Weakness Trap - Chapter 28.1

“It suits you well.” Yan Lanshen gently smoothed the hem of Yu Lingxue’s dress, looking pleased as she finally tried on the garment that had been custom made for her and completed long ago.

This wasn’t the wedding dress. Yu Lingxue didn’t bother asking about it. She merely glanced at her reflection in the mirror, ultimately uninterested.

She hadn’t been resting well, and her complexion was unusually pale. She didn’t even want to ask Yan Lanshen when he had started preparing for their wedding.

The answer would be too terrifying. Yu Lingxue allowed herself some breathing room.

Otherwise, she felt she would suffocate, as if drowning.

“I want to talk to my mother for a while,” Yu Lingxue said, meeting her fiancé’s gaze but ignoring the emotions swirling within it.

“Fine. The evening banquet will begin soon. I’ll come find you then.” Yan Lanshen withdrew his probing hand, turned, and left the lounge to attend to the guests.

Yu Yueheng was permitted to enter the lounge. She took Yu Lingxue’s hand and sat her down, gently wiping the sweat from her forehead.

“Can you hold on? You could pretend to be sick,” her mother offered, a rare tenderness in her voice. The tension Yu Lingxue had carried for days nearly snapped at those words.

She let out a strained breath and leaned against Yu Yueheng’s shoulder.

Yu Yueheng held her tighter, softly patting her head.

“So much has happened…” Yu Lingxue finally managed to speak after a long silence.

“You shouldn’t have brought up breaking off the engagement with Yan Wenying at this time,” Yu Yueheng said, her tone still logical, almost detached.

Yu Lingxue let out a bitter laugh, her expression pained. ” I,I only realized it now.”

She knew Yan Lanshen was formidable.

But she never imagined he would desire something from her.

He was even willing to go to such great lengths just to achieve a trivial goal.

What a terrifying person.

Unfortunately, by the time Yu Yueheng warned her daughter, it was already too late the situation was irreversible.

And without concrete evidence, Yu Yueheng couldn’t say too much.

“I thought.” Yu Lingxue trembled slightly, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“With Li Ran’s help, I managed to get Jian Xi away. You were both in Chu City. Yu Qingyuan’s stance wasn’t entirely inflexible, and I’ve been negotiating the losses with her. Yan Wenying is just a junior with no real power. I thought.” Yu Lingxue took a deep breath.

It seemed she was only a millimeter away from happiness.

But in reality, an immense distance still separated them.

Yu Lingxue didn’t want to know.

Yet Yan Lanshen had deliberately, yet subtly, let her see the dress’s production details.

The dress had been completed at least four years ago.

It fit her perfectly, without the slightest discrepancy.

She knew what that implied.

She just didn’t want to dwell on it, it was too exhausting.

“I share some of the blame too,” Yu Yueheng said, patting her back.

But she held little influence within the Yu family. After struggling for half a lifetime and failing to surpass the current family head, she had given up on empty pursuits and focused on her career as a doctor.

Because of this, her relationship with Yu Lingxue was neither close nor distant. From childhood, Yu Lingxue hadn’t been raised by her side but by a nanny dedicated to her care, while her studies and responsibilities were strictly supervised by the family.

Yet, if one were to call them distant, during family gatherings, Yu Lingxue would often sidle up to her, her dark, jade-like eyes seeking a bit of affection.

Yu Yueheng had always kept an eye on her only child, checking if she was ill or taking proper care of herself.

Now, with the engagement approaching, the Yu family was almost ready to wash their hands of Yu Lingxue.

This was likely the first time the mother and daughter had such an intimate conversation and interaction.

“Mom.” Yu Lingxue leaned against Yu Yueheng’s shoulder, her voice muffled and trembling as she called out.

Yu Yueheng felt the dampness on her shoulder but could do nothing more than gently stroke her daughter’s back.

Yu Lingxue could only cry quietly against her mother’s shoulder, not daring to make too much noise lest she attract Yan Lanshen’s attention.

“She’s here in Hong Kong.” Her voice nearly hoarse from crying, Yu Lingxue sat up and pressed a few acupoints on herself.

“My little bird, she came looking for me.” Yu Lingxue didn’t know how to explain it, nor who she could tell.

This matter had thrown her into complete disarray, shattering all her preparations both mental and practical regarding these affairs.

The pride she had worked so hard to maintain in front of Yan Lanshen now lay in ruins.

She never expected Yu Qingluan to come looking for her.

Yet Yu Qingluan truly loved her as much as she had believed.

Even after Yu Lingxue left without a word, Yu Qingluan hadn’t raged or shouted. She had simply come quietly to Hong Kong and even sent her a message.

When Yu Lingxue had secretly gone to see Yu Qingluan, the latter was already ill but still preparing a gift for her that confession letter.

But Yu Lingxue had nothing to offer in return. All she could do was spend one last night with her, ease her physical pain, hold her, and sit together under the moonlight, reluctant to part.

“Qingluan came looking for me.” Yu Lingxue repeated, unable to say anything more.

Yu Yueheng patted her head, signaling that she didn’t need to explain further.

But Yu Lingxue had things she wanted to say to her mother. Things she could only say to her mother.

Her friends were either in Chu City or had mysteriously disappeared in a fire. Their situations were similar, all fraught with difficulties.

Because of this matter, Yan Lanshen hadn’t even invited the Qu family to the engagement banquet.

