Shi Nuan stared at Fu Chengyan, stunned. She hadn’t expected this turn of events at all. As she gazed back and forth between Fu Chengyan and Song Zhenyan, the look in her eyes changed from shock to contempt.
Before this, she had wondered if Fu Chengyan was being a little unfilial towards Song Zhenyan by being so defiant towards her. Upon hearing about Song Zhenyan’s evil deeds, however, she no longer felt that way.
Fu Chengyan had seen his mother lace his father’s drink with drugs, dragging a completely innocent woman into her revenge plan.
Shi Nuan suddenly remembered something else— Fu Chengyan had once told her that he had a half-sister called Fu Ling who was born to a different woman. Shi Nuan wondered if that half-sister was the product of the tryst between Fu Sheng and that personal assistant.
“No, Yan! Listen to your mother! I had only done that because…”
“You did that because you’d wanted to find an excuse to divorce my father, didn’t you? Afterward, you would have probably found a way to destroy Uncle Heng’s marriage as well. After getting Aunt Ning to leave him, you would have married Uncle Heng, just like you’d wanted to all along.”
“I…”
Song Zhenyan staggered backward. She had kept that secret buried, in the bottom of her heart for so long. She had never expected that someone else would unearth it someday. To her consternation, Fu Chengyan had been the one to find out about it, and he now lay her intentions bare, for all to see.
“All this while, you had never gotten over the fact that my father had raped you, taking away your chance at happiness. Can you guess who was the one who had drugged him thirty-five years ago, forcing him upon you?” Fu Chengyan frowned. He refused to back down, despite seeing the look of distress on Song Zhenyan’s face. “I’ve already told you this before— you could’ve chosen to remain in the Song Residence, living out the rest of your life in peace and comfort. That would have been the best course of action for you. However, you’d chosen to return to the Fu family to stir up trouble for us again. I won’t stop you from doing that, but I’ll make you pay for everything that you’d done back then. I’m your biological son, and your blood flows through my veins. However, if you make a move to endanger my wife, I shall do the same to your beloved Song family!”
Fu Chengyan was giving her an ultimatum. “That’s all I have to say to you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Fu Chengyan took Shi Nuan by the hand and left the room immediately. Shi Nuan could tell that he was in an awful mood— to the Fu family and Fu Chengyan himself, these matters concerned deep and ancient grudges, and bringing them up again would reopen old wounds.
Since he had exposed these secrets to the world today, Fu Chengyan must have made up his mind about his next course of action.
Others may not have known Fu Chengyan or understood him, but Shi Nuan knew this man like the back of her hand. He isn’t as vicious and emotionless as he seems— in actual fact… ”Yan!”
Fu Chengyan got into the car and helped Shi Nuan in putting on her seatbelt, with a rather neutral expression on his face. Just as he was about to start the car, Shi Nuan clasped his hand worriedly as she prodded, “You…”
Fu Chengyan glanced at her from the side and forced a smile onto his face. Gazing gently at her, he asked, “Did I scare you back in there?”
Shi Nuan shook her head. Suddenly, she felt her heart begin to ache a little, for this man. Fu Chengyan always looked so impenetrable and invincible, but Shi Nuan knew that it was just a front that he put up.
No matter how capable Fu Chengyan is, he is still human, and a normal man at that. Like everyone else, he longs for close relationships and concern, from the people around him. Upon hearing the conversation between him and Song Zhenyan just now, Shi Nuan could surmise that he had probably never experienced a mother’s love before.
She hadn’t expected Song Zhenyan to fall for Fu Heng either— after all, she had been married to Fu Sheng for such a long time. Because of her jealousy towards Ning Xin and Fu Heng’s relationship, as well as her own grudge against Fu Sheng, Song Zhenyan had launched her own plan of revenge, causing so much harm to everyone else.
“Then, about Fu Ling…”
“Yes,” Fu Chengyan nodded. “The relationship between the Fu family members has always been a little complicated. Other than the few half-siblings that I’ve already mentioned to you, the rest don’t actually exist. Don’t believe those rumors!” Fu Chengyan patted Ning Xin’s hand gently. “Fu Ling is the daughter of that university student whom my mother had dragged into her revenge plans.”
