Chapter 88: Escape Fund Acquired
Lian Cheng hastily tidied up and opened the door.
In these past few years, spending time alone with Father Liang was usually in the study. It was uncommon for him to come to the bedroom to find his adult children, as he was a man of etiquette, and he hadn’t done so many times with Liang Wenfei.
Lian Cheng invited him to sit on the small sofa by the entrance. “It’s so late, Father, what brings you here?”
“Have you contacted that boy?”
Lian Cheng suddenly realized she had overlooked this matter. “I’ll contact him tonight.”
Father Liang smiled, his tone gentle. “Father isn’t rushing you. Anyone who marries far away to a place with vastly different customs needs time to accept it.”
Lian Cheng sat on the small stool opposite him. “Thank you for your consideration, Father.”
Consideration.
Father Liang pondered this word: not close enough, but more than respectful.
It seemed not only did they feel estranged, but Lian Cheng, the suspect, had also grown cold.
Their affection was false on both sides, and there was no need to pretend privately anymore. He got straight to the point. “You took a year off from university; why didn’t you tell your mother and me?”
Lian Cheng’s heart skipped a beat, then she quickly regained her composure.
Ever since she learned this morning that Father Liang had gone to investigate the North, she had been considering how to respond.
However, her departure this time had progressed rapidly and smoothly, and the timeline was already largely confirmed.
In other words, no matter how bad the situation got, delaying for five days would be enough.
By then, the sky would be high and the birds would fly, and even if a flood swept through here, it wouldn’t drown her, who had grown wings.
“Something happened in the second semester of my freshman year, so I took a temporary leave of absence,” Lian Cheng said, lowering her eyelids. “However, my studies weren’t delayed, and I graduated on schedule for the four-year bachelor’s degree.”
Father Liang remained silent for a long time. Lian Cheng lowered her head and looked at her toes.
This way of answering, avoiding the important and shifting the focus, wouldn’t fool Father Liang. But Father Liang, lost in thought, suddenly softened.
“Lian Cheng, what do you want for your dowry?”
Lian Cheng brought her legs together obediently and said, “Whatever you arrange, Father.”
Father Liang took out a small square box and handed it to her. “I remember once, Chaosu lost a small butterfly pink gemstone hairpin of yours, and you were sad for a long time. I happened to find a similar one recently. Take a look, do you like it?”
Lian Cheng opened the box as instructed.
It had been too long; she had forgotten what the hairpin looked like, but it was definitely not as expensive as this one.
The craftsmanship of filigree inlay, the butterfly wings gently quivered, and the tips of the antennae were adorned with pearl-like pink pearls, with a lustrous glow. The pink gemstone was top-grade Padparadscha, a variety of ruby, possessing excellent hardness and brilliance.
In terms of color, it added pink or purplish hues compared to pink diamonds, making it a favorite among young ladies under thirty in high society.
In short, two million.
Lian Cheng’s heart stirred, and she looked up.
Father Liang had already stood up. “Consider this a gift from Father, not part of your dowry.”
After he left.
Lian Cheng locked the door again and stared at the two million in the box for a long while, then took out her mobile phone to add a friend.
The blind date partner Father Liang had introduced was very proactive.
Within two to three seconds of sending the verification message, it showed as accepted.
Then, a seamlessly connected long message appeared, as if it had been pre-edited.
【Hello, Miss Lian Cheng. I am one meter eighty-seven tall, weigh eighty-three kilograms, have no family history of genetic diseases, am in good health, have a clean dating history, only had a brief high school romance, and my first kiss is still intact. 】
Lian Cheng: “…”
She deleted “Hello.”
Tai Duoduo said that blind dates couldn’t lead to love, only serve as a testament to biodiversity.
Lian Cheng wasn’t quite like that, but the resistance in her heart to the Liang family father and son using her for a marriage alliance involuntarily extended a little to this blind date partner she had never met.
“Thank you for your honesty. I am very rich and cannot be summarized concisely.”
This was such obvious perfunctory politeness that Lian Cheng believed any second-generation member who grew up in a wealthy family would understand the meaning immediately.
