Chapter 473: She Knows My Secret
Li Qianxue glanced at her daughter. Her expression was rather mysterious. Aside from her, Old Master Li’s face also started showing quite a bit of displeasure as he recalled what had happened.
“What happened there?”
“Your mother-in-law knows.”
When Li Qianxue said this, her mood suddenly changed for the worse.
She did not expect Su Chenghui to be so shameless.
She had not forced Su Chenghui to sign the divorce papers all this while, merely for the sake of their two children. She didn’t want anyone to know that Su Qingsang and Su Yuxin had such a despicable father.
But Su Chenghui just didn’t know how to give up. While she had been in Rong City, she would still receive calls from Su Chenghui from time to time.
All this was only an act to show that he didn’t want to sign the papers. He clearly did not want a divorce.
Li Qianxue felt troubled thinking about Su Chenghui, this man, whom she had loved so much at the beginning, but hated very much now.
However, things had developed so much that over time, that she did not just feel hatred towards him. She felt complete disgust also.
In order not to proceed with the divorce, Su Chenghui told all kinds of lies such as how he cared most about Li Qianxue now. He even recalled all the things that he did which he regretted now, admitting to her that he had been wrong.
Ha. Did he take her for a fool?
If she had not mentioned that she wanted Su Chenghui out of her life, would he have played out this performance, and said all these things?
He did not know where to draw the line, in terms of money and property. Li Qianxue had not been answering his calls recently.
Before she knew it, Su Chenghui had decided to change his message. He even told Li Qianxue that Su Peizhen had come to Rong City.
Su Chnghui had not known about Su Peizhen’s intention to go to Rong City at first. After all, she was the daughter whom he had doted on for so many years now.
After his conversation with Su Peizhen had ended that day, he just couldn’t rest easy. He knew in his heart that Su Peizhen was grieving.
He had thought to explain things clearly to Su Peizhen once and for all but did not expect to see Su Peizhen and Xiang Caiping together.
“Peizhen? Caiping?”
Su Chenghui watched mother and daughter, finally reunited with one other. He did not know why, but he suddenly felt ill about the whole thing.
“You…… you have acknowledged each other.”
“Why? Are you surprised that we have reconciled with each other?” Xiang Caiping was disgusted to see Su Chenghui now. If it were not for him, how could she have mistaken her daughter for someone else?
How could her own daughter be driven out?
“No.” Su Chenghui looked at Su Peizhen and knew in his heart what his daughter was really like. Based on what he knew, his daughter would never have grown to like Xiang Caiping’s personality.
He even thought that Su Peizhen would actually hate Xiang Caiping. Hate her for abandoning her, and hate her for giving her the status of an illegitimate daughter.
But Su Chenghui had not expected that Su Peizhen would really go ahead with this. Now that she was even living with Xiang Caiping, it was really too much of a stretch for him to think about.
“Caiping, you, you and Peizhen–”
Su Peizhen’s words couldn’t be trusted. Su Chenghui would rather let Xiang Caiping speak and see what she would have to say instead.
He only understood a little about what Xiang Caiping was like. She had had a disagreement with Su Peizhen. Was it because she had an argument with Su Qingsang before, that she could not really accept Su Peizhen without any bearing or any grudge?
Su Chenghui thought he understood Xiang Caiping. But his understanding was also based on what he knew from the past.
More importantly, he had not understood the heart of a mother and made assumptions based on what he had heard and believed. If one puts family over reason, one would inevitably be biased in his judgment.
“Peizhen is my daughter.” Xiang Caiping didn’t mind letting Su Chenghui know. “You should also know that I hardly ever got along with her nor did I get to know her well in the years before. Now, all these errors have been corrected. What’s weird about acknowledging her now? ”
Su Chenghui didn’t know what to say. He had a tiny suspicion that something seemed wrong. There seemed to be something out of the ordinary.
But now he couldn’t figure out what was wrong. His gaze turned to Su Peizhen. “Peizhen?”
