Under the towering pine trees, Su Chuiyun held Ming Shu’s fingers. Ming Shu’s kiss fell upon the ring on Su Chuiyun’s ring finger.
“It’s fine. I’m a materialist; I’m not afraid of anyone’s ancestors.”
Su Chuiyun’s fingers felt the warmth of Ming Shu’s breath. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the fire in front of the family nearby leap violently for a moment.
The ancestors have indeed manifested.
Su Chuiyun pulled her up, her small face mumbles unnaturally, her earlobes a flush red. “Sister, let’s go back.”
She still had questions for Ming Shu.
Ming Shu stood up and pushed Su Chuiyun forward from behind. The cemetery was located in the city suburbs, the weather was beautiful, a cloudless autumn day, with the wind rustling through the pines. If not for that sudden flash of lightning and thunder earlier, it would have been perfect.
Inside the black sedan, Su Chuiyun hesitated for a long time before asking, “How much money do you owe your parents?”
Ming Shu suddenly laughed, a beautiful laugh that made Su Chuiyun instinctively look away.
“Do you really want to pay them back for me?” Ming Shu asked.
Su Chuiyun thought it wasn’t impossible. She tried to maintain a serious expression. “Give me a number.”
Ming Shu stated the amount her adoptive parents claimed she owed.
This time, it was Su Chuiyun’s turn to fall into a suspicious silence.
Su Chuiyun: “…”
Big boss, don’t tease me.
As a former corporate drone, she had never dealt with numbers that large. Seeing that the “little blind girl” looked like she was about to cry, Ming Shu stopped teasing and revealed the truth. However, she didn’t say it directly. Instead, in the narrow carriage, she gently rested her hand on Su Chuiyun’s knee.
The scent of gardenias drifted through the car, accompanied by an indescribable emotion. Su Chuiyun’s breathing grew shallow. It was becoming harder to pretend to be blind and ignore Ming Shu’s probing, fiery gaze. Fortunately, her eyes had maintained a vacant, unfocused state since she crossed over, or she would have surely given herself away.
Ming Shu’s hand slowly moved up from the knee, her fingers nearly reaching under the hem of the skirt.
“Ming Shu!” Su Chuiyun scolded in a low voice, her face flushing red.
Only then did Ming Shu’s hand slowly retreat, though she didn’t pull away entirely, letting her fingers linger at the back of Su Chuiyun’s knee. She lightly grazed the skin through the thin stockings, her fingers soaking up Su Chuiyun’s body heat.
“It’s not that I owe money; it’s that my adoptive parents owe me money.”
Ming Shu slowly explained. She slightly regretted playing the “white lotus” persona in front of Su Chuiyun in truth, she had no affection for her adoptive parents. Tsk, how do I spin this back?
Inside the quiet car, as the scenery blurred past, Su Chuiyun immediately filled in the blanks. “Did your adoptive parents force you to borrow money?”
Recalling the foster mother’s spiteful face and the hypocrisy she saw in the foster father at the Ming residence last time, a spark of nameless anger rose in Su Chuiyun’s heart. In the original novel, was Ming Shu bullied like this too? Su Chuiyun couldn’t help but blame the author Ming Shu suffered so much, yet the author barely gave her any ink, simply labeling her a “cannon fodder.”
Ming Shu: “…”
Su Chuiyun patted her head compassionately. “Don’t be so weak. You are already excellent, Sister. You don’t need to be bound by that family anymore. You have to be brave.”
Su Chuiyun’s words felt like a warm current flowing through Ming Shu’s limbs. “Okay. But I will handle this matter; you don’t need to worry, A-Yun.”
At the end, Ming Shu added, in a very “white lotus” manner, “My parents didn’t have it easy raising me, after all.”
Su Chuiyun: My fists are clenching.
Ming Shu lowered her eyes with a look that was one part touched, two parts fragile, three parts reluctant, and four parts weary. She even covered her mouth and coughed twice. The car was practically overflowing with the “scent of green tea.”
Ming Shu’s hand reached for Su Chuiyun’s waist, sliding upward. “A-Yun, let me lean on you for a while.”
Su Chuiyun had no reason to refuse such a delicate beauty. She considerately took the glasses off Ming Shu’s nose, and the cold beauty immediately buried her face in Su Chuiyun’s chest even nuzzling a bit after tucking herself in.
Su Chuiyun was too startled to move. Does this kind of comfort really work? She felt as though she was being played. The fierce, sharp woman the world saw was now as obedient as a rabbit in her arms. Su Chuiyun couldn’t resist stroking Ming Shu’s hair if the rabbit had ears, they would surely be draped softly over her hand.
Back at the Garden
Ming Shu got off halfway to go to her new office building. Su Chuiyun returned to the garden with Chen Yue and arranged the daily tasks with the new Auntie Li.
By the time they finished, it was already afternoon. Su Chuiyun leaned back in a rocking chair in the courtyard, looking at blueprints. She casually remarked, “Ming Shu was exploited at home for years. Now that she’s back from abroad, why is she still held hostage by that family?”
