“Youyuan, this matter can’t be explained in just a word or two. I’ll bring Zhili along, and we can chat in person.”
“Alright.”
The moment they met, the slap mark on Lu Zhili’s face gave Lang Youyuan quite a shock.
Lang Youyuan had originally assumed Mother Lu was bringing Lu Zhili over to discuss calling off the engagement. Even though the engagement had not been formally announced, both families had tacitly acknowledged the existence of the marriage.
Now that her son wanted to call off the wedding, the parents of both sides still needed to meet and chat before making a final decision.
Shocked, Lang Youyuan pulled Lu Zhili’s hand over. “Zhili, what is this? Who hit you! Come here quickly, tell Auntie Lang, and Auntie will get justice for you!”
Mother Lu started by telling Lang Youyuan about her own child’s faults, and only after Lang Youyuan’s anxious inquiries did she finally reveal that the one who did the striking was Fu Qianyu.
“What?! Qianyu hit Zhili! How is that possible!”
Given the affection the two children shared from growing up together since childhood, Lang Youyuan felt far more bewildered than shocked.
Why would Qianyu hit Zhili?
Lu Zhili sat beside Lang Youyuan, lifting his swollen face. He hesitated to speak, weeping so copiously that he looked thoroughly pitiable.
“Auntie Lang, I… the moment I got out, I went to apologize to that boy. But… as soon as I walked in, I saw Qianyu being very intimate with him. I… I couldn’t swallow my anger for a moment and insulted him with a few words, and then Qianyu got angry…”
“How dare he lay hands on someone!”
Lang Youyuan touched Lu Zhili’s highly swollen cheek, feeling immense heartache.
Lu Zhili was also someone she had watched grow up. No matter how angry Qianyu was, he shouldn’t have hit someone!
“No, Auntie Lang, Qianyu didn’t want to hit me at first. It was that person—that person was instigating him from the side, and only then did Qianyu strike…”
Having said that, Lu Zhili wept silently, hanging his head aggrievedly, his shoulders trembling.
“Are you saying the boy at the banquet made Qianyu hit you?!” Lang Youyuan’s anger flared up instantly upon hearing this.
Fu Qianyu was raised entirely by her hand. He had possessed excellent character and academic performance since childhood, standing a head taller than his peers; Lang Youyuan took immense pride in him.
But today, someone was telling her that her son had actually laid hands on his fiancé for the sake of a lover! How could she not be furious!
“Auntie Lang, please don’t be angry, this isn’t Qianyu’s fault…” Lu Zhili choked out in a crying tone, thinking to himself: If anyone’s to blame, it’s that bitch…
“It’s still not his fault? Qianyu has gone entirely too far!” Lang Youyuan slammed her hand onto the sofa in a rage.
Mother Lu chimed in at the right moment. “Youyuan, I didn’t come today to demand justice for Zhili. After all, Zhili was the one in the wrong at the very beginning; he shouldn’t have used inappropriate methods to invite that boy over. Whether he has to enter the detention center or if that boy wants to hit or scold him, I wouldn’t say a single word.”
“But he absolutely should not have driven a wedge between our two families and made Qianyu hit Zhili. What kind of behavior is that? He even wants Qianyu to call off the engagement… I’m just afraid Qianyu is being deceived by someone.”
The more Lang Youyuan listened, the angrier she became.
“Call off the engagement?! He dares! To hit his fiancé for the sake of some shady character! If he dares let that kind of person step across my threshold, I’ll kick them both out!”
“Auntie Lang, Qianyu must have just been confused for a moment…” Having shed his tears, Lu Zhili turned around to comfort Lang Youyuan in reverse.
Lang Youyuan stroked his face with heartache. “Zhili, you are a sensible one. When the time comes, Auntie will definitely help you discipline Fu Qianyu!”
“If he insists on going his own way, Auntie will absolutely not sit idly by! A major matter like marriage cannot be left to his whims! If he wants to call off the engagement to marry someone else, he’ll have to see if that person is qualified enough!”
“Auntie Lang…” Moved, Lu Zhili threw himself into Lang Youyuan’s embrace.
He sobbed, saying, “I love Qianyu… Auntie, I don’t want to call off the engagement with Qianyu. Please help me… okay…?”