“Dad,” said Su Peizhen. When she saw Su Chenghui, her forehead throbbed with pain. She didn’t look well, but that feeling lasted only a few seconds.
Soon, she packed up her emotions and expressions. She pulled on Xiang Caiping’s arm and faced Su Chenghui.
“You seem to think this is weird. There is nothing strange about this. After all, I’m my mother’s daughter. Isn’t it expected that I would want to reconcile with her?
“Peizhen.” Su Chenghui looked at his daughter, and the feeling of suspicion that something was off not only did not go away but increased instead.
He didn’t want to speculate about his daughter with ill intentions, but Su Peizhen’s actions made him instinctively feel that something was wrong.
“Dad. Now that my mother and I are together, are you upset?”
Su Peizhen looked at Su Chenghui. Even if he was her father, she hated him now. “I feel rather happy now. After all, you and my aunt have driven me out. Perhaps, I do still need to find a place to go to, don’t I?”
“Peizhen, I told you, your aunt didn’t mean that. We only just–”
“You just said that I am no longer your daughter,” said Su Peizhen, interrupting him. “Okay. You don’t have to say anything more. Everything has been said and done. It doesn’t make any sense to add to any of that.”
Su Chenghui was speechless for a while, and he looked at Su Peizhen and Xiang Caiping. “Peizhen, no matter what, you are my most beloved daughter, and this will not change.”
“Is that so?” Su Peizhen smiled, and she took a step forward. Before Caiping could say anything, she interjected. “Since this is the case, please give me the shares that are in your name.”
As soon as these words came out, both Xiang Caiping and Su Chenghui were stunned.
Su Chenghui was especially baffled because he had not expected Su Peizhen to make such a request. He knew that Su Peizhen was resentful, thinking that it was she who was dissatisfied with herself.
“Peizhen, this won’t be possible.”
Based on the agreement with Li Qianxue, he was not allowed to give his shares to Su Peizhen.
Not to also mention that he had hurt Li Qianxue so much before. If Su Peizhen was to be given the company’s shares, he was afraid Li Qianxue would never forgive him.
He truly loved Su Peizhen. However, in the past, Su Peizhen had gained a lot of business herself. Secondly, the one he truly felt sorry for was Li Qianxue.
He still wanted to ask Li Qianxue for forgiveness, considering the circumstances. He would never do anything more to make Li Qianxue unhappy.
“Look, you say that I am your most precious daughter, but the fact is that your love is just all words and no action.”
“Peizhen.” Su Chenghui couldn’t agree with this. He said, “if you want something else I can give it to you, but as for Li’s shares, they belong to your aunt. I don’t have the right to give them to you.”
“So it is my aunt’s then, but who will she give them to in the end? Su Qingsang? Su Yuxin? Whatever it is, I will never have a share in that, right? So you have proved through your actions that you don’t even consider me your daughter at all. If that’s the case, why would you even think about saying anything more about considering me your most beloved daughter? Don’t you think you are being quite fake? ”
“Peizhen,” sighed Su Chenghui. In the past few days, he had been feeling both mentally and physically exhausted.
His wife was divorcing him, and his two children were no longer close to him. The child who was closest to him was now starting to alienate him.
At that moment, when she said that, Su Chenghui took two steps back and looked at his daughter in complete shock.
“Peizhen, you know all that I have done for you over so many years. If it were meant to be yours I would give it to you. But you cannot claim a right to–”
“What is meant to belong to me is just the status of an illegitimate daughter, right? After letting me enjoy the wealthy life for more than 20 years, you just turned me into the dust. Is this your demonstration of love for me?”
“Peizhen,” said Su Chenghui softly. He looked dreadful. He had not expected that his most beloved daughter would fight back like this. He didn’t have the energy to even fight back.
Su Peizhen sneered, and her tone became sharper. “Dad, I don’t need to hear anything glib that you have to say anymore. I don’t want to listen, so please leave. I don’t want to see you.”
“Peizhen.”
