Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Liu Ronghua slowed down as she looked toward Ruan Keshan in shades, a completely elegant presentation from that man.
She had met Ruan Keshan when she was much younger in B city. She bore quite the resemblance toward Ruan Keshan and assuming he was older now and at this age, she might not have too much of a difference to him, perhaps she assumed she might even look better than Ruan Keshan did.
Liu Ronghua shivered as she took a deep breath before she stopped right in front of Ruan Keshan and Chen Mingxia.
“Do you still remember us, Miss Liu?” Chen Mingxia asked with a smile while nodding her head.
“Mr. and Mrs. Ruan.” Liu Ronghua greeted the duo calmly.
“Let’s look for a spot to sit down for a bit, what do you think?” Chen Mingxia suggested.
Remaining silent, Liu Ronghua simply nodded in response as she got into the car along with Chen Mingxia.
Parked behind Ruan Keshan’s Passat was a Z4 as Chang Jingqiu watched Liu Ronghua entered a stranger’s car. Feeling suspicious by the whole situation, her eyebrows twitched as she wondered about who could those two strangers be?
Judging by the elegance of these two people, these two people looked nothing like a married couple from a rural farming village.
Upon receiving Liu Ronghua’s call last night, Chang Jingqiu grew increasingly restless as if sensing something was off. she planned to meet up with Liu Ronghua today just to discuss the matter at hand initially, however, never did she expected to witness this scene.
This was all due to the anxious tone through Liu Ronghua’s voice from the phone call last night. It felt as if whoever Liu Ronghua had crossed paths with, would undoubtedly be related to that woman since she never hesitated even for a second before entering that car.
They stopped at a restaurant as Chang Jingqiu noticed the odd expression on Liu Ronghua’s face while getting out of the car. Hence, she squinted her eyes and proceeded to follow behind them.
As they entered the restaurant, she overheard the two strangers requested for a private room and thus the waiter spoke through the intercom to have them led into their private room. Chang Jingqiu noted the room number as she got seated in the main hall, she ordered some random dishes from the menu then proceeded to look for that private room.
She waited outside the room after she had found where the room was located at. It never took long for a waiter to walk out that room. Upon noticing that she instantly stopped that waiter.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” The waiter asked politely while remaining suspicious.
Without saying a word, Chang Jingqiu took out a few banknotes from her purse, without counting the total amount, she proceeded to stuff the notes into the waiter’s hand.
“Ma’am, what is the meaning of this?” The waiter was shocked, after looking at both directions to make sure the coast was clear, the waiter returned the money to Chang Jingqiu.
However, Chang Jingqiu stopped the waiter’s hand and simply whispered, “If you’re determined to struggle with me, it’ll be obvious for someone to notice our exchange. So why don’t you keep the money when the coast is still clear at the moment.”
The waiter glanced over at every direction nervously and proceeded to swiftly stuff the cash into his pocket after crumpling the cash into a ball.
“I’ll need you to lend me your phone for a bit.” Chang Jingqiu said in a commanding tone.
As a lady of the Chang family, she was used to ordering people around, plus, the waiter had accepted her bribe, so there was no need for her to hold back.
Unaware of what her purpose was, however, since the waiter had actually taken the money; and even though it was forcefully given by Chang Jingqiu, but after she had sneakily counted the money, and noting it was at least one thousand Yuan which amounted to a fortnight’s worth of his monthly pay, hence he never refused the money.
After hearing what Chang Jingqiu had said, he promptly handed her his phone.
Using the waiter’s phone to call her number, she never hung up after the call was connected. Chang Jingqiu said, “You’ll find a reason to walk in that room again, have the call be set to loudspeaker mode and place it in an inconspicuous spot. I want to know what they are talking about inside.”
The waiter hesitated for a moment, however, Chang Jingqiu continued, “After they had left, I’ll give you the same amount you’ve received earlier.”
The waiter pondered for a moment as he thought since the phone was placed in an inconspicuous spot, so it would not be discovered anyway. Thus, the waiter agreed.
