Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The duo went upstairs and stood in front of the unit. Song Yu knocked on the door as she did not bring her house keys.

The door opened a moment later. Yu Qianying thought Song Yu came alone, but she was stunned to see Qi Chengzhi had tagged along—her face darkened immediately and anger was boiling up inside her.

Song Yu was shocked and immediately knew that things would not be simple. "Mom"

"Come in first." Yu Qianying peeked at Qi Chengzhi. She was trying her best to contain her rage but her expression showed a tinge of anger.

Qi Chengzhi took Yu Qianying"s reaction calmly. Song Yu stared at Qi Chengzhi nervously as soon after Yu Qianying turned around. Song Yu could only think of one possibility that could make Yu Qianying exasperated enough to give Qi Chengzhi an angry stare.

Song Yu"s face turned ashen-grey. Qi Chengzhi grabbed her hand and comforted her. The two of them followed Yu Qianying to the living room and saw Song Donglin sitting on the couch with a cigarette between his fingers.

Song Donglin was smoking when the two of them walked into the living room. He lifted his head upon hearing footsteps. His eyes were red and bloodshot.

He stared at Qi Chengzhi with mixed feelings.

Song Yu suddenly became alert from the sight of Song Donglin smoking again even though he had stopped for a long time.

Yu Qianying stood still with clenched fists, her whole body tightened and was trembling.

She inhaled deeply and said to Qi Chengzhi, "I heard that you"re the one who prompted the Song family"s bankruptcy."

Song Yu suddenly felt dizzy. Her breathing became irregular and her eyes reddened. She started sobbing and grabbed Qi Chengzhi"s hand even tighter.

"Mom…" Song Yu exclaimed.

Yu Qianying thought Song Yu was taken by surprise and could not believe this ridiculous statement, so she said coldly, "Be quiet. Qi Chengzhi, I"m asking you if it is true or not."

Qi Chengzhi squeezed Song Yu"s hand and his expression remained calm, but Song Yu could feel his hand trembling and his palm sweating.

"If you"re a man then admit to your mistakes. We won"t blame you if you really didn"t do it," Yu Qianying groaned while grinding her teeth.

Qi Chengzhi remained silent for a while. He squeezed Song Yu"s hand before replying, "Yes."

"Slap!"

It was unexpected for Yu Qianying to suddenly slap Qi Chengzhi, which made Song Yu"s heart skip a beat. She noticed Qi Chengzhi"s head turned towards her with a bright red palm mark on his cheek.

Song Yu saw that Qi Chengzhi"s face remained expressionless—as if he was ready for another beating. It made her heart wrench. "Mom!"

Although Song Yu was shorter and thinner than Qi Chengzhi, she stood in front of him to protect him.

"What are you doing? Are you still trying to protect him? Song Yu, this is a fact! You saw him admit it. We didn"t blame him so don"t even try to say that there may be some misunderstanding. There is no misunderstanding here!" Yu Qianying said with reddened eyes.

Yu Qianying turned around abruptly and threw the doc.u.ments on the table near Song Yu. "All the evidence is here. He was the one who tore our company apart! He was the one who made our family suffer! He made you suffer and ridiculed for so many years! We could"ve lived happily if not because of him!"

Yu Qianying took a deep breath and sobbed. Tears started welling up in her eyes and she could not contain it anymore—teardrops started streaming down her face.

"He is an enemy of our family based on all his doings. I can"t believe I married my own daughter to such monstrosity. I can"t believe that I felt lucky when you found a man who gave you unconditional love and was willing to take care of you for the rest of his life. But who knew this would happen…"

Yu Qianying covered her face and sobbed. "Who knows if he will silently continue to harm us. Qi Chengzhi, how much hatred did you have for us to destroy our company and even marry my daughter. Do you feel guilty when you kept mentioning how much you love Song Yu while two of you were in a relations.h.i.+p? What were you thinking when you ruined our company and then courted Song Yu? If you loved her, you wouldn"t have torn her family apart and made her life miserable."

Qi Chengzhi remained silent and allowed Yu Qianying to pour her anger onto him.

