Chapter 94 Utilization
Su Luo assured that she had not told anyone about the wish she made to the princess. However, it is said that there is no impenetrable wall in the world. In addition to the three parties involved, there were two maids of the Su family, several handmaidens of the princess, eighteen cavalrymen squatting on the trees as sentinels, and countless flowers, trees, animals and plants in the palace garden. They could all be the impenetrable wall, so she could fully understand why Bao Zixing and Zhou Chongwen appeared in front of her with gloomy faces after returning home and having dinner.
"You...ah!" Bao Zixing remained speechless, saying you and me a few times, but he didn't express his intention. Zhou Chongwen was standing by and didn't say a word. This atmosphere made Su Luo feel a little passive.
"I don't think there is any problem." Su Luo put her hands on her hips and launched a counterattack. "In fact, my mother and Su Tong have already separated. I made that wish to the princess just to fill in a procedure. You know what the world is like now. If there is no divorce letter, my mother will not be able to sever her ties with the Su family even if she goes to the ends of the earth. She will still be Su Tong's concubine! Do you want that?"
Bao Zixing was at a loss for words. He rarely had nothing to say. "You should discuss this with your mother first."
"It happened suddenly." Su Luo pursed her lips, "Besides, she would definitely be hesitant if I discussed it with her."
"Alas!" In fact, Bao Zixing really had nothing to say. Regardless of who was divorcing whom, he hoped that the divorce letter would exist, but he also understood the conflict in Su's heart. "We can take our time with this matter. We can negotiate with Su Tong privately and let him write the divorce letter. There is no need to let the princess come forward."
"It's too late to say anything now. The princess has already agreed." Su Luo sat back on the stool and propped up her chin. "She said that she would come back once the prince's illness is cured. Then she might go to the capital to ask the emperor for permission to return my mother's freedom."
"Oh, oh, oh!" Bao Zixing walked around the room twice, sighed dozens of times in one breath, and finally said, "I'd better go see your mother. She hasn't had dinner yet, so she must be in a bad mood."
After Bao Zixing left, Su Luo breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at Zhou Chongwen, "What are you going to say? Anyway, I don't think I'm wrong. If you don't want my mother to continue pursuing happiness, then you can scold me."
Zhou Chongwen's face was completely gloomy, with no room for maneuver. Su Luo felt a little uneasy, and stood up and said, "It's getting dark, you should leave quickly to avoid gossip."
Zhou Chongwen walked over to Su Luo and sat down. "In the past, I didn't stay in your room for too long because I respected you and was afraid of gossip from outsiders, but I know you are not afraid."
Su Luo curled her lips in a noncommittal manner, feeling a little panicked inexplicably, "I'm sleepy. If you don't leave, I'm going to take off my clothes and go to bed."
"I want to know why you said that to the princess." Zhou Chongwen looked at Su Luo seriously without any avoidance.
"I just told Lao Bao the reason, didn't you hear it?" Su Luo tried hard to liven up the atmosphere, "Is it because there is too much earwax? Let me take a look..."
"Luo'er." Zhou Chongwen probably knew that he was too serious, so he let out a long breath and relaxed his expression. "I don't want you to lie to me, and I don't want to see you hurt Aunt Su."
Su Luo suddenly became excited, "How could I hurt her? I could have asked the princess to invite all the celebrities in Nanjing to attend the opening ceremony, or I could have asked the princess to sponsor Shiseido, but I didn't do that. I used this opportunity to let my mother completely leave the Su family, so that she can live freely from now on! Maybe my approach is hard for her to accept for a while, but she will understand it eventually!"
Su Luo's matter-of-fact look made Zhou Chongwen feel a little angry. He stood up suddenly and stared at Su Luo, "Yes! Why don't you let the princess help you expand your influence and gain a foothold in Nanjing? Why do you want to make this wish at this time so that the princess can't forget you and your daughter?"
"What did you say!" Su Luo bit her lower lip and her face began to turn pale.
"I hope I'm wrong." Zhou Chongwen's face didn't look very good either, "But the facts don't allow me to think otherwise. I know how much you want to be among the celebrities in Nanjing, but now you have such a good opportunity, but you gave it up. You said it was for your mother? There is obviously a better solution to your mother's problem."
