Chapter 543: Where Are Your Manners?

Liu Tongjia’s number was saved in Huo Jinyao’s phone, named as “Mother”. Seeing that word, Su Qingsang suddenly felt sad again.

The call was answered. She heard Liu Tongjia’s cold voice from the other side of the phone.

“What?”

Su Qingsang closed her eyes. She didn’t understand. What kind of mother would talk to her son like they weren’t related?

“Jinyao is sick. He’s calling you. Can you please come here and see him?”

Liu Tongjia stayed silent. Su Qingsang thought that she hadn’t heard her clearly, so she repeated her words.

“Is he dying?” Liu Tongjia sounded very cold. “Is he dying of illness?”

“You…”

“If he is dying, I’ll come, but if he’s not dying, I don’t think it will be necessary for me to come all the way.”

“Aunt, you’re really taking this too far. He’s your son.”

“I know that he’s my son. But sometimes I wish that he’s not.”

After saying that, Liu Tongjia ended the call. While holding the phone, Su Qingsang’s hand trembled.

She looked at Huo Jinyao. His fever was still very high and he was mumbling. It sounded like he was trying to restrain himself from expressing his emotions when he said “Mom”.

Su Qingsang would have missed it if she hadn’t been sitting by his side the whole time.

What did that mean? It could be a very strong sense of yearning that was buried deep down in his heart. He was still trying to repress it.

Su Qingsang’s chest heaved. She couldn’t help but call Liu Tongjia again.

“What now?”

“Huo Jinyao is really sick. Are you sure that you don’t want to come and see him? He’s calling you. And do you know why he’s calling you? It’s because he wants you here. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I do. So what?” Liu Tongjia snorted coldly. “Do you really think of yourself as the daughter-in-law of Huo Family? I’m telling you now. Don’t play the role of a pitiful woman in front of me. That won’t work.”

Liu Tongjia ended the call again. Su Qingsang was so angry that her cheeks started burning.

She felt as if she was standing in the middle of a burning fire. She dropped the phone on the floor. She couldn’t control her temper anymore.

She quickly stood up, put on her coat, and prepared to go out. Before leaving, she called Yang Wenchang and asked him to come to look after Huo Jinyao for a while.

She also told Ms. Yu, who was preparing to go out to shop for groceries to remain at home for the time being. It was rather early anyway. She asked Ms. Yu to stay and look after Huo Jinyao.

After doing that, she picked up the car keys and left in a haste.

The fire in her heart was still burning even after she left home.

She couldn’t control herself. She couldn’t imagine what kind of mother would act so cold-blooded towards her son.

What kind of mother would ask someone if her son was dying? Did Liu Tongjia not think of Huo Jinyao as her son? It was like that, wasn’t it?

The intense anger which burned like a fire made Su Qingsang go insane. She wanted to see Liu Tongjia at that very moment and bring her back to Huo Jinyao.

She wanted to ask Liu Tongjia if she would finally be happy if Huo Jinyao really died. She wanted to ask her if she would be satisfied if he vanished from her life.

No one was in the living room when she arrived at the family house. Mr. Cheng saw her and hurriedly walked up to welcome her.

“Mrs. Huo, Old Master went out earlier today. He hasn’t come home yet.”

“I’m not here to see grandpa.” Su Qingsang slowed down before asking her next question. “Where’s Aunt?”

“Upstairs, in her room.” Mr. Cheng was a little surprised. Su Qingsang had a bad relations.h.i.+p with Liu Tongjia. That was not a secret and everyone in the family knew it.

The house workers knew about that as well, but they never talked about it openly. It surprised Mr. Cheng that Su Qingsang had come home today and asked to see Liu Tongjia.

That was unusual.

“Okay, thank you.”

Su Qingsang said that and then quickly rushed upstairs, straight into Liu Tongjia’s room.

Liu Tongjia was reading quietly in her room. The phone calls she had from Su Qingsang didn’t seem to affect her at all.

As Su Qingsang came in without knocking the door, Liu Tongjia raised her head and said with an obvious displeased look, “did your parents not teach you to knock the door before going into someone else’s room? Where are your manners?”

“Manners?” Liu Tongjia’s words made Su Qingsang so angry that she gave a sarcastic laugh. “You want to talk to me about manners?”

Liu Tongjia put down the book. Her narrowed eyes showed how displeased she was at the moment. “Why can’t I talk to you about manners? Look at the way you behave in someone else’s house. You are really not good enough to be a part of the Huo Family.”

“The way I behave? Mrs. Huo, I now want to ask you if you consider yourself a person with good manners? Your son is sick and you want him dead. Is that what you call having good manners? Mrs. Huo, is this the kind of manners you were taught?”

She didn’t even call her “Aunt”. She called her “Mrs. Huo” through clenched teeth. Her tone was filled with disdain.

“Are you questioning me?” Liu Tongjia raised her head and glared at Su Qingsang with a very sullen face. “Who gave you the right to talk like that? Get out!”

“Huo Jinyao gave me the right.” Seeing Liu Tongjia talk that way didn’t ease the anger in Su Qingsang’s heart but exacerbated it. “My sense of righteousness has given me the authority to talk like this.”

She walked straight to Liu Tongjia, looking infuriated.

