Chapter 19

As the last ray of sunlight slipped away over A University, dusk settled and a low-key yet luxurious pink luxury car pulled up at the back gate.
Recently, Jiang Wei had finally made up her mind: she would go abroad to study further, then immigrate. After all… there was nothing here she truly couldn’t leave behind.
Once the decision was made, her whole body relaxed. She threw herself into sorting out her study-abroad plans. After a long day, she returned to the dorm only to be told someone was looking for her.
Looking for her? A rich madam?
A classmate told her there was a well-dressed socialite carrying a crocodile-skin handbag waiting downstairs.
Stuffing down a bellyful of confusion, Jiang Wei went to the dorm entrance and saw the woman. She mentally ran through everyone she’d ever met in her life and confirmed she had no idea who this was.
Her final conclusion: stranger.
The socialite took off her sunglasses, eyes shimmering with unshed tears, looking at Jiang Wei with a gaze full of pity and guilt.
It was Madam Wang.
After turning it over in her mind, she’d decided, for the sake of the daughter she’d carefully raised, that she had to come and crush any ideas this girl had about climbing up the social ladder.
This girl didn’t belong in their world. As a mother, she would never harm her.
“You are…?”
“You’ve grown so big.”
She took Jiang Wei’s hand, emotions swirling. Who is she? This sudden affection made Jiang Wei tense up. She hated being touched by strangers.
“Ma’am, I don’t believe I know you. Is there something you needed from me?”
Her tone was cool as she pulled her hand back.
“You don’t remember me?”
“I don’t.”
An inexplicable impatience rose in Jiang Wei’s chest. The middle-aged socialite across from her felt strangely familiar, like someone she’d seen somewhere before.
Later, that rich lady insisted on taking her to dinner, fussing over her, asking question after question, making Jiang Wei feel utterly ill at ease. She barely ate anything; every time she reached for a dish, the woman would look at her with that tender, doting gaze.
That night, lying in her dorm bed, she suddenly remembered.
She had seen this woman before, in her dream.
That woman had come looking for her in the dream too, and after that, rumors started flying at school that she was someone’s kept mistress.
She was… she was Ling Ze’s fiancée’s mother.
Jiang Wei felt like she was standing in the eye of a storm. This whole ridiculous world no longer felt real.
Just like that morning, when she bought breakfast and casually glanced at the old newspaper someone had used to prop up a table leg.
Front page headline: a certain second-generation rich kid held sex-and-drug parties, got too high, killed a painter, and got the death penalty with reprieve.
She chewed on her scallion bun, took a sip of soy milk, and kept reading.
Mu Yang, in Fengshan Villas, got into a violent physical altercation with Song Qingqiao, resulting in the latter’s death. A witness filmed the incident. Police investigation later discovered large quantities of heroin and ketamine at the scene, along with several unconscious young women, including C-list actresses and models.
Jiang Wei stared at the blurry photo, just like the ones they’d once snapped of her and Ling Ze eating together, going out, in which you could barely tell who was who.
Even the date of the incident was roughly the same as in her dream. Huh. How come I never heard about this back then?
Mu… Yang. That name sounded very familiar.
She turned the page, and froze.
What?! Him? Mu… Mu senior? This report had to be wrong, right? How could it be? Murder, sex parties, drugs, her brain crashed.
She could not, no matter how she tried, link that kind of thing to Mu Yang. She still remembered her headache that day when Mu Yang had said he hoped she’d promise to be his girlfriend after the college entrance exams.
Everything was a mess. Fragments of her dream and reality overlapped in Jiang Wei’s mind: sometimes events matched perfectly, sometimes they didn’t. She could barely tell them apart anymore.
So… was one of those dreams just something I imagined? Not a warning at all?
But the people from her dreams took the stage one by one like actors in a play, and the lead was still her.
That night she still went to the appointment on time. Wang Zhi Ning’s mother was almost overly warm toward her.
“Weiwei, you’re here, sit, sit.”
When she followed her into a Sichuan restaurant, Jiang Wei froze for a second. She’d thought this rich madam would invite her to some high-end Western place. A noisy little Sichuan joint really didn’t match her “status.”
“Try this,” Madam Wang picked up a dish for her. “I haven’t had it in years. Tastes just like it used to.”
“Madam Wang, you can just say what you came for. No need to circle around like this. Honestly, I really don’t understand why you’re spending so much effort on me.”
Jiang Wei wasn’t very polite. She’d grown used to human warmth and coldness, and how ugly the world could be.
She pretty much already guessed: because of the messy ties between her and Ling Ze, Madam Wang was here to clear obstacles for her daughter.
Even now she still couldn’t figure out how the version of herself in the dream had ended up as Ling Ze’s mistress.
“Weiwei, I… do you still remember Sister Zhang’s corner shop?”
Jiang Wei’s heart lurched. Her apricot eyes widened slightly, dark irises flashing with surprise. The little fish-tail at the corners of her eyes drooped.
She calmly watched the rich madam put on her performance. Honestly, someone should hand the woman an Oscar.
How could this lady know that place? The spot where her mother had abandoned her. Her mother… When she thought about that role, she realized she didn’t even remember what the woman looked like.
“Weiwei, I’m your mother.”
