Chapter 091: Madam Su, a Pleasure!

Chapter 091: Madam Su, a Pleasure!

Madam Su always traveled with great ceremony, and this time was no exception.

The instant Su Qingying saw the motorcade coming, all the momentum of her anger drained out of her. Unease surfaced in her eyes, and she looked toward Wu Chen without meaning to.

He seemed to feel her gaze. He turned his head, glanced at her, blinked, gave her a look that said, Relax, and smiled faintly.

She did feel somewhat steadier for it.

But as the motorcade drew rapidly closer, the nerves inside her wouldn’t quiet. Her fear of her mother had been cultivated since childhood.

She was like the little elephant in the story, tethered by a rope from the time it was small. Day by day the little elephant grew until it was a full-grown elephant, and the rope stayed the same rope. All it had to do was pull hard and it would be free, and it didn’t dare. It believed it couldn’t. It believed the thing was beyond it.

There truly was something wrong inside Su Qingying.

And that something had been created by her mother, single-handedly.

Everyone had seen the Su family’s motorcade approaching, and everyone could guess who was inside—the Su-family people knew, and Li Ruobing could work it out. She drew a deep breath and brought her feelings into line.

She knew that confusing a few bodyguards was very easy. Madam Su was another matter altogether, and extremely hard to handle.

And Li Ruobing had no choice but to help Wu Chen and Su Qingying bury the truth completely. She even felt she was being a little cheap about it. Not only did she have to cover this incident, in the future she would have to keep covering for the two of them.

If they met in private and weren’t caught, fine. If they were caught, then she, Li Ruobing, would have to leap out and paper it over all over again.

Exhausting.

But Li Ruobing genuinely had no damned choice.

If she exposed what was between Wu Chen and Su Qingying, her own fake-couple arrangement with Wu Chen couldn’t stay buried either.

Wu Chen suddenly touched her arm and tilted his head to murmur beside her ear. “The bag in Su Qingying’s hand…”

Li Ruobing turned to look. Only then did she notice that Su Qingying had been carrying a small white paper bag the whole time, with words printed on it—Kangmei Pharmacy, among others.

The medicine Su Qingying had bought.

Whether from nerves or something else, she had not only brought it out of the pharmacy, she hadn’t put it in her bag either. She had simply been holding it, as though she couldn’t feel it there at all.

When a person was too deeply absorbed in worrying over something, it was entirely possible for them to forget what was in their own hand.

Granted, because what she’d bought was a “special medication,” the pharmacy had thoughtfully provided a privacy bag.

But if Madam Su came over, noticed it, and took it, that would be very bad.

Under no circumstances could Madam Su be the first to see what medicine was inside.

“Qingying, give me the medicine.” Li Ruobing gestured to her and smiled gently. “I’m so sorry to have troubled you. Making you run errands to buy my medicine.”

Su Qingying started, then caught up at once.

“It’s no trouble at all.” She took two steps to Li Ruobing’s side, handed over the paper bag, and added, “Thank you for helping me. So… it really isn’t any trouble.”

Li Ruobing turned that over.

Su Qingying had said helping her. Earlier she had also said something about what lay between her and her mother, about whether her mother was necessarily right. And Li Ruobing had heard how formidable Madam Su was at home, how even Su Ruiwen gave way to her, how exceptionally strict she was in disciplining her daughter.

As an outsider, Li Ruobing had no way of knowing how strict that discipline truly was.

But now, through Su Qingying’s words, she seemed to grasp a little of it. And she understood why Su Qingying was thanking her for the help.

Wu Chen had never told Li Ruobing how he’d taken Su Qingying and made her run from home.

Now Li Ruobing had guessed a piece of it herself.

Wu Chen saw no need to spell it out in that kind of detail, and there was no time for it. He judged that with the intelligence these two women possessed, if they couldn’t play off each other and make the story clear, then one of them had to be an imbecile.

The motorcade was almost at the alley entrance.

Wu Chen abruptly moved two steps to the side, hands in his pockets, looking entirely natural as he watched the cars come to a halt.

