Chapter 14 The Su Family's Full-Scale Internal Strife
The corridors of Shanghai's First Hospital were filled with the mixed smells of disinfectant and despair.
Liu Liyun carried a net bag containing apples and malted milk powder, walking briskly with just the right amount of anxiety and worry on her face, just like a virtuous wife.
Pushing open the door to the ward, Su Zhenhong was staring blankly at the ceiling. His fat face seemed to have been drained of energy overnight, leaving only loose flesh.
"Old Su, you're awake! You scared me to death!" Liu Liyun rushed to the bedside, tears welling up in her eyes. "What happened? Why did you suddenly faint?"
Su Zhenhong's eyes moved, slowly focusing on Liu Liyun's face. He opened his mouth, making a hoarse sound, and after a long while, he managed to squeeze out a complete sentence.
"That's all..."
"What's gone?" Liu Liyun didn't hear clearly.
"They're all gone!!" Su Zhenhong suddenly raised his voice, struggling to sit up.
"The warehouse is empty! The bank is empty too! That wicked girl... that wicked girl took everything!"
Liu Liyun's mind went blank, and the net bag in her hand fell to the ground with a "thud," scattering apples all over the floor.
"What did you say? How is that possible! Those things..."
"She has the key! She has the documents that that bitch Bai Xiuzhu left behind! She took them all!" Su Zhenhong's eyes were bloodshot as he grabbed Liu Liyun's wrist, his nails digging deep into her flesh.
"She even left a chicken feather in the safe! A chicken feather!!"
The last few words were almost squeezed out from between his teeth, filled with bloody hatred.
Liu Liyun finally understood.
All that talk of marital love, visits and condolences—it was all bullshit. Her world had collapsed.
A surge of black fury shot from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. She flung Su Zhenhong's hand away, turned and rushed out, her gentle and virtuous facade shattered into nothingness.
Just then, the ward door was pushed open, and a middle-aged man wearing a Dacron shirt walked in. He was Lin Zihang's father, Lin Jianguo.
He glanced at Su Zhenhong on the bed, his face showing no sympathy, only the shrewdness and indifference of a businessman.
"Mr. Su, your health is the most important thing," Lin Jianguo said with a forced smile. "However, dozens of workers in my factory are waiting to make a living. Don't you think it's time to settle the payment for the goods that our two companies agreed on before?"
Su Zhenhong almost fainted again because he couldn't catch his breath.
"You...you're here to visit me in the hospital or to collect a debt?"
"Yes, it is." Lin Jianguo said without any politeness. "You, Boss Su, have a big business, you wouldn't refuse to pay this little bit of money, would you? My son was completely fooled by your daughter, his marriage fell through, and now even his business is going to fail. Boss Su, you can't be so dishonest."
"Get out!" Su Zhenhong grabbed a pillow and threw it at Lin Jianguo. "Lin Jianguo, the Su family hasn't fallen yet! Get out of here!"
"Fine, fine." Lin Jianguo dodged the pillow and sneered, "When you, Boss Su, can get out of bed, we'll see you in court."
After saying that, he turned and left without uttering a single unnecessary word.
The two families have completely broken off relations.
When Lin Jianguo returned home, he saw his son, Lin Zihang, sitting on the sofa, looking dejected.
"Bang!" He slammed his briefcase on the table and pointed at his son, launching into a tirade: "Look what you've done! You've offended the Su family to the core because of Su Yuting! Now look what's happened, the Su family is down, and we can't get our money back! How could I have given birth to such a brainless wretch!"
Lin Zihang was verbally abused mercilessly, and all his grievances, resentment, and bitterness erupted at that moment.
He did nothing wrong! The ones who were wrong were Su Wantang and Su Yuting!
He jumped to his feet, his eyes bloodshot, and roared, "Enough!!"
Then, he rushed out of the house and disappeared into the night.
......
The Su family villa.
Liu Liyun rushed upstairs like a madwoman, only to see Su Wantang sitting on the sofa in the small living room, leisurely stirring a bowl of snow-white bird's nest with a silver spoon. Wang Ma stood respectfully to the side.
