Chapter 467: Being So Agitated By A Person Like That, Really Wrenched My Heart
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As she spoke, she began to pout her lips. “Look at me now,” she said, “I can’t even prostrate to you even if I want to.”
“What are you saying, you naive child? I’m your grandma, I know you’re a great child and had always placed your grandma first over anything. As long as you’re this thoughtful, it’s enough for me. It’d mean the greatest respect to me. It’s far better than those who don’t even have the heart to reunite with their own grandma,” Grandmother Chang said while holding onto Chang Jingqiu’s hand. Even at that moment, she was adamant in criticizing Ruan Danchen.
Chang Zhiyuan—a mere spectator at the side—chuckled out of pure anger as he was unsure if Grandmother Chang had truly forgotten who exactly was his eldest sister’s true-born daughter. She actually could be so blind-sighted to have done so much for this abomination and had the heart to allow Ruan Danchen to suffer so much for the last 27 years.
The Ruan family, on the other hand, had loved Ruan Danchen unconditionally. They had treated her like the most precious child in the world, yet Grandmother Chang had the audacity to devalue Ruan Danchen to such an extent.
Chang Zhiyuan felt extremely embarrassed and guilty to the Ruan family as he would never have the courage nor did he know how to face the Ruan family.
Fortunately for him, none of the Ruan family members were present here today, else he would not know how to face them!
“Don’t just stand there frozen Zhixing, help Jingqiu up now,” Grandmother Chang ordered yet Chang Jingqiu shook her head as she intended to continue speaking her mind. Upon noticing that, Grandmother Chang said, “Don’t worry, your grandmother isn’t that easily threatened.”
Thus, Chang Jingqiu stopped resisting and was carried back onto the wheelchair by Chang Zhixing.
Chang Zhiyuan who remained a bystander found the entire situation comical as he, his wife and Ruan Danchen were present at the scene merely standing at the sidelines, observing. However, all Grandmother Chang did in their presence was merely making a statement early in the morning, seemingly ignoring them after she was done speaking her mind. It was as if the only family she had was Chang Zhixing and Chang Jingqiu.
Grandmother Chang had a sinister cold look on her face while she stared at the married Huang Pinggui couple. She simply coldly stated, “You people know nothing; our family has money and power. We want you both to zip up and we too don’t want your lives. You want money? Of course, you’d still need to think about if you both would be able to spend it in the first place. Our family is more than capable of making sure both of you clam up and not even receiving a single penny from us.”
Grandmother Chang grimaced coldly and said, “I know you have a son and was on his way to sit for a university’s entrance test this year. Back then you both sold Jingqiu off in order to raise your son, yet you both had managed to give birth to a son after countless difficult attempts. Both of you had spoiled him rotten and struggled to raise him to the best of your abilities. What a shame, since you were only capable of reproduction but couldn’t properly provide for your family. Now that you both had struggled so hard and were successful in raising your son, and he’s on his way to sit for the university’s entrance test, you both assumed that good days will be ahead, right?”
Grandmother Chang continued, “I know plenty of people and my connections are far-reaching. Plenty of people out there are willing to do my bidding, and I’m capable of failing your son and stopping him from ever pursuing higher education, ending his education in high school. It won’t matter if he were to retake as many times as he could; it wouldn’t change a thing. I believe your family won’t have the money to allow your son to keep retaking the exams, right? Only having a high school diploma—tell me what your son can do with that? Unfortunately for him, the only option left for him would be doing the same thing as you’ve always done for a living; being a worthless, pathetic farmer for a meager sum in the city. How horrible were your current situation, well, you know the best. Would you be willing to allow your son to follow your current footsteps?”
Grandmother Chang proceeded to cackle before saying, “I heard your son was indeed an exceptional student, the best student in his class. It’d be a shame if he can’t pursue higher education for the wrong reasons.”
Huang Pinggui was shocked as his eyes were wide open at what Grandmother Chang had just said. “You…” he gasped.
“What about me? Is it fair for you to threaten me and I can’t? You want money; by all means, be my guest. However, you’ll have to trade the money with your son’s future. Would you be willing to make that trade? If you are, I’ll be more than happy to do so,” Grandmother Chang replied with a sinister tone.
“We don’t want the money! We don’t want the money anymore!” Wang Lixia replied terrifyingly as her voice was shaky.