Chen Yue had initially thought Ming Shu was a fragile “white lotus,” but seeing the recent turmoil in the Ming family, things didn’t seem so simple. Chen Yue had gone to gather information yesterday, she heard the Ming family’s current projects were under heavy investigation, with several halted. Yet, the family heads foolishly thought they could bribe their way through. If anyone had bothered to warn them, they wouldn’t be facing total ruin not to mention the son now had a hideous scar on his face…
Su Chuiyun looked up. “Sister Chen?”
The more Chen Yue thought about it, the more she broke into a cold sweat. A memory flashed in her mind. Ming Shu standing under the porch a few days ago, holding her phone with a chilling, detached smile.
“Perhaps Ming Shu just has a soft personality and values filial piety,” Chen Yue offered.
“True.” Su Chuiyun sighed. Her beauty was truly too pitiful.
Chen Yue added, “How could someone in Ming Shu’s position yesterday have no schemes? You should grow some wit, Miss.” Lest you get played for your feelings.
Su Chuiyun: “Wit? What kind of dim sum (wit/pastries)? Are we having snacks?”
Chen Yue: “…”
Just as Chen Yue was about to mention that the security guards had been replaced by Ming Shu’s people, a guard announced that Miss Song had arrived.
Blueprints for furniture designs lay across Su Chuiyun’s knees. Bai Li sat on a small stool nearby, explaining design details. Their conversation was interrupted. “Song Xi? What is she doing here?”
A bad premonition rose in Su Chuiyun’s heart. “Are there still things of Song Xi’s left in my house?”
Chen Yue paused suspiciously. “That’s hard to say.”
Su Chuiyun: “…” Your silence is making me nervous.
Ultimately, Su Chuiyun let Song Xi in. The latter wore a fragile white dress and, completely ignoring the fact that Su Chuiyun supposedly couldn’t see, shivered pathetically in the wind.
“Chuiyun, you’re working,” Song Xi said. “I’ve disturbed you.”
Su Chuiyun replied, “You certainly have.”
Song Xi sobbed twice. “You haven’t let me see you all this time. I miss you so much. Chuiyun, do you really not want to see me again?”
Su Chuiyun: “I’m blind. Even if I wanted to see you, I couldn’t.”
Song Xi: “…”
“Then our wedding dress…”
Su Chuiyun’s pupils vibrated. You actually know the original host ordered a wedding dress?! She thanked the heavens Ming Shu wasn’t here otherwise, she’d never be able to keep living off her “sugar mommy” status.
Bai Li asked weakly, “Is the meeting still on?”
“Yes,” Su Chuiyun said. “We need to finalize the style for the mother of pearl square table today so we can give it to the master craftsmen.”
One of the Su family’s businesses involved custom-made Ming and Qing dynasty replica furniture. They used top-tier materials, and their clients were mostly collectors and officials. Although the business had declined while Su Chuiyun’s parents were abroad, the connections remained. Whenever the Su family produced a new piece, it was snatched up immediately. In certain circles, owning a Su piece was a status symbol.
Song Xi stood there awkwardly, unable to understand the meeting let alone the technical diagrams. She felt the sting of “academic discrimination.”
“Chuiyun… can I help with anything?” Song Xi asked. “I heard from Sister Wang that you were going to throw the wedding dress away. Don’t be so heartless, Chuiyun. After all, we…” She blushed suspiciously.
Chen Yue: “…” Bai Li: The smell of gossip.
Su Chuiyun thought: Don’t act for a blind person.
Song Xi naturally couldn’t let go of her “feelings” for Su Chuiyun. After all, this garden was located on prime real estate even if the Su family went bankrupt, selling this place would provide enough wealth for several lifetimes.
Song Xi stepped forward and grabbed Su Chuiyun’s hand. “I brought an old Chinese medicine doctor today. The autumn rain is cold, and your legs must hurt. I asked him to give you acupuncture. I’m not like Ming Shu. I know how to care for people. I feel for you.”
“Ming Shu only cares about work; how could she have time for you? She really is…” Occupying the space without doing the job.
Su Chuiyun yanked her hand back. “I’m a married woman. Don’t touch me.”
Hearing the doctor’s name, Chen Yue recognized it. “Ming Shu also made an appointment with that doctor for you. I didn’t expect Miss Song to bring him first. We can let him have a look.”
More than a “battle of the exes,” Chen Yue and Bai Li cared about Su Chuiyun’s recovery. They both agreed feelings could wait, but the legs had to be checked.
Seeing the doctor arrive with his medical chest, Su Chuiyun set down her blueprints. Normally, a broken bone requires three months of fixation. Her legs would have to be examined eventually, as no one else knew she was actually fine.
Right then, the phone on the table buzzed. The caller ID flashed: Ming Shu.
Su Chuiyun: “…”
Just kill me now.