Chapter 51: Don’t report to me. I’m not your mother.
Chapter 51
After some self-adjustment, Sheng Mumu looked increasingly composed.
She smiled calmly and slowly said, "Miss Qu, if you want others to call you 'Mrs. Qi' so much, you can go to the local census registry and change your name once and for all."
"Hmm...let me think, Mrs. Qu Qi, not bad, it sounds quite cute, just as humorous as what you just said, making people want to laugh when they hear it."
Qu Hui stared angrily: "What did you say!?"
Sheng Mumu shrugged indifferently.
"You don't need to report to me who you like or what you want to do. I'm not your mother. Likewise, I won't make way for you or cater to your preferences."
Qu Hui's face turned red and white, her nails digging into her palms, unable to utter a word for a moment.
It seemed that she had to reveal her trump card.
After a long pause, she bit her lip, glanced at Sheng Mumu, and said in a slow tone, word for word:
"I won't engage in fruitless verbal battles with you, it's meaningless. But you probably won't stay so composed after hearing what I'm about to say next."
"Let me remind you not to get too excited when you hear it. I hate seeing people's weak and cowardly crying and screaming."
Having said that, Qu Hui slowly tidied her hair, snorted, slowly raised her eyelids, and while looking at Sheng Mumu's expression, said:
"Qi Mo has never told you about Qi Shaobai's background, has he?"
Sheng Mumu's heart skipped a beat, but her expression remained unchanged.
She neither said "yes" nor "no", she just wanted to keep listening to what Qu Hui had to say.
Seeing her lack of reaction, Qu Hui became more and more convinced that she was holding an ace up her sleeve. Her smile gradually became more smug:
"Heh, you've known him for so little time, of course he wouldn't tell you such an important secret."
"After all, without knowing those secrets, you'll always be an outsider to the Qi family."
"You don't know, do you? Qi Shaobai's biological mother was a woman named Gu Wan, and Gu Wan was Qi Mo's sister."
Qu Hui felt like a breath of evil air had been released, making her feel much better.
She recalled the scene where she had accidentally learned the secret of Qi Shaobai's birth.
It was many years ago.
She had accompanied her elders to Floating Snow Mountain Cemetery to sweep graves, never expecting to see the man she had been thinking about day and night.
It was just a fleeting side profile as the man got into a car and left.
She took note of the direction he had come from.
Tracing the vines to get to the melon, she found out who he had gone to pay respects to.
Even though she had grown up in Shen City and her family was deeply rooted there, it still took her quite a bit of effort to barely scratch the surface.
She learned that the woman named Gu Wan had died from physical weakness after childbirth, and her brother had stayed by her side while she was hospitalized.
A bold idea popped into Qu Hui's head.
The son that Qi Mo had publicly claimed was not his own, but rather he was taking care of his sister's child.
Thinking of this, Qu Hui felt proud of her own clever guesswork, secretly marveling that even heaven was helping her, allowing her to know his secret.
It was like grasping a magic charm.
She just had to climb to a high enough position, then use this magic charm as a key to make the man willing to open his heart to her.
However, Qi Mo's cold reaction yesterday made her feel unexpectedly thwarted.
She could only attribute this unplanned situation to random unstable factors - the woman who had suddenly appeared by his side, Sheng Mumu.
Qu Hui thought that if she couldn't use money to drive Sheng Mumu away, she could only use the reality that he was not sincere to his wife to shatter her fantasy.
Qu Hui said: "What do you think, surprised? Are you very angry that I know something even you as his wife don't know about? I told you long ago, only I can—"
"I already know all that stuff you just said," Sheng Mumu casually interrupted her.
Qu Hui's eyebrows twisted together in disbelief as she stared wide-eyed, shaking her head over and over:
"Impossible, how could you know...impossible, only I should know, you're lying, you're tricking me."
Sheng Mumu shrugged, too lazy to say more.
She knew clearly that at this point in the conversation, they had entered garbage time.
She would not waste time trying to prove to Qu Hui that she really knew.
Nor would she mock and ridicule like Qu Hui.
They were completely different kinds of people.
Just then, a deep brown Bentley was slowly driving out of the resort gate.
The man sitting in the back with a cold and stern expression was massaging his brow wearily, his gaze wandering lazily out the window.
Suddenly his fingertip movement paused, and his eyes shifted slightly.
Qi Mo, who had just finished socializing, did not expect that he would see Sheng Mumu here.
His line of sight shifted, and he saw Qu Hui across from Sheng Mumu.
His eyes narrowed, obvious displeasure surfacing in them.
At this moment, Qu Hui's phone rang.
She came back to her senses from her shame and anger and answered the call.
The person on the other end of the phone was eager to make their stance clear:
"President Qu, it's not that I don't want to put in a good word for Tangxin, but President Qi's intention is very clear, the real estate investment project will not consider Tangxin."
Qu Hui's voice trembled as she asked with the last glimmer of hope:
"Did President Qi say that in person?"
He and her father were old acquaintances, would he really avoid her pursuit to the point of not even considering cooperation between their groups?
"Yes, not just the real estate project, Qi Group will not consider cooperating with Tangxin for any investment projects in Shen City in the future."
Qu Hui tightly gripped her phone, having completely forgotten she was still standing by the roadside, and shouted loudly:
"How could that be?"
The person on the other end of the phone was also very puzzled, but more than puzzlement, they currently wanted to draw a clear boundary and stance with Qu Hui.
"President Qu, you also know he has always been a man of his word. Our company values Qi Group's series of investments in Shen City this time. I'm sorry, business dealings with Tangxin in the future will probably..."
This person spoke tactfully without spelling it out directly, knowing Qu Hui would understand the implications.
It was understandable that he would make this choice.
Although Tangxin Group was one of the top few enterprises in Shen City in terms of assets.
Compared to the Qi family, who were considered top elite even in Beijing circles.
There was a world of difference.
Any clear-eyed person would know which side to stand on.
What surprised him was that a successful businessman like Qi Mo, who had long cultivated the ability to conceal his thoughts and ambitions without showing joy or anger, seemingly born to be dispassionate and desireless.
But today, when Qi Mo spoke, he did not conceal at all the surging undercurrents beneath the calm words.
It was as if he deliberately wanted them to understand.
Thinking of this, the person on the phone felt a chill, glad that he was not the one who had offended Qi Mo.
Then he hurriedly said a few polite words and hung up.
Qu Hui stood by the roadside, her hand holding the phone going limp.
An unprecedented sense of defeat washed over her.
At this moment, she finally realized her enemy had never been Sheng Mumu.
She didn't even have the qualifications to compete with her.
From the moment Qu Hui had picked up the call, Sheng Mumu had already turned to leave.
Sheng Mumu did not like contention, let alone one-sided contention where the other party regarded her as an imaginary enemy. It was pointless and boring.
Qu Hui watched Sheng Mumu's back as tears gradually flooded her eyes.
Blurrily, she saw a car stop next to Sheng Mumu.
The tall, sturdy man with chiseled features and a cold, stern expression got out of the car, leaned down and said a few words to Sheng Mumu.
Qu Hui couldn't make out Sheng Mumu's facial expression, whether she was smiling or something else.
She only saw that man, who was so high above, who she dreamed of standing shoulder to shoulder with, open the car door for his wife.