Not compatible?
Song Huaiyan took a deep breath as he couldn’t accept his sister’s sudden change in opinion. She had been supportive of his efforts all this while and only changed her mind just now given what had happened.
“What’s wrong? Huaiyan?” Song Zhenyan didn’t hear any response from Song Huaiyan. She asked again curiously, “Are you alright?”
“You were the one who brought her up. You know how she feels about Yan. Are you giving up on her now?” Song Huaiyan continued as he took another deep breath, “Zhenyan, Jingyu…”
“Huaiyan, since Yan is unwilling, you shouldn’t keep forcing him. Both you and I know that Yan has no feelings for Jingyu, though I have to admit that we did agree on their marriage previously. I am the one who brought Jingyu up and naturally know her best. I also want my son to have a beautiful wife. However, you must realize that Jingyu’s sickness… isn’t Ruan a good enough example? She killed her husband and committed suicide. Do you want Yan to suffer the same fate as Ruan’s husband?”
“That’s different!” Song Huaiyan couldn’t help but counter, “Jingyu is different from Ruan, and Yan is also different from Ruan’s husband!”
“How are they different? You were not there on New Year’s Eve. You don’t understand.” Song Huaiyan wasn’t aware of what happened then while Song Zhenyan saw it with her own eyes. Compared to Ruan, Song Jingyu’s condition was actually worse.
“Yan is my son, I can’t put him in danger. Why do you think I’m in the hospital? It was Jingyu who injured me. My wound hasn’t even fully recovered yet. Huaiyan, I can no longer approve of the union between Jingyu and Yan.”
“You…”
Without Song Zhenyan’s support, it would now be harder for Song Huaiyan to deal with Fu Chengyan. Fu Chengyan might still have cared for Song Zhenyan as she was his mother, but he definitely had no such affinity towards his uncle given how ruthless he had been.
“What do you plan to do with Jingyu? She will die without Yan.”
“No one is going to die. Have you forgotten? Both I and Heng are still doing fine without each other,” Song Zhenyan brought up Fu Heng as she spoke.
Song Huaiyan became silent after hearing what Song Zhenyan said. “There was never any love between the two of you!”
“Why wasn’t there? We were planning to get married then. If not for you and Fu Sheng, we…”
“Enough. That’s already in the past. Jiayu and Yan are now adults. No matter what, you’re Fu Sheng’s wife now and Fu Heng’s sister-in-law. Don’t forget that!”
“I don’t need you to remind me,” Song Zhenyan sneered. “That’s all I have to say. You should stop your obsession of trying to get Yan to marry Song Jingyu. Even with my agreement, it would still be useless if Yan refused. Don’t forget you still need to get through the Fu brothers and their father, Fu Zhengyun. Do you think Song Jingyu would be approved by all of them?” Song Zhenyan felt that Song Huaiyan was living in his own fantasy. “Enough. I’m tired and need to rest!”
“Zhenyan!” Song Huaiyan called out at her. “I’m leaving in two days, you… I’ll come and see you. Are you still at the hospital?”
“Yes, at the Su family’s hospital!”
Song Huaiyan remained silent in thought. In the end, he was still her brother so there would always be room for compromise. After all, if she was forced to leave the Fu clan, she would still have a place in the capital.
Song Huaiyan ended the call and quietly lit a cigarette. He then watched Song Jingyu who was sound asleep. After that, he got himself changed and made a call. “Let’s meet at the usual place in a while!”
The place that Song Huaiyan mentioned was a restaurant, seemingly nondescript. However, the more inconspicuous a place is, the better a meeting place it is.
The person who came to see Song Huaiyan had been keeping tabs on Fu Chengyan. For the past few months, he had been outside Wutong Residence, Shengyuan building, and even the Fu residence. He had used their network to conduct surveillance on the Fu clan.
“Is there anything different with Ms. Song recently?”
“Different? What do you mean?” The man who answered Song Huaiyan was the leader responsible for following Fu Chengyan. His name was Lin Hao.
“I meant her mood.”
“There wasn’t anything that stood out. Ms. Song was fine under normal circumstances, except…”
“Except what?” Song Huaiyan looked at Lin Hao anxiously.
“Whenever Ms. Song sees Fu Chengyan, she feels very excited although this doesn’t mean much. However, when Fu Chengyan gets close to another woman, her mood would become very volatile!” Lin Hao thought a little more before he said, “Other than that, there’s nothing more.”
“Did you give Jingyu any pictures?”
“Pictures? What pictures?” Lin Hao inquired. “We didn’t give her any pictures!”
“Jingyu started to become hysterical after she saw some photos, don’t you know that?” Song Huaiyan knew that there was something in the pictures that triggered the mental breakdown. However, Lin Hao firmly denied the knowledge of any photos. “Other than following Fu Chengyan, we did not do anything else. Fu Chengyan himself didn’t do anything suspicious…” Lin Hao hesitated before saying, “Wait, on New Year’s Eve… it seems that Fu Chengyan brought someone back home!”