“Yes, yes, yes, good child, you’ve been wronged…” Lang Youyuan held his head and soothed him just like she did when he was little.
At this moment, her heart was entirely filled with loathing for that boy’s divisive tactics, and she despised him even more for turning Qianyu so blind to right and wrong that he resorted to violence. Every single matter proved this person’s restlessness.
If Qianyu still wanted to let this person enter the Fu family’s door, she would have no choice but to intervene.
After the Lu family mother and son left, Lang Youyuan issued a dead-on command to Fu Qianyu, ordering that he must return home immediately after work, otherwise he should stop recognizing her as his mother!
When Fu Qianyu arrived home, he found his mother waiting for him in the living room.
“Mom, I’m back.”
“You still have the face to come back!”
“Didn’t you order me to return?” Fu Qianyu didn’t even need to think to know that Lu Zhili must have added grease and vinegar to his version of the story.
“If you don’t want me here, I still have matters to attend to at the company.”
He draped his suit jacket over his arm and turned to leave.
“Come back! You haven’t even been home for a minute and you’re leaving! Where do you think you’re going? What ‘matters at the company’? I see you just have someone you want to meet!”
Lang Youyuan had already asked his assistant for his schedule; he had absolutely no itinerary right now.
Fu Qianyu turned back with a faint smile, walking toward his mother. “You have such a temper the moment I step into the house. Did Lu Zhili file a complaint?”
“You’re still smiling! No matter what, you shouldn’t have hit Zhili! He is your fiancé!”
Fu Qianyu reiterated, “He isn’t anymore.”
“Did you really call off the engagement because of a lover outside?” Lang Youyuan frowned as she questioned him, her heart aching that her son had been hoodwinked by someone from the outside.
“No, it’s because I don’t like Lu Zhili.”
“What does ‘liking’ or ‘not liking’ have to do with an alliance marriage? Your father and I didn’t have any feelings at the beginning either, and aren’t we doing just fine now?”
Fu Qianyu pinched the space between his eyebrows. “Lu Zhili is unsuitable.”
“Then who is suitable? He has followed behind you since childhood and is entirely devoted to you. What are you dissatisfied with? Where is he inferior to that little lover you keep outside? You actually hit him for the sake of a lover!”
“…” Lu Zhili’s violently abusive behavior had never been exposed in front of Lang Youyuan; in her heart, he was still an innocent and lovely child.
Fu Qianyu knew that if he tried to expose him to her with mere words, she wouldn’t believe it for the moment.
His silence looked exactly like an admission of guilt in Lang Youyuan’s eyes.
She began to advise him earnestly again, “People on the outside—it’s fine to just play around, but you ultimately have to settle your heart. You know full well that Zhili is single-minded toward you. In what way has he wronged you? Tell me yourself, isn’t the way you’re treating him a bit heartless?”
“Mom, he isn’t some person on the outside, and Lu Zhili isn’t as good as you imagine. Jing Jiaxi is still lying in the hospital right now—”
“Just how heavily could Zhili have struck to make him still lie in the hospital right now? Take me to see him. Which hospital? What injuries did he sustain?”
The mere mention of that boy by Fu Qianyu made Lang Youyuan angry. With prejudice firmly in place, she couldn’t listen to a single negative word about Lu Zhili right now.
“Mom, I’m tired. If you only want to tell me these things, I have only one sentence: the engagement is definitely being called off. Please calm down first.”
Fu Qianyu rose to his feet once more, intending to leave.
After all, the injury on Lu Zhili’s face had truly and clearly appeared right before her eyes, whereas when Jing Jiaxi was carried away by Fu Qianyu, his head had been covered by the suit jacket, leading Lang Youyuan to believe he was entirely fine.
In Lang Youyuan’s mind, this boy who had suddenly appeared was a vixen leading her son astray—just like the person who had seduced Fu Qianyu nine years ago, neither of them were decent people!
“Stop right there! The one who needs to calm down is you! You can’t listen to your mother’s words right now because you’ve been bewitched into losing your sanity by someone, just like nine years ago!”
The footsteps of Fu Qianyu walking outward came to a halt. The shadow cast by his lowered eyelids made it impossible to discern his expression.