A Time-Limited Romance with Movie Queen Ex - Chapter 55.2

The faint scent of rain hung in the air, dampening any lingering excitement, as if soaking in a layer of murky, icy water.

The bodyguards drove her back, all of them visibly hesitant to speak. It was the driver who, noticing her bowed head, kindly reminded her.

“Young Miss, be careful today. The master is at home.”

“Oh, thank you. I understand,” Luo Mijin replied, then took out her phone to text Rong Qingyao.

[Number One Ranked Electronic Sheep: Senior, my grandfather is home today. I probably won’t be able to video call you on WeChat until he goes to bed around ten tonight.]

[Number Two Ranked Nine-tailed Fox: Alright, I’ll wait for you tonight.]

Upon arriving home, Luo Mijin intended to drop off her bag and change clothes before greeting her grandfather. Unexpectedly, the house was eerily silent, the servants barely daring to breathe.

“Young Miss, the master is in his study on the second floor. He wants to see you immediately,” the housekeeper said with her usual impeccable, polite smile, perfectly befitting the Luo family’s standards.

“I’d like to send a message first,” Luo Mijin murmured, lowering her head to text Rong Qingyao an update that she’d arrived home safely. But the housekeeper snatched the phone from her hand.

“Young Miss, please refrain from contacting the outside world for now,” the housekeeper said, still smiling despite Luo Mijin’s stunned expression. “This is the master’s order. It would be best if you complied.”

“Did something happen again?” Luo Mijin took two steps forward, trying to retrieve her phone, but the other servants had already moved it far out of reach, as if acting on prearranged instructions.

The housekeeper’s smile remained flawless, her tone professional. “If you go upstairs, Young Miss, you’ll naturally understand what’s happened. Your phone cannot be returned to you yet. You’ll have to wait for the master’s further instructions.”

A long-forgotten numbness crept over Luo Mijin’s body an unpleasant, bone-chilling paralysis that seized her both physically and mentally, overwhelming her completely.

Like a puppet manipulated by a puppeteer, she mechanically stepped onto the pristine, expensive marble floor, heading toward the innermost study on the second floor.

The heavy, ornate mahogany door loomed under the opulent lighting, its very shadows exuding an air of unapproachable luxury, like a gaping maw ready to devour human filth.

And Luo Mijin was that human filth.

“Young Miss, please enter. The master has been waiting for you,” the housekeeper said at the door, gesturing politely.

Luo Mijin forced her legs to move. She knocked and, upon hearing her grandfather’s command to enter, pushed the door open.

A standing brass lamp stood like a sentinel behind the expansive desk. Luo Anbang, wearing reading glasses, was sternly examining something inside a manila folder.

“Grandfather.”

“Stand there.”

Hearing those two words, Luo Mijin obediently took her place, silent and still.

She knew her grandfather was applying psychological pressure, trying to force her to speak, a negotiation tactic she had learned from Rong Qingyao.

Now, it was a test of who would break first.

After half an hour, or perhaps longer, Grandpa Luo Anbang finally cleared his throat and spoke with a cold laugh:

“You’ve certainly grown more patient than before. Speak up, Mijin.”

“What would you like me to say, Grandpa?”

“Tell me what disgraceful things you’ve been doing at school. Don’t think these old eyes can’t see what filthy business you’ve been up to every day.”

“Grandpa, I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Luo Anbang scoffed. “I thought you were studying hard, but instead you’ve been mixing with unsavory people and engaging in dirty, disgusting behavior. What’s your relationship with that older woman?”

“Grandpa, she’s not just some ‘woman’, she’s my senior at school.”

“I don’t care if she’s your senior, junior, or whoever. Tell me, what is your relationship?”

Luo Mijin lowered her head and remained silent, stubborn as a mule.

“You won’t say? Then it must mean there’s nothing between you,” Luo Anbang said, taking a sip of tea with a mocking smile. “Since there’s nothing between you, you won’t see her again. I’ll have bodyguards watching you around the clock, even at school. If she dares to harass you again, I’ll handle it myself.”

“No! You can’t hurt her!” Luo Mijin shouted in agitation.

“Why not? Give me a good reason.”

Still staring at the ground, Luo Mijin repeated firmly, “You can’t hurt her.”

“Hmph, can’t say it out loud, can you? Too ashamed? Look at what you’ve done.” Luo Anbang hurled a manila envelope at Luo Mijin with a loud thud.

