Chapter 31: Caught By Mother Liang
Liancheng couldn’t help but shiver.
“Mother, I didn’t mean it that way…”
Before she could finish, Mother Liang pointed at her nose and snapped.
“Liang Liancheng, has the Liang family ever shortchanged you on food or clothing?”
“No,” Liancheng replied softly.
“Then where did all your aggression and defiance come from?” Mother Liang’s gaze was unfriendly, her aura terrifying. “Did we treat you harshly? Abuse you? Persecute you? Make you complain all day long?”
Liancheng first looked at Liang Chaosu, who was indifferent and unreadable from his expression. Then she looked at Liang Wenfei, who was triumphant and smirked dismissively.
Those who had harmed her were calm and composed, completely at ease.
They didn’t even feel they had done wrong, and their consciences were clear.
Liancheng lowered her head, feeling she had nothing more to say.
Mother Liang took her silence as an admission of guilt and fanned the flames further. “Liang Liancheng, do you feel like the whole family owes you, that Feifei shouldn’t have come back, that Chaosu should only favor you, that your father and I only love you, and that our whole family should revolve around you?”
It was clear she was truly angry.
“Mother,” Liang Chaosu asked Mother Liang to sit down. “She spoke without thinking; I have already dealt with it.”
“I know.” Mother Liang’s anger paused, slightly abating. She patted Liang Chaosu’s hand. “You handled it well; you didn’t let Feifei be wronged and you silenced the matter to prevent it from spreading.”
Liang Chaosu hummed, his gaze sweeping over Liancheng. “Still haven’t apologized to Mother.”
“I’m sorry,” Liancheng said with a look of remorse. “I shouldn’t have spoken disrespectfully.”
She shouldn’t have let her emotions get the better of her; impulsiveness and recklessness only caused trouble.
“You shouldn’t have been so impertinent.”
Angering Liang Wenfei was equivalent to angering Liang Chaosu. She could defeat the younger one, but not the elder. It was entirely unnecessary to cause herself trouble at a critical moment when she was trying to escape.
“I truly know I was wrong this time and will never do it again.”
If she could just endure this moment of calm, she would have freedom in the wide world afterwards.
Her sincerity and contrition were evident, and Mother Liang’s expression softened slightly.
Liang Chaosu, however, was stiff all over, his noble and handsome face cold and devoid of any warmth.
His gaze was also dark and chilling.
Liancheng thought he was still not satisfied and opened her mouth to offer more self-criticism. Liang Chaosu coldly ordered her, “Get upstairs.”
Liancheng’s apology had been an act of desperation; being driven away now was exactly what she wanted.
Without a pause, she rushed up the stairs.
Mother Liang watched her retreating back. “That was more like it this time.”
Liang Chaosu remained silent, looking up at the closed door on the third floor.
Was it “more like it”?
When had she become someone who passively accepted things? She was unyielding, indomitable, vibrant, clever, and brave. Her true nature was to fight back on the spot.
What was she truly thinking, enduring this humiliation?
………………
Liang Chaosu took a step to go upstairs.
Mother Liang stopped him and earnestly asked Liang Wenfei to lay out some photos. “Pick one; you’ll meet them tomorrow.”
Liang Chaosu stood in place, glancing at them. “If you can’t pick one, we’ll do it next time.”
Mother Liang wouldn’t let him leave. Liang Chaosu was turning twenty-nine soon, and his marriage could not be delayed any longer.
As they bickered back and forth, a hurried urgent telegram arrived from the Liang family’s secretary. An accident had occurred in the Gu family in the Southwest, and the Gu family heir had flown to Nan Province to find Liang Chaosu without notice.
Liang Chaosu seized the opportunity to get away and went out into the night.
Mother Liang was furious. “Run, but you can’t escape forever. Among the tens of thousands of young ladies in the entire South, I refuse to believe there isn’t one you find acceptable.”
Liang Wenfei paused in her action of tidying the photos.
The batch of young ladies Mother Liang had selected included the dignified, the beautiful, the gentle, the elegant – all types.
Even as a woman, she found them dazzling. Her brother was a man, and men were visual creatures; it was illogical that he wouldn’t even be interested in admiring beautiful women.
For some reason, Liang Wenfei thought of Liancheng again, and then of the rare, dark gaze her brother had shown her.
