It's as if Liang Shi has been automatically removed from this household.
This left the Liang brothers speechless, yet powerless to do anything about it.
The eerie atmosphere continued until Liang's father finished his call. As soon as he hung up, he noticed that Qiu Zimin was already in tears. He asked helplessly, "What are you doing?"
"Our little girl..." Qiu Zimin sobbed softly, "Is she really dead?"
“She’s not dead.” Mr. Liang frowned and sighed softly. “It’s her family who are dead.”
Qiu Zimin immediately perked up. She saw Liang's father ask Liang Xinhe to turn on his phone, but Liang Xinhe was completely confused. "What for?"
“Open that app called Weibo,” Liang’s father said. “Just search for Guo Xinran on that app.”
Liang Xinhe: "..."
“Xin is the Xin of Xinwei, and Ran is the Ran of Ran.” Father Liang urged, “Hurry up.”
Under pressure, Liang Xinhe was about to unlock his phone when Liang Xinzhou stopped him. He looked at his father and asked, "Do you remember what I told you?"
“I can understand your bias towards Liang Shi, but the problem is that your own sister has no one left to rely on.” Liang’s father looked at him. “Liang Xinzhou, how can you be so heartless?”
Liang Xinzhou's expression stiffened. He adjusted his glasses. "Then can you come up with a plan to save everyone?"
“You’re right, there will inevitably be sacrifices,” Liang’s father said in a deep voice. “Let…”
Qiu Zimin spoke first: "Just sacrifice Liang Shi, it doesn't matter whether she's in this family or not. She's an ingrate, and now she's biting me. I'm already selling the villa in Repulse Bay. She shouldn't have anything to do with the Liang family in the future, it's bad luck."
With red eyes, Qiu Zimin looked at the two brothers and said, "Let me tell you, if you really have any brotherly love, then care more about your own sister! Can't you hear me? Your own sister is suffering. You are a bunch of heartless bastards."
She ran out to get her phone and searched for the name in the living room. She then saw the pinned Weibo post and the photos it had posted. She stumbled back to the study and said to her father, "It's her, it's her."
Liang's father is confronting Liang Xinzhou and his brother.
Liang Xinhe's opinion was that either option was acceptable, while Liang Xinzhou's idea was that as long as the money was paid, the person shouldn't be brought back.
Liang's father clearly agreed with Liang Xinhe's opinion, but he also subtly suggested that if he wanted Liang Shi to establish her own household, he would give her a sum of money so that she would disappear from the public eye and have no further connection with the Liang family.
Qiu Zimin was still in shock from finding her daughter when she saw the three of them looking dejected and confronting each other aggressively. She immediately became furious and pointed at Liang Xinzhou and his brother, angrily saying, "That's your own sister! What is Liang Shi? We've already done enough by raising her! What are you doing now? Are you going to sever ties with the Liang family for her sake?"
"Mom, you're exaggerating," Liang Xinhe said, trying to smooth things over. "Aren't we discussing a better solution? Liang Shi can stay, and we can bring that younger sister back too."
"I'll say it again, bringing it back is like a ticking time bomb," Liang Xinzhou said. "Who knows when it might blow our house up."
"You haven't even seen her, how can you be so arbitrary?!" Qiu Zimin said sharply, "Liang Xinzhou, I think you've been bewitched by Liang Shi!"
“This has nothing to do with her.” Liang Xinzhou stood up, looking down at Qiu Zimin, and after thinking for two seconds, said coldly, “It’s your attitude that tells me this.”
Liang Xinzhou said, “Look at yourself now and your recent behavior. Ever since you argued with Liang Shi, you’ve been like this every day. If you find your biological daughter, you will make everyone give way to her, but I’m not willing to make my family give way to her, even though she has been wandering outside for many years and has suffered a lot.”
"Smack—"
Qiu Zimin slapped Liang Xinzhou across the face, knocking his glasses off. She roared, "Liang Xinzhou, are you even speaking human language?!"
"Why are you so selfish?!" Qiu Zimin questioned, "That's your own sister! She almost died all these years, shouldn't the whole family make way for her? What kind of spell did Liang Shi cast on you to make you hate me so much? Are you even thinking of replacing me, your mother, for her sake?!"
Liang Xinzhou was stunned for a moment.
Then, he looked coldly at Qiu Zimin.
That cold gaze sent a chill down Qiu Zimin's spine, and she suddenly realized what she had just done.
Qiu Zimin's hands trembled slightly.
Did you beat your grown son?
Is this the first time she has ever hit her son, whom she has always been incredibly proud of since he was a child?
Liang Xinzhou's voice was almost frozen as he whispered, "You know perfectly well what you and Father have done to Liang Shi all these years. You used her and then wanted to throw her away."
Liang Xinzhou sneered, "Then bring your own daughter back. Okay, you bring her."
“When she comes back, I’ll move out,” Liang Xinzhou said. “This is your home, feel free to do as you please.”