Dozens of photos scattered across the plush carpet.

The pictures showed Luo Mijin and Rong Qingyao walking together across campus—some holding hands, some not—and even photos of them driving to see the Aurora during their summer internship.

“Grandpa, I’m not ashamed.”

“No wonder you refused to meet Old Yuan’s grandson. So this is the disgusting, unnatural filth you’ve been up to. The Luo family has spoiled you rotten giving you everything you ever wanted, wealth and luxury beyond measure—until you’ve lost your mind and become a pervert.”

“Only mentally ill people would engage in such revolting behavior. Are you even human, Luo Mijin? What sins has the Luo family committed to be cursed with a sick child like you?”

Luo Mijin, who had remained passive until now, suddenly lifted her head and took two steps forward. Her usually bright, youthful eyes were now bloodshot, but her voice was steady and resolute.

“Grandpa, we’re not perverts. I love her, and she loves me. It’s the purest thing in the world.”

“What did you say? How dare you speak such words? You’re a girl saying you love another girl?”

“Yes, I love another girl. I love her,” Luo Mijin admitted calmly, as if stating something as ordinary as eating or drinking.

“You! Luo Mijin, what a disgrace to our family! Who do you think you’re betraying—your father, your mother, or me? Do you want to humiliate the Luo name? Was killing your parents not enough? Now you come to collect your debt, did our family owe you in a past life?”

“Why were you born? Are you here to torment every member of our Luo family?”

Grandfather Luo Anbang looked at her as if she were an unclean, disease-ridden outcast, as though he wished to raise a cross or a vajra to crush her heart and kill her until her blood ran dry.

“Grandfather, I did nothing wrong.”

“You’re not wrong,” Luo Anbang sneered, “so it must be that woman seducing you. Seeing our Luo family’s power and influence, she’d stoop so low as to seduce another woman, utterly absurd and against all natural order. Have you no shame?”

“Grandfather, please respect her,” Luo Mijin,  spoke with rare anger in her voice. “Our relationship is one of free will, nothing sordid like you describe.”

In this life, she had never been certain of anything but once certain, it was for life.

She loved Rong Qingyao. Their love was pure, beautiful, and fortunate. No matter what others said, it wouldn’t shake her conviction in the slightest.

She was simply different from ordinary people so what?

Never in her life had she been so certain of anything’s beauty as she was now.

No matter how others might deem them filthy, depraved, or sick, she wouldn’t change.

“Luo Mijin, aren’t you afraid of people looking at you with disdain? They’ll see you as a monster, something disgusting. Your parents in the afterlife and I would view you the same way.”

“Grandfather, I’m not afraid. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Fine, fine. So you’re determined to ruin the Luo family. After all my achievements, how could I have raised such an ungrateful wretch?”

“Grandfather, I’ve chosen this path. Even if the world spurns me, the sun scorches me, and storms drench me, I won’t fail. Our love will endure until death.”

Luo Anbang grabbed a priceless inkstone from the desk and hurled it at Luo Mijin, cutting her forehead.

“Hmph! The Luo family has produced a lovesick fool—how laughable. A woman loving a woman, go ask anyone under heaven who wouldn’t find such a thing disgusting. With a black sheep like you, what hope is left for our family?”

Luo Mijin simply stared coldly at Luo Anbang, as if his venomous words couldn’t harm her.

“I won’t let you continue this disgusting behavior. Get out and reflect in the ancestral hall. No more school, no more meals. You’ll stay there until you’ve returned to normal.”

At Luo Anbang’s command, several bodyguards rushed in and dragged Luo Mijin out.

Outside, the housekeeper stood pale-faced, trembling as she avoided Luo Mijin’s gaze.

“Young Mistress, why must you be like this? Just cut ties with that person cleanly—don’t anger the master. What good could come from some poor student? She must be after your money, coveting the Luo family’s power and wealth. Scheming enough to stoop to such depravity.”

Luo Mijin scoffed, realizing all that remained of the Luo family was its pitiful authority.

“Slandering others is also a sin. You’re the guilty ones, all of you.”

The housekeeper gaped in shock at Luo Mijin’s fierce expression.

“Young Mistress, perhaps you should try being with a man? Then you’d realize what you feel for women isn’t love—”

Before she could finish, Luo Mijin interrupted, “No. I was born this way—destined to love a woman. Her name is Rong Qingyao.”

