Mrs Fox Heinous Revenge: Can You Love A Villainess like Me?
Chapter 181: The Woman Without Heart

Chapter 181: The Woman Without Heart

What was the reason for so much hate deep inside Elder Hua? AiLin couldn’t understand it. No, she doesn’t think she would ever understand the old woman. She’s hateful, someone who seemed truly despising other’s happiness, especially to females. But then why also Li ZiChen?

She pressed her lips as if she couldn’t be shooed from this place now, "Not everyone can always be right, but to learn from your mistakes after making them is more important."

Unimpressed, Elder Hua scoffed, and then she brought the tea to her mouth as if she had ended the conversation there and then, as if it wasn’t satisfying enough for her. AiLin was about to ask a question when Su HaiTan beside her coughed and spoke in between, "Grandma, ease up, alright? It’s been a while since you have seen each other, but being like that will make AiLin sad. I quite like AiLin, you know, she reminds me a lot of you."

Elder Hua’s eyes looked up and down over her and spoke with a hardened smile, "Me and her, same?"

"Like how pretty you two are?" Su HaiTan teased, and AiLin could somehow see the smile on Elder Hua’s face, which was odd as the woman seemed like someone who would never smile so sincerely before.

So she could smile, especially at Su HaiTan, but she couldn’t smile at her own children or love them?

Su HaiTan then added, "Besides grandma, you have been pushing many names from girls of the family who might be suitable for me, and I have spoken to them, but no one ever interested me as much as AiLin did."

AiLin furrowed her eyebrows as she saw Su HaiTan’s smile into her curl higher. She looked back at him and then at Elder Hua, who also seemed to be unhappy with the words he said, yet perhaps because she had a soft spot for him, she slowly seized her again before remarking, "She doesn’t look special, HaiTan."

"Why not? I have never seen anyone as straightforward and honest as AiLin. She is gorgeous to boot, kind, and she is brave. Besides, you told me how much you wanted to have me as your son, and she’s from the Hua Family. If we reconnect, we might be able to become a family-"

Cutting him off, Ailin spoke firmly, "I have a lover and a partner I would like to stay with."

Though Elder Hua didn’t want to give her precious Su HaiTan, she seemed offended to see AiLin reject Su HaiTan without a blink. She wanted to see for herself just how mighty this person that AiLin could defeat the young man she doted so much like her own grandson.

"Entertain us then, who might that be?"

"Li ZiChen from the Li Family," AiLin’s lashes lifted when she looked up at the older woman, who was taken aback upon hearing Li ZiChen’s name being called. "I’m sure you know him, grandmother."

Elder Hua scoffed, "That little dog?"

"Dog? He’s a perfectly fine man. I would say that there is someone who looked more like a dog while pretending to be a human," AiLin retorted her words without blinking. She felt immensely annoyed to hear that Elder Hua was looking down on Li ZiChen. Not him, especially him, who is so kind to be called a dog.

Elder Hua chuckled, "Yes, everyone had uttered the same words as you. How smart and clever the son of Li JunWei is, but he’s nothing when compared to my Su HaiTan. Don’t you dare ever say that Li Dog is a better choice than HaiTan?"

"What? So you want me to be with Su HaiTan? You didn’t seem to like it when he mentioned my name earlier."

AiLin frowned upon finding the contradiction the old woman showed her.

"See this personality of hers? Such defiance and disobedience, you’ll do well finding another woman, HaiTan." Elder Hua saw Su HaiTan staring at AiLin. Ever since AiLin had entered the private dining room, his eyes had been closely watching her every move as if he was going to count every second AiLin had inhaled air into her lungs and breathed it out again. This was something that Su HaiTan would always do whenever he showed interest in something he would soon be obsessed with.

Su HaiTan chuckled, "It couldn’t be better."

"Then I will tell Valentine to give her to you."

AiLin’s eyes widened, a slow realization that Elder Hua wasn’t someone to reason with. She knew it already but couldn’t help but find herself baffled by how the woman in front of her seemed to think everything was up for her to choose and move around. She snapped her neck to Elder Hua, who had gone back to sipping her tea as if exchanging her granddaughter like a vegetable during barter trade was something normal.

"I didn’t say I agreed to that. I don’t want to be with you, Su HaiTan. Not as a lover or even as a friend," AiLin firmly aired. It seems these people were talking about handing her over like a pair of gloves during the winter air when she had reiterated that she already had a lover. Her brow knitting into deep furrows that cast shadows over eyes alight with a simmering fire, "Do you think that you have a say over everything, Elder Hua? We are not objects on a chessboard that you can move as you like. I had sat down here because I was wondering what kind of person you could be, but now I see who you are."

