Chapter 84: I owe her a life, so I must save Ping'an's life

Wen Lvzhong laughed sarcastically, "Why does President Chu care so much about a woman you despise to the extreme?"

Chu Li narrowed his deep eyes, "Shut up."

Seeing that the time was dragging on and fearing that Chu Li would walk away after learning the truth, Madam Chu simply said, "Qin Xingwan is right here; I invited her."

Chu Li turned his head to look at Madam Chu, his tone very flat, "Where is she?"

Chu Li understood his mother; he feared that for this so-called invitation, she had used some underhanded means.

Madam Chu stammered and refused to say.

She did not dare to say.

But Chu Li's gaze carried a strong sense of oppression, which was truly terrifying.

Furthermore, the surrounding whispers were enough to crush her self-esteem as Madam Chu.

She could only point in the direction of the second floor, "Over there."

Chu Li looked in the direction she pointed.

He met a face that was already streaming with tears.

His Adam's apple bobbed twice, feeling unbearably sour and pained.

She stood there, having witnessed the entire process, and naturally, she had heard those words he said.

"Xingwan," he murmured, wanting to go over, but was held firmly in place by Cheng Mingzhu.

He could only watch helplessly as Wen Lvzhong went upstairs and brought her down.

By the time she reached the floor below, her expression was cold and detached, as if the tears that had covered her face just moments ago were merely his illusion.

"Xingwan," he called out to her subconsciously.

Qin Xingwan tilted her head slightly, smiling as she offered her blessings, "Happy engagement."

Supported by Wen Lvzhong's half-embrace, she walked toward the exit.

That thin, lonely silhouette grew further and further away.

Chu Li watched, the furrows between his brows deepening.

Madam Chu glanced at the surrounding gazes of those watching the drama, tugged on her son's sleeve, and looked quite aggrieved.

"Mom really just invited her to attend your engagement banquet; other than that, I didn't do anything to her. Believe Mom, can you just finish this engagement properly first?"

Chu Li brushed his mother's hand away without mercy, his face gloomy as he looked at Cheng Mingzhu: "I remember I warned you, three strikes and you're out."

This was precisely the third time.

"It has nothing to do with me," Cheng Mingzhu panicked.

She reached out to grab Chu Li's arm, begging cautiously: "A Li, this really has nothing to do with me."

Madam Chu also helped put in a good word.

Chu Li's patience was exhausted; what he needed was a worry-free, obedient wife, not a woman like Cheng Mingzhu who didn't know her own worth.

Time and again, she had worn out his patience.

"I will call Uncle Cheng to cancel the engagement."

He instructed Assistant Wu to clear the scene and left directly himself.

Qin Xingwan did not pay attention to how the subsequent engagement ceremony went.

She was taken by Wen Lvzhong to a nearby coffee shop.

Wen Lvzhong ordered a hot cocoa for her, "I'm sorry, I thought he would have a change of heart."

He hadn't expected to hurt Qin Xingwan.

Qin Xingwan held the hot cocoa, lost in a daze.

Wen Lvzhong did not speak again, letting her digest those negative emotions on her own.

It was unknown how much time had passed before her curled eyelashes trembled, and her stiff movements became soft.

"Let's go back," she said softly.

Wen Lvzhong pulled her back, however, asking gently: "Xingwan, can you tell me about Ping'an's mother?"

Only two people who love each other would have a child; he thought that he must have loved her once.

Qin Xingwan closed her eyes, her fingers trembling slightly as she held the hot cocoa and took a sip.

She said slowly: "She was a very gentle girl. Because her family favored boys over girls, she lived with her grandparents from a very young age."

"From childhood to adulthood, she was ridiculed, bullied, and even harassed, but she remained positive and optimistic. Later, she met you."

"You helped her a lot, you fell in love, and later she became pregnant with your child. On the eve of the birth, you said you had to go home for a trip. Later, she gave birth to Ping'an, and half a month later, a flower shop in town caught fire. She was burned to death, and you never appeared."

Those past events could be told in just a few words, far less than the despair and helplessness of that time.

Every time she thinks of it now, she sees the scene of the raging fire before her eyes.

That fire changed her life.

In Wen Lvzhong's mind, a woman wearing a white dress and a sun hat appeared, but he could not see her face clearly.

Qin Xingwan looked down at the coffee cup, her eyes moist, "After she passed away, I went to the Yiyuan to look for the child, only to find out the child had been taken away by you. I don't know why you suddenly took the child away back then, or how you ended up with amnesia."

"I don't want to know those things either. I just want to raise Ping'an well now; this was her dying wish."

"I owe her a life, so I must save Ping'an's life."

Therefore, even if Chu Li looked down on her, she had to return to Chu Li's side to beg for a glimmer of hope for Wen Ping'an.

With just a few words from Qin Xingwan, the sadness in Wen Lvzhong's heart seemed to overflow.

Even if the memories were forgotten, that bone-deep pain echoed in his marrow.

"What was her name?" he asked, clenching his palms.

"Name?" Qin Xingwan murmured the word, "You will know in the future."

Chu Li returned to Beicheng Villa.

A servant came up to meet him and took his suit jacket, "Miss Qin is in the room."

Chu Li was stunned for a moment, "She came back?"

He thought... he thought she would never come here again.

Unable to suppress the joy in his heart, he walked quickly upstairs, paused slightly before the bedroom door, and then pushed the door open with a calm expression.

Qin Xingwan was leaning against the headboard reading a book; hearing the sound, she only looked up and glanced at him before lowering her head again.

Chu Li walked over and leaned down to kiss her.

Qin Xingwan did not refuse; she even took the initiative to hook her arms around his neck and kiss him back.

Chu Li, however, was unwilling to continue; he pulled away from her lips, pinched her chin, and stared fixedly at her fair face.

"So proactive?"

This was not her style.

In their three years of marriage, there had never been a time when she let go, let alone being proactive in bed.

Qin Xingwan tilted her head and chuckled: "Do you want me to coldly reject you? I can act that out too."

Chu Li felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if it had been tugged.

She was very blunt about the fact that she was acting.

It seemed the next sentence would be that she could act out whatever appearance he liked.

Chu Li lost interest; he sat on the edge of the bed with a rather unpleasant look on his face.

Qin Xingwan pulled up the clothes that had slipped off her shoulder, her expression indifferent: "I want to go to the Yiyuan to stay with Ping'an; if you have any needs, you can call me at any time."

Perhaps it was his words at the engagement banquet that made her see things completely clearly; she was proactively placing herself in that lowly position.

Chu Li stared at her for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed, exceptionally mockingly, "Wen Lvzhong even said you aren't Wen Ping'an's biological mother; look at yourself, how are you not like a mother?"

She was thinking of Wen Ping'an every moment, and besides, the child even looked a bit like her.

He was still brooding over that matter.

Qin Xingwan actually had nothing to say; with the paternity test sitting right there, he still treated it as fake, so what was the use of saying more.

She took the book back into her hands, "If you aren't willing, then forget it."