The Vanishing Beauty - Chapter 8 - 5

Chapter 8 - 5

It was Ye Cha who delivered the message.

Look at that; he didn't even say it in person. Yu Meng realized this was a form of inequality—deep down, Han Guang felt she was still not qualified to sit at the same table as an equal.

And in truth, she wasn't.

What kind of figure was Han Guang? He was someone Zu Liangcai had fought with every ounce of his strength yet failed to rival; someone even the Xin family had to show a shred of deference to; and someone who could accept her, a defector from the enemy camp. Yu Meng knew her place, akin to that of an adopted child versus a biological one. To earn Han Guang's trust, she still had a long way to go and much more effort to invest.

Ye Cha had spoken only a single sentence: "You can ask this person about the official approval."

There was zero emotion in his voice.

Following that, he handed over an envelope—sealed tightly. Filled with suspicion, Yu Meng tore the envelope open once Ye Cha left.

Inside was a piece of paper, folded into a neat square.

Yu Meng guessed it must be an instruction. Why on earth was anyone still doing things this way in this day and age? It was like secret operatives passing signals. Then again, electronic devices weren't secure, so having a human messenger deliver a "feather-duster dispatch" was indeed much more reliable.

She unfolded it slowly.

At the top of the blank sheet of paper, three small characters were printed: Zu Liangcai.

Goosebumps broke out all over Yu Meng's body, followed instantly by a sharp shudder. What? He wanted her to beg Liangcai for help? She had already defected to this camp, yet he was telling her to go crawling to her former lover for an official permit. Yu Meng suspected this was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated game of "capturing and releasing Meng Huo" staged by Han Guang. She had already made up her mind to avoid seeing Liangcai entirely unless absolutely necessary; he walked his official political path, while she walked her commercial one. Well water and river water should never cross paths...

Yu Meng slowly seated herself, forcing herself to calm down. Throughout her interactions with Han Guang thus far, this was the first time she truly sensed how terrifying this man was—he was forcing her to submit a letter of allegiance drenched in blood! Only by utterly shattering your pride, lowering your stance, and begging your former lover for his sake—subjecting your self-respect to a thousand cuts of psychological torture—could this faction truly accept you.

Shocked to her core, Yu Meng realized this was where Han Guang truly outclassed Liangcai. Liangcai still possessed emotion and tenderness; Han Guang had none. His ruthlessness operated in the shadows. His conquests weren't physical, but spiritual. He wanted to trample your pride and dignity deep into the mud, forcing you into absolute submission, before you could ever be deemed worthy of becoming his subject.

For the entire night, Yu Meng suffered in agony. She simply couldn't swallow her pride to go find Liangcai. Yet she couldn't bring herself to abandon the meat sitting right at her lips! A wind power plant—what a dazzling, irresistible project.

Sisi returned to China, giving her just half a month to spend with her mother. With the shop being so busy, Yu Jia couldn't tear herself away, surviving on quick bento boxes for every meal. After enduring a week of that, Sisi was so sick of it steam was practically coming out of her head, and she strongly demanded that her mother take her out for a proper meal of spicy hot pot.

To someone returning from the UK, the local bento boxes tasted far too bland. After having her fill of fish and chips, who would come back just to eat things like this? With her sharp, eagle-like eyes, Sisi picked up on a subtle change in her mother.

She looked prettier.

Sitting in the shop, Sisi waved her spoon in the air and asked, "Did you get some work done?"

"What?"

Sisi pointed two floating fingers in the empty air, tapping both sides of her mother's face in turn. "Right here, and here."

"I don't have time for that."

"Nonsense."

"Alright, go wipe the tables." Yu Jia assigned a chore to her daughter. Sisi was currently pulling shifts as a junior helper.

Sisi chimed in, "Mom, let's get one thing straight—don't you dare go finding me a stepfather."

Anxious, Yu Jia retorted, "Your mother is going to live out the rest of her life guarding this shop, all the way to old age, all the way to the grave."

With her quirky, eccentric wit, Sisi shifted her tone. "My dear birth mother, I was just testing the waters. Don't act like some chaste martyr holding out to the bitter end." Pausing for a second, she added, "Actually, I'm encouraging you to look. I'm overseas, you're all by yourself, and Little Uncle got himself snatched away by some ugly woman. Even if you don't remarry, I'd totally be fine with you taking a lover."

