Chapter 101
Chu Xinrou really had spoiled Xiaoxiao. Yang Feitang watched as she had clearly taken a small step, but after hearing Qiao Xiaoxiao’s arrogant “head of the household” speech, the corners of her lips lifted slightly, her eyes filled with a doting and helpless smile. She met Yang Feitang’s gaze, raised her hand, and made a “shh” gesture at her lips before retreating.
Yang Feitang: …
At this moment, she was envious of Xiaoxiao.
If this had been CEO Xue, she would have been skinned alive.
Chu Xinrou’s doting on Qiao Xiaoxiao was not temporary; it had always been there.
So much so that she was leaving on a plane the next morning. When Qiao Xiaoxiao leaned over and pressed down on her, Chu Xinrou’s eyelashes only trembled slightly before she opened her arms and accepted all the weight and warmth.
Xiaoxiao was lost in this familiar yet strange body. Her sister’s skin had a pearly luster, and when her fingertips brushed against it, it was like stroking the finest silk. She watched as the person under her lifted her long neck in a beautiful arc. Those always-gentle eyes were now filled with a watery mist, floating between restraint and indulgence.
In their intertwined breaths, Chu Xinrou’s fingertips dug deep into the back of her neck, as if grabbing a life-saving piece of driftwood, and also as if pushing away the last bit of reason.
At the peak of the surging passion, Qiao Xiaoxiao suddenly held her sister’s wrist and pressed it against the pillow. She felt the rapid pulse in her palm and, with a triumphant smile, held the red earlobe in her mouth. “You have to be good.”
The breathy sound was wrapped in unfinished words, shattering in the overlapping body heat with the rhythm of their movements.
She was a wicked, bad child.
Chu Xinrou’s indulgence of Qiao Xiaoxiao was almost without reservation.
Her Xiaoxiao had had it too hard in the first half of her life.
Those promises were never just pretty words spoken casually, nor were they just fleeting thoughts.
Chu Xinrou had sworn to herself that she would make Xiaoxiao’s latter half of her life full of happiness. She would make up for all the joy that had been missing in the first half of her life.
According to her old habit, Qiao Xiaoxiao did not go to see Chu Xinrou off. But this time, the feeling of reluctance was particularly strong. Her eyes were slightly red, but her heart was filled with an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
To be cherished wholeheartedly by a lover—this feeling was so different.
But she still couldn’t help but worry about her sister.
The Chu family’s side, could it really be resolved so easily?
Her sister must have said it so lightly because she was afraid of worrying her. If it were really that simple, how could she have been pushed into the abyss time and time again in the past?
Sometimes, a tacit understanding is the most subtle miracle in this world.
The moment Chu Xinrou’s plane landed, her phone vibrated urgently. On the other end of the phone, Chu Fengyi’s voice was trembling uncontrollably. “Jie… Mommy has been found by Daddy.”
After all, Chu Yunji had been a powerful figure in the business world for many years.
A lean camel is still bigger than a horse.
If he was determined to find someone, he would dig three feet into the ground to find them. Moreover, Xu Keqing was still his legal wife.
Chu Yunji’s methods were swift and ruthless, leaving no room for maneuver. He directly framed the little boy toy by Xu Keqing’s side for selling her jewelry and running away from home, and forcibly brought her back.
What awaited Xu Keqing was self-evident.
When Chu Fengyi stumbled home and wanted to see her mother, she heard Chu Yunji’s cold voice. “Don’t worry, she won’t die.”
After all, she was her daughter’s mother. No matter how much betrayal, no matter how much hurt, he would still leave her a life.
In the end, Chu Xinrou couldn’t bear to watch anymore and pushed open the door to Chu Yunji’s study directly.
In the swirling sandalwood smoke, Chu Yunji was slowly sipping his tea. He looked up and glanced at Chu Xinrou, his fingertips lightly tapping the rosewood desk. “You’ve known for a long time that Xu Keqing is not your biological mother.”
Chu Xinrou’s lips were pressed into a tight line. “Is there any point in talking about this now?”
The prayer beads slowly turned in Chu Yunji’s palm, his eyes terrifyingly calm. “How is there no point? Since you were able to find out her identity, didn’t you ever think of investigating the truth of the car accident back then?”
This sentence was like a clap of thunder, making Chu Xinrou tremble all over.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought of investigating.
It was that she didn’t dare to.
Although Xu Keqing was not her biological mother, she was the “mother” who had raised her. This debt of gratitude made her hatred always wrapped in an indescribable attachment.
When she had her earliest memories, Chu Xinrou was also like other children, attached to her mother. She liked to hug Xu Keqing’s leg, look up at her, and call out “Mommy” one after another.
When Chu Yunji was around, Xu Keqing would always answer intimately, and sometimes she would even squat down and hug her and kiss her a few times.
But the moment Chu Yunji was not around, she would push Chu Xinrou away, very coldly. “You are a daughter of the Chu family. You have to learn to be independent.”
