Chapter 80: In The Nick Of Time, Shen Lichuan Returned
Inside the car.
Deathly silence.
Liancheng put on her pants, found the car’s remote, lowered the partition, “Zhang An, stop the car.”
The car slowed slightly, Zhang An was confused, and from the rearview mirror, he requested instructions from the man.
The light was bright, and he sat upright, his face clear, yet he seemed to be hiding in a deep, gloomy darkness.
Zhang An keenly perceived that the atmosphere was more stagnant, more oppressive than he had imagined, and there was an indescribable heaviness.
Liancheng patted his seat again, “Stop the car, I’m not going to the hospital.”
She knew deeply that the bloodstains were a coincidence, and it happened to be within her feigned menstrual period. Liang Chaosu was a man; no matter how smart or cautious he was, without the personal experience of pregnancy, it would be difficult for him to associate it with bleeding during pregnancy.
Now, as long as she grasped this point and didn’t go to the hospital, not only could she get through this hurdle, but she could also clear the shadow of suspicion of being pregnant from before.
The man remained silent.
Zhang An received no signal and dared not stop.
Liancheng turned her head back and gazed at Liang Chaosu.
His expressionless face, compared to the blue sky and white clouds outside, and the noisy traffic, exuded a deep, stern, and gloomy aura of maturity.
In the most frenzied and ferocious moments of desire, and in the most infuriated times of annoyance and hatred, he still couldn’t conceal his handsome bone structure and maintain his dignified bearing.
Many women were infatuated with him, becoming dazed by a slight smile or a glance from him.
They yearned to touch the hem of his clothes, to gain a little closeness with him.
As a result, over the years, no one would believe that the person who entangled her day and night to the point of breakdown, despair, and wishing for mutual destruction was him.
Perhaps some people even thought that his abstinence and demeanor were special, and his badness, his cruelty, his destructiveness were also a kind of specialty.
Liancheng absolutely did not think so.
She let out a cold laugh, “Is this your revenge? To make me experience the humiliation of a slut again, to have a blood draw, an ultrasound, under the glaring white shadowless lights and the cold, heartless long catheter, just like you’ve pretended to treat me countless times before. Were you extremely pleased every time I couldn’t bear the pain and groaned?”
“When I come out of the hospital, Father and Mother will rush over upon hearing the news. Mother will grit her teeth in hatred towards me, and Father will be completely disappointed in me. You will still be seen as a pure and noble person in their eyes, while only I, your shameless adopted daughter who seduced you, will pay the price.”
Liancheng’s tone was flat, as if an outsider were narrating, “At that time, I will comply with your wishes, have my household registration moved out, shed the Liang surname, and then what? You will raise me again, cure my infertility, and wait for me to get married?”
Liang Chaosu’s gaze fell upon her face. His expression was both familiar and ruthless, with unspoken words and a sharp edge hidden beneath his silence.
Liancheng had long passed the stage of feeling he had his own difficulties and being soft-hearted.
Over these four years, the coercion was real, the humiliation was real, and the fact that she was unrecognizable because of him was also real.
“Then you are wrong, I hate you.”
In the driver’s seat, Zhang An only wished that the car’s partition was not so inferior, its lowering time longer than his entire career.
Finally, the last centimeter of the gap disappeared.
The woman’s sudden surprised cry was cut short.
Liancheng resisted with all her might.
This kiss was more inexplicable than a slap, bursting forth unexpectedly.
Fierce, violent, sharp.
In their tense standoff, they both suffocated until the last second. Liancheng’s vision blurred, and her ears rang.
Liang Chaosu’s face, inches away, blurred into a mass of black and white noise in her sight, leaving only a pair of sharp, bright eyes that pierced through the haze and struck her heart.
Amidst a silent agony.
Liang Chaosu gazed at her vacant eyes, and also at his own reflection in her eyes.