"Say something! Give me a reason why you forced our family into this situation! Did our family offend you in any way? I couldn"t believe that I had meals with the Qi family and was so blinded that I even thought that you were a good man," Yu Qianying pointed at Qi Chengzhi with a trembling hand and exclaimed.

"Mom…" Song Yu pleaded.

Yu Qianying was so exasperated that she did not notice Qi Chengzhi and Song Yu still holding hands despite the situation. She interrupted Song Yu and said, "Divorce!"

"Mom!" Song Yu exclaimed.

"What are you waiting for if you don"t want a divorce? Don"t you see this terrible situation he"d put us in? Who knows why he wanted to marry you. Our family doesn"t have anything else for him to harm us for. What else does he want? I can"t accept… I can"t accept the culprit who brought about our bankruptcy to be my son-in-law. I will recall every single hards.h.i.+p you and your father endured these past few years whenever I see Chengzhi. Song Yu, get a divorce now. Qi Chengzhi, why… why did you tear our family apart? Why did you hurt Song Yu? Did you feel complacent marrying Song Yu, who loved you with all her heart?" Yu Qianying bawled out, her veins popping out from her anger.

"Mom, I know about what happened," Song Yu said softly with moist eyes.

"What?" Yu Qianying narrowed her eyes. She guessed what Song Yu could possibly mean by that, but she was not sure and could not quite believe it.

"I already knew the truth of our family"s bankruptcy but I chose to hide it from you because I feared that you may have acted this way. I already knew this before our marriage and that"s why I took the initiative and got the marriage certificate. The fact is, he proposed for marriage and I took the marriage certificate. If you want to blame someone then blame me. I don"t blame him and certainly don"t hate him." Song Yu sobbed. She felt Qi Chengzhi tightening his grip and responded by gripping harder.

Qi Chengzhi"s grip strength was strong and would normally cause some pain to Song Yu, but now the two of them did not feel the pain and instead, gripped each other"s hand tighter as if to give each other energy for support.

Suddenly Song Yu was pulled to the back of Qi Chengzhi and a loud slap could be heard. Yu Qianying wanted to slap Song Yu but her slap landed on Qi Chengzhi"s chest when he protected Song Yu.

"You knew he was the one who destroyed our family but you chose to marry him. Why? Song Yu, are you doing this because of his financial status? Do you think you can live happily with him forever? Why do you want to hide this from us? Do you still remember all the suffering we went through in those seven years? Have you forgotten that you had to work part-time during your studies and ended up so fatigued every day? You woke up at five o"clock in the morning and came back only at two o"clock in the middle of the night. You only slept for a total of three hours every day. Your dad too because he needed to drive the taxi, and I had to work as an hourly cleaner. Have you forgotten all of that?" Yu Qianying cried out because she felt betrayed by Song Yu"s response.

The daughter Yu Qianying trusted the most behaved this way.

"So what Yu Keyao mentioned was true. You were tired of living a miserable life so you chose to ignore the fact that Qi Chengzhi made us suffer. You couldn"t let go of the happy life in front of you and your current status, right?" Yu Qianying was so angry that she lost her cool and spoke without thinking.

"Mom! Am I that kind of person in your mind?" Blood drained from Song Yu"s face and she stared at Yu Qianying in disbelief.

"Qianying! Do you have any idea what you just said?" Song Donglin who remained silent for a while suddenly stood up. The cigarette which was almost burned out was still between his fingers.

Yu Qianying finally regained her senses and her lips quivered. Her gaze was empty and there was no eye contact between her and the two of them.

"Mom, I love him. My love for him is so strong that I don"t care what he did. I wouldn"t blame or even hate him for what his actions. I know that he has loved me from way back and that was why I didn"t blame him for everything that he did," Song Yu cried, her eyes misty from the tears pooling up in her eyes which made her vision blurry.

"I know that we had a hard time acclimating to the new miserable life after our bankruptcy, but the life we had all those years were the same as what the commoners experienced. Didn"t the commoners work hard to earn for their living too? How many could afford to register for a big company and earn fortunes? We suffered because of this huge social difference, but think logically, what kind of suffering did we have? We were not vagabonds. We had a house and we worked hard to earn for our living, and I even furthered my studies at university. Mom, the life we lived was exactly how the commoners lived. We were just unable to accept it because we never had that kind of life before. Before the bankruptcy, we could go on vacations and purchase branded goods but in the actual world where trillions of people lived, how many of them lived such a happy life? In my opinion, the life we had before the bankruptcy wasn"t considered a normal life, that was how the wealthy lived."

