1723 Grandmother

Liang Juan and Gao Tao were in the same class. In the beginning, no one wanted to be friends with Gao Tao. She was a transfer student who was beautiful and came from a good family, so no one liked her.

It was precisely because of this that Liang Juan set her sights on Gao Tao. At that time, the Liang family had no status in the capital. If not for the fact that the family sent their children to school so as to maintain their reputation, she actually did not qualify to go to school.

Soon, Liang Juan and Gao Tao became good friends. During the school holidays, Gao Tao invited Liang Juan to her house. This was the first time Liang Juan met Zhou Hua. She and Zhou Hua fell in love at first sight. Not long after, the two of them secretly started a relationship behind Gao Tao's back and Gao Tao eventually found out about it.

Gao Tao wanted to return to Guang City immediately and tell her father about it. She wanted him to stop funding all the Zhou family's businesses and destroy the Zhou family.

If the Zhou family was destroyed, then Zhou Hua would just be a penniless kid who was worthless. One night, Zhou Hua and Liang Juan waited until Gao Tao was sleeping soundly and set fire to the house. As Gao Tao was locked inside her room, she was burned beyond recognition.

"What happened after that? Did she die?" Qiao Mei asked calmly.

Liang Shu shook her head and said, "I don't know. I only know that it was reported in the news that the fire was an accident. Zhou Hua was seen hugging a charred corpse and weeping bitterly over it. The Gao family was also extremely sad."

"What about your cousin? Where did they go after that?" Qiao Mei continued to ask.

"My cousin was afraid of the Gao family and what they could do to her. The Zhou family found a way to send Zhou Hua and my cousin into hiding overseas. Before they left, they gave me the brooch. I had originally asked them for a large sum of money, but they were unwilling to give me any. At that time, I thought that keeping the brooch was not too bad a deal," Liang Shu said.

Liang Juan and Zhou Hua had indeed fled overseas, but Liang Shu was telling Qiao Mei this on purpose. The situation with both local and foreign trade was unstable now and it would not be easy for anyone to travel overseas. Even the Xia family did not have the ability to make it happen. Liang Shu was sure that by this point of the story, it was enough for Qiao Mei to give her the medicine.

"Do you have their overseas address?" Qiao Mei asked sternly.

"I… I don't know…" Liang Shu said nervously.

Qiao Mei turned to look at Liang Lan, who quickly said, "I know! But I don't know if they have moved away."

"It's alright, just tell me," Qiao Mei said.

Liang Lan wrote down the address she knew on a piece of paper and handed it to Qiao Mei. Qiao Mei smiled with satisfaction. At least she did not come here for nothing today. Also, this meant that she did not have to come around again from now on.

She got up and walked towards Liang Shu. She poured an entire bottle of medicine into Liang Shu's mouth and stuffed the other bottle into Liang Shu's lap. "This bottle will let you gain the ability to walk again, but you won't recover fully yet. Drink this other bottle in a month's time and you'll definitely make a full recovery. Don't come looking for me again."

Liang Shu looked at Qiao Mei for a long time before asking, "Wait! What… What's your relationship with Gao Tao?"

"I might be her granddaughter," Qiao Mei said as she stood by the bed.

"No wonder… No wonder you look so much like Sister Tao. No wonder you keep asking me about what happened to Sister Tao back then," Liang Shu muttered to herself.

"Do you still have the photos of your cousin and Zhou Hua?" Qiao Mei asked.

Without needing Liang Shu to answer, Liang Lan brought over all the photo albums. She picked out a photo of Liang Juan and Zhou Hua and said, "This is a photo of my eldest aunt and uncle-in-law. They sent this photo to us when they got married."

"I'm taking this photo. I've already given you the medicine. Don't come looking for me again from now on." Qiao Mei left the Liang family house with an empty box. Actually, she could feed Liang Shu two bottles right away, but Qiao Mei did not want to make it so easy for her.

The remaining bottle of medicinal wine was enough to cause chaos in the entire Liang family for a while. Qiao Mei only wanted to go home and watch the drama unfold. This could be considered her way of taking revenge on them.

Qiao Mei did not drive on the way back. She sat in the front passenger seat and looked out of the window quietly. She remembered that Qiao Qiang had described her grandmother to her before. When Qiao Qiang met Gao Tao, she was covered in scars and could not speak. Her vocal cords were damaged and she never recovered her voice for the rest of her life. Many people in the village bullied her grandmother because of that.

Back then, her grandmother had the tenacity to escape such a big fire and did her best to survive. Gao Tao, who had led such a privileged life, became Wen Ran, who then died in the countryside with a scarred face. Thinking of this, Qiao Mei's heart ached for her.