"But I"m hospitalized now! I"m so badly injured! The doctor said that one of my legs won"t be able to heal fully anymore. That means I"ll have a limp in the future! I"ll be limping, do you understand?" Jiang Changdai shouted. Since her neck was fastened in a cast, she instantly felt a surge of pain shooting through her body after her emotions made her stretch her neck slightly.
"Then you go look for the Lu family father and son! Your leg has been crippled for them, so you ought to ask them to be responsible for you. What"s the matter with you? Why are you arguing with me? I"m telling you, Jiang Changdai, I"m only willing to find you a caregiver and pay for the full cost of your operation, medication, and hospitalization because you"re my younger sister. If someone else is was troublesome as you, I"d itch to throw them out of the family enterprise. I"d even have the heart to kill them!" Jiang Changzai slammed the table with force as he shouted at the top of his lungs.
His eyes were very red. Besides his current anger, it was also due to a lack of proper sleep.
"If you have any filial piety, then don"t stir up trouble in the future again. The Old Lady nearly died from the racket you caused!" Jiang Changzai said. He was so provoked that his voice choked up.
He did not say this to scare Jiang Changdai. When Old Lady Jiang first heard the news, she felt slightly unwell. Old Lady Jiang was not very muddled like Jiang Changdai; she knew what this meant to the Jiang Family. When she closed her eyes upon hearing the news with her face draining of color, the whole family became frightened.
"Then what about my leg?" Jiang Chandai did not even bother to check on her mother"s condition. She was wholeheartedly worried about herself. "Not a single one of you wants to come visit me?!"
"Aren"t both Lu Zhenting and his son in B City? Just get them to come see you," Jiang Changzai sneered coldly.
Jiang Changdai"s mind immediately went blank. She was originally laying on the bed, but she subconsciously wanted to sit up.
However, how would she do so now? Even the slightest movements hurt her so much that she howled and caused trouble for everyone. The only uninjured hand was currently holding the phone, so she could not lift her hand to wipe away the tears.
"Say what? Zhenting is in B City as well?" Jiang Changdai asked in a startled manner. Then she turned her head and bellowed at the caregiver, "What the h.e.l.l are you staring at me for? Raise the headboard for me. You don"t even have the slightest bit of awareness to play it by ear. What"s the point of still working as a caregiver!"
Suppressing the injustice in her heart, the caregiver moved forward to raise the headboard.
When Jiang Changzai heard how affectionately Jiang Changdai said the word "Zhenting", his heart was filled with disgust.
"He hurried to B City on the day of the press conference. Didn"t he even tell you about this despite how close you are with him?" Jiang Changzai smiled grimly.
A bad feeling brewed in Jiang Changdai"s heart. "I…I don"t know. Maybe it"s because they"re so busy that the reporters phone calls aren"t going through."
Jiang Changdai did not say that it was the hospital that had attempted to contact Lu Zhenting and his son.
"It couldn"t go through? Who told you this? Both of them are currently responding to reporters twenty-four seven. In fact, they"re speaking pompously to the media. Lu Zhenting insisted that you"re the one who suggested the plan to him, and that he"s also one of the victimized parties. Didn"t you know? The letter from the lawyer of the Yan Family had already been sent out. The two of them certainly wouldn"t dare to hide and disappear." Jiang Changzai said mockingly.
Jiang Changdai did care about the Yan Family the way she did the pair of father and son. She did not even care about the Jiang Family nor ask about her mother"s condition.
Meanwhile, Jiang Changzai had completely given up as he was focused on preserving Jiang He for now. As for Jiang Changdai, he decided he would no longer regard her as his younger sister.
"I"m currently in Ning City, rus.h.i.+ng around trying to handle the mess you caused. I haven"t really slept since the mishap happened, so I don"t have time to go to B City. If you want someone to keep you company, go look for Lu Zhenting and his son. If you don"t believe me, you can try calling their phones to see if they turned off their phones or they simply don"t want to pick up your call. As for any future matters, don"t bother me with them anymore. Since you side with Lu Family so wholeheartedly, then you can go look for them when you have any issues in the future." Jiang Changzai laughed after he finished speaking.
She had genuine family members and relatives, yet she did not rely on them, thinking only that the father and son pair were any good. Anyone who heard of such a matter would certainly find it laughable.
"I"ve given the caregiver a month"s worth of money. If you"d like to use it, then feel free; if not, then leave it at that. Don"t look for me from now on." Jiang Changzai hung up after he was done talking.
