The Vanishing Beauty - Chapter 4 - 8

Chapter 4 - 8

It was Luan Chengyun who rushed down first.

The rescue workers in the forestry area arrived late. The one surnamed Luan had successfully grabbed the first prize for playing the hero to save the damsel in distress.

Yumeng felt that this wild lake probably drowned a few people every single year.

She witnessed the entire process of Luan Chengyun saving someone, feeling a sense of admiration, but even more so, disgust. Luan Chengyun even gave Weng Yue mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Was that really necessary? She had been able to speak the moment she was pulled up.

She guaranteed that Luan had definitely shoved his tongue right in.

He loved doing things like that.

At the entrance of the emergency room, Yumeng stood with her arms crossed. Luan Chengyun stood on the other side. Weng Yue was still undergoing examinations. The more Yumeng thought about it, the more bizarre it felt—he was everywhere! He was there when she went to see her son, there when she ate, and there when she went boating. He was like a ghost, lingering all around them.

Could it be that he was interested in Weng Yue? Or was he deliberately making a move on Weng Yue just to anger her, Yumeng?

Hmph, hmph, completely futile! She didn't care in the least.

Wait. Could he still have lingering affection for her? Things had already reached this stage, and he still thought she was good? Yumeng couldn't help but feel a thrill of pleasure at her own charm. Yet she had already made up her mind not to take the path back under any circumstances; they were completely unsuited in every aspect, and he was so crude, direct, and completely devoid of romantic sensitivity...

He was a sadist, and she was no masochist.

Even becoming a multi-billionaire was useless. Don't look at how much money he'd made; at his core, he was just a mud-legged country boy.

Boorish!

Vulgar!

He looked human enough dressed up in a suit. But he still had yellow teeth when he opened his mouth! She had told him countless times to go get them cleaned...

The smell of garlic could kill a few zombies dead... Oh no! Yumeng didn't dare think about it any further—he had just been lip-to-lip with Weng Yue, and she had no idea if there was any garlic breath involved. Hahaha... Yumeng couldn't help laughing out loud.

Luan Chengyun walked over, kicking off with an insouciant tone. "What a pity," he said.

"What's a pity, didn't get your fill of kissing?" she sneered.

"The one who fell in water wasn't you."

Yumeng retorted, "Are you wishing me dead?"

"No, no, it's just that I missed an opportunity to perform."

"Thanks for your kind concern, but I know how to swim."

"When are you flying to Hong Kong?" he asked abruptly.

Damn it! she cursed inwardly. How did she know she was going to Hong Kong? Haoyu told him? She hadn't even mentioned it to Haoyu! Was he having her investigated?!

Yumeng smiled to cover it up, "Flying straight to Shanghai."

Luan Chengyun said, "What a coincidence, we aren't on the same flight, are we?"

Yumeng changed the subject, "What about that woman?"

"She left," he replied vaguely.

At least he was willing to admit it. Luan Chengyun had one advantage: his shamelessness was rather open and unvarnished.

"After all these years," Yumeng said, "having learned so much from my school, you're still failing the class on reading women." She shot him a disdainful glare.

Luan Chengyun burst into a loud laugh. This laughter seemed rather out of place outside the emergency room. "I got a full score before I even enrolled, otherwise how would I have ever found you?"

Filthy!

Nasty!

Vile!

Who didn't know who?! They had seen the bedrock of each other's souls, illuminating even the tiniest flecks of dust at the bottom of their hearts with absolute clarity.

Weng Yue was discharged from the hospital shortly after. She had merely swallowed a bit of mountain spring water and incidentally had a bit of intimate contact with Luan Chengyun.

Yumeng's flight could not wait.

Han Xiqian received the news and said she wanted to come see "Auntie," but she never showed up. Luan Chengyun kept watch. Yumeng didn't have the energy to care—besides, Weng Yue didn't seem to need her much right now. "Never mind me... you go on your way... plane tickets are hard to change..." Weng Yue waved her hands dismissively, driving her away.

Yumeng left with reluctant reluctance—all for show. She suspected Weng Yue wanted to compose a romance with Luan Chengyun. Humph, let them be! If she, Yumeng, was going to eat meat, she had to allow others to drink gruel. Consider it poverty alleviation.

Someone was there to pick her up the moment she landed.

Zuliang Cai was already waiting for her in Hong Kong.

Over the course of two days, Yumeng had already planned everything out while on the plane. Day one: tender intimacy. Day two: visiting a friend's art gallery to look at paintings, and then—shopping. She needed to test Liangcai's financial strength. The most crucial part was whether he was willing to spend money on her.

Yumeng did not consider herself a gold-digger. When choosing a man, financial standing was very important, and status was very important. This wasn't because those material things were important in their own right, but because they created a romantic atmosphere and an elegant lifestyle—things that were utterly impossible to achieve without that foundation.

Before the New Year celebrations had even concluded, Di Liren already held four major grievances against Yujia.

First and foremost, he had finally found out about his wife's micro-plastic surgery. He'd heard it from his younger sister, who was also planning to get some done.

Liren felt that this was pure, unadulterated artificial posturing!