After setting her call to loudspeaker mode, the waiter proceeded to push the door open and entered the room. While serving tea to the guests; using the opening he had when he placed the flask back, he proceeded to hide the phone behind the flask.
He nodded to Chang Jingqiu upon exiting the room, signaling everything had been done accordingly.
And thus, Chang Jingqiu requested for a room next to her target room. She proceeded to enter the room after the waiter placed the food she had ordered earlier on the table.
…
“Miss. Liu, you seem well in recent years.” Chen Mingxia said with a smile.
Ruan Keshan said only a few words, besides anything that held any correlation with the professional career-wise, he seemed held back when he had to talk about anything else. He left his wife in charge of the small talk.
“Big brother and his wife didn’t seem to change much after all these years.” Liu Ronghua smiled compassionately.
Ruan Keshan was stunned as Chen Mingxia’s expression looked slightly cold. She said, “Miss. Liu, it seemed inappropriate for you to address him like that, we still have our siblings, the ones who were dead too were our siblings, Miss. Liu, you’re a friend to our brother and our siblings. You shouldn’t address them as big brother and his wife. ”
Ruan Keshan nodded as he seemed slightly at ease after hearing what his wife had just said.
Liu Ronghua’s smile seemed slightly stiff, she said, “That’s not what I meant, it was only due to the great relationship with Keyu, and since his elder brother would too be mine as well and so, I’ve decided to address him as such. It was just like regular friends, isn’t it the most natural thing to do when addressing the other person’s family? However…Since Madam Ruan doesn’t seem to like it then, I’ll stop doing so.”
Chen Mingxia nodded in response and said, “I’d prefer to not cause any unwanted misunderstandings to anyone.”
Liu Ronghua never expected the hostility from Chen Mingxia, her lips twitched a little before saying, “It’s still unclear to me for the purpose of today’s meeting by the both of you…?”
Chen Mingxia never replied her, simply saying, “My brother died on that day, both my brother and sister died due to a miscarriage, the whereabouts of the niece that left us behind was unknown. We’ve never stopped looking all these years. The hospital staff told us back then, when our brother and sister were giving birth, a friend was accompanying her by her side, and that friend, was you, Miss. Liu.”
Ruan Keshan remained silent, even though he never enjoyed social interaction much, he was not a fool. Back then, there was never a mention of the identity of that person by any staff of the hospital. He knew the purpose of Chen Mingxia to have made such a claim was merely only to trick Liu Ronghua.
As expected, Liu Ronghua’s expression changed slightly. She never expected Ruan Keshan and Chen Mingxia to have known about that.
Ruan Keshan could no longer hold back his rash emotions, his entire body was leaned forward violently while tightly gripping the edge of the table with his dominant hand. He was bombarding with series and waves of questions, “Then where’s the child? Keyu’s child, where is the child now? ”
Liu Ronghua was seemingly startled by that sudden outburst as she recoiled backwards while pressing her hands against her chest, she said, “I do not know as well. ”
“How could you not know? Weren’t you by her side back then?” Ruan Keshan could not contain his frustration, it seemed by the looks of his reaction, he was at the brink of grabbing onto Liu Ronghua and violently shake het around, as if shaking the entire truth of the event out of her mouth.
“I seriously do not know!” Liu Ronghua replied with a pale look on her face, as she was at the brink of tears.
Her lips were mumbling something, since she saw Ruan Keyu’s sister in law, hence causing Liu Ronghua to be extremely uncomposed. Her natural dense and slow mind could not keep up with the current turn of events and thus she was easily tricked into confession by Chen Mingxia.
Even till this very moment, Liu Ronghua could not believe Chen Mingxia had tricked her.
However after seeing how frantic Ruan Keshan’s reaction was, her mind was slightly cleared and thus she realized it was Chen Mingxia who had tricked her.
Perhaps someone recalled seeing her at the scene, however, no one actually asked for her name.