“So you don’t want the money and you plan to expose Jingqiu’s matters?” Grandmother Chang replied provocatively.
“We won’t say a thing. Not a word! We…We’ll pretend this entire debacle never happened, never happened. We’ve never met!” Wang Lixia nodded frantically with an extremely terrified look on her face. No amount of money was more important than her son’s future.
She would not allow her son to only possess a high school diploma and to be forced to work in horrible conditions in the city.
Since her son was a stellar student, he must work in a major company in the future in order to succeed.
“If I hear any news at all…” Grandmother Chang said while squinting her eyes, glaring at them.
“It won’t happen! We won’t say a word!” Wang Lixia replied while frantically grabbing onto her stunned husband’s arm.
It was baffling that her man could not stand his ground at this critical moment.
As Huang Pinggui recovered, he too submitted to her will and promised to never say a word.
“Then what else are you both still doing here? Do you still assume that you both were invited to stay for dinner?” Grandmother Chang exclaimed coldly.
The position Grandmother Chang stood within Huang Pinggui’s heart was nothing more than a terrifying old witch. He would dare not to ever cross her again, hence they both fled the compound.
Thus, Chang Jingqiu sat idly in her wheelchair as she collapsed onto Grandmother Chang’s lap and began bawling.
Qi Chenglin proceeded to mock her, “Impressive demonstration of fake tears it seems.”
Upon hearing that mocking comment, Chang Jingqiu’s body grew stiff as she turned around with an offended glare through her eyes and said, “What did you say to me?!”
Grandmother Chang gently patted her shoulders and consoled her, “Don’t bother with what he said.”
“Take a seat.” It was only at this moment did Grandmother Chang noticed Chang Zhiyuan and the people present with him. She replied coldly, “We’re here to discuss important matters right now.”
However, Qi Chenglin and Ruan Danchen never moved an inch since they were unwilling to sit with any of these people.
Chang Zhiyuan was completely disappointed at that moment, however. Without much of a choice, he proceeded to take a seat.
Upon witnessing their complete reluctance, Grandmother Chang became unhappy as she thought if she would actually devour Ruan Danchen since it was as if all of them were protecting her.
The more she thought about the whole situation the more she realized it was only Chang Jingqiu who truly cared about her.
With such an old age, Grandmother Chang was completely numb toward the cold relationship with family, thus she thought she only needed a single person to treat her well.
“Since we’ll all be family soon, you guys should respect me as your grandmother!” Grandmother Chang said coldly.
Her gaze landed on Qi Chenglin as if she had deserved every bit of glory. If Qi Chenglin became her son-in-law, no matter how much disagreements she had about him, she would still take a little pride in his power and status.
However, Qi Chenglin seemed to ignore her as he was paired with a look of complete arrogance. Ruan Danchen too was ignoring everything she had said.
“Who do you guys think you are! The audacity you guys have to not reunite with your own relatives!” Grandmother Chang said while slamming her hands violently onto the armrest of the couch.
Liu Xiangwen who was standing by her side attempted to calm her down. She said, “Mom, please calm down, don’t get mad. Perhaps Ruan Danchen isn’t used to her new status. Our main goal here today was to straighten up some things.”
Thus, Liu Xiangwen helped Grandmother Chang down some stairs. Grandmother Chang remained silent while maintaining a cold expression on her face.
Liu Xiangwen then proceeded to say, “Here’s a thought Mom, just tell me what you think. Jingqiu being our family’s granddaughter had been a fact all these years, and pretty much everyone had accepted that fact. Besides, we had been treating her as part of our family too, so we shouldn’t change that fact. We don’t need to explain their identities to anyone. This still matters that only concerns our family, so there really isn’t a need to let anyone know about it. Since what happened to my sister back then wasn’t something pretty as well, it’s better to keep this from anyone.”
Ruan Danchen pouted as she hated what Liu Xiangwen had said.
However, Grandmother Chan nodded in agreement. She replied, “You have a point.”
“So I thought Jingqiu’s identity would remain unchanged. We too shouldn’t say a word of this incident to anyone else. Since if word got out about us mistakenly swapping two children at birth, we’d be a complete joke to anyone.”
“Yes indeed.” Grandmother Chang nodded. She said, “Continue please.”