“Let’s go,” said Su Peizhen as she turned to Xiang Caiping. “I have already found my birth mother now. I will live with my mother for the days to come. As for everything else, since you say that it does not belong to me, I have nothing else to say to you. ”
“Peizhen, no matter what, I’m still your father!”
“Yes, and haven’t I called you ‘dad’ already? You can go now.”
Su Chenghui had wanted to say something else, but Xiang Caiping stepped forward before she could. “Can you please leave? My daughter says that she doesn’t want to see you.”
“Dad, you don’t need to look me up in the future.” Su Peizhen didn’t mind letting Su Chenghui know where she was intending to go. “My mother and I have decided to leave Lin City, so please don’t come here next time.”
“Leave Lin City?” Su Chenghui said in a panic. “Where are you going?”
“My mom has been growing her business in Rong City. Now, she wants to take me back to Rong City to continue with our lives and her business. Dad, even if you don’t want me, it doesn’t mean that my mother doesn’t. Whatever you are not willing to give, my mother is willing to. Please don’t come to us again in the future. ”
“Peizhen–”
“That’s right.” Xiang Caiping took another step forward. “Su Chenghui, me and daughter have nothing to do with you anymore. Please don’t come to us again.”
The behavior of the two of them was shockingly consistent. Su Chenghui had no choice but to turn around and leave.
Su Peizhen looked at Xiang Caiping after he left. “Mom, did you see that? The way Dad treats me.”
Xiang Caiping looked at Su Peizhen, her eyes showing signs of a struggle. “Why did you ask your father for his shares?”
She really wanted to acknowledge her biological daughter, but she still didn’t think that Su Peizhen was really qualified to take Li’s shares.
What was more important was that those things belonged to only that woman, and it would be beneath them to want any of that.
“Mom, I did it on purpose.” Su Peizhen grabbed her arm coquettishly, like a daughter. “You saw it, my dad said that he loves me the most, but he couldn’t bear to give me an inkling of what I asked for. What would I want to do with that kind of love?”
Xiang Caiping looked at Su Peizhen, and she seemed a little convinced, although she did still think there was something wrong with that. “I just don’t want to gain anything from that woman, and I want you to feel the same.”
“Mom, I don’t want their stuff. I just wanted to test my dad and see what his reaction would be like.” Su Peizhen wrung her hands helplessly. “You saw it yourself just now. My dad didn’t want to give anything to me at all. How can he prove that he loves me when all he does is merely open his mouth to say it.”
Chapter 474: I Will Consider This As Your Last Bit Of Kindness To Me
Su Peizhen hadn’t finished the rest of the sentence, but Xiang Caiping already understood the underlying meaning behind what she was saying.
She wanted to use this to test Su Chenghui but didn’t think of the consequences.
“Now I can see your dad’s true nature. What a hypocrite! If he doesn’t want to give it to you, never mind him. We are in this together. Everything I own belongs to you.”
“Thank you, mom. You are the best.” Su Peizhen buried her face in Xiang Caiping’s arms, smelling a completely different scent than that of Li Qianxue. She was comforted by this. “I finally know who is truly being good to me.”
On one end, the relationship between mother and daughter had improved tremendously. On the other end, Su Chenghui was in a daze after getting in his car.
He didn’t want to believe that his daughter had any malicious intentions in her heart. However, Su Peizhen’s tone and expression made him think that way.
She wanted to own Li Corporation’s shares and come back to the Su Family. The problem was that he didn’t have a say in either of these things.
Li Qianxue insisted on divorcing him. He wanted to return to the Li Mansion but couldn’t, and how could he give Li Corporation’s shares to Su Peizhen?
Even if he could, he didn’t want to hurt Li Qianxue’s feelings again.
He felt bitter thinking about his past few phone calls with Li Qianxue because it had ended badly every single time. Li Qianxue didn’t want to say a word to him. Every time they talked, all she asked him was when he would sign the divorce papers.
More importantly, no matter what he said or how many times he said it, Li Qianxue didn’t believe a word. She scolded him for being shameless and outrageous. She also blamed him for doing everything he could to avoid getting a divorce.
