Chapter 54 Ultimate Compromise Then she heard Mo Ningzhi say: "Good morning..."
A lush garden under the moonlight can hide all shadows.
Zhou Yaozheng was dragged into the garden, stumbling and falling. Zhou Suiyin only stopped after they had walked a long distance and made sure that their voices would not be heard by the main house.
She released Zhou Yaozheng forcefully, wanting to question him, but the scene she saw rendered her speechless. Zhou Suiyin clenched her fists tightly, and after a long while, she managed to stammer out a broken sentence: "You...you, just now..."
Zhou Yaozheng stood in the shadows under the tree, seemingly blending into the darkness, looking somewhat disheveled.
He stared at his out-of-control mother for a while before lowering his eyes and softly humming in agreement.
Zhou Suiyin's breathing suddenly quickened. She clearly felt herself standing on soft grass, but at this moment she felt as if she were standing on the edge of a cliff. Zhou Suiyin clutched her chest, her legs so weak she could barely stand. Zhou Yaozheng, who was beside her, tried to reach out to support her, but she coldly brushed him away.
Zhou Suiyin leaned on the tree trunk to keep her balance, saying, "Do you know what you're saying?"
Zhou Yaozheng gave a bitter smile: "Mom, I'm an adult now, and I didn't drink tonight. I'm perfectly sober."
"You're not thinking straight!" Zhou Suiyin gritted her teeth and hissed, "He's your brother."
"But we are not related by blood."
Zhou Suiyin's breathing suddenly became erratic. Before dragging Zhou Yaozheng to the garden for a private talk, she had been deceiving herself, thinking that Zhou Yaozheng was drunk and not sober, or that the scene just now was just her illusion, a misunderstanding caused by spatial displacement. Only now did she finally realize that Zhou Yaozheng had gone very, very far astray.
Her voice trembled and she asked hoarsely, "When...when did it start?"
Zhou Yaozheng slightly raised his eyes, seemingly glancing into the villa.
That one glance held so many emotions. As his mother, Zhou Suiyin was the person who understood him best in the world, and she quickly realized what was going on.
Her already pale face turned deathly white: "...Speak."
Zhou Suiyin is an extremely gentle woman. No matter how great the shock she suffers, she cannot speak harshly to her son, who has been proud for half his life. Even when they argue or confront each other, she is full of a mother's gentleness.
Unfortunately, Zhou Yaozheng didn't even want to show her this much tenderness. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "It started on my first day in the Mo family."
The summer of his seventeenth year seemed to carry the most brilliant years of his life. Zhou Yaozheng moved from an old rented house into a spacious and luxurious villa. It was only thirteen kilometers from the rented house to here. He sat in his beautiful new car and crossed several social classes in just over ten minutes.
He still remembers the amazement he felt when he first stepped into the villa. His mother was shown around the house by Uncle Mo, and they discussed what flowers they liked to plant in the garden.
Zhou Yaozheng didn't go. He stood in the living room, looking up at the renovation, imagining that he could also have such a perfect and cozy house when he grew up.
Mo Ningzhi burst in at that moment.
The scorching sun baked the ground, and the cool air released by the central air conditioning was not enough to dispel the heat of the dog days of summer. At that time, Mo Ningzhi had just finished physical education class. She was wearing a red and blue tracksuit from a private high school. Her limbs were long and fair, and her features were even more beautiful than those of child stars in advertisements.
Mo Ningzhi rushed into the kitchen as soon as he entered the house, grabbed a bottle of cold drink and gulped down a couple of mouthfuls. Turning around, he noticed an uninvited guest in the house. He closed the refrigerator door, his expression cold: "Who are you?"
That summer, Zhou Yaozheng didn't understand what attraction was.
Many years later, looking at Mo Ningzhi's vibrant face, he finally realized that he may never have wanted to be the older brother in the first place.
Years of suppressed emotions had caused Zhou Yaozheng immense pain. Although being caught by Zhou Suiyin today was unexpected, he was also relieved, finally no longer needing to hide.
