After lunch, Lu Boyan and Su Hongyuan sat in the tea room and drank tea while discussing business matters. Su Jianan folded her sleeves up in the living room and said, “Yuanyuan, sit on the sofa. Let me help you take a look and see what’s wrong with your leg.”
“Su Jianan, I know you did it intentionally.” Su Yuanyuan said in a low voice as she stared viciously at Su Jianan. She sat on the sofa. “I can also tell you clearly that my injury has long healed. My leg does not hurt at all.”
Su Jianan sneered. She had already seen through it when they were upstairs. Su Yuanyuan’s leg was not injured at all. She had taken the trouble to act so realistically for a purpose.
“I was only getting close to Lu Boyan,” Su Yuanyuan continued, “every socialite in A City wants a man like this. Do you think he’s yours once you get married? How naive! Such a man can have countless women in his entire life. He belongs to whomever who gets things and love from him.”
Su Jianan squatted down in front of Su Yuanyuan and said coldly, “Like mother like daughter. Su Yuanyuan, you are indeed Jiang Xueli’s daughter.”
Su Yuanyuan raised her chin and said, “That’s right, and I will steal away Lu Boyan just like how my mother stole dad away from your mother. Even if I do not succeed, there are still others! Anyway, Su Jianan, I won’t let you off easily!”
Her greatest enemy in this life was Su Jianan.
When they were little, Su Jianan was the first daughter of the Su Family in this house. She accompanied her parents to various places and was liked and praised. She, however, could not even tell others who her father was.
When they grew up, and even though she had become the second daughter of the Su Family, Su Jianan, who was abroad, was often brought up by others. Those ladies remembered how intelligent and beautiful Su Jianan was when she was little. And those playful young masters would treat meeting Su Jianan when they were abroad as an experience they could brag about. They said as if they had met the president, “Oh, I met Su Jianan of the Su Family again. Hehe, she’s growing more and more beautiful.”
While she bore the t.i.tle of “illegitimate daughter” she could never remove. It was as if she could never hold up to Su Jianan.
What angered her the most was that Su Jianan could smile no matter what threat she faced. Just like right now.
“I know that many people want to become Mrs. Lu. And I know that you want it more than anybody else.” Su Jianan blinked and smiled. “But before becoming Mrs. Lu, you have to make a trip to the hospital.”
Su Yuanyuan’s expression changed. “Su Jianan, what are you going to do?”
“Do you want to know?” Su Jianan smiled brilliantly. “Then watch.”
She stood up and made a phone call. Then, she walked up to Su Hongyuan’s side and said, “Dad, Yuanyuan’s leg injury is very serious. I think that something is wrong. She’s in terrible pain. We have to hurry and send her to the hospital. But I and… Boyan, we have something on and have to return, so I’ve called her an ambulance.”
Jiang Xueli knew that Su Yuanyuan’s injury had long healed. Su Jianan was obviously trying to prank Su Yuanyuan but she could not say anything. Her hand shook as she was furious but could not say much. There were a few times she thought she was almost going to faint.
The sirens of the ambulance could be heard before long. Su Jianan told the doctor enthusiastically that the person who was injured was Su Yuanyuan.
The doctor helped Su Yuanyuan onto a stretcher. Su Yuanyuan felt wronged and angered, but could not say anything as she looked at Su Jianan. In the end, she could only allow herself to be carried away.
Su Jianan felt that there wasn’t much fun to be had there anymore. She smiled at Lu Boyan and said, “We should go. Don’t you have something on later?”
“Director Su, I shall take Jianan home first.”
Lu Boyan held Su Jianan’s hand naturally. He saw an angry and disappointed Su Yuanyuan being driven away by the ambulance when they left the house. The corners of his lips lifted and he said, “You did that deliberately.”
Su Jianan blinked innocently and said, “Big brother Boyan, what are you talking about? Why don’t I understand?”
“…” Lu Boyan’s lips twitched once more.
On the car, Su Jianan leaned against the window and said lazily, “Lu Boyan, I don’t want to go home right now. Send me somewhere else.”
Su Jianan’s mother was buried in a graveyard in the countryside north of the city.
“Thank you for sending me here.” Su Jianan got off the car. Then, she continued, “Go home first. I’ll call a taxi later.”
She turned away and walked up the stairs to find the familiar grave and found it not long later.
Her mother in the picture on the tombstone was how Su Jianan remembered her mother last looked like. She was in her 40s, but cared for herself well and looked to be in her 30s. Her smile was as warm as the sun on a winter’s day.
Su Jianan still remembered that when she was little, the thing that her mother feared most, was growing old. She bent down and put down the carnations she brought. Then, she caressed the photo of her mother and said, “Mom, you always said that you’ll grow old as I grow up. I’m already married, but you still look like this. Rest a.s.sured, you didn’t grow old one bit.”
“Yep, I’m married, to Auntie Tang’s son. You used to say that the problems between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law are difficult and that you are worried that I wouldn’t know how to handle them after I get married. You can rest a.s.sured now. Auntie Tang is very nice to me and we don’t have any conflicts.”
…
Su Jianan knew that her mother cannot hear her. But she still wanted to tell her mother this. It was because she also knew that if the incident nine years ago had not happened, then these would be things her mother would want to know.
And just like that, Su Jianan stood in front her mother’s grave and nattered on softly for an entire afternoon. She only came back to her senses when the sun started to set. She smiled at her mother’s yellowing photo and said, “Mum, I’m leaving now. I’ll come visit you again next time.”
Su Jianan realized something as she walked back. It was difficult to hail a taxi here, how would she return?
Just as she worried about this, she suddenly saw a familiar car by the road. It was Lu Boyan’s Aston Martin ONE 77.
Lu Boyan didn’t leave? Had he been waiting for her all this while?
For some unknown reason, Su Jianan’s heart felt as if it was floating. She felt it was rather incredulous.
“You finally came down.” Shen Chuanyue rolled down the car windows and looked at Su Jianan. “I thought you’ll stay here until it turns dark.” He would be scared to death if that happened, all right?
Su Jianan looked dazedly at Shen Yuechuan who was seated at the driver’s seat. “How come… it’s you?”
“Are you very disappointed?” Shen Yuechuan smiled. “Your Boss Lu has something to attend to, so he told me to wait for you here.”
Disappointed? Su Jianan would of course, not be disappointed. She was just surprised—that Lu Boyan would ask someone to wait for her here. Did he know that it was difficult to hail a taxi here? Eh, he wouldn’t be so thoughtful.
Shen Chuanyue pushed the pa.s.senger door open and said, “Come on up, I’ll send you back.”
Su Jianan sat in the seat and fastened her seatbelt and said, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I am Lu Boyan’s a.s.sistant after all.” Shen Chuanyue started the car resignedly. “If we neglect anything he told us to do, we might be sent to Africa.”
Su Jianan was speechless.