Imperfect Desires

On the other side...

"Where did you run off to leaving your bride alone?"

Xin Xiaoli looked up from his phone screen and seeing his aunt, his expressions froze for half a second. He quickly regained his composure before replying, "I just had an important call to take."

Xin Suyin narrowed her eyes at him, "Today, your bride should be the most important one."

Xin Xiaoli laughed awkwardly before saying, "I'll keep that in mind."

"Auntie, how come you're so busy these days?" Xin Suyin raised her brow at Qiu Meihui inquisitively as the latter continued, "Make some time for my best friend as well. Liu Nuan misses you a lot."

Xin Suyin's eyes darkened as she heard Qiu Meihui's words and her eyes shifted towards Liu Nuan who was standing behind Qiu Meihui silently. But noticing her mother's gaze, Liu Nuan's whole body shivered and she cowered back wanting to hide far away. 

Liu Nuan tugged at Qiu Meihui's dress whispering, "Stop it, Meihui. Mom is busy."

Qiu Meihui didn't pay any heed to her as she went on, "Look, she's still thinking about you. I agree that you're busy but I think you can make a little time for your daughter."

Xin Suyin smiled at Qiu Meihui saying, "I should indeed make some time for my dear daughter." The way she emphasized her last words made Liu Nuan tremble in fear.

Liu Nuan had grown up in love and care. She had never faced any difficulty in her life because her mother solved everything for her. That's why she had always been closest to her mother. And truly believed that her mother loved her more than anything. However, it all suddenly changed...

*Flashback*

Liu Nuan was sleeping on the hospital bed. It had been over two weeks since she staged the show of 'miscarriage'. She had heard how torrents of abuse and slander had been thrown towards Chen Xiu. She'd be lying if she said it didn't give her satisfaction or happiness. Because it did. In fact, she hoped this matter to blew up even more so that Chen Xiu would disappear from her life for good!

Then Zhou Jinhai would be just hers. Only hers!

In the middle of the night, she suddenly woke up feeling thirsty. It was pitch black in the room. She pressed a button to turn on the light and shrieked when she noticed someone sitting still on the couch before her. Realizing who it was, she breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed her chest saying, "Mom, when did you come? And why are you just sitting there like this?"

Xin Suyin looked up and stared at Liu Nuan's face. Liu Nuan didn't know what she was trying to do but she found her mother's gaze a little strange. In truth, the way Xin Suyin looked at her made her scared. She could see her mother's bloodshot eyes and clenched jaw as if she was holding herself back from something.

And her silence made the atmosphere stifling. Liu Nuan slowly got out of the bed and came to her side as she called out again, "Mom? What's wrong? Don't scare me like that."

As if something broke, Xin Suyin's hand lifted and clutched around her neck, strangling her. Liu Nuan was startled as she tried to struggle but before Xin Suyin, she was just like an ant that was powerless. Even her struggles were fruitless and slowly the struggle was dying down along with her breath as her face turned pale.

Xin Suyin didn't seem like she was gonna let go. Only when Liu Nuan's consciousness was almost lost, did someone rushed inside and threw Xin Suyin off. She looked up and seeing her husband hugging Liu Nuan, her anger flared up.

"Have you lost your mind, Suyin? Are you trying to kill our daughter?" Hearing Liu Mingfan's voice, she picked up a vase and threw it at Liu Nuan but the latter was shielded by her husband. "Suyin!!"

Xin Suyin had already lost all her reason. The moment Liu Nuan called her 'mom', she was reminded of how Chen Xiu looked at her with hatred, disgust, and fear. She couldn't shake off that memory. It had been haunting her for hours. And the more she looked at Liu Nuan, the more she was reminded of how this girl took everything that belonged to her rightful daughter.

She hated the fact that she did everything to Chen Xiu with her own hands and that too just to make this fake daughter happy. 

"You knew it already, didn't you?" 

"What are you talking about?"

"You knew she is not my daughter! You knew she doesn't have my blood!" Seeing Liu Mingfan's eyes widening in surprise as if he didn't expect her to know this, she sneered, "You made a fool out of me? For that cheap woman, you cheated me like this?"

Liu Mingfan slowly helped Liu Nuan and put her back on the bed to rest. Seeing that she was breathing fine, he relaxed enough to retort, "So what? Every action has a retribution, when you took everything from Chen Hana, you should have remembered that she'd retaliate."

"I should have killed her back then as well!" 

Liu Mingfan nodded his head, "Indeed, you should have. If you did, maybe you'd have gotten away with everything you did."

"It's alright. If I didn't do it back then, I can do it now. I'll not only kill Chen Hana, I'll kill this daughter of yours right before your eyes!"

Liu Mingfan had a small smile playing on his lips as he said, "You can try. But let me remind you, for now, Liu Nuan is your daughter. Your biggest aim in life had been to take over the Xin Clan, do you think that the clan like that would want a mistress like you who couldn't even protect her own child? Also, it's you who did everything in your power to make Liu Nuan the daughter-in-law of Zhou family, how are you gonna explain yourself?"

*End of Flashback*