Liu Ronghua remained silent as she hid behind her crying facade. She recalled that event several times in her head and it was true that not a single person had asked for her name, on top of how chaotic that situation was back then, it would be impossible for Ruan Keshan and Chen Mingxia to have known that person present on that very same day was her.
The only problem was, she had already admitted it was her, thus there was nothing she could say to take it all back.
Liu Ronghua wiped her tears, while in her uncomposed bawling voice she said, “When the child was born, Ruan Keyu was not present by her side; the doctor came out to inform him of that grim and unfortunate news of Yuehuan had passed due to a miscarriage, then the nurse carried the child into the newborn’s room, hence, how was it even possible for me to be involved? I was only thinking about, no one could deny Keyu the chance to say his final goodbyes to Yuehuan, and thus, I went out of my way to look for him. However, when I had arrived at the first floor, I was only greeted by the chaotic state of the hospital, it was filled with all sorts of injured patients, even the door was backed up by several ambulances. It was only then had I found out about the explosion in the (Uni’s lab).”
As Liu Ronghua spoke, she had completely dissolved into a puddle of tears, she was apologizing repeatedly while picking up a piece of tissue to wipe away her tears. After a brief whimper, she continued, “At that very moment, I was in a panicked state and my first response was to call Keyu immediately, praying with all my heart for Keyu to be fine. The child had already lost its mother, it can’t lose its father too at the same time…”
The sheer mention of Ruan Keyu was enough to completely break Liu Ronghua as she was bawling her eyes out at this point. She said, “However, the phone call I made to Keyu, no matter how many times I’ve tried, it never went through. At that moment, I could feel something awful had happened, however, I kept telling myself to stop thinking irrationally, Keyu will be okay and he will be absolutely fine! HoweverI was afraid to find Keyu amongst the victims, I don’t want him to get hurt. However, I was also worried, if he wasn’t amongst the victims, then would he… would he be… I was conflicted by all my thoughts, if he was in amongst the victims, at least there was still hope. However, I was too afraid to check the list of names of the people who were deceased that were being put up by the hospital; however, reluctantly, I’ve decided I had to take a look at it and I never expected… his name was actually in it. I’ve found Ruan Keyu’s name in that list.”
It was almost as if Liu Ronghua could not bear the weight of that memory as she hid her face in both her palms and proceeded to sob.
“Don’t just focus on your sobbing! Then what happened to that child?” even if Ruan Keshan was known for his patience, he could not stand Liu Ronghua’s current attitude.
“Even till this very day, I still very much think about, what would it be like if he was still alive today. It was only till today, after meeting you, I’ve truly felt, he would probably more or less be just like you.” Liu Ronghua covered her face and spoke through her sobbing tone.
Ruan Keshan was extremely impatient since she was talking about completely unrelated things!
Liu Ronghua proceeded to bawl for a good long while, her bawling had even caused Chang Jingqiu who was eavesdropping through her phone in the room next to them to be tempted to give Liu Ronghua a kick.
After half a day had passed, Liu Ronghua said while still sobbing and wiping away her tears, “There was nothing after that, that poor child, losing both its parents on the very same day, I kept thinking, as Keyu and Yuehuan’s good friend, I had to shoulder her responsibility, or perhaps bring the child to you both. And thus, I’ve returned, however, I could no longer find that child. I’ve failed both Keyu and Yuehuan.”
Liu Ronghua proceeded to begin crying once more as she spoke.
Chang Jingqiu’s entire body trembled as she was uncertain if it was all a coincidence. [It had to be a coincidence, it must be!]
Even though they had never truly met, however, she often heard both Madam Chang and Chang Zhiyuan mentioned about the event.
Her mother was called, Chang Yuehuan.
This had to be a coincidence for the name to math.
It was quite often that she asked about Chang Yuehuan’s matter to Madam Chang, however, Madam Chang refused to tell her and made the answer extremely vague.
