Jiang Wangshu was stunned by Shen Qing’s stubbornness. Her face was expressionless, her whole body radiating a low-pressure gloom.
She had rarely seen Shen Qing lose her temper, yet lately she’d witnessed it many times. The two of them had never argued like this before.
Jiang Wangshu suddenly felt exhausted at heart. The closer they got to the Shen residence, the more taut her nerves became. The sword of Damocles hanging over her head was about to fall, she simply couldn’t stay calm.
No one spoke in the car. Jiang Wangshu stared intently at the scenery outside the window, her expression unreadable. Shen Qing drove fast, riding the edge of the speed limit the whole way, and arrived at the gates of the Shen residence half an hour later.
The villa was unnaturally quiet, and a wave of unease rose in Jiang Wangshu’s heart. She followed Shen Qing into the hall and suddenly met Shen Xiaqing’s sinister gaze. What was coming had come. From the day she’d become entangled with Shen Qing, she should have realized that no wall in the world is completely airtight.
Mindful that family shame should not be aired publicly, Shen Xiaqing had sent the Shen family members out of the residence. She sat alone on the sofa in the hall, staring at the family portrait on the wall nearby, at the smiling face in its center.
Shen Qing and Shen Dai looked far too alike. She had once believed they were only similar in appearance, utterly different in temperament. Shen Dai had been quiet and gentle, speaking slowly, never rushed or restless.
Shen Qing, on the other hand, had always been like a mischievous monkey, bouncing all over the place. Every time Shen Xiaqing saw her, she’d frowned, always wanting to keep her at a distance.
But at the banquet just now, Shen Qing had stood there so quietly, listening to their conversation, obediently letting the photographers take pictures of her with Xuan Zhi. At one glance, Shen Xiaqing had been dazed for a moment her mind filled with the image of Shen Dai, a faint smile on her face, sitting in her wheelchair, calling her “Mama.”
She was getting old; her mind was beginning to grow muddled. Sometimes she felt her daughter was still here. Looking at Shen Qing’s face, she couldn’t help calling her Shen Dai which was why the reckless nonsense of that tactless guest hadn’t registered with her at all.
But now, watching Shen Qing walk in without a word, Liu Haishan’s words came pouring down on her, the scenes from the banquet flashing before her eyes. In an instant she snapped awake, and hatred stirred toward that identical face.
Yet before she could curse the audacious Shen Qing, Shen Dai’s dying words echoed in her mind once more.
She had said: “Mama, all these years, you’ve poured all your attention into me, and it’s been truly unfair to my sister. Her body isn’t her fault, she was caught up in your emotions. Let her come home. She’s had such a hard life out there. From now on, you must love her more, take care of her. If she makes mistakes, forgive her as easily as you forgave me. She will love you.”
Shen Dai had been sensitive and perceptive, seeing Shen Qing’s nature clearly: give her one measure of kindness, and she’d return tenfold. Abandon her, and she would weep but beckon, and she would come back.
Shen Xiaqing was cold-hearted and detached. Her maternal love for Shen Qing was nearly nonexistent. But she had kept Shen Dai’s words in her heart. Even though she remained icy toward Shen Qing even disgusted and resentful after an internal struggle, she had ultimately decided to let the matter pass lightly.
Still, a warning was unavoidable.
“Put away whatever little schemes you’re plotting. If there’s a next time, get out of this house. Don’t dirty my eyes or chill A-Dai’s heart.”
“Heh…”
Shen Dai weighed far more heavily in Shen Xiaqing’s heart than she had imagined, but by now there was no longer any need for her to hold back. The words “get out” held nothing to fear for the person she had become.
“I can’t rein it in. Don’t you know what I’m like?”
“Oh, right, you couldn’t possibly know. In all the years I’ve been alive, you never spent a single day with me. How could you possibly know what kind of person I am?”
“A-Qing, don’t talk nonsense.” Jiang Wangshu cut Shen Qing off, her face full of terror, trying to pull away from Shen Qing’s side and move toward Shen Xiaqing. “Mom…” But Shen Qing seized Jiang Wangshu’s wrist, gripping it so hard that for a moment she couldn’t break free at all.
“I’m not talking nonsense.” Shen Qing gave a muffled laugh, her face the picture of innocence. “Whatever I want, I get.”
As if anticipating what Shen Qing was about to say next, Jiang Wangshu begged desperately, her eyes full of pleading: “Don’t say it.”
“Let her finish!” Shen Xiaqing snapped.
“You’re so eager to hear it? Fine, I’ll tell you. I’ve been sleeping with her for a long time already, starting the very night of Shen Dai’s funeral.”
“Shen Qing!”
It was over.
Jiang Wangshu cried out Shen Qing’s name, forgetting to struggle, a cold sweat breaking out across her back.
The hall fell into dead silence.
“Shameless.” Shen Xiaqing’s chest heaved violently twice. Unable to bear it any longer, she hurled the teacup in front of her at Shen Qing, grinding her teeth. “Every one of you is a shameless creature. Do you have any regard for A-Dai at all?!”
As though all the strength had drained from her body, Shen Xiaqing toppled backward, collapsing onto the sofa, gasping for breath, her face gradually turning a livid shade.
Seeing this, Jiang Wangshu hurried forward to steady her, stroking her chest to ease her breathing, but was roughly brushed aside. Pointing at her, Shen Xiaqing demanded sharply, “Jiang Wangshu, my Shen family has treated you well. How many times have we helped your Jiang family? If you hadn’t married Shen Dai, why would I have gone to such lengths to prop up the Jiang family?”
