Li Ping hadn’t attended my wedding. Before recently, she had never even laid eyes on Jiang Jun.
Partly because the Zhou family was unwilling, and partly because Li Ping feared her presence would embarrass me, a mutual agreement was reached with the Zhous that she would stay away.
Seeing no response from me over the phone, Li Ping continued prattling on.
“Boss Yao is a good person,” she said. “When I went to look for work at a factory under her company, she happened to be doing an inspection. I wasn’t feeling well and coughed a couple of times, so she asked me a few questions. Once she found out I was seriously ill, she only asked if it would affect my work. I said no, and she didn’t refuse my employment.”
I remained silent.
Li Ping pressed on: “I was on the night shift yesterday, and Boss Yao is so diligent—she came to supervise even late at night. Then I saw Young Master Jiang come up to find her. In my excitement, I ran over and told Boss Yao that you were my daughter.”
At this point, Li Ping’s voice turned cautious and probing. “What exactly did Boss Yao say to you? Actually, I didn’t say much then. I just mentioned you were my daughter, and Young Master Jiang stared at me, and then Boss Yao stared at me too. She asked very caringly if I had enough money for my medical treatments, and if I wanted an advance on my wages.”
She paused, then added: “I told her it was barely enough. My daughter, Zhou Li, gives me money occasionally, but an advance would be best. After all, with this illness, I don’t know how much longer I can work. Getting an advance is like a win for me, right? Of course, those last two sentences were just what I was thinking, I didn’t say them out loud! Haha.”
“Did you call specifically to tell me this?” I asked coldly.
She froze.
“If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up,” I said, and ended the call.
Between Li Ping and me, there was nothing but a blood tie; there was no affection to speak of.
…
Back at the Jiang residence, I scanned my fingerprint. Before I could push the door open, I heard Jiang Shitian’s voice.
His tone was harsh. “So you’ve finally decided to come back? I thought you were so principled that you’d change your last name and never set foot in the Jiang house again!”
My hand faltered. I hesitated for a moment before pushing the door open and appearing before him.
Jiang Shitian was holding a teacup, his movement freezing mid-air. When he looked up and saw it was me, the hand gripping the cup tightened until the veins bulged.
I knew he had mistaken me for someone else. He thought I was Jiang Jun.
His expression flickered with a mix of loneliness and embarrassment. He shifted his tone immediately. “Oh, Zhou Li, it’s you. You’re back. Have you eaten? The kitchen is keeping food warm. Or they can make something fresh.”
He seemed uncharacteristically flustered. Usually, he was a man of few words, but today he was strangely talkative. He was holding a teacup, not a wine glass; he was drinking tea, not liquor. Yet he seemed “drunk” on emotion. A blind man could see he was trying to mask his feelings.
I nodded to show I understood. I didn’t plan on shattering the peace he was trying so hard to maintain.
As I walked toward the dining room, I hesitated. Ultimately, I decided to relay Yao Ye’s words. “Jiang Jun seems to have gone to see Ms. Yao.”
Jiang Shitian’s hand jerked, spilling hot tea all over himself. He scalded his hand.
As he scrambled to clean it up, I quickly grabbed some tissues to help. I called for a servant while wiping the table. Ignoring the reddening skin on the back of his hand, he struggled to stabilize his voice. “Did Jiang Jun tell you that himself?”
“No, it was Ms. Yao,” I replied.
“You’re in contact with her?” He stopped moving and looked at me in shock.
I shook my head. A servant arrived with a cloth to finish the cleanup, and I took a seat.
“She reached out to me,” I explained. “My biological mother happens to work for her, so I met with her.”
“What did she say to you?” He was visibly guarded.
Looking down at my fingers, I said, “She said she bailed out that actress, and Jiang Jun is with her now.” I chose to relay her words selectively. After a pause, I added, “She also said Jiang Jun is unwilling to return to the Jiang house.”
“And? What else? She wouldn’t have stopped there.” Jiang Shitian seemed to know Yao Ye too well; his tone was certain.
I hesitated, but finally told him the rest. “Ms. Yao said that regardless of whether he returns, Jiang Jun is still the heir. Not a single cent of the Jiang fortune can be withheld from him.”
Thud!
In a fit of rage, Jiang Shitian slammed his teacup onto the table.
“I knew it! Shrewd as she is, there is nothing in her heart but calculation! That woman just keeps pushing her luck, greedy and insatiable! Sooner or later, I will make her lose everything!” he spat out with venom.
Former lovers had become bitter enemies. Seeing how much hatred Yao Ye could still provoke in him—enough to make a man of his stature make such threats—I realized this must have been the fuse for their divorce, a rift that had never healed.
I didn’t know the specifics of their split, nor did I know Yao Ye, so I didn’t respond.
The Jiang servants were well-trained. They didn’t pay attention to anything outside their duties; the one cleaning the table finished silently and withdrew.
Jiang Shitian suddenly looked at me with a hollow gaze. “Jiang Jun must always blame me, right? For not letting him see his mother.”
I nodded. I had indeed heard Jiang Jun say exactly that. He said he hated Jiang Shitian to his core but lacked the power to escape him. This time, Jiang Jun must have been pushed to the brink to act so recklessly.
Jiang Shitian gave a bitter, hollow laugh. “I just didn’t want to tell him that his biological mother once tried to pull his grandmother’s oxygen tube… that she tried to kill his own grandmother!”
I was struck with pure shock. I never expected the truth to be so dark. He kept them apart not out of spite, but because she had attempted murder.
“Is that why you divorced?” I asked.
The man who dominated the business world with an iron will now looked desolate. “During that time, my mother was critically ill in the hospital. I was busy with work, so I hired private nurses. I never expected that when I went to visit one day, I would see that vicious woman send the nurse away so she could pull the oxygen tube!”
“Why would she do that?”
“I didn’t need to hear her reasons!” he said fiercely. “She said my mother’s life had no more ‘value,’ that living was just a burden to everyone, and that pulling the plug would be a release. Those are just excuses for murder!”
His voice was uncharacteristically emotional. “Living is better than anything! Only while there is life is there a chance for recovery. Days can get better.”
“And… what happened to your mother in the end?” I asked.