He wanted to be shameless for once. However, after listening to Li Qianxue’s harsh words, he couldn’t get angry with her. He was only left with feelings of heartache.
It also turned out that when he used to talk to Li Qianxue this way, this was how she had felt too.
Only by changing perspectives could one understand what the other one was feeling at that time. However, when he had figured it out and understood her feelings, Li Qianxue was no longer willing to believe him.
These days Su Chenghui was very busy. He was occupied with looking for both Su Peizhen and the company.
He knew that Li Qianxue no longer trusted him, but he was still in charge of some business matters and projects.
Even if he was getting a divorce with Li Qianxue, he still wanted to get things done properly. Even if Li Qianxue thought that he had ulterior motives, he still had to do it.
Now that he learned about Su Peizhen’s plan to go to Rong City, he thought that he should let Li Qianxue and Su Qingsang know.
He had a feeling that Su Peizhen had other intentions in mind for going to Rong City, although he did not want to think of her that way.
More importantly, he tried to contact Li Qianxue at any chance he got, even just to hear her voice.
He didn’t think that he and Li Qianxue could end up on a bad note again.
Unlike Su Chenghui, who was unwilling to think of Su Peizhen badly, Li Qianxue didn’t mind thinking of Su Chenghui with her most malicious intent.
“Peizhen is coming to Rong City? What will she be doing here?” she asked. Li Qianxue thought about the last time she had a dispute on the phone with Su Chenghui. “What now? Do you think Su Peizhen being here can stop me from divorcing you? Do you think that I am too nice?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I don’t care what you meant, and you don’t need to tell me if Su Peizhen is coming to Rong City or not unless she is coming here to look for trouble with Qingsang and me.”
“No,” said Su Chenghui, instinctively defending Su Peizhen. “Why would she look for trouble with you? She recognized Xiang Caiping, who used to live in Rong City. That is why she decided to bring Peizhen there. Not to look for trouble with you both.”
“In that case, there is no need to let me know.”
Although Li Qianxue also cared about Su Peizhen, she made sure not to express it in a moment like this. “She is no longer my daughter. She is your daughter. You don’t have to tell me where she goes or what she does from now on.”
“Qianxue–”
“Unless she comes to Rong City to look for trouble with Qingsang or me.”
“That’s impossible!”
“It better be,” said Li Qianxue with a cold voice. “Su Chenghui, despite everything, I have raised Su Peizhen for more than 20 years. I considered her as my own, and I gave my all to her. If she still blames Qingsang or me in her heart, all I am going to say is that she is a b*stard!”
“Qianxue, don’t say that. Peizhen has been raised by you since she was an infant. Although she is a bit spoiled and capricious, she is not a bad person on the inside. You know this.”
“I know,” Li Qianxue said. She was certainly willing to believe that Su Peizhen was not a bad person on the inside. That’s the child she had raised after all. She would not and wouldn’t want to think badly of Su Peizhen.
However, as she looked at Su Chenghui, Li Qianxue knew that she didn’t want him to get his way. “It’s like I had thought about trusting you in the past, even though you didn’t love me. At least I still got your respect and sincerity. Now it turns out that all I got was a joke. You switched my child and let her grow up bearing the reputation of an illegitimate daughter. She got ridiculed again this time because of you. Su Chenghui, how can you talk about trust with me? Do you think I will trust you any more now?”
“Qianxue–”
“Don’t use my name,” said Li Qianxue upfront. She couldn’t bear to think about anything that had happened in the past. She didn’t want to think of anything before this.
These days she was spending some quality time with her daughter and had some nice walks with her old man. She had started to feel a lot more cheerful.
Lamentably, Su Chenghui decided to make a phone call or to appear in front of her from time to time. It made her feel like she had been eyed by a disgusting fly.
“Su Chenghui, since you switched Qingsang with Peizhen and made Qingsang carry the name of an illegitimate daughter, I have nothing to say to you. The only thing I ask from you right now is to please sign the divorce papers.”
