Chapter 45 Family Banquet Men who have climbed up from the bottom are the most shrewd…
Hearing Qichen Technology from her mother, Lin Yuwei paused slightly with her chopsticks, and the food on her plate instantly lost its flavor: "Yes, their technical support is very professional."
“I’ve read some reports,” Lin Yulan said slowly, scooping up a spoonful of soup. Her gaze didn’t fall on her daughter, but her words were pointed at her: “That founder, Gu Qingyan, right? I heard he comes from a very ordinary background; his mother used to be a maid?” Her tone was undisguisedly contemptuous: “Men who climb up from the bottom are the most shrewd and calculating, taking every step with care. Weiwei, you have to be careful, don’t be used without even realizing it.” Her unfamiliar tone suggested she didn’t know Gu Qingyan at all; it was unclear whether she was warning Lin Yuwei or deliberately saying it to Zhou Xubai.
Lin Yuwei put down her chopsticks, her cold fingers clenching into fists under the table. Her mother's condescending judgment, imbued with a sense of class superiority, stung her like needles, and also wounded the memory of that silent and stubborn boy in her mind.
A surge of unprecedented courage, or perhaps a long-suppressed sense of injustice, compelled her to speak up. Her voice was soft yet clear: "Mom, Gu Qingyan isn't that kind of person! His success is due to his own ability and hard work! He didn't even finish university before starting his business..."
"Strength?" Lin Yulan abruptly interrupted her, her voice rising sharply and becoming shrill. Her face showed a mixture of rage and disbelief at being publicly defied. She slammed down the soup spoon, the porcelain striking the rim of the bowl with a harsh sound. "You actually argued with me for the sake of a servant's son? Lin Yuwei, you're really getting worse! Let me tell you what strength is! Without a family background like Mr. Zhou's, how clean can your methods be if you want to start from scratch? How naive you are..."
“Auntie!” Zhou Xubai spoke up at the right moment, his voice gentle yet carrying a hint of unwavering determination, trying to interrupt the increasingly out-of-control conversation: “This steamed fish is incredibly delicious, cooked to perfection. Is there some special recipe?” He tried to ease the tension by talking about food.
This time, however, Lin Yulan was not distracted at all. Her chest heaved violently, and her face appeared unusually pale under the bright lights, even exuding an unhealthy sense of decay. She suddenly waved her hand, as if to brush away Zhou Xubai's words, her gaze still fixed on Lin Yuwei, her eyes filled with anger, disappointment, and a bottomless pain and despair.
“Fine, fine, I raised you with all my might, sent you to the best schools, just so you could hang out with people like that? All these years have passed, and you haven’t improved at all. You’re still so disobedient, talking back to me for someone like that…” Her voice trembled, hoarse with a heartbroken tone: “I can’t control you anymore, and I… I don’t have that much time to control you anymore! Do you have to drive me to my death before you’re satisfied? You’ll be free once your mother dies, won’t you?” The despair in her words stunned Lin Yuwei and Zhou Xubai.
Lin Yulan swayed slightly, bracing herself against the edge of the table. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her usually sharp eyes were filled with a rare, moist light.
“Weiwei…” she called her nickname, her voice broken and faltering, “Mommy doesn’t want to argue with you, Mommy is… is scared.” Tears finally slid down her cheeks, “I didn’t want to tell you so soon, I wanted to wait until you were more stable, but…”
She choked up, barely able to speak, overwhelmed by immense grief: "The doctor said I have cancer... late stage, and I don't have much time left."
With a loud "bang," Lin Yuwei felt her mind go blank, her ears ringing, and the whole world seemed unreal. The chopsticks in her hand fell to the table with a "clatter" and rolled onto the carpet.
Cancer? Late stage? These sudden words were like barbed icicles, piercing her heart and freezing her blood, leaving her breathless and unable to think for a moment. Even Zhou Xubai, who had seen it all, was completely shocked. His face was filled with astonishment and deep sympathy. He subconsciously stood up, as if he wanted to do something, but didn't know what to do.
With tears streaming down her face, Lin Yulan reached out her hand to Lin Yuwei. Those hands, once so strong and in control, were now trembling and incredibly fragile: "Weiwei, your mother has always been competitive, but in the end, the thing I can't let go of the most is you. What will you do alone if I'm gone? That Gu Qingyan... with his background and his character, how can I rely on him? I won't be able to die in peace!"
Her cries were filled with despair and a mother's final plea: "Just this once... listen to your mother, okay? While I can still see and can still help you choose, find a talented young man like Mr. Zhou... with a good family background, good character, and ability, settle down, and let your mother leave in peace, okay?"
Overwhelmed by grief and fear, Lin Yu-wei was completely engulfed by the tsunami. Lin Yu-lan's words were like a final verdict, striking Lin Yu-wei's heart heavily. Over the years, all the rebuttals, all the insistence, all the debates about fairness and self-worth were shattered in the face of "death" and "her mother's last wish." Overwhelmed by grief, fear, and guilt, she could hardly breathe.
