Chapter 69: Stress Response

“Oh, it’s Director Fan.”

Seeing Director Fan walking toward them, Lin Lihai and Lin Wu politely shook his hand and exchanged pleasantries: “Director Fan, are you discussing business with Director Yu?”

“Yes, Director Yu’s company has a few projects I’m quite interested in, so I came over to chat with him.”

Seeing Yu Moxun and Rong Ci standing where they were without approaching, Lin Lihai paused, but didn’t pay it much mind.

Director Fan didn’t know the hidden tensions and found Yu Moxun’s behavior odd.

After all, as a businessman, even if Yu Moxun didn’t know the Lin family, coming over to greet them and make a new acquaintance couldn’t hurt.

While Lin Wu and Lin Lihai were talking with Director Fan, Lin Lao TaiTai had already greeted him, then walked over with Sun Yueqing toward Rong Ci and Yu Moxun.

Yu Moxun looked at Rong Ci.

Rong Ci watched them coming, unmoving.

Lin Lao TaiTai spoke warmly: “Xiao Ci, it’s been a long time.”

Rong Ci said nothing.

Seeing Rong Ci’s stubborn expression, Lin Lao TaiTai sighed: “Xiao Ci, you…”

At that moment, Sun Yueqing spoke coldly: “Xiao Ci, no matter how many misunderstandings or resentments you have toward me, they’re only between me, you, and your mother—none of it has anything to do with Lihai or your grandmother. Auntie hopes you won’t lump everyone who cares for you together and push them all away.”

Sun Yueqing—Yueqing, Yueqing—she remembered how, before Lihai divorced her mother, he’d looked at her with deep emotion and said Sun Yueqing lived up to her name: proud, cold, beautiful, the white moonlight of his dreams.

He said that only after meeting Sun Yueqing did he finally understand what love was.

They were deeply in love.

Lihai said Sun Yueqing might seem cold, but she was truly kind, and he hoped she wouldn’t follow her mother’s tantrums, that she should recognize others’ excellence.

Unlike other women who intruded into marriages, Sun Yueqing, though kind to her, always kept her expression cool and distant.

As if she were unattainable.

Years later, Sun Yueqing was still as stunningly beautiful and coldly proud as in her memories.

So when this lecture came from her lips, unlike the sweet, false flattery others offered stepdaughters, it sounded genuinely sincere—and more persuasive.

After all, someone as cold and proud as a white moonlight like her would never stoop to tormenting a stepdaughter.

Any conflict must be the stepdaughter’s fault for being childish.

Sun Yueqing claimed her issues with Rong Ci’s mother and Lihai didn’t affect Lihai and Lin Lao TaiTai’s feelings for her.

Children all crave paternal love, crave family.

That longing only grows stronger after a divorce.

Back then, she was only eight or nine, and she loved both her parents.

She couldn’t bear to lose either.

But inwardly, she favored her mother—she pitied her.

So when Lihai and Rong Yingsheng fought over custody, even though Rong Yingsheng was already mentally unstable, she refused Lihai and Lin Lao TaiTai’s pleas and insisted on staying with Rong Yingsheng.

Even after moving with Rong Yingsheng, she still held Lihai and Lin Lao TaiTai in her heart.

But she didn’t show it, not wanting to hurt Rong Yingsheng.

More than a year after Lihai and Rong Yingsheng’s divorce, Lin Lao TaiTai came to Ducheng on business and secretly arranged to meet her, saying she wanted to see her.

She hadn’t seen Lin Lao TaiTai in over a year and missed her, so she sneaked out to meet her, hiding it from her uncle.

But she didn’t know Lin Lao TaiTai had deliberately brought Lin Wu along.

Lin Lao TaiTai said they were sisters and should get along well.

She refused.

But when she saw Lin Lao TaiTai’s reproachful gaze, calling her too much like her mother—too sharp—she felt heartbroken and began doubting whether she was just a narrow-minded child.

More than ten years had passed, yet she remembered it clearly.

She remembered that day, she’d gone to the restroom in tears, and when she returned, she saw Lin Lao TaiTai holding two ice creams—one for her, one for Lin Wu.

One of them had been accidentally scraped by a waiter carrying a dirty tray, leaving a smudge of grease on it.

Lin Wu immediately chose the clean one.

Lin Lao TaiTai merely ruffled her hair and smiled—she didn’t throw away the damaged one to replace it.

When Rong Ci returned, Lin Lao TaiTai handed her the ice cream directly, saying nothing about the missing bite.

And with the Lin family’s wealth at the time, even a thousand or ten thousand such ice creams were nothing to them.

Yet she never replaced it.

From that moment, she realized with absolute clarity: Lin Lao TaiTai’s feelings for her had already changed.

She would never forget the malicious look on little Lin Wu’s face as she watched her take the soiled ice cream.

Similar incidents with Lihai were even more numerous.

Thinking of this, though she no longer cared about Feng Tingshen,

looking at Lin Lao TaiTai’s kindly face and Sun Yueqing’s pious, self-righteous expression pretending to care for her, she smiled and replied with the truth about herself, Feng Tingshen, and Lin Wu: “You all say you care for me sincerely—I’d really like to believe you. But your care is precisely what’s helping Lin Wu sabotage my marriage?”

Hearing this, Lin Lao TaiTai and Sun Yueqing showed no embarrassment.

They’d probably expected her to say exactly this.

Lin Lao TaiTai sighed: “Xiao Ci, you know the situation between you and Tingshen—why force yourself to stay with someone who doesn’t love you? Divorce lets you start anew. Grandmother only wants—”

“You’re going to say you’re doing this for my own good, right?” Rong Ci cut her off, looking at both of them: “You’ve said these hollow words so many times—don’t you get tired? You can’t even bother to invent new excuses to placate me. How can I believe you? Why not try something fresh next time?”

Before they could respond, Rong Ci added: “But it probably won’t help anyway. After all, no matter how much you say, it’s all empty—what matters is what you actually do, isn’t it?”

Lin Lao TaiTai and Sun Yueqing were momentarily silenced by Rong Ci’s retort.

But Lin Lao TaiTai remained composed, about to speak—when Rong Ci interrupted her again.

She turned to Director Fan, who had just returned: “Director Fan, finished talking? Shall we go?”

Director Fan had noticed the tense atmosphere on their side.

He chuckled awkwardly and nodded: “Sure.”

Then he turned to Lin Lao TaiTai and Sun Yueqing: “Madam Lin, Lady Lin, we’ll be taking our leave.”

Lin Lao TaiTai nodded with a smile, but when she looked at Rong Ci, she sighed again.

Ever since Lihai decided to divorce her mother, whenever she didn’t obey their wishes, they always sighed when speaking to her.

As if she were disobedient, troublesome, and responsible for all their troubles.

So after Rong Yingsheng and Lihai divorced, when she and Rong Yingsheng moved back to the Rong household, she developed a stress response—fearing blame, fearing sighs—so before she turned twelve or thirteen, even though everyone in the Rong household treated her kindly, she was exceptionally obedient, never dared to make mistakes, never dared to have a self of her own.