The Heiress's Game

The production schedule for "Walking with Brilliance" is posted on the wall directly opposite Li Chunjing's desk, with dense markings of each episode's editing milestones, promotional schedule, and platform contact person.

After slacking off for a while, Lao Ma finally resigned completely. Gu Yunjin didn't try to stop him, and simply wrote "Approved" without even a period.

Gu Yunjin temporarily promoted a vice president to manage these matters.

During this period, Li Chunjing finally understood the feeling that Lu Xiao had described: "a thousand threads in a row, but every thread is firmly in your own hands."

Her schedule is now almost entirely filled with blank spaces.

I arrived at the film set at 7 a.m. to oversee the recording in the studio. At noon, I had a meeting with Director Fang and the editing team. In the afternoon, I handled the platform's scheduling feedback and reviewed the materials from brand sponsors. In the evening, I returned to Suiyuan to report the project's progress to Gu Yunjin.

My phone is on 24/7, and I can never scroll to the bottom of the message list.

Once, she was still replying to messages in the publicity and marketing coordination group at two in the morning. After typing the last word, she looked up and glanced out the window.

Then she glanced down at the latest balance notification on her mobile banking app, a faint smile appearing on her lips.

She never knew that the numbers in her bank account could be so large as to give her peace of mind.

Just when she was so busy that she almost forgot she had a mother and a younger sister, Zhou Xiulan called.

When Li Chunjing saw the caller ID, her finger hovered in mid-air for a moment.

She answered the phone, and Zhou Xiulan's voice was still cautiously tentative as she said she was getting married.

In a few days, the children from both sides will have a meal together to get to know each other, just as a formality.

"Chun Jing, can you come? Just to give Mom face."

Li Chunjing leaned against the wall of the corridor outside the film set, rubbing her throbbing temples, and said, "We've severed our mother-daughter relationship. It was the court's ruling, don't you remember?"

Zhou Xiulan's voice suddenly choked up as she said she knew she didn't deserve to be a mother, that she had wronged Chunjing all these years, and that she didn't dare ask for forgiveness.

She felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Old Zheng was an honest man, and she just wanted to live a few peaceful days.

She said she knew she was extremely biased and that she had let Chunjing down, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime event, just like when her father died.

Li Chunjing held her phone in silence for a long time, but she finally said "okay".

One weekend afternoon, Li Chunjing drove back to her old house.

She brought some fruit and nutritional supplements. When she entered, Zhou Xiulan was squatting on the living room floor wiping the legs of the coffee table.

Seeing her come in, she quickly stood up, saying, "You're here, why did you bring anything?" Li Chunjing put the things on the coffee table and looked around.

The mother and daughter sat down and exchanged a few awkward pleasantries.

Zhou Xiulan sighed deeply: "Your sister—after that day, I hit her."

"She brought that man back, saying she wanted to use my dowry money to pay off her debts, saying, 'Mom, you should remarry and give your daughter a better life.' At that moment—I really felt like I had wasted my life."

"And then?" Li Chunjing asked.

"Then I hit her. I had never laid a finger on her since I was a child, but that day I grabbed a broom and hit her."

Zhou Xiulan's eyes reddened, and her lips trembled, but what she said next made Li Chunjing's hand, holding the teacup, freeze in mid-air—

"But I regretted it after I hit her. Xiaoxiao had never been hit before. That day she cried so much, knelt on the ground and hugged my legs, saying, 'Mom, please don't hit me anymore.' So I just couldn't hit her anymore."

Li Chunjing placed the teacup on the coffee table, making a very soft tapping sound.

I did not call the police.

Zhou Xiulan added that her voice was so low it was almost inaudible.

"You told me to call the police last time, but I didn't. Xiaoxiao—she already has a criminal record, and I'm afraid that if I add another one, her life will be truly ruined."

Li Chunjing leaned back on the sofa and suddenly chuckled.

She truly felt there was a kind of sorrow in this world that you could see clearly from the sidelines, but you could never wake up someone who was willingly drowning in love.

"Mom, do you know why you've ended up like this?"

Her voice was calm.

"It's not because Li Xiaoxiao is bad, it's because you never let her pay the price for her bad deeds."

She spent all my money and you didn't stop her; she drugged me and you cooperated; she used you to exchange for a bride price and you even felt sorry for her being beaten.

You think you love her, but you're using me as a sacrifice for her.

Zhou Xiulan's tears fell, but she didn't wail loudly like before. She just lowered her head, and tears fell drop by drop onto the bright red new coat on her knees.

"I know you hate me. You have every right to hate me. I don't dare ask for your forgiveness. Just come and have a meal, so that the Zheng family can look presentable—"

"I'm not going. You can let Li Xiaoxiao go."

"How did you two meet, Old Zheng?" she asked, her tone more relaxed than before.

Zhou Xiulan paused for a moment, then began twisting the hem of her apron with both hands again.

