Chapter 8: A Once Legendary Figure

Fortunately, Liang Jinshang didn’t have to endure her embarrassment for long before Shang Yucheng instructed the driver to transfer her a thousand yuan. He had blocked her on every possible contact, and judging by his current attitude, he had no intention of reconnecting with her.

As the driver made the transfer, he couldn’t help but feel contempt. She was striking in appearance and temperament, yet turned out to be such a short-sighted, foolish, and greedy woman. So cheap—someone even he wouldn’t consider, let alone his boss!

Liang Jinshang opened the door and got out of the car. She might not have been able to read Shang Yucheng’s expression, but the driver’s was clear as day. He had probably never encountered a woman who would ask Shang Yucheng for a few hundred or a thousand yuan, and his look of utter distaste unexpectedly made her want to laugh.

She squatted on the ground, laughing for a while, then reached up to wipe away the tears. Looking at the 1,080.3 yuan in her account, she hesitated; she couldn’t bring herself to spend so much on a taxi back to campus and decided instead to return to the Liang family home.

By the time she arrived, it was already past one in the morning, yet the lights in the house were still on.

A slightly stooped middle-aged woman emerged from the side room, carrying several bundles of sheets and duvets. Seeing Liang Jinshang, she paused in surprise. “Jinshang, why are you back at this hour?”

“Godmother…” Liang Jinshang didn’t ask further and stepped forward to take what the woman was holding.

Her godmother instinctively recoiled. “No, don’t touch these! They’re too dirty!”

Liang Jinshang smiled. “It’s fine, let me do it. You go take care of my brother.”

Her godmother forced a smile and didn’t insist.

Liang Jinshang placed the foul-smelling sheets in the sink, turned the water on full, and let them soak.

Just then, a young man’s voice called from the side room, “Jinjin, you’re back?”

She walked to his door. “I’m back, Xizhou.”

The man’s next words were directed at her godmother. “Mom, you’ve been busy all night. Now that Jinjin’s back, let her help clean me up.”

“No, no… I’ll do it,” her godmother protested quickly. “I’m not tired.”

The man laughed oddly. “Jinjin isn’t an outsider. Mom, she’ll be the one spending the most time with me from now on.”

Liang Jinshang stood outside the door, her eyes lowered. Inside, her godmother said something in a hushed tone, and the man let out another burst of strange laughter.

After a while, her godmother emerged and said to Liang Jinshang, who hadn’t moved, “Xizhou’s gone to sleep. Once you’ve finished with the sheets, you should rest too.” With that, she pressed at her aching back and went to her room.

Liang Jinshang put the now-rinsed sheets into the washing machine and went to the smallest bedroom. She locked her door and went to bed.

There should have been no reason for her to be on guard in this house—her father was away, her godmother was a woman, and Liang Xizhou was a bedridden invalid.

But two years ago, one night, she’d woken suddenly to find Liang Xizhou rolling his wheelchair to the foot of her bed. It was then she realized that, even if a grown man was disabled, his physical desires would not disappear—if anything, long-term repression could make them more intense.

In the sweltering summer night, an inexplicable chill crept over her as she curled into a ball.

…

Liang Jinshang set her alarm for six. When she woke, her head felt heavy and her body weak. So the chill last night had been the onset of a fever.

She forced herself up, hung the sheets and duvets to dry, and went to the kitchen, only to find her godmother already up, making breakfast.

Her godmother had been a beauty in her youth, but now looked so aged that Liang Jinshang couldn’t bear to guess her age. In truth, she had just turned fifty.

“Godmother, do we still have enough money at home? I transferred you twenty thousand just last week and told you to hire a caregiver. Why didn’t you?”

Her godmother gave a bitter smile. “I tried, but Xizhou drove them all away.”

“…I’ll cook, then.” Liang Jinshang took the spatula from her godmother’s hand. “I’ll try to come home more often.”

But her godmother said, “No, no, you focus on your own things.”

She knew how busy Liang Jinshang was, juggling her final year and part-time jobs. “You’ve been so busy, haven’t you? You look thinner than ever… and your complexion is terrible today.”

Not wanting her godmother to worry about her fever, Liang Jinshang joked, “It’s not that I look unwell, I’m just too pale by nature.”

Which was true enough.

Her godmother didn’t have much energy left to worry about whether Liang Jinshang was thin or not. With both her husband and son to care for, she was already nearing her breaking point.

Liang Jinshang persuaded her godmother to eat breakfast in peace and went to look after Liang Xizhou.

As long as it wasn’t the kind of “clean-up” required after his incontinence, she could manage the rest of his care just fine.

Perhaps because he’d had a good sleep, Liang Xizhou was in a better mood that morning and didn’t make any sarcastic remarks over breakfast.

Once he’d finished eating, Liang Jinshang was about to take the dishes out when she suddenly heard Liang Xizhou call after her, “Jinjin, do you want to be an architect after you graduate? Should I ask around for you at the design institute?”

Feigning surprise, Liang Jinshang turned around. “Really? Thank you, Xizhou!”

It had always been her childhood dream to become an architectural designer. Even if it hadn’t been, she would have agreed—if it meant Liang Xizhou could finally open up, she was willing to try anything.

Few still remembered that this young man, wasting away in an old, cramped room, had once been the heartthrob of their city’s top high school.

Perhaps she could make Gong Xueyuan pay any price, but no matter what, she could never exchange it for a healthy body for Liang Xizhou.