A blatant threat.
"Liang Xinzhou, you!" Qiu Zimin was about to reprimand him, but Liang Xinzhou had already stepped on his glasses and walked out, leaving them only with his back to them.
Liang Xinhe said helplessly, "I'll go and try to persuade him."
After saying that, he left the study.
But after they left, Qiu Zimin looked at Liang's father, suddenly covered her face and cried bitterly, "What sins have I committed?"
After a moment of silence, Mr. Liang sighed and said, "Let's find Nannan first."
Chapter 74
It rained again.
The air was damp when I woke up this morning, and the ground was covered with withered yellow leaves, as if reminding people that late autumn had arrived.
Kaishu City experiences an unusually high number of rainy days, likely due to its coastal location.
The autumn rain falls incessantly, coming every few days.
Liang Shi took a cardigan from the closet and put it on, then left the room window open to let some fresh air into the bedroom.
After getting up, she first looked at the houses on the app, feeling that moving was an urgent matter.
It's just a very simple intuition.
It's also possible that she'll keep thinking about it until she finishes it.
Good properties are snapped up as soon as they appear, while Liang Shi doesn't want the less desirable ones.
She also contacted several agencies, and they were all the same as last night, talking a lot of nonsense on the phone, but when she went to see them in person, she found that they were expensive and small.
Liang Shi mainly wants to find a place with a high cost-performance ratio.
If she were alone, she could definitely handle it.
But now it's going to be a two-person apartment for Xu Qingzhu, so it needs to be at least a three-bedroom apartment, with one bedroom for each person, and a study for Xu Qingzhu. Finding such an apartment near Xu Qingzhu's company will definitely not be cheap.
Most importantly, there was no house that met her expectations.
However, that morning, Liang Shi saw two photos on the app that looked pretty good, so he quickly contacted the agency.
I arranged to see the apartment with the agent at noon.
I told Xu Qingzhu about this during dinner, and she replied, "You decide, I'm going out today."
Liang Shi nodded, "Then I'll send you a message later."
Xu Qingzhu paused abruptly, "Can't you judge for yourself? You don't have to tell me everything."
Liang Shi was taken aback. "Huh?"
To Xu Qingzhu, the expression seemed to suggest that he was still somewhat hurt.
Hsu Ching-chu added, "What I mean is that you can decide for yourself; I don't have any requirements."
“But you’ll be staying there too,” Liang Shi said. “So I need to ask for your opinion.”
“I trust your judgment.” Xu Qingzhu took a bite of bread and said hastily, “You don’t need to worry about the rent. It’s okay if it’s a little more expensive; we can split the cost.”
“No need,” Liang Shi said immediately. “I have money.”
"How many?" Xu Qingzhu asked.
Liang Shi: "..."
She felt that Xu Qingzhu was spying on her secret stash of money.
Liang Shi did not answer the question directly, but instead evaded the question.
But Xu Qingzhu told her, "Teacher Liang, I trust your abilities. Just do what you like; there's no need to always..."
He paused here, then smiled before saying, "To accommodate me."
“No,” Liang Shi replied, “it’s not about making concessions.”
Xu Qingzhu raised an eyebrow: "Hmm?"
“We chose the best option,” Liang Shi said. “Besides, we’re going to live in the house together, so we should discuss and agree on things.”
Xu Qingzhu: "...Okay."
//
Liang Shi believed that discussion was the beginning of an equal relationship.
But it was clear that Xu Qingzhu didn't care much about such a trivial matter and hoped that Liang Shi could handle it himself.
At that moment, Liang Shi suddenly realized that she subconsciously pulled Xu Qingzhu under her wing, hoping to establish a long-term and lasting relationship with her.
Xu Qingzhu, however, seemed ready to withdraw at any moment.
Through their time together, Liang Shi discovered that Xu Qingzhu was a rational person, a quality that made her coldness tempered with gentleness.
It will give people the illusion that you are very close.
She is smart enough not to put herself in a complicated or embarrassing situation.
Although she hasn't brought up the divorce she mentioned before, she still remembers it.
And she is waiting for the right time to divorce him.
Of course, Liang Shi was also waiting for the right time to get a divorce.
Once she gets her hands on the body, Xu Qingzhu's business empire will begin to take shape, or she can wait for the real Alpha who can protect her to appear, then happily play the role of cannon fodder and exit the story as it unfolds.
That was my initial thought.
But now...
The actions seemed to have deviated from the original thought process.
Xu Qingzhu's attitude today suddenly brought her to her senses; she seemed to have started to expect something she shouldn't have.
However, Liang Shi's original intention was not like that. She simply felt that the place where the two of them were going to live together should be satisfactory to both of them, which is why she asked Xu Qingzhu to look at houses with her.
Xu Qingzhu probably felt that she wouldn't be staying in this house for long, so she could just listen to Liang Shi's wishes.
...