Song Yu continued. "To be honest, I never felt remorse that our family faced bankruptcy, perhaps that"s why my hatred wasn"t this strong. You wanted me to engage with Qi Chengji at that time and I didn"t even have the right to choose. You never asked for my opinions on whether I wanted to marry Chengji or not and you merely just agreed to the engagement. I said I didn"t want it but you just brushed it aside, saying that I was too young to understand. True, I didn"t need to work hard or worry about life, but I am a puppet too as I didn"t have the right to choose. You wanted me to move a step forward and I couldn"t even try to walk two steps. I didn"t think my life was happy before, I just told myself that there are more unfortunate souls in the world who wasn"t even able to afford a proper meal themselves, so I endured until now."

"I admit, I was physically exhausted at the time of bankruptcy but I was happy deep down. At least I lived for myself, no matter good or bad, I could make choices for myself and be responsible for my doings. Chengzhi prompted our family"s bankruptcy because if our family remained as before, then the engagement between Chengji and I would continue and I would be married to him. Chengzhi loved me too much and he couldn"t bear the thought of me marrying another man." Song Yu said.

Yu Qianying stared at Song Yu in disbelief and backed off a little. "Don"t you feel terrifying that Chengzhi prompted our family"s bankruptcy just because he had a crush on you?"

Song Yu said with a trembling voice, "Yes, but what can I do since I loved him so much? I loved him so I won"t feel terrifying and it made my heart wrenched to see him waiting for me for so many years. In fact, my only regret was not loving him sooner and I thanked him for prompting our family"s bankruptcy because it finally set me free."

"Perhaps what I said would make you feel extremely disappointed. I had been thinking a lot after being in a relations.h.i.+p with Chengzhi, if you didn"t insist on the engagement between me and Chengji, maybe none of these would have happened. The Song family wouldn"t face bankruptcy and you wouldn"t suffer. When I was in a relations.h.i.+p with Chengzhi, no one would abuse my previous engagement with Chengji and gave us any comment. Yu Keyao and Mu Sisi wouldn"t consistently cause trouble for me because of our status differences. We would be living happily without so much annoyance," Song Yu continued.

"So you"re blaming us now, is it?" Yu Qianying looked at Song Yu as she never heard Song Yu mention any of these.

Song Yu answered, "No, I"m not blaming you, I"m just saying that everything has its cause and effect. Our family faced bankruptcy because you insisted on my engagement with Qi Chengji, and after the bankruptcy, I was finally set free and didn"t need to wait for a marriage that I don"t desire and marry the man that I don"t love. I even reunited with Chengzhi and saw the good in him."

"To be honest, if our family didn"t face bankruptcy and I wasn"t engaged to Qi Chengji, perhaps I wouldn"t be able to see the good in Chengzhi. I would probably be in a relations.h.i.+p with Jian Yi and wouldn"t even realize Jian Yi"s true ident.i.ty and ended up cheated by him. In the end, the Song family would be destroyed in Jian Yi"s hands. That"s why it is difficult to decide whether the events that had happened are good or bad," Song Yu gave a slight smile despite her cry, then she continued. "Dad, Mom, I was being selfish for thinking only of my freedom and didn"t think whether these were fair to you or not, but I didn"t feel hatred. I don"t ask that you can forgive him but I asked that you don"t insist on a divorce."

"You-" Yu Qianying stared at Song Yu as if she did not live up to Yu Qianying"s expectations and she wanted to slap Song Yu, but she could not do so as Song Yu was her own daughter. It was fortunate that Qi Chengzhi took the slap just now as Yu Qianying did it unconsciously because she was exasperated.

Yu Qianying immediately regretted right after she landed her slap.

"She is pregnant now. We went to the hospital for a checkup and the baby was a boy. Then we went to the baby"s supply store and purchased his clothes and equipment, and you called her when we just left the store," Qi Chengzhi said after letting Yu Qianying lashed out at him.