“It’s also without a doubt we’ll need to reunite with Ruan Danchen within our family. Hence we’ll tell everyone that Ruan Danchen was our family’s granddaughter after losing contact all these years, and we’ve finally found her. We’ll pay no mind to whatever everyone thought about this whole situation. Everyone else will soon accept Ruan Danchen’s new identity after some time,” Liu Xiangwen explained.
“You’re completely right.” Grandmother Chang nodded. She then said, “It’s decided, we’ll do exactly that so Jingqiu would not be judged by anyone in public.”
“I recalled Lao Liang once said, Jingqiu is actually a couple of months older than Ruan Danchen, so that would mean the both of you will be sisters from now on.” Liu Xiangwen chuckled. She continued, “Besides, they were both high school classmates, so on a much deeper thought, wouldn’t that mean they finally have a chance to grow even closer from now on?”
Grandmother Chang too agreed to this proposal. She said while looking up toward Ruan Danchen, “If that’s the case, the both of you will become sisters then.”
“Who wants to be her sister?” Ruan Danchen said with an all-too icy tone.
“It doesn’t really matter if I reunite with your family or not, but you shouldn’t be so forceful with your agenda. From how I see it, it would be just like in the past, nothing will change. Chang Jingqiu will still be your granddaughter and the Chang family will have nothing to do with me. I’ll still be the daughter-in-law for the Qi family and the granddaughter of the Ruan family. This in turn wouldn’t affect your family’s good name, and you wouldn’t need to rack your brain on coming up with an explanation to another granddaughter.”
Upon saying that, Ruan Danchen glanced over to Chang Zhiyuan with a compassionate, gentle gaze. This meant to him that even though Ruan Danchen refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Chang family, she had at least acknowledged him as a better person. Hence, he proceeded to let out a sigh of relief.
A little sense of pride washed over him as he was proud to know that his own niece was different than others. She was much different than his own heartless family.
“You…What on earth are you saying! How could you refuse to acknowledge the presence of your very own family? So now that you’re Qi Chenglin’s wife, you actually assume we’re not good enough for you, and we only intended to suck up to you right?” Grandmother Chang replied furiously while violently pointing at her.
Ruan Danchen chuckled sarcastically. She said, “So you actually know you’re not good enough for us?”
The arrogance shown by Grandmother Chang was not her usual arrogance.
“You’ve never once respected me in the past as Qi Chenglin’s wife, so how would I even dare to suck up to you now!” Ruan Danchen mocked sarcastically.
Qi Chenglin simply chuckled from the side. It seemed Ruan Danchen was truly furious at this moment.
Thus, he immediately tried to calm her down. He said, “Alright, don’t get mad now. My heart wrenched from seeing you getting so worked up by these people.”
“You…You, You…brats!” Grandmother Chang was so furious at that point that she could not stand up right.
Thus, Liu Xiangwen proceeded to hold onto Grandmother Chang. She said, “Don’t get so worked up Mom, I believe Ruan Danchen felt as if she had been wronged, thus prompting her to speak such awful things. To be fair, she had been separated from our family for so many years, so upon reuniting with us, we hadn’t done anything grand to make it up to her. Perhaps she assumed she wasn’t being respected.”
“Are you trying to ease the tension or are you trying to provoke everyone?” Mo Yuxin questioned coldly. Maintaining the same tone, she continued, “Do you actually think Ruan Danchen would even want a grand welcome? On the surface, it would seem that you were just trying to help out Ruan Danchen, however, every word you say was devaluing her as a person. So, what exactly are your intentions?”
“Sister…How could you say that?” Liu Xiangwen replied as her expression changed to a pretentious guilt-filled look. She proceeded to say, “I know you and I have some disagreements in the past, but you can’t say that about me.”
“It’s true what Auntie had said earlier. I don’t need whatever grand welcome you claimed I do. We’re not even close, so whatever I wished should never be your concern. You don’t have to speak to me nor do you have to make a choice for me,” Ruan Danchen replied calmly. “In all honesty, let’s not talk about whatever grand ceremony you were talking about earlier. If it wasn’t for my uncle, I don’t even wish to have any sort of relationship or ties to the Chang family.”
Ruan Danchen smirked coldly. “Be Chang Jingqiu’s sister? Impossible!”