The anger had turned Su Qingsang’s cheeks ruby red. Her eyes were the color of blood. She clenched her fist, trying very hard to keep herself from scolding Liu Tongjia even more.

It was not easy. She glared at Liu Tongjia so fiercely that it felt as if she was going to burn through the woman with her eyes.

“You said you have manners, right Mrs. Huo? By manners, do you mean like being careless about your son, and working with outsiders to bully, to hurt your son? Being cold to your son, ignoring him, are those your manners? Mrs. Huo, if you call those manners, I admit that I do not have manners as good as you do.”

“Su Qingsang, mind your language. Who gave you the right to talk to me like this?”

Liu Tongjia glared at Su Qingsang angrily.

“Talk to you like what? How did you talk to me then? How have you been talking to Huo Jinyao then?”

Thinking of Liu Tongjia made Su Qingsang want to burst in curses. What Liu Tonjia had done made her so desperately want to question her actions.

“Mrs. Huo, I really do not understand why you treat Huo Jinyao like this. He’s your son after all.”

Su Qingsang was almost raging. Thinking about the past, she thought about how Xiang Caiping was her mother but abandoned her. She understood that it must have been a very difficult and painful decision for Xiang Caiping. She understood how hard it had been for Xiang Caiping, so she never hated her.

Later, she finally became Li Qianxue’s daughter. She knew that Li Qianxue hadn’t ignored her on purpose before learning the truth, so she never hated Li Qianxue either.

Li Qianxue also hadn’t hated Su Peizhen when she learned that the latter wasn’t her real daughter. She still loved that girl and thought of her as a daughter.

Su Qingsang wasn’t jealous of Su Peizhen. On the contrary, she found that reasonable. It would be a tragedy if a mother did not love the child whom she had spent twenty years raising.

What about Huo Jinyao? He was Liu Tongjia’s son but his mother treated him as if he wasn’t.

Liu Tongjia was Huo Jinyao’s mother. She might not have spent much energy raising him, but she still gave birth to him and brought him to the world.

Su Qingsang honestly didn’t understand why on earth Liu Tongjia was so cruel to Huo Jinyao.

She never liked him and was always excessively strict towards him, but that didn’t matter.

But now, she had gone to the extreme to hurt him. She cooperated with some outsiders and attempted to ruin Huo Jinyao’s reputation. Moreover, Huo Jinyao was sick, but she couldn’t care less.

Why?

“Mrs. Huo, I know that I’m in no place to ask you about these things. But, Huo Jinyao is your son. Why do you treat him like this?”

Su Qingsang was still thinking about Huo Jinyao’s current condition, his sad face, and the way he had been stuck in a nightmare in the middle of the night.

She felt his heart aching so badly, as if someone was squeezing it tight. She was never a mother, but as an obstetrician, she had seen many mothers in the hospital.

Many women wanted to be mothers but were never lucky enough to have children. Liu Tongjia was lucky to have a son, but why was she so cold and heartless to that boy?

That poor boy who was hurt by his own mother was Huo Jinyao. It gave Su Qingsang a kind of pain that was worse than what she had suffered when she was hurt in the past.

“Is he not your real son? Is that why you treat him like this? Is it?”

Maybe Huo Jinyao was an illegitimate child, mothered by some mistress of his father. Apart from that, Su Qingsang couldn’t think of any other possible reason.

Her voice was much louder than before when she said that. She was demanding an answer from Liu Tongjia.

Her voice was filled with anger, confusion, and discontent, all targeted towards Liu Tongjia. Liu Tongjia was an elderly in the family, but at that very moment, she believed that she had every right to question her.

Nothing that Liu Tongjia had done was something a mother would do to her children.

She thought that Liu Tongjia would at least have some pity for her son deep down in her heart. She was wrong, though. She underestimated Liu Tongjia’s hatred for her son.

Liu Tongjia reacted more strongly than she expected.

“My real son? Does he deserve to be my son?”

What Liu Tongjia hated the most in her life was the fact that Huo Jinyao was her son. “Do you have any idea how much I wish that he’s not my son?”

“He does not deserve to be my son. He does not,” Liu Tongjia’s voice was filled with a strong sense of hatred. She glared at Su Qingsang, her eyes were filled with a kind of grievance that Su Qingsang could not understand.

“He doesn’t deserve to be my son. I don’t want to have that kind of son.”

Su Qingsang stood there and looked at Liu Tongjia. Liu Tongjia leaned softly against the chair. On her face was deep hatred and pain.

Su Qingsang was stunned for a moment. She couldn’t imagine what kind of mother would wear a look like that when mentioning her son.

She wanted to ask her why. She wanted an answer. She didn’t rush to ask any questions, though. Instead, she just looked at Liu Tongjia, wearing a complicated expression.

“I don’t want to have that kind of son.” Liu Tongjia took a step backward, leaned on the wall, almost weakly.

It had been over ten years, but the pain was still killing her, every day and night.

She couldn’t let it go. She could not. But what about Huo Jinyao?

He did exactly like he was supposed to in those years. He went to school, got good grades, studied abroad, graduated, came back home, and took over the company. Then, he became the president of Tianyu Group and got married.

His life had been too good. The better he lived and the more peaceful he seemed, the more Liu Tongjia hated him.

How could he live such a peaceful life and forget about the past?