Yu Qianying fixated her gaze on Song Yu"s abdomen. She could not possibly force Song Yu to abort her pregnancy and divorce.

Song Yu rested her hand on her abdomen. "When you called me and I mentioned to you that I have good news to share, this was it."

Now Yu Qianying"s thoughts were conflicting and she was unable to describe her current feelings. Her gaze drifting from Song Yu"s abdomen to Song Yu and Qi Chengzhi.

After a while, Yu Qianying nodded slowly. "Good, you even conceived his child now. You were so in love with each other, it wasn"t right to demand for a divorce."

Song Yu stared at Yu Qianying with hope, then she heard Yu Qianying said, "If you loved him so much then follow him back home and live a happy life, don"t ever come back again. You didn"t care and even forgave him when your home was destroyed and you were ridiculed, then go ahead and live a happy and prosperous life with him. I couldn"t accept it. Whenever I saw him, all I could think of was that he tore apart the Song family, made your father suffered despite his advancing age, so I couldn"t accept him. In fact, I couldn"t even look at him in the eyes because all I could feel was hatred whenever I saw him. Just leave and never return, since your affection towards him is stronger than your parents. From now on, we are not your parents anymore! Since we forced you to do only as we wished and made your life gloomy, and as you mentioned just now, none of these would happen if we didn"t demand for your engagement with Qi Chengji, right? So we brought all these on ourselves."

"Mom!" Song Yu burst into tears and wailed, her chest felt as if someone was squeezing it. "You know I didn"t mean that. Are you planning to disown your daughter?"

"I don"t dare to do so since we, as parents are not as important as your man in your mind. Why do you even care about my thoughts?" Yu Qianying wiped the tears off her cheek.

"Mom, please don"t do this, I beg you. Chengzhi is a good man, why can"t you acknowledge the fact that he is a really good man? He never did anything else that may harm us except for our family"s bankruptcy. Isn"t it more than enough when he really loves me, your own daughter, unconditionally and plan to take care for life? Didn"t Dad also mention that he was satisfied with his current life and didn"t feel remorse for the bankruptcy? Yes, Chengzhi is in the wrong that he prompted the Song family"s bankruptcy, but all of us lived happily now, so why can"t you forgive him? Mom, you want to disown your own daughter just because of this?" Song Yu reached out for Yu Qianying"s hand but Yu Qianying shook her hand off.

"I only ask you this. Who do you choose between us and Qi Chengzhi?" Yu Qianying asked with a cold expression and red eyes.

"Mom!" Song Yu was on the verge of collapse and cried out.

Song Yu never would have thought that Yu Qianying wanted her to make such a choice.

Then, Qi Chengzhi, who was s.h.i.+elding Song Yu just now, moved.

Song Yu stared at Qi Chengzhi who bent one of his legs down and slowly rested his knee on the ground, followed by the other knee. He kneeled down to Yu Qianying.

Song Yu covered her mouth in disbelief as Qi Chengzhi was a proud and stubborn man who bows down to absolutely no one in her mind.

Qi Chengzhi would always remain calm and steady to anyone. His expression never changed and he would never blink even to his grandparents in the Qi family, no matter how exasperated his grandparents were towards Qi Chengzhi.

However, Qi Chengzhi brought himself to his knees in front of Yu Qianying at this moment.

"I am sorry," Qi Chengzhi said with a mellow voice, but his words were heart-wrenching to Song Yu.

Qi Chengzhi only mentioned these three words and remained silent.

Did he feel regret? He never felt regret and he would never do things which he may potentially regret, but he knew these were not meant to be spoken out to Yu Qianying.

Yu Qianying also did not expect that Qi Chengzhi would kneel to them because a proud and stubborn man like him would never act submissive to others. The elegant and smart young master of the Qi family would not simply apologize to others.

"Sorry? What purpose does your apology serve? Your apology is easy for you to say but can it wipe off all the sufferings we endured? Can the Song family go back to its glorious moment? Can our company come back? Can the mockings and ridicules that we endured after bankruptcy disappear? Do you think your apology can wipe all these away as if they never appeared at all?" Yu Qianying said.

"I don"t dare to accept your apology, you can leave now," Yu Qianying said sarcastically while walking past Qi Chengzhi.