"Mom!"
Liu Renzhi felt ashamed; he shouldn't have doubted Su Jing's intentions like that.
Su Jing, however, held his hand:
"Renzhi, although I'm not your biological mother, I've genuinely treated you as my own son all these years.
"Everything I do is for your sake.
"I like what you like, and I won't force anything on you that you don't care for.
"Renzhi, you are thirty-five. It's high time you settled down."
A warm feeling spread through Liu Renzhi's heart.
There were many times he felt fortunate—fortunate that his biological mother had abandoned him.
Fortunate that she had left him with Su Jing back then.
Otherwise, how could he have parents who loved and doted on him so much, and an adorable younger sister who adored him?
Thinking of this, he asked Su Jing:
"How has Siyue been these past few days? Has Qin Chao come looking for her?"
The smile faded from Su Jing's face:
"Qin Chao hasn't come in person, but he messages Siyue every single day.
"I'm worried sick about it.
"I was just about to discuss this with you. Should we send Siyue abroad right now?
"I figure that as long as they are separated, Siyue will eventually forget about Qin Chao."
Liu Renzhi had thought about this. He planned to sound Liu Siyue out.
But outside her door, he overheard her on the phone:
"Marriage?
"Qin Chao, you're saying you want to marry me?
"It's too early. I'm still young, and my parents and older brother wouldn't agree to it anyway. I..."
Before she could finish, she spotted Liu Renzhi and hastily hung up the phone.
"Brother, you're back from City B?"
Liu Renzhi nodded. "Qin Chao says he wants to get married?"
Liu Siyue blushed a little. "Oh, you heard all that?
"I didn't agree, Brother. I don't want to get married this early."
"Of course you can't."
Liu Renzhi said with absolute certainty:
"How old are you? Even in five years, you'll still be young.
"Tell Qin Chao that marriage is out of the question."
"Okay."
Liu Siyue was very obedient.
The more obedient she was, the more Liu Renzhi's heart ached.
Lately, he kept thinking about Siyue's childhood.
He had watched Siyue come into the world; he was already in his teens back then.
In truth, Su Jing was an older mother when she had Siyue.
She and Liu Jiannan hadn't originally planned on having children; they had intended to raise only Liu Renzhi.
When Liu Renzhi was little, he didn't understand, but after turning ten, he realized a lot of things.
He felt that he had held back Su Jing and Liu Jiannan's lives.
So he started urging Su Jing to have a baby.
His reasoning was solid:
"Mom, I'm very lonely and isolated by myself."
Su Jing had been hesitant at the time. She asked Liu Renzhi:
"Don't you play with Chenyu every day? How could you be lonely?"
He replied, "That's different, Mom. I want a real younger brother or sister."
That was how Liu Siyue came to be.
When she was born, Liu Renzhi was just as nervous as Liu Jiannan.
He waited anxiously outside the delivery room until the nurse brought out a little, red-faced baby.
Liu Jiannan placed Liu Siyue in his arms and told him:
"Renzhi, she is your little sister. You must protect her for the rest of your life."
Liu Renzhi truly had protected Liu Siyue ever since, cherishing her like a precious treasure.
But who could have known that an ordinary trip would ruin his precious sister like this?
When he found out Liu Siyue was missing, his heart had nearly stopped beating.
Su Jing's crying all through the night had made it hard for him to breathe.
When he saw Liu Siyue tortured half to death in Wangjia Village, he truly wanted to kill Chen Daniu and his son on the spot.
Just like now, he wanted to end Qin Chao's life with a single knife strike.
His sister could not be ruined by such trash.
Thinking of this, he tentatively asked Liu Siyue:
"Yueyue, Mom said she wants to take a vacation abroad for a while, and she wants you to go with her.
"How about it? The two of you together.
"If you really need it, I can go with you both."
"Go abroad?"
Liu Siyue thought for a moment:
"I could, but Brother, Qin Chao said his mother is sick, very sick.
"He wants to marry me first to bring his mother good luck and ward off her illness. Can I get married first and then go abroad with you?"
Naturally, Liu Renzhi couldn't agree. He said firmly:
"Yueyue, you're still young. There's no rush to get married.
"I will go talk to him about this. You stay out of it."
Liu Renzhi immediately went to find Qin Chao.
He warned Qin Chao, "Didn't I tell you before? I only consider you a toy I gave to Yueyue.
"As for marriage, don't even think about it."
Qin Chao didn't clash head-on with Liu Renzhi. He was waiting.
Waiting for the seed he had planted in Liu Siyue that night to sprout.
He told Ren Anfen:
"Mom, in ten days at most, you'll have a grandson.
"When the time comes, you go and propose marriage. Once Liu Siyue is pregnant with my child, she'll have no choice but to marry me.
"We won't give her a single cent for a bride price, and she'll even have to pay me tens of millions in dowry.
"Haha, just thinking about it feels great."
Ren Anfen felt unsure:
"Son, are you absolutely sure she'll get pregnant?
"Just to be safe, you should probably do it a few more times.
"Women, no matter how precious they act before marriage, once they're pregnant, it's the man who calls the shots.
"As soon as the man doesn't want her anymore, she's damaged goods, damaged goods that no one will ever want."
Qin Chao was very confident, because that night he had played to his heart's content and had a great time.
He guaranteed he could get Liu Siyue pregnant.
So right now he wouldn't start a conflict with Liu Renzhi. There was no need.
But he also had to constantly guard against Liu Siyue suddenly coming to her senses one day.
Therefore, almost every day, he sent Liu Siyue one of those kinds of photos.
He wanted to make Liu Siyue completely unable to leave him, reducing her entirely to his slave.
To make Liu Siyue his puppet on a string forever.
Receiving the photos, Liu Siyue predictably broke out in a cold sweat.
She had no memory at all of when these photos were taken. She had absolutely no impression of it.
She even doubted if the person in the photos was really her.
After all, she would never take such things herself.
But no matter how she looked at them, even zooming in, it was her.
It was definitely her.
She threw her phone far away and curled her body into a tight ball.
She couldn't go abroad.
Qin Chao had told her to be obedient and come whenever he called.
Otherwise, he wouldn't want her anymore.
But she was already Qin Chao's woman. If he didn't want her, what would she do?
She didn't know.
She only knew what Qin Chao said: she was his woman now, so she would be his woman for the rest of her life.
She had to be obedient. She must be obedient.
Chen Hui sent her a message:
"Yueyue, Jiajun is back, and the eldest sister's divorce went through smoothly.
"I want to celebrate eldest sister being single again. Let's go mountain climbing tomorrow, okay?
"I feel like you haven't been out in a long time."
Liu Siyue asked Liu Renzhi:
"Brother, are you busy tomorrow?
"If you're not busy, want to come with us?"
Liu Renzhi was actually very busy. Having been in City B for a few days, he had a lot of unfinished work.
But he agreed to Liu Siyue's request:
"Sure, I'm not busy. I'll go with you guys tomorrow."
That night, the light in Liu Renzhi's study never went out.
When Liu Siyue went to find him in the morning, he stood up and stretched his back:
"Let's go, I'm all done."
Liu Siyue glanced at the massive pile of documents on the desk:
"Brother, you worked all night just so you could go mountain climbing with us?
"Brother, tell me the truth. Is it because you want to see Sister Wanyi?"
