Chapter 82

Chapter 82 - 82 081 Xie Shang goes crazy during a thunderstorm Chapter 82: 081: Xie Shang goes crazy during a thunderstorm (second update) Chapter 82: 081: Xie Shang goes crazy during a thunderstorm (second update) Xie Shang replied indifferently, “I know.”

“You know and still did it?”

The Tong Family is no ordinary household, having both wealth and connections. No matter how loud the public outcry might be, at most, Tong Taishi can’t mingle in public circles. While Tong Taishi does mingle, his agent and his team are all heavily invested in by the Tong Family. As long as there is no substantial evidence of a crime, the investigation will only be a formality and can’t harm the foundation of the Tong Family.

Instead, it’s Xie Shang who has made an enemy for no reason.

“Father, this is my matter.”

Xie Liangjiang was very dissatisfied with his attitude. Behind his silver-framed glasses, his gaze was as sharp as a knife, “How can I not be involved? You bear the Xie surname, and your attitude represents the Xie Family outside.”

Xie Shang was measured in his comings and goings, polite, but distant, “I can also choose not to bear the Xie surname.”

Xie Shang had been defiant from a young age.

Compared to his own father, he respected his uncle more.

Xie Liangjiang slammed the cup in his hand down forcefully; the lid was shaken off and rolled onto the floor.

The sound of the shattering porcelain had just stopped when the door was pushed open.

“Xie Liangjiang,” Su Nanzhi entered, her dress accentuating her slim waist, a satin scarf draped over her shoulders, hands folded, her nails beautifully manicured, stepping in high heels, “who are you throwing cups at?”

Really thought she was good-tempered?

Xie Shang indeed could choose not to bear the Xie surname—it was a compromise she made out of respect for the elders, not because the Su Family couldn’t stand up to the Xie Family.

Xie Liangjiang frowned, “I am talking to Xie Shang.”

“Throwing cups around, what else is there to talk about?” Su Nanzhi looked at Xie Shang, “Let’s go.”

Xie Liangjiang, dressed in his immaculate formal attire, stood against a backdrop of law books. He never bowed his head, always seeming to be in judgment, “With that attitude of yours, no wonder you raised such a son.”

No wonder.

Those three words were what Su Nanzhi hated most to hear.

When her two children died one after another, he had the same tone, “You’re always busy with your so-called career, no wonder you couldn’t save your children.”

Su Nanzhi retorted with a cold laugh, “It doesn’t matter what kind of son I have, as long as he’s not like you.”

The old Su Family estate was also in Flower Chamber Hall. After Su Nanzhi and Xie Liangjiang got divorced, the Su Family moved out, and the house has been empty ever since.

The Su and Xie families were well-matched in terms of social status. The elders from both sides had known each other for years, and Su Nanzhi and Xie Liangjiang naturally came together. There might have been love at one point, but when they parted, they were each other’s bane.

About the divorce, that’s what Su Nanzhi said to Xie Shang in jest, “Your father’s destiny is too strong, he afflicts his wives.”

The real reason Xie Shang knew, Madam Su was an eagle soaring in the sky, while Xie Liangjiang only wanted to cage the eagle at home, turning it into a canary.

Xie Shang once said, “You have poor judgment in people.”

Su Nanzhi laughed, “If I hadn’t had poor judgment in people, where would you be?”

She had no regrets. No one can guarantee they’ll never make a wrong choice in their lifetime, there’s no need to look back;

what’s done is done and cannot be changed.

Back then, Xie Shang had said, “It would have been fine without me.” He never felt his existence was indispensable. “Without me, you have Liang Shuchuan.”

At that time, Su Nanzhi had already been divorced for a year.

She began to smile more, “I have him now, too.”

But it was many years too late.

Liang Shuchuan had waited for Su Nanzhi for seventeen years, from the age of sixteen to thirty-three.

Rain was coming. Xie Shang followed Su Nanzhi back to the Su Family estate. Flower Chamber Hall was full of garden villas, known for their winding waterways and small bridges. Su Nanzhi disliked them, so the Su side planted many fruit trees.

Though the Su Family didn’t live there, they left someone to look after the house.

“Fourth Young Master is here.”

Xie Shang greeted them.

Aunt Qiao happily went to make tea, the old house still had the tea leaves that Xie Shang loved to drink.