"Stop talking nonsense."

"Mom, you absolutely must not let yourself be shackled by feudal ethics!" Sisi declared with an air of profound solemnity. "A martyr's widow is allowed to remarry, you know. Look at that one public figure—the one whose husband was a fallen hero—didn't she remarry later on and have a whole bunch of kids?"

Unable to listen any longer, Yu Jia shooed Sisi away to work. Just then, Bai Yuankai pushed the door open, looking slightly surprised to see a faint flush on Yu Jia's face. Spotting Sisi as well, he greeted her warmly.

Sisi idolized Yuankai. He was a legendary figure among overseas students, famous not only in the United States but with his reputation carrying all the way to Britain. "Brother Bai, when are you taking us out for spicy hot pot?" Sisi asked coquettishly.

Correcting her instantly, Yu Jia said, "Call him Uncle."

Sisi refused to yield. "Mom, you're making him sound so old! He's not an uncle, he's an older brother." Maintaining a deadpan expression, Yu Jia challenged, "Go ahead and ask him whether he'd rather be an uncle or an older brother."

Sisi cast a hopeful look at Yuankai, waiting for his verdict.

With a chuckle, Yuankai replied, "Uncle it is."

Yuankai then turned to Yu Jia, mentioning that he hadn't seen Yu Shuang around for a while and asking how she was doing. After a brief moment of thought, Yu Jia replied that she seemed to have gone away on a business trip.

Even before her postpartum confinement month was fully over, Yu Shuang forced herself back to work. She couldn't stand being idle. Sitting alone at home made her feel like she was losing her mind. There was no chance of Chun'er returning anytime soon, and the little life in her belly had slipped away from her grasp. For the very first time, Yu Shuang experienced absolute, total isolation—as if a flicker of hope had appeared only to instantly shatter, like fireworks vanishing into the dark.

To make matters worse, during the miscarriage procedure, the doctor had quietly informed her—something Kang Long still knew nothing about—that if she ever wished to conceive again in the future, using IVF might be her only realistic option.

The psychological blow was devastating.

Until now, Yu Shuang had never viewed age as an obstacle, but now the reality of her years was laid bare before her eyes. Yu Shuang felt she couldn't trap Kang Long in her reality. He clearly wanted children, but what if she could never give him any? Marriage was whatever people made of it, but a missing child meant an empty life.

You could choose not to marry and still have children, yet even if you got married, you might still fail to conceive! Yu Shuang felt utterly miserable. The baby stroller, the crib, the toy windmills, and the wind chimes were still sitting right there in her house. Finding the sight agonizing to look at, she hired a cleaning service to pack everything away immediately.

Over the weekend, Kang Long was scheduled to visit. Mid-morning, Yu Shuang was still fast asleep in bed. Ever since losing the baby, her lifestyle had grown somewhat listless and despondent. Hearing a commotion at the front door, she called out. "Xiaoshuang!" The voice was deeper and louder than Kang Long's. Startled, Yu Shuang quickly threw a robe over her shoulders and came out to check, only to find Chairman Kang standing there holding a bag of loquats.

"I heard you weren't feeling well, so I came to check on you."

Yu Shuang offered an awkward, sheepish smile.

"No... I'm fine..." She had no idea how to respond. Her first instinct: had Kang Long leaked the truth? How else would the old man have known?

"There's been a terrible flu going around lately," he added.

Yu Shuang let out an internal sigh of relief. Thank goodness for his tact—he was covering for her with a simple cold.

Forcing a smile, Yu Shuang hurried over to take the loquats, deliberately staging a fake sneeze. "Chairman Kang, you better stay back from me; catching this bug would be awful."

"It's fine, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of any illness these days," Chairman Kang said with a smile. After she brewed him a cup of tea, Yu Shuang finally took a close look at Kang Long's father. She hadn't seen him in a while, and the changes were stark: he had grown much thinner, with his cheeks sunken inward.

"Still living by yourself?" Yu Shuang asked.

"I have a live-in helper."

"You've had a lot on your plate lately, and your health hasn't been great. I've mentioned it to Kang Long a few times—I really want to have you move in with us for a while," Yu Shuang said softly.

Her concern was completely genuine.

