Chapter 111

With Gu Yanqiu there, Lin Yuewei couldn’t even cry properly. Besides, Gu Yanqiu still had to go to work, so she very sensibly said, “Auntie, Yuewei, I’m going to the company.”

Lin Yuewei rubbed her cheek against Ran Qingqing’s sweater and said, “I’ll see you out.”

She was still a little tear-streaked kitten, pitiful and adorable. Gu Yanqiu’s heart stirred. Mindful that her mother was there, she restrained herself and reached out to gently wipe the moisture from Lin Yuewei’s face, saying softly, “No need to see me out. I’ll come back tonight to keep you company.”

Lin Yuewei was a little reluctant to let her go. Her arm looped around Gu Yanqiu’s shoulder, clearly meaning to do something more, but Gu Yanqiu dodged slightly and indicated that Ran Qingqing was still watching from the side.

Ran Qingqing suddenly turned around and reminded them, “I can’t see anything right now, so if you want to do something, hurry up. Just don’t take too long.”

Gu Yanqiu was mortified.

Lin Yuewei took the opportunity to give her a light peck on the lips and gently pushed her toward the door. “Go to work.”

After Gu Yanqiu left, Lin Yuewei folded her arms and stared at her mother’s back. “Your daughter-in-law’s gone. You can turn around now.”

Ran Qingqing kept up the “don’t look at what shouldn’t be looked at” pose, even parting her fingers to cover both eyes. She sighed with exaggerated emotion. “Young people these days really are something else. Back in our day...”

As she said that, she probably remembered that the results of their generation hadn’t been all that pleasant, so she changed her tune on the spot. “Well, the beginning was still very beautiful.”

Lin Yuewei had been interrupted twice while crying. Now that she was alone with her mother, and her mother was in such an upbeat, positive mood, she couldn’t bring herself to cry anymore. She pulled Ran Qingqing to sit down and asked, “What are you planning to do?”

She held up three fingers toward the sky and made it clear in advance: “No matter what you plan to do, I’m on your side.”

Ran Qingqing punched her shoulder and said with raised brows, “You dare not be on my side? Then wouldn’t I have raised you for nothing?”

She was clearly a little pleased with herself now.

Although Ran Qingqing had kept this matter hidden all along, and although it was Lin Yuewei’s father who was in the wrong first, she wasn’t one hundred percent certain what kind of reaction Lin Yuewei would have. After all, from childhood until now, although Lin Yuewei’s father hadn’t spent much time with her, he had never lacked paternal affection. Distance lends enchantment; she was a full-time housewife, while Lin Yuewei’s father was a successful businessman. With idol worship in the mix, what if Lin Yuewei sided with him?

Even if there had only been a one-in-ten-thousand chance, she had still worried. Now she could finally set her heart completely at ease. She had her daughter; she truly wasn’t afraid of anything.

Ran Qingqing didn’t rush to answer Lin Yuewei’s question. Instead, she asked, “How did you find out?”

Lin Yuewei told her how she had gone to a banquet last night and unexpectedly run into her father. Ran Qingqing looked enlightened. “You said there was also a woman standing beside him? How old?”

“About twenty or thirty?” A thought surfaced in Lin Yuewei’s mind. Could it be...

Ran Qingqing sneered. “A leopard never changes its spots.”

Lin Yuewei pressed a hand to her chest and felt the congee she’d had that morning threaten to rise back up from her stomach.

Last night, she had only caught a hurried glimpse. All her attention had been on her father, and she only remembered that there was a young woman there. After that, she had been stunned speechless by Lin Yuewei’s father’s little “confession,” and then she had deliberately avoided thinking about it. If Ran Qingqing hadn’t brought it up again so pointedly, she might have nearly forgotten that there had been another woman beside him. Maybe when he answered her phone call last night, he had just finished rolling around in bed with someone else.

