Shadow and Light: The Bride Who Clicks Her Way to Love-Chapter 252 - 265: Everyone Is Interested in Her
On the Bohemian-patterned carpet, the coffee stain spread, spilled by Zhuang Heng.
She gently moved her foot, touching Lu Shifeng’s knee.
Lu Shifeng asked her, "Why didn’t you tell me about what happened yesterday?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Tell him what, that she was hit by Zhuang Heng?
She lazily showed no interest, "What good would it do to tell you? Make her apologize today like this?"
Zhuang Heng’s apology was utterly insincere; she turned the apology into a performance, taking the opportunity to confess her feelings to Lu Shifeng. She didn’t know Lu Shifeng had autism, his mind missing a thread. An ordinary man might soften upon hearing such a tearful confession from a woman; pitying her isn’t impossible.
More than listening to those fake apologies and witnessing those well-calculated performances, what she didn’t want to hear was Lu Shifeng’s statement, "Love is an illusion."
Even though she already knew his view on love, she didn’t want to be reminded repeatedly.
Her heart was heavy; the coffee cup was shattered by Zhuang Heng, so she picked up Lu Shifeng’s cup and took a sip.
He doesn’t drink anything fancy or add sugar, and the pure coffee tasted so bitter that it made her frown.
He raised his hand to take the cup from her, saying, "This place is dirty now, let’s move to another seat and let the waiter bring you another cappuccino."
She shook her head; considering what just happened, she really wasn’t in the mood to stay in this shop and continue drinking coffee with him.
So he frowned and said, "I asked her to apologize to make you happy, but you don’t seem very happy."
She didn’t want to explain her mixed feelings to him; in reality, even she hadn’t sorted them out. So she changed the subject, "In the past, when I had conflicts with Zhuang Heng, you always sided with her. Why are you on my side this time?"
Lu Shifeng slowly said, "Before, I didn’t know she had such feelings. I thought the conflict between you two was just work-related, and as the young mistress of the Lu Family, you should accommodate the subordinates. But it’s different if it’s private matters; you’re my woman, and in private affairs, no one can touch you, not even a finger."
Su Xingyu’s heart felt sour and astringent, just like coffee, sweet with bitterness, bitter with a hint of sweetness.
She thought, this was probably her feeling towards Lu Shifeng—not the complete happiness like Xiaoling and Pei Ziheng, but when her bitterness was unbearable, she would unexpectedly feel a slight trace of sweetness.
How should she face someone like him?
She grabbed her camera and said, "I’m leaving."
He looked at the time and also stood up, "Wherever you go, I’ll take you."
"Do you have no plans later?"
"I have a meeting in the afternoon, but taking a detour won’t delay it much."
Then, many tabloid reporters in S City captured the following scenes—
She and him coming out together from a very stylish, upscale café;
She and him together getting into that black Bentley car;
She, through the car window, kissing him when getting out...
Once again, there was a flood of publicity, and "Su Xingyu" became the hottest search term of the week.
Soon, people started digging out her ancestry for eight generations. Some even went to interview the estranged Su Family, asking, "What are your thoughts on Miss Su Xingyu dating Mr. Lu Shifeng? It’s rumored that she broke off relations with you due to being bullied and abused at home. If you knew she would be with Mr. Lu Shifeng today, would you have treated her the same way?"
"We never mistreated her!" Su Zhongxiao said excitedly, "Nonsense!"
Liu Meizhi also said, "You journalists, don’t publish false reports. Which eye saw me mistreat her? Speak with evidence! Back then, I provided her good food and clothing, treating her like a daughter. Whenever there was a big event at home, I’d take her along, and she always wore beautiful dresses! If you don’t believe it, look at the old photos! Like at Qiqi’s coming-of-age ceremony, Su Xingyu looked stunning, didn’t appear abused at all! This ungrateful brat, now that she’s climbed up, she turns her back on us and spreads rumors about us mistreating her!"
The reporters nodded repeatedly while taking notes, then pursued, "So if you didn’t mistreat her back then, why would Miss Su Xingyu break off relations with you?"
"Well..." Liu Meizhi’s eyes twirled, suddenly covering her face and crying, "Such a family disgrace, how could we speak of it publicly..."
"Mrs. Su, please tell us, reveal your hardships, maybe we can help you." The reporters’ eyes glowed greedily as they coaxed her.
Liu Meizhi’s eyes under the tissue twitched again, starting another fake cry, "It’s embarrassing to say, isn’t it often said that stepmothers have it tough? After her biological mother passed away, I married into the Su Family and treated Su Xingyu very well. No beating, no scolding; her food and clothing were better than my biological daughter Qiqi’s. But she gradually became arrogant under our love, ignoring me as her stepmother and ignoring her birth father. Her college entrance exam results were terrible, so she entered a low-ranked university. At university, she didn’t study well, and instead went out to drink and work as a hostess, got caught by the police, had disciplinary actions, and was expelled..."
The reporters exchanged glances, clearly sensing juicy news: "Mrs. Su, are you saying that before Su Xingyu was with Mr. Lu Shifeng, she was intentionally trying to seduce wealthy men?"
"What else would you think?" Liu Meizhi, seeing her trick work, cried even more exaggeratedly, "After she was expelled, I gave her some advice, telling her not to associate with those men. But she resented me for it! Later, when Qiqi got together with Qin Mu, she always thought Qiqi had stolen her boyfriend. But think about it, Mr. Qin, such a prominent man, how could he accept a woman who had caused such a mess! Her being abandoned by Mr. Qin cannot be blamed on Qiqi. You have no idea how much injustice Qiqi has suffered from her..."
Liu Meizhi cried more and more vigorously, "Later, her father and I wanted to guide her onto the right path, discipline her, but she outright severed ties with us! Just thinking about it makes her father saddened, his high blood pressure and heart disease were all provoked by this unfilial daughter!"
That day, Liu Meizhi said a lot.
That day, the reporters also took many notes.
The next day, there was a wave of chaotic negative reports suggesting that Lu Shifeng’s girlfriend was secretly such a shamelessly rotten woman.
Many people read the reports.
Including the people in the old mansion of the Lu Family.
Lu Shifeng’s second uncle Lu Yong held the report to Du Shuxian, feigning concern, "Sister-in-law, is the niece-in-law really like what’s reported? A wife should have a clear and upright background. If this is true, you should talk to nephew Shifeng. Our Lu Family has never brought in such a unsavory wife."
