Grandma? Grandma?! Grandma!! What grandma?! Wasn’t Zhi Li’s grandmother already…
Lan Yin’s words kept flashing through Ke Bu’s mind. Zhi Li’s grandmother had died when he was very young. It had been horrible. She had dementia or some other illness, and her mind hadn’t been clear. She would go out every day and pick garbage off the ground to eat, and in the end she was hit by a car.
For a while, Ke Bu had genuinely worried about Zhi Li. Every time Zhi Li mentioned his grandmother, Ke Bu would sometimes even use his own body to soothe what he thought was Zhi Li’s wound. In the end, he had been acting like an idiot, doing so much for an injury that didn’t even exist… Zhi Li almost never lied. What had been wrong with Ke Bu back then that made him believe Lan Yin? But who would joke about something like that? She had even described Zhi Li’s grandmother’s death in such a miserable way. Everyone said relationships between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law could be terrible, but surely they couldn’t be that terrible. She was still an elder, after all.
“I’ve been living abroad all this time. Did all of you decide I was dead? Zuo Si clearly divorced that slut Lan Yin, so why did he remarry her? That alone has given me enough headaches, and now you’re adding more trouble for your grandmother. Just look at the kind of thing you’re with.” How could she call his mother that in front of her own grandchild? Ke Bu was stunned by the word. The owner of the voice remained unseen, and it seemed to come from every direction. There was no anger in it, yet it carried an indescribable pressure. Ke Bu drew his body in unconsciously. The person he was about to face wasn’t ordinary. She was Zhi Zuo Si’s mother. Zhi Li’s biological grandmother. The person Lan Yin despised.
“Grandma, you do know you’re old, right? How exactly are you planning to fight me?” Zhi Li seemed able to locate where the voice was coming from and stared fixedly in one direction.
“Is that so? You know I’m old too. Then how exactly are you planning to fight me? Maybe if you aren’t careful, I’ll be angered to death or harmed to death. And then, Zhi Li, you and your precious relationship can spend the rest of your lives beneath that shadow. Or you can be decisive and build your great love on top of my corpse right now.”
The student council members slowly moved aside. In those brief seconds, Ke Bu had already imagined what Zhi Li’s grandmother might look like. With the Zhi family’s genes, she would surely look much younger than her real age, and much more beautiful.
As it turned out, genetics were a very strange thing, apparently capable of producing almost anything at random. The person who appeared in front of Ke Bu was simply an ordinary old woman. She even seemed older than her actual age. She resembled the kind and benevolent grandmothers in advertisements. She smiled, her eyes narrowing into thin lines. Her entire body looked so frail that it was frightening, as though even a gentle touch might place an enormous burden on her.
“Youth has the advantages of youth, and age has the advantages of age. It’s been a long time, my good grandson. I left when you were still very small. After that, I only kept in touch with you through video calls, but I couldn’t tell through a screen that you had grown this tall.” She raised one trembling hand and took hold of Zhi Li’s arm.
The thought of fighting against an old woman like this suddenly stripped Ke Bu of all confidence. Even her breathing sounded weak. Ke Bu was afraid to say anything harsh to her. If Zhi Li’s grandmother died because of him, Ke Bu didn’t dare imagine that possibility. It was too frightening. Far too frightening.
“Let’s get to the point, Grandma. I don’t believe you traveled all this way just to offer me your life as a greeting gift.”
“Then why don’t we test that? Why do you think I know about you? I may have been abroad, but I’ve always known what was happening here. I thought you were only playing around. Then you turned out to be serious. I figured that if I didn’t show up soon, you’d end the Zhi family line. You’re the only heir of our Zhi family. If that thing could give birth to children, your grandmother wouldn’t have needed to make this trip.”
Zhi Li is the only heir? Then what about Zhi Xiao Ke and Zhi Xiao Xun? Are they descendants of Zhi Li’s grandfather’s brothers? Ke Bu realized that he had really spent all his time simply being with Zhi Li and knew far too little about Zhi Li’s family. That meant Zhi Li’s grandmother had only one son, Zhi Zuo Si, and Zhi Zuo Si only had one son, Zhi Li. Had Ke Bu destroyed a bloodline like that? This was another thing Ke Bu never dared think about. He had always refused to mention or think about children, as though the problem would cease to exist if he never acknowledged it. When his little brother was born, he had genuinely felt relieved. But what about the Zhi family? What was the Zhi family supposed to do? I can’t let something like this shake me. Absolutely not. Ke Bu silently made up his mind.
“No matter what happens, I won’t let you touch Ke Bu.”
“Then…” Her eyes, normally narrowed into thin lines, opened slightly. “Protect your Ke Bu by stepping over your grandmother’s corpse. Ji Lei.”
At some point, Bao Ji Lei had already moved behind Ke Bu while his thoughts were in chaos. She wrapped an arm tightly around his throat. Her strength was machine-like too. Pain shot through Ke Bu’s neck, and he struggled to breathe. Anger flared in Zhi Li’s eyes, but his grandmother, Liu Qing, stepped directly between them. Zhi Li easily moved past her, but when his shoulder brushed against hers, her entire body fell to the ground and her face turned pale. Bao Ji Lei released Ke Bu, whose face had gone pale as well. Ke Bu would rather this elderly woman had been pretending.
Zhi Li stood between Ke Bu and his grandmother. Ke Bu imagined what he himself would feel if he were standing in Zhi Li’s position. Family and lover. One of them had to be hurt. One of them had to be chosen. Even though Ke Bu knew this was a tactic Zhi Li’s grandmother was using, no argument could erase two facts: Liu Qing was an elderly woman, and she was Zhi Li’s grandmother. If someone could ignore everything, every person and every other consideration, simply by saying, I love him, wouldn’t that kind of love be frightening too?
Ke Bu helped Liu Qing to her feet. His palms could feel the genuine frailty of her body.
“You’re trying to move this old woman with your kindness?”
“I’m not as naive as you think. If the people in your family could be moved by kindness, everything would be much easier. I just don’t want to make things difficult for Zhi Li. Grandma, I’m the same as you. I only think about Zhi Li. It’s all for Zhi Li…” Before he could finish, Liu Qing gave a humiliating cold laugh. Ke Bu couldn’t guess what she was going to say next, but he knew her words would overturn everything he had just said.
The major disaster that had been late in arriving had finally come.
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