Chapter 98: Missing Me So Much

Liang Jinshang fell silent, and the other three said nothing either.

In the end, it was Liang Yuanhan who spoke first. He asked Mrs. Liang, “Why didn’t you discuss this with me beforehand? It’s Jinjin’s birthday today. I was wondering why you were being so generous, throwing her a birthday celebration. So this was really just a pretext to make such an outrageous demand of her.”

“Why should I have discussed it with you?” Mrs. Liang said, her face darkening with displeasure. “Would you have agreed? All these years, even when you secretly cut your medication and reduced the number of dialysis sessions, you still insisted on supporting her through school. Now that she’s made something of herself, the chance to repay the family is right in front of her. It all depends on whether she has any conscience.”

Crack.

Liang Yuanhan had only just recovered from a serious illness and was still very weak, but the moment he slammed his hand on the table, Mrs. Liang still jumped in fright.

“No conscience? If Jinjin had no conscience, I’d already be nothing more than a photograph hanging on the wall.”

“You say we supported her through school, but let’s be fair—how much of your money has she actually spent over the years? She hasn’t taken a cent from you since she started college. What young girl is like her, bringing money home starting in her second year of university?”

“What, are you still trying to force her to be tied to your son for the rest of her life?”

Liang Jinshang’s nose stung. She stood up and helped Liang Yuanhan catch his breath. “Dad, don’t say that. There’s no such thing as being tied or not tied. You’ll always be my family.”

Though she was still wearing that faint, comforting smile, her heart had already gone hollow. She knew this birthday was, for all practical purposes, over.

Liang Yuanhan’s heart ached for her. He patted the back of her hand and sighed again and again, yet there was nothing he could do.

But Mrs. Liang had made up her mind to get an answer from her today. “Jinjin, what about the relocation compensation?”

Liang Jinshang drew in a breath and looked at Liang Xizhou.

She found him watching her as though he were enjoying a show.

A few seconds passed. Seeing that Liang Jinshang still said nothing, Liang Xizhou finally spoke. “Mom, you don’t need to keep deceiving yourself. She can still say a few pretty words now to coax Dad, but after a while, she’ll probably even forget how to write the surname Liang.”

“Tell me, Liang Jinshang—are you going back on your word because that rich boyfriend of yours said he’s going to marry you?” Liang Xizhou’s voice turned grim. “I can’t stop you from finding men outside, but as long as I’m still unable to stand, you can forget about marrying anyone else.”

“Otherwise, I’ll jump off the hotel where you hold your wedding—crash...!”

“I’ll put on a firework display for you with my own body! Even if I’m nothing but trash—consider it my wedding gift to you!”

Liang Jinshang’s skin prickled all over at his words.

Mrs. Liang was even worse off; she clapped a hand over her mouth and burst into tears. “Xizhou! Xizhou... Are you trying to kill your mother?”

Over the past few years, Liang Yuanhan had been consumed by illness and pain, leaving him unable to care for anything else. He never imagined his own son had become so twisted.

Stirred by the bloody scene Liang Xizhou described, he trembled violently. “You—you... Xizhou, how did you become like this?”

Looking at the Liang family in utter chaos, Liang Jinshang felt a chill of desolation rise from the depths of her heart, and the ironic words she had once said to Shang Yucheng surfaced again.

“I’ve practically sold myself to the Liang family. The woman you’re sleeping with is Liang Xizhou’s future wife.”

Who would have thought it would come true?

The family before her was sick, trapped, miserable, and extreme. How much of this misfortune had she brought upon them?

Liang Jinshang heard her own empty, powerless voice. “I can register with Xizhou. I’ll move my household registration here. Once we get the money, we can send him abroad for treatment.”

Mrs. Liang stopped wiping away her tears and looked at her in disbelief. “You’re serious?”

When Mrs. Liang brought up this demand today, she had already discussed it privately with Liang Xizhou and reached an agreement.

