“Mommy,” Su Qingsang called out again as if she knew what Li Qianxue was thinking.
“Mm.” Li Qianxue hugged Su Qingsang once more. “My daughter. My daughter.”
Li Qianxue hugged her tightly, so tightly it was a wonder that her slender body would have that much strength.
Su Qingsang was almost out of breath from her embrace, but she didn’t push her away or even harbor the thought of pushing her away.
Her hands fell to her sides, and her fingertips moved. Then she dropped them again. But just as Li Qianxue tightened her arms again, she managed to raise her hands and gently wrapped them around Li Qianxue’s waist.
Everyone was watching Li Qianxue, and only Huo Jinyao noticed her expression.
This tugged at his heartstrings, and he began to move towards Su Qingsang, but then decided to stop.
“Qingsang…”
Li Qianxue was in so much pain that she couldn’t manage to utter a word now.
She could only hold Su Qingsang tightly, hold the daughter she had never once taken care of or spent a day with for over twenty years.
Su Qingsang was almost out of breath from the embrace. She only managed to finally calm down a little when she saw the tears that Su Yuxin and Old Master Li were trying to hold back.
“Mom.” She patted Li Qianxue’s back gently. “You need to calm down.”
Li Qianxue shook her head. It all hurt too much. The pain was too great. What could be worse than having her own daughter right next to her all this while, but never knowing?
“Mom.” Su Qingsang’s voice was a little louder than before. “I’m almost out of breath.”
Li Qianxue finally loosened her grip when she heard that. She still refused to let Su Qingsang go, and held her hand in hers tightly.
“Sorry, mom didn’t mean to do that.”
“I’m okay.” When Su Qingsang watched Li Qianxue cry like this, she found it hard to take in. If she had a choice, she didn’t want to see Li Qianxue in this state at all.
She raised her hand and gently wiped away Li Qianxue’s tears. “Mom, you don’t have to keep apologizing. You did not let me down.”
Li Qianxue shook her head, as she wanted to say that she had let Su Qingsang down on so many fronts. It would have taken too long to finish what she wanted to say, however.
Su Qingsang did not give her a chance. She wiped her tears away again, with very gentle movements.
“Really. You have not let me down. You actually know full well that I’ve been fine all this time.”
It would have been better if she hadn’t said this. However, when she did, it was like a knife had cut through Li Qianxue’s heart.
“How could you be fine? You are my daughter. But I have never, not for a day in your life, taken care of you. I…”
As Li Qianxue said this, she was about to cry again. Su Qingsang seemed stung by these new tears.
“Mom, you really should not be like that. If you stay like this, we won’t be able to finish what we have to say.”
Seeing that Li Qianxue was still a little bit out of sorts, her gaze moved on to Old Master Li and the rest. “They…”
At this, Li Qianxue finally reacted, and messily wiped away the tears off her face as she looked at Su Qingsang. “Look at me, your mom is a real mess.”
Holding Su Qingsang’s hand, she brought her to Old Master Li, and Li Qianxue’s voice was choking as she said, “Dad, Qingsang is your real granddaughter. She…”
It looked like Li Qianxue couldn’t go on. Su Qingsang quickly stepped in and said, “Grandpa.”
She said this very softly. She had always addressed Old Master Li by his name from an early age, and the title of ‘Grandfather’ had been for Su Yuxin and Su Peizhen.
“Oh, oh.” Old Master Li’s eyes were wet too. He reached out and tried to touch Su Qingsang’s cheek, but held back again. “It’s good to have you back. Good to have you back.”
“Yuxin.” Su Qingsang looked at Su Yuxin. Although she did not know how Li Qianxue knew, she could guess that all of this probably had a lot to do with Su Yuxin.
“Sister.” Su Yuxin looked at her and took a step forward. “Now you’ve really become my sister. My full-blood sister.”
“Yes.” Su Qingsang wanted to cry but held back.
On the one side of things, with the family reunited, it was a beautiful scene. On the other hand, Su Chenghui seemed to have been forgotten and stood at a corner, ignored by everyone.
Huo Jinyao watched on as Su Qingsang and Li Qianxue reconciled. He breathed a sigh of relief.
In fact, whether or not Su Qingsang were to acknowledge Li Qianxue, it would not have mattered to him. However, he knew that for Su Qingsang, it was different.
If she didn’t know the truth of her birth and would have just remained as Xiang Caiping’s daughter, perhaps she could have kept on like that, without knowing otherwise, and continued to be a dutiful daughter to Xiang Caiping.
She could have quite simply stayed with Xiang Caiping and maintained their mother-daughter relationship to the end of their lives.
However, Su Qingsang knew. If she didn’t acknowledge Li Qianxue, on the surface she might be able to pretend that she did not care.
She could convince herself not to reconcile with Li Qianxue, but in the end, there would have been some regrets.
What happened today was for the best.
Li Qianxue calmed down but still held on to Su Qingsang’s hand. It was only then that Su Qingsang discovered that something was wrong.
She lowered her head and saw the scratches on Li Qianxue’s palm: “Mom, you are…”
“It’s nothing.” Li Qianxue was about to withdraw her hand, and Su Yuxin said, “On the journey here Mom had thought that you were already on the way to Rong City. It made her anxious she hurt her hand.”
