Xu Qingzhu: "?"
She didn't understand, but was greatly shocked.
"Lingdang, who taught you to say that?" Xu Qingzhu reasonably suspected that the Liang family had started pressuring her to have a baby.
Are you upset that she hasn't gotten pregnant after four months of marriage?
"Nobody taught me," Bell said innocently. "I really want a little sister to play with me, or a little brother, so I can be his punching bag."
Liang Shi: "...Lingdang, even if he's your younger brother, you can't bully him. He'll protect you when he grows up."
Lingdang shrugged indifferently, "Little brothers are meant to be bullied."
Liang Shi: "..."
"Did no one teach you to say that?" Liang Shi couldn't help but ask curiously. "Did your grandmother say something at home?"
"No." Lingdang thought for a moment, then suddenly paused, glanced guiltily at Xu Qingzhu, and then whispered to Liang Shi in a voice that she thought no one could hear, "Grandma was on the phone with someone before, saying that if you and Aunt don't divorce, there's nothing she can do."
Liang Shi: "..."
Qiu Zimin really went to great lengths.
"I was curious, so I asked Mom why she wanted you to get a divorce?" Lingdang, like a little spy, spilled all the information she knew from the old house.
"What did your mother say?" Liang Shi asked, suppressing his emotions.
Lingdang mimicked her mother's tone, gentle yet sharp, "Children shouldn't meddle in adult matters."
Liang Shi: "..."
Then she met Xu Qingzhu's deep gaze, as if to say—there's more to this story.
"But we're talking about the two of you," Bell retorted confidently. "When are you going to give me a little sister to play with?!"
Xu Qingzhu closed her laptop, stood up from the sofa, and said in a cool, calm, and indifferent voice, "Let your aunt give birth to it. She's very capable."
Liang Shi: "?"
"I can't do it," Liang Shi said. "I can't handle it."
Lingdang, listening from the side, was completely confused. "Huh?"
Xu Qingzhu was practically gritting her teeth, yet she maintained an elegant demeanor. "You're amazing, you're exceptionally amazing."
Liang Shi coughed softly, feeling a pang of guilt, knowing that Xu Qingzhu had heard him.
“You’re two-faced, all talk and no action, you can do anything.” Xu Qingzhu smiled calmly. “So you’re definitely capable of having a baby.”
Liang Shi: "..."
She muttered, "I can't give birth on my own."
Xu Qingzhu, who was almost at the door of the study, turned around upon hearing this, "You'll have a new baby soon, don't rush it."
//
Xu Qingzhu returned to the study.
Lingdang asked Liang Shi with a bewildered look, "Auntie, is Auntie angry because of what I said? Doesn't Auntie want to give you a little sister?"
Liang Shi felt a mouthful of blood choke in his throat, but he swallowed it down and coaxed, "Your aunt is just shy, she's not angry with you."
Bell: "Okay."
To prevent Lingdang from repeating what he said, Liang Shi had no choice but to say, "Your aunt and I just got married, and it's not time for us to have children yet."
"Then how come it's time?" Bell asked.
Liang Shi: "...when we want children."
"Don't you want to now? Children are so cute." Lingdang cupped her face in her hands. "Look at me, am I cute? My dad said that after I was born, he loved Mom even more because Mom gave birth to a little princess for him."
Liang Shi was speechless. On one hand, he thought that children nowadays were really hard to manage, but on the other hand, he found Lingdang's coquettishness and cuteness incredibly adorable. He wished he could do whatever she wanted, and even try to pluck the stars from the sky for her.
After experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions, she said helplessly, "I'll think about it someday."
Bell: "Someday—which day?"
Children's curiosity always explodes in strange places.
Liang Shi couldn't handle the probing questions, so she could only try to distract Lingdang while the thread remained tangled in her hand. "Look at this, let's untangle it."
As expected, Lingdang's attention was drawn away, and she continued to play cat's cradle with her.
Liang Shi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, after she calmed down, she began to think: What was Xu Qingzhu angry about?
Is it because Qiu Zimin wants them to divorce?
But Xu Qingzhu also wants a divorce.
Is it because she was born a privileged child, with everything going smoothly, and only she was allowed to mention it, while others were not allowed to?
Liang Shi was deep in thought when Lingdang patted her on the shoulder. "Auntie, hurry up, don't get distracted."
Liang Shi immediately snapped out of his daze and said, "Okay."
She was afraid of this quirky little girl.
Xu Qingzhu, who had returned to her study with her laptop, first focused on finishing the plan before letting herself lie back in her chair and think about what had just happened.
She was always rational, so it was inevitable that she would have doubts about Lingdang's behavior.
Lingdang had never been on good terms with Liang Shi before. They had only met once at their wedding in the four months since their marriage, and Liang Shi had only returned to the old house a handful of times after the wedding. How did Lingdang suddenly become close to her?
Even if Liang Shi had become a better person and more likable, why were Liang Xinhe and his wife so comfortable handing over the bell?