Only one of them truly could not bear to part with the five-hundred-thousand yuan relocation compensation, while the other simply wanted to drag Liang Jinshang down into the same abyss.

Liang Xizhou smiled and said in an utterly malicious tone, “Then think it through carefully. After you register with me, how are you going to explain things to that rich heir of yours?”

Liang Jinshang looked at him for a few seconds and said softly, “Brother Xizhou, have you thought it through too? A while ago, I ran into Nan Yi.”

Those two words, Nan Yi, had once been forbidden in the household. Every time they were mentioned, Liang Xizhou would explode.

After that, no one dared bring up the name again.

Now that it had suddenly been mentioned, everyone froze for several seconds.

Then, just as everyone had feared, Liang Xizhou’s face darkened like a sky full of storm clouds, and the next second he erupted.

He still had some strength in his upper body. He lunged onto the table and braced himself half upright, raising one hand as though he meant to strike Liang Jinshang.

“How dare you even mention her name...”

Thud.

Unfortunately, before he could hit anyone, his body could no longer hold itself up. He slid heavily to the floor, and the plates and dishes on the table crashed down everywhere.

Mrs. Liang pushed Liang Jinshang aside and, in tears, rushed to help Liang Xizhou. “You’re still trying to hurt him... Haven’t you caused him enough suffering already...”

Liang Jinshang said nothing as she helped lift him up.

But Liang Xizhou’s hand seized her like a vine. “So what if you ran into Nan Yi? What, are you still trying to dump this cripple on her?”

Cripple! Waste! Invalid! It was always those same words.

If one went back nine years, who could have imagined that the campus heartthrob, so full of swagger and brilliance, would become this half-human, half-ghost of a man?

“You will not be a cripple forever!”

She pressed Liang Xizhou back into the wheelchair, the veins at her temples standing out.

“You go and get treated. Get well, stand up again, and be a proper human being! If you can’t be cured, then at worst you die!”

“I’ll never remarry. I’ll be a sinner, a daughter, a daughter-in-law—I’ll still carry your parents on my back!”

This was a side of Liang Jinshang they had never seen before: fierce, heartbroken, and furious at his refusal to fight.

Liang Xizhou looked into those eyes of hers, eyes that would never admit defeat, and for a moment he seemed to fall back to the high school field.

Once, after class, Liang Jinshang had boasted that she would run the full three thousand meters with him.

Liang Xizhou had been training in long-distance running and lapped her with ease. Running on the outside of her lane, he had laughed at her. “Why don’t I just pull you along? Come on, give me your hand!”

“I don’t need you to pull me! Liang Xizhou, just run if you want to. I’ll catch up to you sooner or later!”

And Nan Yi had been sitting in the stands, taking photos of them...

They looked into each other’s eyes and, through eight years of smoke and ruin, returned at once to those years of youth, brilliance, and wholehearted devotion.

For the first time, Liang Xizhou buried his face on Liang Jinshang’s shoulder and howled with genuine grief.

After Liang Jinshang left the Liang home, the spot on her shoulder where his tears had soaked through turned cold when the wind hit it.

Perhaps because her heart was so desolate, this year’s birthday was far colder than any before.

Mrs. Liang wanted her to stay the night, but Liang Jinshang still had not adapted to the change in “status” and refused.

Yet once she was truly out on the street, she realized she had nowhere to go.

She could go to Cloudwater Residence, of course, but if she returned there, she would still be alone.

The man who could not even wait a quarter of an hour to ask about her birthday present had sent a message saying he was still in Australia.

And as if she had been thinking of him, Shang Yucheng’s call came through the very next second.

Liang Jinshang was utterly alone right now, and she desperately needed a little warmth and human presence. Her answer came a bit too quickly.

When she heard Shang Yucheng let out a low laugh on the other end, she felt a twinge of regret.

Sure enough, he teased her with a trace of amusement. “Miss me that much?”