“Don’t spout nonsense.” Li Qianxue gave Su Yuxin a knowing glance, and when she turned to face Su Qingsang, there was some concern on her face. “It’s nothing. Mom was just being careless. It has nothing to do with you.”
Su Qingsang bit her lip and looked at the wound that was no longer bleeding. In her memory, Li Qianxue had always been so elegant and calm.
It must have been the first time in her life that she had lost control that way.
“Mom, you didn’t have to do this. Rong City is not that far from Lin City. I would still have returned.”
“You would have come back?”
“Mm,” Su Qingsang nodded. “We had originally planned to do so, to celebrate the New Year with Huo Jinyao.”
Although she ultimately would have settled in Rong City in the future, at this time she felt she did not need to tell the whole truth to Li Qianxue.
“So you mean that you would still have come back to acknowledge me, wouldn’t you?”
“I would have come back to see you,” Su Qingsang looked at her expectantly. “I would have come back to see you, but if you didn’t know the truth, I wouldn’t have acknowledged you. I just wanted you to be happy.”
The fewer people knew, the happier they were. After all, they would not have any idea about what happened.
Li Qianxue wanted to cry again when she heard this. She held on to Su Qingsang’s hand tightly and refused to let go.
“I would only be happy if I acknowledged you. Qingsang, promise mom that you will not leave. Will you stay with mom?”
A moment’s doubt flashed across Su Qingsang’s eyes, and she turned to look at Huo Jinyao.
They’d planned to do this together. To return to Rong City together.
Before, because of Xiang Caiping, she did not accompany him back. Now, something else had to come up.
Huo Jinyao was different from her. As the eldest grandson of the Huo family, he still had a responsibility that rested on his shoulders. If she didn’t accompany him back like she said she would, she was afraid…
“Mom, I’m afraid I cannot,” Su Qingsang said with difficulty. “I promised Huo Jinyao that I would be with him for the festival. We didn’t go back when it was the Spring Festival. And now, if we don’t go back to the Lantern Festival, it would be hard to explain to his family.”
She was never a selfish person. It was natural for her to want to accommodate everyone’s wishes.
“You… You still want to go?” Li Qianxue was anxious. “I, I have just reconciled with you. We haven’t even had the time to chat properly, we…”
“That’s not a problem.” The person who spoke first was Huo Jinyao. “Qingsang, since your mother wishes you to stay, then you should stay. Stay with her and keep her company for a while.”
“But then…”
“I will return to Rong City by myself first,” Huo Jinyao winked at her. “You can rest assured that I will have everything taken care of.”
Su Qingsang knew what he meant by that. When he said that everything was going to be taken care of, it naturally included the matter of Xiang Caiping.
Oh yes. How could she even forget Xiang Caiping?
“Huo Jinyao.” Su Qingsang looked anxious. Just as she did not want to hurt Li Qianxue, she really did not want to hurt Xiang Caiping either.
Li Qianxue was innocent, but wasn’t Xiang Caiping just as blameless?
“You don’t even have to think about it.” Huo Jinyao stepped forward, stood next to her, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “Grandpa is a very rational person. He will understand.”
He squeezed her shoulders a little harder and gave her a knowing look. Within that move was a meaning that only Su Qingsang understood.
Su Qingsang’s lips moved to speak. “But your mother—”
“My mother will understand.” Huo Jinyao looked directly into her eyes when she spoke. “Even though she hasn’t been very well recently, you, a gynecologist and obstetrician, can’t help her much. I’d better call for an expert to see her. ”
“But then…”
“Relax, stay with your mother for a few days. As for my mother, I will, of course, make sure that she is well taken care of. If she asks me about you, I will say you have gone on an exchange program. Okay?”
Huo Jinyao had truly thought of everything, and Su Qingsang could not find the words to express her gratitude. “Then, then you…”
“I’ll leave tomorrow. Just in time to be with my grandpa for the holidays starting from the day after tomorrow. As for you, you can stay here for a few days.”
Su Qingsang’s lips had tightened into a straight line, and Li Qianxue grabbed her hand at that moment. “Look. Huo Jinyao agrees. Don’t go right now.”
“Okay.”
Su Qingsang could not resist in the end. In fact, deep inside, she knew that she wanted to stay.
Old Master Li and Su Yuxin breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. The mother and daughter had only just reconciled, and if she were to leave so soon, it would have been too…
It would be nice if Su Qingsang didn’t have to leave at all.
Su Yuxin was also relieved, as he should have been at school a long time ago. However, because of this incident with Su Qingsang, he had not yet reported at school.
Li Qianxue just felt that she had thousands of things to tell Su Qingsang, but when she really arrived at this meeting, she couldn’t even bring up a word.
Fortunately, it was a good thing that Su Qingsang didn’t know what to say either. The mother and daughter had almost no communication for so many years, and now they couldn’t even come up with a topic to start on.
There was no need to say anything, however. For Li Qianxue, it was enough to see Su Qingsang by her side. She was completely content.
The afternoon soon melted into the evening.
Some maids came and said it was time to eat. There had been such a ruckus in the house just now, but people still needed to be fed.
Li Qianxue pulled at Su Qingsang’s hand, wanting to share this meal with her. She unwittingly noticed that Su Chenghui was still standing in a corner. The temperature in the room seemed to lower once more.
…