Zhou Suiyin's previous marriage was unhappy. Her husband was abusive and gambled, and he would beat and scold her and her son. Although she fought hard to get a divorce, she was almost worn down. After meeting Mo Tingzhou, her life was completely separated from the past. Every little detail of their time together was carefully kept and often recalled. Therefore, she still has an impression of the details from more than ten years ago.
The knife plunged into her heart felt as if it were being gripped and twisted violently in the wound, and Zhou Suiyin almost fainted.
"Mom, I've been watching him all these years. I like him and want to be with him." Zhou Yaozheng said with a pained expression, "Can you help me?"
"Are you crazy?" Zhou Suiyin said. "Do I need to tell you what kind of person Ning Zhi is? I think you just want to destroy this family."
“But he won’t refuse you,” Zhou Yaozheng said.
Zhou Suiyin paused for a few seconds, then frowned: "What are you talking about..."
Zhou Yaozheng took Zhou Suiyin's hand, removed the wide wristband from it, held it in his palm, and said softly, "Could you help me invite him to live at home?"
His extra action immediately caught Zhou Suiyin's attention. Zhou Suiyin looked down at her wrist, recalling the watches Zhou Yaozheng had given her each time, and then saw the thin, pinkish-white scar on her wrist. An unbelievable thought quickly grew within her, without needing much doubt.
Zhou Suiyin said, "So... so every time I go to see Ning Zhi, you make me change my watch..."
She opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything more.
No wonder, no wonder Ningzhi's attitude is always so strange. Last time, Zhou Yaozheng came uninvited and barged into Mo Ningzhi's doorstep. It was after seeing her that Mo Ningzhi's attitude suddenly softened.
Zhou Suiyin's breathing trembled violently, and she finally collapsed to the ground, unable to hold on any longer. "So... all these years, every time... I was threatening him. Those watches were all to make me show my scars."
Zhou Suiyin's eyes were fixed on the past as she recalled: "After you graduated from high school, you used your scholarship money to invite your whole family on a trip, but Ning Zhi refused. You then asked me to bring soup to his room, and the next day Ning Zhi agreed to go out with you..."
"You wanted to intern at the company during your junior year, but Tingzhou felt you needed more experience. So that night, he had me cook croaker soup with broth. That night, Ningzhi spoke up for you, and that's how you got into the company..."
"And then there's your university graduation..."
"Two months ago, when you wanted to join the board of directors, you asked me to deliver fruit to Ning Zhi's house. Were you worried that he would cause trouble?"
So what kind of person has she been in Ning Zhi's heart all these years? A vicious stepmother who deliberately exposes her scars to pave the way for her son's future?
Zhou Suiyin was in so much pain that she almost suffocated.
A moment later, she suddenly laughed again, "Is this what you call liking someone? It's clearly using them. You even..."
“Mom,” Zhou Yaozheng said, “I just have no other choice. He’s getting further and further away from me, and I don’t know what else I can do to make him come back.”
After a long silence, he lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry."
Zhou Yaozheng tried to help her up, but his mother shooed him away emotionally after he took two steps forward: "Go away. I don't want you to help me."
She slowly shook her head: "I've failed miserably in educating you, Zhou Yaozheng. You're simply, simply—"
An eerie silence fell between the mother and son for a long time. Finally, Zhou Suiyin stood up and said almost coldly, "Go abroad."
Zhou Yaozheng was taken aback.
Now that things have come to this point, there's nothing left to hide. Zhou Suiyin spoke quickly, "Your Uncle Mo and I were originally planning to send you to develop overseas business. The transfer order won't be issued for another two months, so you should go ahead with it."
Zhou Yaozheng asked incredulously, "You're planning to exile me?"
“We never intended to give up on you, it’s your own actions that have disappointed me so much.” Zhou Suiyin’s heart clenched with pain. “I always thought I had raised you well. You were gentle and refined, everyone in the capital praised you for your excellence. But now I know that you’ve been corrupted from the inside out. You don’t like Mo Ningzhi; you just want to use him. It’s my fault that you’ve come to this. Your mother didn’t raise you well. Go away. Don’t ever appear in front of Ningzhi again, and I won’t help you with anything anymore.”
