Chapter 74: Liang Chaosu Ruined Everything For Her
Father Liang watched her, his gaze penetrating skin and flesh to see her bones, “She values feelings, perhaps too much, unable to tolerate even the slightest flaw in emotions.”
Liancheng was restless under his gaze, “What do you want to say.”
“When I returned this time, I found your mother has deep-seated issues with you. Back then, she was the one in the family most reluctant to see you go. She loved you, loved you very much. Even when Feifei first returned, her private feelings leaned towards you.”
Liancheng’s throat felt dry, and he opened his mouth but couldn’t make a sound.
Father Liang patted her head, “So when you harbored resentment towards your brother and Feifei for the sake of Shen Lichuan, an outsider, you pierced her heart.”
It wasn’t the expected warning or probing, but it struck deeper than any reprimand, probing Liancheng’s expression, which froze on her face.
After a long while, her voice sounded like rusty gears, slow and hesitant, a numbing sensation that dared not be touched, difficult to believe, “My—my gaze?”
“At Feifei’s engagement banquet, after you offered your congratulations and left the stage, your mother observed you for a long time. The look in your eyes when you looked at Chaosu frightened her.”
Liancheng stared blankly at Father Liang.
The absurd shock shattered every bone in her body. She didn’t know how to stop it, as if from this moment on, her beliefs had collapsed.
Just now, when Liang Chaosu expelled her and wanted to strip her of her surname, she hadn’t felt this way.
This feeling of words turning into a vacuum cleaner, sucking out the oxygen in the room, of her suffocating and going into shock bit by bit within the words and her gaze, her heart turning into a pool of pus and blood.
For these four years, she had been quietly enduring, never daring to look back.
The first time Mother Liang asked her if she had any opinions about Liang Chaosu, she verbally replied no, but her hands tightened on her clothes, concealing the messy and brutal marks on her skin.
The second time, Mother Liang knocked on her door late at night wanting to talk. Behind the closed door, her mouth was covered, and she was pushed against the wall, the indifferent night chilling her response.
The third time, the fourth time… and then countless times in the following six months.
Liancheng’s world spun. The heart-wrenching pain that had been tearing at her for so long suddenly erupted into earth-shattering despair and grief.
She had countless times, countless times, wanted to ask Mother Liang why she suddenly stopped loving her, and Mother Liang had also countless times, countless times, actively sought an explanation from her.
But Liang Chaosu.
Liang Chaosu was a devil who trampled on her body and shattered everything.
Took Shen Lichuan away.
Took her mother away.
Took away the family she could have had.
How could such a person, how could he suddenly change so drastically, destroying her utterly, making her life a battlefield, constantly anxious, unable to find a way out?
He was the root cause.
………………
When one’s internal organs are finally hollowed out, the blood flowing in the veins is like cold, temperatureless anesthetic.
In the limbs and extremities, numbness permeates everywhere, a dull ache, isolating the nerves’ senses and reactions, enabling the body to survive.
At this point, one has no tears, no emotions. Between extreme breakdown and extreme hatred, the soul is drained, becoming indifferent, like a walking dead.
Liancheng was supported by Auntie Wang the entire time.
She knew Father Liang had still kept her.
It was just that her original room was now occupied by Liang Wenfei’s pet.
Father Liang assigned her the guest room on the far east side of the first floor, adjacent to the nanny room. With servants on duty and people coming and going, Liang Chaosu could no longer suddenly barge into her room.
Liancheng, wrapped in the quilt, took a long while to gradually feel the coolness on her face. She reached up and touched it, the moisture on her fingertips like a superior anesthetic. She began to feel the suffocating ache, originating from the depths of her bone marrow, dispelling her dazed state.
Auntie Wang came in to bring her supper, pulled back the quilt, felt her forehead for temperature with her palm, wiped her face, and then started to pull down her pants.
Liancheng immediately defended herself, “Auntie Wang, I cried, but I didn’t wet my pants.”
Auntie Wang’s hand paused, and she continued to pull, “Still need to check.”
With that, both of them froze.
Auntie Wang was simple and honest, never taking advantage of others in her words, but sometimes, the brilliance of her phrases lay in their heartfelt directness, yet due to a misunderstanding, they became completely irrelevant.
