0118 118 You come from my hometown
Qi Shuyao didn't actually know if what she said and what Shu Li understood were the same thing, but after noon, Zou Jiangyu left the government building, and in the afternoon, Zhou Cheng went back.
She rubbed her sore legs, which had ached from running too much the day before, and texted Chen Luo to tell him to come back immediately.
It took Chen Luo a long time to reply. He called directly, panting.
Qi Shuyao sat up abruptly.
"What happened to you? Did you get into a fight with Tong Kai?"
"No... Miss, I've arrived at the airport. After receiving your message yesterday, I packed up and sent Miss and her family to another city first. Mr. Qin said he would stay there for now, so I packed up all the things you left there for you. He said he would keep them for you, and that's when I came to the airport."
"Be careful, and don't let your guard down until you get home."
“Miss, before leaving yesterday, Tong Kai shared one last message with me. It was sent by one of Pei Yuzhou’s former subordinates. Based on the content of the message, the sender should be someone from the Pei family gang. He didn’t have any new information, but he was wondering why Pei Yuzhou hadn’t issued any orders for so many days.”
What kind of instructions would Pei Yuzhou give them?
"I checked behind Tong Kai's back, and there was all sorts of stuff. It wasn't all mission-related. It was often just everyday conversation, like congratulating him on having a grandson. It was like old people chatting. Maybe the people there just felt like they hadn't chatted in a long time, which is why they were suspicious."
He finished speaking, took a long breath, and then hurriedly added,
“I also looked at the messages exchanged with a few other people. Two of them were relatively close, while the others were just cold reports and instructions. The two close ones were former members of the Pei family gang.”
Did you reply to his message?
"Tong Kai said he would study the previous conversations to deal with it, and then I received your message, so I made an excuse to come back."
"I understand, you can come back now."
After putting down her phone, Qi Shuyao found paper and pen and listed the people involved in the "Jingyang riot".
The longest thread that Lin Bai buried brought up the long-standing feud between the Gu and Lin families. It was planted by Gu Chaodong himself, but the result was ripened by Shen Yan. They probably didn't know about the relationship between Li Qing and Lin Bai. Xu Mei kept this a secret for more than 20 years. What did she want to gain from it?
Putting that aside for now, let's talk about Pei Yuzhou's plan. He hid behind the scenes, letting the Gu and Lin families fight each other, then completely disappearing from the historical stage. He then arranged for an "ordinary person to expose" Su Changce's reputation. According to Yang Xun, the mastermind behind that gay club that gathered bigwigs from various countries was also a member of the Pei family. In the end, it was Lao He himself who handed over the handle, and was outmaneuvered by his closest confidant, leading to his downfall as well.
He orchestrated a series of intensive operations to crush all the enemies except Qi Yu.
Qi Shuyao looked up at the painting hanging on the opposite wall. It was a doodle she had made when she was a child, without a name or meaning. It reminded her of the painting "Cold Sky" in Pei Yuzhou's room.
He was transferred from China to abroad, which should have been done discreetly and unnoticed, yet he still had to take that heavy, enormous painting with him. She had seen the painting framed, unable to be disassembled, and transported in a cumbersome and tightly wrapped manner. Was he truly interested in the meaning he interpreted, or was there a deeper connection behind it?
She had no other ideas for the time being and could only think about the new information Chen Luo had brought.
Based on the previous reasoning, Pei Yuzhou should have controlled the information network of most of the country. These people were all people he arranged himself before he died, and they were all his confidants. Even if someone had disloyal thoughts, it should have been when he was really unconscious that they rebelled. Why are these people so loyal to such an alarming degree, yet their words are still so cold?
Qi Shuyao scribbled on the paper, not understanding their behavior, but gradually realizing that she would never understand the thoughts of those lunatics according to her own logic, so she might as well consider other things first.
Her gaze fell on the two words "Xu Mei" on the paper.
It's time to meet.
Qi Shuyao asked Sister Xiaolan to contact Xu Mei and arrange a time at the Xuansha Club. She then went into the bathroom to shower and change clothes. Standing in front of the mirror, she took off her pajamas and was so frightened by the red marks left on her skin that she kept backing away.
Last night, it must have been a wolf that bit her. Her entire chest and abdomen were covered with indistinguishable marks, including teeth marks stuck in the middle. When she took off her pants, her thighs were covered with finger marks from being gripped.
She smiled wryly as she stepped into the bathtub and buried herself in it. She felt no discomfort, just a sense of satisfaction from eating and drinking her fill.
Humming a song all the way to the Harmony Sand Club, I immediately spotted Xu Mei sitting in the lobby. She was the only one in the club at this hour.
When Qi Shuyao saw her face again, she didn't think much of it. She simply walked over and sat quietly in front of her.
This wasn't the first time the mother and daughter had met, but along the way, Qi Shuyao's feelings for Xu Mei had taken several twists and turns. All the words she wanted to say were left unsaid, resulting in a long silence.
Xu Mei didn't know how to start the conversation. She had four children, but she still didn't know how to be a mother.
A message notification tone preceded their words. Xu Mei opened her phone and saw that an unfamiliar number had sent her only a photo.
It was a little girl, about two or three years old, sitting on the platform below the window. The sunlight made her skin glow, and her big eyes were looking at the camera. Her eyelashes were so long that they drooped down. You could tell at a glance who she resembled just by looking at those eyes and their shape.
