Wu Hui wanted to say something, but he held back and leaned into him, acting demure.
The thermometer had been forgotten at the villa.
Old Master Pei stumbled back, unable to speak for a long time. “You, you…”
Clearly, organizing his thoughts was taking him too long. Since he could not outmaneuver Pei Huaiye, he started looking for outside help. “What about Tanyi?”
He pulled Wen Tanyi forward. “Tanyi has been infatuated with you since childhood. She studied medicine because you ran a high fever and stayed unconscious for days when you were a teenager, and she was terrified it would happen again. How can you bear to let her down?”
Wen Tanyi finally spoke up. “I studied forensics.”
Old Master Pei: “…”
A heavy silence filled the room. No one spoke. Wu Hui, unable to bear the awkwardness, bravely broke the silence. “Forensics is good; you can determine if he is the deceased or the victim.”
Several pairs of eyes turned toward him. Wu Hui looked utterly innocent and tucked the hand warmer back into his clothes.
Old Master Pei stomped his foot. “In any case, Tanyi is the only one who can be your lawfully wedded wife. This wild man is not allowed to step foot in the Pei family!”
“Oh.”
Pei Huaiye’s expression remained indifferent. He lifted his eyelids to give the old man a look. It was a very light glance, yet the Old Master felt a suffocating sensation, as if his throat had been gripped. It made him truly realize that this heir had grown up and was no longer a person he could manipulate.
“Can you make decisions regarding my life?”
“You—”
The situation was dire for the Old Master, with not a single point in his favor. Realizing he would not get the result he wanted today, he flicked his sleeves in fury and left. Before leaving, he made sure to leave Wen Tanyi behind. “Tanyi, do not be afraid. You stay here and keep him company. I do not believe he will drive you away!”
He clearly had not given up.
Wen Tanyi wondered, “Are you okay, old man?”
After the Old Master left, they stared at each other for a moment. Wen Tanyi slowly asked, “Are we still picking strawberries?”
Wu Hui was completely unaffected. “Yes, we are.”
He had already posted on his feed, and Nian Zhi, the others, and Jiang Liexing were all coming. What was the point of picking strawberries with only two people in such a large patch?
Pei Huaiye was a bit worried. “Are you okay?”
Wu Hui found the question strange. “Me? Why would I not be okay?”
“The way he talked about you…”
“Oh.” Wu Hui understood. “He was praising me.”
“?”
“Do not say it. Although your grandfather is old, he has a good eye. He could tell at a glance that I am the most handsome man.”
Pei Huaiye’s lips moved, but he could not refute that.
Wu Hui continued, “Senior, have you prepared everything you need?”
Pei Huaiye might not have been happy about Wen Tanyi joining them, but since Wu Hui had agreed, he said nothing. “It is ready. Get in the car.”
Wen Tanyi, of course, was not happy about being a third wheel. “I have my own car; I will follow behind you.”
The appearance of the Old Master did not affect Wu Hui much. It was nothing more than the typical familial discord that came with being a “heavenly pride,” a standard trope for those with status and background. Besides, with Pei Huaiye’s intense madness, he did not look like someone who had a complete childhood anyway.
Wu Hui was fine, but Pei Huaiye seemed less so. Throughout the drive, he was not in high spirits.
“Senior,” Wu Hui said in the car, holding Pei Huaiye’s hand. “If you have anything on your mind, you can tell me.”
He had adopted the persona of a thoughtful, supportive partner today.
Pei Huaiye pulled his gaze away from the window and whispered, “Anything?”
Wu Hui replied gently, “Of course.”
Pei Huaiye said, “I want to do it.”
“…” Wu Hui let go of his hand. “I am trying to have a deep conversation with you, and you are playing like this?”
Pei Huaiye grasped his hand again, lifted it to his lips to kiss, and a light smile touched the corners of his mouth. “They are not enough of a reason to make me unhappy. It is truly just because you are by my side, and I cannot control myself.”
He wanted to hug, kiss, and do it. He was afraid of scaring Wu Hui, so he could only endure it quietly. Wu Hui was speechless.
“If you want to have a deep conversation, I can talk to you, too,” Pei Huaiye changed his tune. “Where would you like me to start?”
Wu Hui leaned on his shoulder. “Anywhere is fine.”
In truth, he already knew what he needed to know from the system. He just hoped Pei Huaiye would say it out loud to prevent his madness from worsening, as he could not handle being treated so fiercely every day.
Wen Tanyi’s car followed behind. Seeing her through the rearview mirror, Pei Huaiye spoke of her first.
“The man I call grandfather had a first love from the Wen family. But in his younger years, he abandoned her for a business marriage, and she died in depression. Now, he wants to make amends.”
Wu Hui sighed lightly. “If he really wanted to make amends, he should have burned himself and gone to keep her company.”
Pei Huaiye agreed.
“In reality, the Pei family should have more than just me as a direct descendant,” Pei Huaiye said, his tone as flat as if he were telling someone else’s story. “My father had many women who bore children, but he personally did away with them.”
Wu Hui: “?”
Pei Huaiye: “Conceive one, destroy one.”
Old Master Pei calling him a madman was truly not an exaggeration. Wu Hui asked curiously, “How did you survive?”
“…”
Pei Huaiye said softly, “If you like, I can die for you.”
Wu Hui grabbed his hand. “No need. Stay alive; it is quite stinking if you die.”
The reason Pei Huaiye survived was that he was the child of the legitimate wife. In such large families, there was a strict division between wife and concubines; only those who gave birth to a child could take a seat at the table.
Pei Huaiye’s parents were a rare example of a loving couple in the Pei family, but because they had no children after many years of marriage, the Old Master grew impatient and schemed to have his father sleep with another woman. From then on, the couple who truly loved each other was never the same again.
Pei Huaiye’s father lived every day in immense pain and regret. His mother knew she could not blame him, yet she could not accept that her husband had been intimate with another woman. The two could only be tortured by their own emotions day and night.
Later, the woman from that one-night stand truly became pregnant. Old Master Pei thought the Pei family was finally going to welcome its first long-awaited grandson, but the child was aborted with drugs by Pei Huaiye’s father.
Once it happened, it happened again. His mother could not conceive, so the Old Master kept sending women to his father’s bed, using various schemes.
The rift between the couple had already formed. Since every day was a living hell, they all suffered together. As long as those women were pregnant, they would miscarry at the hands of his father. He was determined that everyone would die.
Wu Hui had heard it once before, but hearing it from him personally felt different.
Wu Hui sighed. “It is a miracle you were born.”
“My birth was an accident.”
His mother later became pregnant by accident, but neither her psychological nor physical state was suitable for childbirth. They looked forward to the child’s birth while simultaneously fearing it. Because they could no longer give him complete parental love, and being born into this family destined that his future path would not be easy.
They feared Pei Huaiye would follow in his father’s footsteps: living in a loveless marriage with someone he did not love, until tortured to death.
After Pei Huaiye was born, Old Master Pei took him away to raise him personally. At that time, the Pei family power was entirely in the Old Master’s hands. His parents were unwilling but had no way to stop him, especially since his mother was physically weak after childbirth.
They could not keep their own child by their side, and his wife wept every day, her health deteriorating. His father’s rebellion taught the Old Master a lesson: the heir had to be trained strictly from a young age and must never be like his father.
So, when they saw Pei Huaiye a few years later, the three or four-year-old child could neither cry nor laugh. He was conventional, like a rigid robot without emotions, excellent at everything but only capable of following orders. From then on, his father resolved to stop wallowing in despair and began to fight back. It took ten full years to topple Old Master Pei.