As soon as Chiang Qing spoke, Lu Shufen and Jiang Conghe’s faces changed simultaneously.
"You... bastard!" Jiang Conghe slammed the table heavily, pointing at Chiang Qing and bellowing, "Who taught you this nonsense?"
Lu Shufen was also shocked. How could this be, how could her daughter know?
The union of Lu Shufen and Jiang Conghe had originated from a stage play—back then, she wasn’t yet a director but a talented and delicate flower of the Cultural Work Troupe, while Jiang Conghe was not the commander he is now but merely a low-ranking squad leader.
To show their love and perform for the Old Red Army soldiers, the Cultural Work Troupe and the military unit Jiang Conghe belonged to at the time jointly put on a play about the Red Army fighting the Japanese invaders. It was during that time that she fell for the tall and handsome Jiang Conghe.
However, Jiang Conghe had just got married and had a child. Meeting too late to change anything and constrained by societal norms, they could only bury their feelings for each other deep inside their hearts.
But as the saying goes: when the turtle spots the green bean, if it’s the right one, how can it simply let go?
When the man’s willing and the lady’s eager, the more they tried to suppress their so-called love in their hearts, the more they yearned, eventually leading to an uncontrollable affair.
Lu Shufen and Jiang Conghe secretly got together and conceived Chiang Qing, which truly caused an uproar.
The Loo Family had by that time already established a firm footing amidst chaos. Seeing Lu Shufen with a hidden pregnancy and considering her suitor was already married, the Loo Family leveraged their connections to force Jiang Conghe to divorce his first wife, Li Jinlan.
One month after Jiang Conghe and Li Jinlan divorced, he married Lu Shufen. Within less than a year, they had Chiang Qing. With support from her father’s family and his own efforts, as well as his heroic past in the resistance against Japan, his political career soared. In less than two years, they had a son, Chiang Tian, and up until today, he could be considered a winner in life.
But despite all this, there was always a stain on how the two of them initially came together—they tried hard to suppress it and erase traces of the past, but a stain on fabric is impossible to ever fully wash away.
Yet, how could their daughter have known about these things?
"How do you know this?" Lu Shufen asked through clenched teeth.
Chiang Qing regretted mentioning this, seeing how taboo the topic was to her parents. Why had she suddenly blurted it out?
She stuttered, not daring to speak.
"I’m asking you, how do you know this?"
Lu Shufen, who usually doted on her daughter, was now also fuming, and in extreme anger, she smashed the teacup beside her against the ground.
Chiang Qing was startled.
In her memory, her mother was gentle and graceful; she had never seen her get so angry.
"I’ve known for a long time. A couple of years ago, I saw Jiang Dafang come to see Dad, and I asked my uncle about it," Chiang Qing hurriedly said.
Jiang Dafang, that was Jiang Conghe’s first child, the bastard born to Li Guilan.
Lu Shufen’s gaze whipped towards Jiang Conghe, her eyes wide with shock.
Jiang Conghe felt uneasy. After he divorced Li Guilan, she never remarried but instead lived alone with her son, enduring gossips and whispers.
Out of consideration for this fact, Jiang Conghe also provided for the mother and son in secret, of course, without Lu Shufen’s knowledge.
Cautious and jealous, Lu Shufen could take offense at the smallest slight; if she were to discover that he had been secretly seeing the mother and son, who knows what commotion she might cause!
And now, this matter he thought was hidden had been uncovered by his daughter, and exposed at such a time.
"Shufen, I can explain," Jiang Conghe said in a hurry.
"Shut your mouth!" Lu Shufen roared, "Jiang Conghe, you’ve kept this from me for so long, oh how you’ve deceived me, you really... you..."
Lu Shufen felt a sudden pain in her chest and collapsed to the ground.