Chapter 448: Don’t Blame Me for Taking It Out on Your Darling Child
Now, because of what Su Qingsang’s said, Su Chenghui was prompted to think carefully about the answers he would need to come to terms with the results of his impulsive move.
In truth, he already knew the answer in his heart, but he did not dare to face it. He didn’t have the courage to face his mistake.
Did he really hate Li Qianxue? Indeed, he hated her a long time ago. However, he hated himself even more.
He hated himself for not being determined enough and for not thinking of a solution in the first place.
He hated that he had gotten involved with Xiang Caiping before clearing the mess he had started with Li Qianxue. This had only served to cause more confusion later.
It was like trying to make up for one mistake by hastening to commit another.
The end result was that the mistake just s...o...b..lled and got entirely out of control. It was too late by the time he tried to salvage the situation.
Su Chenghui stared blankly at the building in front of him. He found himself unconsciously driving home without even knowing it.
Yes. This was his home. He had lived there for more than twenty years.
After his parents pa.s.sed away, he had come to regard Old Master Li as his own father.
And apart from Old Master Li? Su Peizhen was really his daughter, and Su Yuxin was his son. As for Li Qianxue…
Su Chenghui thought of Li Qianxue’s face. He thought of how they were always at loggerheads with each other. They could never come to an agreement about anything.
She was so beautiful, that fact he could not deny. She was also very capable and ambitious. In business, the two of them were perfectly matched.
After their first one-night stand, she became pregnant and had forced him to marry her.
Later, after she gave birth to their child, she had returned to work, fully committed.
With their previous experience of working together, even if Su Chenghui did truly hate his wife for forcing him to marry her, he had to admit that she had superb business skills.
She was especially daring as well, and they complemented each other very well.
In recent years, Li Enterprise had acquired the potential for so much growth, but it would not have been possible without the combined hard work both of them had done.
Aside from business, though? Su Chenghui thought of the first few years of their marriage.
Li Qianxue knew that he didn’t like her, so she tried her best to treat him well and gain his affection. She tried her hardest to please him and took care of almost every single detail.
At that time, he had not been in business long. Coming from a humble upbringing, he didn’t care so much about his image.
However, after getting married, his image was getting better and better with each year. His clothes, every season throughout the year, were handpicked and matched by Li Qianxue.
Thanks to her background and upbringing, she had great taste. Every night she would pick out and co-ordinate the clothes he was going to wear the next day.
This did not only apply to the things he wore, but also to everything else related to him. She made sure to add her personal touch and energy. From the beginning, she really had made up her mind to be a good wife.
She even tried to learn to cook and prepare meals once upon a time. However, she soon realized she had no talent in that and stopped.
However, every good she did for him was deliberately ignored and dismissed. He hated her. He was determined not to feel any affection for her whatsoever.
He blamed her for Xiang Caiping leaving him, and he became even more embittered when he was forced to marry her because of her pregnancy.
He was not good to her at all, and he didn’t even share a room with her for a long time after their marriage.
Had it not been for another time when he had gotten drunk yet again, they would not even have Su Yuxin. However, it had to happen that one time.
As he searched his inner hidden thoughts, he found that he had a secret longing for Li Qianxue.
How could that be? Even so, he had not cared about her feelings whatsoever. He had, in fact, taken advantage of her using his drunkenness as an excuse.
He had severely humiliated her. Told her not to waste her time and feelings. He said that he would not fall in love with her, that he would never accept her. Ever.
Starting from that day, Li Qianxue’s att.i.tude toward him had finally begun to change.
It was a slow process, at the end of which she had given up on him. And while she didn’t want him anymore, it had only taken that one time for her to get pregnant again.
After Su Yuxin was born, Li Qianxue began to focus all her energy on their son.
As the years went by, Su Peizhen was growing up. When she was young, she was very adorable.
She was a spoiled, cheeky child and loved to laugh. With Su Peizhen around, the atmosphere at home slowly started getting better.
Su Yuxin was also very cute when he was young. He was not like a typical boy, but a quiet, introverted type, and was, in fact, closer to Li Qianxue than to Su Peizhen.
Thanks to their two children, Su Chenghui and Li Qianxue could maintain a respectful and civil exterior as a husband and wife.
On the surface, Li Qianxue treated him the same as before, dutifully and respectfully. However, he knew it was different.
However, Li Qianxue had finally given up on having any real marriage relations.h.i.+p with him. If it were not for Old Master Li and their two children, perhaps they would have divorced.
When he discovered that Li Qianxue’s att.i.tude toward him had changed, he didn’t probe too deeply into his feelings then.
He could only convince himself that yes, that was for the best. This way was better.
He didn’t love Li Qianxue after all, and she, in fact, had forced him to marry her.
However, he knew very well that things were not good, not good at all. He didn’t like the way that Li Qianxue would regard him so coldly. He hated the fact that he was slowly becoming totally insubstantial in her eyes.
He couldn’t help but start thinking: surely, Li Qianxue never really loved him at all? How else could she have given up so easily?
However, when he was completely honest with himself, he realized it was his own fault. His wife had tried and tried, but after she had been unable to get a response from him after so many years, her feelings for him had slowly died.
He couldn’t quite figure it out and refused to think any further than that. He was stubborn in his att.i.tude and had secretly waited to reveal the truth about Su Peizhen.
