A little further on, in a restaurant, Madam Lin sat facing her.
The lady told her that she was a wonderful sister, and asked her how she could do such a thing to her own little sister.
Su Fu told her that she was afraid she had made a mistake, because she had broken ties with the family and had become an orphan again, without any little sister at all. And she told Madam Lin that after what they had done to her, she assumed the lady knew it perfectly well in her own heart; she had only given Su Li two slaps, and she didn't think that was too much.
This lady, Su Fu thought, was the finest practitioner of mind control she had ever met. She had been manipulating her for almost twenty years, and now, the moment she arrived, she blamed her directly. That really was her style. And of course she had only become more powerful with time.
The lady looked a little worried and asked how on earth they had treated her badly, because the Qin family was a rich family, and Qin Sha loved her older sister a great deal — that was why she had wanted her to marry into it, so that she could enjoy the blessings of that house. But in the end she had embarrassed him in front of so many people at the altar, and she had really let her down.
"So you're disappointed," Su Fu said. "Then that's good."
The lady told her that she was daring.
Su Fu said that she did want to find out how far this test would go. It was the first time in her life that she had dared to confront Madam Lin, because in the old days the lady was the mistress of that house, and she had had to be careful every single day. But of course, people still had to be themselves, so that they could have confidence in themselves and keep their heads held high in the face of villains.
In any case, the lady said, the family had been hurt, and she should go and apologise to Su Li.
Su Fu made a small gesture of astonishment and asked her why she should apologise.
Her adoptive mother put on her worried face again and said that her little sister Su Li was a public figure, and that for her to withdraw from this quietly, Su Fu could only apologise publicly, in front of the media. Her mother was saying this for her own good, too — because only when she did that would other people believe that she had been impulsive and had not meant it, and be able to forgive her mistakes.
Su Fu held her cup in her hand and told her that she had hit her because she deserved it.
The lady raised her own cup and told her that she had gone too far. But Su Fu, reaching for the sheet of paper, knocked the lady's cup out of her hand, because the lady's intentions had not been good.
Then she threw the paper down in front of her.
"That's the agreement to cancel the relationship. I wrote it myself. Please take it home and ask Mr. Su to sign it."
She stood up, and said that as for the coffee, it had to be served like this — and she poured all of it over the lady's head. Then she said goodbye to her.
The lady said that she was a damned — and asked her how she dared to treat her like that. And she said, furiously, that in that case she shouldn't blame her for being cruel and ruthless, and for despising the mother-and-daughter relationship of all those years.
Back at Ji Yansi's villa, Su Fu asked why the door had opened by itself, and asked the little inventor Su Zi what he was doing.
He said that he was changing the door system, so that from now on you had to enter a code to get in.
Su Fu asked him how he could just do that, and who had asked him to.
The little inventor pointed at his daddy, and Su Fu's husband said that he had asked him to.
She turned round, and Ji Yansi came quite close, and then he picked her up. Su Fu began asking him to put her down, and asked him whether he didn't listen to her at all, but he carried her off very calmly while she went on asking to be put down.
A few steps later she was on the bed, blushing hard, asking him what he wanted to do. He came down over her and asked her what she thought he wanted to do. She covered her face, very shy and embarrassed, and then opened her eyes; and her husband asked her again what she wanted to do; and she started hitting Ji Yansi, but he caught her hand and gave it a kiss and told her not to be in such a hurry, because he would satisfy her soon enough.
Outside, all the little ones were trying to listen at the door.
The genius asked why nothing could be heard, and wondered what her mommy and daddy were doing.
The little inventor said that the doors here were soundproofed, and that unless the material was changed, they would never be able to hear them.
The programmer said that then his dad would find out, and it was better to install a camera directly — that way they could always know the progress of the relationship between their dad and their mom, and make a plan to get them together, so that their mom stopped thinking about moving out all the time.
But the little painter held up a photo and said that he thought his mom and dad were on very good terms right now.
At that the little doctor said that he also thought their mommy must be very satisfied with their daddy, after not coming out for so long.
Then their mother came out, and told the little detective Su An that for the sake of all six children he had better come with her. He was terrified. But a butler laughed and told the young miss and the young masters that it was time for their snack, and they all said that was fine, and the little detective said that he was saved.
Later Su Fu sat at a desk with her laptop open. Her husband came in and asked her whether she was looking at the information on Star Entertainment.
She said yes; since she was going there, she had to be prepared.
Ji Yansi leaned his head down on the desk and asked her whether, if six years ago it had been somebody else, she would have cared quite so much.
Su Fu asked him why he would ask that sort of question, because that sort of question sounded like insecurity.
It seemed to her that since meeting Ji Yansi again, he was not nearly as cold as the outside world said he was. He worried about her being bullied, he worried about the children's safety, he worried about her worrying about him. And she didn't know what he had lived through, or what had made him sensitive enough to ask her a question like that so suddenly. Her intuition told her that Ji Yansi's heart was actually very soft, and that he only pretended to be indifferent on the surface.
She told him to talk about something else, but Ji Yansi kissed her and told her that he did not want to talk to her about anything other than love.
It was obvious that he was a big bad man, Su Fu thought — so how did he turn into a clingy little dog when it came to her? Maybe her way of understanding him was wrong.
Then an email came in.
"Well," she said. "I've received an email."
Ji Yansi looked a little put out.
In the email was the report on Su Li. Su Fu said that these were the leading-actress candidates for a new film project. Her eyes widened. If she remembered correctly, that film had to be the one Star Entertainment had wanted to sign their little genius Lulu for a few days ago.
This time it was the list of candidates. And she said that this was going to be interesting.