Thanks Aren't Necessary

Welcome to Trapped in the Same Day for a Thousand Years, produced exclusively by Feilu Novel Network, written by Sang Ze and narrated by Wang Xiaomo and Lao He. Madam Su guessed that Li Ruobing had sent Wu Chen to take Su Qingying away. She thought she had to be right; otherwise, she could not explain Li Ruobing's attitude. So she asked outright.

"Madam Su, first, I need to correct something you said."

Li Ruobing sat across from Madam Su, looking perfectly composed. "My boyfriend did not force your daughter to leave. Miss Su and I had arranged to meet, but something came up, so I asked my boyfriend to go and find her."

"Yes, Miss Ruobing and I had arranged to meet."

Su Qingying, seated in an armchair to the side, immediately backed her up. Madam Su shot her a long, hard look.

Su Qingying wilted. She looked uncomfortable and fell silent.

"Oh? Is that so?"

Madam Su turned back to Li Ruobing. "Then why did I hear that Mr. Wu grabbed my daughter and dragged her away?"

"Madam Su, your daughter isn't a doll. If she'd been forced, wouldn't she have called for help?"

"Or perhaps someone sweet-talked my daughter into it. She could be sold and still help count the money." "Your daughter is twenty-seven, not some sheltered little girl."

"Madam Su, do you really think that's possible?"

"Tricked?"

"My daughter?"

"She's too kindhearted."

Madam Su and Li Ruobing held each other's gaze. Neither raised her voice, but after only a few exchanges, every word had become a challenge.

Madam Su did not ask Su Qingying what had happened. She would not even let her speak. She knew her daughter had switched sides and would not speak for her. Nor would Madam Su blame her daughter in front of outsiders. If Su Qingying was at fault, who else could she take to task?

She would have no grounds to pick a fight, and certain questions would become difficult to ask.

"Madam Su, don't you want to know why I arranged to meet your daughter?"

Li Ruobing abruptly changed the subject. Madam Su answered at once, "Please, Miss Li. I'm listening."

Madam Su gestured with the teacup in her hand, then took an elegant sip. She kept her eyes on Li Ruobing, without a trace of anger.

"The truth is..." Li Ruobing paused before continuing. "Your family's affairs have nothing to do with me. I never wanted to get involved. But Miss Qingying has told me more than once, in private, that she envies me. She wants to be someone like me: a woman who won't lose to anyone, who can decide the course of her own life and succeed in business just as a man can."

"Miss Qingying and I have a great deal in common. In many ways, she's even more capable than I am. But she has no life of her own."

"Madam Su, do you understand what I mean?"

Li Ruobing sat up straighter and leaned slightly forward, fixing Madam Su with a stare. "Miss Qingying isn't living as her own person at all. She's a doll you've dressed with care, a puppet who can't even decide what she eats."

Madam Su's expression changed at once. She turned to Su Qingying. Just what had her daughter told this outsider?

Had she told her everything?

Su Qingying avoided her mother's gaze.

"Miss Li." Madam Su looked back at Li Ruobing, her face much sterner. "Forgive my bluntness, but you're an outsider. Stay out of my family's affairs, and show some restraint."

Madam Su had turned forceful. "I already said it has nothing to do with me. I didn't want to get involved," Li Ruobing replied, undaunted. "But Miss Qingying has asked me for help too many times."

"Perhaps it's because I know what she's going through. I had a similar experience in my own family. I nearly lost the right to choose whom I married. So when I arranged to meet Miss Qingying today, I only intended to talk things through with her."

Li Ruobing paused, then frowned at Madam Su. "Madam Su, do you still not understand?"

"You truly don't? You control your daughter so strictly, interfering in everything she does, that she's begun to have psychological problems."

"Madam Su, you don't want to drive your daughter to her death, do you?"

"You—" Madam Su shot to her feet, furious. Her fingers clenched the teacup until her knuckles turned white, and she glared at Li Ruobing.

Li Ruobing's words had cut deep. Madam Su hated being told how to raise her children. Li Ruobing was not the first to say such things. Even Su Qingying's father, Madam Su's husband Su Ruiwen, had tried to persuade her. The more he tried, the more she resented it.

If the woman speaking to her now had been anyone other than Li Ruobing, Madam Su might already have thrown the teacup.

Li Ruobing remained calm as Madam Su stood over her.

She leaned back, picked up her handbag and took out a crumpled white paper bag from the pharmacy. The medicine Su Qingying had bought was still inside. After Su Qingying handed it to her, Li Ruobing had found a chance to slip it into her bag, where it had been folded and creased.

Tap!

Li Ruobing tossed the paper bag onto the table. It seemed to come out of nowhere.

Madam Su glanced at the bag, then frowned at Li Ruobing. "What is this supposed to mean?"

"Do you know what this is, Madam Su?"