Merely only told her that her mother had died from a plaguing ailment when she was very little and had no memories yet. Her father abandoned her mother and had left the country and thus, there was no news about that man ever since.
It was from this point, the events do not seem to line up with what Liu Ronghua said about the fate of that Yuehuan person.
If that was not true, why was Liu Ronghua so certain about she not being the lady of the Chang family?
Chang Jingqiu’s mind was in shambles to the extent of the dishes that was right in front of her seemed extremely unappetising and disgusting to her.
“How was it possible for you to not know, don’t lie to us! ” Ruan Keshan frantically said. This was the first time Chen Mingxia had seen Ruan Keshan had an outburst of fury of this magnitude from when they first met till when they got married.
“You were the only one present back then, who else would’ve known if it weren’t for you? Miss. Liu, we had been searching for my brother’s daughter for 27 years. We had always been searching, my brother only had a daughter and we very much wish to truly care for her, to not let struggle in so much sorrow. She was the only… bloodline my brother have left.” Ruan Keshan said as the edge of his eyes were red, he was unsure as to why he could not believe anything Liu Ronghua had said.
“If you know anything, please tell me, alright, we’re begging you!” Ruan Keshan’s voice was shaky and coarse and a slight hint of sobbing.
Ruan Keshan was reacting so frantically as if there was more for him to say, his trembling hands were being pushed down by Chen Mingxia.
Pressing against the back of his hands, Chen Mingxia said, “Madam Liu, do you like Keyu?”
Liu Ronghua was stunned, as she lifted that messy, teary eyes all while sobbing, she looked directly at Chen Mingxia, she said, “What… what did you say?”
Chen Mingxia could not smile at this very moment, the only thing she could do was to allow her expression to be slightly gentle, she said, “We’re both women, so I could tell. When you followed both Ruan Keyu and Yuehuan to B City to have fun with us back then, the way you look at Keyu, as long as Keyu was present with the way you act. Also, you would always find some ways to spend some time alone with Keyu. It didn’t matter if Keyu and Yuehuan were having a picture together, you wanted to join in too.”
Liu Ronghua held onto her chin without saying a word, and thus, Chen Mingxia continued saying, “Keyu and Yuehuan both treated you as a friend, nothing more than that. My little uncle has always been immature, hence he has poured his entire focus on Yuehuan and was indeed blinded to anyone else. So it’s only natural for him to not notice what your heart thinks. However, as a spectator from the sidelines, I can see very clearly.”
“Why are you telling me all these?” Liu Ronghua squeezed onto the tissue tightly.
Judging from her lack of denial, Chen Mingxia continued, “I do not know how much feelings you have left for Keyu, perhaps you had already moved on, but at the very least, you’ve loved him once. How could you have the heart to leave the whereabouts of his child unknown? We’re still his relatives, could you bear for that child to not even have anyone related to her?”
Liu Ronghua violently stood up, as she had almost toppled the chair over.
“I don’t know, I seriously do not know!” Liu Ronghua reacted with an extreme outburst.
“Miss Liu…” Chen Mingxia stood up as well, seemingly worried she might escape and thus, she intended to stop her.
Liu Ronghua yelled out as she was at the brink of breaking, “I honestly do not know, there’s no use for you both to continue forcing me. I am clueless to what happened, why must the both of you be so adamant in forcing me!”
Unsure how the seemingly weak and frail Liu Ronghua gained the strength to burst out that door.
Chen Mingxia was standing by the door, however, she was shoved aside by Liu Ronghua, she tripped over and violently smashed onto the table behind her.
A loud, reverberating ‘bang’ was echoed through the hidden phone, startling Chang Jingqiu and thus, she picked up her phone and made her escape.
Since it was through the conversation she eavesdropped through her phone, Chang Jingqiu could see Liu Ronghua bolted out the door when she slowly inched the door from her room opened.