Madam Wang’s carefully maintained face showed hardly a wrinkle. Her skin was smooth and taut; aside from a few fine lines at the corners of her eyes, time seemed to have treated her very kindly.
She started to sniffle, crying prettily, pitiful enough that several middle-aged men in the restaurant kept sneaking glances over.
“Back then I really couldn’t go on, Weiwei. Your father used to hit me. He never brought a cent home. I was a pathetic woman with no education and no strength. What was I supposed to do? But now your mother has the means…”
So Wang Zhi Ning’s mother was her mother too.
She remembered, in the dream, how Wang Zhi Ning had gritted her teeth and sworn to destroy her, while her mother had soothed her over the phone, promising to “ruin that little bitch” for her.
At that thought, a wave of fear washed over Jiang Wei. She instinctively touched her cheek.
“Weiwei, can you forgive me?”
Jiang Wei stared at this absurdly dramatic scene in silence.
People in the restaurant started to scold her instead, calling her cold-hearted. A few even went to comfort Madam Wang.
Jiang Wei simply got up and walked away. She’d had enough.
She would never forget that moment.
“Weiwei, wait here for Mamy. Mamy forgot to bring money. I’ll go home and get it. You just wait here and I’ll come back to pay the bill.”
“Okay.”
She’d sat on that little step, blanketed in goose-feather snow, wearing only a brownish-yellow sweater, arms wrapped around herself and shivering. She waited from dawn till dark.
The corner shop’s owner had said her mother had definitely dumped her there. She’d argued back, saying that was impossible, her mother had just gone home to get money.
But she waited, and waited. Frost glued itself to her eyelashes. She felt like the little match girl, except even the match girl had matches. She had nothing.
In the end her grandmother had come to pick her up, used scalding water to warm her stiff little body over and over. She’d run a high fever for days, and somehow survived.
And now someone wanted to tell her she had a mother.
It was ridiculous.
“Weiwei, I know it’s hard to accept. But your mother really did have no choice.”
Madam Wang hurried after her.
“Do you know Zhi Ning? She’s your younger sister. Don’t… don’t tangle yourself up with Young Master Ling anymore. Nothing good will ever come of you two. Your sister isn’t like you. And when she becomes Mrs. Ling in the future, she’ll help you too.”
“So the reason you’ve come to ‘recognize’ me… is this, Madam Wang?”
Even though she kept telling herself she was standing on the edge of a cliff, that she had to move forward alone and not waste emotion on people who weren’t worth it,
When this woman’s true goal was laid bare in front of her, it still cut deep.
Was she just born to be lowly? To be trampled? Even by the woman who’d given birth to her?
“Weiwei, this is for your own good.”
Laughable.
Jiang Wei felt like the world itself was a joke. Because of a lecherous boss she’d lost her job. When they met again, the gentle senior from her school days had become unrecognizable.
Her boyfriend was across an ocean. Her grandmother’s life hung by a thread. Her long-lost mother suddenly appeared as a rich lady, telling her over and over not to “pester” her younger sister’s fiancé.
The world she was living in had gone completely off the rails.
What was supposed to happen next? Let her think… Next, when her dear mother’s plan failed, she was going to pull out another trick.
After that dinner, Madam Wang continued to look for her a few more times. Whether Jiang Wei explained or not, Madam Wang seemed utterly convinced that she was dead set on becoming Ling Ze’s mistress.
It was as if nothing Jiang Wei said could get through, or perhaps the woman simply didn’t believe her at all.
“Fine. I am leaving the country,” Jiang Wei said at last.
“You agreed?” Madam Wang sounded stunned. She was in a hurry; once Young Master Ling successfully seized power and truly controlled Ling Group, she was afraid Jiang Wei would be even less willing to go.
While Ling Ze was still locked in a fierce power struggle with his father, too busy to concern himself with such “trivia,” she had to settle this quickly.
Madam Wang grabbed her arm in her haste. “You agreed?” She wouldn’t let her go.
Jiang Wei’s eyes were full of disappointment as she tipped back her head to look at her, then tore herself free and ran.
She had to get out. Thankfully, she’d already spent the past while working on study-abroad plans; all the paperwork was nearly done.
Over the next week she dodged this so-called mother, and the moment her visa came through, she bought the earliest possible ticket. Across the ocean were the man she loved and the only family she trusted.
As she stepped onto the plane, she thought she saw, through the morning mist, a man in a sharp white suit, Ling Ze, running toward the gate.
Instinctively, she held her breath.
In the end he stopped, lips moving as if he were saying something. As the plane began to taxi and left the ground, she finally exhaled.
A mistress? What a joke. How could I ever be anyone’s mistress? He didn’t truly love her. It was nothing but stubborn unwillingness after being denied what he wanted.
He’d made it impossible for her to find a foothold in that city. He’d tried to sow discord between her and Wen Ji, tried to snap her wings right before she took flight, to force her into coming to him.
What a twisted, ridiculous excuse for love.
She admitted that, back when she was young and naïve, she might have once indulged a fleeting crush on that refined, handsome senior.
But that was long over. Now, she was going to start a new life.
Goodbye, Senior Ling.
His figure blurred in her vision. She lifted her hand and waved, smiling in relief.