"Alright."
Looking haggard and anxious, Antonio, who had prepared a whole speech to persuade Su Ning, froze at her words and looked up in disbelief.
"You, you agreed?"
As soon as he said that, he saw her frown slightly. He quickly changed his tone, smiling with gratitude:
"Sorry... I shouldn't have said that, but I didn't expect Miss Su to be willing to accompany me to see my father for the last time. No matter what, I am very grateful to you. My father used to urge me to get married all the time, but I was unfilial. I always felt there was plenty of time, and when pressed too hard, I deliberately avoided seeing him."
The handsome mixed-race young man expressed his gratitude to you with sorrow and sincerity.
His words seemed to carry a lot of affection.
Yet they stopped right at the edge of a confession.
It was meant to make one's heart flutter and wonder what he really meant. Once your heartstrings were tugged, you would be unable to resist him.
"That is indeed quite unfilial."
Su "Heart of Stone" Ning was very dissatisfied. Standing on the moral high ground, she criticized him and finally tossed out a remark, still feeling she hadn't said enough:
"...No wonder your dad doesn't love you."
"No matter how much fatherly love there is, it would all be worn away by an unfilial son like you!"
Antonio: ...
He cursed ten thousand times in his heart.
...
The person in power at Taigu Shipping was named Fernand.
He used to be a heroic figure. After inheriting a crumbling family business, he showed astonishing methods, doing whatever it took. He not only unexpectedly stabilized the business but also expanded it step by step.
By now.
Apart from the core and crucial Taigu Shipping,
there were many other valuable industries, making his commercial empire incredibly vast... Su Ning wasn't greedy at all; she just wanted to become the master of Taigu Shipping.
She hoped Fernand would be generous.
And not so stingy.
As a Portuguese, Fernand was naturally not in a Chinese hospital. Oh, he was hospitalized in the United States.
On the plane, Antonio explained his family members to Su Ning.
He briefly skimmed over his several siblings.
They were nothing more than fierce, cold, bloody, and profit-driven—anyway, nothing good.
The focus was on his mother.
"...She is very easy to get along with. Ever since she met my father at the age of fifteen, she has been very well protected. She is innocent, kind, and timid. No one who meets her could dislike her..." Antonio had a smile on his lips, his eyes soft.
He didn't notice that Su Ning was already getting impatient.
So she kindly corrected his mistake:
"You are wrong."
"?"
"At the very least, your siblings and your siblings' mothers all hate her."
Sigh, she was also very kind.
—She even kept the references vague. Otherwise, if he knew there was another sister and that sister's mother, what if his heart broke prematurely?
But kindness did not bring rewards.
"Ding..."
Antonio's expression stiffened for a moment. He clenched his fists, turned his head away, and didn't say another word for the rest of the journey.
He tried to make Su Ning realize her mistake.
Su Ning: ...
Heh, finally some peace and quiet.
America in the 1930s already had the shadow of modernization. The skyscrapers, the heavy traffic, and the fashionably dressed men and women passing by all made people feel a bit dazed.
Even Su Ning felt this way.
The others were even more dazzled; this place didn't seem to belong to the same world as Peiping.
The gap was too huge...
No one noticed that Assistant Lin, who always seemed calm enough to think of a solution even if the sky fell, had an extremely complex expression. Was this the kind of place where the Miss grew up?
He couldn't help but think of himself.
The dusty streets, not knowing where his next meal would come from, worrying about the arrival of winter.
Living in constant precarity.
The white clouds that never fall from the sky and the dust trampled underfoot on the ground would never intersect... Suddenly, an immense happiness filled his heart, almost overflowing.
Because he realized just how lucky he was.
Across a foreign land.
Among the millions of people in Peiping.
It was just that coincidental. A difference of a minute or a second, and this result would have been impossible—he was chosen.
This was a miracle.
At least it was a unique miracle in his life.
Lin Sen looked at the Miss. Their gazes did not meet because she was looking out the window, very seriously.
Thinking about it, it wasn't strange.
To others, this was a foreign land, but to the Miss, it was where she grew up. She had probably passed by some of these streets countless times.