“I wanted to see—” Auntie Wang released her hand, “if you were bleeding.”
When Liancheng emerged from the study that afternoon, silent and mournful, her expression startled everyone. Liang Chaosu’s unwavering attitude also let it pass.
Auntie Wang’s heart gnawed like ants. Returning to the Liang family had been so perilous; she had lived most of her life and still found it breathtaking.
Liancheng was still a young girl, and pregnant. Such immense mental stimulation was fatal for a pregnant woman.
Liancheng reflexively looked at the door, and seeing it was securely locked, she let out a sigh of relief.
That sigh completely pulled her out of her ambiguous world. She felt an indescribable discomfort that violently sprayed out of her body, as if flesh, blood, tendons, and skin were turned inside out and reshaped.
When all parts of her body felt numb and tingly, the sensation in her lower abdomen, instead, became imperceptible, indistinguishable, whether it was emptiness or pain.
Liancheng ignored Auntie Wang’s presence and pulled down her pants.
In the middle, a coagulated red stain, the size of a fingernail.
Liancheng’s heart suddenly contracted. She was in a state of utter chaos, fear making her lose her composure. She could only look at Auntie Wang, “I—Auntie Wang—I.” Her voice trembled uncontrollably, a thin, chaotic whimper, “I’m bleeding.”
Auntie Wang had already anticipated this and was as flustered as she was, but she had more experience.
In times of heaven-and-earth collapse and isolation, experience was more important than anything.
“Don’t be afraid,” Auntie Wang pulled the quilt over her lower body. “Don’t be afraid, Liancheng. Auntie has had two children. Bleeding in the early stages is normal. As long as it’s not too much, and it doesn’t continue, it’s fine.”
“Lie down, lie down first. Auntie will find you some clean clothes and get some medicine. Liang Wenfei bled a while back too. Her things are messy, I took a few pills, and she wouldn’t notice.”
She spoke incoherently, her lips trembling.
Liancheng gritted her teeth. Her body collapsed heavily into the quilt. The words she couldn’t speak nested in her lungs, softening her heart, then burning hundreds of holes in it, flesh and blood splattering from each hole.
Twenty years.
Auntie Wang had been in the Liang family for twenty years, managing the kitchen and holding the key to Mother Liang’s tens of millions worth of supplements, yet she had never taken a single cent from the Liang family. She was pure and upright, always living with peace of mind.
After concealment, now she was dragging herself into stealing.
This era was peaceful and prosperous, and people lived and worked in contentment. But those who got involved with her, one risked their family, and the other, an honest person was forced to break the law, to become a thief.
She was a sinner.
A sinner.
………………
After Liang Wenfei became pregnant, her schedule shifted to 9 PM bedtime and 7 AM wake-up. It was past 8 PM now, and she had just hung up Shen Lichuan’s international call and was about to go to sleep.
Auntie Wang suddenly appearing at her door genuinely surprised her.
“Young Lady, the ginseng and bird’s nest soup Madam brewed today is very good for maintaining the pregnancy. Would you like a bowl?”
Liang Wenfei didn’t accept, her gaze full of suspicion, “Doesn’t Auntie Wang like Liancheng very much? Why is she being so attentive to me today?”
Auntie Wang’s smile was very stiff, “Young Lady, in the past, I didn’t understand. The Liang family has been kind to me, and I cannot have ulterior motives.”
“Ulterior motives?” Liang Wenfei became interested, “What do you mean by ulterior motives?”
“There is only one Young Lady in the Liang family.” Auntie Wang entered the room. “The Eldest Young Master made his stance clear today. The servants and I below all understood.”
Liang Wenfei chuckled softly and pointed to the table beside her, “Put it there. Auntie Wang, you’ve been in the Liang family for many years and are about to retire. You should have some sense of your position. A wild pheasant, no matter how long it’s raised, is not a phoenix. A phoenix, no matter how down on its luck, is still nobler than a wild pheasant. This is bloodline, something Brother understands most clearly.”
Auntie Wang stood with her back to her for a few seconds before turning around, “I understand.”
She pushed the door open and hurried downstairs.
But she stopped abruptly at the turn of the stairs.
The suspended crystal chandelier refracted colorful light, illuminating a tall and slender figure.
Blocking the middle of the steps, motionless.
