Feng Mian’s expression froze, and an involuntary sense of unease leaked into his eyes. His words became disjointed. “Don’t… don’t misunderstand, don’t tell…”
Before he could finish, Gu Ziheng interrupted him. “I won’t say anything. I know your status is awkward while living at the Chi residence, Mianmian. I can help you.”
He watched Feng Mian quietly, waiting for a response.
Feng Mian felt a stinging sensation in his eyes. He moved his lips, and his voice was hoarse as he slowly spoke, “You can’t help me.”
His eyes were completely red now, and tears rolled down involuntarily.
He didn’t understand why his life had turned out this way. He had been inexplicably branded with the label of an illegitimate child. No one knew that his mother had been the original wife of his father. Later, his father caught the eye of a wealthy woman, abandoned his wife and son, and became a live-in son-in-law. After their marriage was annulled, no one knew about the past, and suddenly, he became an illegitimate child burdened with a bad reputation.
His mother couldn’t remarry easily while raising him, so she cried as she sent him to an orphanage. From that day on, he became a child with no parents.
He studied hard and made something of himself, eventually becoming the top scorer in the college entrance exam. He had his pick of elite universities and finally had a chance to get ahead. But then, his father tracked him down at the orphanage, took him away, and ruined the life he had planned for himself.
He endured cold stares in the Feng household, suffering day by day. After graduation, he joined a good company, and his career was progressing smoothly it was the best time of his life. But his father blocked his path again, forcing him to resign and return home to serve his father’s wife and his half-brother like a servant. To make his identity fit that of an illegitimate child, his father faked his age, and that person transformed into his older brother.
All this injustice stemmed simply from the wife’s words she couldn’t stand the thought of him doing better than her own son. His father didn’t dare offend her; his father’s business was constantly failing, and without support from her side, his father was nothing but a stray dog. To maintain his so-called face, he casually destroyed his son’s life.
He tried to run away, but failed. After being dragged back, he was fed unknown drugs, and he had to consume a so-called antidote every once in a while, or else the outcome would be worse than death. He had once sent the antidote to a testing agency, trying to find out its composition, but before he could get the report, his father found out and beat him mercilessly.
He was beaten until he was covered in wounds and bruises, ending up in the emergency room. He was hospitalized for nearly half a year and was left with old injuries that were impossible to fully heal.
It was from that moment that he understood that in his life, death was the only escape…
He should have had a bright future, yet now he was in the Chi household, acting like a dog, reading the expressions of everyone around him and enduring their intermittent bursts of anger.
Seeing him shed tears, Gu Ziheng panicked. He hurriedly raised his hand to wipe them away, speaking frantically, “Mianmian, don’t cry. Did I say something to upset you? I won’t say it anymore, please, don’t cry.”
Feng Mian sniffled, looking at him with red-rimmed eyes, and pleaded in a hoarse, soft voice, “Ziheng, please don’t tell Chi Chen about me and my uncle. He will beat me to death. I beg you…”
The hospital room door creaked open. Chi Chen, who had been ordered by Gu Ziheng to go downstairs and process the paperwork, stood in the doorway. He stared in disbelief at the scene—Gu Ziheng, who had always been a severe germaphobe, was using his own hand to wipe away Feng Mian’s tears.
He muttered in disbelief, “What… are you doing?”
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