"You made me accept a necklace worth more than one hundred thousand dollars? What kind of person do you think I am? Chu Yunxiu, are you trying to sell me to repay you for your upbringing? I am telling you. I have had enough of you. I am in control of my love life. You don’t interfere with it anymore. Aren’t your tricks crying and threatening to kill yourself? Well, why don’t you do it? I won’t hold you back. I might as well kill myself. I have lived long enough anyway."

  Ling Yun finally burst out, screaming hysterically with her face turning red and full of falling tears.

  Chu Yunxiu’s mouth was opened wide. She would have never imagined that Ling Yun would react in such a strong way. Agape and tongue-tied, she looked at her empty eyes, feeling bitter in her heart.

  However, as a woman of her words, she had formed a bossy habit. She became angry from shame and yelled, "You are such an ungrateful daughter to talk to me like this! What do you see in that guy? You can love him however you like. But I am telling you that I have already turned him out of doors. And he won’t come back anymore. If you want to stay together with him, you are not my daughter anymore."

  "Oh, I see. I was wondering why he left. If so, I have nothing to say!"

  Ling Yun kneeled down with a bump and made three loud kowtows without demur. She used so much force that her forehead bled.

  "What are you doing, you are crazy……"

  Chu Yunxiu was shocked and hurriedly went up to hold her up.

  Ling Yun was expressionless. She threw her mother’s hand and stood up. She said coldly, "I am an unfilial daughter. I am repaying you for your upbringing with these three kowtows. I can’t afford the extra. I will repay you in the next life. From now on, I am no longer your daughter. You are no longer my mother. My business will not have anything to do with you anymore."

  "You……" Chu Yunxiu pointed her finger at Ling Yun, trembling. Her eyes turned red right away. Then she slapped on Ling Yun’s face with a clap and said angrily, "You are crazy. How dare you to say that?"

  "Chu Yunxiu, I am not your daughter now. You have no right to hit me. You have no right to use my happiness to exchange for wealth. When I am gone, you should forget about me as you have never given birth to me."

  Ling Yun said disheartened, turned away and walked up to the door.

  "You come back. Think of your dad and the ancestors of Ling Family. How will you face them?"

  Chu Yunxiu shouted out loud with tears.

  "If my dad were still alive, he would never sell his daughter’s happiness to exchange for the so-called glory and wealth. Chu Yunxiu, I am really disappointed with you. I beg you, let me go. Do you know how much I hate you? You don’t know. You only see money and money in your eyes. If giving up all your money could bring dad back to life, would you do that?"

  Ling Yun laughed bitterly and said with her eyes full of sadness and disappointment, "Of course you won’t do it. In your eyes, nobody is more important than money. You know what? I hate myself for being your daughter. I hate myself for obeying you over and over, which led to this bitter ending today. I was wrong, terribly wrong. I shouldn’t have agreed to your unreasonable request. I shouldn’t have agreed to go to the so-called birthday party. Standing in that luxury hall, I didn’t feel like being a princess at all, but a prostitute who sold her happiness in exchange for wealth!"

  "What are you talking? You don’t understand mom at all. All I do was for you. If your father could come back, I would give up everything or even ten years of my life. Everything I do is for your good. You are my daughter. Why would I hurt you? I was trying to help you live a good life so that you don’t have to wear yourself out for making a living."

  Chu Yunxiu cried out loud hugging with Ling Yun. She was really scared because she had never seen her daughter like that.

  Ling Yun slowly and resolutely pushed her away. Her tears never stopped and had already soaked the evening gown on the chest. She said bleakly,

  "I am tired. I am staying overnight here. I will find a place and move tomorrow. Don’t tell me that it is for my happiness. You don’t know what happiness is."

  Ling Yun gently stroked the old and familiar table and looked around with nostalgia. Ding Ning seemed to have never left, and looked at her quietly in a corner.

  She closed her eyes and let the tears flow, whispering like dreaming,

  "In my eyes, happiness is simple. We don’t need much money. We just need enough for living. We don’t need a big or luxury house. It only needs to be livable. If we have a car, that would be nice. But if we don’t, that is also okay. We can take a bus or subway together. As long as we stay together every day, we don’t even need words. We can feel each other’s heart by eye contact. We can feel each other’s existence by a slight breath. Through a smile, an expression, an action, we would know each other’s thought. To be near each other, to know each other, to feel each other, and to depend on each other. That’s the happiness I want!"

  Chu Yunxiu looked at Ling Yun as if she had never known her daughter, and thoroughly understood her definition of happiness. She remembered that her husband left home for good because of her greediness. She started to feel confused and regretful and said as if she was self-talking and torturing, "I only wanted to live a better life. Is this wrong?"

