Chapter 252: A Lifetime
Liang Chaosu had previously removed Lin Xianzi’s makeup. Her skin was fair, and she used little foundation. A makeup remover wipe’s cleaning power was low, but sufficient for her.
The water-soaked wipe first covered her eyebrows and eyes, then melted the makeup as it cooled and was wiped down to her chin, before repeating on the other half of her face.
Like a pearl shedding dust, her porcelain-white skin was revealed. Her eyebrows, eyes, and face became infinitely clear, gilded with a hazy halo under the lights, softly bewitching him.
“Now you can answer my question.”
Lin Xianzi opened her eyes.
She fell into a pair of eyes so close they seemed to burn like fire, intensely bright and piercing, causing her heart to contract.
“Are you coming back for lunch?”
The question was even more straightforward, almost a confession.
Lin Xianzi froze under his hand, like a petrified insect, pretending not to have heard clearly.
Liang Chaosu didn’t seem to expect any answer from her today; he picked up a cotton swab and began to apply medicine to her again.
“When my father returns, there will be a fierce battle. He has deep cooperation with Mo Shicheng, and Mo Shicheng will constantly use Lin Xianzi to influence you and control and stimulate me. My father will seize power during this time, then use the Liang family to repay Mo Shicheng, helping him suppress Lin Xianzi’s influence, eliminate her allies, and smoothly clear his name. These two men want a win-win.”
Lin Xianzi’s eyeballs trembled slightly, like a frozen sculpture, a crack appearing in the midst of a thunderous explosion.
Liang Chaosu cupped the back of her head. Her cheeks were tender and smooth, her skin still holding the moisture from the makeup remover wipe. When his lips touched her, she flinched as if burned and startled awake.
Lin Xianzi leaned back, retreating. “You saw through it, yet you asked him to return to the country.”
The restroom space was limited. She retreated several steps, her calves hitting the wall. The man in front of her remained motionless. His tall physique cast a long, oppressive shadow under the light, crushing and enveloping her.
“I’ve already answered you,” Liang Chaosu watched her. “Zhou Dazhi firmly believes he will win and refuses to identify him. Rather than letting him stay abroad, where he’s impossible to guard against, it’s better to keep him under my supervision.”
Lin Xianzi’s brows tightened. Liang Zhengping’s scheme was within her expectations. Liang Chaosu’s approach tended to be offense as defense; letting him return to the country was also logical.
“I remember, but you said that was only half the reason. What’s the other half?”
“You.” His tone was calm. He unbuttoned his shirt, revealing a chest as hard as iron. His skin was dark and rich, marked by a fierce, bright red scar, a testament to his wild, untamed nature.
“You can’t accept me because I once confined you, controlled you. You felt like your body wasn’t your own, like you were oppressed and shackled. This scar is my retribution.”
He showed no signs of losing control or overwhelming emotion throughout. His face was expressionless, his voice unwavering. Yet, Lin Xianzi was tossed about, unable to find a pattern in his extreme abnormality.
“If I claimed it was to protect you, like with Iceland, you would have found it absurd and laughable. The present is similar to the past. My actions then were wrong, and this time, I’m letting you choose.”
Lin Xianzi felt like she was swinging on a cliff edge. At first, she was merely drifting, then swinging higher and higher, so perilous that at this moment, the rope finally snapped.
He not only knew Lin Xianzi had contacted her but also that Lin Xianzi wanted to meet her.
The reason he stopped her and confessed so much was to recreate the past.
His four years of control, like a cage, were for the sake of the Liang family’s peace and quiet. She could finish university and continue her studies without resistance.
Comparing it to the present, if she remained obedient by his side, given his hatred and deep calculations, any scheme Mo Shicheng and Liang Zhengping might concoct would fail.
Lin Xianzi would achieve her revenge smoothly. She held the recording, and by the end of the year, they could discuss her departure.
At this moment, Lin Xianzi received a phone call from Director Qin. She was downstairs at the hotel, asking Lin Xianzi when she would come down.
The restroom’s four walls were tiled. The echo of the word “downstairs” reverberated, and the space inexplicably felt cramped. The atmosphere compressed and solidified with each passing second.
