"Ever since I was born, you never took care of me. Grandma was the one who kept me by her side and raised me. Isn't that right?"
Cui Xuemei did not understand why Chu Ci was bringing up the past. Her unease grew stronger, and she instinctively defended herself. "That's true, but I... I just felt I wasn't capable of raising you back then... That's why I left you with your grandma..."
Chu Ci was in no mood to listen to Cui Xuemei's excuses. He simply summed up her words. "So that means you admit you gave birth to me but never raised me, right?"
"I..."
A hint of guilt flashed in Cui Xuemei's eyes. "Even though I never raised you... But... But I carried you for ten long, difficult months and gave birth to you. You're my own flesh and blood. I just wasn't capable of raising you..."
"If you couldn't raise me, why did you give birth to me?"
Chu Ci raised his eyes to look at Cui Xuemei as she kept making excuses, but Grandma's kindly face suddenly flashed through his mind.
The boy's long, thick lashes trembled slightly. "You knew perfectly well that a child without parents would be looked down on, so why did you still abandon me?"
Cui Xuemei felt that the Chu Ci before her seemed unfamiliar. She offered a feeble explanation. "I... I was doing it for your own good..."
"For my own good?"
Chu Ci could not help letting out a cold laugh. "You weren't capable of raising me, so was Grandma capable of it? She worked so hard to raise her own son. Just when he finally started a family and established himself, and she could enjoy her old age in peace, you dumped a grandson who wasn't even a month old on her to look after. Did either of you ever consider Grandma's circumstances?"
"I..."
Cui Xuemei licked her dry lips.
Chu Ci raised his brows slightly and continued stating the facts. "Throughout these eighteen years of my schooling, you never contacted me. You never cared about how I was doing at school, let alone whether I was happy or healthy."
"I remember the first time you contacted me was because you happened to find out I'd become a celebrity. Once the call connected, you cried to me for a while, then said you'd been having a hard time lately and hoped I could help you..."
Although everyone present knew Cui Xuemei had contacted Chu Ci to ask for money, hearing it from the person involved still shook them.
The women who played cards with Cui Xuemei all had children of their own. Even when they were short of money, they felt too embarrassed to ask their children for it. Cui Xuemei had never looked after Chu Ci, so how could she have the nerve to ask him for money?
Cui Xuemei had always claimed that Chu Ci was filial and willingly handed his money over to her. Now, it seemed that was not the case.
There was more to this than met the eye.
Everyone had a natural appetite for gossip. Seeing that neither Cui Xuemei nor Chu Ci intended to send them away, they simply kept their mouths shut and watched the drama before them with relish.
"Cici!"
Seeing that Chu Ci was about to expose what she had done, Cui Xuemei grew agitated. "Whatever it is, can we go home and talk about it...?"
She could feel the incredulous gazes of the people around her.
Cui Xuemei had always portrayed Chu Ci as a good child who was "filial, sensible, and rich." She also told others that Chu Ci willingly gave her the money he earned. If these people found out she had demanded that money from him...
Cui Xuemei could not bear that humiliation.
"Home?"
Chu Ci gave a soft laugh. "Where do you think my home is? Or rather... do I even have a home now?"
"Of course you have a home."
Cui Xuemei had no choice but to soften her stance. "Wherever I am is your home. Everything that happened today was Mom's fault. Whatever it is, can we go home and talk it over?"
If the original Chu Ci had been standing before her now, he might really have softened. Unfortunately, the Chu Ci standing before Cui Xuemei now came from another time and space.
Chu Ci had seen this sort of act all too often. Thinking of the things Cui Xuemei had done, a flicker of disgust crossed his eyes.
"What can't we discuss right here?"
Chu Ci looked at the people around them and smiled. "Don't you often play mahjong with them? You must be pretty close, then, right? Since you're good friends with these aunties, why do we have to go home to talk? Or is it..."
At this point, Chu Ci drew out his words, his tone full of undisguised mockery and scorn. "You think the things you did are too shameful for anyone to know about, too?"
Cui Xuemei's pupils contracted slightly.
She had never expected Chu Ci to openly fall out with her in front of everyone. Remembering that there were other people around, Cui Xuemei struggled to control the emotions churning violently inside her and coaxed him in a gentle voice. "Cici, are you in a bad mood today? Did someone wrong you? Tell Mom what happened. Mom wants to help share your burden, too..."
So fake.
So hypocritical.
Looking at the smile Cui Xuemei forced onto her lips, Chu Ci felt inexplicably irritated. "Do you really want to help share my burden?"
An ominous premonition flashed through Cui Xuemei's mind. She could not quite gauge what Chu Ci was thinking, so she could only give an ambiguous answer. "You... tell me what it is first... Let me see if I can help..."
"You can definitely help."
Since things had already reached this point, Chu Ci could no longer be bothered to address Cui Xuemei respectfully. He looked at her uneasy face. "It just depends on whether you want to help me."
"What?"
The unease in Cui Xuemei's heart grew stronger and stronger. Even the air around her felt somewhat suffocating.
"I'm sick."
Chu Ci looked Cui Xuemei straight in the eye. "I need to go to the hospital for medicine every month. It's a considerable expense, so I hope you can give back what I gave you."
Not expecting Chu Ci to bring up "money," Cui Xuemei instinctively avoided his eyes. "Cici, it's not that Mom doesn't want to help you, but I don't have any money on hand right now."
Chu Ci had anticipated Cui Xuemei's reaction long ago. He said calmly, "Then let's continue going over the accounts."
"In May 2020, you contacted me by phone for the first time. You played the pity card, claiming you were 'struggling to get by.' After hanging up, I transferred fifty thousand yuan to your bank account."
At the mention of fifty thousand yuan, all three women present could not help drawing in a sharp breath. In the small county town where they lived, fifty thousand yuan was no small sum.
"In June 2020, you lost every last bit of that fifty thousand yuan playing mahjong. You couldn't bear to leave the mahjong parlor just like that, so you came up with the idea of pretending to be sick."
"That time, I transferred twenty thousand yuan to you."