  "You aren’t wrong. It was always someone else’s fault. You impose your will on others and never think about their feelings. You always think that others want the same things as you. But many things are more important than money. Family affection, friendship, love, dignity…… Compared with material life, these are the most valuable spiritual wealth. "

  Ling Yun felt fitful twinges in her heart and said with her face full of evident sadness, "Ding Ning is aloof in his heart and soul. But you have demeaned him since the beginning. You always think that he is poor and not promising. Whenever you met him, you either gave him a dig or asked for rent or warned him to stay away from me. You were never nice to him. Four years ago, you had a nephritis attack. It was Ding Ning who cured you with no lingering effect left. Three years ago, you got cholecystitis. And he also cured you. Last year, you had breast cancer. After Ding Ning noticed it, he didn’t want you to get worried, so he asked me to buy sleeping pills for you and treated you every night for three months. The whole three months, he stayed up every night to treat you with acupuncture. And he needed to go to university in the daytime. But you scolded him saying that he was a lazy and unambitious pig. Those were all serious diseases worth mentioning. And there were countless minor diseases like having a cold or fever. He cured of all the diseases you got. But he never let me tell you because he didn’t want you to think that he tried to please you deliberately. Why did he keep doing a hard but thankless job? Because he was motherless since he was a kid, he wanted to feel the warmth of the family. He would be grateful even if you invited him with a patronizing attitude for dinner at festivals to increase festive spirit. He treated you with all his heart. But how did you treat him?" .

  Chu Yunxiu’s expression changed dramatically. She recalled that every time she felt sick, she would sleep sound at night and felt full of vim and vigor in the morning of the next day.

  Last year, her chest did grow a lump-like thing with dull pain. She was about to go to the hospital to take a check the next day. But after a sleep that night, the pain disappeared. Therefore she didn’t go to the hospital.

  Calculating the approximate time, she realized that the chest lump disappeared completely in almost three months.

  Having a second thought, after Ding Ning moved in, she realized that she had not had any illnesses. Once she felt a bit uncomfortable, she would recover the next day after she woke up.

  She had always been weak since she was a child. After her husband was gone missing, she fell ill even more frequently. And she had taken many types of medicines by turns. It was a miracle that she had been healthy in the past five years.

  She thought that it was because she had done more exercise that she didn’t get sick. Until now, she knew that it was all due to Ding Ning.

  Especially when she thought that she had had breast cancer, she trembled with fear. Even if it was in the early stage, it was still tricky to treat. There were many cases that people had to get their breast removed to prevent the spread of cancer cells.

  To say the very least, even if she could recover without losing the breast in the hospital, she wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford the huge cost of the hospital treatment expense.

  Thinking of what Ding Ning had done for her silently for these years, Chu Yunxiu felt her face burning and ashamed for always being hostile with him.

  She did not doubt that Ling Yun would lie to her because she knew that her daughter was not a liar and that cholecystitis and nephritis were her old troubles. Everything would be clear to have a check in the hospital.

  Ling Yun’s tears fell again, "He is only 22 years old this year. He left his hometown and went to Ninghai alone. He was motherless since he was a child. Now his father has also disappeared and lost touch with him for five years. Although he seemed to be happy all the time with a heartless look on his face, he felt bitter than anyone else in his heart. He regarded you as a family. But you cruelly drove him away. Don’t you feel ashamed?"

  "Yunyun, I am sorry. I didn’t know that guy…… Ding Ning has done so much for our family. I was wrong. I promise you that I will not interfere with your love life anymore. You can do whatever you want and be with whomever you love. I won’t disagree even if you are going to get a marriage certificate tomorrow."

  What Ling Yun said was like a head-on blow which made Chu Yunxiu feel terribly ashamed. Although she hoped that her daughter could marry a wealthy man, she finally understood that her daughter had already grown up and had her own way of thinking.

  She took a deeper thought and found that since Ding Ning could cure the breast cancer she got, he must have excellent medical skills. Even if he became an ordinary doctor, he would have high income and social status.

  Although it was unlikely for him to become as rich as Liu Junwei, it wouldn’t be bad to have a son-in-law like him—at least he could keep the family healthy.

  The most important thing was that she knew that Ding Ning was really good to Ling Yun. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be that tolerant with the two of them with his arrogance in his bones.

  "Do you really mean it?" Ling Yun stopped her tears, widened her eyes, and looked at her incredulously.

  "Of course I mean it, what else would it be? Will I really break my daughter’s heart desperately and lose her?"

  Chu Yunxiu said with a half-truthful voice and a hint of blame.

  "Mom, I am sad. Liu Junwei drove me back. My feet hurt, so I held his arm. Ding Ning saw that, and he misunderstood me. You don’t know how disappointed he looked. He looked at me as if I was a stranger. I am feeling very upset."

  Ling Yun threw herself into Chu Yunxiu’s arms coquettishly and held her slim waist with her tears coming out again.

  "There, there, don’t cry. Good girl. It’s all over. Now things are okay. I will go back to return the diamond necklace tomorrow. You talk to Ding Ning. If things don’t go well, I will apologize to him."——

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