"Hearing you say that is enough."

Once they reached that point, the conversation between them stalled into an awkward dryness. Yu Shuang carried too many secrets she could never share—she had conceived a child and lost a child, experiencing a lifetime's worth of trials compressed into a brief span, leaving her feeling like an entirely different person.

Chairman Kang also wore an expression heavily laden with unsaid words.

After a long silence, Chairman Kang suddenly blurted out, "That brat is no good!"

It came completely out of left field—who was no good, and what had he done wrong?

"Chairman, who are you talking about?"

Weighing each word deliberately, Chairman Kang stated, "He's mentioned it at home several times, saying he wanted to propose to you. Has he asked yet?"

Feeling intensely awkward, Yu Shuang spread her hands. "No."

"He told me that he couldn't live without you and was determined to propose, and I encouraged him to do it. If you haven't agreed, it must mean you feel the gesture wasn't grand enough or his sincerity fell short." Lowering his voice conspiratorially, Chairman Kang added, "That boy is clumsy with his words and stubborn at heart. If you have any demands at all, just tell Chairman Kang, and I'll make sure they're met."

"Chairman... is there some kind of misunderstanding here..."

"There's no misunderstanding. I know what kind of girl you are—you've always been thin-skinned."

"Chairman... it's not like that... I know what you're hoping for..." Yu Shuang finally understood the true purpose of his visit. Yet what she couldn't understand was why Chairman Kang kept beating around the bush trying to rush their marriage. There had to be a specific reason behind it. A sudden thought flashed through her mind: could it be that Kang Long had told his father about her miscarriage, and the old man was deliberately pretending not to know, pushing for marriage just to save her face and hand her a graceful way out, when in reality he was just pitying her...? No, no, no! She, Yu Shuang, could never stomach that kind of pity. "I can't deceive you. I'll be completely honest with you—I can't hold Kang Long back, and I cannot marry him."

"Why not?" Chairman Kang asked directly.

"It's my own issue."

"Xiaoshuang, you're a good girl. If that boy did something wrong, Chairman Kang will back you up."

"I know... I understand... Uncle... I..."

"I'm calling him right now!" Seething with sudden anger, Chairman Kang pulled out his phone.

"Don't call him!" Yu Shuang was on the verge of a breakdown.

Chairman Kang stared at her, completely unable to fathom why she was digging her heels in with such stubborn resistance. Why wouldn't she budge? Wasn't it just getting married? He had been married twice in his lifetime and still hadn't lost faith in the institution.

"It genuinely is my problem..." Yu Shuang repeated.

"What kind of problem could it possibly be?" Chairman Kang demanded, growing anxious.

"I might... not be able to have children." Avoiding his gaze, Yu Shuang bit down hard on her lower lip. The pain felt as severe as taking an axe to the chest, splitting her heart right down the middle.

Stunned into silence for several seconds, Chairman Kang quickly recovered enough to say, "So what if you can't have kids... aren't there those people nowadays who choose to be... DINKs..."

With tears welling up in her voice, Yu Shuang choked out, "Please don't try to comfort me... It wouldn't be fair to Kang Long... Choosing not to have kids and being unable to have kids are two completely different things! Choosing not to means you have the functional capacity but simply don't want them; being unable to means you lack the biological function altogether!... I cannot let Kang Long tie himself to a woman with a broken body... I can't get past this in my own heart... It's not fair to him, it's not fair..."

To hell with fairness!

For a moment, Chairman Kang stood completely at a loss. After a short pause, he stepped forward, patted Yu Shuang gently on the shoulder, and told her it was alright, that it was nothing major, that he didn't care, and that if they got married—they should just get married, and he would handle the wedding arrangements for them... Taking a deep breath, Yu Shuang replied, "Marriage isn't a big deal, but a life without children is truly meaningless. Think about it—if it weren't for carrying on the line, why would men and women ever end up together? That's how biological inheritance works, passed down through thousands of generations... Chairman... please don't try to persuade me... I can't live with this in my heart... I cannot get married..."

Chairman Kang stood there in a daze.

The two of them remained frozen in the living room.

Just then, Kang Long pushed open the front door. Taking in the scene before him, he called out, "Dad." Ducking her head in defeat, Yu Shuang turned and hurried back into her own room.