Deep down, Lin Yuewei still wanted to leave her father some dignity, so she frowned and said, “Could it be that it wasn’t that kind of relationship?” If it was, how could he have had the nerve to ask her to plead on his behalf to Ran Qingqing?

Ran Qingqing spread her hands. “I don’t know. Does it matter anymore whether it was or wasn’t?”

Lin Yuewei was speechless.

It was true; who the woman was no longer mattered. What mattered was the fact that had already happened. Her father had cheated, and not just once.

Ran Qingqing said, “It’s not like I never gave him a chance. And at first, when that girl told me, I didn’t believe it at all.”

“Which girl?”

“The college student.”

Lin Yuewei’s father was smart. On his second fling, he had left no evidence behind and hadn’t let the girl leave any trace of him either. The two of them had spent one wild night together of their own free will.

But for some reason, that girl had later come to her senses. No one knew how she had found Ran Qingqing’s contact information, but she secretly told her everything. When Ran Qingqing first received that stranger’s confession, she thought it was utter nonsense. She had grown up carefree and always carried goodwill toward others, so she assumed maybe the message had been sent to the wrong person and replied to ask.

The other side then swore up and down that the man she had slept with was the successful businessman Lin, the one who occasionally appeared in the news and magazines, and not a single character in his name was wrong. Ran Qingqing got angry and told her to stop spreading rumors no matter what her purpose was, or she would take legal action.

But the girl was desperate too; she had made up her mind and sent over a photo of her student ID card, a hand-held shot at that.

Ran Qingqing hesitated. She couldn’t figure out what this girl’s motive was.

The girl said that if Ran Qingqing didn’t believe her, they could meet in person and confront each other. There were some details about Lin Yuewei’s father that no one but someone close to him could possibly know.

Ran Qingqing looked at that message and nearly dropped her phone, as if she had been burned. She almost immediately sent back a reply: Nonsense. Don’t contact me again.

Hearing this, Lin Yuewei asked, “When did you meet her?”

Ran Qingqing glanced at her. As expected of her daughter; she knew her too well.

By now, Ran Qingqing was very calm when talking about this matter. More than half a year had already passed; time was the best medicine for everything.

The seed of doubt had been planted in Ran Qingqing’s heart, and like Pandora’s box, once opened, it could not be closed again. She had been shaken by the girl’s certainty, and she couldn’t help but grow suspicious. Some details about Lin Yuewei’s father, details she normally would have brushed aside, were all pulled into the chain of evidence in her mind at that time. For example, he looked at his phone much more than before. For example, he had more moments of being startled or making a fuss. For example, he would occasionally go blank, distracted, and when she asked him something, he sometimes wouldn’t hear it even after repeating it several times. He had never been like that before.

More than half a month later, Ran Qingqing pulled that girl’s contact info out of the blacklist.

[Are you still there? When should we meet?]

Lin Yuewei didn’t know why her focus had suddenly become so strange. Maybe it was because her mother’s expression was so serious that she couldn’t stay heavy-hearted.

“She was pretty,” Ran Qingqing said. “But she was nowhere near as pretty as I was when I was young.”

Lin Yuewei played along and kissed her on the side of her face. “Of course. Who could be prettier than you?”

Ran Qingqing said, “I’m old and past my prime.”

Lin Yuewei said, “No. In my heart, you’re the most beautiful.”

Ran Qingqing said, “People have to face their own aging. I may not compare to young people, but at my age, I’m absolutely the best-looking.”

Lin Yuewei: “......”

Fine. Her mother didn’t need her comfort.

Ran Qingqing met the college student her husband had slept with once. The two of them arranged to meet at a café. The girl arrived first and stood up to greet her. She was wearing a cardigan sweater, faded blue jeans, and a pair of knockoff Nikes with the swoosh logo all blurred. Her entire outfit probably didn’t cost more than two hundred yuan; it was obvious at a glance that her family background wasn’t great.