The clink of porcelain broke the tense silence as Elder Hua set her teacup down with practiced grace. Her shoulders rose in an effortless shrug, a picture of unbothered indifference as if the fiery storm brewing in AiLin’s eyes was no more significant than a flickering candle in the corner of the room.

"Who am I?" tinge of interest seemed to underline the woman’s wrinkled lower lips.

"A woman whose life is so miserable. So much hate in you and so much anger. Does living like that help you to feel more alive?"

If earlier the words AiLin had said didn’t strike a nerve, it seemed now it had done some damage to Elder Hua, whose fingers delicately held the teacup shook and anger that made her thin, drawn eyebrows knit closer to each other. She snapped her gaze, quick and sudden like a whip, "A miserable life? You or me? Your mother had abandoned you to live like garbage simply to protect you. Wouldn’t it have been better to just kill you as a baby? Mercy it is to take your pain when you were still unaware of anything"

Anger surged through AiLin, igniting every nerve like a wildfire racing under her skin. This woman spoke about killing her as a baby as if it was another teacup in the morning. No change in her tone, almost as if she had no emotion in the first place. As someone whose baby was killed, searing anger spread over her chest almost in an instant.

"You think that’s mercy?" she scoffed. "No mother would ever want to hurt their baby." she knew this better than anyone, yet Elder Hua seemed so monstrous for not understanding this. "But I see that you don’t think the same, maybe because you’re not a human in the first place. I was going to question you about what you have done," she then moved her gaze to Su HaiTan, "But since there is someone unrelated here and you seem to be so hardheaded, it’d be better if I leave you alone now."

She shot to her feet, snatching her purse, and stormed off. Her feet hit the ground, pounding in fury.

Finding her leaving in a hurry, Su HaiTan also jumped to his feet and left Elder Hua behind while chasing after AiLin, who had snapped out of the private restaurant, her face marred in rage she never knew had existed. For Elder Hua to speak so easily about killing her as a baby. This confirmed it. That woman would have killed her if her mother hadn’t hurriedly hid her. Though Valentine’s method was too reckless and messy, perhaps this was the only foolproof method she could find back then to protect her.

Words cannot describe the anger she felt toward Elder Hua. At first, I wondered if Elder Hua simply hated women because of a painful past, but her ignorance was the one at fault. Elder Hua didn’t only dislike women. She disliked people who weren’t obedient to her. Perhaps that was the true reason why she had disliked her birth mother, Hua Valentine. Maybe that’s also the reason why Elder Hua dislikes her upon landing her gaze on her.

With this reasoning, it would make sense why she also despised Li ZiChen as he wasn’t someone so easily controlled by others. But there should be a core reason, thought AiLin. Just then, her body leaned backward as her elbow was pulled with such strength that her heels almost caused her to fall backward.

She swiftly turned her head backward, her expression worsening when she saw Su HaiTan at a close distance. Bringing her hands over her chest, she pushed him away, and her eyebrows knitted together in a sharp "V" of frustration.

"What else do you want from me, Mr. Su? Was it amusing to appear to Elder Hua on claiming me as your object?" Even through her frustration, she could see Su HaiTan smiling, his calm expression a sharp contrast to the frustration brewing within her.

"I’m so sorry, AiLin! —it was a joke, truly. I didn’t mean to overstep, I just wanted to make it comfortable between us because I do admire you and wanted to ease the tension between you and Elder Hua. It’s just how I usually speak with Elder Hua, and I assumed you’d understand, but clearly, I misread the situation. I’d hate for this to cause any tension between us, so I do hope you can forgive me.

"Forgive you?" He didn’t even show any apology by his expression, as his words came out of him in the form of a robotic response. "No, thank you. I don’t forgive you. I don’t want to know you or get closer to you. There is distance between us, Mr. Su, and you better follow that."

Su HaiTan’s composure cracked, his movements growing frantic as desperation seeped into his every gesture. He could see AiLin’s seriousness, "I am the closest person in Beijing- no over the entire world- to Elder Hua. You seemed curious about many things from her, and I can help you with it."

AiLin felt his hand grasp her finger, the tight hold sending a wave of revulsion churning in her stomach. She loathed being touched, especially under Su HaiTan’s inky gaze—a look that shimmered with an unsettling desire to claim her like a mere object.

"Let go of me!" she demanded, her voice sharp and almost like a wail. Instead of releasing her, his grip tightened, and his hands moved to her shoulders, holding her firmly in place. A wave of disgust rose, hot and acidic, burning her throat and churning in her stomach. The urge to retch clawed its way up as she yelled louder, her voice breaking, "I said, let go of me!"