After a long silent moment, Fu Chengyan finally nodded in approval. “What do your parents think about this?”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to have Nuan as their goddaughter. Even if they don’t, I can always go to my aunt for help.” With a smile, Su Shaoqing added, “Don’t forget that my cousin still owes you one. Perhaps, it’ll be better for Nuan to be my aunt’s goddaughter because they’ve got the Jiang family backing them up.”
Keeping his eyes downcast, Fu Chengyan got lost in thought for a moment before he agreed, “I’ll leave it to you then.”
“Of course! Isn’t it nice to have a brother-in-law like me?”
Fu Chengyan shot Su Shaoqing a stiff smile that sent a tingling sensation creeping over the latter’s scalp. “Nuan is younger than me, isn’t she? After she becomes my mother’s goddaughter, she’ll be my god sister. That naturally makes me your brother-in-law! Why are you looking so upset hearing that?”
Fu Chengyan sneered, “I’m just worried that the title might stress you out eventually!”
Pursing his lips, Su Shaoqing countered, “Don’t try to threaten me because threats don’t work on me.”
“Enough, you both!” As the two started bickering with one another, Shi Nuan spoke in a resigned tone in an attempt to mediate their argument, “I know both of you are doing this for my good! Mr. Su, I don’t even know how to express my gratitude for you.”
Shi Nuan was really thankful for Su Shaoqing, who always came to her rescue in the nick of time. Although she knew he did not do that solely for her sake, she still saw the need to express her appreciation for his help. “By the way, I remember speed dialing Mr. Su when I was on my way to the mansion earlier. Yan, how come you…”
“Why was I there too?” Fu Chengyan chuckled. “I must say that it was a smart move speed dialing Shaoqing.”
“Didn’t you tell me before to do so once I found myself in danger?” Shi Nuan had been bearing his advice carefully in mind all the time. “Before I left with your grandfather’s men, I asked Mr. Lin to inform you about my whereabouts. But, I only remembered that you had gone out for work at the time, so I was worrying that Mr. Lin might not be able to reach you.”
“Yes, Lin Yu did visit my office earlier today.” Fu Chengyan nodded his head in agreement. “I’m sorry. It was my oversight that caused you the trouble.”
Ever since the moment he was suddenly asked to attend to some work outside in the morning, he had had a premonition that something bad might happen to Shi Nuan.
His family had been behaving unusually low-key since his mother visited Shi Nuan. That was certainly not his grandfather’s style of doing things – that was unless he was waiting for an opportune time to execute his plan. Fu Chengyan’s guess had been proven right when he received a call from the customs early that morning, informing him that a batch of his goods had been seized. He had no choice but to settle the issue himself because none of his subordinates were capable of solving it.
As he happened to switch off his phone in the midst of the negotiation with the customs people, he had missed the call from Lin Yu.
Meanwhile, Zhou Zheng had received a call from Jiang Hu when he was waiting for Fu Chengyan outside the customs. The bodyguards who had been secretly protecting Shi Nuan reported that she had been brought to the seaside mansion by Old Master Fu. As soon as Zhou Zheng got hold of the information, he immediately passed it on to Fu Chengyan.
“You did the right thing by calling Shaoqing.” The moment Su Shaoqing got the call from Shi Nuan, he immediately started tracking down her location using her phone signal. As her phone had been kept inside her bag, the phone call had remained connected all the time. Thanks to that, it only took him a short time to locate her and rush his way to her rescue.
After having detected her phone signal from the same location for quite a long time, he confirmed the exact bearings and took the risk to make his way over there. To his surprise, he saw Old Master Fu at the seaside mansion he had arrived at.
“Your grandfather was behaving really weird when I got there. It looked like he was having some sort of negotiation with Nuan at the time. The things he said were nothing but a truckload of crap.”
Fu Chengyan turned to Shi Nuan, hoping to get her side of the story. She nodded and elaborated, “The men who took me to the mansion left me alone in the living room, where I waited for around thirty to forty minutes before your grandfather appeared. Besides, it’s really puzzling because none of the things he said made sense to me. He didn’t even try to threaten or bribe me into doing anything.” Just like Su Shaoqing, she had no idea what Fu Zhengyun had been hiding up his sleeves.
