need me, as your secretary, to pick them up at the airport?”
Liang Chaosu’s face showed no surprise. “Yes.”
Lian Cheng stared at him expressionlessly, as if confirming the truth. Liang Chaosu’s IV drip finished, and the transparent tubing filled with bright red. He raised his hand and pulled out the needle. “Go to the airport and take their private jet back to China.”
Private flight applications were time-slot based, allowing unlimited flights within the approved time slot. Lian Cheng’s application to revoke her death declaration had already been sent back to China. Although the court was on holiday for the Spring Festival, preventing an immediate revocation, with a certificate issued by the embassy, the normal repatriation process could still allow her to return to China.
Lian Cheng was uncertain and looked at Liang Chaosu for a long while. His expression was serious, and though there was a faint smile in his eyes, it didn’t seem like a joke or a tease.
She turned and left.
To ask if it was true or false was irrelevant; Liang Chaosu said it was so. If it were true, Xiao Da would take her to the airport. If it were false, her question would be redundant, making her look like a monkey being toyed with.
“Lian Cheng.” Liang Chaosu’s deep, slightly hoarse voice called from behind her, carrying a profound, unresolvable emotion. “Happy New Year.”
She walked out the door.
She bumped into Xiao Da, who was hurrying in. The documents he held in his arms were colorful and haphazard, and a rough glance revealed at least seven or eight, piled unevenly and about to fall.
Lian Cheng steadied them.
Xiao Da gathered them neatly and took out a document, handing it to her. “The car downstairs is ready. Please wait for me for half an hour after I finish my work report, and then I can take you to the airport.”
Lian Cheng opened the document. It was an embassy certificate with a steel stamp, stating her date of return to China.
Lian Cheng held back for a moment, then a smile bloomed on her face, impossible to suppress. “Okay.” She then nodded. “Thank you.”
Xiao Da watched her leave and turned back into the ward. “Mr. Liang, the gang has collected information about the old director Liang harming Miss Lian Cheng, but the person who has been contacting people and gathering personnel all along has been Secretary Zhou, and the evidence also points to Secretary Zhou.”
“Secretary Zhou is loyal to the old director Liang and may very well confess directly.”
Xiao Da was actually being conservative; it wasn’t just a possibility, it was a certainty.
Zhou Dazhi had been with the Liang Family for over thirty years. During this time, his daughter was abducted to Macau and incurred millions in debt from gambling, a sum that, for Zhou Dazhi, now earning five million annually, wouldn’t even constitute a serious blow.
However, for a staff member earning six thousand yuan a month at the time, it was a figure that would lead to selling their house, car, and going bankrupt.
His daughter, aware of the trouble she had caused and wanting to make amends, was eager for money and, behind Zhou Dazhi’s back, sold her eggs and worked as a hostess in a bar. As a result, she was harassed by a patron after drinking and accidentally broke two bottles. The injuries were not severe, but the other party was wealthy and powerful. They hired a lawyer and pressured Zhou Dazhi’s family, insisting that both father and daughter be sent to prison.
Furthermore, Zhou Dazhi had a mother with severe Alzheimer’s. This shock pushed her mental state into complete abnormality. It was Director Liang who promoted Zhou Dazhi, and after understanding his situation, he arranged for a sanatorium and intervened to resolve the matter.
Therefore, Zhou Dazhi, a salaried worker, did not retreat or hide when Director Liang intended for Lian Cheng to die along with her child, even though he understood the implied meaning of Director Liang’s non-involvement.
