My Ex Told Me She’s Still In Love With Me - Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Even Though I Love Her, I Hesitate…

At 7:00 PM, Meng Shuyu and her companion arrived at the hotel as agreed. When they opened the door to the private room, they found Yu Qingshuang already seated inside.

Yu Qingshuang looked up, momentarily stunned to see Lan Xining following behind Meng Shuyu. She quickly sensed the “unusual” atmosphere between them and fell silent.

So, both the old and the young of the Meng family… prefer women?

Moreover, isn’t Lan Xining Meng Shuyu’s former sister-in-law? They can actually end up together?

She felt a wave of realization; she wasn’t much older than Meng Shuyu, yet she felt she was already failing to keep up with the modern thinking of these “younger” people.

“Ms. Yu,” Meng Shuyu took the lead in greeting her.

Yu Qingshuang replied, “President Meng, Ms. Lan, please sit. Take a look at the menu and see if there’s anything else you’d like to add.”

Meng Shuyu pulled Lan Xining down to sit. After scanning the menu, she added two more dishes before setting it aside. Lan Xining’s eyes crinkled into a smile when she saw the additions. They were all her favorites.

Opposite them, Yu Qingshuang noted their behavior, raising an eyebrow but remaining non-committal.

With the ordering finished, it was time to get to the point. Meng Shuyu looked at Yu Qingshuang. “I wonder what Ms. Yu would like to discuss with us today?”

Now that the main topic had arrived, Yu Qingshuang looked a bit embarrassed. She seemed to feel that having to handle her child’s romantic affairs at her age was a bit awkward.

“Well, I wanted to ask… how has Qingwu been living these past four years?” Yu Qingshuang tried to keep her tone as gentle as possible, devoid of any aggression, to prevent the others from thinking she had some hidden, malicious intent behind her inquiry.

Meng Shuyu looked up slightly, observing Yu Qingshuang’s forced smile. She asked calmly, “Why the sudden question, Ms. Yu?”

Beside her, Lan Xining poured a cup of tea, listening quietly. The air conditioner in the room hummed softly, blending with the low, harmonious murmurs of conversation.

Meng Shuyu took a sip of tea, her expression thoughtful. She soon adjusted her thoughts and spoke in a steady voice: “Based on what you’ve said, I have a general understanding of their current situation. However, they are adults, and I don’t wish to interfere too much in her decisions.”

As she spoke, she glanced at Lan Xining. Her gaze dimmed slightly. It was because she had been too stubborn and controlling in the past, interfering too much in Meng Qingwu’s love life, that their mother-daughter relationship had become so strained. Now that things had finally softened, she naturally wouldn’t interfere again—even if the person involved was Cheng Yi, whom Qingwu loved.

Yu Qingshuang was speechless. She had originally wanted to recruit an ally to help “assist” the couple, but who knew the other mother didn’t want to get involved at all? Was she really that relaxed about her daughter’s life-long happiness?

What she didn’t know was that Meng Shuyu understood Meng Qingwu. She had seen what Qingwu was like when she was trying to be with Cheng Yi, and she knew exactly why her daughter hadn’t pursued any other relationships for years. They might be stuck in a dead end right now, but as long as they couldn’t let go of each other, they would eventually find their own way out.

Seeing both of them fall silent, Lan Xining sighed softly and smiled. “Ms. Yu, why don’t we leave the affairs of the young people to them? Otherwise, we might put in all this effort and get no thanks for it.”

Those two were both assertive individuals; did they really need the elders to go that far?

However…

Lan Xining rubbed her chin, a mischievous smile suddenly playing on her lips. What if it’s to satisfy my own sense of fun?

At that thought, her smile brightened, and her eyes sparkled.

“You… you…” Meng Shuyu looked at her, hesitating to speak, but her gaze was locked on Lan Xining, unable to look away. She had missed out on so many years of this woman’s life that reflecting on that lost time filled her with regret.

Meeting Meng Shuyu’s gaze, Lan Xining’s smile deepened. She pulled her closer to whisper something to Yu Qingshuang. Soon, both of the other women wore expressions that said: ‘You can actually play it like that?’

As Lan Xining continued to explain, their eyes gradually lit up with a brilliant glow, looking at Lan Xining with pure admiration. When it came to “knowing how to play,” Lan Xining was indeed the master.

…

The Banquet

Meng Qingwu had no idea that her elders were currently plotting a massive “game” against her. Looking at the girl in front of her, she only wanted to bury her face in her hands and sigh.

The girl she had just seen at the cinema was now standing beside a middle-aged man, looking at her with excitement, her eyes practically shooting beams of light.

Meng Qingwu: “…”

The man noticed the anomaly. He looked at Meng Qingwu, then at his daughter whose eyes were glued to her, and raised an eyebrow.

“President Meng, it’s been a long time!” Wu Di led the girl over to Meng Qingwu, greeting her first with a hearty laugh.

“President Wu.” Meng Qingwu smiled thinly. She looked at the girl beside him, feeling that trouble had arrived.

