novelDon't Ever Return
| ← Ch.467 | Ch.469 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
He was not willing to explain any further to them. As he was still in charge of the company, he found no meaning to take part in their petty squabbles.
All Chang Zhiyuan did was tell both Qi Chenglin and Ruan Danchen, "Come on now, I'll be sending you both."
Mo Yuxin too found no meaning in staying any longer than she already did, hence she left along with Chang Jingwan.
As they were leaving, they could clearly hear the loud ear-piercing maniacal shrieks of Grandmother Chang coming from behind them. She was yelling, "Ruan Danchen, I dare you to leave now. You'll regret leaving today! Everyone will know how disrespectful you are to me, and when they do, they'll rip the spine out of your body."
Chang Zhiyuan turned to Qi Chenglin and said when they were at the door, "Pay no mind to what the old lady said earlier. There's no need for Jia Nan to return or else he'll only bring trouble to Qi Youxuan."
As Ruan Danchen listened to everything Chang Zhiyuan said to Qi Chenglin, she was touched by how selfless and loyal he was in helping an outsider like them.
"As for becoming business partners, just do your part in managing your company. You don't have to give any sort of special treatment for Changhe. There are way too many businesses Changhe has that would've never fit the business model of Qilin. I very much understand that fact, so there's no reason for Qilin to do anything to help Changhe. Besides, even if you were to take a loss and had decided to help Changhe, it's not like they'd be grateful anyway. Regardless, their inflated ego and fragile entitlement would make it seem they deserve every bit of it anyway."
Liu Xiangwen and Grandmother Chang were known for playing the victim. They would think that there was nothing wrong with placing the Qi family at a minor loss as their family was filthy rich and had other revenues in covering for the loss. Helping the Chang family was the only right thing for the Qi family to do. If they had chosen not to help the Chang family, they would think the Qi family was an unkind and ruthless bunch of people.
Thus, Qi Chenglin remained silent and simply nodded in response.
After Chang Zhiyuan had sent them off, he never bothered to return to his mother and simply left immediately with Mo Yuxin and Chang Jingwan.
At this very moment, Chang Zhiyuan was beyond disappointed in his family. Although Grandmother Chang was also extremely biased and inhumanly unreasonable back then and had also put his own wife through hell before, he had no choice but to allow her tyranny to continue due to the maternal ties and status he held.
However, he finally snapped as he noticed grandmother Chang truly had gone too far this time. After all, she dared to treat Ruan Danchen so inhumanly horribly and shamelessly expected her to do her bidding because she felt entitled to it.
Chang Zhiyuan could put aside whatever horrible things that had happened to him in the past, but he could not stand to watch Ruan Danchen be treated so unreasonably poorly.
...
Liu Xiangwen watched them leave with zero intention of returning to them as she peered through the windows. Rushing back to inform her mother, she said, "Just look at Brother's attitude, Mother. He thinks he owns the entirety of our Chang family. Whenever he's in the company, he's never allowed Zhixing to do anything regardless of how big or small the matters were. It was as if Zhixing was completely useless and was forced to the sidelines. Every single person, even the lowest-paid staff looked down on him. Did you know that when the company hired an intern, the senior supervisors even blatantly told the intern to pay zero attention to anything Zhixing said."
"What utter nonsense!" Chang Zhixing snapped back.
He could not understand why Liu Xiangwen wanted to stir bad blood and chaos and was adamant in starting a feud with Chang Zhiyuan since he had done nothing to her before.
"I want to say, to speak the truth! Who would've stood up for you if I hadn't said anything? I know you love your brother, but I can't bear to watch you getting taken advantage of."
"Don't you dare interrupt her. Speak now, Xiangwen!" Upon hearing the fact that her youngest son was being bullied, she frantically interjected and allowed Liu Xiangwen to speak.
"Mom, did you know that whatever Zhixing said in the company would never be taken seriously and would often be disregarded. His older brother would pretend to get him involved in company meetings, but he'd never ask for his opinion. Even if he had spoken, his older brother would never take his words into any form of consideration. His older brother had given him a powerless position within the company. Although his position may seem high and powerful on the surface, his position within the company was completely useless. We're both under your care now, Mom. Just because of that fact alone, his older brother dared not to do anything too drastic, simply putting on a show by placing Zhixing within the ranks of the company. For now, his older brother still had room for Zhixing within his company. However, what if... what if you're... you're... I'm worried and afraid of what his older brother would do to Zhixing!" Liu Xiangwen's eyes gradually turned red as she struggled to speak her mind.