“Seems?”
“Yes, because we’re not sure. We always have difficulty following Fu Chengyan. He would lose us for a while before we manage to find him again. That night, we were following him as usual and lost him. However, when we went back to Wutong Residence, it was as if he was meeting someone there.”
“Don’t you know who it is?”
Lin Hao shook his head. “Fu Chengyan is extremely aware of his surroundings so we didn’t dare to go any nearer.”
Song Huaiyan raised his eyebrows. He was surprised at how good Fu Chengyan was in avoiding detection. Was all this a show that Fu Chengyan put on for me to watch?
“Jingyu really did see some photos; you should investigate…” Before Song Huaiyan could finish, he received a few photos on his phone. They were sent by Zhou Zheng. After that, Zhou Zheng followed up with another message: Mr. Song, Mr. Fu told me to send these photos to you as gifts!
When Song Huaiyan clicked on the photos, his face went pale at the sight of them. He was so shocked that he threw aside his phone.
Lin Hao, who was sitting opposite, was intrigued by Song Huaiyan’s reaction.
He walked over to pick up Song Huaiyan’s phone and was stunned to see the photos. “Baby pictures? What’s this?”
“Delete them. Now!” Song Huaiyan yelled at Lin Hao impulsively.
It was the first time Lin Hao saw his boss in such a panic. Song Huaiyan was always a calm and shrewd man; however, he had lost all composure at that moment.
Nevertheless, Lin Hao deleted the photos obediently and passed the phone back to Song Huaiyan. “Sir, what’s are those?”
“Remove them!”
As Song Huaiyan spoke, he received another message from Zhou Zheng: These are the results of our investigations. Someone sent Ms. Song these photos on New Year’s Eve. After she saw them, she became hysterical and attacked Fu Sheng and his wife.”
Song Huaiyan pursed his lips as his eyebrows squeezed intensely together. He glared at the content of the message and started trembling.
The child! Its face!
“Sir?” Lin Hao saw that Song Huaiyan was perturbed. “Are you alright?”
“Don’t worry, you should continue to watch Fu Chengyan. I’ll be leaving tomorrow. If anything crops up let me know.”
Song Huaiyan kept up his phone and left in a hurry.
Lin Hao watched as Song Huaiyan walked away. After a while, Lin Hao took out his phone and made a call. “Mr. Zhou.”
“How did it go?”
“It’s as you expected. Song Huaiyan was terrified when he saw the pictures. It appears there’s more to the child than meets the eye!” Lin Hao stared at the drink that was splattered on the table as he spoke. He furrowed his brows and said, “What do we do next?”
“Alright, I understand. Since he is really interested in keeping tabs on Mr. Fu, you should just throw him some crumbs once in a while.”
Zhou Zheng smirked as he ended the call. He turned to look at Fu Chengyan. “Mr. Fu, Lin Hao said that Song Huaiyan had a dramatic reaction when he saw the pictures.”
“Oh?” Fu Chengyan put down his pen as he studied the investment proposal in front of him. He was racking his brains on something else as he replied half-heartedly, “What kind of pictures?”
Zhou Zheng smiled as he brought up the photos on his phone and passed it to Fu Chengyan. “Mr. Fu, you can see the photos for yourself. I asked Liang Lin to make baby pictures based on Song Jingyu and Song Huaiyan’s features. Do they look authentic to you?”
Fu Chengyan squinted his eyes as he stared at the pictures. Zhou Zheng then continued, “Liang Lin’s skills are indeed outstanding to be able to make it look so real. It really looks like… like…” Zhou Zheng was at a loss as to how to end his sentence.
Both their gazes fell upon the same photo. Zhou Zheng took another glance and gulped before looking back up at Fu Chengyan.
Fu Chengyan’s beady eyes were still fixated on the photos. After a while, he finally threw the phone back to Zhou Zheng. He smiled smugly, putting one hand on his chin while tapping on the table with his other hand. He asked in a casual manner, “Like who? Why did you stop?”
Zhou Zheng laughed wryly, “Erm, please don’t punish me for saying it.”
Fu Chengyan smirked, “Say it!”
Zhou Zheng gathered his courage and said, “It resembles Song Jingyu, but it looks even more like Song Huaiyan.” Indeed, the baby in the photos looked like Song Jingyu, but its resemblance to Song Huaiyan was even more striking.
Fu Chengyan grinned, “Your eyes are certainly sharp.”
Zhou Zheng’s eyes sparkled when he heard the praise. “Thank you for the compliment!”
Fu Chengyan snorted gently. “You said so yourself that these pictures are the result of a combination, based on the individual pictures of Song Jingyu and Song Huaiyan. Of course, it will look like them.” He continued to tap on the table in an irregular rhythm. As if he was deep in thought. “However…”
“It’s still strange for him to have such a dramatic reaction to the photo. It was as if he saw a ghost. Unless… that baby did exist?”
