A Gilded Cage of Love - Chapter 21

After returning to Gangcheng, Jiang Qin became busy again.

I also started working on the outline for my new book.

Although my previous books were products of the market, they brought me considerable income.

At least Niannian and I have never suffered any hardship in life.

When I talked about this with my editor, she just smiled and said, “If you write averagely, you attract readers; if you write too well, you attract your peers. You’re always dissatisfied with yourself, but you’ve already done very well.”

It was only later that I understood-what does it mean to write well or not?

Being able to attract readers is a skill. As long as they keep reading, there will always be a part that they like, or that resonates with them.

Isn’t the initial act of creation just a journey of building worlds and seeking resonance, again and again?

I was watering the flowers on the terrace.

An unexpected guest arrived outside the courtyard gate, but I didn’t expect Jiang Qin to instruct the bodyguards to stop her.

After five years, we met again.

I could still only describe her with the words “glittering with pearls and jewels.”

But she seemed much more haggard than before.

I went downstairs and told the security to leave, smiling at her, “Madam Jiang, come in.”

Madam Jiang saw me, smoothed her hair, and walked into the villa with her head held high.

I handed her a cup of floral tea.

She didn’t take it, and I didn’t insist, just placed it on the table in front of her.

She glanced around the room and asked, “Where’s Niannian?”

“He’s not here.”

Niannian wanted to learn piano. There were no suitable piano teachers in the small town before, so I learned from short video platforms and taught him myself.

Now that he has the chance, he brought it up again. Jiang Qin bought him the best piano and found him the best piano teacher.

With the new semester starting, he needs to get used to life here in advance and make some friends.

Going to the piano class is quite nice.

“Aunt Zhang went shopping, the bodyguards and the Filipino maid are in the yard, so it’s just me here now.”

After I said this, Madam Jiang finally spoke again:

“What do you have that’s better than General Lin’s granddaughter?

“Face, personality, or something else?

“I arranged so many meetings for him, but he kept refusing, not even once.

“There was a shortcut, but he insisted on taking these years, and his health suffered for it…

“He says I’m playing games with him, but isn’t he just as stubborn with me?”

I took a deep breath and said softly, “But if it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t be in the position he’s in now.”

“He’s in this position not because he wants to, but because he doesn’t want to play games with his own mother.”

“What do you know?” Madam Jiang’s face was cold.

“What is love? Romance makes heroes weak.

“Foolish.

“I won’t give you my blessing.”

I always thought that by now, Madam Jiang wouldn’t be the same as before.

But I still underestimated her competitiveness.

The next day, I picked Niannian up from class, drove to Jiang Corporation, and waited for Jiang Qin to have dinner together.

But as soon as I arrived downstairs, an elderly couple and a young man who was less than half his former size rushed out from the side.

The bodyguards reacted quickly, but my heart froze the moment I saw these three people.

“Ptui!” My mother spat at me, “Had a child behind our backs and lived happily outside! Shameless slut!”

Niannian was startled, “Mom…”

I snapped back and immediately signaled the bodyguard to take Niannian away.

My mother kept cursing:

“You even lied to us that you were dead!

“You don’t care if we live or die! You don’t care about us old folks at all.

“Unfilial, unfilial! How could the Ruan Family have such a worthless daughter.”

Ruan Zongyao pretended to hold my mother back, while talking to me, “Sister, do you know how sad Mom and Dad were when they thought you were dead? How could you lie to us? You’re alive and well, how could you pretend you were dead…”

“If I didn’t lie to you,” I raised my face, “would I just wait for you to bleed me dry?”

The bodyguards blocked them; they couldn’t get close to me.

My mother sat down on the ground and started making a scene.

“I can’t go on! Oh, I can’t go on!

“We raised her from the countryside of Guang City, and now she’s turned around and clung to the rich, even lied to us that she was dead.

“She doesn’t want to care about us, doesn’t want to support us in old age!”

My brother’s acting was too good; now he was crying his eyes out, “Dad, Mom, don’t cry. Even if Sister doesn’t care about you, you still have me. Although I gave up my chance to study for Sister back then, I have hands and feet, I can work, I’ll take care of you in your old age…”

A crowd gathered around, pointing and whispering.

“So rich, but doesn’t care about her family?”

“Look at what she’s wearing, then look at her family, oh my…”

I took a deep breath, just about to say something, when I saw a car parked not far away.

Madam Jiang, wearing sunglasses, was watching the commotion from afar.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd threw an egg.

It was summer, but I felt cold all over.

The egg broke on my skin, the sticky feeling giving me a sense of something I couldn’t shake off.

Just like my family is to me.

“Why? Why do you say that?”

I grabbed the megaphone from the person maintaining order nearby.

“Who the hell threw the egg? You just listen to one side of the story, huh? Why don’t you see how they treated me to raise their son? My brother always had the best clothes and food, while my hands were covered in chilblains. He went to school whenever he wanted, but I had to beg just to go to high school. When I went to college, I had to earn money to support their son, and if I couldn’t, I had to come home early to get married, because the older I got, the less bride price I’d fetch. If I didn’t give them money, they’d go to my mentor for it. They… they even asked me if I could sell myself to help pay compensation for their son!

“Is it that I don’t care about my family? Did I not care?

“Why did you throw things at me?

“You…”

A huge wave of grievance swept over me.

I wanted to say more.

But I was pulled into a strong embrace.

“Jiang Qin? Isn’t that Jiang Qin?!”