The crack of doubt in her heart reopened and widened.
“Mother, Brother has been busy with his career and hasn’t married,” she said, looking at Mother Liang, her eyes as dark as night. “Liancheng is still here with us, and she has no blood relation to us. Brother is also helping the Gu family heir now. How will outsiders see us?”
Mother Liang’s expression changed drastically. “You’ve heard rumors?”
“Yes.” There were no external rumors, but Liang Wenfei had them in her heart.
Mother Liang suddenly straightened.
She had never thought about the relationship between Chaosu and Liancheng in that way before, but after Feifei mentioned it, she suddenly recalled that day after the medical examination. Liancheng had leaned into Chaosu’s embrace on the sofa, only to be pushed away and driven out by him.
Then she remembered Feifei mentioning twice before that Liancheng and Liang Chaosu had a connection.
Seeing the unprecedentedly grave and dangerous light in Mother Liang’s eyes, Liang Wenfei revealed her true intentions.
“Mother, Liancheng is an ungrateful wretch who holds grudges. No matter how well the Liang family treats her, it’s useless. Now she’s dragging Brother into it too. It would be better to marry her off; a marriage alliance could at least be useful.”
Mother Liang frowned and was silent for a few moments. “She’s not a blood relative of the Liang family, and everyone knows that. If it’s a marriage alliance…”
Liang Wenfei understood her unspoken meaning: good families wouldn’t look down on Liancheng, who was a fraud, and marrying her into a lower family would have no value.
“You forgot about the young master from the Provincial Department Director’s family,” Liang Wenfei smiled. “Although there are rumors that he was too wild in his early years and injured himself, and had been sick, he’s alive and well now, so the rumors can’t be true.”
Mother Liang said nothing. It wasn’t that she wanted to dismiss the idea.
It was just that the rumors about the mayor’s young son’s illness were too terrifying.
AIDS.
If Liancheng married him and returned to visit, what if she infected them?
……………………
The next day, for the first time in four years, Liancheng had a peaceful breakfast.
Liang Wenfei didn’t pick a fight, and Mother Liang looked at her with extreme kindness, even serving her a couple of chopsticks of food halfway through.
Liancheng appeared flattered, but goosebumps rose on her back.
In the past, she would have been overjoyed by such a delusion. Now, her mind, starved of love, had cleared, and she only felt that unusual behavior must have a hidden motive.
But she didn’t ask any more questions.
No matter what their intention was, as long as she ran fast enough, nothing would catch up to her.
For three consecutive days, Liancheng worked overtime, leaving early and returning late, and Liang Chaosu was nowhere to be seen.
On the morning of the fourth day, she learned that Liang Chaosu was busy with the Gu family’s affairs and wouldn’t be back anytime soon.
This gave her an opportunity to implement another important matter: the director suspected there was a problem with the child, and the next prenatal check-up would be the chance.
At noon, during her lunch break, she asked Maitreya Buddha for another hour off.
“A blind date? Is an hour enough?”
These past few days, Liancheng had learned that Maitreya Buddha was a leader with a wonderfully eccentric spirit, oscillating between madness and dedication, and his words were always very amusing.
“It’s enough,” Liancheng said with a laugh. “Taking off clothes and unbuttoning things can be done in an hour, more than enough.”
“Cough—” Maitreya Buddha choked on his water, which went down his windpipe.
Liancheng patted his back with a smile, helping him catch his breath. “What are you thinking, Director Huang? I meant checking the goods.”
Maitreya Buddha reflexively looked at his lower body; his round belly strained the buttons of his shirt, obscuring his legs and toes.
He chuckled. “Indeed, women. Your name is superficiality.”
Liancheng poked his belly. “Isn’t that prejudice? Pretty collarbones are all the same, but interesting bellies jiggle around.”
“So, are you checking for an interesting belly or pretty collarbones?”
Liancheng thought for a moment. “Pretty bellies?”
Maitreya Buddha snorted and turned to leave. After a few steps, he turned back. “You look like death, be careful. This hour won’t count as your leave; it’s specially approved and won’t affect your full attendance.”
Liancheng burst out laughing. “Thanks, my kind Buddha.”
She didn’t dare go to the hospital and found a black clinic by the roadside.
Two hundred yuan to resolve it quickly, the child was fine.
But she had a problem.