"Are you done speaking, Liu Xiangwen? Would you stop spouting nonsense to Mom? When will you learn to know your damn place, woman?" Chang Zhixing snapped at her."I'm more aware than you possibly could of what my strengths were and where I stand within the company; those decisions were never up to me to decide. I'd be damned if I make the wrong choices that would ultimately doom the entire company, so I'm more than willing to leave all important decisions and management to my brother."
"How would you know if you've never even given it a shot?" Liu Xiangwen snapped back.
"She's right!" Grandmother Chang said. She continued, "You're pretty smart ever since you were little, don't you dare tell me that you're incapable of doing what your brother could."
Chang Zhixing was backed into a corner by his mother and wife. Left without much of a choice, he said, "Mom, no matter what, make sure you never tell my brother what's spoken today! My brother had managed the company extremely well, and I'd be a heartless monster if I didn't even know my place to be grateful."
"And you!" Chang Zhixing furiously warned Liu Xiangwen. He told her, "Stop thinking about stuff like these, would you! We're married. Are you unsatisfied that I'm not as capable as my brother? If you think I'm useless, you're more than welcome to find someone else, stop obsessing over my brother's faults!"
"What are you saying? Chang Zhixing, you heartless monster. Can't you see I'm only doing all of this for you? If I've never cared about you, why would I even bother to care about petty matters like these! How could you paint me as some despicable, evil woman?" Liu Xiangwen cried.
"That's enough." Grandmother Chang grew tired and annoyed by their petty squabbles. She then proceeded to say, "You have to know Xiangwen was doing all of this for your sake too, Zhixing. You truly weren't as bad as you think; you're as good as your brother, so I believe your brother should at least leave half the company's decisions to you. How could he, as your older brother, act so selfish to the extent of keeping his guard up to his brother?"
Chang Zhixing sighed in disappointment as he listened to his mother."Just drop it, " he conceded, "and don't ever bring up this topic again."
Although Grandmother Chang remained silent, her eyes lit up with life as if she was plotting something.
...
Qi Chenglin brought Ruan Danchen and Qi Youxuan to the Prestige Residences after the whole debacle. However, it seemed Ruan Danchen was not affected by what Grandmother Chang had said.
Thus, Qi Chenglin went straight to his personal study then proceeded to give Jiang Yuan a call. He then gave his order, "Find Huang Pinggui and Wang Lixia, and when you do, tell them I have something good to offer them. Schedule an appointment with them, I'll meet them personally."
...
Ruan Danchen assumed this would be the end of this entire mess. Since Grandmother Chang was hostile toward her, she too would not acknowledge her as her grandmother. It would not bother her too much if she was being perceived as a heartless woman. After all, no matter what she did, she could never please Grandmother Chang. There was simply no need for her to continuously please her.
She would not deliberately cause Grandmother Chang harm but she would never treat her well. All she had to know was she only had one blood-related relative left.
So if she could not afford to face her head-on, the best for Ruan Danchen to do at this moment was to avoid her.
However never did she expect, on the very next working day; and since there were some important documents that the company needed, she had decided to deliver those documents herself.
As she got ready to leave after handing the documents to Qi Chenglin, Aunt Liu had made an unexpected phone call to Qi Chenglin.
"Young master, could you return home now? Madam Qi told me to silently inform you that Grandmother Chang had come over and... she happened to be spouting extremely harsh nonsense. Madam Qi wanted you to return home to listen to her nonsense yourself. However, please don't let Ruan Danchen know about this as she's still pregnant, and we don't wish to add to her stress." Aunt Liu explained.
Qi Chenglin replied while frowning, "Alright, I understand."
Ruan Danchen asked after Qi Chenglin had hung up the call, "What's wrong? Did something happen back home?"
"Nothing too serious. I'll return home to see what's wrong, " Qi Chenglin replied. He then said, "Just take a break and relax for a bit here, alright?"
"If it's nothing too serious, why would you need to personally return home then? I'll come with you, " Ruan Danchen said while grabbing onto Qi Chenglin's shoulder tightly. She then continued, "If it's not serious, Aunt Liu wouldn't call you during office hours to get you to come home."
Qi Chenglin felt that Ruan Danchen was not even the slightest bit affected by what Grandmother Chang had said. At the very least, when she had gone home yesterday, she was not even bothered by it and had pretended as if nothing unusual had happened.
Thus, Qi Chenglin said, "Aunt Liu told me Grandmother Chang came over to our house spouting words of a madman, so she told me to return home to help settle this mess."
"I know you no longer care about her, but I'm worried that whatever she says would anger you, so let me handle this alone, " persuaded Qi Chenglin with a slight frown.