Li Ruobing gestured toward it and answered her own question. "Medicine. Mine. I haven't been feeling well lately, so I've been taking it. But do you know who bought it?"

Madam Su stared at Li Ruobing without answering.

She knew Li Ruobing was about to tell her.

"Your daughter bought it." As expected, Li Ruobing said it while meeting Madam Su's eyes.

"Today, at my boyfriend's place, I mentioned the medicine while I was talking things through with her."

"I realized I hadn't brought any, so I was going to have a bodyguard buy some and bring it over."

"Your daughter overheard me making the call. Can you guess how she reacted?"

"She said she would buy it. She insisted on going herself."

"She said she had never once gone to a pharmacy alone to buy medicine. Pharmacies are everywhere, yet buying medicine by herself was a novel experience for her."

Madam Su's expression shifted. She gave her daughter an uneasy glance, then looked back at Li Ruobing. "What else did she do today?"

"She even cooked for Wu Chen and me. She washed and prepared the vegetables, then cooked the dishes herself. She asked whether we liked the food, and when we said we did, she was delighted. Truly, incredibly delighted."

"She cleaned the place and washed our clothes too. We couldn't stop her. She'd been holding all of this in for too long. Do you understand?"

"Madam Su, she knew perfectly well that however long she stayed away from home, she would eventually have to return. She would be under your control again. So it was as though she wanted to spend today doing everything ordinary people can do but you've never allowed her to try."

"Do you realize how frightening that kind of pent-up reaction can be?"

"Madam Su, ask yourself honestly: don't you think you control her too much?"

Li Ruobing spoke earnestly and with gravity. Every sentence struck Madam Su where it hurt.

Madam Su could hardly bear to imagine how many things her daughter had done today that she believed she should not do. Her face changed as Li Ruobing spoke. By the time Li Ruobing finished, the anger that had driven her to her feet was gone, replaced by a deeply conflicted look.

She turned to her daughter again and saw that Su Qingying's eyes had reddened as she listened.

Some of what Li Ruobing had said was true and some was not, but it had still touched something deep in Su Qingying.

For a moment, Madam Su felt a flicker of sympathy and guilt. She immediately forced it down.

"So," Madam Su said, sitting down and drawing out the word, "I should thank you, is that it, Miss Li?"

She had regained her composure and her elegant bearing.

"Thanks aren't necessary."

Li Ruobing's reply was brief. "I have another question."

Madam Su cut in rapidly, turning straight to Wu Chen. "Mr. Wu, I understand that you and Miss Li may have meant well. Perhaps you did. But can you explain why you were holding my daughter so closely at the golf course?"

"Why were you putting your hands on her? Why did you smack her backside?"

"You did, didn't you?"

"Can you explain that?"

The atmosphere in the room changed the moment Madam Su finished. Even Li Ruobing's expression shifted.

Her expression had to change. To everyone else, she was Wu Chen's girlfriend, and she had just spoken as though the two of them were united in helping Su Qingying.

So when she heard Madam Su say Wu Chen had smacked Su Qingying's backside at the golf course, she had to react. She ought to have been furious with him, even demanded an explanation on the spot. That was how a girlfriend would normally respond.

But that was not why her expression changed. Her relationship with Wu Chen was a pretense, and she knew what his relationship with Su Qingying was. The problem was that Su Qingying had not told her about this part. On the way to Golden Fortune Teahouse, Li Ruobing had asked Su Qingying question after question in the car. That was how she had been able to make her speech.

Su Qingying had never mentioned Wu Chen touching her or smacking her backside. That made this difficult for Li Ruobing to explain away. She might even have to get angry with Wu Chen.

Wu Chen had not warned her, either. He intended to handle this question himself. What happened?

Li Ruobing leaned toward him and asked through clenched teeth, her voice low. She looked every bit the angry girlfriend. It was exactly what Madam Su wanted to see. Li Ruobing's words had left her frustrated, but she could not win the argument. She could not bear the thought of a public scene that would let outsiders judge her family and tell her how to run it. So she skipped over every lingering doubt and questioned Wu Chen directly, hoping to drive a wedge between him and Li Ruobing.

Wu Chen pressed a hand lightly over Li Ruobing's, then looked at Madam Su with an easy smile. "You say I put my hands on Miss Su and smacked her backside. I don't know who told you that. Could you tell me?"

"Are you denying it?" Madam Su's gaze sharpened.

"Did I say I was?" Wu Chen replied with a smile.

"I only think that even something a person sees with their own eyes may not be what it seems."

"So could you tell me who reported it to you?"

"Qingying's bodyguard saw it himself. He would never lie to me."

Madam Su was sure Wu Chen was trying to deny it.

By now, Madam Su thought she had pieced everything together. Her daughter Su Qingying had become friendly with Li Ruobing and kept in touch with her privately. She had often expressed envy toward Li Ruobing and, with no gratitude at all, complained that her own mother controlled her. Li Ruobing had wanted to help, so she had arranged to meet Su Qingying today and talk things through with her.