“Then…”
“You probably want to know what happened to her, don’t you?”
Shi Nuan nodded. After all, that university student was innocent. If she had not been drugged by Song Zhenyan, she might have led a very different life indeed.
“Her family was very poor. After the incident with my father, she went back home and ditched her job at the company. However, her family wasn’t very nice to her, and she found it extremely difficult to raise a kid by herself. In the end, driven to starvation, she had no choice but to look for the Fu family, as she asked us to raise the child instead.”
Shi Nuan’s heart skipped a beat. “Why didn’t your parents get divorced then?”
“My father was so guilty that he had agreed to divorce my mother, returning her freedom to her. Everything was going according to plan, but my mother refused to go through with the divorce, at the last minute. In the end, my parents never got a divorce.”
“Why not?” Shi Nuan felt rather perplexed.
Song Zhenyan did everything in her power to ensure that she would get a divorce from Fu Sheng. Since the opportunity had been offered to her, why didn’t she simply take it and leave?
“Why not, you ask? Have you forgotten that the Song family was the mastermind behind my parents’ marriage? They would never have allowed my mother to get a divorce because that would mean a break in the two families’ relationship. The Song family would have destroyed their only chance at surviving on, in Jiang City. My uncle wasn’t an idiot.”
Shi Nuan could not help but shake a little. The Song family was far too cruel.
“What happened after that? Fu Ling…”
“My mother refused to divorce my father, but she also refused to allow the Fu family to acknowledge Fu Ling’s existence. In addition to that, she made sure that Fu Ling’s mother would never step foot into Jiang City ever again. Afterward, she took her dowry and left, for her maiden home in the capital. She never returned to the Fu family again.”
An involuntary shiver ran down Shi Nuan’s spine. She had never imagined that Song Zhenyan would be so heartless.
Before this, she thought that Fu Chengyan had gone a little overboard, by serving his mother an ultimatum. Now, she had completely changed her mind.
Song Zhenyan hated Fu Sheng, but she refused to allow anyone else to have him. In fact, anyone who tried to enter the picture as a third party had been eliminated by her. In the end, the whole affair orchestrated by Song Zhenyan had only made tragic victims out of that female university student and the bastard daughter, Fu Ling.
“Is that why you’ve always treated Fu Ling so nicely? Because you feel rather sorry towards her?”
Something flickered in Fu Chengyan’s eyes, but he chose to remain silent.
“Yan, that’s all in the past now. Why should you continue to dwell on it? Furthermore, you’re all grown up now, and you can be in charge of your own destiny. You…”
Before she could finish speaking, Fu Chengyan interrupted her and uttered, “Yes, I know. Do you really think that I’ll let the things in my past affect me?” Of course not— I am too old for that. ”I won’t let my family decide how I shall live my life. It’s my life, not theirs.”
Fu Chengyan had made up his mind— neither the Fu nor the Song family is going to have a say in how I live my life.
“What about Uncle Heng and Aunt Ning?”
“Oh, they’re very much in love with each other. They have been together since the beginning. Don’t worry— I can tell if someone married for money or not.”
Shi Nuan nodded. “Same here. I could tell just by looking at how well they treat each other.”
“Truthfully, I wasn’t the real victim in this situation. As far as everyone is concerned, I’m the legitimate son of the Fu family, and I’m the future head of the household. The actual victims,” Fu Chengyan finished, “are my sister and Fu Ling.”
“Your sister? Fu Jiayu?” Shi Nuan thought hard about it for a while and realized that Fu Jiayu was thirty-four this year. Had Fu Jiayu been the product of Song Zhenyan’s rape by Fu Sheng, thirty-five years ago?
“You’ve guessed it correctly. My mother took her anger out on my elder sister, so my sister hates her even more than I do.”
Shi Nuan sighed. She didn’t know what to say in response to that.
“Alright. I’m not telling you about this to make you worried or upset. As your husband, I’m just trying to share some of my troubles with you. In the future, I’ll make sure to share everything that happens in my life with you, be it bad or good.”