That composure, that ease, pierced Liu Liyun's eyes.
"Su Wantang!" Liu Liyun screamed, her voice cracking, "You beast! Where did you put all the family's money?! Are you trying to drive your father to his death?!"
Su Wantang didn't even bother to lift her eyelids. She slowly scooped up a spoonful of bird's nest, put it in her mouth, and savored it.
After she swallowed, she wiped her mouth with a silk handkerchief and said calmly, "What's all the noise about? Your table manners are terrible."
Her gaze finally landed on Liu Liyun's distorted face, her eyes filled not with anger, but with a kind of pity as if looking at a clown.
"Aunt Liu, what's the rush?" Her voice was soft and gentle.
“First, those things were my mother’s dowry, and I’m just taking them back. It’s perfectly reasonable and protected by law. Second,” she paused, then tapped her spoon lightly against the rim of the bowl, making a crisp sound.
“If something happens to your father’s company, you should ask him what shady things he’s been doing behind the scenes, instead of coming to me, the victim, to question him.”
In short, he blocked all of Liu Liyun's paths.
First, she cannot refute that it is a legal fact written in black and white.
The second point was like a heavy hammer blow, striking her heart hard.
Ledger!
Did she discover those ledgers?
Liu Liyun's pupils constricted sharply, and a chill ran up her spine. She never expected that Su Wantang had even gotten that!
That was Su Zhenhong's lifeline, and also the source of her arrogance and domineering attitude over the years!
It's over.
It's completely over.
Looking at Su Wantang's calm and collected face, all the harsh words and curses stuck in her throat, and she couldn't utter a single word.
You can't win a fight. You can't win an argument. And you have no grounds to argue.
A surge of impotent rage raged within her chest, unable to find an outlet. Finally, she abruptly turned her head and saw Su Yuting peeking out of the room.
The anger instantly found an outlet!
"It's all your fault! You jinx!" Liu Liyun, like a she-devil, rushed over and pointed at Su Yuting's nose, cursing, "Ever since you started plotting to steal your sister's marriage, nothing good has happened in this family! Now look what's happened, everything's gone! Are you satisfied now?!"
Su Yuting was stunned by the scolding. She had only come out to see what was going on, how did she become a jinx?
"Mom, what are you saying? What does this have to do with me!"
"How can it be unrelated!" Liu Liyun grabbed her collar, spitting as she spoke. "If you hadn't encouraged Lin Zihang, how could Wan Tang have married Lu Jingyan? If she hadn't married Lu Jingyan, how could she have been so arrogant! It's all your fault! You good-for-nothing!"
Being verbally abused by her closest mother, Su Yuting lost her composure.
She screamed and lunged at him like a madwoman, retaliating: "You blame me? Why don't you blame yourself for being useless! You can't even hold onto a man's heart! You can't even beat a woman who's been dead for over a decade! Now that something's happened at home, you're pushing all the blame onto me! Liu Liyun, have you no shame?!"
She screamed hysterically, uttering incoherent words: "You think I don't know! How much money you've been hiding behind Dad's back! Those gold bars! Those US dollars! Don't think I didn't see it! You've already prepared an escape route for yourself, and now you're pretending to be a victim here!"
Upon hearing this, Liu Liyun's face turned deathly pale.
At this moment, the mother and daughter's argument turned into the most deadly act of revealing each other's secrets.
Before long, the argument between the mother and daughter escalated into a full-blown physical fight.
"You little bitch! I'll beat you to death!"
"You're the old slut! Shameless!"
Liu Liyun and Su Yuting, one like a shrew cursing in a market, the other like a madwoman who escaped from a mental hospital, were pulling each other's hair and rolling around on the ground fighting.
On the expensive Persian carpet, shattered pieces of antique porcelain vases, mixed with a woman's hair and screams, created a scene of utter chaos.
At the top of the stairs on the second floor, Su Wantang stood quietly, holding the empty bowl of bird's nest soup, like an outsider, indifferently watching the ugly, ridiculous, and utterly hilarious farce unfolding downstairs.
This was merely their final celebration before the final judgment.
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