Shen Shixiu narrowed his eyes, which were filled with undecipherable emotions. He only moved his lips after a long time. “Grandpa.”
“Oh, don’t call me that. I have nothing to do with the Shen family anymore, so there’s no need for you to greet me that way, Mr. Shen.”
Shen Shixiu frowned at his prickly reply. “Do you think you can hide this any longer?” He pursed his lips at Jiang Shizheng’s unwillingness to talk to him. “Nuan has grown up, and she has every right to know this. Do you think she won’t find out about it, considering how smart she is?”
“Enough!” Jiang Shizheng cut off his words. “I’m saying this one last time – Nuan is my granddaughter. She has nothing to do with the Shen family, so there’s no need for you to forcefully relate yourself to her. Even Shen Feng has no comments about this. What difference will it make for you to do this?”
Shen Shixiu paused momentarily before replying, “My dad…”
“I have no interest in your affairs. You know very clearly that Nuan is not a Shen. I don’t care what you’re trying to do right now, but let me make this clear. As long as I am still alive, all of you shall not harm Nuan in any way. Stay clear from her!”
“Grandpa!”
“I said don’t call me that anymore! Don’t you think I have no idea what has been happening recently? Fu Chengyan is Nuan’s husband and not the son-in-law of the Shen family. Bear that in mind!”
Shen Shixiu’s brows scrunched deeper at the older man’s words. However, since Jiang Shizheng was adamant to not discuss the topic any further, Shen Shixiu could do nothing about it. “Please consider it. I’ll be in Jiang City for the time being. Believe me when I say that I will not bring any harm to Nuan. Since I was able to protect her last time, I shall do the same now. I will never abandon her.”
“How nice of you. I have no confidence in whether you will fulfill it or not, though.”
Jiang Shizheng greatly disliked the Shen family. Refusing to talk with him any longer, Jiang Shizheng promptly left after finishing his words.
Shen Shixiu stared at his departing figure for a long time before fishing out his phone. “Dad, it’s me.”
Shi Nuan had felt that something was wrong ever since she left Jing University, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on what felt off. She only noticed that her grandpa’s attitude towards Shen Shixiu was strange.
Could it be because Shen Shixiu looks too much like Shi Yu, hence he diverted all his prejudice towards Shi Yu to Shen Shixiu instead? But that doesn’t sound right either. Grandpa is not a man who can’t tell right from wrong. In fact, Shen Shixiu’s attitude also turned weird when he met Grandpa.
Shi Nuan frowned her brows in confusion. “Maybe I’m thinking too much.”
After giving it some thought, she decided to ignore the incident and stop pondering over it. She took a trip to the supermarket to get some food and made a call to Fu Chengyan on her way back. “Yan, when will you be coming back?”
“Not now.” Fu Chengyan’s deep voice sounded from the other side.
Shi Nuan’s smile stiffened upon hearing her answer. Before she could react, Fu Chengyan added, “I have something to do in the office, so you don’t have to cook for me.”
After that, he swiftly cut off the call. Shi Nuan was so stunned by his actions that she only returned to her senses after quite a while. Emotions of disappointment suddenly filled her heart.
On the other hand, Fu Chengyan ended the call and kept his phone while eyeing the man across him with narrowed eyes. “Alright. What’s the problem?”
Su Shaoqing pursed his lips while looking at Fu Chengyan. “Wow, you rejected Nuan’s dinner invitation for me? What a good friend you are, Chengyan.”
Fu Chengyan merely hummed in reply. “If you have nothing else to tell me, please get lost!”
“Hey, don’t be like that!” Su Shaoqing immediately raised his arms in surrender. “I need your help on something.” He got up and sat on Fu Chengyan’s table while knocking his finger on the surface. “Your company has some collaborations with Qin Group, right?”
“Which Qin Group?” Fu Chengyan raised his brows. “Hmm?”
“What other Qin Group can there be? Of course, I mean Qin Yanzhi! Don’t tell me you don’t know who the father to Ling’s child is!” Su Shaoqing sighed tiredly as he spoke. “You should know that Bai is suffering from leukemia by now. He needs the bone marrow from his parents if he wants to be cured. You know… Ling told me that Qin Yanzhi is Bai’s biological father.”
“Then what about you? Do you think he’s the father?” Fu Chengyan stood up from his place. It was rare for him to see Su Shaoqing looking so tired and dejected.
Su Shaoqing’s lips quivered, and he uttered with a mocking grin. “What do you think?” Of course, he wished that Qin Yanzhi were not the father. But this was Bai’s health and life they were talking about, and he knew that Fu Ling would never use her son’s life to mess with him, which was why he was sure Bai was not his. Plus, he had been there when Fu Ling had the abortion. The sight of Fu Ling covered in her own blood was a traumatic sight he would never forget for life.
“You are fine with it?”
“You’ve asked me that before,” Su Shaoqing replied impatiently. “Just tell me if you’re going to help me! I don’t have many connections in the business realm, but you sure do. Of course, I’ll have no problems asking Bancheng for help if you don’t want to help me.”
Fu Chengyan eyed him calmly. “Between Su Bancheng and I, you chose to come to me instead of going to him. That can only mean you didn’t want him, or rather anyone from your family to know about this,” he commented in a definite tone.
Su Shaoqing wanted to retaliate, but what Fu Chengyan said had actually hit the bullseye. He had no way of denying that statement.