Ran Qingqing wasn’t unreasonable. Infidelity was truly never just one person’s fault; the bigger fault lay with her husband. Lin Yuewei’s father was a successful man in his forties, while the other party was just a student who perhaps still regarded the world with a certain innocence. If Lin Yuewei’s father hadn’t gone along with it, this would never have happened no matter what.

Ran Qingqing couldn’t bring herself to blame her, especially after meeting her in person.

When the girl chatted with her online, she had shown great courage, but in person she was different. She looked a little timid, a little shriveled, and apologized to Ran Qingqing with sincere remorse; if Ran Qingqing hadn’t stopped her, she would have knelt down in the café on the spot.

The girl was overcome with regret and cried so hard she couldn’t speak.

Ran Qingqing asked her, “Why did you tell me?”

The girl was stunned, because Ran Qingqing’s expression at the time had been terrible. Ran Qingqing knew as much herself; as a wife who had just found out her husband was cheating, how could her face possibly look good?

Ran Qingqing paused. Lin Yuewei said, “Did the girl cry again because of you?”

Ran Qingqing said, “What do you mean, because of me? She was already crying.”

Lin Yuewei asked, “Then what did she say?”

Ran Qingqing said, “She said that after that night, she had actually been very satisfied. Even after later you... cut off all contact with her, she still admired him and had no regrets. But then she listened to one of his lectures. Partway through, he mentioned me and addressed me very intimately as ‘my spouse.’ The love-drunk fog in her head cleared all at once, and she decided to tell me the truth and see the real face of a scumbag.”

Lin Yuewei said, “Okay then.”

Then she asked again, “Was that around the time Aunt Gu passed away?”

Ran Qingqing nodded.

Lin Yuewei: “......”

Seeing her subtle expression, Ran Qingqing asked, “What?”

Lin Yuewei had already come clean to her yesterday, so she no longer held back and said sheepishly, “I thought you were always spacing out because Aunt Gu died and you were deeply in love with her...”

Ran Qingqing: “......”

She stared at Lin Yuewei for a few seconds before finally losing her temper and flicking her on the forehead. “How did I give birth to you?”

Lin Yuewei stuck out her tongue. “No matter what kind of thing I am, I was still born by you after ten months of pregnancy.”

Ran Qingqing said coldly, “Not necessarily. Maybe your father had an affair outside and that’s how you were born.”

Lin Yuewei burst out laughing.

Whether a child was his or not, a father might not know; but a mother definitely would. Especially since Lin Yuewei’s peach blossom eyes had inherited her mother’s one hundred percent. When she looked at people, it was as if tiny hooks were hidden in them.

Ran Qingqing flicked her again and said, “Can you have a little sympathy for your mother?”

Lin Yuewei immediately fell silent.

Ran Qingqing said, “After I met that girl, I believed it by more than half. The remaining bit only became true after I hired a private investigator and saw photos and videos of him going in and out of hotels with other women. Seeing was believing.”

Ran Qingqing had been utterly disheartened; from then on, she began planning to transfer assets. She knew nothing about business herself, but she had money to hire a lawyer. The lawyer told her to gather evidence of Lin Yuewei’s father cheating; the more evidence and the clearer it was, the better. It couldn’t be said to guarantee that Lin Yuewei’s father would leave with nothing, but it would give her more leverage in a divorce. And to quietly move assets right under his nose, Ran Qingqing chose to buy property in Lin Yuewei’s name, using up all the liquid funds in the family that she could.

Lin Yuewei’s father was a very shrewd businessman, but he truly doted on Lin Yuewei. Since childhood, she’d been treated like something precious that had to be kept in the mouth for fear of breaking and held in the hand for fear of dropping. It was the method least likely to raise his suspicion. In fact, he probably had become suspicious later, because Ran Qingqing’s acting was far from flawless, but he had tacitly allowed it.