Perhaps it was this daily rejection that had carved invisible scars on Chu Xinrou’s heart.
Those moments of being rejected, those moments of longing for warmth but receiving indifference in return, had all turned into the aloofness and coldness in her bones now.
Chu Yunji took a light sip of his tea, his gaze as sharp as a torch as he watched his silent daughter. “Do you want to continue asking?”
Chu Xinrou took a deep breath, met her father’s gaze firmly, and nodded slowly.
She had to ask clearly.
Even if it wasn’t for herself, she had to get an answer for her sister.
Chu Yunji seemed to be able to see through all her thoughts and walked to the window with his hands behind his back. Chu Xinrou looked at her father’s steady steps, her pupils contracting slightly. The legs that had been on crutches for this period of time were now moving freely.
“I’m old,” Chu Yunji looked out the window, his voice tinged with a hint of fatigue. “I’m tired of the endless struggles in the family. I had originally wanted to end all this as soon as possible, but people’s hearts are never satisfied…”
He had feigned illness just to lure the snake out of its hole. To let all those eyes lurking in the dark surface, and to take this opportunity to force his eldest daughter, who had been unwilling to return home, to come back, so that the two sisters could join forces to deal with it.
With light and dark complementing each other, this purge would naturally be twice as effective.
She had to face all this sooner or later.
She had to make this choice sooner or later.
Chu Yunji turned around, his gaze as sharp as a blade as it pierced Chu Xinrou. “In the second month after the car accident, I had already investigated it thoroughly. Did she think it was seamless?” A cold smile appeared on his lips. “With her little brain, is she even worthy?”
That contemptuous tone made Chu Xinrou feel as if she had fallen into an ice cave.
Her father was talking about the nightmare that had ruined her sister’s life, that “accident” that had shrouded her in a shadow for her whole life, in such a casual tone?
It wasn’t that Chu Yunji hadn’t been angry.
When the truth had come to light, he had almost killed that woman with his own hands. But in the end, he had chosen to endure. Because behind Xu Keqing stood his own younger brother, Chu Yunpeng—the second largest shareholder of the Chuxin Group.
After weighing the pros and cons, he had chosen to lie low.
The group’s interests always took precedence over personal feelings.
Now, Xu Keqing had become a useless pawn. Chu Yunji had taken advantage of the time when his younger brother, Chu Yunpeng, was focused on his two nieces and had nonchalantly eaten away at his shares, uprooting his foundation.
This secret war, which had lasted for many years, had finally come to an end. It was also time to choose the real heir.
Chu Yunji stroked the purple clay teacup in his hand, a sinister glint in his eyes. He had never believed that anyone could resist the temptation of immense power, not even his own daughter. In his eyes, his eldest daughter’s departure back then was not so much because of “guilt” and “pain,” but a carefully calculated act of self-preservation.
The tea was slightly cool, reflecting his cold and stern reflection. In the game of power, there was never any pure family affection.
Chu Yunji stared into Chu Xinrou’s eyes, his fingertips lightly tapping the table, enunciating each word. “The so-called mother you speak of—Xu Keqing, the one who was supposed to be killed in that car accident back then, was you.”
This sentence was like a sharp blade, accurately piercing Chu Xinrou’s heart.
But fate had played a cruel joke.
No one had expected that the then-eight-year-old Chu Fengyi would burst out with astonishing strength and push her sister away at the critical moment. This unexpected variable had completely disrupted Xu Keqing’s carefully laid out plan to kill her.
Chu Xinrou’s fingertips dug deep into her palm. The fragments of memory that had been deliberately sealed away broke through the soil like sharp blades. The wound that time had carefully stitched up was brutally torn open, and fresh blood snaked down the lines of her memory, dyeing everything red.
So… the person who should have lost her leg was originally her, right?
Was it because of her that Fengyi was like this?
…
When Chu Xinrou saw Xu Keqing in the basement, she was already curled up on the ground, on the verge of death. Her simple cheongsam was stained with mottled blood, her face was covered in bruises, and her eyes were so swollen she could barely open them.
On the cold and damp ground, Xu Keqing was curled up in a corner like a stray dog. A thick iron chain was deeply embedded in her swollen ankle, leaving a purplish-red bruise on her pale skin. The murky water had soaked her expensive silk nightgown, and her messy hair was still sticky with residual makeup.
Chu Xinrou stood on the steps, looking at this once-glamorous woman, who was now like a tattered rag, thrown in the sewage.
“Xin… Xinrou?” a hoarse voice suddenly sounded. Xu Keqing struggled to lift her head, and her cloudy pupils suddenly burst with light when she saw who it was. She dragged the iron chain and desperately crawled forward, the sewage splashing on her twisted face. “Daughter… save Mommy…”
Chu Yunji was simply insane to have locked her here.
She wanted to get out!
She wanted revenge!
Chu Xinrou walked down the steps one by one. Her heart, which was already full of a thousand holes, was now so numb she couldn’t feel the slightest pain.