"Even if I'm incapable of facing her head-on, this entire mess started with me, so how can I watch you handle this mess alone? As long as I'm with you, there's nothing you should worry about. Rest assured, whatever she says will never affect me. Whatever she wants to say won't concern me. Why would I grace her with any more of my attention and anger, just to feel awful after the fact? She's not worth any of it."
After he was certain that Ruan Danchen was truly not bothered by any of this, he nodded and left for home along with her.
...
When the duo arrived back home, Aunt Liu was shocked to see Qi Chenglin leading Ruan Danchen by the hand as she waited by the door."Why did Ruan Danchen follow you back?" she asked.
Ruan Danchen knew Aunt Liu was only worried that she might be affected by what Grandmother Chang would say. She replied with a smile, "It's okay, don't worry. I'll never be bothered by her. This entire mess concerns me as well, and I'd very much love to see what this lady intends to say for coming all this way today."
Aunt Liu was still worried about Ruan Danchen even after her explanation yet she was powerless.
Aunt Liu was able to hear Ruan Danchen telling Qi Chenglin as they calmly walked forward. She said, "If only I was persistent enough to tell Uncle that it doesn't matter what happens, I'll never acknowledge her as my grandmother. Look at what mess this horrible relative of mine had brought into our family now."
Qi Chenglin chuckled and replied, "Just think of it as watching a comedy unfolding."
Qi Chenglin squinted in response since he never expected Grandmother Chang to make her first move by coming over so fast, hence he felt the urgency to meet up with the married Huang Pinggui couple.
Aunt Liu proceeded to slowly open the door while she calmly brought them in. She had not informed Grandmother Qi about their arrival yet just to let them eavesdrop on their conversation.
However, as soon as they entered, they could hear grandmother Chang's voice echoing from the living room, "My dear Madam Qi, I don't really have much of a choice now. I can't possibly bear to watch her tear down everything your family has built now. Even if I could, I can never convince myself to do so. No matter what happens, Ruan Danchen is still our family's child. If anything were to happen to your family, our family can't stand idly by and not do anything to help. I can't convince myself to not at least give you a warning to everything that I know about her and that she'd only bring harm to your family."
"I still want the best for her since she's my granddaughter, but I just can't convince myself to." Ruan Danchen could hear the genuine sincere emotions from grandmother Chang's voice.
It was the first time in her entire life to have ever heard such genuine and sincere emotions coming from Grandmother Chang's mouth.
"What on Earth are you saying? What you're saying is extremely ridiculous, so don't blame me for having a hard time believing you. Save your scare tactics, alright? Besides, who in their right mind would ruin their own granddaughter's reputation like this? From what I know, she was your family's twenty-seven-year long lost granddaughter. After all this trouble to reunite with her, not only did you not treat her well, but you dared to ruin her reputation like this by exposing all of her flaws, " Grandmother Qi sounded furious as she ranted.
Grandmother Chang's looked slightly ashamed as she attempted to hide her face. She then said, "Although my heart truly loves her, I can never allow my love for her to be built at the expense of someone else's tragedy. I've never wished for her to cause collateral damage to anyone else, and even though I'm very well aware of how unbelievable this may sound to anyone, but from how I see things, I'd never take any chances."
Sighing long and deep, Grandmother Chang then continued, "Besides, after everything that had happened, it's hard for me to not be convinced. After Danchen was born, both her parents met their end. After that, she was adopted by Liu Ronghua and from what I know, her life had plummeted downhill ever since. She had been trapped in a cycle of constant unstable marriages and divorces and had never had any luck in finding true love. However, after all of that uphill struggle, she painfully got into a relationship with Shen Jialiang. Unfortunately for her, Shen Jialiang had no plans to marry her, and she had wasted her entire youth with him only to end up abandoned and disowned by the entirety of the Shen family. Now she's gone without a trace. My eldest son, Chang Zhiyuan had an amazing job, family and a smooth life before he had met her. However, as soon as he reunited with Ruan Danchen as her uncle, everything in his life went downhill. He was just in time to snap out of his daze, but I just can't help but feel that this was because he wasn't close enough to Ruan Danchen yet. Had they been closer, who knows if he could snap out of it? Who knows his life would continue to suffer to an even violent state?"
"All of these events were examples of how horrible of a tragedy the lives of people affiliated with her, so tell me, how could I not worry?" Grandmother Chang explained sincerely. She continued, "Although it is without a doubt that the Qi family's financial state was indeed incredible and the foundation of your family is extremely wide and sturdy, I doubt it's still not enough to nullify her cursed life! It's true that your family is fine and happy now, but what if something horrible were to happen? You and your husband aren't young anymore, while Qi Chenglin is still full of youth. Moreover, Youxuan is still so young, and I'm worried that they wouldn't be able to deflect her curse. I just can't bear to watch my granddaughter bring any form of tragedy into your family right?"