In the dead of night, Ran Qingqing had never not wavered. She and Lin Yuewei’s father had been each other’s first love. They had been together for more than twenty years; he had once been a good husband, and he was still a good father. But whenever she thought of the man lying beside her swearing eternal devotion, then turning around to sleep with other women, and even students who were around the same age as his own daughter, whatever wavering she had felt was instantly repulsed away.

Although Ran Qingqing’s family was not especially wealthy, they did have some assets; she had been raised in comfort from a young age, and even when other people’s injustices came before her, she couldn’t stand them, much less the one happening to herself. According to her temper, she should have exposed everything and divorced him on the spot, out of sight and out of mind. But she couldn’t; she couldn’t let the scumbag off that easily.

So she kept enduring it, pretending nothing had happened, and successfully used the short span of half a year to buy a great deal of real estate for Lin Yuewei. The money that could be moved had basically already been moved. Even if Lin Yuewei hadn’t discovered it, she probably wouldn’t be able to keep it from her much longer.

Lin Yuewei suddenly understood. “So that’s why you insisted on putting my name on everything.”

Ran Qingqing said, “Otherwise what? If it weren’t for you, I would’ve broken with him a long time ago.”

Lin Yuewei asked, “So your stance is a firm divorce? Not even a single chance for him?”

“No chance.” Ran Qingqing’s brain rang an alarm; she stared at her warily. “You’re not thinking of pleading for him, are you? Let me tell you, absolutely impossible. I’ve put up with nearly a year of disgust; I really can’t stomach it anymore.”

“Of course not.” Lin Yuewei hurriedly denied it. “I’m not some little kid anymore. I wouldn’t go begging my parents not to get divorced. I’m just a little sentimental.”

Ran Qingqing still didn’t relax. Narrowing her eyes, she said, “Sentimental about what?”

Lin Yuewei was defeated by her. Raising her voice, she said, “My dad cheats, my mom cleverly transfers the assets in secret; something that only happens in TV dramas and novels is happening to us, and I’m not allowed to feel a little emotional about it? Do you have any humanity?”

Ran Qingqing rubbed her ear and shouted back, “Then be sentimental if you want. Who said you couldn’t?”

“Then when I was sentimental just now, and you made that face, wasn’t it because you didn’t believe I’d stand on your side? Weren’t you thinking I’d plead for my dad? You’re really my biological mother, not trusting me at all.”

“I didn’t!” Ran Qingqing had actually been feeling quite guilty, but the moment she heard Lin Yuewei say that, she immediately raised her voice and yelled back.

“You did! You absolutely did!”

“I didn’t means I didn’t.”

The mother and daughter ended up glaring and shouting at each other across the living room.

“I said I didn’t, so I didn’t.” After saying that, Ran Qingqing suddenly covered Lin Yuewei’s mouth with one hand.

Lin Yuewei: “!!!”

Lin Yuewei: “Mmm mmm mmm!” [You cheated!]

Ran Qingqing threatened her, “Say one more word back to me and I’ll let the dog bite you.”

Lin Yuewei: “......”

So what if there was a dog?

After the two of them stared at each other for three seconds, Lin Yuewei finally lost. Having a dog really was impressive. She should have brought Schrödinger along; then Schrödinger could have unleashed his cutesy attack.

Ran Qingqing let go of her.

Lin Yuewei spat twice into the trash can and drank some water to soothe her throat.

“Where have you gotten to now? Dad said last night that you were separating the assets; have you decided how to divide them?” Lin Yuewei hadn’t eaten pork, but she had seen pigs run. For a rich family like theirs getting divorced, it was enough to break bones and tear flesh; just taking inventory of the assets would take quite a while. The most important thing was still the Lin family company. Was it an equity transfer, or what? The Lin family was a listed company. Lin Yuewei’s father held control through an overwhelming majority of shares, and he was still young and vigorous, serving as both chairman and general manager. She didn’t know what her mother planned to do with the company.

“It’s more or less done. We’re setting a day to bring the lawyers and talk face-to-face, clear and square, and divide everything properly.”

“What about the company?”