"Do you still think you aren't solemn enough?" Liren criticized, pointing to the stiff, unnatural expression in Yujia's photos where she was smiling without really smiling.

How unjust. Yujia felt even more wronged than Dou E! She had undergone micro-surgery precisely to elevate her own bearing so that everyone would find her pleasing to look at—especially for Liren. What was wrong with having a wife who was a feast for the eyes?

"This is nothing but vanity!" Liren handed down his verdict on Yujia.

The love of beauty is universal; how could a little minor tweaking possibly be considered vanity?

This first blame, Yujia refused to carry.

"Who told you to go tell Mom that I didn't want a second child?" Liren interrogated.

This was his second charge.

Yujia felt aggrieved. So aggrieved... Yes, she had said it, but that was because her mother-in-law had asked directly, right in front of so many people. She couldn't step down from that stage and had no choice but to tell the truth.

"Isn't that just the factual truth?" Yujia argued in her defense. "I wanted to have one, but you didn't agree."

Liren immediately snapped back, "What do you mean by I didn't agree? That was just the surface appearance! I didn't agree because the conditions didn't allow for it, the timing wasn't right! We had just arrived, hadn't even established ourselves yet, and were right on an upward trajectory. Sisi had finally grown up—did you want us to saddle ourselves with more burdens and trouble? Do all these things have to be spoken of so bluntly? Can't you just play Tai Chi, skirt around the issue, and say we're still trying? The old folks were just asking casually whether to have another child or not is up to us anyway! Why do you have zero tactical sense? Zero political awareness?"

Elevated to a political level, Yujia was left speechless.

This second blame—she had to carry it.

She had grievances with nowhere to vent—husband and wife didn't even share a bed, so what was there to say about a second child? She couldn't possibly tell the husband's family about that, nor even her own natal family. As a wife, failing to arouse her husband's sexual interest was also a form of failure.

Conversely, if a husband failed to interest his wife, that was likewise the wife's fault. A woman should be chaste. Infidelity? Not even in her wildest dreams. Naturally, Yujia had never thought of such things. She was merely disappointed—disappointed that everything had ended far too soon.

"And another thing, what was going on with Yuyi? And what about your third uncle's situation? Isn't house demolition completely normal? Why were his demands so high? If he felt hard done by, he could petition the government and follow proper procedures," Liren said, his tone growing heavier as he lectured her. "Public is public and private is private; why can't you draw a clear line? I am here to serve the people, not to serve your family."

On this point, Yujia couldn't refute a single word.

Her family, her family members—they were her eternal burden and sweet encumbrance. To be fair, Liren had done quite well, helping out a great deal over the years. It was her family members who made endless, exorbitant demands.

Therefore, Yujia had to treat Liren exceptionally well and treat Liren's family exceptionally well as compensation for her family's endless extractions.

Their debts—she would repay them.

Liren continued educating his wife, "When Chairman Mao entered Beijing back in the day, a letter came from Shaoshan asking for favors. The Old Man firmly rejected it. People must rely on themselves and never constantly depend on others. Self-reliance through arduous pioneering."

Yujia kept her lips tightly sealed.

"And those old colleagues of yours, those banquets—why go to them?" Liren continued his critique. "Some are just digging traps for you, either to size you up and tour you around like an exhibit, or to ask you for favors. What's the point? Ineffective socialization. We must be on constant guard right now; the more progress we make, the more we must nip potential problems in the bud."

Yujia kept her face dark, like a wrongdoing primary school student scolded by her teacher to the point of not daring to raise her head.

Liren said, "Don't be unhappy. If you weren't my wife, I wouldn't even bother saying so much to you. A person must have political awareness."

Political awareness—Liren had brought up this word several times.

Yujia felt more and more that nowadays, being Liren's wife was a political role. Yet in his eyes, she was failing.

Before the New Year holiday was even over, Liren returned early to the big city, claiming there was an urgent matter at his work unit. Sisi's vacation was still long, so the grandmother stayed behind for a few more days. Liren told Yujia to stay behind as well, saying she hardly got to see the old folks a few times a year.

Yujia obeyed.

Her train ticket was rescheduled. However, tickets for peak commuting times were already sold out. She could only refund the old ticket and constantly refresh the app, hoping to catch a canceled ticket that someone else dropped.

Yet the moment Liren left, the warmth of the Di family members took an immediate nosedive—not that they were intentionally giving Yujia a cold shoulder, but simply because there was no longer any need to suck up to her. Liren's mother couldn't go a single day without her two mahjong sessions. The younger sister and her husband returned to her husband's family home. Liren's father was full of educational lectures, constantly subjecting Yujia to earnest advice and instruction while Sisi giggled at the sight. Everything had its nemesis; even Mom had a time when she had to play the student.

Interestingly, when it came to the matter of Sisi going abroad, Liren's father stood on the exact same side as Yujia, opposing his granddaughter going overseas. Their starting points differed, however: Yujia thought it unnecessary, while Liren's father viewed the problem from the perspective of a "grand century-long plan," believing that after going abroad and learning those foreign-style ways, marrying in the future would become problematic. Of course, Sisi wouldn't listen to her grandfather. Her focused efforts had yielded remarkable results—she had passed the IELTS exam, and going to the UK was a done deal. If the old man wanted to talk, let him talk and get it out of his system; she would do whatever she wanted, and once she set her mind on something, she would walk that single path straight to the dark end.

