Volume 1, Chapter 8: He Only Learned the Truth About the Car Accident That Day
“I suggest you spend your money on a few large mirrors and take a good look at your own face. Do you even compare to my husband?”
“Anyone with eyes would know who to choose between the two of you, wouldn’t they?”
If she weren’t in poor health, Meng Zhi would have gotten out of bed to hit him.
She was already worried every day about her husband running off, and now this psycho nephew wanted to sabotage their relationship?
Shang Shiyan doted on her so much—how could she possibly give up such a top-tier, high-quality man for this lunatic?
Meng Zhi’s merciless retort left Shang Ye wanting to argue back.
But he was pained to realize that everything she said was the truth.
In anyone’s eyes, he could never measure up to his young uncle.
But—everything he said was true!
Shang Ye clenched his fists, his heart growing more and more bitter.
Yet Meng Zhi had no intention of letting him off the hook, continuing to stab at his heart.
“Also, I may have lost my memory, but I haven’t lost my mind. You say you’re my husband, so why is it that when I was gravely injured yesterday and nearly died, you knew nothing about it?”
From yesterday until now, the one who had stayed by her side was Shang Shiyan.
And he still had the audacity to boast? What nerve!
“Only family members are qualified to sign for surgery. If he weren’t my husband, how could the hospital have operated on me?”
Meng Zhi brought out what she believed to be her most ironclad logic.
Duan Yang, standing at the door, guiltily looked up at the sky.
The surgery had been arranged entirely because Fu Yuan had yielded to their CEO Shang’s intimidation—no signature had been needed at all, and it had been handled swiftly.
He never expected it would cause Miss Meng to misunderstand.
Judging by their CEO’s demeanor, he didn’t plan to explain.
Duan Yang continued staring at the sky, pretending to know nothing.
“I… you…”
Shang Ye opened his mouth, but the moment he spoke, Meng Zhi cut him off again.
“What ‘I’? What ‘you’? Let me tell you, Shang Shiyan is my husband!”
“Don’t think just because I’ve lost my memory, you can fool me. A heartbeat doesn’t lie—I feel nothing for you. Only when I face my husband do I feel my heart race. My heart wouldn’t deceive me, would it?”
“I think you’re the one with the problem, mistaking your aunt for your wife. Lucky for you we’re relatives and my husband has a good temper—if you’d done this to anyone else, you’d have been beaten up long ago.”
Shang Ye was rendered speechless, the muscles in his face twitching uncontrollably from anger.
For the first time, he realized how sharp Meng Zhi’s tongue could be.
Shang Shiyan, too, hadn’t expected things to unfold this way.
But hearing Zhizhi say she liked him, the man’s tightly pressed lips curved into a barely perceptible smile.
His deep, dark eyes flickered with light.
Shang Ye had nothing left to say, and he also realized that he and Meng Zhi’s parents had been far too neglectful of her.
Yesterday, they’d been so focused on tending to Chu Qinyan after her car accident that when they couldn’t reach Meng Zhi, they hadn’t thought much of it.
They’d simply assumed she was sulking.
The light in Shang Ye’s dark eyes dimmed.
He wanted to explain, but Meng Zhi didn’t give him the chance.
“Honey, I’m tired. Make him leave.”
After saying that, Meng Zhi didn’t spare Shang Ye another glance.
Shang Ye felt a thousand times worse than if he’d swallowed a live fly.
Especially when he saw how lively Meng Zhi was in front of Shang Shiyan.
For a moment, he seemed to see her as she used to be—full of vitality, like a warm, radiant little sun.
That was the moment he was most captivated by her.
But somewhere along the way, she had gradually become quiet and withdrawn, while Chu Qinyan increasingly resembled the person she used to be.
It was precisely for this reason that, even though he knew exactly what Chu Qinyan was up to, he still tacitly allowed her to get close.
Even if Meng Zhi minded.
He just wanted her to care about him more—to have her heart and eyes filled with him alone.
Shang Ye’s infatuated, dazed gaze made Meng Zhi deeply uncomfortable.
Sensing her displeasure, Shang Shiyan gently soothed her.
With careful, patient movements, he helped her lie back down on the bed before rising to personally escort Shang Ye out.
Shang Ye was completely lost in his own world, his emotions a tangled mess of conflicting feelings.
He didn’t understand—Meng Zhi had always loved him. How had things come to this?
The moment he thought of Meng Zhi nestled in his uncle’s arms, her voice soft and sweet as she called him “husband,” a sharp pain stabbed through Shang Ye’s heart.
“Uncle, why are you doing this!”
Just as Shang Shiyan was about to return to the hospital room, Shang Ye’s low voice rang out.
Shang Ye’s hands clenched into fists in the shadows.
He lifted his head, his gaze stubbornly fixed on Shang Shiyan, demanding a reasonable explanation.
Thinking of what Shang Ye had done to Meng Zhi, Shang Shiyan’s expression turned cold.
“What right do you have to question me?”
Their gazes clashed, and Shang Shiyan looked at Shang Ye with undisguised contempt.
Though Shang Ye wasn’t much shorter than Shang Shiyan, he always felt as though he were looking up at him.
What he hated even more was—
That despite despising this feeling, he didn’t even have the courage to resist.
Shang Ye took a deep breath, his nails digging viciously into his palms.
Pain slowly seeped into his heart.
He stared at Shang Shiyan with unwilling eyes, his face full of indignation.
“Uncle, don’t forget—I’m the one who was supposed to marry Zhizhi. She’s just lost her memory right now.”
“She’s loved me for so many years. Feelings don’t change overnight. As long as we spend more time together, she’s bound to remember.”
“Her current behavior is only because she just woke up and the first person she saw was you, so she mistakenly thinks she likes you. When she finds out you’ve been deceiving her—”
“Uncle, Meng Zhi hates being deceived more than anything. Can you bear the consequences?”
Shang Ye’s words seemed respectful on the surface, but there was a veiled threat lurking beneath.
Shang Shiyan’s expression turned grim, his gaze at Shang Ye growing increasingly cold and detached.
“What happens between Meng Zhi and me is none of your business.”
“As for you—you keep claiming she’s your fiancée, putting on such a devoted act, yet you still chose Chu Qinyan between the two of them.”
Hearing his sarcastic words, Shang Ye frowned deeply, a flicker of confusion passing through his eyes.
“What do you mean by that?”
Watching his “dear nephew” still looking utterly bewildered, the mockery in Shang Shiyan’s eyes deepened.
He decided to spell it all out.
“In yesterday’s car accident, both she and Chu Qinyan were at the scene.”
“What did you say?”
Shang Ye felt as though all the blood in his body had frozen solid.
He stared at Shang Shiyan in disbelief: “How is that possible?”
If Zhizhi had been in the car too, why hadn’t Chu Qinyan mentioned it at all?
Meng Zhi’s injuries were far more severe than Chu Qinyan’s—he could hardly bear to imagine it.
If she had been at the scene of the accident, watching him take Chu Qinyan away while leaving her behind, how utterly devastated and hopeless she must have felt.
How utterly despairing it must have been for her!
Shang Ye’s mind flashed through countless images, all converging at last into the coldness and disgust in Meng Zhi’s eyes when she looked at him one final time.
In an instant, Shang Ye felt as if a thousand needles were flowing through his veins, the pain stealing his breath.
His entire body seemed thrown into an ice cellar—his hands and feet stiff, unable to move.
At this moment, he even felt a trace of relief—
Thankfully, Zhizhi had lost her memory.
Otherwise, how could he possibly face her accusations?