Liang Xinzhou was dressed in a suit and tie, his hair neatly combed back, a very standard CEO look.
He followed behind Liang's father, closed the study door, and sat down first in a chair opposite Liang's father.
Mr. Liang poured himself a cup of tea, and the fragrant aroma of the tea slightly eased the sadness he had just felt.
He poured a glass for Liang Xinzhou as well. Liang Xinzhou picked it up, took a sip, and then asked gently, "Dad, are you still looking for your missing sister?"
Mr. Liang nodded: "For so many years, this has been a worry for your mother and me. Now that we've found them, we can finally rest easy, otherwise..."
He paused, then smiled bitterly and said, "I felt guilty even on my deathbed."
He brought his newborn daughter to the party, but he was too careless and left his daughter behind while he was busy playing with his friends.
Mr. Gao, who also lost his daughter along with him, has now passed away.
Families were destroyed, wives and children were separated.
That's real tragedy.
But over the years, the thought of Lao Gao has always left him with a lingering resentment.
If it weren't for the fact that he has two children, which could somewhat alleviate his inner distress, he probably wouldn't be doing too well.
Even so, this guilt remained buried in his heart for many years.
After saying that, Liang's father glanced at Liang Xinzhou and asked, "Are you trying to persuade us to stop looking?"
Liang Xinzhou pursed his lips, slammed the teacup down on the table, took off his glasses and wiped the fog off, and said bluntly, "Well, I don't quite understand why you're looking for me."
Mr. Liang frowned, his voice suddenly becoming stern: "What do you mean by this?"
"To be precise, I don't know why you're looking for her. If you were so determined to find her, then you shouldn't have brought Liang Shi back in the first place." Liang Xinzhou had been with the company for many years, and his demeanor had become increasingly sharp. He was not at a disadvantage against his father, who had been a seasoned businessman for many years. "You brought Liang Shi back, and we all treated her like a little sister. But now that Liang Shi has grown up, you tell us that you've been looking for your real sister. Have you ever thought about how this hurts everyone?"
Liang's father said coldly, "So you're not going to look for her? You're just going to let your own sister wander outside? You're going to let her suffer?"
"Have you thought about what will happen to Liang Shi? What will you do when your own daughter comes back? How will she ever set foot in this house again? How will she ever call you 'Dad'?" Liang Xinzhou said calmly, "If you bring your own daughter back, our family's established way of getting along over the years will change, and we won't know how to deal with a complete stranger. Blood ties are great, but we can't fake all these years of getting along. It was Liang Shi's arrival that calmed Mom down; she was an innocent victim. Are we going to sever ties with her now?"
Liang Xinzhou remained calm, almost like an AI, rationally analyzing the current situation: "Once someone comes in, the ecological balance of our family will be disrupted."
“If your biological daughter is living a good life outside, and she gets along well with her adoptive parents, then your appearance will only stir up her peaceful life and put her in a difficult situation. If she is not living well, then she will have some qualities that are incompatible with this class and this family. The perspective, upbringing, demeanor and etiquette that money can buy are all things that she does not know or have never experienced. You bring such a person in and you still want to make up for her desperately. Then what?”
"Everything in this house has to give way to her, and everyone has to help her. Your two daughters-in-law live here. How much effort will they have to put into getting along with this new, naive sister-in-law?"
“This is the best-case scenario,” Liang Xinzhou said, then closed his eyes. “If she has more flaws, this family could very well fall apart because of her.”
Mr. Liang slammed his hand on the table. “What are you saying? She’s your own sister. Just because she’s been wandering outside for so many years, does that mean she doesn’t deserve to enter the Liang family?”
“No.” Liang Xinzhou remained rational. “If I had to choose between Liang Shi and someone I’ve never met, I would choose Liang Shi.”
“She’s from a completely different social class from you,” said Mr. Liang. “I don’t know where I picked her up from, but I raised her, fed her, clothed her, and let her see so much of the world. But she still turned out to be a scoundrel, a good-for-nothing spoiled brat, a wastrel. Because of her, I’ve almost lost all face!”
“But she’s obedient and well-behaved, someone we know well, a controllable factor,” Liang Xinzhou said, looking at him. “But can you say you didn’t benefit from her spoiled lifestyle?”
Liang Xinzhou retorted lightly, "If it weren't for her, our cooperation with Huaguang Group wouldn't have been so easy to achieve. Without her, our relationship with the Lin family wouldn't be what it is now, and we certainly wouldn't be able to become business partners. She may seem a bit shady, but has she ever done anything to harm the Liang family?"
Mr. Liang was immediately rendered speechless by the question.
For so many years, Liang Xinzhou has always indulged his younger sister because he knows she won't do anything particularly outrageous.
He may have a chaotic private life, or he may enjoy gambling, drinking, and socializing with friends, engaging in disreputable activities.
But he has never done anything harmful to the Liang family.
She was walking a tightrope, constantly on the edge of danger.
But once she gets to the point of harming the Liang family, she will definitely stop in time.
Liang Xinzhou looked at his father and said, “I’ll leave it at that: if you find your biological daughter and bring her back, this family will definitely be constantly arguing, given how much guilt you and Mom feel.”
Liang's father glanced at him sideways and said, "You're being too arbitrary in what you're saying."