He was obsessed with revenge and longed to see the look on Li Qianxue’s face when she found out.
However, did he really want to take revenge on her? No. He had slowly started to give up on the idea of retribution. However, every time he saw Su Qingsang, he couldn’t help but feel afraid.
That confusion of emotions was so complex, so confusing, that he had no idea how to treat Su Qingsang either.
When Su Qingsang was admitted to college, he couldn’t wait to ask her to move out of the house.
He wanted to wait for Su Qingsang to get married so he could give her a dowry. The more he thought about it, the further he went down the spiral of mistake after mistake.
Sometimes, as he witnessed Li Qianxue’s coldness toward him while they were alone, he couldn’t help but be tempted. Why give up now? He was going to get revenge, and he wanted to let Li Qianxue know what she had done wrong.
However, did Li Qianxue really do anything wrong? No. She did not.
Exhausted, Su Chenghui closed his eyes. It was not until today that he was willing to admit it.
Li Qianxue did not do anything wrong. Every mistake was a result of his own wrongdoing.
It was not his fault that he had gotten drunk, or that he let the drunkenness get the better of him. If it wasn’t for his desire for Li Qianxue, even if he was drunk, could anything have really happened?
This so-called drunkenness was just an excuse to disguise his inner desire.
If he were willing to admit it, he would have known that he had long been in love with Li Qianxue. It happened when he had least expected it.
She was so different from everything he had ever known, beautiful, open, brilliant, and shone like the sun, so much so that he couldn’t look away.
He loved Li Qianxue but couldn’t admit it, because deep down, he still had low self-esteem. He was just a man of ordinary roots and origin. However, Li Qianxue was the Li family’s princess, as well as the successor to the Li Enterprise.
He was not sure if Li Qianxue’s feelings for him were spurred by a fleeting impulse or genuine. His inferiority complex made him reject Li Qianxue from the beginning, even at the expense of using Xiang Caiping as an excuse.
He grew up with Xiang Caiping from a young age, they were childhood sweethearts, and their parents had intended for them to get married eventually. He thought that was love.
In reality, he had more of a sibling relations.h.i.+p with Xiang Caiping, but there was no romantic love between them. Otherwise, how would he dare to give in to his inner desires and have a one-night stand with Li Qianxue after getting drunk?
It was ridiculous that he didn’t understand this for so many years. He thought that the sympathy he felt for Xiang Caiping was love. He felt inferior about not being able to compare himself with men from Li Qianxue’s background.
Childishness and his own laughable ego made him commit a series of wrongdoings.
In the end, it was mistake heaped upon mistake. It made things completely irreparable.
Su Chenghui let out a bitter chuckle. He was too stupid. He was really too stupid.
Why didn’t he discover his innermost feelings earlier? Why didn’t he recognize earlier that Li Qianxue had grown to occupy a different place in his heart?
Old Master Li saw his true feelings a long time ago, didn’t he? That was why he kept reminding him to think clearly about what was most important to him.
It was a pity that he was completely blindsided and could not think deeply about what was truly most important to him.
By the time he had come to the necessary conclusions, he had already gone down the path of no return.
His cell phone rang suddenly. He froze for a moment, and as he picked the phone up from his seat, Li Qianxue’s number displayed on the screen made his heart beat faster.
He suddenly seemed to return to that moment many years ago when he first met Li Qianxue. He stared at the phone for a long time before answering it.
His heart was beating so hard. He had a lot to say to Li Qianxue. He wanted to tell her he was wrong all along. He…
“Su Chenghui.”
On the other end of the line, he heard Li Qianxue’s icy voice. It was a very familiar voice, but at this time it sounded quite different.
“Our lawyer is saying you will not sign the papers.”
A short sentence, but it was like a basin of cold water had been poured down on Su Chenghui. His body was instantly stiff.
“I’m telling you, don’t think of pulling any tricks. If you still have half a mind to give Su Peizhen the inheritance, you can forget about it. I won’t let you do that.”
The sharp words did not have a trace of the gentleness that Li Qianxue had for him once upon a time, and her voice was harsh in his ears.
Su Chenghui was very uncomfortable. He was not used to such sharp words from Li Qianxue.
“Qianxue, I don’t—”
“I don’t care what you want to do. I’m telling you, I’m done with this marriage.”
Li Qianxue thought that he was dissatisfied with the material conditions of the divorce and became angrier and angrier.
“Su Chenghui, I have given you all you deserve. Don’t think about trying to get more. For so many years, I have suffered. Even if I had done something wrong at first, I have helped you raise your daughter for so many years, at the expense of my own daughter’s welfare. So I guess we are even now, aren’t we? ”
When Li Qianxue said this, she paused and then took on a softer tone. “Su Chenghui, we had been together for many years and can separate on good terms. If you want to go against me and refuse to sign, I will not mind exposing the truth to the people in the whole of Lin City, and publicly declare that Peizhen is an illegitimate daughter. I would like to see you try to put on airs then.”
“Qianxue.” Su Chenghui did not expect Li Qianxue’s att.i.tude to be so fierce.
“The festival is tomorrow. The day after tomorrow I will send Lawyer Chen to you again. If you still haven’t signed by then, don’t blame me for acting against your own darling child.”