Chapter 46: Xie Yanchen, Please Help Me

The smile on Su Guoxing's face froze instantly.

A trace of gloom flashed quickly across his eyes, though he cleverly smoothed it over the next moment.

He continued to grin, asking in a fawning tone, "Why? Would your father ever wish harm upon you?"

Su Wanqing desperately wanted to blurt out the disastrous results of his investments right then and there. However, she knew that Su Guoxing was an extremely prideful man with a particularly foul temper. If she were to speak the truth, she might not even make it out of the Su family residence alive today.

"Kexin is sick. I need the money for her medical treatment, so I am not considering any investments."

What she said was also the truth.

Su Guoxing found this reason a bit easier to swallow, yet he still tried to persuade her: "I know Kexin is sick. Isn't it just autism? I've looked into this condition; it's completely incurable, so it's useless no matter how much money you spend! Instead of wasting time on that, you'd be better off finding someone to marry and having another healthy child sooner!"

As his voice trailed off, he noticed Su Wanqing's expression suddenly darken.

He hastily tried to backtrack:

"Besides, just think about it—with that much money, you won't even be able to spend it all just on medical treatments, right?"

"How about this? You sign these papers, and I'll cover all of Kexin's expenses. Whenever you need money in the future, just come to me for it. Anyway, you can't stay in Haicheng after your divorce, so you might as well go abroad. I happen to have a contact at a psychiatric hospital. You can take the child to live there and not worry about a thing; someone will have meals delivered to you every day, and I'll wire money to the facility every month..."

Su Guoxing talked on and on, genuinely believing he had offered a wonderful proposal. Since Xie Kexin was sick anyway, wouldn't sending her straight to an asylum solve everything?

Most importantly, rather than letting Su Wanqing leave such a large sum of money idle, she might as well hand it over to him.

"Well? What do you say?"

He looked at Su Wanqing expectantly.

Su Wanqing still shook her head firmly. "I refuse."

At that moment, Zheng Lu called. Zheng Lu had wanted to accompany her here in the first place, terrified that she would be bullied again at the Su household, but Su Wanqing had talked her out of it.

She was no fool either. Last time, she had been caught completely off guard and slapped, but today, she would never allow Su Guoxing to lay a hand on her again.

She answered the call right in front of Su Guoxing: "I'll be right back."

Then, she offered him an apologetic look. "If there is nothing else, I'll be leaving now."

***

Su Guoxing's expression at that moment could only be described as overcast with dark clouds.

The wrinkles between his brow were pulled so tight they could crush a fly, his lips were pressed into a thin line, and his gaze fixed on Su Wanqing as if looking at a lifeless object.

"Stop right there!"

Dropping all pretense, he roared in anger and slammed his teacup onto the table with a sharp clatter.

"Su Wanqing, I am not asking for your opinion! You must give me that money!"

Su Wanqing's expression remained calm, yet her tone was unshakeable: "And I am not discussing this with you either. You will not get this money."

It was only then that Su Guoxing realized although Su Wanqing bore a striking resemblance to her deceased mother, the stubborn streak deep within her bones was every bit as fierce as his own.

This made him realize for the very first time that the person standing before him was not some commodity, but his own flesh-and-blood daughter.

Even though looking at her face made his skin crawl, the thought of what he needed to accomplish forced him to soften his tone just a fraction. "Xiao Qing, we need to be reasonable, don't we?"

"The only reason you got this money in the first place is because we had you swap places with A'ning back then. You can't possibly expect to keep all the benefits for yourself, can you?"

"Besides, you know how your father's life is. It looks glamorous on the outside, but in reality, the company has been suffering heavy losses lately. You're part of the Su family too, and now you have the ability to help your father out. Furthermore, I'm not letting you take a loss on this—why won't you just agree?"

At this point, he let out a deep sigh. "I know, you're still blaming Dad for sending you off to the countryside all those years ago. But I had no choice either, sigh... You have no idea, your stepmother is not a woman to be trifled with. If we hadn't sent you away, you might not even have lived to be this old..."

Su Wanqing stood motionless, watching without a single blink as Su Guoxing acted out the part of a helpless father. Observing his reddened eye rims, she felt not even a shred of warmth in her heart.

Over the past five years, her interactions with Su Guoxing had been limited, but every time he needed something from her, he wore one face, and the moment he made demands of her, he wore another.

She maintained her silence.

After playing his part for a while and seeing that her attitude remained completely unmoved, a ruthless glint flashed across his eyes. He resorted to a threat: "If you don't sign, I'll immediately have someone scatter your mother's ashes to the wind!"

A pang struck Su Wanqing's heart, and a wave of profound sorrow washed over her.

She ached for herself, and she ached for her mother even more.

Her mother had toiled and exhausted herself for a lifetime for a man like Su Guoxing, and now, even in death, her remains were being used as leverage by him to threaten their daughter. If she were watching from the heavens above, could she possibly be at peace?

Su Wanqing did not know the answer, but she did know that the moment Su Guoxing brought up this matter, she had lost the right to refuse.

***

Just as she found herself cornered, two figures walked in through the front door.

It was Su Wanning and Xie Yanchen.

The two of them were holding hands, looking just like a pair of young lovers newly embarked on a romance, their eyes completely filled with each other.

"Dad, Brother Yanchen dropped me back off. He said he wanted to drop in and pay his respects to you..."

Su Wanning called out in a sweet, coquettish voice, dripping with affection.

However, the moment she caught sight of Su Wanqing standing in the middle of the hallway, a flash of disgust crossed her eyes. "Why are you here?"

Before Su Wanqing could offer an explanation, Su Guoxing had already scooped up the documents from the table and spoken up on her behalf: "Oh, I had some matters to discuss with her, but everything is settled now. You go on upstairs first."

Su Guoxing had no desire for Xie Yanchen to discover his strong-arming tactics regarding the shares.

Su Wanqing stood her ground without moving.

If she left now, Su Guoxing would continue to easily manipulate her at will in the future.

She refused to let that happen.

"Yanchen, although we are getting a divorce, could you please do me a favor and take a look at this document? My dad wants me to sign it, but you know how clueless I am about these things."

For days now, Su Wanqing had treated Xie Yanchen with absolute coldness, yet at this moment, she looked at him with a pleading, almost suppliant gaze, the helplessness in her eyes practically overflowing.

Xie Yanchen frowned deeply. Even when she was begging him in the past, he had never seen her reduced to such a state of utter helplessness. A jolt went through his heart, and he nodded.

Su Wanqing turned to Su Guoxing. "Dad, why don't you bring the document from just now and let Yanchen take a look at it? It's not that I don't trust you, but as you know, I really don't understand these things, and he is much more knowledgeable about them anyway. Let's have him check if there's anything in the contract that needs amending."

A trace of awkwardness flickered across Su Guoxing's face, though he quickly forced a smile. "Oh, never mind that. Your sister and I were just discussing a private family matter—a trifle, really. There's no need to trouble President Xie with it."

He could not let Xie Yanchen find out that the ink on their divorce papers was barely dry before he moved to strip her of her money.

If Xie Yanchen found out about this, how on earth was he supposed to keep up his benevolent father persona in the future?