Chapter 16 "I'm sorry" can also...
"Useless!" Ji Yan screamed angrily, her voice distorted by anger and shame. "Why didn't you say so sooner? How could you be so useless, letting them bully you like this? Are you mute? Do you know how I've been begging for their attention like a lapdog all these years!"
"I... I was fawning over that little bitch who bullied my daughter? Where do you think I am now? You've disgraced me and the Qin family!"
Qin Wu's head was turned to the side by the blow, and her cheek quickly became red and swollen. However, the burning pain was nothing compared to the chill in her heart.
She covered her face, slowly turned her head, and tears mixed with despair and a cold, almost liberating mockery flowed down her cheeks.
She looked at her hysterical mother and said, word by word, "Why didn't you say so earlier? Ha... I'll tell you?"
"What's the point of telling you? Would you give up the chance to curry favor with Mrs. Li and Mrs. Wang for my sake?"
“Do you dare say that? From childhood to adulthood, every time I've been wronged and told you, you first called me ‘useless’ and ‘coward,’ blaming me for ‘offending people’ and ‘ruining your plans’?”
Qin Wu's voice suddenly rose, filled with a tearful accusation: "In your heart, your pride, your dream of squeezing into that circle, is a thousand times, ten thousand times more important than me! Telling you? Telling you would only give you another reason to curse me, to think I'm a disgrace! Mom—"
Her last word was uttered with extreme anguish: "The one who truly pushed me into the toilet time and time again wasn't Li Pan, it was you! It was you, my own mother, who pushed me to them with your own hands!"
That last sentence, like the sharpest dagger, pierced Ji Yan's heart.
Her hand, raised high to strike again, froze in mid-air, her face a mixture of disbelief, humiliation at being exposed, and a trace of... a belated pain that even she herself was unwilling to admit.
She stared, mouth agape, at the clear finger marks on her daughter's face and her eyes filled with despair, as if seeing for the first time the daughter she had "raised" for so many years.
That meticulously constructed castle of vanity collapsed in that instant, leaving only a mess and a bone-chilling cold.
She staggered and leaned against the chair that Xie Tang had kicked askew. Her gorgeous dress contrasted sharply with her distraught face, making her look like a comical yet pathetic clown.
The private room was deathly silent, save for Qin Wu's suppressed, intermittent sobs.
Ji Yan's lips moved a few times, but she ultimately failed to make a sound.
Countless fragments of memories suddenly pierced her mind—after graduating from high school, her daughter insisted on applying to a university in Beijing, thousands of miles away, and for four years deliberately distanced herself from the Qin family and from her mother, even being stingy with phone calls…
It turns out that it wasn't just the willfulness of adolescence, but rather the accumulated despair and silent accusation!
She always thought her daughter was "escaping" her control, but she never thought that she was escaping the abyss that she had pushed into with her own hands!
"So..." Ji Yan's voice was dry and tight, trembling without her even realizing it, "You've been avoiding me all these years, hating me so much... just because of this?"
She tried to find a reason to refute it, but found that she couldn't even convince herself.
Qin Wu finally turned her gaze back to Ji Yan's face. There were no tears in those swollen, red eyes, only a cold, almost cruel clarity: "Yes, I hate you. I hate that you used your vanity to shackle me like chains, forcing me to please those who trampled me into the mud!"
Every word was crystal clear, like a dull knife cutting into Ji Yan's nerves.
Ji Yan felt as if her spine had been removed; her body swayed, and she fell heavily back into the chair that had been kicked askew.
She opened her mouth in vain: "I...I didn't know they...did that to you..."
"I understand, and then what?" Qin Wu's lips curled into an extremely sarcastic smile. "Would you go to Mrs. Li and Mrs. Wang to demand an explanation for me? Would you make Li Pan kneel before me and apologize?"
Looking at Ji Yan's instantly frozen expression, the answer was self-evident.
Qin Wu gave a low, mocking laugh, a laugh filled with sorrow and utter despair: "You won't. Because they are the stepping stones for you to squeeze into the 'high society circle.' Me? I've always just been a pawn on your social chessboard... a pawn that can be sacrificed at any time."
After saying that, she stopped looking at Ji Yan's instantly pale face, turned around, resolutely opened the heavy door of the private room, and walked out without looking back.
The door slammed shut, shutting out the deathly silence inside.
Ji Yan slumped in her chair like a soulless statue, tears streaming silently down her face. It wasn't heartache, but rather the bewilderment and immense, unbearable shame that followed the complete collapse of her meticulously constructed, glamorous world.
"Auntie, please don't cry." Her niece, Shen Yuan, seemed to snap out of her daze, quickly handing her a tissue, her voice deliberately soft. "Sister Xiaowu was just saying that in a fit of anger. Once she calms down, I'll go and talk to her, and have her apologize to you..."
Qin Jia, standing to the side, was like an invisible person from beginning to end, his fingers rapidly swiping across the phone screen, making a faint "tap-tap" sound.
She didn't even glance at her weeping mother, as if everything around her was irrelevant to her, her indifference chilling.
Xie Tang had no intention of watching the farce unfold any further, so he got up and left.
The lighting from the crystal chandelier in the corner of the lobby was somewhat dim.
Her gaze swept over the sofa, and she paused slightly.
Qin Wu curled up in the large sofa, a slender cigarette between her fingers.
Wisps of smoke rose, blurring her pale profile.
She took a deep breath, her movements practiced and experienced, exuding a decadence and sharpness that was completely different from her usual timid demeanor. The smoke she exhaled acted as an invisible barrier, isolating her from the world.
This scene made Xie Tang raise an eyebrow slightly.