"We met while dancing. It was in the senior ballroom dance group in the park. You know, Mom has been going to dance every week for the past few years."

When she said this, her voice finally stopped trembling and even carried a faint, embarrassed smile.

"Old Zheng is a very nice person. He's a few years older than me. He worked at the tax bureau before he retired and has been widowed for many years."

Both of my children are married and have good jobs; one works at a hospital and the other at a bank.

He receives a substantial monthly pension; he keeps a portion for himself and gives me five thousand yuan to cover the household food expenses. I don't need to worry about anything else.

"Five thousand yuan, covering food expenses." Li Chunjing muttered these words to herself, then looked up at Zhou Xiulan.

"Mom, you married into the family, not went there to be a nanny. You now have a monthly pension of over two thousand yuan, plus the support I give you, which is more than enough for you to live on your own. Why would you need to buy groceries and cook for someone else?"

"She's not a nanny—why are you putting it so harshly?" Zhou Xiulan exclaimed in agitation.

"Old Zheng is good to me. We agreed to support each other through life, and the children are all grown up and don't live with us anymore—"

"Mutual support? He gives you five thousand yuan, and you're responsible for the food and drink of the whole family. Is that what you call mutual support?"

"If you were to register as a live-in nanny with a domestic service company, doing grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry, your monthly salary would be more than five thousand."

"Besides, nannies don't need to register their marriage with their employers. You're going to get a marriage certificate with him now, move into his house, take five thousand yuan a month, feed the whole family, and think you've found your place?"

Zhou Xiulan lowered her head and remained silent.

Li Chunjing quickly realized that there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world.

"His children don't agree to you getting a marriage certificate, right?"

Zhou Xiulan fell silent, so Li Chunjing continued to ask.

"So they came up with a compromise: they invited the children from both sides to have a meal together, just to go through the motions."

"To put it nicely, it's called getting to know each other; to put it bluntly, it's making you two live together illegally—without a certificate, you move in, he provides you with food and drink, and he gives you five thousand yuan."

"If he gets unwell someday, you'll have to take care of him."

The day he dies, the first thing his children will do is kick you out. What will you do then? Come back to Li Xiaoxiao?

Do you think Li Xiaoxiao will let you live at her house? Or are you expecting me to take care of you in your old age?

Just then, the tightly closed door at the end of the corridor was suddenly pulled open.

Li Xiaoxiao rushed out from inside, wearing pajamas, her hair piled up in a mess, and her face flushed red.

She had clearly been listening in the room the whole time, and finally couldn't hold back any longer.

"Li Chunjing, that's enough! What gives you the right to point fingers here?"

Are you jealous that Mom found a good family? You got dumped by Fei Yang, so you can't stand seeing others get married, right?

Didn't you cut ties with our family now? If you've already cut ties, why are you coming back? Who do you think you are?

You just can't stand to see us doing well, and you're afraid that Mom will get married and leave the old house to me instead of you, right?

And what about your own petty affairs? You think nobody knows? You almost got married, but the Fei family still rejected you!

Li Chunjing stood up, walked up to Li Xiaoxiao, and slapped her twice across the face.

The first slap was crisp and clear, and Li Xiaoxiao's face was turned to the side by the blow. Before she could react, the second slap had already landed, louder and more forceful.

Li Xiaoxiao screamed and staggered back two steps, bumping into the door frame of the corridor, covering her face and looking at her in disbelief.

"The first slap is because you still haven't paid back the money you owe me."

"The second slap was because you have no right to mention Fei Yang. What were you doing when his mother brought me to the company? You were using my money to buy bags."

Li Xiaoxiao covered her face and took a step back, her back hitting the door frame of the corridor. Tears welled up in her eyes, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.

Zhou Xiulan rushed over and stood in front of Li Xiaoxiao.

She wasn't trying to fight back for Li Xiaoxiao; she was just instinctively protecting her, like a hen spreading its wings, her whole body trembling, her eyes red as if about to bleed, and she kept muttering to herself.

"Don't hit her, don't hit your sister."

Li Chunjing looked at them—one covered her face and hid behind her mother, crying; the other spread her arms wide, protecting them. The exact same positions, the exact same script.

She had watched it countless times since she was a child, and should have guessed that this would be the ending.

"Mom, you're hopeless," she said. Then she picked up her bag from the shoe cabinet, opened the door, and went out.

The motion-activated light in the corridor flickered and then came on, casting a long shadow of her as she walked downstairs.

She didn't turn around, nor did she hear any voices trying to stop her from behind.

Li Chunjing leaned against the car and closed her eyes for a while. She thought that some people were not without the opportunity to be saved, but they chose not to be saved.

Zhou Xiulan chose Li Xiaoxiao, just as Li Xiaoxiao chose selfishness, while she chose to move forward.

She gripped the steering wheel and whispered to herself: I will never come back.