She stayed busy until nearly eleven at night. When her mother-in-law returned, she heated up a late-night snack for her. Only then could she finally enter her room and scroll through her phone. She managed to secure a ticket—departing at noon and arriving by night. It just happened to be a day early.

The office would be welcoming higher-level inspections the moment work resumed, and Section Chief Zhang had notified her to come back a day early to do preparation work. With all the leaders present, she couldn't afford to be absent.

Yujia lay in bed with the fluorescent light turned off, leaving only a single yellow lamp on the bedside table. This room was the one the parents-in-law kept reserved for Liren—"the eternal room." It signified that Liren would forever be a member of this household. Even if he wasn't, he had to be. It was not easy for their family to produce someone who had truly made something of himself. They had to hold onto him tightly.

On the wall directly ahead hung the wedding portrait of her and Liren. It had been years, and it had faded, framed within an oil painting border. In the photo, she appeared half-seated, her face tilted upward, eyes closed, as if waiting for him to kiss her. At that time, she was peerlessly beautiful. Completely natural.

Yujia couldn't help touching her face as it was now. She picked up a mirror, inspecting herself right under the lamplight. She looked at the person on the wall, then looked at herself. The difference was too vast. Yujia felt a pang of sorrow. Yet who could she blame? Was it her own poor maintenance? No, it wasn't just the skin. Looking closer, Yujia felt that her very temperament had changed. Her brows and eyes carried a trace of bitter sorrow, even a fierce harshness.

She was unhappy.

She had no choice but to believe that appearance stems from the mind.

Her relationship with Liren was now stepping step-by-step into a freezing abyss. Even if he didn't say it, she could feel it. Successive promotions were the fuse. But at the core, she believed it was their differing pursuits. He was chasing success—higher, faster, stronger. He wanted to be a person above other people. And her? She was content with modest wealth and peace, satisfied with a small life, everything small-scale. He mocked her for having low political awareness, which was also a manifestation of that smallness.

She felt a sense of crisis and was trying with all her might to shorten the distance between them, but the result of her efforts was precisely the opposite, pushing them further and further apart. Liren wouldn't look her straight in the eye, wouldn't touch her; for a long time, they had lived in separate places, and even when they finally arrived in the same place, they still lived separately. She and him now shared the empty name of husband and wife, but completely lacked the actual reality of it.

Yujia didn't dare think any further. He was, after all, the pride of the first half of her life!

She had once compared herself to Red Sleeves, with Liren as Li Jing. She was the one who had discovered him when he was penniless, married him, accompanied him, witnessed all the hardships along his journey, and finally walked toward glory.

Over a dozen years, skipping four ranks in a row, he had created a miracle. Did her labor not play a part in this? She refused to accept that. The potential stock had skyrocketed; shouldn't she be the biggest beneficiary? Yet right now, Yujia felt anything but benefited—instead, she felt victimized. A fish drinking water knows for itself whether it is cold or warm! Yet she had no way of pouring out these vexations to anyone. Not even her daughter.

Even if she told others, they wouldn't believe her!

It wasn't as if her daughter hadn't expressed her own views. Sisi believed that Dad was a model student and that Mom simply refused to make progress. In her eyes, Mom was outdated, unrefined, stingy, without any grand ambitions, and possessed an exceptionally petty worldview. Even the Kunqu opera that Mom liked was considered by her to be backward stuff that backward people enjoyed. She liked Kris Wu. Fashion. Yujia felt deeply heartbroken over this. To comfort herself, she could only write off her daughter's "rebellion" as a normal generational gap.

Before leaving, Yujia left more money for her parents-in-law and instructed Sisi to listen to her grandparents and not run around wildly. She told her to wait for her younger uncle, Yuyi, to come and pick her up to return to the big city together.

The whole journey was a daze. She arrived home late at night.

The house was quiet, with the lights on.

The bedroom door was cracked open.

Thinking Liren was studying, Yujia walked over quietly and pushed the bedroom door open.

She was so startled that she let out a shriek on the spot.

Di Liren's cell phone was flung on the floor. The video call was still active. Liren was stripped from the waist down. Utter chaos.

He was taking care of his physiological needs. Self-service.

Oh no. There was someone helping him. The person in the video. Cough, cough... a beauty? It only flashed for a moment, like a ghost's shadow.

Liren hurriedly put his clothes back on.

Yujia sat in the living room, clutching her chest, her mind swirling in disorder, not knowing what to do. She had seen it with her own eyes. She couldn't just pretend she hadn't seen it.

A moment later, Liren walked out of the bedroom, not speaking a word to Yujia, and headed straight for the bathroom.

The sound of fine, dense showering water.

Yujia took a deep breath, yet no matter what she tried, she couldn't wash away the awkwardness that had just transpired.

An old married couple, yet in this single instant, they were reduced to total strangers.

Yujia's face was burning fiercely.