Who knew how the media would spin this story.

“Actually, Little Bird coming to Hong Kong is a bit troublesome for me.” Yu Lingxue lowered her head, finally voicing the thought.

“She shouldn’t have come here.”

“Because you want to keep it from her?” Yu Yueheng didn’t offer an opinion, her tone devoid of any judgment.

She only analyzed the logic and feasibility, without criticizing right or wrong.

“But you know, you probably can’t manage it.”

“Yeah true.” Yu Lingxue forced a faint smile.

“I really don’t want her to know. I don’t want her to see me in such a sorry state, forced to be with someone else.”

“I think I might be selfish. I still want to stay with her forever, so something as hurtful as this it’s better if it never happens, never comes to light, right?”

Yu Lingxue paused, her strained smile faltering. “But she’s here now. She’ll definitely find out. I, I don’t want to break up with her.”

“If Yan Lanshen had no interest in me, and we could each live our own lives after marriage, I thought maybe I could still go back to Little Bird, but.”

Before Yu Lingxue could finish her sentence, the door to the lounge was suddenly slammed open.

It was as if a typhoon had struck the door couldn’t withstand the force, nearly breaking from the impact.

Yu Lingxue turned around, her heart skipping a beat.

She saw Yu Qingluan.

“Qingluan? How did you.” Before she could say anything more.

Before she could even process the situation.

She had no idea what Yu Qingluan had just overheard.

All she saw was Yu Qingluan take out the confession letter she had painstakingly embroidered for her, even while sick and staying up late.

Piece by piece, she tore it apart with her own hands.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she turned and left.

“Yu Qingluan? Little bird!” Yu Lingxue’s sluggish mind still hadn’t processed what had just happened.

But her body moved faster than her thoughts, propelling her forward.

She was like a small object swept up by a typhoon, crashing haphazardly around the room.

She bumped into chairs, knocked against tables, and finally tripped over her own skirt.

Her knees and elbows were bruised. The bright red fragments on the floor were painfully glaring.

Yu Lingxue crawled toward the pile of fragments, moving lightly and swiftly as she gathered them.

She had no time to examine them carefully, no time to piece them together she only focused on picking them up while struggling with her cumbersome skirt and kicking off her troublesome shoes.

The shoes were heel less but tight, like Cinderella’s glass slippers, firmly anchoring her to someone she never wanted to see again.

With all her strength, Yu Lingxue flung them against the wall and chased after the departing figure barefoot.

The entire sequence happened too quickly. By the time Yu Yueheng realized what was happening, all she saw was a pool of blood on the floor.

Before she could even begin to tidy up the mess, Yan Lanshen pushed the door open from the other side, frowning as he surveyed the disarray.

Yu Yueheng barely had time to hide the fragments the girl had torn apart the ones Yu Lingxue hadn’t managed to collect.

Yan Lanshen stared for about half a minute, then stepped over the bloodstain and walked straight out of the lounge.

Yu Qingluan had originally intended to stay for the entire engagement banquet.

Perhaps she hadn’t even considered destroying the work she had poured her heart and soul into day and night.

She hadn’t even brought scissors it was just that the fabric, which had accompanied her from Chucheng to Hong Kong, had endured countless days and nights, growing as worn and tattered as her heart. With a casual tear, it truly shattered.

She rushed out of the venue and gazed at the rain soaked streets, unable to summon any emotion.

It seemed there was no anger, no heart-wrenching sorrow, nor any joy in having retaliated against Yu Lingxue.

Only a stillness, like stagnant water.

Yu Qingluan walked a few steps.

She thought, it was time to go home.

She had wasted too much emotion and time on this person someone unsuitable, someone who was never meant for her.

Just as her grandmother had said:

With all that free time, wouldn’t it be better to embroider a few patterns and refine her skills?

Why waste it?

What a waste.

Yu Qingluan frowned, unable to smooth the tension from her brow.

She paid it no mind, dragging her feet through the cold, rainy winter night in Hong Kong.

After just a few steps, she spotted a person, and her eyes suddenly lit up like streetlamps flickering on at dusk.

“Lanlan jie?” Yu Qingluan blinked, confirming the identity, then hurried forward a few steps.

She wanted to appear less exhausted, to tidy her appearance, to adjust her expression.

But at that moment, she realized she couldn’t.

She couldn’t bring herself to put on a pleasant face for the world not after she had just shown Yu Lingxue her displeasure and declared the end of her first, and likely only, romantic relationship.

All she could do was bite her lip to keep the tears from falling.

“My dear Qingluan. Your mother was worried about you, so she asked me to check on you.” Zeng Lan reached out to Yu Qingluan.

Without hesitation, Yu Qingluan accepted the embrace.

She realized she truly needed an anchor, no matter who provided it.

As long as it kept her from thinking of that person.

“You broke up, didn’t you?” Zeng Lan had seen it all on her way.

The billboards along the streets were plastered with the couple’s official announcement impossible to ignore.

The wealthy families are truly ruthless. Zeng Lan even suspected that the other party had deliberately put on a show for Yu Qingluan, to make her give up early. Unfortunately, there was no proof.

Yu Qingluan nodded.

For the first time, she realized that even nodding required so much strength.

So much so that when she lowered her head and saw the red reflection on the rain streaked glass ground, tears involuntarily welled up in her eyes.