Zhou Yaozheng said, "I won't go."
You must go!
Zhou Yaozheng hung his head, looking somewhat guilty and disappointed, but his tone was cold and hard. "I dared to be honest, and I was already prepared to be opposed, but I still want to fight for it. Mom, I'm not an immature child anymore. I need your approval before I dare to act. Please give me another chance."
"Smack."
Zhou Yaozheng's face turned to the side after being hit.
Zhou Suiyin was so angry that she lost control. After hitting her, her own hand began to tremble violently: "Then you shouldn't acknowledge me as your mother."
Zhou Yaozheng was the only one left in the garden. The moon had been obscured by thick clouds, and the shadows under the trees had faded.
...
In the morning, Mo Ningzhi was woken up by the old man knocking on the door.
Perhaps it was because of the change of location, but he didn't sleep well. Thinking about going to the suburbs in the morning, he mustered his energy and opened the door.
"Why are you still sleepy?" Old Mo asked. "Did I wake you up last night?"
Mo Tingzhou went out for a drink of water last night and found Mo Ningzhi asleep on the sofa with his head tilted to one side. He quickly went over and woke him up, telling him to go back to his room to sleep.
He was still a little groggy, his hair was sticking up in the air, and he wasn't quite awake. Mo Tingzhou half-carried and half-helped him upstairs, allowing him to experience a long-lost feeling of fatherly love.
"No, I think I'm a bit sensitive to sleeping in unfamiliar beds."
"Nonsense!" The old man glared. "You've slept in this bed for over twenty years. You've been away from home for half a year, and you don't even consider this your home anymore?"
"Dad." Mo Ningzhi yawned and leaned lazily against the door. "Do you know what you look like right now?"
"What."
"Like an angry lion."
"That's more like it." Mo Tingzhou nodded with satisfaction, then remembered to ask, "Why a lion?"
"Because it's fluffy." Mo Ningzhi raised her hand and brushed the hair sticking up on his head.
Mo Tingzhou raised his hand, as if to hit him, but Mo Ningzhi narrowly dodged it. "You're going to see my mother later, how dare you hit me?"
Mo Tingzhou: "I'll beat you to death."
The old man, though old, was still vigorous and chased Mo Ningzhi all the way downstairs.
"Oh dear, oh dear, the floor was just mopped, be careful not to slip, sir," the live-in housekeeper warned worriedly from the side.
The more he couldn't hit anyone, the more Mo Tingzhou wanted to reason with Mo Ningzhi. He casually rolled up his sleeves and stopped those who wanted to help, saying, "Don't stop me, I'm going to catch this brat today."
Mo Ningzhi stopped after running two steps. "Childish. If you dare hit me, I'll make all the fish in the pond die from overeating."
Mo Tingzhou hadn't planned on a long run. He had just been discharged from the hospital and didn't exercise often before. Running these two steps was already his limit. "If it dies, I'll just raise another one. Unless all the fish sellers go out of business, you can't threaten me."
The cleaning ladies in the neighborhood were amused.
Zhou Suiyin woke up a little late today. She hadn't slept well last night and spent some time putting on makeup this morning. When she went downstairs and saw Mo Ningzhi, she instinctively wanted to hide, but Mo Tingzhou had already seen her: "Madam has arrived."
Zhou Suiyin had no choice but to go downstairs: "What are you doing, laughing and joking? I could hear you from upstairs."
Mo Tingzhou said with a smile that he was enforcing family rules.
Upon entering the living room, Zhou Suiyin couldn't avoid Mo Ningzhi. Just as she was about to greet her, Mo Ningzhi stood up and said, "Aunt Zhou."
Zhou Suiyin responded gently. Mo Ningzhi's reaction comforted her greatly, and she smiled with relief. Just as she was about to suggest having breakfast together, Mo Ningzhi's gaze suddenly shifted away from her face, as if it had fallen on something behind her.
Then she heard Mo Ningzhi say, "Good morning... Brother."
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Author's Note: Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a Happy New Year in advance! I'll be giving away 30 little red envelopes in the comments section~ [fireworks][fireworks]
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