Flash Marriage: He is a Wife-pampering Addict

Chapter 1805: Chapter 1804: I Won’t Choose

“Mom, what are you doing?”

Bai Xiaoxiao dropped the fruit in her hand and grabbed Qiao Xiuyun’s hand.

Tears streamed down her fair and delicate cheeks, a piercing pain instantly coursing through her limbs and bones.

Words couldn’t describe such pain.

She looked at her mother’s swollen face through blurred tears, knowing it was her own doing.

Qiao Xiuyun hadn’t slapped Bai Xiaoxiao’s face but hit her own.

Yet Bai Xiaoxiao would rather her mother hit her, not herself.

The slap Qiao Xiuyun gave herself felt like a slap on Bai Xiaoxiao’s heart.

Bai Xiaoxiao tenderly touched her mother’s face and asked, “Mom, does it hurt? I’ll get you some ice to put on it.”

Qiao Xiuyun fiercely shook off her hand and said harshly, “I don’t need your concern.”

After speaking, she got up to leave.

Bai Xiaoxiao, in a hurried panic, clenched both hands around one of her mother’s arms to stop her, pulling Qiao Xiuyun back onto the sofa.

“Mom, if you’re angry, you can hit me. I know I’ve hurt you. You can do whatever you want to me, just don’t hurt yourself, okay?”

Bai Xiaoxiao had lived for over twenty years and had never seen her mother like this.

Even when she demanded Bai Xiaoxiao break up with Luo Haofeng years ago, it wasn’t as frightening as this slap.

Back then, her mother only threatened her with words.

But today, Qiao Xiuyun clearly showed Bai Xiaoxiao that if she continued with Luo Haofeng, she would harm herself.

Qiao Xiuyun wouldn’t harm Bai Xiaoxiao, because she was her daughter. She would only harm herself.

Looking into Bai Xiaoxiao’s eyes filled with tears, Qiao Xiuyun ignored the pain in her heart and the burning sensation on her face, saying stiffly, “If you love that man so much, then choose today between your mother or that man. Do you want him, or me?”

A moment ago, Bai Xiaoxiao was still gripping Qiao Xiuyun’s arm tightly.

But the next second, her grip suddenly loosened.

The shock and pain were immense.

It was as if someone had plunged a knife deep into her heart, causing a torrent of blood to flow, leaving her in unspeakable pain.

She trembled, calling out “Mom.”

Biting her lips with suppressed stubbornness, “Mom, I love both of you. I want both. I won’t choose.”

Tears welled up in Qiao Xiuyun’s eyes.

She thought of Bai Xiaoxiao as a little girl, just two or three years old, when Qiao Xiuyun and Mr. Bai loved to tease her, “Xiaoxiao, do you love Mom more, or Dad?”

During those times, Bai Xiaoxiao always had one answer, “I love Mom and Dad.”

“Well, who do you love a little bit more, Xiaoxiao?”

“I love Mom and Dad a little bit more.” Her daughter’s childish voice echoed, as if it all happened yesterday.

Qiao Xiuyun couldn’t help but cry.

“If you could only choose one between Mom and Dad, who would you choose?”

“I want both Mom and Dad. I can’t choose.”

After being asked a few more times, Bai Xiaoxiao impatiently answered, “I can’t choose.”

Back then, it was only a joke to tease a child.

Not truly making her choose.

But over twenty years later, today Qiao Xiuyun really wanted Bai Xiaoxiao to make a choice, not between her and Mr. Bai, but between her and the man Bai Xiaoxiao loved.

One is Bai Xiaoxiao’s mother, who gave her life and raised her.

The person she respects most.

And the other is the man she deeply loves.

Three years ago she made a choice to fulfill her mother’s wish, yet in every night abroad, she was alone in sorrow.

But now, she cannot make a choice.

“Mom, I truly love Luo Haofeng. If I could forget him, I would have done so long ago, but I can’t.”

Lowering her head, Bai Xiaoxiao painfully and choked up responded.

She loves that man; this love seems to be ingrained into her bones, unless she dies, she won’t forget.

No matter where she is, no matter who she’s with, her heart always thinks of him.

“Mom, I know there’s resentment between you and Luo Haofeng’s mother. I know you hate Wu Jingfang for taking the man you liked. But after all these years…”

Qiao Xiuyun said nothing and didn’t look at Bai Xiaoxiao.

The atmosphere in the living room was suffocatingly oppressive.

Bai Xiaoxiao spoke while shedding tears, not to gain her mother’s sympathy, but because the sadness inside her had already turned into a river flowing backward.

“Mom, for my happiness, can you stop hating Wu Jingfang?”

Qiao Xiuyun coldly stared at Bai Xiaoxiao, as if her words deeply hurt her heart, as if wronging her.

This only made Bai Xiaoxiao’s face turn even paler.

“Xiaoxiao, in your eyes, am I just a selfish and petty mother who holds grudges and doesn’t care about your happiness?”

Qiao Xiuyun asked with pain in her heart.

She understood that Xiaoxiao thought this way because she didn’t know the truth.

If Xiaoxiao knew the truth, she would never say words that hurt her heart.

But Qiao Xiuyun didn’t want Xiaoxiao to know the truth. She wished to bury those unsightly truths deeply.

Bai Xiaoxiao shook her head, frantically explaining, “Mom, that’s not what I meant. I just hope you agree with me being with Luo Haofeng.”

“Do you think if I agree, that woman Wu Jingfang will agree to you being together?”

Qiao Xiuyun’s words were more severe with each sentence.

Bai Xiaoxiao took a deep breath, wiped her tears, and firmly said, “Mom, I’ve decided. This life, I will marry no one but Luo Haofeng. Even if it takes a lifetime to get your approval, I’m willing.”

“So, you mean to humble yourself and beg that woman Wu Jingfang?”

Qiao Xiuyun was trembling with anger, unable to tolerate her beloved daughter humbling herself for a man and seeking another woman’s approval.

Especially since that woman hated her to the core.

Bai Xiaoxiao shook her head, “Mom, I’m not begging her. I just want to move her with sincerity, to let her know that Luo Haofeng and I truly love each other.”

“Xiaoxiao, you are too naive.”

Though angry, Qiao Xiuyun was more worried for her daughter.

It was this worry that fueled her anger, “Don’t you know what kind of woman Wu Jingfang is? She’s ruthless and capable of anything. She will never agree to you being together, and I absolutely won’t allow the daughter I’ve raised so painstakingly to humble herself to her or even suffer her humiliation.”

Bai Xiaoxiao sniffed, stood up, and looked tenderly at Qiao Xiuyun’s swollen cheek. Softly, she said, “Mom, let’s not talk about this for now. I’ll get some ice for your face, okay? Your face is swollen, it must hurt a lot.”