Chapter 243: Chapter 243: Can’t He, A Living Person, Compete with a Dead Person?
The scene was too harrowing, even the police couldn’t help but frown. The leading officer asked, “Please tell us the truth, what happened here?”
Lu Junqin gasped for air and her voice grew weaker, “I had a fight with my husband, he hit me too hard, the pain was too much, so I smashed his forehead with a wrench, and he passed out…”
Shang Xu lifted his small face, sobbing, “Officer Uncle, please arrest my dad, he hit my mom, wuu wuu, I don’t want him.”
The police were initially confused, especially because there was a little girl standing there, unharmed.
Lu Junqin looked up at Jiang Nanshu and smiled, “Sister-in-law, thank you for calling the ambulance for me.”
After she spoke,
Lu Junqin then passed out.
The paramedics hurriedly took away the two injured people, and since a family member needed to be present, the police determined Jiang Nanshu to be part of their family due to Lu Junqin’s call of “sister-in-law,” so she needed to accompany them to the hospital.
Jiang Nanshu arrived at the hospital half an hour later.
Lu Qingyan also received the news and rushed over, accompanied by Old Sir Lu and a couple in their fifties.
The woman displayed composure while the man frowned; Old Sir Lu wore a solemn expression.
Lu Qingyan went straight to Jiang Nanshu’s location upon entering the hospital.
She was wearing a nightgown, leaning against the hospital corridor’s seats, asleep, with Shang Xu cradled in her arms.
It was now three o’clock in the morning, and it must’ve been tough for her to be at the hospital so late at night.
Lu Qingyan took off his coat, gently placed it over Jiang Nanshu, and quietly sat down next to her without disturbing her rest.
Feeling the warmth by her side,
Jiang Nanshu vaguely opened one eye.
Her blurry vision made her mistake him for someone else, and her mind went blank.
[Xuxu?]
Lu Qingyan turned his head to look at her.
[Ah… I saw it wrong, it’s Lu Qingyan.]
She naturally leaned against his shoulder, complaining, “You finally came; I’m so sleepy from dealing with all of this.”
Lu Qingyan turned his head to look at her fluffy hair and ultimately couldn’t resist nuzzling her head, absorbing the scent of Jiang Nanshu, his voice deep, “You’ve worked hard.”
He really wanted to ask.
Do you really long to see Zhou Yanxu that much?
But once he raised the issue, he feared Jiang Nanshu wouldn’t even want to pretend anymore.
She had always been ruthless.
Whether it was towards her family or towards him, her fiancé.
Lu Qingyan couldn’t stand being Jiang Nanshu’s second choice, couldn’t an alive man compete with one who’d passed away?
He didn’t believe it.
He wanted to become Jiang Nanshu’s first choice in her heart.
After a while, the doctor informed them that Lu Junqin had woken up, and family members could visit her.
Shang Chi was still unconscious, but his life wasn’t in danger, so there was no need for excessive worry.
Old Sir Lu nodded at the medical staff, indicating that he understood.
He grimly asked, “What’s going on here? Why is Jun Qin like this with Shang Chi?”
The noblewoman glanced at the middle-aged man beside her. Even though he was well past fifty, his face was well-preserved, betraying none of the signs of his age.
He hesitated, “Uncle, we really don’t know about what’s happening between the two of them. Jun Qin never says anything, and besides, it’s not our place to interfere…”
Old Sir Lu glared furiously, his cane thumping loudly, “Nonsense! What kind of parents are you? Your own daughter is beaten like this in the Shang Family and you say you didn’t know? Are you truly ignorant, or do you just not care to get involved?”
The middle-aged man’s face turned red with the scolding, his mouth opening and closing, but ultimately he lacked the courage to retort.
The noblewoman chimed in, “Uncle, you can’t blame us. Our family doesn’t have much say in the Lu Family to begin with, and Shi Yu is such a domineering person. She won’t take no for an answer in the Shang Family, wouldn’t getting on her bad side make Jun Qin’s life even more difficult? Besides, Shang Chi didn’t do it on purpose, I know him well, it must have been an accident. Qi’er is still helping out in his company, and he has taken good care of him.”
The Qi’er that the noblewoman referred to was her son, Lu Qi, who was twenty-three this year, two years older than Lu Qingyan.
He had gone abroad, scraped together a bachelor’s degree and then was arranged to join the Shang Family’s company, to be mentored by Shang Chi in business.
Tossed into managing a company once his studies were complete to see if he could make something of himself.
Old Sir Lu watched them with a cold gaze.
In Old Sir Lu’s generation, there were only three brothers; he was the youngest.
The two elder brothers had both passed away.
Several nephews and nieces held positions in the Lu Family’s branch companies, mediocre in ability yet full of ambition.
Lu Qi was notoriously dissolute, squandering what little ability he had in wanton living, nearly ruining their family’s modest estate.
Old Sir Lu had no patience for parasites; he had explicitly ordered his relatives to send Lu Qi away, to prevent him from bringing more trouble to the Lu Family, but they instead set their sights on the Shang Family.
They even ignored and concealed their own daughter’s domestic abuse, and this wouldn’t have come to light if it hadn’t been so serious this time, coincidentally when Lu Qingyan was handling business at Half Mountain Villa.
Receiving a call from Jiang Nanshu, who explained the situation, awoke him to what was happening.
“Absurd! Look at what Shang Chi did to her. Your own daughter, whom you raised with hard work, is hurt like this and you feel no heartache, no urge to find justice for her? Instead, you’re here making excuses for the abuser. If word of this gets out, how will others view the Lu Family? Saying we can’t even protect our married daughters, who would want to form marital ties with the Lu Family? I think it’s best for Jun Qin to divorce Shang Chi,” Old Sir Lu said, fuming with rage.
The middle-aged man was ashen-faced, his expression timid, “But won’t this also damage our reputation if it gets out? How about we settle this privately? I’ll have Shang Chi write a pledge. As long as Jun Qin forgives him and they can live together again happily, it’s better. If she divorces, who in the entire elite circle would want a woman who’s divorced and has had a child? Plus, Xuxu is still young. Wouldn’t it be pitiful if he ended up without a mother?”
Jiang Nanshu watched their argument as an onlooker.
Through the crack in the open door of the hospital room.
Jiang Nanshu saw Lu Junqin’s pale face.
Numbed to the point of being devoid of even the sorrow.
It was no wonder that she suffered five years of domestic abuse, with the powerful Lu Family as her own family, and yet it was kept hidden.
There must have been a contribution from her parents in this too.
Perhaps they loved their daughter, but in their hearts, it wasn’t as important as finding a career for their son who could carry on the family line.
[Heh, how laughable, is a son really that important? This reminds me of my dear brother in another world, whom I had committed to a psychiatric hospital. He was locked up for seven or eight years, never to be released, and was driven mad by the ordeal, tsk.]
She too lived in a family that favored sons over daughters.
Her own parents treated her like a beast of burden.
It was her fault whenever her brother cried, was hungry; she was the one to be beaten.
[How disgusting, this scum deserves to be burnt to ashes.]
Lu Qingyan pursed his lips.
From Jiang Nanshu’s unspoken thoughts.
He realized that her world had not been kind to her.