Because he had shifted, Su Qingying and Li Ruobing were left standing closer together, with Wu Chen a step apart.

Li Ruobing glanced at him, then moved the bag of medicine from her right hand to her left. With her right she hooked Su Qingying’s arm, and just like that the picture was made: intimate sisters.

“Can you hold up?” Li Ruobing tilted her head and murmured it to her. Her tone didn’t match her face at all—the question came out cool and clear, while the smile stayed put.

“I… can,” Su Qingying answered, though her voice didn’t carry much conviction.

“You feel your mother controls you too much, and you want to resist her. Is that right?” Li Ruobing whispered another question. She needed it confirmed. There could be no slip.

“Yes…” Su Qingying said.

“Then that’s enough. Leave it to me. Say as little as you can.” Li Ruobing’s tone carried the whole weight of Leave everything to me.

Su Qingying had never especially liked women with overpowering personalities, because her mother was one, and because she had felt such women hardly seemed like women at all. In that moment her thinking turned over completely. Even the way she looked at Li Ruobing changed a little.

Li Ruobing was forceful, domineering, unbending—which meant that just now she was solid as iron, a woman who could carry the weight of trouble.

The motorcade stopped at the alley entrance. A group of bodyguards got out.

One of them jogged to the door of the Mercedes-Maybach in the middle, pulled it open, and raised a hand to shield the doorframe as he welcomed the occupant out.

Madam Su stepped from the car.

She was a middle-aged woman with glossy black hair, very well maintained, close to fifty yet looking no more than in her mid-forties. Her hair was pinned up in a style faintly dated yet exquisite, combed meticulously with not a strand out of place. She wore a proper, solemn black gown with a shawl. On her hands were an emerald ring and a pigeon-egg diamond ring, and she carried a diamond-studded handbag.

Graceful, opulent, and full of presence.

She was very beautiful. Even at nearly fifty, even with time’s marks on her face—some of her beauty taken and a few degrees of gravity and elegance given back—it was still plain that she was very beautiful.

In her youth, she must have been outstandingly beautiful.

Of course she had to be beautiful.

Otherwise she could never have given birth to a daughter as fairy-like as Su Qingying. Su Qingying’s face could be said to have inherited every one of her parents’ advantages and not a single flaw. Mother and daughter truly did look very much alike.

When Madam Su first stepped out, her expression was cold, with a trace of irritation in it. And then she paused.

Because she saw her daughter standing arm in arm with the Li family’s eldest granddaughter, apparently even whispering with her.

As for Wu Chen—the man whose photograph she had seen, Li Ruobing’s boyfriend—although he stood off to one side, there was a sense of the outsider about him. He showed no closeness with her daughter at all.

What was going on?

Doubt moved through Madam Su again. She had felt it before, from the moment she learned that the man who had taken her daughter away was Li Ruobing’s boyfriend.

Li Ruobing’s boyfriend, coming to abduct her daughter—turn it over however you liked and it made no sense.

She knew a great many people coveted her daughter’s looks and her family’s standing. But Li Ruobing’s boyfriend? Would he dare do anything so reckless? Was he not afraid Li Ruobing would tear him apart alive?

Could there be some misunderstanding?

And the scene in front of her now happened to confirm exactly the misunderstanding she had suspected.

Perhaps it truly was one.

But it also produced a new problem, and a larger one.

The bodyguards’ report had stated that Wu Chen not only embraced Su Qingying, he had struck Su Qingying’s bottom. Which was—

That had to be investigated to the bottom.

“Qingying! Absurd!” Madam Su came over from the car, looked at her daughter first, and spoke rather sternly.

Su Qingying said nothing.

Madam Su then turned toward Li Ruobing. In the instant her head came around, a warm and natural smile appeared on her face, and she put out her hand first. “Miss Li, it’s been a long time.”

“A long time. And Madam Su is as radiant as ever.” Li Ruobing shook her hand and smiled politely.

Madam Su looked next at Wu Chen.

“Mr. Wu, is it? A pleasure to meet you.” And as she said it, she actually extended her hand to him as well.

“Madam Su, a pleasure.” Wu Chen shook her hand and smiled.