Xie Shang asked Su Nanzhi, “What brings you here?”

“I came to pick up a few things. Aunt Qiao said she saw you enter the Xie’s gate, and I thought you were probably being scolded,” Su Nanzhi sat down, the room not cold, she took off the scarf from her shoulders and threw it aside, “What’s the deal with Tong Taishi’s issue?”

“Nothing much, I was in a good mood and couldn’t stand the filth.”

Su Nanzhi herself was in the entertainment industry, and Tong Taishi was indeed filth.

Outside the window, thunder roared, and rain suddenly lashed down.

Stormy weather was Xie Shang’s least favorite.

Su Nanzhi’s initial intention was to talk about something that would put Xie Shang in a good mood, so she mentioned, “Fang Jiyin told me you got a girlfriend.” It was inevitable that she, as a mother, was curious, “Is it the one you brought to your uncle’s restaurant last time?”

“Yeah.”

Su Nanzhi had asked Su Beihe what she was like.

Su Beihe had said: A woman.

It was as informative as not saying anything at all, and having Xie Shang ask her to help choose a birthday cake made her even more curious.

“When are you going to bring her over to meet us?”

Xie Shang was in no better mood than the awful weather outside: “No need to meet her.”

“What do you mean no need to meet her?” Su Nanzhi sat up straight, her expression serious, “Are you just playing around?”

“Her last name is Wen.”

Su Nanzhi understood immediately.

This was even worse than mere play.

She spoke solemnly, “Xingxing, do you understand what you are doing?”

The emotions were suppressed deep in Xie Shang’s eyes: “I know.”

Su Nanzhi made her position clear: “I don’t approve of what you’re doing.”

She had always given Xie Shang a long leash, only to realize, as time went on, that Xie Shang had developed a personality that nothing could cage; he embodied both the extremes of black and white in his being.

“It will end,” he said.

“What counts as an end?”

He looked at the string of beads on his wrist; one agarwood bead was missing, removed last time because Wen Changling complained of the smell of blood on his hands, which he had then burned away.

“It ends when she loves me, when she needs me,” he said.

Su Nanzhi couldn’t agree.

Xie Shang had loved extreme sports since he was young, craving the danger and thrill of the unpredictable, but every heart-

pounding game gambled with life itself, and who could guarantee that he would win every time?

Su Nanzhi had been through a marriage, had loved and hated, and knew that matters of the heart were no safer than extreme sports, possibly leading to severe injury if things went wrong.

Those on the sidelines see the game clearly.

Although Su Nanzhi hadn’t yet met the Wen girl, she had seen how Xie Shang picked out an emerald for her.

“Xingxing, you will regret this one day.”

Xie Shang stood up: “I’m going back.”

Su Nanzhi glanced at the rain: “It’s pouring outside.”

“No one’s looking after the flowers in my yard.”

Aunt Qiao brought over some tea.

Xie Shang said he didn’t want any and took an umbrella as he left.

The road by the Flower Chamber Hall was constructed so wide that a plane could land on it, yet some people still drove down the road as if it were their own driveway, zooming past pedestrian crosswalks along the curb at high speed.

The driver hit the brakes and swerved to a stop after a close call, and opened a crack of the window to curse out.

“Are you blind?”

Xie Shang raised his umbrella higher.

The driver paused for a moment: “Xie, Xie Shang.”

With a thunderous boom, the sound of thunder sent a shiver through the body, and lightning split the night, casting the face of the man into patches of light and dark.

Thunder, a black umbrella, Xie Shang.

It was exactly like the night seven years ago when Shen Fei almost got killed by Xie Shang, and even felt as though he was confronting a ghost out for revenge.

Xie Shang just stood there, umbrella in hand, silent, watching intently; the contrast between the chaotic, noisy curtain of rain behind him and his eerily calm gaze was stark.

Shen Fei always remembered something his mother told him when he was in his teens, while giving him a lesson: The more beautiful a person is, the more dangerous.

His mother had actually been warning him about women outside, but now, having met countless women, it was only when facing Xie Shang that these words sprung to mind.

Shen Fei lowered the car window a bit more, feeling intimidated but refusing to show defeat, still defiant, “What? I didn’t hit you, did I?”

Xie Shang didn’t say a word, just started to remove his cufflinks.

“Xie Shang,” Shen Fei shouted, “You wouldn’t dare!”