There was no need for the use of her phone to listen in onto the conversation, the door in the room next to her was not shut; all she did was stand by the door and she could very clearly hear the conversation Ruan Keshan and Chen Mingxia had while he grabbed onto her, “How are you, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Chen Mingxia was slightly sore from that stumble as she shook her head while frowning.
Without the both of them noticing, Chang Jingqiu rushed out to catch up with Liu Ronghua while leaving two red banknotes on the counter as she left.
Liu Ronghua dared not to hail a cab in front of the restaurant as she was worried that Ruan Keshan and Chen Mingxia would follow behind and thus, she kept running forward. Before she could cross the road, she was stopped by a Z4.
Liu Ronghua was startled by that as she was forced to stop. However, she noticed Chang Jingqiu as the side windows were lowered.
“Get in” Chang Jingqiu said with a forceful tone.
There was no more tears on Liu Ronghua’s face, as only the edge of her eyes were slightly red. She pouted a little before entering the car.
Chang Jingqiu brought Liu Ronghua to a rural lake park far from the city. The natural scenery of this park was stunning. When the weather was great, plenty of people would bring the entire family out for a jog and a picnic. When it was winter, a thick layer of ice would form on the surface of the lake and plenty of people would ice skate on its surface.
The only thing was, the weather was warming up, however it was still slightly brisk. It was too brisk to play outdoors and the layer of ice on the lake had thawed, it was an awkward weather to be in, thus the lack of people present in this park. It seemed slightly calm and silent at this moment.
After she had parked her car, Chang Jingqiu remained silent for a while as her thoughts were in complete utter chaos and she had no clue where to start.
After taking a couple deep breaths and gradually calming herself down, she said, “Those two people earlier, the Yuehuan they speak of, is she my mother?”
“No.” Liu Ronghua seemingly answered without any shroud of hesitation. She answered the instant Chang Jingqiu had finished asking.
Chang Jingqiu breathed a sigh of relief. She knew everything was nothing more than a mere coincidence.
However, she heard Liu Ronghua continued to speak, “You’re not the true lady of the Chang family, how could Chang Yuehuan possibly be your mother?”
She gasped as soon as her sigh was released, Chang Jingqiu’s face was slightly contorted as her body was trembling. She said, “That means, the Chang Yuehuan those two speak of, was the actual deceased member of the Chang family?”
“What is going on?” Chang Jingqiu suddenly punched the steering wheel causing a loud, high pitched blare of the car horn.
Liu Ronghua released her seatbelt, facing her back to the door as she took her high heels off while straddling her seat with both her legs, relaxing.
“Chang Yuehuan, the lady of the Chang family. Those two people earlier were Ruan Keshan and his wife, Chen Mingxia. Ruan Keshan’s father was chief of the. Hospital. An extremely respected man.” Liu Ronghua never stared directly at Chang Jingqiu as her gaze drifted slightly to the scenery outside the windshield.
The lake was not calm as the wind kicked up waves of water and it was all due to that, the calm and clear waters of the lake could not reflect the scenery around it.
Liu Ronghua lowered the side windows while taking a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out her bag. She then proceeded to light a cigarette after she took one out of the box.
She squinted her eyes and took a deep breath, then spitting out a cloud of smoke. There was no worry seen through her eyes, as if she was getting lost in her memories.
She slowly said, “His brother, however, Ruan Keyu was studying in J University with Chang Yuehuan back then. At that point in the timeline, Ruan Keyu was studying to be a researcher as a professor. While he was studying, he worked as the school’s teaching assistant. Ruan Keyu was extremely famous in that school, unlike the worthless students who only cared to play basketball or perhaps the president of the student representative council which in turn gave him plenty of attention. No, instead, Ruan Keyu was extremely low profile at that time, his wit and intelligence was what that stood out for him the most, along with his elegant, amazing looks. He was truly a man of great precedence.”
Liu Ronghua was seemingly lost in her memories, longing for the good old days as if Ruan Keyu was actually standing in front of her, facing his back to the sun as he slowly walked toward her. There was a slight grin at the edge of her mouth.
