Lai Chang was quiet for a long time. He seemed to be in deep thought after which he nodded. "Okay," he whispered, "I think this is the best for both of us."

Hou Zhenzhen smiled. "En...And in this time, I will also try to make you genuinely like me. Until your feelings catch up to mine, I will wait for you, Chang."

Lai Chang slowly raised his arm and pulled her in his hug. She trembled and the corner of her eyes stung.

"Thank you, Zhenzhen... Thank you so much for doing this. I promise that I will come back to you. This time, I will definitely let go of Lanying."

She smiled and softly hugged him back. "En."

---

Jiang villa.

Needless to say, after Jiang Lanying's press conference, Old Madam was extremely furious.

"Every time! Every single time, people dare go against me! I never thought that Lanying would do this! She lied to me!"

Jiang Weiyuan and Jiang Ninghong calmly glanced at each other.

Her fist clenched the stick in her hand so hard that nerve popped up on the back. Anger was an understatement that she was feeling right now.

When they came back, Old Madam already stormed to her side and was about to slap Jiang Lanying. But Jiang Li blocked her wrist as he coldly stared at her.

"What are you doing? She is my wife you are raising your hand against."

"Jiang Li! You know exactly what she has done! She said that she would take the blame but she did the opposite! How dare she go against me!?"

Jiang Li sneered. "Good that she did exactly the opposite because if she had talked any nonsense then I would have divorced her anyway."

"You...how dare you talk back to me!?"

His gaze darkened as he faced her. "I already said this many times that I don't need anyone to take my blame. I won't let Lanying suffer no matter what. But you were adamant in forcing her to do something that would have caused even more problems."

"More problems? I was only saying this for your own good! Now the whole world knows that you are infertile!"

Lihua narrowed her eyes. "And people are already stepping forward in supporting Jiang Li

You must have read Weibo, right? Everybody is praising Jiang Lanying for coming out with this. The ones who were insulting Jiang Li until now have already withdrawn from posting any nasty comments anymore. In the end, isn't this what everyone wanted?"

"Stay in your limits, Lixue! I know that you are the one behind this! You must have fed her ears with nonsense or else Lanying would have never done this!"

"No, Old Madam," Jiang Lanying took a step forward and said, "It wasn't Lixue. Nobody told me anything. Nobody brainwashed me into doing anything. It was my decision to tell the truth."

The Old Madam looked at her, dumbfounded. "What!?"

Jiang Lanying clenched her fists. "Old Madam. Can you please...stop treating Li as an outcast? At first, I thought that what you said was indeed the right solution for this problem and I could protect Li. But then I realized…that I didn't want this. I didn't want Li to be always running away from everybody. Hiding from everyone. He has done nothing wrong that he would have to lower his head in shame. It was the enemy's fault that attacked Li and he is already suffering its consequences. Why are we making me suffer even more?"

Jiang Ninghong raised her brow in surprise. A soft smile curled her lips up seeing her defend Li. Jiang Weiyuan slowly nodded his head, feeling proud of his daughter-in-law.

Today, Jiang Lanying had finally gotten her own voice.

"Old Madam, if you are rejecting Li's problem then aren't you rejecting Li himself?" Jiang Lanying teared up. "I don't want anybody to reject Li or treat him differently. He is working hard for his recovery and it's not impossible to cure him. Isn't that what Jin Zhilan said? Then please Old Madam...I request you not to be so harsh on him. He is your grandson after all. He already hid it for almost two years. Isn't it enough now?"

Lihua immediately pitched in. "Yes, yes! And Old Madam. Even if you don't support Jiang Li, you only wanted for people to not point their fingers anymore right? Jiang Lanying's conference has done just that. Plus, you are missing a point here."

The Old Madam frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Lai Chang. If Jiang Lanying would have taken the blame anyway, it would have riled up Lai Chang even more, considering how close friends are."

The 'close friends' part irked Jiang Li and he felt annoyed.

They are not that close!

"He would have definitely never watched people shifting their curses on her. He would have hated Jiang Li even more for that and eventually, he would have exposed the truth about the lie. And if it got out that Jiang Lanying was forced to admit that she is infertile to protect Jiang Li, it would have aggravated the situation against him even more."

Jiang Ruiling nodded. "True."

"We might have lost the last chance to bring Jiang Li out of this mess. Not just Jiang Li, but the whole family's reputation had been at stake because…" she smiled, "then they would think how cruel Jiang family's elders are to force their daughter-in-law like that. Of course, you wouldn't want anybody to point their fingers at you, right?"

Wei nodded in agreement.

The Old stiffened and she glared at her. But she couldn't retort to her argument.

As the Matriarch of the Jiang family, how could she dare let anybody accuse her?

"You…"

Jiang Weiyuan said, "I agree with Lixue. Logically, Lai Chang would never sit back and watch his friend suffer. It was bound to be out anyway. In fact, Lanying saved us by her decision to confess everything. The tide is in our favor."

Lihua laughed. "Yup! All's well that ends well haha!"