Chapter 093: No Need for Thanks

Chapter 093: No Need for Thanks

It was Li Ruobing who had sent Wu Chen to take Su Qingying away. That was Madam Su’s guess, and she felt it was probably right—otherwise there was no explaining Li Ruobing’s current attitude. So she asked it outright.

“Madam Su, first I need to correct your wording.” Seated across from her, Li Ruobing spoke with perfect composure. “My boyfriend did not forcibly take your daughter anywhere. Miss Qingying and I had arranged to meet. Something came up for me at the last minute, so I asked my boyfriend to go and pick her up.”

“That’s right! Miss Ruobing and I had an appointment.” From the sofa chair off to one side, Su Qingying spoke up at once.

Madam Su’s eyes cut toward her and fixed there.

Su Qingying wilted on the spot. She looked ill at ease, and she didn’t dare say anything more.

“Oh, is that so?” Madam Su turned back to Li Ruobing. “Then why do I hear that it was Mr. Wu who dragged my daughter off by force?”

“Madam Su, your daughter isn’t a doll. If she’d truly been forced, wouldn’t she have called for help?”

“Perhaps my daughter was taken in by sweet words. Sold off and helping count the money.”

“Your daughter is twenty-seven. She isn’t some sheltered girl with no experience of the world. Do you honestly think that’s possible, Madam Su? Being taken in?”

“My daughter is too kind.”

Madam Su and Li Ruobing looked at each other.

Neither woman’s tone carried a trace of heat, yet a handful of lines in they were already going at each other point for point.

Madam Su never asked Su Qingying what had actually happened.

She wouldn’t even let Su Qingying speak.

Because she knew her daughter had already defected. Her daughter would not speak for her side.

And she was not going to lay the blame on her own daughter in front of outsiders.

Because then the fault would be Su Qingying’s.

And then whom else could she blame?

Then there would be no quarrel left to pick. Certain questions would become impossible to ask.

“Madam Su, don’t you want to know why I arranged to meet your daughter?” Li Ruobing changed course abruptly and put the question straight to her.

“Please, Miss Li. I’m all ears.” Madam Su gestured with the hand that held her teacup, then took an elegant sip, her gaze staying on Li Ruobing, still without heat.

“The truth is…” Li Ruobing paused before going on. “The Su family’s affairs are nothing to do with me. I had no wish to get involved. But Miss Qingying has told me privately, more than once, that she envies me very much. That she wants to become someone like me. A woman who loses to no one, who can decide her own life, who can succeed in business the way a man can.”

“Miss Qingying and I have a great deal in common. In many ways she is more outstanding than I am. But she has no life of her own. I don’t know whether Madam Su understands what I mean by that.”

As she spoke, Li Ruobing sat up much straighter, leaned forward slightly, and fixed her eyes on Madam Su. “Miss Qingying isn’t a living, breathing person at all. She’s a marionette you’ve dressed with such care. A puppet who can’t even decide how many bowls of rice she eats.”

Madam Su’s expression changed at once. She turned her head toward Su Qingying.

What exactly had her own daughter told this outsider? Everything? Had she told her everything?

Su Qingying avoided her mother’s eyes.

“Miss Li.” Madam Su looked back at her, her face far more severe now. “Forgive my bluntness, but you are an outsider. Stay out of my family’s affairs. Please conduct yourself with propriety.”

Madam Su had turned hard in an instant.

“I already said it has nothing to do with me, and that I had no wish to get involved.” Li Ruobing didn’t flinch from her. “But Miss Qingying has told me too many times that she hoped I could help her. Perhaps because I can feel it as she does. In my own family I once went through something similar. I nearly wasn’t allowed to decide my own marriage.”

“So when I met Miss Qingying today, all I wanted was…