Ran Qingqing shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“We’ll see.” Ran Qingqing sighed.

Shares were dead; people were alive. Even if Ran Qingqing got half of Lin Yuewei’s father’s shares and a seat on the board, for the sake of the company’s stability she would still have to support him continuing as chairman. It wouldn’t really affect him much at all.

Ran Qingqing was regretting it now, regretting that she had somehow become a stay-at-home wife. After so many years, even pigs could have learned to talk; why couldn’t she learn how to manage a company?

Ran Qingqing turned her gaze to Lin Yuewei.

Lin Yuewei said helplessly, “My career has just started. I really can’t take care of the company side.” She paused, then suddenly had an idea. “How about you ask Gu Yanqiu?”

Ran Qingqing snorted with laughter. “You really have a way of thinking, don’t you? Your own company, and your elbow only bends outward.”

Lin Yuewei said in dissatisfaction, “We’re married. How can she count as an outsider?”

Ran Qingqing said, “Please. Even before you thought of Gu Yanqiu, I already knew you couldn’t be relied on. Otherwise why do you think I was so supportive of you two getting married?”

Lin Yuewei was shocked.

“You saw this coming a long time ago?”

Ran Qingqing crossed her arms and swayed them a little from side to side, looking rather proud of herself. “Of course.”

Lin Yuewei looked at her mother as though she were some kind of monster and suddenly felt that she was incredibly unfamiliar.

Ran Qingqing pushed her forehead. “What kind of look is that?”

Lin Yuewei blurted out, “I really didn’t expect you to have this kind of brain. You’re a little too farsighted; it’s kind of terrifying.”

Ran Qingqing: “......”

Sure enough, she got flicked again.

Lin Yuewei covered her forehead.

Ran Qingqing said, “Has my being idle all these years caused you distress? Before your mom got married, I was also a talented woman, okay? Later I stepped into the grave, and even my IQ went down with me. I spent every day guarding this little patch of land with you and your dad. Then once I started thinking about divorce, hey, all that IQ came back.”

“Then aren’t you worried Gu Yanqiu can’t be relied on?”

“Given the kind of person her mother was, the daughter she gave birth to should be reliable enough, shouldn’t she?”

“But her mother may not have been a good person.” Lin Yuewei said, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes inwardly. So what if she was intellectually crushing everyone? The whole thing had started because her mother had a fan’s blind spot for Shen Huaiyu; she was just slapping gilding on her own face.

“That’s why I tested her for so long,” Ran Qingqing said. “Your mother at least has some eye for people. You know that after you went to film the show, she became my second daughter? Every week or two she’d come visit me, never empty-handed, always bringing something I liked. During that period, when she noticed I was restless and irritable, she even gave me that string of prayer beads. She said I didn’t have to believe in Buddhism; reciting scriptures could still help calm my mind. Even this dog was her suggestion. She said if I felt lonely, I could raise a pet. Wasn’t she more attentive than you?”

Lin Yuewei lowered her head a little guiltily.

“One person’s acting can indeed make something fake seem real, but I can’t think of any reason for her to act in front of me. Back then you hadn’t even started dating her yet, and she was already that good to me.”

Lin Yuewei couldn’t resist gilding her own face a little too, smiling as she said, “Actually, she had already been secretly in love with me by then, so of course she was trying to curry favor with you. You didn’t know that?”

Ran Qingqing rolled her eyes so far they nearly flipped into her skull, shocked by her shamelessness. “Will you stop? You?”

Lin Yuewei refused to accept that. “What about me? I’m pretty, well-proportioned, and soft in all the right places. Mom, can’t you wish me a little well?”

“I am wishing you well,” Ran Qingqing said. “I’m your biological mother; I hope every day that you’ll be fine, safe, and smooth sailing.” She shook her head. “But I don’t believe that. It must have been you who was secretly in love with her first. Look at her face, her temperament; isn’t she a thousand times better than you?”