“And you, she was your older sister. How could A-Dai have such an ungrateful sister like you? You fought her for nutrients in the very same womb, leaving her frail from birth, sickly all her life. She was so brilliant, if poor health hadn’t taken her from the world so early, did you think Shen Corporation would be something you could ever covet?”
Looking down at Shen Xiaqing, whose eyes were wide with fury, Shen Qing gave a soft laugh, like a demon come to claim a life, pronouncing judgment on Shen Xiaqing’s final fate: “What isn’t mine is about to become mine anyway. I was brought into the company by your own hand perfectly legitimate. I see that Madam Shen’s health is poor. Don’t go to the company for a while; rest at home. I’ll take care of the company for the time being.”
With those words, Shen Qing cast a cold glance at Shen Xiaqing, hauled Jiang Wangshu up from her side, and dragged her out of the Shen residence by the wrist.
Jiang Wangshu’s wrist ached from being pulled; she tried to break free but failed. Shen Qing’s strides were long, and on the uneven path through the courtyard, Jiang Wangshu stumbled along, struggling to keep up. At the courtyard gate, she was shoved roughly into the car.
Shen Qing slid into the driver’s seat and slammed the door with all her strength. The “bang” made Jiang Wangshu flinch all over.
At this very moment, Jiang Wangshu’s brain felt like it had rusted over, she couldn’t understand at all what Shen Qing had just been saying. Her mind was completely overloaded. Everything tonight had happened so suddenly: Shen Qing dragging her away to who knows where, what would happen to Shen Xiaqing. Judging as a doctor, Shen Xiaqing looked very unwell and should have a physician called to see her, but Shen Qing had hauled her away half-dragging, half-pulling, leaving her no chance at all to speak up or grab her phone.
Jiang Wangshu dodged the hand Shen Qing reached over the gearstick to take hers, and instead tried to open the car door but it was locked tight. She couldn’t escape.
“I want to get out. I can’t go with you.”
Shen Qing suppressed her fury with all her might, her irritable emotions rampaging through her blood, already on the verge of wanting to smash something. She gripped the leather of the steering wheel hard. “Can’t go with you, can’t go with you, so you want to keep staying at the Shen residence?!”
Shen Qing was shouting now, and Jiang Wangshu’s own temper was provoked too: “Mom is getting old, she can’t withstand you provoking her like this. She was clearly just about to let the matter go, so why did you have to lay everything bare? Can’t you think about the consequences before you act…”
“What consequences do I need to consider? What consequences am I supposed to consider? Every time, all you ever say is this. For the sake of those few things, you make me yield at every turn, saying it in all sorts of ways have you ever considered how I feel?”
“What are you yelling about? This is for your own good.”
For my own good, again!
Shen Qing was sick of hearing those words. She had grown up at Jiang Wangshu’s side, and Jiang Wangshu always loved to fret over her big matters and small, and among the things she loved to say, one of them was “for your own good.” Even seven years ago, when she was about to marry Shen Dai, she went to confront her, and in the end, that was the answer she got too.
She only felt her heart stinging, like needles pricking it not life-threatening, but torturous.
She’d had enough.
“But none of this is what I want!” Shen Qing lowered her voice, staring fixedly at Jiang Wangshu, who was pressed against the car door, refusing to come near her. Her voice was hoarse, pleading flowing from her eyes. “The only thing I want is you. Only you. Do you understand? How many times do I have to say it?”
“If you’re worried that the Jiang family will have no one to lean on in the future, rest assured on that point. Those old foxes on the board have no objection to my successive promotions they’ve accepted me, this suddenly appearing heir. As long as Shen Xiaqing claims to be gravely ill and bedridden, I can take my position.”
“Everything you want, I can now deliver. Jiang Shan wanted the Shen family to look after the Jiang family, I can do that now. You wanted me free of Shen Xiaqing’s constraints, I can almost do that now too. Can’t you come with me yet?”
“Or is there something else you want me to do? Say it. Don’t hold back on my account.”
Shen Qing had accomplished far more than Jiang Wangshu had expected, and had considered everything thoroughly. She had moved fast. Jiang Wangshu had thought it would take Shen Qing at least a full year to win the board’s approval and then step into more of the Shen family’s business ventures but she had done it in only three months.
During those three months, to avoid any contact with Shen Qing, she had specially rearranged her shifts at the hospital, reducing the chances of running into Shen Qing at the Shen residence. At the hospital, too, she deliberately didn’t go anywhere else apart from going to the inpatient ward, she stayed only in the outpatient department the rest of the time. Even when Shen Qing came to Ren’ai Hospital for research, the two of them never crossed paths.
She never expected that her deliberate avoidance meant she hadn’t learned the news of Shen Qing’s latest achievements in time yet Shen Qing had been thinking of her all along. Even after overhearing her conversation with Jiang Shan, Shen Qing wasn’t angry, and simply took the entire Jiang family under her wing.
But she owed too many favors, and couldn’t just leave with Shen Qing as she pleased.
Jiang Wangshu didn’t know how to begin, and didn’t dare meet Shen Qing’s hopeful eyes. Something seemed stuck in her throat, unable to go up or come down.
“I promised your sister that I would take good care of Mom. I can’t break my word.”
So I can’t go with you.