None of the three people from the Su family had expected Xu Lize to say something like that. For a moment, they were all frozen.
It was the first time Su Yang really looked him over. He carried an air of privilege that announced itself without words. His features were sharply handsome—so striking that “ardently charming” might as well have been written on his face. Even among a crowd of attractive men he would stand out.
His gaze swept to her at that moment, cool as a winter gust. The chill made Su Yang feel suddenly exposed and uneasy.
“Miss Su,” he asked, voice low and composed, “pardon me—are you married?”
Both women at the table blinked at the formality of it. A few seconds passed before Su Yang realized he was speaking to her. She shook her head without thinking.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” he continued.
A flicker of suspicion darkened Su Yang’s almond-shaped eyes. “What are you getting at?”
He gave her a polite smile, but there was a weight behind his words, something deliberate in those dark eyes. “Since we’re all Su family, then I can just as well marry this Miss Su… Miss Su Yang.”
Su Yang’s eyes widened. Her first instinct was to assume he was joking.
Before she could refuse, Su Qian had already lost her composure and jumped up.
“Xu Lize, if you won’t accept the terms I just laid out, then we can keep negotiating!” Her voice shook; she forced a brittle smile.
Xu Lize didn’t bother placating her. He picked up his phone deliberately, rose from his chair, and offered a courteous nod to Su Quansheng.
“Mr. Su, you know I lack patience. If something keeps getting stuck in one place and going nowhere, that’s not how I do things. I’ll give you two choices: either your family provides someone to marry me, or Xu Group pulls its investment. Think it over.”
With that he pushed his chair back, crossed his long legs, and walked out.
“Xu Lize—wait!” Su Qian scrambled after him, but the tassel at the edge of the tablecloth snagged the clasp of her Cartier bracelet. She yanked free and the cutlery clattered across the tabletop.
“Father!” Su Qian seized Su Quansheng’s arm in a panic. “Has he lost his mind? He’s proposing to that mistress’s daughter?”
“He wasn’t a mistress,” Su Yang said coldly. “My mother and your father held a formal wedding back then. Plenty of people in the village can vouch for that.” She fixed her father with a look that begged him to speak up for He Juan, even if it was just one sentence.
But Su Quansheng offered nothing but a symbolic glare at Su Qian. He didn’t defend He Juan. Worse, the look he turned on Su Yang carried displeasure and blame—an accusation that she had ruined Su Qian’s chance with Xu Lize. He seemed to forget entirely that he had called Su Yang here.
Su Yang kept her teeth clenched and forced the last threads of composure back into place. “Dad, I came today to ask you to lend me money for my mother’s medicine. I can sign an IOU—payable with interest at the bank rate…”
“All you ever think about is money!” Su Qian spat, watching Xu Lize’s retreating back as if it had taken a part of her future with it. She ripped off her bracelet and pointed at Su Yang, venomous.
“Do you even know what your mother’s disease is? Late-stage breast cancer. There’s no cure; throwing money at it is like pouring into a bottomless pit. Even if my father used that money to feed a dog, it’d wag its tail at him—what right do you have to ask for it?”
“Qianqian!” Su Quansheng raised his voice at his younger daughter. Privately, he knew he had wronged He Juan years ago. Back then he was already the heir to the family business and a golden-boy alumnus—how could a village girl possibly be fit to stand beside him? When He Juan turned up years later with an infant, he acknowledged the child under family pressure and felt he’d done his duty. He had convinced himself there was nothing more to owe. The humiliation in Su Qian’s words only required him to scold to keep face.
Su Qian didn’t fear him at all. She had looked down on Su Yang since childhood. Now that Xu Lize had walked out, she blamed Su Yang for ruining her life and unleashed everything.
“Am I wrong?” she pursued. “A child born from a mistress—who are you to beg for money? You say it’s a loan, but loans get paid back. How do you expect to repay several hundred thousand? You’re supposed to be a top graduate from A University—why don’t you go earn it yourself? If you can’t, learn from your mother: learn how to seduce a man—then the medicine money will come rolling in…”
Su Yang’s face drained of color as the insults poured out. Her fists tightened at her sides until her knuckles went white.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She fumbled it out and answered automatically. Nurse Li’s voice on the other end was taut and urgent.
“Xiao Su, come quickly. Your mother is having a severe reaction to the medication—she’s gone into shock…”
Her legs felt suddenly unsteady. The ruckus in the private room dissolved into the background; all she heard was the pounding of her own feet as she bolted through the hotel lobby and the ragged inhale of breath in her ears.
Outside, rain struck across the street like a curtain she hadn’t expected. She hadn’t thought to grab the umbrella left at the table. Without hesitating she snatched her backpack and ran into the downpour.
When Xu Lize drove out of the underground garage, he saw a familiar figure a short distance ahead—little, drenched, and trying to hail a car in the storm. The hotel sat on the inner ring road; it was dinnertime and traffic was light. She’d tried a few times to flag a taxi without luck.
He watched the traffic light change from red to green, then eased on the gas. The black SUV slid toward the curb where she stood.
The tall vehicle pulled up slowly. The window rolled down, revealing his composed, handsome face.
“This isn’t a good spot to try to catch a cab,” he said. “May I give Miss Su a ride?”
Through the sheets of rain she saw the quiet certainty in his eyes. Her heart jolted. She reached out to open the door, then hesitated.
She knew, with a cold clarity, that once she stepped into that car some things might never be the same.