If Qin Ruhai were to see his daughter, whom he considered "eccentric but still somewhat well-behaved," in this state, he would likely be furious.
On the day of the negotiations, she merely lit a cigarette in front of him on purpose, and his suppressed anger almost broke free.
Qin Wu seemed to sense the gaze, slowly raised her head, and saw that it was Xie Tang. Her pupils contracted, and almost reflexively, she quickly stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray.
In a fleeting moment, she transformed back into the meek and timid Qin Wu, as if the rebellious soul shrouded in smoke had never existed.
Pretending to be weak to deceive others.
The word flashed through Xie Tang's mind instantly.
Seemingly timid and cowardly, they actually harbor sharp edges and a hidden rebelliousness.
But she never showed any weakness to him, and was even... somewhat afraid of him?
This made Xie Tang feel a little amused.
Qin Wu nodded awkwardly at her, as if to say hello.
Xie Tang didn't say anything and sat down on the single sofa next to her.
The noise in the lobby seemed to be shut out.
Xie Tang tapped the screen lightly with her fingertip and asked Chu Song, "Have we arrived yet?"
Chu Song quickly replied: 【On the way.】
The moment the message was sent, she keenly caught a cautious glance.
She looked up and met Qin Wu's gaze, which she couldn't avoid in time.
His eyes held a mixture of inquiry, apprehension, and a complex emotion that was hard to describe.
"What? Do I look scary?" Xie Tang tilted her head slightly, her gaze scrutinizing him. "Or... what did I do to you that's worth you avoiding me like this?"
Qin Wu froze, then hurriedly shook her head: "No, no!"
"So I'm a tigress?" Xie Tang raised an eyebrow.
"No!" Qin Wu's cheeks flushed slightly, her fingers unconsciously twisting together, her voice lowered, filled with unspeakable shame, "Yes, it was what my mother did, and... our family... I'm sorry to you and Aunt Xie."
She mustered her courage and glanced quickly at Xie Tang. "I'm really... so sorry."
Xie Tang did not respond immediately, but just looked at the face in front of her that was full of unease and guilt.
Qin Wu's apology was far more sincere than her mother's hypocritical posturing.
But this sincerity only earned her a faint, indifferent sigh from the bottom of her heart.
The damage has already been done, so what can a perfunctory "I'm sorry" do to make up for it?
"You..." Qin Wu seemed to want to say something, her lips moved, but in the end she only squeezed out a sentence with a hint of envy and self-mockery, "You are really amazing... All those bullies in elementary school were afraid of you."
As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them and quickly added, "I meant those who like to bully people..."
That's because you're too weak.
Xie Tang's voice was calm, without accusation, more like stating a cold fact.
This direct and almost cruel assessment made Qin Wu's face turn pale instantly, and she clenched her fists even tighter.
Just then, the elevator doors slid open with a "ding".
Chu Yi helped Old Master Chu out first, followed closely by Chu Song and Ming Wei.
Xie Tang's eyes sharpened, she suppressed all her emotions, stood up nimbly, and headed towards the Chu family.
Qin Wu dared not delay and quickly followed.
She gazed at Xie Tang's straight and dashing back, a strength and confidence she could never reach.
A strong feeling, a mixture of envy and a deeper, bittersweet admiration, welled up inside me.
That gloomy afternoon when she was eight years old is like a scar that never heals, deeply etched in Qin Wu's memory.
She hid behind her mother, Ji Yan, with only her terrified eyes showing as she watched Aunt Xie Shuang try to take away the crying and struggling Xie Tang.
Little Xie Tang unleashed astonishing power, like a wounded little beast.
She struggled desperately to break free from her mother's embrace, falling to the ground without a care, and rushed towards the heavy, ornate iron gate that symbolized "home".
Her cries ripped through the air: "I won't leave! This is my grandfather's house! It's my home! Nobody can make me leave!"
Aunt Xie Shuang, with tears in her eyes, hugged her: "Good girl, A-Tang, Mommy will give you a new home, a better one..."
"No! There's nowhere better than this! This is my home!"
Xie Tang turned around abruptly, her tear-streaked face flushed red. Her eyes, filled with hatred and despair, pierced straight at Ji Yan and Qin Wu, who were hiding behind her.
She screamed with all her might, "You're the ones who should get out! You're the ones who broke up my family! You want Dad? Take him! I don't want him anymore! But—"
Her little hands pounded on the cold iron door, and she cried her heart out.
"Give me back Grandpa's house! Give me back Grandpa's house!!!"
Ji Yan remained expressionless and coldly uttered a single word: "Close."
The heavy iron gate, under Qin Wu's horrified gaze, slowly closed with a dull but resolute thud.
It isolated the small figure who was curled up in a ball, crying, pressed against the door.
Large tears rolled down Xie Tang's little face, each drop like a hot branding iron, deeply searing Qin Wu's young soul.
Just as the door closed completely, Qin Wu seemed to see something extinguished in the eyes of the abandoned little girl.
That image became a nightmare that Qin Wu could never shake off for the rest of her life.
From the moment she vaguely grasped the concept of "right and wrong," immense guilt followed her like a shadow.
She knew that everything she possessed—her surname, her status, her comfortable life—was built upon the pain of Xie Tang being cruelly deprived of it.
She despises her mother's methods, yet she cannot escape the shackles of this "stolen" life.
This immense contradiction tore at her, ultimately leading her to choose silent estrangement: to escape Ji Yan, to escape the Qin family, as if that would allow her to escape that heavy burden of guilt.
She was like a rootless ghost, wandering outside the magnificent yet cold castle, never finding her own place to belong.
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