After Lingdang arrived, she frequently mentioned the child, and even Sun Meirou mentioned pregnancy at the door just now. Connecting all the details, it is indeed hard not to be suspicious.
But children are children after all; they are young, and their thoughts are clearly written on their faces.
Xu Qingzhu had just observed carefully that the bell simply expresses a thought.
For a moment, Xu Qingzhu didn't know whether to say that she was too good at conspiracy theories or that the Liang family was too cunning.
She knew that the Liang family disapproved of her marriage to Liang Shi.
Of the entire family, Qiu Zimin disliked her the most, even though she was the first to agree to marry Liang Shi and the first to turn against him, persuading Liang's father to provide financing to Minghui Jewelry.
However, Qiu Zimin doted on Liang Shi, and every time Liang Shi got into trouble, it was Qiu Zimin who cleaned up the mess.
Over time, Liang Shi became increasingly unscrupulous.
It seems that Qiu Zimin really loves this daughter, but among the four children, this daughter is the most spoiled and the least successful.
Both Liang Xinzhou and Liang Xinhe are graduates of prestigious universities and are top students in finance. They joined the company immediately after graduation. Liang Xinzhou is now able to take charge of Dongheng Group on his own. Although Liang Wanwan is young and her grades are not very good, she studied painting and was admitted to the painting department of the Communication University of China. She is also quiet and reserved, with the air of a socialite.
Everyone says that Madam Liang was very good at educating her children, but her only failure was raising Liang Shi.
Some people are blind and occasionally make sarcastic remarks in front of Liang Shi. Madam Liang would defend her, saying, "My Shi is someone I gave birth to with great difficulty. I just dote on her a little too much. She hasn't done anything wrong. What's wrong with my Liang family's children being a little spoiled? Anyway, her two older brothers will clean up the mess."
It's often said in the circle that Madam Liang ruined Liang Shi's life.
But Liang Shi didn't see it that way. Relying on someone to clean up the mess, he became even more unscrupulous.
Xu Qingzhu had felt there was a problem before, but she was already overwhelmed with her own affairs at the time. Just the thought of whether or not to marry Liang Shi was enough to keep her busy, so she didn't have time to think about these things.
Looking back now, it's full of doubts.
Why were all the children good, but Liang Shi was the only one who turned out to be a failure?
Even the bell was well-educated, and despite growing up in the old house, she has a very likable personality.
It was clearly Mrs. Liang who agreed first, so why does she want them to divorce after only four months?
She had been a little agitated just now, but now that she had calmed down, she realized that she had overreacted.
Since they're going to get divorced anyway, what difference does it make who says it?
The main reason was that I thought this decision was probably made after Liang Shi discussed it with her mother, and I felt... a heart attack that I can't quite explain.
A few days ago, Liang's mother arranged for Liang Shi to meet Zhou Yi'an again.
So the plan is to have them divorce within three months, and then pair Liang Shi and Zhou Yi'an together, even if Zhou Yi'an is a person with hidden gender?
Liang's mother was trying to completely ruin Liang Shi's reputation.
Although Liang Shi was not well-known in the industry.
But this kind of behavior is not something a mother would do. If it were Liang Wanwan, Qiu Zimin would probably stop her immediately and cut it off at the source, and would definitely make Liang Wanwan marry someone who is a good match for the Liang family.
Yes, Liang Wanwan is an Omega.
Liang Shi could marry into a family that had already fallen on hard times.
At the time, a joke circulated in the industry: Miss Liang, in a fit of rage for her beloved, was willing to give up the Lin family's hundreds of millions of assets and abandon her beautiful childhood sweetheart, just to be with the one she loved.
Almost no one in the industry has this kind of courage.
After all, this circle may seem glamorous, but it is all dependent on families.
When a family prospers, its members prosper; when a family declines, its members decline.
The reversal of status can happen in the blink of an eye; one must proceed with extreme caution and prudence, daring not to make a single misstep.
So what kind of love exists in this circle? It's all just business marriages.
What need is there for love if it's good for the company and the family?
There's a lot of money in this industry, but very little love.
Liang Shishi's initial actions seemed foolish to everyone; it was blatant poverty alleviation.
However, supporting the "Number One Omega of the Sea Boat" seems to be profitable.
Xu Qingzhu sat in her study, trying to connect all the dots, but she knew too little to arrive at the truth, only having a vague guess in her heart.
It's still a very unreliable guess.
She felt that Liang Shi was not Qiu Zimin's daughter.
Logically speaking, Liang Shiying was probably a daughter that Liang's father adopted from outside and raised under Qiu Zimin's name. Therefore, Qiu Zimin treated her very well, but only for one purpose: to ruin her.
It's easy to spoil a person: just indulge her when she's young and naive, and encourage her when she does bad things. She will never develop a proper set of values, just like Liang Shi before her.
What about Liang Shi now?