“He didn’t say anything important?”
“He only asked me to break up with you, or you would lose your right of inheritance. What did he even mean by saying that?”
Knitting his brows, Fu Chengyan consoled her, “Don’t worry. There’s no need for you to dwell on what he said.” He patted her shoulder soothingly and reassured, “I promise that you wouldn’t be forced to meet with him by yourself ever again.”
“Really?” Shi Nuan was not too convinced as something about his tone did not sit right with her.
In fact, she could tell that Fu Chengyan’s grandfather did not really hate her as a person. He was only treating her with hostility merely because he did not want his grandson to be with her.
It was quite different from the interaction she had with Song Zhenyan last time. At the very least, her intention was clear-cut – she could not allow her son to be with Shi Nuan because she resented her. Shi Nuan was having a hard time trying to gauge what was on Fu Zhengyun’s mind this time.
“Of course it is. Have I ever lied to you before? Let’s put this matter aside for now. Do you have any updates for me after visiting the construction site with Lin Yu?”
“Speaking of which, I have yet to sort out the information to have anything solid to tell you. The truth is, I was taken away by your grandfather minutes after Mr. Lin and I returned to the office.” Making a helpless smart shrug, she continued, “According to Mr. Lin, you don’t intend to recruit the subcontractors by way of accepting tenders this time?”
“He’s right!” Fu Chengyan nodded at her and said, “I didn’t intend to do so from the beginning.”
“So, does this mean you’ve already decided to work on the project together with Li Group all along?”
“That’s not completely true. This time… I’m doing this to help Li Heng.” Fu Chengyan answered with a sly smile. “Do you have any other questions for me?” While he ran his fingers through her long hair, she shook her head at him in response.
“Are you hungry?”
She nodded after stroking her belly. “I am!”
“Let me go and fix you something to eat then.” With that, he removed his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt as he was on his way to the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Su Shaoqing had been watching them getting all lovey-dovey with each other. Tsk, tsk. At last, he couldn’t help but shake his head in disgust. “I’m drowning in this overloading sweetness coming from the two of you.”
Shi Nuan spun around and glared at him as two crimson patches began forming on her cheeks. “Mr. Su!”
“Fine, fine. I’m keeping my mouth shut,” Su Shaoqing said with a smile while holding both hands up in the air. “By the way, you should start calling me Shaoqing from now on. I can’t describe how great it feels to finally have some leverage over Chengyan!”
Pfft!
Shi Nuan couldn’t help but burst out laughing at his hilarious remark. Yet, Su Shaoqing was obviously not pleased with her reaction. “What’s wrong with you? Am I asking too much from you by letting you call me Shaoqing?”
“Of course not! I’ll be more than willing to do so!”
In fact, Shi Nuan knew deep down inside that Fu Chengyan was the reason why Su Shaoqing was being so friendly with her and so enthusiastic in offering her help.
Meanwhile, at the seaside mansion, Fu Zhengyun remained seated on the sofa for a long time after Fu Chengyan left. Thinking that it was unusual of him to behave this way, the butler quickly approached him and ventured, “Old Master, are you…”
“Let’s go home!”
After a while, Fu Zhengyun rose to his feet and left the seaside mansion together with the butler.
“Old Master, Young Master Chengyan instructed his men to… “ The butler informed Fu Zhengyun about the damage done by his grandson just now in a tentative tone, “They broke the tendons in the limbs of the bodyguards…”
“Just pay them one hundred grand each as compensation!”
“Yes!”
It was obvious that Fu Zhengyun was the loser this round. However, that did not bother him much because the purpose of him arranging the meeting with Shi Nuan had been to achieve something else. At first, he purely wanted to sound her out and find out more about her background, but his plan had been ruined by his grandson’s sudden visit. In his opinion, there was nothing special about Shi Nuan, who had a face that resembled Shen Qianan. Thus, when he saw Fu Chengyan going to the extent of giving him a warning for Shi Nuan’s sake, he was really surprised. His grandson had never done the same thing for Shen Qianan before.
“Help me find out where’s Shen Qianan staying now. I suppose she’s come back after being away for so many years. Also, how’s the Shen family faring in the capital recently? Who’s leading the family now?”