In Jiang Changdai"s mind, she was focusing only on what Jiang Changzai had said regarding what Lu Zhenting and his son had said to the media. She did not put even an iota of thought into the matter concerning Old Lady Jiang.
As she thought of this, she felt increasingly discontented, so she decided to make a phone call to Lu Zhenting. When she was flipping through the contacts, she realized that the phone she was using was not even hers. Instantly, she returned the phone before rudely ordering the caregiver to go get her bag and give it to her.
She immediately dialed Lu Zhenting"s number after receiving the phone. The call could go through this time, but no one picked up.
As time pa.s.sed, Jiang Changdai became increasingly disheartened.
Finally, on her sixth try, the other party picked up his phone. However, it was not Lu Zhenting who picked up, but Lu Zhenghang. Regardless of who it was, she had some comfort at last.
Jiang Changdai did not even have the time to get excited before Lu Zhenghang stunned her with his words, "Aunt Jiang."
Jiang Changdai"s lips trembled violently as tears streamed down her face. "What did you…you call me?"
"We have someone here right now, so it"s not very convenient to talk. Father has been particularly busy these past few days, so he hadn"t even bothered to eat any food." Lu Zhenghang lowered his voice, "That"s why he didn"t contact you all this while. How"s it going over there?"
Hearing her son"s seemingly caring words, Jiang Changdai felt somewhat comforted. Nevertheless, the desire in her heart to unload her emotions grew even stronger. "No matter how busy you guys…you guys are, do take some time to come see me as well. I"m alone in the hospital and have no one to keep me company. I have offended the Yan Family extremely badly for you guy"s sake. Even Zhiqing no longer cares about me; she didn"t even inform me that she"s been discharged from the hospital. I"ve laid here for so long but she didn"t visit me. The Jiang Family also doesn"t care about me anymore. You guys are all I have left now. Zhenghang ⸺"
As Jiang Changdai was speaking, she began to cry.
Lu Zhenghang was annoyed by her crying but he suppressed the annoyance in his heart and said, "I"m currently tied up, so I"ll go see you once I have time. I know you feel wronged because of this matter. Don"t worry, dad has told me that he definitely won"t treat you badly. I"ve been rus.h.i.+ng all over the place with dad over the past two days, and he can"t even have a good rest, which is making his eyes red. He could only sleep at 3 in the morning today, but even then, didn"t forget to ask me about your condition. Even though he barely slept for a couple of hours, soon he had to wake up to get back to work."
Once Jiang Changdai heard what he said, she felt touched. "Then hurry and don"t bother him. Tell him that I…I can bear with it."
Lin Chu did not know how difficult Jiang Changdai had it in the hospital.
This was because Wen Ren and the gang had to return to T City early the next morning. A leave of one and a half days had previously been requested for Wen Xu.
The schoolwork actually did not matter as what Wen Xu learned in the Lanshan Inst.i.tution was much more advanced than the course in school. Rather, it was the training in the Lanshan Inst.i.tution that could not be dropped.
Once the two Yan family elders heard of this, they scrambled to tell Yan Beicheng to invite them for a farewell dinner. They suggested that they would not attend so as to avoid making the few little ones in the Wen family feeling uneasy again.
In that case, Fang Boran, Hao Donghuai, Yuan Jiangyi, and Wei Wucai had to come as well.
Fang Boran even brought Lu Nanxi and arrived at Sheng Yue together. After supposing that the father-in-law and mother-in-law of the Lu Family no doubt missed their grandson and granddaughter, he also brought the two kids along.
However, the kids had had too much fun over the past two days so they were very tired. Besides, his father-in-law and mother-in-law truly could not bear to be apart from the kids. After all, they would be leaving tomorrow so he had the two children stay at the Lu Residence to continue bonding with their grandparents.
Yan Zhiqing initially did not have to go as she was still injured. After all, it would inconvenience others if she went out. Not to mention, she was not even familiar with the Wen Family. The last time that Wen Ren and his family came to the Family Mansion, she did not really talk to them, nor did she have much to talk about with Fang Jiaran.
Fang Jiaran, on the contrary, got along pretty well with Yu Zi and Lin Chu. They were all married and both Fang Jiaran and Yu Zi had given birth before whereas Lin Chu was a soon-to-be mom who would be delivering a child shortly. The three of them did not have to beat around the bush looking for a conversational topic. If the topic was on the kids, they could talk endlessly for hours at a time. Thus, Yan Zhiqing did not b.u.t.t in.