“Mom—” Lin Yuewei was really getting angry.

“Fine, fine, I won’t say it. You say she was secretly in love with you, then she was secretly in love with you.” Ran Qingqing wore an expression that said she couldn’t be bothered to argue with her; believe whatever comforting lie you want.

Lin Yuewei was so exasperated she turned into a tight-lipped gourd.

***

When Gu Yanqiu came home from work in the evening and stepped into the Lin residence, she saw a human-shaped object charging straight toward her. She caught it, took a step back, steadied herself, and asked with amusement, “What’s going on?”

Sniffing the smell of food in the air, she said, “Smells so good. Did Auntie stew chicken soup?”

Lin Yuewei said, “You only just got back and you’re already thinking about food.”

Gu Yanqiu was indiscriminately swept up in her anger. She froze for a moment, then lifted Lin Yuewei’s face in both hands and pressed a light kiss to the tip of her delicate nose, smiling as she asked, “Don’t be angry. Who upset you?”

Lin Yuewei said, “My mom.”

Gu Yanqiu looked understanding. Lin Yuewei being batted back and forth by her mother wasn’t anything new. The two of them usually had their share of wins and losses, but since Ran Qingqing was the mother and she was the daughter, things were usually fine; it just didn’t work when they faced each other directly. So Lin Yuewei basically fought on despite repeated losses.

Gu Yanqiu asked, “How did she upset you today?”

“She said—she pissed me off to death!” Lin Yuewei refused to go on.

Gu Yanqiu felt a burst of force drag her forward. She was pulled along as Lin Yuewei yanked open the kitchen door and shouted to her mother, “Gu Yanqiu’s back.”

Ran Qingqing said lazily, “So?”

Lin Yuewei turned around and said to Gu Yanqiu indignantly, “My mom doesn’t believe you were secretly in love with me all along. She’s been mocking me all afternoon.”

Gu Yanqiu raised a brow.

So this situation now... was she being asked to testify on Lin Yuewei’s behalf?

Sure enough, she heard Lin Yuewei say, “Tell her. Wasn’t it you who was secretly in love with me first?”

The question wasn’t originally phrased like that. Secret love didn’t really have a before and after, but this version sounded more prestigious, and Lin Yuewei was confident Gu Yanqiu would give a very good answer.

Gu Yanqiu nodded and smiled faintly at Ran Qingqing. “That’s right, Auntie. I fell for Yuewei at first sight.”

Lin Yuewei smiled so widely her teeth nearly showed.

Ran Qingqing was silent for a second, then immediately waved her off. “Hurry up and go. Is it appropriate to say something like that in front of someone who’s about to get divorced? Aren’t you embarrassed?”

Gu Yanqiu: “......”

Lin Yuewei: “......”

She really had never expected her mother to have so many new tricks for dealing with her, especially now. Her reactions were getting faster and her tongue sharper by the day. Did that saying really hold true; once a woman stepped out of marriage, did her IQ rocket upward immediately?

Lin Yuewei, still bewildered, took Gu Yanqiu back outside.

The two of them sat on the sofa.

Gu Yanqiu took the blame onto herself and said apologetically, “Sorry; I didn’t play my part well just now.”

If she had used a different line, the result might have been different.

“It’s not your fault; my mom’s changed.” Lin Yuewei shook her head and said with deep feeling, “The Ran Qingqing of before has been buried by her own hands. Standing in front of us now is Ran Qingqing, the Empress Dowager Niohuru.”

Author’s note:

Ran·Niohuru·Qingqing: Divorce is impossible. I can still do even better :)

I don’t know if the Niohuru joke originated from Empresses in the Palace, but after all, didn’t Zhen Huan later go dark and rise all the way to become the champion of palace scheming?

Niohuru·XX means someone has personally buried their former self and returned reborn, becoming extremely powerful.

It’s become a meme now; pretty fun, actually.

Explaining it to the little ones who don’t get it, mwah~