Chà Chà Novel

Like a stone tossed into a river, the revelation stirred only a brief ripple before Ji Shileng’s heart grew calm again.

His dark eyes rested on Mrs. Shang as he asked carelessly, “And?”

What was the point of telling him any of this now?

Mrs. Shang stared back without blinking, her heart sinking further. She forced herself to continue. “I want you to know that you’re very important to my son”

Ji Shileng’s gaze was far too indifferent.

At her words, his thick lashes shifted with the curve of his eyes, and a faint flicker of mockery passed across them.

“Very important?” he repeated. “Please, Mrs. Shang. Spare me the joke”

He made no attempt to spare her feelings.

Truthfully, there had never been any affection between them to preserve.

“You Shangs all have the same blood running through your veins” Ji Shileng exposed her intentions without hesitation. “Are you telling me this because you want me back?”

Under his candid, penetrating gaze, Mrs. Shang turned her head away.

For a moment, she did not know what to say.

She had indeed approached him thinking she might as well try.

After all those years he had spent with the Shang family, surely she knew what kind of person he was?

Yet after only a few months apart, she suddenly realized that she did not understand Ji Shileng at all.

The social maneuvering of wealthy society wives had always been her specialty.

Now, facing him, she unexpectedly found herself speechless.

“Am I really so…” He paused, finally finding the right word. “Am I really so cheap?”

He gave two helpless little laughs and asked earnestly, “I’m curious. What exactly gave you all the impression that I’m easy to persuade? That I’m softhearted?”

Mrs. Shang averted her eyes, almost in disarray.

Wasn’t it because he had been so easy to bully before?

In truth, Ji Shileng did not need her answer.

He already knew it perfectly well.

“Tell me, what makes a pile of garbage like you worth going back to?”

Mrs. Shang was shaken to the core. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she watched him slowly wheel himself toward her.

“What kind of retribution would you like?”

There was no anger in his voice.

Rather than a question, it sounded like indifference, as though her answer scarcely mattered.

With her personal space invaded, Mrs. Shang shuddered as if a snake had bitten her and stepped back.

But where could she go?

She was already at the outer edge of the balcony. Behind her, there was only a wall.

Only when her back met its cold surface did she realize she had nowhere left to retreat.

“What are you going to do?” She finally recovered a little of her voice, fear spilling uncontrollably from her eyes.

She had never seen Ji Shileng like this.

Gentle yet forceful, his words so cool and detached that they made her heart jolt.

“I’d like to consult you about your thoughts on your future,” he said unhurriedly, making a show of caring about her opinion.

By now, that tone was what Mrs. Shang feared most.

At his words, she staggered half a step and caught the railing, barely supporting her suddenly weakened body.

She knew he was not joking.

With no other recourse, she forced a smile. “Xiaoshi, surely we can talk everything through? We were family once”

Ji Shileng rolled back slightly in disgust, putting more distance between them.

“Once? You think you deserve to call yourself my family? And don’t call me Xiaoshi. It’s disgusting” Unwilling to argue further, he continued, “Sorry, Shang Jianli’s mother, but my patience is limited”

“I’ll ask one last time. What do you want your future life to be like?”

Mrs. Shang gripped the railing, unable to keep her voice from trembling. She knew she had to answer.

Since he dared ask, she gave him a direct response. “Happy. With enough to eat and wear, and good health”

To her surprise, Ji Shileng merely gave a small nod.

She was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he smiled. “A miserable life, without enough clothes to cover yourself or enough food to fill your stomach?”

“I almost forgot. Poor health too”

Her heart lurched, and she barely dared to breathe. “Xiaoshi, how could that be? Did you mishear me?”

Under such intense strain, she forgot to change how she addressed him.

Ji Shileng rested his chin on one hand, his beautiful eyes so gentle that moonlight seemed to flow through them.

He raised the index finger of his other hand and wagged it lightly.

“First, another friendly reminder: don’t call me Xiaoshi”

“Second, you heard me correctly. I’m doing it on purpose”

Mrs. Shang looked as though she had just read her own death sentence. Her face instantly turned paper-white.

Ji Shileng lowered his hand, then suddenly asked another question. “You didn’t dislike me just because I had no power or influence, did you?”

He had an answer, but he was still curious.

Mrs. Shang stared in terror, waiting for his next words.

“You were afraid Shang Jianli really liked me, weren’t you?”

It was phrased as a question, but seeing her trembling uncontrollably told him everything he needed to know.

Without waiting for a reply, he delivered his verdict. “You really are a family”

A profoundly self-centered father and a mother obsessed with control had raised a son indifferent to everything.

What a family of strange people.

And he, an ordinary person caught among them, had ended up shattered.

Ji Shileng felt there was nothing more to say. Before leaving, he even waved cheerfully. “Mrs. Shang, I hope you’ll stop daydreaming by the next time we meet”

Trying to win him back?

Too late.

He would not become entangled with the Shang family even in his next life.

Let alone this one.

Before leaving the balcony, he turned his head again, showing half his profile. His long lashes cast delicate shadows, veiling his gaze.

“If you really want me back, your whole family should go back into the furnace and be made all over again”

His voice was not loud, yet Mrs. Shang heard every word.

They sank into her heart and became a heavy blow, punching a hole straight through it.

Despite the breeze on the balcony, she was drenched in sweat.

Suddenly, there was a click, faint but crisp.

Even amid the noise from the banquet hall, it reached his ears clearly.

After leaving the balcony, Ji Shileng belatedly looked up and saw someone standing around the corner, a cigarette glowing intermittently between his lips.

The corner was dim, and he could not make out the man’s face.

Even so, he knew who it was.

The contempt for the Shang family gradually faded from his eyes, replaced by puzzlement.

An exquisite lighter spun several times between Qin Si’s fingers. He tapped the ash from his cigarette, stubbed it out, and said, “What a coincidence”