For some reason, Tao Huanyi felt an icy chill radiating from the man.
She took the agreement from Shen Yanchen and was startled to find that it was written entirely in the familiar Braille. Before she could process her surprise, she gradually realized that what she was holding was a prenuptial agreement—
“Miss Tao, you and I have no feelings for each other. Being bound together for life simply because of a child would be a burden to us both. But the Shen family can’t bring ourselves to abandon the child. So how about this?”
Shen Yanchen folded his hands, his tone cool and composed. “Once the child is born, we’ll divorce amicably. The child will be raised by the Shen family. As for you, Miss Tao—”
He narrowed his eyes slightly. “I’ll give you thirty million as compensation for the divorce. How does that sound?”
As Shen Yanchen finished speaking, Tao Huanyi’s fingers found the clearly embossed words “thirty million” on the agreement.
With thirty million, even if she still had no home to return to, perhaps she could live well for the rest of her life. But the baby she would carry for ten months and give birth to would be separated from her from then on…
As if he had noticed her wavering, Shen Yanchen curled his thin lips into a faintly mocking smile. “Since you agree, Miss Tao, sign here.”
With that, Shen Yanchen took Tao Huanyi’s hand and led her to the place where she was to sign.
Tao Huanyi pressed her lips together and carefully wrote her name, stroke by stroke. But what echoed in her ears was her mother’s warm, smiling voice from long ago—
“Our Xiaotaozi is so clever! You can write your own name now!”
“Did that big brother teach you yesterday? Xiaotaozi, do you like him? From now on, we’ll let you and Big Brother…”
…
Once the agreement was signed, Shen Yanchen took Tao Huanyi with him as they got out of the car and went to the Civil Affairs Bureau.
The whole process went very smoothly.
After Shen Yanchen received the marriage certificate, he seemed to have completed some task. He ordered the driver to take Tao Huanyi home, then hurried away himself.
In the blink of an eye, Tao Huanyi had been brought to the Shen residence.
Following the instructions they’d been given, the servants hurriedly helped Tao Huanyi up to a room on the second floor. Along the way, one of them chatted with her with a cheerful smile. “Young Madam, you’re the first girl ever to enter the Young Master’s room!”
“The First Young Master is a neat freak. He usually won’t even let us go in.”
Tao Huanyi turned her head slightly and asked softly, “I heard he had several fiancées before. None of them came to the house?”
“They were supposed to,” the servant replied with a bright smile, her tone strangely cold, “but each time, they died on the way.”
Tao Huanyi: “…”
Well, suddenly she felt a little cold.
Tightening her grip on her white cane, Tao Huanyi said, “Could you lend me a phone? I’d like to call my uncle.”
The servant answered and led Tao Huanyi into Shen Yanchen’s room, then went downstairs to find her a phone.
While she waited, Tao Huanyi slowly felt her way to the edge of the bed and leaned against it.
Perhaps too much had happened that day, and everything had been too chaotic. Leaning against the soft bed, Tao Huanyi soon drifted off to sleep.
In her dream, her parents were still by her side. The family was happily playing hide-and-seek on the lawn at home.
Nearby, Big Brother sat alone, aloof by nature, his eyes dark and bright as he stared straight at them.
Seeing him, Tao Huanyi ran over with a cheerful smile and took his hand.
“Big Brother, why are you sitting here all by yourself? Where’s your family?”
“It’s okay if your family won’t play with you. Why don’t you play with us? From now on, we’ll be your family!”
…
The laughter of her childhood abruptly came to an end.
In its place came an oppressive gloom and darkness—
“Miss Tao, who told you that you could sleep in my bed?”
In her sleep, Tao Huanyi suddenly felt someone grab her wrist and, without a word, yank her off the bed. Still groggy, she failed to react in time and banged her head hard against the doorframe.
With a bang, she slid down beside the door and ended up kneeling on the floor. She lifted her head in a daze, only to find everything before her suddenly washed in white. Through the blur, she could just make out the tall outline of a man—
W-what was happening? Could she see now?
Suppressing the storm of emotions surging in her heart, Tao Huanyi raised a hand and waved it before her eyes, as if to check once more—
Then Shen Yanchen’s icy voice sounded again. “Miss Tao, although we’re married now, you’re pregnant, so there’s no need for us to share a bed during the marriage, is there? There are plenty of guest rooms in the Shen residence. Feel free to choose one you like.”
“There’s really no need for you to sleep in my room.”
Shen Yanchen stood before her, looking down at her coldly. His voice was harsh, with a faintly humiliating edge.
But Tao Huanyi had no attention to spare for any of that. She just stared blankly at the blurry shape of her right hand and replied, almost dazed, “All right, Mr. Shen. I understand.”
“I was just waiting for the servant to bring me a phone. I was so tired that I fell asleep here. If you don’t like it, I’ll leave now.”
As she spoke, the servant who had just left returned with a phone. Seeing the scene, she hurried over to help Tao Huanyi leave.
Shen Yanchen watched them go, his narrow eyes slowly narrowing.
Suddenly, his phone rang.
His assistant said from the other end, “Master, I’ve found Miss Tao’s information.”
…
Meanwhile, the Fang family was in chaos.
Wei Minjun looked at the house, which the Shen family’s people had turned into a wreck, and immediately dropped to her knees, wailing and lamenting.
“Fang, you’d better get that good niece of yours under control! We worked so hard to raise her, and now that she’s grown wings and can fly, she dares to treat us like this! You have no idea how she humiliated me at the Shen residence today…”
Wei Minjun wailed at the top of her lungs, twisting the events at the Shen residence into something entirely different and embellishing them with extra details. “I’m telling you, we should’ve dumped her in an orphanage back then. We never should’ve brought her home and raised her!”
As soon as Fang Yuming heard the news, he hurried back from the company.
Seeing the living room reduced to a wreck, he furrowed his brow, his expression turning grave. When he heard Wei Minjun bring up what had happened all those years ago, a knot in his brow twitched. He barked, “Enough! Don’t bring up what happened back then again!”
Then Fang Yuming let out a long, heavy breath, turned, and started toward the door.
“I’m going to the Shen residence. Whatever happened today, Huanyi’s marriage is a major matter. I can’t let her marry into their family without knowing what’s going on!”