“Old Master, it’s Shen Shixiu, the son of Shen Feng!”
“It’s him?” Fu Zhengyun narrowed his eyes. “Is he Shen Qianan’s brother?”
“Yes!”
“Great. Now, you find out where she’s staying and then create some trouble for her. After all, she’s still part of the family. Although she’s been banished by her family for three years, I’m sure her family will do their part to help her.”
“Yes!”
During the days subsequent to Chinese New Year, Ning Xin’s health had been deteriorating. At first, she thought she only needed enough rest to feel better, but things had not been working lately. Fu Heng had been bringing her to the hospital so frequently that she was forced to be hospitalized due to his relentless persuasion.
Knowing well that her days were numbered, her desire to meet her daughter, Pei Huan, grew increasingly intense.
It went without saying that Fu Heng was well aware of that too. On top of that, he was also aware that Fu Chengyan had once met with Ning Xin in private before. Although he did not spell it out, he understood that making sure Pei Huan came back to visit her mother was the top priority.
Three years ago, when Ning Xin was dying of her illness and was in desperate need of bone marrow donation in order to survive, none of her family was eligible to be her donor except Pei Huan. Thanks to Pei Huan risking her life to undergo the bone marrow transplant surgery, Ning Xin’s life was extended. Unfortunately, Pei Huan had suffered substantial damage to her body, and that had eventually brought about the miscarriage of her baby…
After keeping Ning Xin company for a while, Fu Heng walked out of the ward to give Fu Chengyan a call. “I’d like to meet Li Heng.”
Without hesitation, Fu Chengyan immediately visited Li Heng and asked him to meet Fu Heng. “You’d better be mentally prepared as Aunt Ning’s condition isn’t very optimistic. This time, it’s highly likely that Uncle Heng is asking Huan back so that she can see her mother for the very last time. If Huan is unable to…”
“I understand!” Li Heng interrupted. He took a huge puff of his cigarette, stubbed it out, and closed the car window. He then cast Fu Chengyan a glance. “Thanks!”
“It’s no biggie.” Fu Chengyan nodded at him. “Please don’t mind Uncle Heng’s attitude. It’s probably because he still harbors some prejudicial opinion against you.”
“Sure!”
Then, Li Heng opened the car door and left.
As Ning Xin’s body was growing weaker and weaker, Fu Heng, as a man who loved his wife very dearly, was insistent on staying by her side at all times. Therefore, Li Heng was asked to meet him at the hospital that was owned by Su Shaoqing.
At that moment, Su Shaoqing happened to walk out of his office when he spotted Li Heng outside. Surprised to see him there, he couldn’t help but tease him, “How come you’re here? Are you here to visit your mother-in-law?” He quickly adjusted his attitude when he noticed the worried expression on Li Heng’s face. “I mean no offense.”
Li Heng nodded at him to show he did not take his comment seriously. “How’s the condition of my mother-in-law?”
“It’s not looking good. She’s been drifting in and out of consciousness over the past few days. In fact, her health’s never been well since three years ago. To put it bluntly, she wouldn’t have made it until now without Pei Huan’s bone marrow. Were you asked to be here by your father-in-law or your mother-in-law?”
Taking a sharp intake of breath, Li Heng patted Su Shaoqing’s shoulder and pleaded, “Please do your best to put off the inevitable as long as you can. Huan… Huan will be back soon.”
“Of course I will do that. Go ahead and visit your mother-in-law now!”
Then, Li Heng strode off at a quick pace to the ward where Ning Xin stayed. At the sound of his footsteps, Fu Heng stood up and walked toward the door. “You’re here.”
“Dad!”
Fu Heng responded to the way he addressed him with an icy snort. He did not go as far as rectifying him. Glancing at Ning Xin, he told Li Heng, “Your mother is asleep. Let’s go over there and talk.”
“Uncle Heng, I’ve allocated an empty ward next to this one for you guys to have a chat. Please don’t worry because I will look after Aunt Ning here.”
Fu Heng appreciatively nodded at Su Shaoqing before patting his shoulder. “I’m really grateful for your help.”
