Chapter 098: The Second Option

Chapter 098: The Second Option

Su Qingying had listened to nearly the whole exchange between Wu Chen and Li Ruobing in a daze.

Not that she’d understood none of it. When Wu Chen said things like kneel and not make things difficult for her, she didn’t know the story behind them, but she could follow the plain meaning.

Mostly she was lost because she had no idea what the two of them were arguing about.

What had been said at the start?

Something about Wu Chen making trouble, and Li Ruobing advising him, stopping him, telling him he was messing around.

“Qingying…” Wu Chen looked at her and spoke.

“Honey, just now the two of you were… and something about my mother… what were you actually talking about?” she asked.

“That isn’t important.” Wu Chen smiled, then gestured. “Qingying, sit across from me. I have a multiple-choice question for you.”

Her brows drew together slightly. She was very puzzled.

She walked around and sat down opposite him, the table between them.

Li Ruobing stood at the side of the table with her arms folded, expressionless and silent, watching.

“Go on, answer me first.” Wu Chen looked at her. “When you go back tomorrow morning, how do you plan to face your mother’s blame for running away from home without permission? She’ll still lecture you, won’t she?”

“I…” Su Qingying opened her mouth and stopped. Across that dreamlike, exquisite face came difficulty and nerves. It was subconscious. Her fear of her mother had soaked into her bones.

“I will. I’ll resist her. I’ll reason with her. What she did is wrong. I’m going to list every mistake she’s made over the years, one by one, all of them—” After being “talked through things” by Wu Chen, Su Qingying truly was far bolder than before. But that boldness reached only as far as producing the idea of daring to resist her mother.

An idea alone was worth nothing. She had no actual capacity to resist.

Once she was home, Madam Su would likely only have to scold her twice before she wilted.

Su Qingying’s greatest problem, in truth, was a lack of confidence. No confidence, no faith. Once that flare of spirit passed, it was over.

If she had confidence, if she could be a little shameless, a little unreasonable, could simply refuse to listen no matter what, then Madam Su might not actually be able to do much to her. She was, after all… the Su family’s only heir.

“Do you think you can reason with your mother at home?” Wu Chen asked.

Su Qingying stopped speaking at once.

What reason was there to discuss? The problem wasn’t unique to the Su family. Far too many families were like this. Forget reasoning with parents at home.

“There’s no way, is there?” he asked again.

She still said nothing. Her expression fell considerably.

Because she knew perfectly well herself. She could think about it, and she could act on it, but the final result… would most likely be failure.

“I have two options here, and they decide whether I make this call.” Wu Chen lifted his phone in illustration. On the screen the dial pad held the eleven-digit number, ready. All that remained was to place the call.

“First option. I don’t make this call. Nothing happens. You go back on time tomorrow, and then… you return to your old life. From now on we can only meet in secret. As your father’s health gets worse and worse, they’ll certainly arrange more blind dates and go on recruiting a live-in son-in-law. You’ll refuse, and they’ll go on pressing you.”

“If any man meets the requirements and is also willing to accept your family’s conditions and marry into the Su family, I’ll make him vanish from the face of the earth. But at home… you’ll always have to face that pressure. And this situation won’t end even after your father passes away. Because although your father’s health is poor, your mother is in very good health. Extremely healthy. At home she’ll still be the Empress Dowager. By the time you reach fifty, the age of knowing Heaven’s mandate, you may well still be living in the shadow of a…