“The reasoning is actually very simple,” Liang Xinzhou said. “You understand even if I don’t explain it. If you insist on doing this, Yu Wan and I will move out of the old house when you find it.”
Mr. Liang frowned: "Are you threatening me?"
Liang Xinzhou shook his head: "As you know, Yu Wan and I are planning to have a child and we are currently trying to conceive. I don't want her to be distracted by other things."
Suddenly, Mr. Liang slumped down and asked wearily, "Is it because of Liang Shi? Just because she saved you once?"
"Yes and no," Liang Xinzhou replied after thinking for a moment. "It's that I prefer to be with people I know well. Liang Shi saved me last time, which showed me that getting along with people is more important than blood ties."
“Actually, I was just like you, and I also looked forward to my third sister coming back,” Liang Xinzhou said. “But later I felt that Liang Shi was my sister, and this family couldn’t take another person, no matter if that person was good or bad.”
"So you want us to give up our biological daughter?" Mr. Liang asked heavily.
Liang Xinzhou let out a heavy sigh. "Perhaps you still remember the trolley problem you once told me about?"
A madman tied five people to the tracks. A tram came along, and the tram could choose to switch tracks, but there was also a person on the other track.
So, should we choose to run over five people on the existing track, or change the track and run over one person?
This is a situation where someone is destined to sacrifice.
Life cannot be measured on a scale, and the value of five people is not necessarily greater than that of one person.
but……
For Liang Xinzhou, his choice was absolute.
“The reason is simple,” Liang Xinzhou said. “Whether in business operations or family life, I always choose the option that covers more people.”
Therefore, it's better to let an unstable factor into the home and expose it to too many unknown risks.
Liang Xinzhou chose to sacrifice his younger sister, whom he had never met.
Liang's father suddenly fell silent.
Liang Xinzhou then stood up and said, "Of course, you haven't found your daughter yet, I'm just advising you to give up."
“If we find it someday,” Liang Xinzhou said in a deep voice, “I hope you will consider what I said today before making a decision.”
//
The wind was strong at night, and Xu Qingzhu could hear it clearly from the second floor.
It was probably also related to her slight insomnia.
She first lay in bed reading the comments, as if it were her first time using Weibo. After looking at her own Weibo posts, she went to read the related entries about Chen Liuying and Bai Weiwei. People were cursing her in all sorts of ways, making sarcastic and insinuating remarks.
The more I watched, the more excited I became, and I didn't feel tired at all.
Then I went to check Liang Shi's Weibo.
Her full name is Liang Shi, and her bio reads: "An actress who is working hard to improve."
This day happened to coincide with the promotion of the drama "Yu Guang", and the trending search results that the production team bought were all suppressed by Bai Weiwei and her team.
The director of this show must be kicking himself.
The money spent on buying trending topics has all gone down the drain.
A still from the play "Yu Guang" featuring Xu Qingzhu snuggled in bed.
She had read a bit of the script before Liang Shi auditioned, so she had some understanding of the character. He was a villain who was all bark and no bite, and the stills taken had a great atmosphere.
Liang Shi has a great sense of the camera; among the series of photos released in the official announcement, the poster featuring her and Zhao Ying has the most cinematic quality.
The others are slightly inferior, perhaps due to their appearance or photo editing.
Xu Qingzhu directly followed Liang Shi's Weibo account, as well as Zhao Ying, Yang Shuyan, Sally, and Cherry.
Zhou Yi'an's Weibo posts were not previously reported to the company.
She did search online, but couldn't find Zhou Yi'an.
However, I found the Weibo account of RT's New Designer of the Year, which has an English name: Leona.
Liang Shi's English name is Leo.
This is probably a coincidence that isn't a coincidence at all?
But Xu Qingzhu didn't know what Zhou Yi'an was thinking.
However, she still followed Zhou Yi'an.
And I messaged her privately to thank her.
This person is probably addicted to staying up late and likes to surf the internet while staying up late, as they replied almost instantly with a :?
But then deleted it immediately.
Then he didn't say anything more.
But I followed her back.
Xu Qingzhu scrolled through her following list and found that it was pitifully small, consisting of only two internationally renowned designers, Liang Shi, and herself.
Sally and Lin Luoxi were added a few seconds later.
After doing all this, Xu Qingzhu planned to go to sleep, but when she closed her eyes, all she could think about was Liang Shi.
She methodically arranged for everyone to deal with the crises, meticulously ordered dinner for everyone, and even saw everyone off after the event.
Just like the last time their department had a get-together.
Liang Shi did everything meticulously, and even when she was sensitive and vulnerable, he could tell why she was sensitive.
She is such a gentle person.
But she was so gentle that she forgot herself.
As Xu Qingzhu pondered, she began to think about the series of public relations actions she had taken during the day.
Since she couldn't sleep anyway, she got up and made a list of Liang Shi's routine for the day.
She had thought of everything.
It even dragged Dongheng's rival, Changli, into it.
A huge net was laid.
Although she didn't know what Liang Shi had told Zhou Yi'an, he must have obtained some more significant evidence.
Xu Qingzhu guessed it was related to the previous incident at Huayue International.
But Liang Shi's possession of those materials also meant that he had grasped the bottom line of being a decent human being.
There's no need to attack someone with such dirty private matters.