Chapter 226: They Got The Marriage Certificate
After Liancheng boarded the plane, she rested with her eyes closed. Her seat was by the window, and Liang Chaosu’s was by the aisle.
The first-class seats had wide spacing. He was tall with long legs and crossed one leg over the other, with space between his toes and the seat in front. Liancheng, however, felt completely blocked in.
“We’re getting married.”
Liancheng thought she had misheard. She endured it, but couldn’t, and opened her eyes.
Liang Chaosu’s relaxed posture shifted as he turned sideways towards her, his arm resting on the armrest. When he was abroad, he always had a serious and neat demeanor, but now he was visibly relaxed. Liancheng felt that beneath his leisurely and unconstrained air lay the deadly danger of a snapped bowstring, the shattering of his gentle mask upon returning to the country, unleashing the untamed beast within his heart.
She retorted stubbornly, “Who you marry, I marry?”
Liang Chaosu’s face hovered within an arm’s length of Liancheng. He had taken off his jacket after boarding. His black shirt was unbuttoned at the collar, revealing his Adam’s apple, collarbone, and a small section of his toned, full chest, radiating an aggressive wildness, sharp and hard.
An overwhelming aura.
Liancheng felt a sense of fear, fear of his recklessness, fear of returning to those four years.
“Marry you, I marry me.”
Liancheng created distance, her back pressed tightly against the cabin wall, the edge of the window frame making her tremble.
Liang Chaosu gripped her wrist. The cabin light, not too harsh, illuminated her fingertips, fair and flawless, devoid of color, much like white jade.
But jade was too cold; he couldn’t stir any passion or even a trace of longing in her.
“If there are no accidents, Lin Xianzi is your mother. It’s just a bad time. She can’t acknowledge you or take you away, but it won’t be long. It might be summer, or by the end of the year at the latest.”
Liancheng stared at him, astonished.
Hong Kong. She had arrived with eagerness, and left in haste, so hasty that there was no definitive answer, yet it felt as if everything was understood.
This uncertainty, something she could see but not grasp, was something Liang Chaosu’s deceitfulness should have exploited. He should have stalled her publicly while secretly assisting Mo Shicheng.
Her unquestioning boarding of the plane was a preemptive measure against that very thing. She hadn’t expected him to be so direct and affirmative.
“Are you threatening me into marriage with her?”
Liang Chaosu’s palm pressed tightly against hers, separating her fingers. Their fingers intertwined. Hers were fair, his dark; delicacy against roughness, making his scars appear ferocious.
Like thorns entangling a rose, a beast caging a princess.
Strength versus weakness, pursuit versus escape.
Seemingly intertwined, forever opposed.
“You have the recording; my threats won’t work.”
His spirit in Hong Kong had been constantly tense. He looked weary but not weathered; his face was deep, cold, and inexplicably indifferent.
It was as if the worst outcome had already occurred, catching him off guard. Instead, he had gained the psychological preparation for the worst and was no longer afraid.
Liancheng didn’t dare to relax her guard for a moment.
From the moment Lin Xianzi changed her words to acknowledge Lian Yingying, she knew her mother’s situation must be critical and dire.
Liang Chaosu was deeply scheming, far beyond ordinary people. Whether he had tampered with anything, she truly had no confidence in seeing through it.
As for the recording, it could indeed restrain him, but abroad there was still Liang Zhengping.
Furthermore, Yao Nianci hated her to the extreme, and would likely join forces with Mo Shicheng to seek revenge on Lin Xianzi.
This family recognition was indeed, as Liang Chaosu said, not a good time for her or Lin Xianzi.
She said nothing, and Liang Chaosu’s gaze deepened slightly.
“Didn’t you return to the country to ruin me?”
Liancheng started, her gaze probing into his eyes.
Liang Chaosu let her examine him, even with a hint of arrogant amusement. “I will issue a statement under the name of Liang Group declaring us siblings. Our sudden marriage will not affect your future lawsuit against me. Instead, it will immediately trigger public opinion and aid my opponents.”
His palm was broad and thick, its warmth burning hot. The injury from that knife was gradually recovering, as was his strength. Liancheng used all her might but couldn’t break free at all.
“They will attack me en masse. I will be overwhelmed and my funds constrained. This will leave me with no energy or capital to interfere privately in the Mo family’s affairs, and you can rest easy.”
Liancheng’s gaze shifted.
“You fear Liang Zhengping. After Qingxi Valley, his return will be of no use. The Liang Group will be divided and devoured, leaving nothing. Everything will proceed according to your expectations set in Iceland. I will be imprisoned, the Liang family will fall, and a few months of marriage will balance out your four years of pain and resentment, freeing you from being entangled by me for the rest of your life. Isn’t that good?”