“Oh, what a sin! You… just apologize to the master. Say it was just a passing fancy, not serious. Stop seeing that girl,” the housekeeper whispered. “What you’re doing is wrong—against nature.”

“I’ve done nothing wrong, and I won’t apologize. My feelings are true.”

“Miss, one must walk the righteous path. You’ve strayed onto a crooked road now this will bring will bring divine retribution upon you. Please, come to your senses.”

Luo Mijin gazed at the storm-laden sky outside the window, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling, as a smile played on her lips. “It doesn’t matter.”

“You must be possessed by evil spirits. Amitabha Buddha protect us, how could this have happened?”

The housekeeper had never seen Luo Mijin so resolute and stubborn before. Though she’d always known the young mistress had an eccentric and obstinate personality, never had it been so… so utterly terrifying.

As if this wasn’t merely love, but some kind of religious devotion.

The bodyguards escorted Luo Mijin to the ancestral hall in another building. The space was filled with swirling incense smoke, damp and gloomy, with the memorial tablets of her parents placed prominently.

“Miss, the master has ordered you to repent before your parents’ tablets. Only when you’ve mended your ways, admitted your mistakes, and promised never to associate with that person again will you regain your freedom.”

Luo Mijin watched coldly as people brought stacks of books and placed them around her.

“Miss, the master wants you to copy these scriptures to purify the sins and evil thoughts in your heart, lest you bring misfortune upon the Luo family,” the housekeeper said, presenting ink, paper, and brushes. “You must copy all these books to cleanse your corrupted soul.”

Luo Mijin took the inkstone and ink, then hurled them onto the thick scripture books. “Tell Grandfather I’ve done nothing wrong, committed no sin, and would rather die than change.”

“Why must you be so stubborn.” The housekeeper sighed, shaking her head as she walked away.

Whether Luo Mijin copied the books or not made little difference. Having committed such a grave mistake, the old master would forever guard against her like a thief, where any misstep would send her tumbling into the abyss.

The Luo family’s eldest granddaughter was truly ruined completely, undeniably, tragically so.

The ancestral hall contained only a few meditation cushions and one small window. After the bodyguards locked the door and left, the silence became oppressive.

Kneeling on the cushion, Luo Mijin alternated between numbness and agitation. Finally, after two hours, taking advantage of the raging storm outside, she lifted the sacrificial altar table and smashed the small window.

Ignoring the danger of glass cuts, she climbed through the broken window and recklessly jumped from the second floor.

Having escaped the ancestral hall, Luo Mijin’s confusion and anguish reached their peak. She’d long known her grandfather would never approve of her relationship.

In their eyes, homosexuality was disgusting, an unforgivable sin. Had this been the Middle Ages, her grandfather would have undoubtedly sent her to the gallows or the pyre hanged or burned alive.

Better to be rid of such a disgraceful, filthy, mentally disturbed creature that brought shame upon the family name.

The rain outside had continued all night. Luo Mijin  decided to find shelter and search for Rong Qingyao tomorrow.

This time, she absolutely wouldn’t let Rong Qingyao wait for her in vain.

But how would she find Rong Qingyao? She had no phone, no money, no acquaintances.

Nothing but the clothes on her back.

Having left the Luo family, she possessed nothing. By what right could she find Rong Qingyao?

By what right could she love Rong Qingyao?

Did one need qualifications to love someone?

Though waves of despair surged within her, Luo Mijin felt not an ounce of regret. She cared not whether homosexuality was normal or abnormal she loved Rong Qingyao, and nothing would ever change that.

Unrepentant to the end.

She believed she would find Rong Qingyao they were in love, and those who loved each other would always find their way back.

Clutching this last shred of faith, she groped her way through the stormy night, step by step, when suddenly, a voice called out from ahead.

“Luo Mijin?”

Most likely a hallucination. Luo Mijin couldn’t make a sound, standing frozen as she lifted her gaze forward.

In the pouring rain, Rong Qingyao’s long hair was soaked, clinging to her delicate, unadorned brows. Her cheap clothes were crumpled, and the corners of her rosy lips were slightly chapped, traces of blood seeping through.

Yet her eyes remained clear and bright as she spoke softly to Luo Mijin:

“Luo Mijin, I waited for you.”

“Luo Mijin, come here.” She opened her arms to her in the downpour.

Support