“Our main purpose here today wasn’t for the results of her birth.” Qi Chenglin said, “So whatever that had happened in the past or whatever that’ll happen in the future, no one here today has the right to flaunt their status at Ruan Danchen’s face. This is all that I’ll leave you with. If you truly see Ruan Danchen as a member of your family and if there’s even a single shred of guilt in your heart, then please be honest from now on. Stop doing things that would cause her any sort of harm and trouble. Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter what the Ruan family tells me; there will be consequences.”
At this point, Grandmother Chang’s fury had reached beyond her boiling point as it was clear to her that everything Qi Chenglin had said earlier was all meant for her alone.
As she stared at the two youngsters, she was not sure if they had a single shred of respect for their elders within the chambers of their heart.
As she stared directly at Ruan Danchen, all she could think of was how cold-hearted and ruthless this woman was since she stood idle devoid of emotions, even when her husband’s position was ultimately threatened.
A woman so ruthless and cold; it would be natural for the absence of any sort of emotions toward family in her heart. A woman like her was extremely selfish!
“So you had no intention in reuniting with our family then?” Grandmother Chang said furiously while pointing directly at Ruan Danchen. She added, “So through the very lens of both your eyes, do you think I’m unworthy to be your grandmother then?”
Ruan Danchen remained calm as she only had a cold, emotionless expression on her face. Growing tired of arguing with her, she told Qi Chenglin, “Let’s just leave now alright?”
Qi Chenglin nodded. Without even glancing at anyone but Chang Zhiyuan and his wife, he said, “We’ll be taking our leave now.”
With such attitude demonstrated in the face of the Chang family, this showed that Qi Chenglin only had room for Chang Zhiyuan and his family.
This proved whatever Liu Xiangwen said to Chang Jingqiu back then was completely on point.
Just as she thought, since Chang Zhiyuan had such a tight and close relationship with Qi Chenglin, he would have no position in their family in the future.
“You… Why do I have such a disrespectful granddaughter like you! Even if we hadn’t been in contact or had met in-person for the last 27 years, you could never sever all ties with your blood relatives. How could you just leave like that? Even from the very second you set foot here till now, you’ve not called me your grandmother. You really are ruthless and cold for not acknowledging your blood relatives!” Grandmother Chang ranted while pointing directly at Ruan Danchen. However, after that rant, she then proceeded to tell Qi Chenglin, “Look at the person you loved, Qi Chenglin. You would actually choose someone so ruthless!”
Qi Chenglin looked directly at Grandmother Chang without any form of emotion on his face, causing Grandmother Chang to grow increasingly frantic just by Qi Chenglin’s sheer cold gaze.
“You keep badmouthing your own granddaughter to her own husband, just because you wanted nothing more but to destroy her own marriage. How could you expect her to respect you if this is how you treat her? Before you request something from anyone, you should really take a good look at yourself. If you had indeed treated her well yet she refused to respect you, that would mean that she truly is ruthless and cold. Before you knew her actual identity and background back then, you hated her with a burning passion. So all that I can say to you is you’re despicable and extremely unacceptable to anyone. Perhaps it was due to Chang Jingqiu’s own matters that had caused you to dislike Danchen.”
“However even as of right now, after knowing Ruan Danchen was your true blood-related granddaughter, you’re still unrelentingly scolding her? Did you really see her as your granddaughter with an attitude like that? If she were to even grace you with a single shred of respect by the way you were treating her, I would abandon her,” Qi Chenglin coldly admonished.
“Everyone in the Ruan family loved her and treated her extremely well with the most respect, and with that, she repaid their respect and kindness by a thousandfold. Uncle treated her well, and she had never once discriminated against him because of his ties with your family. She could very clearly judge people on separate terms and was more than willing to acknowledge and respect him as her own blood-related uncle, and even made Youxuan address him as his own granduncle.”
Chang Zhiyuan who was just listening from the sidelines was extremely moved by his words.
From what he had heard, Qi Chenglin had actually called him uncle!
This meant he too had acknowledged him as family.
As much as Chang Zhiyuan was tempted to show off and celebrate with his wife and daughter, the tense situation at this very moment stopped him from doing so.
“…” Mo Yuxin was speechless as she noticed the grin on her husband’s face. She knew exactly what he was thinking of so she rolled her eyes at her husband in response.