“I got it.” Shi Nuan affirmed, smiling slightly.
Her smile probably looked a little forced now, but she continued smiling anyway. She wanted to let Fu Chengyan know that she would always remain by his side, no matter what happened to him in the future.
“Oh, right. By the way, how did you know that your mother brought me here?”
Fu Chengyan shook his head haplessly as he ruffled her hair. “Have you forgotten that I’d sent some of my men to protect you?”
Realization dawned upon Shi Nuan. “So, it was the bodyguards who had informed you! Still, you’d arrived rather quickly.” Fu Chengyan had arrived at the restaurant barely a few minutes after she had arrived with Song Zhenyan. “Did you take a plane there, by any chance?”
Fu Chengyan laughed lightly. “Yes. I couldn’t bear the thought of you suffering, even just a tiny bit. I came as quickly as I could.”
“Yan, you’re so wonderful!” Shi Nuan laid her head on his shoulder and nuzzled up against his chest. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of myself, too. No matter who comes for me, I won’t let them bully me into submission.”
“Is that so?” Fu Chengyan laughed again. “There’s no way I’m going to buy that. Ever since we met, you’ve barely kept yourself out of trouble.”
Shi Nuan felt a little embarrassed. “Did you really have to say that aloud? That’s all in the past. In the future, however, I’ll make sure that nobody gets to bully me.”
“Alright. I’ll believe you just this once!”
When they got home, Fu Chengyan headed straight into his study room to finish up his work. Shi Nuan went into the kitchen to do some tidying up. She was still a little shaken up by the day’s events— she had heard way too much information today for her to process all at once.
Shi Nuan had always thought that her own childhood was pretty rough, but she had learnt today that the Fu Family had more secrets than she could count. I could never have guessed that Fu Chengyan would have grown up in such a hostile environment.
Shi Nuan sighed. As she washed the vegetables, she thought back on her conversation with Song Zhenyan.
Song Zhenyan’s words had bothered her deeply, but Shi Nuan couldn’t pinpoint the exact thing that had caused her to feel so uneasy. In addition to that, Song Zhenyan’s hatred towards her was quite concerning, considering the fact that they had never met each other before.
However, the more she dwelt on it, the more her head hurt.
When she finally came out of the kitchen, she spotted Ning Xin sitting in the living room. Walking over to her, Shi Nuan greeted, “Aunt Ning!”
“Nuan, what happened?” Ning Xin waved her over and gestured for her to sit down next to her. “Is something wrong? Both you and Yan looked rather distracted when you came home. Has something happened?”
“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing.” Shi Nuan shook her head and glanced at the closed door of the study room upstairs. Though a little hesitant, she still asked, “Aunt Ning, can I ask you something?”
“Sure! Is this about Yan or the Fu family?” Ning Xin was a rather intuitive person, and she could tell from Shi Nuan’s face that one of the above was bothering her.
Shi Nuan nodded. Scratching her head rather awkwardly, she sat up straight and proclaimed politely, “Well, it’s nothing serious, but Yan’s mother had found me tonight and she told me a few things that have made me a little curious.”
“Song Zhenyan?”
A look of distaste appeared on Ning Xin’s face, but apart from that, her expression remained unchanged. “Why was she looking for you? Did she find out about your marriage to her son? Has she decided to make things difficult for you?”
“Aunt Ning, you’re a genius!” Shi Nuan felt a little sheepish.
“I’m not a genius, my dear. She’s just the type of person who would do that sort of stuff.” Ning Xin shook her head. “Don’t think too much about what she has said to you. Uncle Heng and I have been certain, in approving of your relationship with Yan.”
“Yes, I know that,” Shi Nuan uttered, smiling. “If it were any other way, you wouldn’t be sitting here and telling me this. Actually, I just wanted to ask you about Yan’s mother… I’ve never met her before, but her attitude towards me is extremely strange. It seems almost as though she hates me. She seems to hate me very much, Aunt Ning. Why do you think that is such?”
Ning Xin frowned slightly before she gazed at Shi Nuan. A while later, she finally explained, “She’s like this towards everyone, and especially so towards people who try to get close to Yan and Heng.”