Sure enough…

“Sister! I didn’t expect us to meet again so soon!” Wu Xinyue’s eyes were sparkling. Her gaze was filled with unmistakable affection; anyone looking at her could see exactly what she was thinking.

In front of Wu Di, Meng Qingwu couldn’t exactly put on a cold face. She could only nod. “Ms. Wu.”

She hadn’t realized this girl was Wu Di’s daughter. She had always heard that Wu Di was a total “daughter-slave”—whatever his daughter said went, and whatever she wanted, she got. He pampered her to an extreme degree.

Meng Qingwu immediately regretted attending this banquet. She felt a bit bitter; she wasn’t even supposed to be here, but Ms. Meng (her mother) had insisted she had “plans” tonight and made her come instead. To run into such a difficult person at a minor banquet made her want to send her mother to the hospital to check if she’d been replaced by an impostor.

“President Meng knows my daughter?” Wu Di asked, rubbing Wu Xinyue’s head dotingly.

“We’ve met once,” Meng Qingwu nodded, though she hadn’t known who the girl was at the time.

“Dad, you don’t know! She’s the very, very beautiful sister I told you about yesterday!” Wu Xinyue said excitedly. She boldly let go of her father’s hand and stepped forward to link her arm with Meng Qingwu’s, resting her head on Qingwu’s shoulder. “Sister, we are so destined! We just met yesterday and bumped into each other again today!”

Meng Qingwu’s body went stiff. She didn’t dare move the arm that was being held, and a head was resting on her shoulder. Facing Wu Di, she couldn’t be so disrespectful as to yank her arm away and make everyone look bad, but the smile on her face grew fainter and fainter.

She disliked people who were this self-centered and lacked situational awareness.

Watching his daughter cling to her, Wu Di shook his head inwardly. This was becoming difficult. Everyone in the circle knew Meng Qingwu preferred women, but they also knew she had a woman she “kept”…

“President Meng, I didn’t realize you and my daughter shared such a destiny,” Wu Di laughed. A ‘kept’ woman is just a plaything, not a serious girlfriend. If my daughter likes her, I won’t stop her.

Meng Qingwu tried to subtly extract her arm, a polite smile fixed on her face. “It’s hardly destiny; we’ve only met twice.”

Counting today, it was only two times, yet her impression of the girl had already hit rock bottom. From the way Wu Xinyue clung to her without any reprimand from Wu Di, she knew this girl was spoiled without limits. He surely knew her situation, yet he still allowed his daughter to approach her.

“If we meet more often, it’ll become destiny!” Wu Xinyue tilted her head with a charming smile, gripping her arm tighter.

Meng Qingwu’s arm was pressed against a soft sensation. With the girl’s occasional movements, it felt like she was being massaged by two mounds of soft flesh. Meng Qingwu’s expression flickered.

“Excuse me, I have some matters to attend to. Please excuse me.” Meng Qingwu forced her voice to stay natural. She nodded politely to Wu Di, then firmly pulled her arm away and walked off rapidly.

As if afraid she would be followed, her strides were large and hurried. In the blink of an eye, she vanished into the venue.

Wu Di looked back at his daughter and raised an eyebrow. “She clearly doesn’t like you.”

He was an old fox; how could he not see her forced expression? She looked like she was avoiding a plague. His daughter was likely facing a losing battle.

“Humph!” Wu Xinyue linked her arm with his, wrinkling her nose. “That’s not certain. I don’t believe she won’t feel anything for me in the future!” She, Wu Xinyue, wasn’t exactly lacking in looks or family background; she refused to believe she couldn’t win over Meng Qingwu.

“But she has a lover,” Wu Di frowned. While he respected Meng Qingwu’s professional ability, her romantic life was a bit of a point of criticism.

Wu Xinyue said nonchalantly, “I know! But like you said, it’s a ‘lover.’ Before she’s in a formal relationship, no one can criticize her for having one. Dad, you have to believe that once we’re together, that lover won’t be a factor anymore!”

Wu Di laughed. “You… don’t be too overconfident.”

…

As Meng Qingwu left the venue and breathed in the fresh night air, she finally felt a sense of relief. The stifling feeling in her chest dissipated slightly.

Thinking of that girl, she shook her head with a bitter smile. What a mess. A whim to see a movie had not only caused a rift with Cheng Yi but also attracted this nuisance. Her family still had business collaborations with the Wu family, so she couldn’t easily burn bridges. That meant she had to maintain a level of politeness, but…

Her face darkened. Giving face doesn’t mean sacrificing myself.

She let out a soft breath and couldn’t help but think of that “block of wood” again. The chest that had just relaxed began to feel heavy once more. After a night of thinking, she still couldn’t untangle her relationship with Cheng Yi. In fact, she felt even more troubled.

She realized that while she still loved Cheng Yi, she now had so many more reservations. These reservations were a world away from the feelings they had in university. Back then, it was so pure. It was love at first sight, followed by a concentrated effort to get closer. Love was just love—if you loved someone, you wanted to be with them.

But now, even though she loved her, she hesitated to take a step forward.