Xu Keqing’s gaze followed her figure closely. When she saw Chu Xinrou slowly squat down in front of her and look at her with such a calm gaze, her last bit of luck shattered with a smack. Her heart, which had been beating violently just now, suddenly sank to the bottom. She looked at Chu Xinrou and said with unexpected calmness, “You know everything?”
Silence spread between them.
After a long gaze, Xu Keqing suddenly shook her head gently, a bitter smile on her lips. “I didn’t expect… he would really be so ruthless.”
Since he had told Chu Xinrou, it meant that he had really treated them, mother and daughter, as discarded pawns.
Chu Xinrou looked into Xu Keqing’s eyes, her voice so soft it was as if it would dissipate in the wind at any moment. “Is it true?”
At this moment, how she wished that Xu Keqing could deny it, even if it was just to lie to her.
But Xu Keqing, who had been suppressed and had been pretending for half her life, was no longer willing to pretend. She lay on the ground and let out a chilling sneer. “That’s right. I did it all.”
Since Chu Yunji had ruined her life, she would destroy everything he cherished the most.
Chu Xinrou felt a sense of suffocation, her chest as if being pressed by a thousand-pound stone. “You just… wish I were dead that much?”
“You were lucky,” Xu Keqing turned her face away, not looking her in the eye. “So many times, you were the one who survived.”
Chu Xinrou could barely breathe. “Even if you were really going to do it, couldn’t you have chosen a time when Fengyi wasn’t there?”
The wound on the corner of her mouth was bleeding a little. Feeling the taste of blood, Xu Keqing’s eyes were fierce. “I had originally planned everything, planned everything… it was Fengyi. She was stupid. She treated you as her own sister. She was stupid…”
She had wanted to choose a time when only Chu Xinrou was there, but Chu Yunji was not a fool. He had always arranged for people to protect Chu Xinrou. If it weren’t for Chu Fengyi suddenly wanting to go out and play, and they had had a sudden idea, there would not have been such an opportunity.
Xu Keqing had not wanted to take Chu Xinrou’s life, only to deprive her of the chance to ever inherit. But she had planned everything, but had only missed her own daughter.
After Fengyi had lost her leg, she had been in more pain than anyone else, and had beaten herself like a madwoman.
But what was the use? What was done was done.
Harming others ultimately harms oneself.
But Xu Keqing still couldn’t understand. She had poured all her hatred onto Chu Xinrou, hating Chu Yunji, hating the entire Chu family. It was they who had ruined her and her daughter’s lives.
…
“Knock, knock, knock.”
The door was gently knocked.
Chu Yunji slowly turned his leather chair and said in a low voice, “Come in.”
Chu Fengyi dragged her tired body into the study. These past few days, she had been looking for her mother everywhere, begging her father, but there had been no news. When Ah Sen had informed her that Chu Yunji wanted to see her, Chu Fengyi had rushed over, thinking it was related to Xu Keqing.
However, reality is always cruel.
Chu Yunji picked up the remote control, his fingertips lightly tapping. The display screen on the wall lit up, and the surveillance footage of the basement was clearly presented.
“See for yourself.”
In the footage, the figures of Xu Keqing and Chu Xinrou gradually became clear.
Chu Fengyi raised her head, trembling, her pupils suddenly contracting.
Xu Keqing was shrunk on the ground, her hair disheveled, her eyes bloodshot, her whole being exuding a crazed aura. She stared at Chu Xinrou, her voice hoarse. “The one who was supposed to be under the car that day was you!”
She knew better than anyone else that Chu Yunji would not let her live.
She also understood that she had been completely defeated. Since Chu Yunji had let Chu Xinrou see her, it meant that the position of the heir had long been settled.
At this final moment, the only thing she could do was to plant a permanent thorn in Chu Xinrou’s heart.
To make her forever indebted to Fengyi.
“Do you think… you only harmed Fengyi?”
Anyway, it was the last time. There were no more chances.
Xu Keqing laughed strangely. She crawled towards Chu Xinrou, each word as if it had been dipped in poison. “That biological mother of yours, whom you’ve never met… also died because of you.”
On this point, she had to thank Chu Xinrou.
It was she who had killed the beloved of that cold-blooded and heartless man, Chu Yunji.
So what if Chu Yunji was all-powerful and could turn the clouds with his hand? In the end, he couldn’t save the life of his beloved. She had died of an amniotic fluid embolism during childbirth.
Xu Keqing’s words were like a dull knife, slowly and cruelly torturing her soul.
Chu Xinrou could clearly feel that she was being dismembered by these words, first her limbs, then her torso, and finally, even her heart was being gouged out. She looked at the twisted smile of Xu Keqing, her pale lips trembling slightly. “Is that so… Mommy…”
One word “Mommy” had fiercely pierced Xu Keqing’s heart. Her ferocious smile instantly froze, and a moment of blankness appeared on her twisted face.
