Fu Shennian carried the child down the stairs, with Chen Xuan walking beside him.
It was a boy, around four or five years old, with delicate features.
He looked very much like Fu Shennian…
The boy squirmed in Fu Shennian’s arms, his little hands restlessly tugging at his collar.
Fu Shennian was not annoyed. He lowered his head and coaxed him softly, a faint smile curving his lips.
A family of three.
The hand Sheng Nianxi had wrapped around her coffee cup tightened, her knuckles turning faintly white.
She had imagined this scene countless times. Now it had come true—but the female lead was not her.
“Xiaosheng,” Mother Zhou’s voice pulled her back, “Yanwen’s father and I both like you very much. We sincerely hope you can become our daughter-in-law.”
Sheng Nianxi forced out a smile, but before she could speak—
A gaze fell from the second floor.
Fu Shennian stood at the landing, holding the child in his arms. His eyes passed over the crowd and fixed directly on her.
The instant their eyes met, the smile on his face froze.
As if someone had punched him squarely in the face.
He looked at her—at her sitting by the window, with two elders seated across from her and “Doctor Zhou” beside her.
The scene looked too much like a family. The warmth of it stabbed him deeply.
The child continued squirming in his arms.
“Daddy, Daddy, aren’t you coming?”
He did not move.
He merely lowered his eyes and looked at her.
His gaze fell on her face, then on the cup of coffee, and finally on Zhou Yanwen beside her…
That place should have been his.
Chen Xuan followed his gaze, and her expression changed instantly.
Sheng Nianxi met his eyes without looking away.
She lifted her coffee and took a light sip.
Her movements were composed and her bearing graceful, as though she were looking at a stranger.
Fu Shennian’s Adam’s apple bobbed. The arm holding the child seemed to have lost all feeling.
Today, she was wearing a light-blue shirt, with a small pearl brooch pinned at the collar.
He had given her a brooch once.
It had been pearl, too.
She had loved it then and worn it every day.
This one was not the one he had given her.
That realization was like a blunt knife, slowly cutting into his heart.
“Husband, Yuan Yuan wants to go to the bathroom,” Chen Xuan reminded him.
Only then did Fu Shennian come back to himself. He lowered his head, his voice somewhat hoarse.
“I’ll take him.”
Sheng Nianxi withdrew her gaze and met Mother Zhou’s eager eyes. She curved her lips into a smile.
“Auntie, thank you and Uncle for recognizing me. Yanwen is a very good person. Being able to meet him is my good fortune.”
She spoke softly, but every word fell clearly into Fu Shennian’s ears.
He happened to be passing by her.
His footsteps paused for a moment.
At the instant they brushed past each other, Sheng Nianxi caught the scent on his body. It was still the same as it had been many years ago—clean and cool, with a hint of woody fragrance.
Her eyelashes trembled.
The liquid in her coffee cup rippled in an extremely shallow circle.
She set the cup down and casually tucked the loose strands of hair beside her ear.
Fu Shennian came out of the bathroom with Yuan Yuan, only to be stopped by Chen Xuan at the corner of the hallway.
She tried hard to appear unconcerned, but the expression on her face came out twisted instead.
“Sheng Nianxi has already met the parents. It looks like the wedding is coming soon. You can finally give up now, can’t you?”
Fu Shennian slowly raised his eyes.
His gaze was terrifyingly cold.
Chen Xuan instinctively retreated half a step.
All these years, Fu Shennian had treated her with gentleness and consideration, nearly making her forget what kind of man he was at heart.
The Fu family elders all called him a living King of Hell, a spoiled young master. He had not earned those names for nothing.
“Chen Xuan, I have eyes. I can see for myself.” His voice was forced up from his throat, his brows tightly furrowed. His entire body looked as though something were pressing down on him, leaving him unable to breathe.
Chen Xuan’s eyes reddened.
“Shennian, you’ve never spoken to me like this before. You weren’t like this in the past! Is it because she’s back? You two have already broken up. Now the three of us are living together as a family. You need to remember that.”
“Of course I remember.” He enunciated each word. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here right now. But I hope you’ll remember it, too.”