Tears streamed down her face as she rushed to her mother's side, tightly gripping her cold hands, her voice broken and shattered: "Mom...please stop talking, please stop talking, I'll listen to you...I'll listen to everything you say."
After dinner, Lin Yulan, due to emotional distress and physical exhaustion, was helped by the maid to rest for a while. Lin Yuwei stood alone in front of the huge French windows in the living room, looking at the meticulously manicured but lifeless garden outside the window. Her feelings were as complicated as a tangled mess. Her mother's tearful eyes and the words "Let me go in peace" kept echoing in her mind.
Zhou Xubai stood quietly by his side, handing him a glass of warm water. His eyes were complex, filled with sympathy and a heavy, expectant look as he awaited the outcome.
Lin Yuwei took the water glass but didn't drink it. Instead, she ran her trembling fingers over the glass. Her voice was low and hoarse, with a heavy nasal tone: "Xu Bai, I'm sorry, did I scare you? Things at home... are all so chaotic." She paused, trying to remain calm: "I drove for several hours this morning and have been busy until now. You must be tired too. Shall I take you upstairs to rest?"
Zhou Xubai looked at her intently, his eyes gentle and tolerant: "I'm not tired, I just want to stay with you, but," he changed the subject, extremely considerately, "if you need to be alone for a while, I'll go upstairs first. If you need anything, just call me anytime, I'll be right here."
Lin Yuwei did need some space to process this huge shock. She nodded gratefully, "Thank you, Xu Bai. I'll take you upstairs first." She led Zhou Xu Bai up to the third floor and arranged for him to stay in a spacious guest room next to her bedroom, "You can stay in this room. Everything in the bathroom is new. Just let me know if you need anything."
"Mmm, thank you." Zhou Xubai said gently, "Don't think too much. You need to rest well so you'll have more energy to take care of your aunt." Lin Yuwei forced a smile, closed the door for him, and stood in the quiet corridor. The devastating news of her mother's diagnosis and those heavy words still weighed heavily on her, making it hard to breathe. She needed to distract herself, she needed something else to temporarily fill the panic in her heart.
As if guided by an unseen force, her gaze fell upon the end of the corridor, the direction where Gu Qingyan's small room once stood. As if drawn by an invisible force, her feet moved involuntarily, step by step, along the thickly carpeted corridor, toward that tightly closed door, deliberately sealed away from the past.
This used to be where Gu Qingyan lived.
Lin Yuwei stood in front of that familiar door, her fingers unconsciously tracing the deep scratch on the door panel. It was a scratch that Gu Qingyan had accidentally made when she was chasing him with a toy car when they were children. At the time, she was scolded by her mother in private for playing too wildly with "the servants' children".
She took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
The room was smaller and more oppressive than she remembered. The original narrow single bed had been moved and replaced with stacked storage boxes. The old bookshelf in the corner was still there, and the faded spaceship sticker pattern on the wallpaper was still there. There seemed to be a faint scent of the boy's clean soap mixed with the smell of old books in the air.
Zhou Xubai quietly appeared behind her, his footsteps soft.
“Yuwei, you left your phone with me. I was just about to get it back for you.” He spoke gently, his gaze sweeping over the small space that had clearly been a bedroom, his tone tinged with curiosity: “Hmm? Who used to live in this room? It doesn’t look like a guest room.”
Lin Yuwei's body stiffened almost imperceptibly. She didn't turn around, her voice was somewhat ethereal, with a hint of barely perceptible difficulty: "It's Gu Qingyan."
“Gu Qingyan?” Zhou Xubai was surprised: “President Gu of Qichen Technology? What’s he doing at your house…” He stopped in time, piecing together many clues in his mind, and then realized something.
Lin Yuwei turned around, her face expressionless, only a complex light flashing deep in her eyes: "My mother is right, his mother, Aunt Gu, is indeed a maid and a cook, and she works in our house. Aunt Gu is a very nice person, and her cooking is especially delicious." She paused, as if trying to convince someone, and added softly: "Because Gu Qingyan doesn't have a father, he lives with his mother in our house."
Zhou Xubai nodded knowingly, his eyes deepening, and his tone becoming gentler, with a guiding question: "So, you said before that you've known him for a long time... that you've known him since you were very young?"
"Mmm." Lin Yuwei responded softly, her gaze turning back to the depths of the room, as if she could see the figure of that silent, thin boy from back then: "He was seven years old that year, and I was eight. You could say we grew up together."
These words, though spoken lightly, were like a boulder thrown into Zhou Xubai's heart. He had originally thought that "knowing each other for a long time" meant at most the friendship between classmates during their youth. But the phrase "growing up together" painted a picture he had never imagined: little Lin Yuwei and little Gu Qingyan, from innocence to youth, always together.
They were childhood sweethearts, sharing a past that no one could ever intrude upon.
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