“Really?” Liu Qing’s calm, sharp eyes fixed tightly on Ke Bu. “Is it really for his sake, or for your own? Keeping him beside someone like you, making sure he can never have children, making him oppose his own family, that’s all for his sake? Has Lan Yin never opposed you? Has Zuo Si never opposed you? Was there anyone in our family who accepted you from the very beginning? All this time, you’ve put Zhi Li in the most difficult position while constantly saying you don’t want to make things difficult for him. You…” Zhi Li placed both hands over Ke Bu’s ears and stared at Liu Qing. “Grandma, you’re not me. Isn’t it a little strange to lecture him from my point of view?”
“Are we going to stand here trading words all day? My body can’t hold up for that long.” Liu Qing raised a hand like an empress dowager, and Bao Ji Lei stepped forward to support her.
“What do you want to do?”
“You’re my good grandson. Since he’s someone you like, Grandma would still prefer not to hurt him physically if possible. His body may not be able to bear children, but Grandma doesn’t want to be that unreasonable.”
“Grandma, stop talking in circles.”
“Let me speak with Ke Bu alone.”
“No.” Zhi Li rejected the idea without even thinking. Liu Qing maintained her kindly, benevolent expression. “I said I won’t lay a hand on him, so I won’t. I won’t let anyone else touch him either. Are you afraid I’ll convince him to give you up? My, my, then that would…” Every word was thick with mockery.
“All right. I want to speak with you too.” Ke Bu made the decision on his own. Zhi Li turned his head, but before Ke Bu could meet his gaze, Ke Bu spoke first. “Don’t be angry with me. If we’re only talking, I can handle it. Besides…”
“You don’t know anything.” Zhi Li was still angry. He rarely became angry this easily. But Ke Bu was so confident. He didn’t believe anyone could persuade him to give up Zhi Li. He loved Zhi Li so, so much. He loved everything about him. How could anyone possibly persuade him that easily? Ke Bu remained calm. “Who says she’ll be the one doing the persuading? Zhi Li, leave this to me. It’s a perfect chance to see the results of all those years you spent training me.”
Zhi Li only looked deeply at Ke Bu. He didn’t know why there was pleading in Ke Bu’s eyes, nor did he know what Ke Bu was trying to prove to him. Zhi Li didn’t need anyone’s approval, and he didn’t need to prove anything to anyone. He only wanted Ke Bu. This had nothing to do with whether he trusted him or not. He simply wasn’t willing to risk even the smallest possibility of losing Ke Bu.
Nothing had even officially begun yet, and their thoughts were already diverging. After all, they were two people. Even though they were together, they were still two independent individuals.
“No.”
“So you think I’ll be convinced? Is that really the kind of person I am in your eyes?”
Liu Qing turned away. “I’ll go back for today. Contact me once the two of you are finished arguing.” Ke Bu turned his head aside and stopped speaking. He didn’t want to argue with Zhi Li at a time like this. Even after Liu Qing and the student council members had walked far away, Ying Xiu Jie and Chu Hao Yu were still standing there stunned.
Inside an office in a corporate high-rise, the door opened. Zhi Zuo Si continued looking at the documents in front of him without raising his head. “You could have called me and asked me to pick you up.”
“You’ve raised a fine son. He saw his grandmother and didn’t even offer a greeting. He went straight to talking back to me.”
“You came back because of this?”
“Because of this? Listen to your tone. My precious grandson is with a man and that’s your attitude? What’s wrong with this world? Have they all gone insane? Have you gone abnormal too?”
“So,” Zhi Zuo Si put down his pen and raised his head, “you’re going to repeat the same mistake again?” Liu Qing glared at him. Then her anger subsided and she sat down on the sofa. “This one looks much easier to deal with than Lan Yin. Don’t interfere.” The corner of Zhi Zuo Si’s mouth lifted faintly. “Do whatever you want.” He closed the file and continued, “But Mom, I’d advise you not to underestimate Zhi Li. He’s not the little boy he was when you left anymore.”
“Looks like you’re betting on him.”
“Of course. He’s my and Lan Yin’s son.”
“Speaking of Lan Yin, I’ll overlook the fact that you remarried behind my back. But since you’ve remarried, shouldn’t she at least pour her mother-in-law a cup of tea? Pass along a message for me. Tell her to stay far away from this matter. I haven’t settled my accounts with her yet. If she’s that eager to settle things with me, then let her try interfering. I’ll deal with her too.”
Another door to the office opened. Lan Yin stood leaning against the doorframe, smoking. “Old hag, you think saying that loud enough for me to hear will scare me? Touch my son and I’ll personally send you to the underworld. You’ve lived long enough already. Go die. Go die.” The moment Lan Yin saw Liu Qing, an inexplicable rage always flared inside her. The more she spoke, the angrier she became. She had just started forward when Zhi Zuo Si wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Didn’t I tell you not to come out?” The war between these two women had already gone on for many years. Zhi Zuo Si’s usual strategy was simply to keep them as far apart as possible, preferably for the rest of their lives.
“Zhi Zuo Si, are you helping her?”
“If I hadn’t given birth to him, would you have the life you have now? Ungrateful thing. My son actually ended up with a woman like you.”
“Mom.” Zhi Zuo Si said nothing else. He only looked at Liu Qing. Liu Qing snorted coldly and slammed the office door behind her.
“Don’t let her leave! We can settle everything tonight. Just thinking about the things that dead old woman has done makes me want to kill her!”
“You can kill whoever you want. Just not her. No matter what, she’s still my mother.”
“So what if she’s your mother? I…”
Zhi Zuo Si pulled Lan Yin tightly into his arms. “All right. Stop being angry.” He lowered his head and lightly kissed Lan Yin’s shoulder, his fingers stroking her waist. Lan Yin curled her lip. “You’ll have to buy me lots of clothes before I stop being angry.”
They still couldn’t contact You Yan, and there had been no news from the three people who had gone to the infirmary either. Under circumstances like these, Ke Bu couldn’t sleep at all. No matter how many times he brought up speaking with Liu Qing alone, Zhi Li simply refused, and it was beginning to make Ke Bu angry.
At any rate, Ke Bu understood that after going round and round, what they still had to face in the end were the issues of the elderly and children.
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