Upon hearing her bold statements, grandmother Qi gritted her teeth in absolute fury since Grandmother Chang was bold enough to curse her family!
"I wish for an amazing life for her as well, but I can't bear to watch her bring chaos and pain to your family, " Grandmother Chang explained.
Grandmother Qi's eyebrows were slightly twitching in response to her claims. She questioned with a confused tone, "So what exactly are you suggesting that we're supposed to do?"
"It's entirely up to your family to decide the next move. Although she's my granddaughter, this entire matter is still your family's concern and business, so it's up to your family to decide. The most important thing is that I've done my part to warn you about her, so at the very least I won't be plagued by my sense of guilt. It won't be my fault if something unfortunate happens to your family since I've warned you already. This would lift any guilt that would potentially haunt me if I had to sit and watch something bad happen to your family, knowing full well who was the cause of all of this tragedy. So with that being said, I've done my part." At this moment, Grandmother Chang assumed she had successfully persuaded and influenced grandmother Qi with her twisted sense of rationality. She straightened her back and was more confident with what she said.
However, Grandmother Qi simply smirked and said in response, "If I allow Qi Chenglin to divorce her, that would mean she'd no longer have any ties with our family and would be forced to return to the Chang family. What would happen when she directed her curse at your family again? So you're freeing us from the curse she brought along, and indirectly deflecting the curse back to your family then, right?"
Qi Chenglin held onto Ruan Danchen's hands firmly while giving it a slight squeeze. He calmly stared directly at her with his black pearly eyes, indirectly calming her nerves.
Worried this might cause some misunderstandings to her, he mouthed the phrase, "Don't worry about it."
Ruan Danchen replied with a smile while gently shook her head, indirectly telling him that she would never misunderstand whatever Grandmother Qi said. She had her full faith in the entire Qi family. If mere simple phrases would cause some feelings of misunderstandings to her, she would be unworthy of the unconditional love that was shown to her by the elders of the family. They would be extremely sad and hurt if they knew Ruan Danchen had misunderstood their intentions and words.
Qi Chenglin smirked confidently, showing how happy he felt.
Ever since they had been together, despite the constant sabotage and harassment on their relationship by the horrible people they had to endure, it never once bothered him. As for their relationship, she had never once caused much worry to him nor had she ever acted unreasonably. There were never any occasions that could potentially cause any misunderstandings that caused arguments between them.
This fact alone made him fall deeper in love with her as he wanted nothing more but to give her the entire world if he could. He felt that whatever he had given her was far too little.
Now, all that he wished for was her to continue acting coquettishly toward him and flirt with him occasionally.
He smiled unconsciously and it was the warmest smile he had ever experienced. However, Ruan Danchen was curious as she noticed his odd behavior. She was unsure why exactly the gaze through his eyes looked quite innocent and pure at this moment. However, this brightened up Qi Chenglin's mood, thus no garbage Grandmother Chang would spout could never affect his mood.
At the same moment, they could hear Grandmother Chang's voice once again echoed from inside. She said, "I'm truly touched that you'd still think about our family. Don't you worry, I've already decided. Since this child had endured so much suffering all these years, I'll treat her well after she apologizes and acknowledge me as her grandmother and buy her a house in the southernmost city. She may live there and I'll take care of her; she'll have a life without any worries."
However, she would not be allowed to return since she would be confined in that tiny city.
Unexpectedly, Grandmother Chang suddenly burst into maniacal laughter as she promptly said, "Since our Chang family had so much competition in the market, we'll pick someone we absolutely despise in future and have Danchen marry that person. This would at the very least make her contribute a little to our Chang family, so think of it as her way of showing some form of gratitude to us taking care of her. Besides, she's the granddaughter of the Chang family; it's only natural for her to think about our family's needs."
Even after hearing that, Ruan Danchen was not even the slightest bit bothered by her words. She used to think Grandmother Chang was just being a senile old woman, but at that moment, she truly felt there was something awfully wrong with that old lady's brain.
Grandmother Chang's irrational claims of her being a curse to her family could most probably be due to her superstitious nature, yet it was extremely comical when she later claimed she would marry Ruan Danchen to any competitors to her family, obviously hinting at the idea of destroying her competitor's family.
Was Grandmother Chang truly convinced that Ruan Danchen had the ability to curse anyone?
