CHAPTER 276: CHAPTER 115 OUR DEPARTURE IS ONLY TEMPORARY_3

Mrs. Qian’s face finally showed a smile. While saying, "Why are you doing this? How much can a child eat?" she stretched out her hand and took the money.

Qian Rouxuan rolled her eyes inwardly. Her mother had always been like this. Only money could earn her a good attitude. Back then, if she hadn’t had money on hand, her mother wouldn’t have bothered traveling to the United States under the pretense of taking care of her during her postpartum month.

Thankfully, there were other hired nannies at that time who could help care for her child. Otherwise, expecting anything from her mother? That would have been utterly foolish. Before returning to China, her mother wrung quite a lot of money out of her. In the end, that money was just spent on her son.

Whatever she thought inwardly wasn’t important; Qian Rouxuan maintained a smile on her face. "Isn’t my elder brother and sister-in-law here too? John is here, and it wouldn’t be good to disturb them. Buying some good food is the least I can do!"

Mrs. Qian was pleased upon hearing this, her chatter flowing: "John is quite well-behaved, but your brother and sister-in-law, as you know, have had a tough life! They failed twice with IVF; their days at home are truly hard to bear!"

These same old laments were things Qian Rouxuan had heard too many times before. Seeing that John was settled, she quickly found an excuse to leave.

Walking out of the somewhat run-down apartment building, she turned back to look at the fourth floor window of her home, her heart swelling with bitterness. Sometimes she deeply resented why she had to be born into this family.

At the same time, she envied Li Si even more. Her background was worse than hers—no parents—yet now she had managed to secure the Leng family’s favor.

How was she any worse than Li Si? No matter from which angle, wasn’t she better than Li Si?

With a sigh, she sat in her car, hesitating for a moment before seemingly making up her mind and dialing a number.

The call took a long time to connect, and on the other end was a man’s deep voice with a slightly disgruntled tone. "What is it?"

"I want to meet and talk with you!"

"Talk about what? Do you even know what time it is? Is it appropriate for us to meet right now?"

"John and I were just kicked out of the Leng family. You probably already know about Elder Leng’s eightieth birthday celebration, don’t you? Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to make it public?"

"I don’t know about that. Still, there’s nothing to worry about; everything is temporary. Don’t act rashly for now. Wait for my arrangement!" The voice on the other end paused briefly before issuing a cold, commanding response.

Qian Rouxuan angrily looked out the window, suppressing her fury as she continued, "Wait for your arrangement? I’ve said before that your wedding would have been the best timing for a big reveal. Let’s stir up trouble so the Leng family has no choice but to acknowledge us! At the end of the day, who would ever suspect you? It’s a shame you refused, saying the timing wasn’t right! If we miss this birthday banquet, will we get another chance?"

After a moment of silence on the other end, the man’s deep voice spoke again, "Got it. Meet me at Yu Hua Hotel at 3 o’clock." Then the call abruptly cut off.

Qian Rouxuan had wanted to suggest another hotel, but the other party didn’t even give her the chance to say a word. Frustrated, she slammed her fists against the steering wheel. Why was he always like this—always making unilateral decisions? Couldn’t he ever ask her opinion, or care about whether John was okay?

Then there was that hotel; last time she was there with Han Mingzhe, perhaps it had been seen by Li Si, which might explain why Li Si said those things. Would a hotel really...

Thinking it over, she decided to let it go. Fine, I’ll head there. How could it be such a coincidence?

Looking out the car window, her mouth twisted into a cold smile.

If she relied solely on him, she didn’t even know how low she might have fallen by now.

It’s better to rely on oneself than beg others. As a woman, if she were to completely depend on a man, her end would only have two outcomes: being abandoned or being belittled.

Su Meng and Li Si—she needed to find a way to deal with them immediately. Time was critical. From what the Leng family intended now, they might not be willing to recognize John’s identity. If another complication arose at this juncture and the Leng family found out about her association with someone else, then all the efforts she had made would fall apart, and he wouldn’t let her off the hook either.

When it came down to whether harm would come to others or herself, of course, she chose others to suffer.

...

Leng Mochen and Li Si were at Long Wu’s shop picking out a birthday gift. Neither of them really knew what to buy, so they went with Long Wu’s shop under the principle of keeping their money spent within their network.

Long Wu sat comfortably with his legs crossed, humming a tune and glancing at Li Si, who was browsing items in the adjacent room.

He nudged toward Leng Mochen, who was sitting opposite him on the sofa. "Er! Did you really send that woman the ’gift’?"

Leng Mochen nodded. Since Yin Qi didn’t know any better and lacked judgment, fine, but she had dared to humiliate Li Si like that—how could he endure that? He had to show them something to match his personality.

If he handled this well, Yin Qi could become a powerful weapon, one aimed squarely at Qian Rouxuan and her crew.

Long Wu chuckled mischievously. "That’s bold! I seriously admire you. On the surface, you seem gentlemanly, but inside, you’re worse than me—full of schemes. Any woman would feel utterly humiliated if her husband hooked up with her best friend.

"Get lost! Go cool down somewhere else! You must have lost your memory if you’re spouting nonsense when I told you I did." Leng Mochen shot him a cold glare. He especially disliked it when people linked Qian Rouxuan with him—that woman made his skin crawl.

"Fine! My bad habit of rambling nonsense struck again!" Seeing that he wasn’t getting anywhere, Long Wu awkwardly turned to shout toward Li Si, who was still in the other room. "Sisi! After looking for all this time, have you found anything that catches your eye?"

Li Si had wandered around for so long that her eyes were nearly tired out, yet nothing seemed to fit the "love at first sight" feeling that Long Wu described.

"No, Brother Wu! I’m done looking. Why don’t you pick something for me?" Li Si said as she walked out of another showroom and seated herself next to Leng Mochen.

Long Wu, full of confidence, waved his hand. "Don’t worry, leave it to me! I heard the old man likes seals, and I know Old Wang recently got his hands on something good. I’ll go grab it for you to check out later!"

Li Si wasn’t sure if the Old Wang he referred to was the Wang Yi from her former stone-gambling shop, but hearing this made her feel pleasantly surprised.

"Thanks so much, Brother Wu! I’ve looked so much my eyes hurt—you’re the best!" She finished her remark by throwing a sideways glare at Leng Mochen.

Leng Mochen felt completely wronged. He wanted to choose something himself, didn’t he? Who was it that had volunteered to pick the gift in the first place?

Long Wu watched the duo with obvious amusement. "Sisi, now you see it, right? Brother Wu is the bona fide good guy here, isn’t he?"

Leng Mochen shot him an icy glare, silencing Long Wu.

Before Li Si could speak up on Long Wu’s behalf, he quickly changed the subject. "Sisi, Xu Er asked me to ask you—does your good friend Bai Shasha have a boyfriend now?"

"She’s single at the moment. She broke up not long ago," Li Si’s mind stirred as she thought about it. Had something come up? They seemed to have only met twice. (To be continued. If you enjoy this story, please visit Qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)