Another message arrived, this time in text format.
"Xiaomei, it's been a long time! Congratulations on becoming a grandmother!"
Xu Mei stood up abruptly, looking down at Qi Shuyao.
"What are you doing...?"
Before Qi Shuyao could finish her sentence, a phone screen was shoved into her face.
Xu Mei was still whispering something in her ear, but she couldn't hear it anymore; she was just staring intently at the tiny figure on the phone.
Why doesn't she smile? Why are there so many sorrows in her eyes? She was a little bundle of flesh when she was born, but now she looks like skin and bones.
She instinctively reached out to touch her, but Xu Mei swiftly grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
"This is your child? It's so big! Where is it now? Don't tell me it's with Shu Li, and also, and also..."
Xu Mei couldn't believe it, and couldn't even utter those two words, but her daughter's expression answered her question.
"This is Qi Yu's child? Yours?"
"Yes, he and I had the child."
"That's how he acts as a father!"
Her voice was high-pitched and thin, piercing Qi Shuyao's ears and disrupting her thoughts that she had just sorted out. She broke free from her mother's hand, stumbled backward, bumped into the back of the chair behind her, and fell to the ground.
The two women, one standing and one squatting, curled up in pain, but this time Xu Mei calmed down first, went over to help her daughter up, and put her in a chair.
"When did this absurd thing begin?"
"You can abandon your own child to someone else and still think it's absurd?"
"I'm not qualified to judge you now, but I can't let you stay confused forever."
"I am perfectly sober."
"There are so many people in this world, why bother..."
"There are so many people in this world, I can like anyone in this world, including him."
Did you know back then that he wasn't your biological father?
"...It's none of your business."
"What you're doing is...this is chaos...you...oh dear..."
Xu Mei was so anxious she was pacing around in circles. She was very worried, but she didn't have a very good reason. Perhaps she was just glad that she was better off than others.
She calmed down, lowered her head, and took Qi Shuyao's hand; her mood also calmed down.
"They resent me, they hate me, yet I've still become who I am. How am I going to explain this to my children in the future?"
She pulled Qi Shuyao into her arms, pressing her soft little face against her chest. Xu Mei had only held her three times in her life, each time embracing her thin, bony back.
Sure enough, no one can replace a mother's embrace, but Qi Shuyao did not linger on her warmth and softness. She raised her hand, pushed Xu Mei away, and took two steps back herself.
"Did Shu Li send it to you?"
"You saw your grandfather? He actually showed some kindness to my child."
“He doesn’t like me either. I’m just his tool. We are all his tools. He can’t see whether we live or die.”
Xu Mei sat back down opposite her, but didn't let go of her hand.
"He's lived his whole life this way, and even after years of wandering in his old age, he'll never change."
"Can you tell me about the past? The grudges and grievances between you people?"
"What's there to say about the past? Anyway, the people involved are either dead, in jail, or have disappeared."
"Gu Chaodong is dead?"
"What difference is there between him and being dead? He toiled his whole life and left nothing behind. In the end, only his sister was able to visit him at his bedside."
"What is your relationship with Gu Chaohuan?"
"We know each other, we've known each other since we were little. Later, her father was killed, and her brother became a scoundrel. She needed an identity, so I gave her mine. A little girl born in Xianhui, orphaned and adopted, eventually came to Jingyang and became a disliked dancer. Everything she did was illegal. She could only see the world through a small television. At that time, the place she most wanted to go was Changgang, where everything was legal. She felt that once she got there, she would become someone people looked up to. She wouldn't have to live underground, in such darkness that even the people standing opposite her couldn't see her makeup. Later, she met a man—no, three men—who became the beginning of all the suffering in her later life and that of her child. They only brought her one realization: you need money and power to survive in this world... It's a pity that in this world, everyone's fate is predetermined. Some go to the green mountains, some go to the clear waters, but no matter where we go, we're still stuck in the mud."
"So the person you've been in contact with all along is Gu Chaodong, not Shu Cheng."
"Yes, he was the one who first set his sights on me, but he didn't bother to provoke me. Young Master Gu thought I was just an ant under his feet, someone who had to serve him, so he didn't need to do anything special to me. But later he said, 'I'll help him. I'll use my body to help him connect with the people he needs. When he comes back, he will marry me.'"
Xu Mei's smile was particularly heartbreaking; she pointed to her chest.
“I believed him. I believed everything he said. But I should have known long ago that it was all bullshit, lies that would never be fulfilled.”
Qi Shuyao closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. Xu Mei was still laughing beside her.
"You also think your mother's life was truly absurd, right? I think so too. I've never had any value of my own. Go buy me a bottle of pesticide, I'll take care of myself now."
"Go buy it yourself. If you die that way, I'll still be the murderer in the end."
She laughed even louder and kept patting her arm.
"Yes, they look so alike."
Who does he look like?
"Like me, and like him, so indifferent, so selfish."
Have you met him?
"See him? What would I do with him? See his cowardly face? I won't see him, but I'm determined to outlive him. I want to see who will give birth to the son he's been longing for in the end. What can his son do to him? Can he let him ascend the throne? Can he be made an emperor emeritus? Hahaha..."
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