She then heard Qi Chenglin’s sudden loud cackle. He proceeded to say, “I don’t want my wife and child to suffer here all because of you. I am however bold enough to allow them to face whatever suffering that would eventually come their way. Since you’ve never treated Danchen as your own granddaughter and somehow expected her to treat you as her grandmother, tell me, how on earth are you worthy of that treatment? You could somehow love someone who had absolutely no blood relation with you unconditionally, so this proves you’re not as heartless as you seem. It’s unfortunate you’ve directed your love to a woman who fuels her mind with malicious schemes and other horrible intentions. A woman like that, you could still somehow assume she was anywhere pure and innocent, yet you’re unwilling to pour even a single drop of love to your own granddaughter. So tell me, what exactly should I call you? Someone who’s undyingly loyal, or someone extremely heartless?”
“How could I spare any form of love if she treated me so coldly?” Grandmother Chang replied frustratingly as she too felt she had been wronged.
Hence, Qi Chenglin could only let out a sigh of disappointment as he was completely done with arguing with her. Thus, he proceeded to leave with Ruan Danchen.
“Wait just a moment, both of you!” Grandmother Chang called them from behind.
Without even flinching, Qi Chenglin turned back to look at Grandmother Chang with a cold expression.
“No matter what you say, all of us are now family. So even if Ruan Danchen was terminally ill, I’m willing to accept her, so it doesn’t really matter. All I can do is teach her how to behave properly in the future,” Grandmother Chang said while frowning.
However, from Qi Chenglin’s perspective, she seemed reluctant and unwilling to say what she had just said.
“Danchen is amazing and there’s nothing you could teach her, and I believe there’s nothing she could learn from you either,” Qi Chenglin bluntly replied.
Unexpectedly for Grandmother Chang, even though it was obvious that her fury was boiling violently beyond her boiling point, she had managed to keep herself under control. All she said was, “Since we’re all a family, how baffling it is for the children in our family to not study in Jixia High School? Our Nanan was having such a horrible time in a mediocre school. Could you get him into Jixia High School?”
The tone of Grandmother Chang was as if she was ordering everyone to do her bidding for her without question.
“One more thing: I believe this entire debacle couldn’t be hidden from everyone else out there. Since the Qi family and the Chang family had become in-laws, then it’s only natural for the Qi family to stop butting heads with the Chang family right? Since you’re also my grandson-in-law and it’s a fact that you and Zhiyuan were undoubtedly close to each other, then you should help Changhe out with his needs. You know, when other families out there become in-laws, they’d always help each other with their needs and grew extremely close with each other. How unacceptable for you to treat Changhe so coldly.”
Grandmother Chang simply glanced over to Ruan Danchen with a cold gaze. She said, “Since I’m your grandmother now, if you’re to prove yourself, loyal to us and happen to respect me, I’d also treat you well. We’ll bury the hatchet here; whatever grievances and misunderstandings we had in the past, will be water under the bridge from now,” finished Grandmother Chang with an extremely entitled look.
Ruan Danchen chuckled from pure anger. What did she mean by water under the bridge? It’s unsurprising for Grandmother Chang not to realize till this moment that she was the one that had wronged her.
Nonetheless, she never fought back since she did not wish to bring any unwanted trouble to Chang Zhiyuan.
It was also at this moment, the joy and pride Chang Zhiyuan felt earlier immediately faded into pure anger as unchecked fury of boiling wrath radiated through his eyes as he listened to Grandmother Chang speak.
He could not stand the entitled attitude from Grandmother Chang as she had never taken the wellbeing of her own granddaughter into consideration.
Without the need for Ruan Danchen to worry, Chang Zhiyuan said, “You may decide on what you want to do with the matters of Jianan since I’m only his uncle, so I’m in no position to care about his matters. However, whatever Changhe is going through, it’s purely business, so there’s no need for you to intervene, Mom. I’m still in charge of the matters in Changhe, so I’m much clearer than you are in running my company.”
“Bold of you to say such things. Am I in no position to intervene with the matters of your company? Could I possibly bring any sort of harm to your company?” Grandmother Chang shrieked at him.
“Yeah Brother, you’re wrong to say that. Although you’re in charge of Changhe, the company belongs to our family, you need to think about the benefits for our entire family,” Liu Xiangwen calmly explained.
“You may be in charge of the company, but you still need to obey and listen to whatever Mom says!” Liu Xiangwen added.
Chang Zhiyuan simply scoffed as he had completely seen through Liu Xiangwen’s facade.
