Chapter 412 - Are You Even A Human Being?
The dining room was awkwardly quiet. No one was speaking or smiling. The atmosphere was very depressing.
Li Qianxue was sitting at the head of the long dining table. The steaming, delicate dishes on the table didn’t bring a happy look to her face.
Normally, there would be five people at the New Year’s Eve dinner. This year, one of them wasn’t there. How could she not be angry about that?
She didn’t expect Su Chenghui to be so cruel as to forbid Su Peizhen from coming back for the New Year.
Su Peizhen was her first child. She had invested so much in her.
Unlike Su Yuxin, Su Peizhen was so weak and fragile when she was a baby, probably because of the difficult labor.
She was such a tiny baby girl. Back then, Li Qianxue was even afraid that she might hurt the baby by holding her.
For the very first time, her little girl wasn’t celebrating the New Year together with her.
With a sullen face, she sat there silently.
Because of the unhappy look on her face, there was no festive atmosphere in the dining room at all.
“Mom,” Su Yuxin couldn’t stand the sullen tension. “Let’s eat.”
Li Qianxue didn’t have an appetite. She couldn’t accept what was happening now.
“Su Chenghui, are you even a human being? How could you send your daughter so far away from home because of some outsider? You didn’t even let her come home for the New Year. Are you punishing her? No, you are punishing me.”
“Mom,” Su Yuxin really didn’t want to hear Li Qianxue and Su Chenghui fight on New Year’s Eve. “Calm down. My sister will soon come home.”
“Who knows?” Li Qianxue gave Su Chenghui a glare and said, “Your father sent her so far away from home. Who knows if he’ll ever let her come back?”
“Qianxue,” Old Master Li started talking, “That’s enough. This is the New Year. How can you be like this?”
“Father, as you said, this is the New Year. Does he want me to be happy at the New Year? No, he wants me to suffer.”
Li Qianxue was thinking of Su Peizhen. She was so angry that she couldn’t even eat anything. “Peizhen has never been alone on New Year’s Eve. I don’t even know if she had dinner yet, or if she’s sad and alone.”
“Enough,” Old Master Li recalled what Huo Jinyao asked before.
In fact, if Su Qingsang and Xiang Caiping didn’t get softhearted and let things ago, Su Peizhen might be in prison now, instead of the United States.
He could not tell Li Qianxue about it, though. She would, of course, refuse to believe that her daughter would do something like that.
What happened was the best possible outcome. Su Peizhen could use some time alone abroad, to figure out how serious what she did was.
“Peizhen isn’t a child anymore. So many people are living by themselves. Why can’t she do the same? Stop talking, just sit there and finish this dinner.”
“Father…”
“I’m old. I don’t want to hear you two fighting. If you want to me stay alive for a couple more years, stop talking now.”
Li Qianxue clenched her teeth. She was angry but facing Old Master Li, she had to stop.
She looked at Su Chenghui. The disappointment in her eyes grew stronger and stronger. Seeing that he was sitting there without saying a word, she was even angrier than before.
She made such a scene, yet he barely reacted. Sometimes, she hoped that Su Chenghui would argue with her and even fight her, instead of staying perfectly silent.
However, he was silent most of the time. He always looked at her as if she were a puppet.
She realized that long ago. She loved the man less and less.
Before, she convinced herself that she still loved him, for the sake of her children and father. Recently, however, she felt more and more powerless. She didn’t even know when that process started.
She dropped her head. It was New Year’s eve, yet the atmosphere was awful.
Su Yuxin stayed silent. He didn’t understand what was wrong with his family. Things were great when he was little. The older he became, the less his family was like a real family.
He had no idea how to change that situation.
Su Chenghui did notice Li Qianxue’s anger, Old Master Li’s hidden disappointment, and the hope in Su Yuxin’s eyes.
However, today, he really wasn’t in the mood to respond to any of them. After that day, he never went back to the hospital.
On the one hand, Xiang Caiping didn’t want to see him; on the other hand, he didn’t want to see Su Qingsang.
He thought he was the only one who knew about the secret, but now Su Qingsang knew part of it too.
Su Chenghui never thought that one day, someone would discover his secret. In his imagination, his revenge would take place when Li Qianxue was old, when she found that there was no way to fix all the mistakes.
It wasn’t supposed to happen now.
Recently, Su Chenghui had been having very complicated feelings. Whatever Su Qingsang knew, Huo Jinyao must know too.
Su Qingsang might not guess the answer now, but Huo Jinyao, as a very smart person, might be able to figure out the truth about Su Qingsang’s real mother.
What would happen then? If one day the secret was no longer a secret, and the whole of Lin City knew who Su Qingsang’s real mother was, what would happen?
Su Chenghui had no spare attention to think about anything else now. He raised his head and looked at Li Qianxue’s face.
Old Master Li was on the scene, so the anger in her face had softened. She was still unhappy, though.
With her cold expression, she looked haughty and inaccessible.
Su Chenghui didn’t even remember the last time he saw her happy.
Sensing Su Chenghui’s gaze, Li Qianxue raised her head, gave him a glance, and then said coldly, “What now? What do you want to say? Don’t worry, curse me if you want. This is New Year’s Eve. I won’t fight with you, for the sake of my father.”
Su Chenghui somehow felt suffocated. He dropped his head and glanced at the food on the table.
“Let’s eat.”
His voice was strangely gentle. Li Qianxue gave him a glance, thinking that he was going to play some kind of trick. She was watching him vigilantly.
Li Qianxue wasn’t the only one who was looking at Su Chenghui. Old Master Li and Su Yuxin were doing the same. Under everyone’s stares, Su Chenghui felt utterly uncomfortable. He picked up the glass of wine before him and raised it toward Old Master Li.
“Father, happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year,” Old Master Li raised his own glass.
After that, Su Chenghui clinked glasses with Su Yuxin and said, “Work hard in school. You’re one year older than last year. In the future, you’ll be the one who runs the family.”
“I will. Happy New Year, Dad.”
“Emm,” Su Chenghui nodded, then looked at Li Qianxue, raised his glass toward her and said, “Happy New Year.”
The same toast happened every year, as a routine. Li Qianxue sat there motionlessly. She was still angry.
Su Chenghui looked a little embarrassed. He didn’t lower his glass, but said, “Qianxue?”
Li Qianxue paused briefly with surprise. She couldn’t help but glance at Su Chenghui. She didn’t remember hearing him calling her name like that.
He always called her by her full name. Sometimes, he avoided using her name altogether.
She felt a little awkward and confused too. What was Su Chenghui doing? Was he planning something behind her back?