Su Ning didn't know what Lin Sen was thinking. She silently counted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. In just one short minute, she saw at least ten homeless people, as well as many holding signs looking for work!
The world in the book had no difference from reality in this regard.
America was in the Great Depression!
Retracting her gaze.
Su Ning patiently comforted herself: don't rush, take it slowly. This Great Depression would last for at least another three years, so there was plenty of time.
...
They finally arrived at the hospital.
The smell of disinfectant was everywhere. Su Ning led her people, walking impatiently in the front, while Antonio was squeezed to the side. Fortunately, because of this, when a figure rushed over, the guards who were ready to strike stopped.
Seeing that the figure wasn't heading for Su Ning.
They held back.
"Anton, Anton, you're finally here. I've waited for you for so, so long."
The woman's voice was choked with sobs and excitement.
She hugged Antonio tightly, her fragile body trembling with her sobs. Only after speaking did she lift her face. Her fair, gentle face, which defied her age, was bathed in tears, looking incredibly pitiful.
At least Antonio thought so.
He kept comforting her, saying, "It's okay, I'm back now. Everything will be fine, don't cry..."
The subordinates were a bit restless.
Their eyes were unfriendly.
Su Ning, however, smiled with a playful look in her eyes. It was very much like Mu Wan's style. She didn't expect this kid Antonio to have a mother complex.
In that case, the scenes of pity, adoration, and confession described in the original novel...
Suddenly became a bit too cringeworthy to look at...
After being comforted for a long time.
The woman finally calmed down. She then realized there were quite a few people around. Feeling embarrassed, she dodged shyly until she noticed the cold woman surrounded in the center, who clearly held a very high status. She quickly realized this was Miss Su.
And also her future daughter-in-law.
The first impression wasn't very good. She knew her own son well.
He preferred gentle and innocent girls.
Completely unrelated to this one.
She looked at her son sadly and understood. Anton, her Anton, had decided to give up his own love because he was forced to.
He was about to follow in his father's footsteps.
What awaited him was a painful and hopeless marriage, just like Fernand before he met her!
Mother and son were connected by heart.
Tears flashed in Antonio's eyes. He looked back at his mother and silently patted her shoulder. The woman couldn't help but shed tears again, this time even sadder, crying even more.
The people around them: ...
Baffling, why is she crying again?
"Sorry, I'm just too emotional." The woman thought to herself that a mother must be strong. She needed to toughen up, after all, Fernand wouldn't be there to protect her anymore... Thinking of this, she wanted to cry again, using all her strength to hold it back.
"You are Su Ning, right?"
She forced a smile.
After speaking, she waited for Su Ning to come over and greet her, the future mother-in-law. Her mind raced with countless thoughts, and she finally decided to get along well with Su Ning for the sake of her son.
Besides, people can change.
She figured that through her own words and example, as long as Su Ning could patiently learn and change, Anton might just fall in love with her, and a tragedy could be avoided...
The very next second.
Su Ning didn't even spare her a single glance. With a cold sneer, she ruthlessly led her entourage forward. Because there were too many people and the corridor was too narrow, the stunned woman was accidentally bumped.
She stumbled, nearly falling to the floor as a wave of grievance washed over her.
And then, she started crying again.
The subordinate who had bumped into her: ...???
Just now, it seemed, maybe, I was just walking by normally.
I didn't use any force, much less do it on purpose!
The good news was that Su Ning, who had already figured out the woman's "delicate" nature, believed him. The bad news was that Antonio did not. He could endure being wronged himself, but he absolutely could not stand seeing his mother bullied.
He couldn't take it anymore.
He carefully helped his mother up first, then yelled at Su Ning's retreating figure:
"Stop right there! Su Ning, you've really gone too far this time! My mother kindly greeted you. She doesn't know anything, so why would you hurt her? You must apologize to her!"
His voice was incredibly loud.
Not only did Su Ning hear it, but Fernand's other children, who were just arriving, heard it too. They all stopped in their tracks to look at Su Ning, only to see her actually turn around.
Just as a wave of disappointment was washing over them—
"Are you looking for death?"
Su Ning's face was ice-cold.