It was a Su Family matter, but something had come up for Li Ruobing, so she had sent Wu Chen to pick Su Qingying up. This young man had used his position as Li Ruobing's boyfriend, along with her friendship with Su Qingying, to win her daughter's trust. Then he had filled her head with nonsense, taken the chance to put his hands on her, and deceived and bullied her kindhearted daughter. He was shameless. That had to be it. And now he did not dare admit what he had done.

"So it was Miss Su's bodyguard."

Wu Chen sounded as though he had only just learned this. "Is he here?"

"Outside?"

"Could you ask him to come in and tell us himself?" "You're willing to confront him face-to-face?"

Madam Su raised an eyebrow. "He's here. I'll call him in."

She picked up her phone, found the number and made the call. After saying a single sentence, she hung up.

The man was right outside. He came in almost immediately.

Of the two bodyguards who had originally accompanied Su Qingying, both had stayed with Madam Su afterward.

They had come with her when she went to the entrance of the alley near Wu Chen's old family home.

The one who entered was the tall bodyguard who had called Madam Su to report what he had seen. "Madam."

"You called for me?" He bowed slightly.

Madam Su said nothing, merely gesturing toward Wu Chen. The tall bodyguard straightened and looked at him.

"You told Madam Su I put my hands on Miss Su and smacked her backside. Is that right?" Wu Chen asked directly.

"Yes."

The tall bodyguard gave a crisp, one-word answer. He would not lie.

"I never said he was lying," Wu Chen told Madam Su.

Then he smiled at the tall bodyguard.

"Since you brought it up, could you tell your madam in greater detail what else I did to Miss Su?"

The tall bodyguard froze. He did not understand what Wu Chen was after. Was he asking to have even more of his actions exposed? Madam Su could not help asking too.

The tall bodyguard turned to her and began to speak. "Please be thorough," Wu Chen added.

"Well... he stood behind Miss Su with his arms around her while she played. Several times, he had her take a shot on her own. He also pulled her quite hard, yanking her aside so he could take a shot himself."

"And he smacked her backside. He adjusted her shoulders, kicked the side of her foot to get her to draw her leg in, held her waist and pushed the back of her head. He seemed to be correcting her posture and stance."

The tall bodyguard went into remarkable detail, speaking for several minutes.

It was not that he had an extraordinary memory. Everything unusual Wu Chen had done to Su Qingying had stood out and was easy to remember.

No one dared treat Su Qingying that way. Wu Chen alone had, and his handling of her could even be described as rough.

But as he spoke, the bodyguard's tone began to change. He, too, realized he might have misunderstood.

He had made his report early, right after Wu Chen smacked Su Qingying's backside for the second time.

Madam Su had spent the next half hour traveling to Tangsha Club, and he had made no further report.

The more Madam Su listened, the more something seemed off. She knew the bodyguard would never deceive her; he had described exactly what he saw. She still suspected Wu Chen had taken advantage of the situation to touch her daughter, but taken as a whole, it did not quite fit.

"Have you finished describing all that touching and holding?" Wu Chen asked.

The tall bodyguard turned toward him. "If so, please answer two questions for me."

"First, how good do you think I am at golf?" Wu Chen asked him.

"Uh... good. Very good."

The tall bodyguard thought for a moment. "You can hit the ball that far. You might even be at a professional level."

"Second," Wu Chen said, watching him, "what do you think I was doing with your young lady during that half hour?"

"You were teaching her to play golf," the bodyguard answered at once. "And you were pretty strict." Having recounted everything, he finally understood. Wu Chen really had been teaching Su Qingying to play golf.

As soon as the bodyguard finished, Wu Chen turned to Madam Su. His smile vanished, and when he spoke, his voice was full of anger, as though he had spent the entire day swallowing one insult after another.

"You heard him, Madam Su."

"Your bodyguard wouldn't lie. Isn't that what you said?"

"Could you please get the facts straight before questioning me next time?"

"And you expect me to explain myself?"

"What exactly do you want me to explain?"

"Ruobing and I have spent all day trying to help your daughter, and you're questioning me?"

"Don't you know how terrible your daughter is at golf?"

"Does she have a grudge against the game?"

"Why not have her try baseball instead?"

"If she can't play, she shouldn't. It's an insult to golf."

"So what if I smacked her backside?"

"Couldn't she at least learn to stand properly?"

"If she has an anterior pelvic tilt, she should get it treated. I was going easy on her by not kicking her. Does she have any idea how badly she plays?"

"I've taught plenty of friends to play over the years, and I've never seen anyone as hopeless as your daughter!"

"You—" Madam Su sprang to her feet. "Show my daughter some respect!"

That concludes this episode. Please keep listening!