“I will help you with this. But this child… do you really think it’s Ling’s?”
“What do you mean by that?” Su Shaoqing lifted his head, only to see Fu Chengyan curling his lips into a smirk. “You’re a doctor yourself. Don’t tell me you don’t know what I mean.”
Su Shaoqing narrowed his eyes in deep thought. Although they didn’t speak anything out loud, he actually understood what Fu Chengyan was trying to tell him. “Maybe,” he replied with a faint smile.
After all, he had witnessed Fu Ling’s abortion himself. He knew that she definitely couldn’t get pregnant within such a short time. But the child’s age didn’t match the period for safe pregnancy either, so the only possibility would be that Bai wasn’t even Fu Ling’s child, to begin with.
If Bai is Qin Yanzhi’s child, who’s the mother? What’s the mother’s relationship with Fu Ling? Why would she end up as Bai’s mother now?
“Please help me investigate this matter too.” Su Shaoqing extended his arms and patted Fu Chengyan’s shoulder. “I’ve got to go now.”
Fu Chengyan twirled his pen as he waved him off. Once Su Shaoqing left, Zhou Zheng immediately entered. “Mr. Fu, Shen Shixiu and Mrs. Fu ran into Mr. Jiang at Jing University today.”
“Grandpa?” Fu Chengyan narrowed his eyes. “What happened then?”
“Before this, Mrs. Fu and Mr. Shen went to a hotel.” Zhou Zheng carefully observed Fu Chengyan’s expression as he reported. He only relaxed when Fu Chengyan didn’t show any expression of displeasure and continued, “Shen Shixiu went up first, and Mrs. Fu only went up half an hour later. But not long after she went up, Shen Shixiu came down first and waited for her downstairs. Mrs. Fu stayed upstairs for quite a long time before departing for Jing University with Shen Shixiu.”
Fu Chengyan’s hand paused in his actions. “Did you say Shen Shixiu came down first?”
“Yes.” Zhou Zheng nodded. “I asked Liang Lin to hack into the hotel’s CCTV’s and found out that Mrs. Fu met up with Shen Qianan. Prior to their meetup, Shen Shixiu seemed to have had a row with Shen Qianan.”
With pursed lips, Fu Chengyan stood up from his place. “Investigate this incident. Find out why Shen Qianan and Shen Shixiu quarreled in the hotel and why May met up with Shen Qianan.”
“Noted.” Zhou Zheng nodded. “It’s getting late, Mr. Fu. So…”
“I’m going home. I’ll let you handle the remaining work. Do keep an eye on Shen Qianan and Shen Shixiu.”
Fu Chengyan then took his coat and left Shengyuan.
Meanwhile, Shi Nuan was lazing around in the living room after finishing up her grocery shopping. Fu Chengyan’s reply had made her lose any motivation to cook, so she ended up plopping herself on the sofa and flipping through the TV channels. However, nothing was interesting to watch. Poor Shi Nuan lay down on her sofa in dejection and whipped out her phone instead. She then took a selfie and uploaded it on WeChat Moments with the caption: Gloomy and bored to death!
Fu Chengyan was about to send her a message through WeChat when he saw her upload that post.
Shi Nuan was the only person he followed on WeChat Moments; that was why he would receive notifications on all her new posts.
After reading her caption, Fu Chengyan raised his brows in amusement before keeping his phone aside. He then sped out of the car park.
After uploading the post, Shi Nuan put down her phone and started rolling around the sofa lazily. Whilst rolling around, she heard the notification of someone commenting on her post; it was Song Rongrong and Su Yian. Both of them replied almost at the same time with the same sad-face emoji.
Shi Nuan replied to their comments almost immediately. The moment she recalled how Fu Chengyan had hung up on her call, she bit her lip, wanting to message him. After tapping into their chatroom, however, she realized that she didn’t know how she should bring up the topic. She didn’t know what she wanted to say to him either. Hence, she exited their chatroom.
Just as Shi Nuan was busy contemplating how to message Fu Chengyan, she suddenly heard the sounds of a car engine, making her jump up like a spring from her sofa. She swiftly slipped into her slippers with her phone in hand and sprinted towards the door while adjusting her shirt.
The moment the door opened, Shi Nuan threw herself into Fu Chengyan’s arms. “Yan!”
Surprised by the impact of her weight, Fu Chengyan staggered backward but swiftly stabilized himself. He placed one hand on the door frame, while his other wrapped around Shi Nuan’s waist to stop her from falling.
Her scent wafted into his nose the moment she crashed into his arms. Fu Chengyan’s eyes curved into a crescent the moment he inhaled Shi Nuan’s scent. She successfully calmed his restless emotions.
Still holding onto her waist, Fu Chengyan could feel Shi Nuan rubbing her head against his chest before lightly knocking his chest with her head. “I’m unhappy, Yan.”
“Hmm? Why are you unhappy? Which idiot made you angry this time?”
Shi Nuan pouted her lips and hit him with her fist. “Who else other than you? Idiot.”
“Hmm?” Fu Chengyan raised his brows. “Me? An idiot?”
Shi Nuan harrumphed. “Yan!”
“Yes?”
“I didn’t know you have fallen for me at such a young age!” Shi Nuan uttered as her heart blossomed in happiness. Fu Chengyan was stunned by her words while Shi Nuan continued, “I wasn’t even legal yet then. You were crushing on a minor, you know!”
