Jiang Shizheng was smoking for the first time in a very long time. As he smoked, he spotted Shu Qing at the doorway. “Come here!” he ordered.
She walked in and smelled the horrible cigarette stench. “Dad…” she muttered.
“That’s enough. I will go straight to the point. What happened with Nuan? Is what Su Huaibei said true? I don’t care what type of relationship you have with him or what happened between the two of you, but Nuan is innocent. Don’t you dare direct your anger and hatred at her. Do you even know what you’re doing?” he berated.
“Dad, I…I hate him! He destroyed me!” she screamed.
“You deserved what happened to you. I don’t want to talk about what happened in the past. Is Shi Nuan your child with Su Huaibei?” he asked.
“I…” she muttered. Her fists were tightly clenched and she jerked her head aside.
“How dare you look at me like this? If it weren’t for Nuan, I wouldn’t have allowed you to step foot into my house. I want you to leave with Su Huaibei now; I will take care of Nuan. Whether Nuan wants to be a member of the Su family is up to her. You have no right to interfere!” he bellowed.
Jiang Shizheng didn’t want to see her before his eyes ever again; the sight of her made him furious.
Shu Qing’s lips trembled; she wanted to say something but he wouldn’t let her interrupt. “Leave, and never come back again!” he screeched.
“Dad,” she pleaded.
“I don’t have a daughter like you!” he shouted.
After she left, Jiang Shizheng continued to smoke in the study room, creating much air pollution.
Aunt Fei walked in and was opening the window when she spotted him looking listless. She was shocked. “Master?”
He continued sitting there in silence.
Aunt Fei felt sympathetic towards his plight. She uttered, “Master, I’m sure Ms. Shu knows that she is in the wrong. Why do you have to act this way…”
“She doesn’t know that she is in the wrong from the way she was acting just now. I don’t think she will ever feel remorseful. You don’t have to speak up on her behalf; I understand my own daughter’s personality. I have pampered her too much, which is why she grew up to be so selfish and manipulative. I don’t care what happens to her in the future. My only duty now is to take care of Nuan.”
Aunt Fei sighed loudly and lamented, “Actually, Little Miss is so pitiful as she is only so young…” Aunt Fei had been against sending Shi Nuan to the Shi family from the beginning. However, Jiang Shizheng was busy with his work and she was too old to take care of Shi Nuan by herself.
Furthermore, Jiang Shizheng believed that Shi Nuan should grow up in a complete and healthy family. Hence, he decided to allow Jiang Yu and Shi Jingzheng to adopt Nuan. The Shis were a good family for two reasons. First, Shi Yunsheng owed Jiang Shizheng a favor at the time. Second, Shi Yunsheng took a liking to Shi Nuan after a fortune-teller told him that the girl would bring great benefits to the Shi family.
Jiang Yu was already married by then. She was at first reluctant to adopt Shi Nuan because Jiang Yu held a grudge against Jiang Yuan for having snatched Su Huaibei away.
Jiang Shizheng had promised Jiang Yu that if she and Shi Jingzheng took care of Shi Nuan well and treated her as their own child, he would leave his entire estate to her. This was why Jiang Yu eventually agreed to adopt Shi Nuan.
When Jiang Shizheng thought about his earlier decision, he involuntarily sighed and asked, “If I had insisted on raising Nuan myself, do you think she would have had a better life?”
“Don’t blame yourself. You never wanted any of this!” Aunt Fei stated as she took the cigarette away from him. “You are old and in poor health. If Little Miss knows you are smoking she would be very worried!” she continued.
“You are right. I almost forgot that Nuan is pregnant and she hates seeing me smoke!” he recalled and nodded. “Thank goodness for your advice,” he continued.
He let out another sigh and commented, “Yuan and Su Huaibei have both returned. I wonder if Nuan… Aunt Fei, please leave. I need to think about this!”
He stayed in his study for the whole afternoon and finally decided to call Fu Chengyan. “Yan, I have something that I need your help with. Come visit me when you are free!” he said.
Fu Chengyan visited Jiang Shizheng that very night. He called Shi Nuan and informed her that he would be busy at night and would come home later.
“Mr. Fu, today Su Huaibei and Shu Qing visited Mrs. Fu at Xinhuang,” reported Zhou Zheng, who walked in just as Fu Chengyan ended the phone call.
Zhou Zheng continued, “Shu Qing’s attitude towards Mrs. Fu was horrible! However, Su Huaibei was rather friendly. That’s all I have for you for now.”
Fu Chengyan rubbed his chin and asked, “Has the contract been signed?”
“Not yet; Shu Qing was reluctant to do so. Su Huaibei even had a fight with her,” Zhou Zheng replied.
Fu Chengyan nodded. “I see. Has Su Huaibei returned to the Su family?”
“Yes, it seems like he will soon have a showdown with the Su family,” Zhou Zheng answered.
Fu Chengyan bit his lips and replied, “Alright, you may go downstairs now. Arrange a chauffeur to bring me to the Jiang residence tonight.”
“You are going to visit the Jiangs?” Zhou Zheng asked in surprise. He had thought that given the current situation, Fu Chengyan should be rushing home to accompany his wife. Shouldn’t Mr. Fu be home to comfort Mrs. Fu instead? Although she remained mum on the incident today, she must be heartbroken that her birth mother had abandoned her and treated her with such cruelty.