Su Luo licked her dry lips. "If we go to the Su family privately... the Su family may not agree. They... their warehouse was burned down, and they lost a lot of money. Their life and livelihood have become a problem. They can't even bite us, so how can they be willing to sign a divorce agreement..."
"If you really think so, I will be happy for Aunt Su. But if you say this because you are afraid that the princess will gradually forget you and your daughter after leaving Nanjing, I really feel sorry for Aunt Su!"
Su Luo took a deep breath and said, "I don't understand what you are talking about. What do you mean by forget or not? My mother is the princess's sister, how could the princess forget? What am I afraid of?"
"You are naturally afraid that 'noble people forget things'! The princess is going back to Jianchang this time and it is unknown when she will come back. Although Aunt Su and she are sisters, they have only known each other for a short time. After a long time, aren't you worried that you will lose contact with the princess? In the short term, you will naturally benefit from the princess's influence and be looked at differently , but the future is long. When people see that you have no contact with the princess, how will they treat you? This is what you are afraid of, so you want to use the princess's most unhappy and proud thing to tie her down, let her stand up for Aunt Su, and let her voluntarily get closer and closer to you, right?"
This was the first time Zhou Chongwen spoke to Su Luo in such a harsh tone, and his tightly pursed lips showed that he was holding back extreme anger.
"I..." Su Luo's face was pale, but her lower lip was bitten red by her. "Even if I have this idea, I just want to have the best of both worlds. My mother's problem can be solved, and I don't have to work hard to curry favor with other people..."
"Sometimes I really wish I didn't know you so well." Zhou Chongwen slumped his shoulders, his handsome face full of disappointment. "You are a businessman, and there is nothing wrong with putting profit first, but you are really wrong about this matter. She is not your biological mother, so even if she gets hurt in the future, you won't feel that sad, right?"
Su Luo stared at him in disbelief and almost shouted, "What did you say!"
"I say, if it was the real Su Luo, she would never hurt her mother like this!" Zhou Chongwen's eyes were filled with disappointment and pain. "If I had known that your so-called care for Aunt Su was to use her and hurt her, I would never let you get close to her!"
"I won't hurt her!" Su Luo almost screamed, with some warmth slowly appearing in her eyes. "I told you the truth because I don't want to lie to you, not because I want you to blame me! You said you understand me, then you should know that I have my own bottom line. I'm really not Su Luo, but I really think of her as my mother, because I was unfilial before, and I don't want to be unfilial again if I get a second chance!"
Zhou Chongwen looked at the sparkling eyes of Su Luo, his nose had begun to turn red, and he could no longer say anything harsh. He clenched his fists and turned around, "Have you ever thought about what will happen to Aunt Su if the princess intervenes in this matter, or even asks the emperor to issue an order? She is not like the princess, who has a noble status. She will live her whole life under the discussion of the world. When she is ordered to divorce her husband, and there is public opinion, how can you teach her to remarry? I don't know what the customs in your hometown are, but here, in the Ming Dynasty, a woman's chastity is above all else. Remarrying after a widow is still criticized, not to mention this kind of shocking thing. You keep saying that you are thinking about her and want to have the best of both worlds. I sincerely hope that you have not thought of this, and it is not... intentional!"
After saying this, Zhou Chongwen walked out the door. He did not look back. He could not figure out whether he did not want to hear Su Luo's explanation or was afraid of seeing her cry. After leaving the room, he found that the sky was overcast. It started to rain without knowing when. The drizzle was silent and there was a smell of soil in the air. Looking back, the door behind him was half open. Su Luo did not come to close the door. Zhou Chongwen stared at the crack in the door in a daze. After a long time, he felt a sharp pain in the palm of his hand. He raised his hand, and his palm was scratched white by his nails. Looking at the palm that was slowly returning to blood color, Zhou Chongwen leaned against the wall, unable to tell what he was waiting for.
Were the words just now too harsh? Perhaps she really didn't expect such consequences... But she really took advantage of Su's experience to narrow the distance between her and Princess Huairou...
The candlelight flickered through the crack of the door and suddenly went out, interrupting Zhou Chongwen's wild thoughts. He looked at the door expectantly, perhaps hoping that Su Luo would come out and say something to him, but after waiting for a while, the room was silent. Zhou Chongwen sighed silently, stretched out his hand to close the door, turned around and walked down the stone steps, his figure disappeared in the misty drizzle.
Shortly after he left, the candlelight in Su Luo's room was lit again until dawn.