Such foolish wishful thinking for her to be convinced that all tall tales were true.
Not a single person in their right mind would believe in superstition like that. Nonetheless, if Grandmother Chang was serious about it and had truly intended in using Ruan Danchen for her benefit, marrying her to the Chang family's competitors in hopes of gaining any form of benefit would be an act of pure cruelty.
These statements she made were the result of her inhuman arrogance deeply rooted in her personality. She actually assumed these statements she made could be any form of leverage over Ruan Danchen. This senile old lady actually thought Ruan Danchen would comply and be completely complacent with whatever the Chang family requested her to do.
She assumed that when Grandmother Chang had proposed to move her to the southernmost city was the sheer limit of her idiocy, but Ruan Danchen never expected that this old lady was able to top her initial stupidity.
Ruan Danchen felt that she should have never attempted to gauge the limits of this old lady's stupidity.
Every time she assumed this old lady had reached the limit of how dumb her statements or actions could be, Grandmother Chang was able to reach a new low, far beyond her initial limits.
Thus, Ruan Danchen would only perceive Grandmother Chang the same way she looked at any people suffering from a mental illness. Because of this, Ruan Danchen was no longer able to be angry at this lady.
She looked toward Qi Chenglin, hinting at him with her gaze alone, asking him if they should make their entrance now. As soon as she did that, they suddenly heard a powerful sound of a glass mug shattering.
"Madam Chang!" Grandmother Qi yelled. She then continued furiously, "Danchen was your blood-related granddaughter that was lost in contact for the last twenty-seven years. We know that you've never liked her at all, and we don't really mind that even for the slightest bit. There are still plenty of people out there who love her very much, so not gaining any of your love makes not much difference to her life anyway. However, we can't stand a grandmother like you who treats her granddaughter so horribly awful. You had the audacity to go out your way to destroy the reputation of your granddaughter, and even go so far as to even attempt to destroy her marriage!"
"You're not just badmouthing her, no. You're cursing her, shoving a wedge between our family and her! Saying that her life curses her family?" Grandmother Qi wanted to tell her to come back and discuss this matter after Ruan Danchen had hexed her life to death, but she proceeded to scoff in her heart since it was just too ironic as Grandmother Chang was a strong believer of Buddhism yet could still be so vile.
However, she could not quell her anger. She pointed directly at Grandmother Chang and started yelling at her furiously again, "Although our family practices Buddhism as well, we stand by the principles of goodwill and only believe in kindness within our hearts. We'll never believe in the twisted and skewed principles you so strongly believe! Fortunately for our family, we had never believed in twisted superstition. If we do and had selfishly exiled Ruan Danchen out of our family, we'll just be doing your bidding. Isn't that what you wanted? Then you'll send her off to live on her own in the southernmost city? To marry her off to your competitors? I'm appalled by how you were able to say something so vile and evil. I feel just as vile even as I repeat what you've said word by word! Even if you hated her and resented her, you had no right to ruin her like this!"
"You kept saying that she's your granddaughter, but is this how you'll treat the only daughter left behind by your deceased daughter? You dared to ruin someone related to your blood for an equally vile and evil outsider Chang Jingqiu? You think you're smart for doing so? Let me just tell you this, never in my entire life had I met someone so evil and wicked and at the same time so stupidly foolish such as you!"
"You... You... You..." Grandmother Chang stuttered as she stared in unbelievable shock at grandmother Qi. Grandmother Qi was extremely calm moments ago. Her entire expression earlier even looked as if Grandmother Qi was convinced by what Grandmother Chang had said, how could her entire mood shift so drastically to yelling at her so violently in just mere seconds?
"I wanted to yell at you for quite a while now; I've no idea just how shameless of a person you truly are. You came all this way to your granddaughter's in-laws' house just to ruin her reputation. I haven't even traveled to your house just to yell at you, just to preserve your fragile inflated ego! Why should I grace you with such respect?" Grandmother Qi had finally snapped and relentlessly unleashed her fury directly at her.
"You truly have a way with words now, keep babbling about the matters of your family and it's hard for you to even say these things, right? If I recalled correctly, before you even knew Ruan Danchen's identity, you weren't exactly keeping your mouth shut about her either. From the very reasons you've stated earlier, Ruan Danchen had absolutely zero ties with your family, yet dared to 'educate' her every single time you've met her? What right do you have to do so? She had no ties with your family back then, no connections to you, so who gave you the right to educate her? No matter how good or bad Danchen was, that only concerns our family, so why do you have to intervene?!"
| ← Ch. 467 | Ch. 469 → |