Besides, she…she was not close to Yu Zi and Lin Chu. She did not think of trying to get close to them was the most appropriate thing to do.
Yu Zi also left it at that. How could Lin Chu compare with her?
However, Old Lady Yan felt that Jiang Changdai had improperly raised Yan Zhiqing since she was young. Old Lady Yan certainly did not trust the character of those who could vibe well with Jiang Changdai. After all, birds of a feather flocked together.
The peers that Yan Zhiqing hung out with were probably also not that reliable. Old Lady Yan did not directly tell Yan Zhiqing that she did not trust Yan Zhiqing"s ability to judge character as she was afraid of that Yan Zhiqing would respond negatively to this.
She now knew that Yan Zhiqing was a brat who seemed to be stuck at the stage of p.u.b.erty whereby you had to tiptoe around them and that she never grown out of it. She would even go out of her way to do the opposite of what you said.
"You don"t have many friends in B City. You only know one person, which is Lu Weining." Old Lady Yan said while tugging Yan Zhiqing"s hand.
Once Yan Zhiqing heard Lu Weining"s name, she showed a sour face.
She realized now why the whole family disliked Lu Weining so much at the time. Ironically, she had kept regarding Lu Weining as a close sister. On the other hand, Lu Weining had probably always laughed at her in her heart, mocking her inability to correctly judge a person"s character.
Yan Zhiqing was someone whose love for a person could even extend to anyone and anything that was related to that particular person. However, the opposite was also true as her hatred for somebody who had wronged her could spread to anyone and anything related to that person. Because of the relations.h.i.+p Jiang Changdai shared with Lu Zhenting and his son, she believed from the bottom of her heart that Lu Weining was also someone wicked. Although this was actually the case, Yan Zhiqing"s intended to bare her fangs at her even if Lu Weining herself had been wronged by her father and brother!
There could not be anything good in a person who had been brought up with that kind of father and brother.
Besides, Jiang Changdai treated Lu Weining so well since young. Since Lu Weining was so smart, how was it possible that she did not realize something fishy about the treatment? Lu Weining was definitely aware of the reality of situation but had probably kept her in the dark as well.
Once she her hatred toward Lu Weining sp.a.w.ned, the tiny details from the past all began to bubble up. For example, Jiang Changdai treated her coldly in favor of Lu Weining. There was even this one time when Jiang Changdai had taken her to buy new clothes for Chinese New Year as the festival was approaching. She fancied a piece of clothing, yet Jiang Changdai did not buy it for her after seeing the price. She only found out afterward that Jiang Changdai had used all her money on the shop Lu Weining had opened.
Nevertheless, Lu Weining"s shop was eventually closed down, making her mother lose everything that she had invested into it.
The money Jiang Changdai gave Lu Weining was actually the reason why her mother was so short on money that could not even afford to buy a piece of clothing for her own daughter.
Afterward, Lu Weining had developed a crush on Yan Beicheng. She cried and complained to her often while simultaneously asking her not to act rashly and to view the bigger picture. She did not let her argue with Yan Beicheng so as not to spoil the relations.h.i.+p they had as siblings.
Yan Zhiqing was the one who always took the initiative to suggest that she clarify things with Yan Beicheng whereas Lu Weining would always try to feebly stop her, knowing d.a.m.n well that Yan Zhiqing would do so anyway.
Come to think of it, Lu Weining had not genuinely been stopping her. She had been using her since the start.
If she really was considerate and felt wronged, why not just swallowed it and not tell her? This way, she would not know anything and their relations.h.i.+p as siblings would not deteriorate.
Lu Weining obviously knew what sort of character Yan Zhiqing had. As long as Lu Weining cried pitifully, her sister would step forward and fight against injustice. Besides, Lu Weining was not genuinely stopping her. Was it not the case that the feelings she had for Yan Beicheng had become increasingly diluted?
Lu Weining was using her all along!
Yan Zhiqing finally understood now. Because of the silly things she did in the past, she felt very ashamed. She immediately became unhappy after Old Lady Yan mentioned it but responded quietly, "I also know a lot of my cla.s.smates now."
"Yes, yes." Old Lady Yan did not argue with her, but she understood the implications of this. If her school was better than an ordinary university, then each and every one of the female students in the film school had to be smart as well.
Since the compet.i.tion in school began, the truly stellar students could not be discounted as good influences. Nevertheless, Old Lady Yan still did not trust Yan Zhiqing to be selective enough due to her questionable IQ.