Liang Chaosu remained silent, his entire silhouette dark and heavy, like a turbulent vortex of surging undercurrents, devoid of light, chilling to the bone, grinding Lin Xianzi down.
It was also like a whistling sharp sword, its edge fully revealed, whether it would wound her or others was up to her to decide.
“Liang Chaosu,” Lin Xianzi’s limbs felt numb, her throat severely constricted. “You’re still you.”
He frowned.
“After returning to the country, I thought you had changed, but you haven’t. Before, I had no choice; it’s the same now. You’ve set the conditions to such an extent that no matter what I choose, it ultimately leads to the same answer.”
“You want me to understand that I have to rely on you, and can only rely on you. If I’m obedient, things will go smoothly; if I’m disobedient, I’ll lose everything. It’s like offering yourself to a tiger, cutting flesh to feed an eagle.”
Liang Chaosu’s calmness vanished. He stared at her, his pupils dark and deep, like a terrifying well.
Lin Xianzi’s mind was clear, yet on the verge of bursting. “Your methods have just become more indirect. The core is still to make me submit. The only progress is that you’re openly revealing it now, instead of waiting for me to crash and bleed, like Iceland losing their child. Are you also afraid I’ll go down that path again?”
Liang Chaosu subtly clenched his fist.
Lin Xianzi walked towards him, towards the door, step by step. “You’ve won this time. I endured for myself for four years; I’ve learned my lesson. But is it right to do so for blood relatives? So you giving me the recording was also planned, right? As long as you have the ability and the influence, I won’t be able to escape in the future.”
Within two or three steps, Liang Chaosu reached out and pulled her. Lin Xianzi lunged forward, her forehead hitting the scar on his chest, rough and uneven, burning with a hot, frenzied heartbeat that wildly and primitively entangled her.
“I gave you the recording; it was my willing price to pay.”
Lin Xianzi struggled but couldn’t break free. She looked up from his embrace. “Actually, I unconsciously started to yield. I’m afraid of history repeating itself with Iceland’s blood, hesitating about whether to leave now. But my mother is unwilling, and I was just thinking about how to persuade her.”
Liang Chaosu’s chest shook violently.
Lin Xianzi saw his Adam’s apple bob up and down, a difficult implication in his voice. “But I’ve realized it now. Your submission is a beginning for you. You’ve finally found my weakness, and with your methods, you’ll grasp it tightly, expand it. My mother’s troubles will be endless until the moment I die before you, that will be the time of escape.”
Lin Xianzi’s phone rang again.
Liang Chaosu didn’t stop her from answering. Director Qin’s voice came through the loudspeaker. “Lin Xianzi, have you come down yet? Are you feeling unwell? Your complexion last night looked very much like you were sick.”
Liang Chaosu’s breathing hitched. The scar lay dormant on the skin of his chest. The veins and vessels next to it were strong and magnificent, embodying the ultimate mature masculinity, a rugged tension.
Lin Xianzi turned her head, avoiding contact. “I’ll be down immediately. I apologize for keeping you waiting so long.”
A moment of deathly silence.
His shoulders were broad and strong, casting a dim light. His embrace was like a nest, with boundless strength and warmth, isolating everything and making it vanish, engulfing her completely, merging into her very bone and blood.
Lin Xianzi hung up the phone. Her waist and chest were squeezed so tightly that her blood vessels felt like they would burst. She gasped with difficulty. “Are you going to kill me?”
The man froze for a few seconds, then relaxed somewhat. With fierce anger, he bowed his head to kiss her. Lin Xianzi pulled her hand up and covered his mouth tightly.
“A gamble?”
Liang Chaosu’s firm, hot muscles pressed against her heart through his clothes. His lips moved in her palm, his voice muffled and hoarse. “Gamble on what?”
“You won’t let go, and I don’t want to be captured. In the end, I won’t win, and neither will you.”
The strength in her hand was immense, her palm ice-cold. “Since you’ve straightforwardly asked me to choose, you must have planned the aftermath. Let’s bet on this one decision determining our lives.”
Liang Chaosu clasped her hand. Lin Xianzi looked into his eyes. “Let’s see if your abilities are truly omnipotent. I have no other choice in this life. If they are, then I have no reason to resist forever.”
