"No..." The stepmother shook her head while crying, adding fuel to the fire.
"But if I hadn't escaped... you might never have seen your mother again... Waaah!"
Seeing his mother suffering such great grievances, Lu Fenglin was filled with rage. The gloom on his face was like an inescapable black fog. He punched the office desk hard.
The desk was knocked off its original position and scraped against the floor, making a harsh creaking sound.
"Why did Lu Chuanbai hurt you?"
"It's just..." The stepmother rolled her eyes and told a lie without hesitation, not even needing to think it through.
"It's just that I transferred some money to your uncle a few days ago and asked him to help me manage my finances. Lu Chuanbai just wouldn't let it go. He said that the money I gave your uncle was to reward me for instructing Wang Chengxiang to kill his mother!"
Saying this, the stepmother began to cry loudly again.
"I'm even afraid to kill a chicken. How could I possibly kill someone!"
Hearing his stepmother's complaint, Lu Fenglin asked her with the last bit of his rationality, "Mom, tell me honestly. Did you really do nothing to Lu Chuanbai's mother back then?"
Back then, their father had suddenly taken them home and married the stepmother. The process had been astonishingly fast.
The stepmother panicked inside. Anger welled up in her heart because her son didn't seem to believe her lies.
The stepmother directly punched Lu Fenglin in the chest. Her face returned to the terrifyingly gloomy look it had been before. "Even you don't believe me anymore! Since that's the case, I'll just go find Lu Chuanbai and let him beat me to death!"
After saying that, the stepmother picked up the bronze ware and pretended to leave.
In the end, Lu Fenglin's heart leaned towards his mother. He grabbed her and told her not to go.
"Mom, I believe you. If you say you didn't do it, then you definitely didn't."
"It must be that Lu Chuanbai just doesn't like us and deliberately caused all this trouble!"
Seeing that her son had once again become obedient to her, the stepmother finally smiled contentedly and stuffed the bronze ware in her hand into Lu Fenglin's.
"This bronze ware is worth quite a lot of money. Find a way to sell it for me, son."
"Mom, where did this bronze ware come from?"
Lu Fenglin looked at the exquisitely crafted bronze ware. The two coiled dragons on it were carved so vividly that they seemed about to fly off the bronze ware at any moment.
"I bought it. I thought it was of good quality." The stepmother told another lie. Her calm expression made it hard to believe that it was a lie.
"Okay." Lu Fenglin weighed the heavy bronze ware in his hand and didn't think much more about it.
"I'll find a way to sell it for you then."
Lu Chuanbai and the Wang Chengxiang couple were taken to the police station. This time, it was Officer Xiao who came forward to bail Lu Chuanbai out. He told the two policemen to quickly go and retrieve the bronze ware.
After Lu Chuanbai came out of the police station, he was in a daze. He staggered along the street with unsteady steps.
Xu Qingqing had finished a day's work and was lying in the hotel, missing Lu Chuanbai and their two children. So she called Lu Chuanbai for a video call.
When Lu Chuanbai heard the phone ringing, he initially wanted to hang up directly. But when he saw that it was Xu Qingqing calling, he couldn't bear to do so. So he answered it.
"Lu Chuanbai! We've made great progress in our work today. We found a lot of ancient books in the Taoist temple."
As soon as the call was connected, Xu Qingqing couldn't wait to report her work progress to Lu Chuanbai. Her eyes curved into a warm smile, like the peach blossoms in March.
"If we keep working at this pace, I should be able to go back in about four or five days."
"Okay." Seeing Xu Qingqing, Lu Chuanbai felt a lump in his throat. He had so many things he wanted to say to her, but he didn't know where to start.
Xu Qingqing noticed that Lu Chuanbai's tone was off. Looking at his haggard face and the street background behind him, she immediately realized that something must have happened to him.
No matter how late he worked before, his eyes had always been sharp, full of wisdom. But now they were filled with pain and had lost their sparkle.
Xu Qingqing sat up straight and looked at Lu Chuanbai seriously. "Lu Chuanbai, have you encountered something?
"Tell me. You'll feel better if you talk about it."
Hearing Xu Qingqing's words, Lu Chuanbai's nose felt sour. There was an involuntary hint of grievance in his tone. "Gao Bo brought the stepmother's transfer records today. We found out that she..."
Lu Chuanbai told her the whole story. It was as if he had returned to the moment when he was standing beside his mother's bedside, watching helplessly as his mother's life force slowly faded away.
After hearing this, Xu Qingqing was so angry that she felt like she was about to explode. She wished she could fly back immediately to comfort Lu Chuanbai. But there was really no one else available to take over her work here.
"I'm sorry..." As soon as Xu Qingqing opened her mouth, her voice was tinged with sobs. She felt so heart - broken for Lu Chuanbai.
"I should have been by your side at this time, but I selfishly chose to focus on my work..."
Xu Qingqing felt that she wasn't a good girlfriend or a good partner. Her heart was filled with self - blame and heartache.
Lu Chuanbai forced a smile and gently comforted Xu Qingqing. "Don't worry about me. You can't even imagine how scared she was when I walked towards her with a bench in my hand today..."
Hearing Lu Chuanbai's forced show of strength, Xu Qingqing felt even worse. She wiped her nose with a tissue.
When Lu Chuanbai was so sad, he actually had to comfort her instead.
"Lu Chuanbai, go home quickly. Yiyi and An'an must be waiting for you at home."
Xu Qingqing wiped away her tears and decided to ask Wang Lide for leave tonight.
"No matter what, I and the two children will always be by your side and love you forever."
"Okay."
Lu Chuanbai stopped under a street lamp. Thinking of Xu Yiyi and Xu An'an's soft little faces and their crisp voices calling him "Dad", his eyes glistened with tears.
At that moment, he finally understood the reluctant and guilty look in his mother's eyes at the last moment.
She must have been so reluctant to leave too. She must have wanted to watch him get married and start a career just as he wanted to watch Xu Yiyi and Xu An'an grow up and get married.
Innocent and kind people were killed by bad people, but the bad people were still living good lives!
He would never let his stepmother go.
Even if it meant completely breaking with the Lu family and having a complete falling - out, he didn't care!
Lu Chuanbai gathered his strength, waved down a taxi, and said with a faint smile on his lips, "Thank you, Xu Qingqing."
Thank you for coming into my life with the two little angels to warm my heart.
Inside the Lu Group, Lu Fenglin heard his stepmother bossing around his secretary outside the office, ordering her to do all kinds of odd jobs.
The loud noise from his stepmother's shouting also distracted him, and he couldn't come up with any ideas for the company's reform.
Lu Fenglin closed his laptop, rubbed his tired temples, and walked out of the office. He saw his stepmother half - lying on the guest sofa.
"Mom, go home first. I'll find a way to sell your bronze ware."
"That's not okay!"
The stepmother was munching on an apple while swiping through short videos on her phone and shouting.