Liancheng had a pair of lively, bright eyes. Her double eyelids were clearly and beautifully creased. In the morning, when she first opened her eyes, her left eye would have an extra layer to its crease, making her look adorably naive.
But her naivete was very cute, and her sleepy gaze was unguarded, completely sincere.
The moment her gaze cleared, Liancheng pulled away.
“You’re saying all this,” Liang Chaosu pulled her back, his palm pressed against the softest part of her lower abdomen, his touch light, as if nonexistent, “just to provoke me, to threaten me, so I won’t go to the hospital.”
Goosebumps of trembling spread across Liancheng’s face.
Liang Chaosu’s gaze was chilling, with extreme penetration, “You staying in the Liang family is also to avoid me; you don’t have much reluctance towards Father and Mother. Liancheng, in four years, I was able to reach the position of Vice Chairman. Do you think your little tricks can work on me multiple times?”
Liancheng’s throat felt dry, and she stared at him, motionless.
“You understand, you know very well, but you still put on a show every time, and when you’re exposed, you dare to do it again. Why do you think I would still indulge this act of yours after trust has been exhausted?”
Liancheng lowered her eyes, her eyelashes trembling, her spine chilled.
“You will definitely go to the hospital this time,” Liang Chaosu lifted her face. “Whether you hate me or not is in my palm.”
Liancheng’s body tensed. As he uttered a word, his Adam’s apple slid down, a sharp protrusion that sliced through her abdomen, striking her internal organs, and fastening shackles around her.
“Liang Chaosu—”
Liancheng collapsed into his arms. His heartbeat pulsed against her cheek, the temperature of his chest was like lava, erupting like an earthquake, a countdown to death.
Liancheng had to stop him, to save herself. “Do we really have to be like this? If I hate you, I’ll never listen to you. If I get married, I’ll run away. If I get pregnant, I’ll have an abortion. Will you be satisfied then? Why can’t you give me a chance to breathe, why do you have to force me to madness, to suicide, to eternal damnation?”
Liang Chaosu’s hand tightened, and the ice in his eyes, which had been there from beginning to end, cracked open a sliver.
Liancheng quickly seized on it, “You’ve already seen for yourself that I’m not pregnant. You want to go to the hospital to punish me for deceiving you before, to teach me a lesson.”
Her voice became hoarse, and she slumped limply in his arms, “Liang Chaosu, I’m twenty-two years old. I can’t compare to the old foxes, your rivals in the marketplace. I’m not smart, and my methods aren’t sophisticated. I can’t outplay you. I just want a chance to breathe.”
A tear from Liancheng rolled down the corner of her eye, sliding into her hairline. The wet stain chilled his chest with a pang.
Liang Chaosu’s eyes gradually softened. His palm moved to her cheek, his thumb wiping away the moisture from the corner of her eye.
Liancheng looked at him, her eyes misty, reflecting him, containing him.
“I’m so tired, I don’t have any strength left. If I lower my head, tears will fall. If I close my eyes, I don’t want to open them.”
The vehicle slowed down. In the underground parking lot tunnel, a car approached from the opposite direction. The bright orange light shone on the directional signs on the wall, turning into a dynamic green arrow.
Pointing to her end of the road.
Liang Chaosu’s expression suddenly softened. He tightened his embrace around her and whispered into her ear, “This check-up…”
His words were abruptly interrupted by a ringtone.
Earlier, during the struggle to get into the car, his phone had fallen onto the seat. Now, looking down, the caller ID showed Shen Lichuan.
Liang Chaosu would hang up on other calls, but Shen Lichuan’s…
He looked at Liancheng and answered.
Shen Lichuan’s voice was filled with fatigue, backgrounded by airport announcements, “I need to see you, right now.”
Liang Chaosu’s eyebrow twitched with sarcasm. “You want to see me? You’re not qualified.”
“What if Shen Kuomin is added?” Shen Lichuan said with certainty, “The most important missing piece for you and the Gu family. Are you qualified?”