Liancheng’s mind exploded. Her teeth chattered involuntarily, her body trembling.
“You won’t.”
The Liang Group was the source of all Liang Chaosu’s reliance; he wouldn’t destroy his own foundation.
He was willing to face the law, to be ruined, and the Liang Group would still be attacked.
However, after decades of development, it had grown strong and extensive, with many loyal followers. While its scale might shrink significantly, it wouldn’t lead to eternal damnation.
After Liang Chaosu was released from prison, the Liang Group would, at its lowest, be a small enterprise with a foundation.
Liang Chaosu unbuckled her seatbelt.
Domestic flights did not have mandatory requirements, but she had kept her seatbelt fastened during takeoff. Liancheng didn’t unbuckle it after takeoff, subconsciously remaining vigilant of him.
In her startled state, she had no time to react before he scooped her up with his arm and placed her on his lap.
The afternoon flight was crowded. Liancheng’s hair stood on end. She glanced around. The passengers beside her and in front and behind were almost all dozing, none paying attention.
“Four days from now is your birthday. The cherry blossoms in Nan Province are blooming.” Liang Chaosu’s lips brushed her cheek almost imperceptibly. His breath was hot, striking her ear. “We’ll get our marriage certificate after we land. We’ll announce the marriage news in four days, and have the wedding in a month.”
Liancheng tried to find a thread of sense in his thunderous announcement, but it was too chaotic. At a glance, it all seemed like victory for her, as if within easy reach.
His voice was deep and magnetic, a rich, seductive tone. “You can resist intimacy. We can be married in name only, simply holding the title of Mrs. Liang Chaosu.”
Liancheng felt even more dizzy.
If the two of them were like players at a card table, he was cautious and shrewd, yet he repeatedly attacked and made bold moves. The previous card clearly intended to harm her, yet he ended up destroying himself.
Reflecting on his every step, it seemed imbued with a sinister, bloody intensity.
She had several unhealed wounds. Shen Lichuan would carefully tend to them and find good medicine.
He wanted to shed his own blood and irrigate her wounds tenfold. It wasn’t a method of healing, but it was ferociously passionate, a near-brutal, beast-like plundering and provision.
……………………
At the same time.
Gu Xingyuan looked at the text message on the screen, his entire being in a daze, unable to recover for a long while.
When he called back, Liang Chaosu had boarded the plane and turned off his phone.
He couldn’t ask his secretary for help understanding this without appearing as though he hadn’t received basic education.
Coincidentally, He Jinian came to see him. After knocking three times with no response from inside, he was startled and barged in.
Seeing Gu Xingyuan lost in thought but sitting perfectly fine behind his desk.
He Jinian breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed he was just sulking after being criticized, not contemplating suicide.
He comforted him, “The situation in Liu Li Village continues to worsen. Outsiders don’t know Director Liang’s plan, and they’re anxious and angry, cursing is normal. The more they lose their composure, the smoother our plan is progressing. Endure this humiliation for now, as if practicing perseverance. When the plan matures, we’ll cast our net, and those who cursed you will be stunned and queue up to apologize.”
A hint of pity and sympathy flickered in Gu Xingyuan’s eyes. He flipped his phone over, the screen facing He Jinian, and said, “Read it.”
He Jinian was nearsighted. He quickly walked over. On the screen was a text message interface, sent by Liang Chaosu.
He immediately became serious. “Summon Zhou Dazhi, fire… He Jinian?”
Gu Xingyuan lamented, “Your Director Liang is being foolish. I suspect he went to Hong Kong and exchanged his brain for something else.”
He Jinian, caught in a sudden confusion, instinctively asked, “Something else?”
Gu Xingyuan was merely speaking off the cuff. “How would I know? But that place, Hong Kong, has persistent feudal superstitions. I’ve heard of Southeast Asian sorcery, where you trade what you have for what you want. Of all his possessions, his intelligence is the most valuable. Playing this big, surely he didn’t manage to win over a wife?”
He Jinian had already realized Gu Xingyuan was talking nonsense and couldn’t be bothered to argue with him. Without a word, he left.
Gu Xingyuan shrugged. He Jinian didn’t seem panicked at all, so he naturally didn’t need to rush.
To suddenly discard a trusted confidant, a brainless fan whom he personally promoted and who was utterly loyal.
This kind of event, throughout China’s five thousand years of history, could fill a chronicle on its own.
It could be called “Biographies of those who cause trouble.”