"Anyway, you ought to go out and move about often with your sister-in-law and Yu Zi to meet people regardless of their family background. You shouldn"t look down on people just because they don"t have much of a background. What we see these days is a person"s character, not their background, do you understand? Though Lu Weining looks radiant, her mind is never filled with good things," reminded Old Lady Yan.
"I know." Yan Zhiqing took a bite of the pear in her hand and nodded.
"Wen Ren and others will be returning to T City tomorrow. Your brother will arrange a feast to send them off. Several youngsters under Wen Ren will be coming as well, but your grandfather and I won"t be going. You should go have fun together and meet new people." Old Lady Yan suggested.
She suggested this innocently, but her intentions were clear: there were a few youngsters under Wen Ren who were still single.
"Only my brother and his family?" Yan Zhiqing asked while she chewed on the pear.
"Huaian and his family as well." As Old Lady Yan saw how Yan Zhiqing was enjoying the fruit and got cravings as well. She smacked her lips and reached out to peel off a pear and eat alongside her granddaughter.
Her hand was consequently stopped by Yan Zhiqing just as she had extended it. Yan Zhiqing"s left hand could not move but her right hand still could. Her hand was still holding the pear that had been bitten into a couple of times, so she could only use her wrist to press Old Lady Yan"s hand down.
"Grandma, you have diabetes. You"ve already eaten a pear today as well as half a plate of strawberries." Yan Zhiqing was munching on the pear crunchily with a mouth full of juices as she looked at Old Lady Yan with dull eyes.
This brat!
Old Lady Yan quietly muttered, "I"ll only eat one."
"Did you bring your insulin to lower your blood sugar?" Yan Zhiqing"s eyes s.h.i.+fted to the side and she said lightly.
"Don"t you dare stop me from eating!" Old Lady Yan felt particularly wronged.
"I"ll let you sniff the smell so you can satisfy your cravings." Yan Zhiqing took another bite as a crisp crunching sound was heard.
At that instant, Yan Zhiqing turned from a brat to a disrespectful brat in Old Lady Yan"s heart,
"Apart from those in our family, are the others not going as well? I"ve heard that the Wei Family seems to have a very good relations.h.i.+p with Wen Ren, no?" Yan Zhiqing felt that Old Lady Yan seemed to have gotten distracted, so she took the initiative to ask.
"I"m the one who chose the attendees. Won"t it appear very insincere if a lot of people are invited to the feast? Since they"re close, they can gather together on some other day. That can be their gathering just for friends." Old Lady Yan explained.
"It won"t be convenient for me to go in my current state." As Wei Zilin would not be going, Yan Zhiqing did not want to join in the fun. "Eating and moving about is inconvenient. Imagine how uncomfortable it"ll be for people to still have to take my well-being into consideration when they"re busy trying to have fun."
Old Lady Yan thought about this for a second and agreed. Thus, she no longer mentioned it.
Yan Zhiqing ultimately could not let go of Jiang Changdai. After greeting the two elders, she asked the caregiver to send her to Chu Tian Hospital to visit her.
Old Lady Yan gave it some thought and did not stop her. After all, the two of them were still mother and daughter. She agreed and had Xiao Deng send them over.
After arriving at the hospital, Xiao Deng went to find a place to park the car whereas the caregiver pushed Yan Zhiqing as they headed toward Jiang Changdai"s ward.
The caregiver was about to knock on the door when they arrived outside the ward, but instantly noticed that the door was not closed tightly. Instead, it was still slightly ajar with a tiny gap in between it and the doorframe. There was the noise of people talking inside.
The caregiver was about to start speaking but Yan Zhiqing lifted up her hand and stopped her action, signaling at her to be quiet.
The corner of Yan Zhiqing"s lips curled upward into a haunting arc. She had been able to overhear Jiang Changdai talking to Lu Zhenghang the last time out, but this time, she could listen in on Jiang Changdai talking to Lu Weining.
Lu Weining had been comforting Jiang Changdai at the exact moment that Yan Zhiqing had stopped the caregiver from speaking. Even though she could not be seen, Yan Zhiqing had known her for so long that she was able to recognize her just by listening to her voice.
Subsequently, she heard Jiang Changdai grumbling, "I didn"t expect Yan Huaiyuan"s children to be so unscrupulous and ungrateful. Forget about Yan Beicheng who hasn"t been devoted to me from the start, but I raised Zhiqing through thick and thin. Nevertheless, she doesn"t care about me at all despite my critical condition. She was discharged from the hospital and left silently without saying a word; she doesn"t even care if I live or die!"