Contract Over: Heiress Unmasked

Chapter 14: Memories Are Poison

The day Su Qingyun was discharged, the snow had finally stopped. The trees were draped in crystal lace, and the sky was a piercing, cloudless blue. Ruan Shaodong drove to pick her up himself. The two of them were silent the whole ride, the atmosphere heavy and suffocating.

In the back seat, little Chutang was a bundle of excitement. She breathed onto the cold glass, using her finger to doodle in the fog. Her mom was finally coming home. She drew three stick figures holding hands, her eyes crinkling with pure joy.

Su Qingyun caught sight of the drawing in the reflection. Her chest tightened, and her eyes burned. She looked away quickly, dabbing at her tears before forcing a smile. "Chutang, your birthday is in a few days. What do you want this year?"

Chutang didn't look up from her art. "I want a Cinnamoroll, Mom."

"A Cinnamoroll?" Su Qingyun asked softly. "Is that a kind of puppy? I don't think I've heard of that breed."

"No," Chutang giggled, shaking her head. "It’s a cartoon. I want a ceramic one. Xueluo told me about this DIY shop on Chang’an Road. You can buy a plain one and paint it yourself." She turned to her mother, eyes wide. "Xueluo and Zheng’an went last week. They made the cutest ones."

Su Qingyun smiled, though the light didn't quite reach her eyes. "Okay, baby. If that’s what you want, Mom will take you."

On Chutang’s twelfth birthday, the snow returned in thick, heavy flakes.

Ruan Chutang and her mother walked hand-in-hand into the craft shop. They had pre-ordered the unpainted ceramic pup, so they got straight to work. It was the first time they had ever made something together. Chutang was thrilled with the result—her Cinnamoroll looked exactly like the pictures, maybe even better.

As they left, they stopped at a nearby bakery. Su Qingyun carried the cake in one hand and held Chutang with the other. They walked through the falling snow for a while before her mother suddenly stopped. She turned, looking at Chutang with a gaze so full of longing it hurt.

"Chutang, I love you. So, so much."

Her voice was barely a whisper, quickly swallowed by the biting north wind. Chutang’s nose was bright red from the cold. Her mother said she loved her all the time, so she didn't think twice about it. "I love you too, Mom."

Su Qingyun’s throat constricted. Her daughter was only twelve. She was so small. How was she supposed to leave her behind? She looked away, hiding her face as they continued walking.

They crossed the crowded pedestrian street to the open parking lot where Ruan Shaodong was waiting. From a distance, Chutang saw her father standing in the snow, smoking. He looked devastatingly lonely, a look of profound grief etched into his face.

She blinked, confused, but the moment her father saw them, the mask snapped back into place. He looked like his usual self again. Chutang figured she had just imagined it.

He crushed his cigarette under his boot. "You're back," he said, his voice raspy.

"Mhm," Su Qingyun replied.

That night, Ruan Shaodong cooked. They sat around the table like a normal, happy family. Chutang wore a cardboard crown, made a wish, and blew out her candles.

The nightmare started during the cake.

Su Qingyun was about to take a bite when she suddenly began coughing up blood. Large, terrifying amounts of it. Chutang froze, her cake slipping from her fingers and splattering onto her new leather shoes.

Ruan Shaodong scrambled to his feet, scooping his wife into his arms. His voice broke. "Qingyun! Qingyun, stay with me! I'm getting you to the hospital!"

The nanny fumbled with the phone to call an ambulance. Chutang stood there, paralyzed, her mind a complete blank. *Why? The doctors said she was better. They said she could come home.*

The sirens arrived minutes later. Paramedics loaded Su Qingyun onto the stretcher.

Before they left, Chutang saw her mother looking at her through a blur of tears. Her mouth moved, struggling to form words through the pain. Chutang read her lips.

*I'm sorry.*

The tears finally came. Chutang bolted out the door, sprinting into the freezing night. "Mom! Mom, don't leave!"

But the ambulance was in a race against time. It pulled away, disappearing into the white void of the storm.

Chutang chased it until her lungs burned and the tail lights vanished. That night, Su Qingyun died. Ruan Shaodong stayed by her side until the end, sobbing until he had nothing left. Chutang didn't know any of that.

She hadn't caught the ambulance. She had tripped and fallen in the snow, and the nanny had to carry her back inside. That night, she ran a fever so high she drifted in and out of consciousness, crying for her mother until dawn.

When she woke up, the world was different. Her mother was gone. Chutang refused to go to the hospital to say goodbye. She couldn't handle seeing her mother as a cold, unmoving body.

She spent months in denial, telling herself that as long as she didn't see the body, her mother wasn't really dead. She was just on a long trip. In her mind, the vibrant, smiling woman was still out there somewhere.

After the funeral, Chutang stopped eating. She spent her days huddled in a corner, clutching the ceramic doll, crying silently until she fell asleep.

Ruan Shaodong aged ten years overnight. The light went out of his eyes, his hair turned gray, and he barely had the strength to care for himself, let alone a grieving daughter. He was eventually diagnosed with clinical depression.

Chutang believed her father would never marry again. How could he, when he loved her mother so much? But two years later, he brought her mother’s former best friend home as his new wife.

The fallout was explosive. Chutang moved into her school dorms that very day. Even during holidays, she would lock herself in her room, refusing to speak a word to them.

They had finally started to repair their relationship during her senior year of college, but then came the marriage alliance with the Jiang family. It was the final straw. Ruan Shaodong, usually indulgent, wouldn't budge. He even cut off her credit cards to force her home.

The marriage was just the trigger. The real reason she ran away was the betrayal. Her father had replaced her mother. She felt like he was marrying her off just to get her out of the way—to finally scrub the last piece of Su Qingyun from his life.

She had been gone for three years. And she had taken that ceramic doll with her every step of the way. It was her anchor. Her last link to her mother.

And now, it was gone.

Once Chutang finished crying, she went into survival mode. She needed a master restorer. She snapped a photo of the bloody shards and posted it to her private social feed.

*Looking for a top-tier restoration expert.*

Her network in Jiangcheng was deep. She had relatives in high places and friends who were heirs to fortunes. Finding a specialist shouldn't be impossible.

Within minutes, her phone rang. It was Jiang Shixu.

She answered immediately, hoping for a lead.

"Chutang, are you hurt?" Shixu’s voice was sharp with panic.

She blinked, confused for a second before she realized the photo showed the blood on the shards. "No. It’s not my blood."

"What happened?" he asked, his voice dropping. "How did your mom’s doll get broken?"

Chutang went quiet. She didn't know where to start. But she was stunned that he knew exactly what those shards were just by looking at them.

After a beat of silence, his voice came through, firm and final. "I'm heading to the airport. Wait for me. I'm coming to Haicheng."