“Qianxue, I……”
“If you still have even a bit of conscientiousness left, then don’t think about how you can gain any more benefits from this marriage. It’s not going to happen.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that, Qianxue. As I said, I don’t want a divorce because now I’ve realized that you are the one who matters the most to me.”
“Su Chenghui, before I become completely repulsed by you, please throw away your fake words because it makes me want to vomit. If you sincerely mean what you say, that I am the person who matters to you most, then the only thing I am asking you is to please sign the divorce papers. I will consider this as your last bit of kindness to me.”
Li Qianxue received Su Chenghui’s call when she arrived at Huo Mansion with Old Master Li.
She didn’t want the old man to be worried, so she took the phone call on the other side of the mansion. She stood at the corner of the courtyard outside of the Huo Mansion.
She had double-checked to make sure that no one was there, but when she hung up the phone, she found Liu Tongjia standing right there.
Li Qianxue didn’t know how long she listened, or how much she had heard. She felt embarrassed and uncomfortable when she saw Liu Tongjia’s belittling smile.
She wanted to turn around and casually leave the scene, but Liu Tongjia walked towards her in quick steps.
She tilted her face and stared at Li Qianxue. “Switched children? Divorce?”
Li Qianxue had her most distressing matters overheard by someone, so she felt very uncomfortable. Moreover, this woman happened to be Liu Tongjia, the person who had not gotten along with her since the beginning.
“Eavesdropping on people is not an honorable act!”
“Eavesdropping?” Liu Tongjia looked at Li Qianxue as if looking at a comedian. “Would you like for me to remind you that the land you are standing on belongs to us, the Huo Family?”
How dare Li Qianxue accuse her of eavesdropping while she stood on the Huo family’s ground?
“If I remember correctly, I didn’t step onto your yard.”
“No, you did not.” Liu Tongjia didn’t want to fight with Li Qianxue about this. She laughed grimly and mockingly said, “How can you blame others for eavesdropping while talking about this in an open street?”
There were not many things in life that could make Li Qianxue feel embarrassed, but this counted as one of them.
More importantly, the person who had overheard it was Liu Tongjia. She knew too well that this woman already had some opinions about Su Qingsang. She would probably say something mean this time.
Forcing herself to act as if nothing had happened, Li Qianxue tried to look calm. “Sorry, it’s time to meet with Old Master Huo. I have to leave now.”
“Leaving in such a hurry?” Liu Tongjia asked. She was glad that she had wanted to get out of the car to take a walk because otherwise, she could not have heard such an interesting story.
“You said that Su Qingsang’s father switched her identity?”
“You heard it wrong,” Li Qianxue said calmly.
“Heard it wrong?” The smile on Liu Tongjia’s lips became brighter. “My hearing ability is very good. No wonder I asked myself how an illegitimate lady had suddenly become someone’s precious daughter, but it finally turns out that there is a whole story behind it.”
Li Qianxue knew that if the Huo Family learned about this matter, it could put them at a disadvantage.
Pedigree mattered the most to the upper-class families. No matter how disgraceful things got, they dealt with it behind closed doors. No one would ever put these things out in public—especially issues like illegitimacy.
It was intolerable in any family to have switched an illegitimate daughter’s status to their real daughter or vice versa.
She hated Su Chenghui even more, thinking about this.
Li Qianxue didn’t express anything, no matter what was going on in her mind. “Yes. Since Qingsang is my biological daughter, what you accused us of before does not stand. We did not claim an illegitimate daughter for the sake of money or to climb up a higher status in the Huo family. Are you relieved now?”
“Relieved? How can I be relieved?” Liu Tongjia asked, squinting her eyes. She remembered very well Li Qianxue’s previous mockeries. “Should I be relieved that your family has such a fine tradition? Or the fact that you guys were so lost that you couldn’t even keep an eye on your children? Or the fact that your newly recognized daughter has a father like this? Who knows? Maybe she will do something even more outrageous herself. For example, committing premeditated marriage fraud?”
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