“That will be it. Is there anything else?” Fu Chengyan questioned.
“No.”
“Alright, then make your way down! Also, help me prepare some gifts. Is the new tea available?” Fu Chengyan asked.
“Yes. I will ask my men to get it done immediately!” Zhou Zheng said.
At seven o’clock at night, Fu Chengyan punctually arrived at the Jiang family home. Aunt Fei hurriedly welcomed him in and exclaimed, “Sir, welcome!”
“Aunt Fei!” he replied with a smile on his face. As he walked in, Zhou Zheng followed behind him, holding the gifts. Aunt Fei wanted to take the gifts from Zhou Zheng but was stopped by Fu Chengyan, who said with a chuckle, “Don’t worry about Zhou Zheng. He can carry all these items!” He then asked, “Where is Grandpa?”
“He’s inside. Come in, Sir!” said Aunt Fei.
“Alright!” he replied.
“Mr. Zhou, please leave the items on the floor. I haven’t finished cooking. Sir, why don’t you have a chat with your grandpa first?” Aunt Fei asked Fu Chengyan.
“Sounds good. I will do just that,” he replied.
Fu Chengyan then walked to the study room and knocked on the door. “Grandpa,” he called out.
“Come in!” he replied.
Fu Chengyan gently pushed open the door and saw Jiang Shizheng sitting on the chair, looking a little dazed. Jiang Shizheng waved to him and asked, “Yan, did Nuan come with you today?”
“When you told me that you wanted to speak to me, I guessed that you wanted only me to listen. Hence, I’ve come alone.” Fu Chengyan smiled and walked up to Jiang Shizheng. “How are you feeling today, Grandpa?”
“I’m feeling fine. Just take good care of Nuan; you don’t have to worry about my health,” Jiang Shizheng responded.
Fu Chengyan grinned. “You are not only May’s grandpa but also my former teacher, so I naturally should inquire about your health.”
“That’s alright. I will go straight to the point then. I wanted to discuss with you about Nuan,” said Jiang Shizheng. Letting out a deep sigh, the old man bemoaned, “I don’t want to talk about Nuan’s parentage, since I’m guessing that you already have investigated that.”
Jiang Shizheng lifted his head and looked directly into Fu Chengyan’s eyes. Fu Chengyan nodded and stated plainly, “Yes, I did.”
Jiang Shizheng massaged his brows and added, “In that case, I won’t beat around the bush. Nuan is not Jiang Yu and Shi Jingzheng’s birth daughter——this you already know. Her mother is my daughter, Jiang Yuan, whom you know as Shu Qing.”
Fu Chengyan admitted, “Yes, I already know that.”
“Then do you know who Nuan’s father is?” Jiang Shizheng asked.
“Su Huaibei,” replied Fu Chengyan.
Jiang Shizheng initially felt surprised but soon he was relieved instead. “Indeed, you figured it all out without me telling you the truth. Actually, I only found out today that Nuan’s father is Su Huaibei.”
Jiang Shizheng looked at Fu Chengyan, who appeared shocked by what he had just heard. The old man chortled and grumbled, “I know I have failed as a father. My younger daughter is arrogant, unwilling to admit defeat, and is always riding on a high horse!”
“When I arranged her marriage for her, I was extremely close to the Shi family. Hence, since Yuan was young we had agreed that she would marry Shi Jingzheng,” Jiang Shizheng continued.
Fu Zhengyan was stunned. “So Jiang Yuan had a marriage arrangement with Shi Jingzheng?”
Jiang Shizheng nodded and replied, “Not only that, my elder daughter, Jiang Yu, also had a marriage arrangement with Su Huaibei. However, I did not have a good feeling about this as the Su family was too prestigious. I could not do much, though, as it was the old Mrs. Su who was in charge of that marriage arrangement.”
At this moment, Fu Chengyan understood everything. “As you can see, everything became messed up later on. Jiang Yuan had secretly gotten together with Su Huaibei and by the time we found out about it, it was already too late. They eventually left Jiang City for the capital, and I had not heard from them since then.”
Jiang Shizheng continued, “It was such a scandal! I remember it was snowing heavily that year when Yuan brought Nuan home and left quickly afterward. I was too old to take good care of Nuan, who was just a baby, so I sent her to the Shi family. I thought that Jiang Yu would take good care of her as she is my daughter.”
Fu Chengyan then added, “However, Jiang Yu detested Jiang Yuan and failed to treat May well. Grandpa, you didn’t expect that to happen, did you?”
Jiang Shizheng nodded. “By the time I started to regret and wanted to bring Nuan home, she had already grown up and I couldn’t bear to tell her the cruel truth. Hence, Shi Yunsheng and I decided to treat her especially well——we didn’t want her to live a dreadful life.”
“You have done a great job in raising May. Don’t you think so?” Fu Chengyan asked.
Jiang Shizheng responded in acknowledgment. “Indeed, I am heartened to see that Nuan has grown up to have a kind heart and great personality. However, if I hadn’t acted so foolishly, she wouldn’t have suffered so much during her childhood years!”
“Grandpa, what is it that you really want to say to me?” Fu Chengyan asked.
“Right. I wanted to tell you that Yuan and Su Huaibei have returned, and they visited me today. Su Huaibei wants to recognize Nuan as his daughter and bring her back to the Su family!”