The other party replied, “Miss Lian Cheng is indeed a rich and interesting person.”
“Indeed? Interesting?”
Lian Cheng frowned. She felt the other party’s words were not just polite flattery. “Do you know me?”
“I have seen Miss Lian Cheng before.” The other party showed they were typing.
Lian Cheng waited for him to finish typing, and a message popped up: “Very beautiful, like a white pear blossom on a branch in the wind.”
A little white flower… in the wind?
Lian Cheng froze. She didn’t even want to ask for the other party’s name and hastily replied, “Once graceful and charming, now big and round. The flower has withered, and now I weigh two hundred catties.”
Before the other party could reply, she added, “Goodnight.”
Kneel and bid goodnight, don’t make me beg you.
The “typing” indicator reappeared below the other party’s name.
Lian Cheng shivered, set her messages to do not disturb, and exited the WeChat interface.
She didn’t want to touch her phone anymore tonight and took out the pink gemstone butterfly hairpin.
Two million…
Two million couldn’t buy dignity.
That was a joke.
Her dignity had long been trampled by the Liang siblings. The travel expenses for her departure were two hundred thousand, exhausting her savings. She was already worried about being penniless in a foreign land.
These two million would solve her immediate crisis and were the foundation for her survival.
Lian Cheng clasped the box, her heart surging with emotion.
May destiny bless me with smooth sailing and prosperity ahead.
………………
When Lian Cheng woke up in the morning, she found that the bleeding had stopped.
The uncomfortable feeling of lower abdominal distension had also disappeared.
She went to the kitchen, where Aunt Wang was holding a morning meeting, discussing the arrival of a batch of precious ingredients and arranging for chefs skilled in handling them.
Lian Cheng didn’t understand; the morning meeting had already dispersed.
Aunt Wang called her aside and handed her a bowl of corn fritters from a warming cabinet. “Since he doesn’t eat corn anymore, Madam hasn’t allowed it to be made. Eat it secretly here.”
When Lian Cheng was a child, she loved sweets and had cavities in four teeth. Even when she couldn’t sleep due to pain at midnight, it couldn’t stop her from eating sweets.
As she grew up, she became less fond of them.
However, corn fritters were Aunt Wang’s specialty dish for coaxing her. Lian Cheng picked up a piece and put it in her mouth, but she hesitated to swallow it.
There was nothing in her throat, yet it felt completely blocked. As she chewed the bite to the end, it stirred up a storm in her stomach, making her gag and bring up sour water.
Aunt Wang knitted her brows. “Are you experiencing morning sickness?”
Lian Cheng gave a vague response and diverted her attention. “Is the Shen family coming? Are you preparing a seafood feast with bullet tuna, shark fin, and star-moon cod to entertain them?”
Aunt Wang shook her head, looking uneasy. “The Eldest Young Master’s birthday is in four days. Madam has invited a few young ladies. It’s a family dinner, and also…”
Lian Cheng: “A blind date.”
Aunt Wang observed her expression. “On that day—”
Lian Cheng really couldn’t swallow. She put down the bowl, but her expression was relaxed. “I won’t be here that day.”
Five days was the final deadline Old Ghost had given her. She might slip away before Liang Chaosu’s birthday.
Before breakfast time, Lian Cheng went out.
Normally, if she was on her menstrual period, she wouldn’t be able to escape. She should have stayed at the Liang family’s to avoid Liang Chaosu.
However, Liang Chaosu’s willingness to let Father Liang investigate the truth about the North showed that he was utterly unscrupulous and might even be waiting for Father Liang to find some solid evidence to drive her out of the Liang family.
But Lian Cheng couldn’t understand why, if Liang Chaosu wasn’t afraid of Father Liang finding out, he didn’t simply expose her and cut off all her paths, leaving her with no hope of redemption.
Instead, he was dragging things out ambiguously, as if playing a game.
Thinking further back, every time she caused a scare about being pregnant, given Liang Chaosu’s usual temperament and methods, she wouldn’t have escaped at the beginning when Liang Wenfei caught her at the Bai Family Hospital.
After all, ordering someone to draw a tube of her blood was just a mere thought for him.