“What do you mean? Are you threatening me?” Her voice began to tremble.
Fu Shennian drew a deep breath, as though desperately suppressing something.
“All these years, I’ve done nothing I need to feel guilty about. If you go in front of my mother again and say things that aren’t true, I guarantee that everything you have now will be lost one thing at a time.”
Chen Xuan’s whole body went limp, and she nearly collapsed onto the floor. Tears spilled from her eyes.
“Daddy, don’t be mean to Mommy.” Yuan Yuan tipped up his face and tugged at Fu Shennian’s clothes with his little hand.
Fu Shennian lowered his eyes, and a trace of warmth returned to them.
He crouched down and lifted the child into his arms, his voice softening.
“Be good, Yuan Yuan. Daddy will take you to fly an airplane.”
He carried Yuan Yuan up to the airplane model on the second floor, where the child played happily.
From this angle, the window beside the first-floor seating area was just visible.
Sheng Nianxi was still there.
The side of her face was turned toward him. She sat upright, her back perfectly straight and the line of her neck long and elegant, like a graceful white swan.
She raised a hand to smooth her hair, revealing a small section of her wrist.
Fu Shennian narrowed his eyes. There seemed to be a scar on the inside of her wrist.
She had not had that scar when they were together.
A burst of laughter suddenly came from downstairs, interrupting Fu Shennian’s thoughts.
Sheng Nianxi was laughing, her eyes curving into crescents. She looked beautiful.
The Zhou family’s parents were very pleased with her, their faces covered in smiles.
Of course. With how outstanding she was, it was difficult for anyone not to be satisfied with her.
Fu Shennian thought again of many years ago, when Sheng Nianxi had first gone to the Fu family home.
She had worn a white dress, her hair tied in a ponytail. She had been so nervous that her palms sweated, and she kept secretly rubbing them against her skirt.
His mother had sat on the sofa and looked her over from head to toe before smiling.
He knew that smile far too well.
It was the smile of someone who was dissatisfied but would not say so.
That night, he took her back to her dormitory. She was very quiet the entire way.
When they reached the building, she took the initiative to ask, “Shennian, does your mother not like me?”
He had said, “No. You’re overthinking it.”
She said nothing more. She smiled, turned around, and went upstairs.
Thinking about it now, she had known even then.
She had known that his mother did not like her, but she had said nothing.
She had borne it alone, desperately worked toward her doctorate alone, and made herself better and better alone.
And what about him?
He had done nothing.
He had thought that loving her would be enough.
Thinking about it now, he really had been a bastard.
Fu Shennian punched the glass.
The glass vibrated, giving off a dull thud.
Pain spread from his knuckles.
It made him a little more clearheaded.
“I heard from Yanwen that you’re working in the emergency room now. It must be very hard. After you get married, you’ll transfer to the inpatient clinical department. That would be even better.”
Sheng Nianxi’s hand stopped stirring her coffee. She raised her eyes toward Zhou Yanwen, confusion in her gaze.
When had she ever said that?
Yet Zhou Yanwen showed no intention of explaining. He still wore a gentle smile.
As though it were the most ordinary thing in the world to say.
Even Father Zhou, who usually spoke little, joined in.
“That’s right. A girl spending every day in the emergency room, surrounded by blood, arms, legs, and things like that, isn’t very proper. It would be better to work in the inpatient department—like our Yanwen, neat and respectable.”
Sheng Nianxi put down what she was holding. The smile on her face disappeared bit by bit.
“Uncle, Auntie, I don’t think working in the emergency room is improper. Doctors treat illnesses and save people. There’s nothing improper about how people are saved.”
The moment she said this, the atmosphere turned cold.
Father Zhou and Mother Zhou’s expressions stiffened, and both looked toward their son.
Zhou Yanwen hurriedly tugged at Sheng Nianxi’s arm.
“My parents didn’t mean it that way. Aren’t you being too sensitive?”
Sheng Nianxi turned to him, not giving him the slightest consideration.
“I never said I wanted to transfer departments. Why did you tell Uncle and Auntie that I did?”
“And I’m not being sensitive. I simply have my own principles.”