The message sank like a stone into the sea, unanswered.
The phone calls wouldn’t connect either.
Gu Chen simply assumed Yu Sheng was still angry. Putting away his phone, he instructed the driver, “Head to Renmin Hospital first.”
He’d heard Yu Jiaojiao’s condition had worsened again.
Since he had returned to the country, it was only natural for him to visit.
However, along the way, he couldn’t resist sending Yu Sheng another message, still clinging to a sliver of hope.
[I hope you’ll reconsider the proposal I mentioned before. After all, you’re alone with no one to rely on. If you want to continue living the stable, affluent life of the Yu family, only I can provide that for you!]
When Yu Sheng went for her check-up in the morning, she had casually set her phone to silent mode.
Thus, deep in sleep, she remained completely unaware of the numerous messages Gu Chen had sent her.
Wen Zhuqing, returning from a meeting, noticed Yu Sheng’s phone had fallen onto the carpet.
As he walked over to pick it up and place it on the coffee table, the screen lit up briefly.
A snippet of a message appeared: [I hope you’ll reconsider the proposal I mentioned before…]
The contact name read: Gu Chen.
He secretly clenched his fist, struggling to suppress his emotions from showing.
After all, from their first meeting until now, it hadn’t even been two full months.
He had missed twenty years of her life.
Naturally, he had no right to judge or question her past.
When Yu Sheng woke up groggily, she immediately felt an uncomfortable sensation in her throat. As soon as she sat up, she moved to the side, hugged the trash can, and began vomiting violently.
Wen Zhuqing was startled by her sudden actions, momentarily forgetting about the messages from Gu Chen.
He quickly poured a glass of warm water and handed her some tissues.
The young woman hadn’t even opened her eyes yet, simply plopping down on the floor, hugging the trash can as she vomited, her face turning pale.
Wen Zhuqing’s heart ached; he could only gently pat her back repeatedly.
He wondered if there were any other ways to alleviate her morning sickness.
Yu Sheng’s morning sickness was severe. Only after vomiting everything she had eaten for lunch did she barely manage to regain her composure.
Taking the water glass, she rinsed her mouth and glanced somewhat apologetically at Wen Zhuqing.
“Mr. Wen, you… you should keep your distance!”
The smell on her and her current complexion were really not pleasant.
After she finished rinsing her mouth and wiping her lips, Wen Zhuqing directly scooped her up from the floor, carrying her horizontally.
“Are you feeling unwell anywhere else? Do we need to go to the hospital?”
Once placed on the single-seater sofa, Yu Sheng shook her head in confusion.
Perhaps because the food she had eaten hadn’t digested properly, vomiting everything out actually made her feel much more comfortable.
She didn’t feel uncomfortable anywhere else.
Seeing this, Wen Zhuqing quickly poured her another glass of warm water, draped a blanket over her legs, and gestured for her to rest for a while.
Then, he personally carried the trash can out.
Yu Sheng: “!!!”
Was this really the rumored Living Yama?
Then again, perhaps he was just particularly concerned about the baby in her womb.
Yu Sheng considered many possibilities but never once thought that Wen Zhuqing was earnestly trying to fulfill his duties and responsibilities as a husband.
Picking up her phone, she skimmed through the dense stream of messages from Gu Chen. It seemed as if every word was trampling on her self-respect!
A proposal?
Back then, before he went abroad, his proposal was for them to continue their relationship as lovers.
Hmm…
And it was always this way, even after he married Yu Jiaojiao in the future.
To put it nicely, they were in a romantic relationship; to put it bluntly, Gu Chen just wanted to keep her as his mistress.
Hah!
He wanted to have his cake and eat it too, keeping both women.
As if things could ever be that perfect!
Their childhood bond as childhood sweethearts couldn’t withstand Yu Jiaojiao’s sudden appearance.
When did she start losing hope and becoming disillusioned with him? Probably when she was worn down to a shadow of her former self by the Yu family, forced to set aside her former pride to take on part-time jobs just to save up for tuition and living expenses.
Yet he believed Yu Jiaojiao’s words, thinking her money came from questionable sources.
That day, she had just received her paycheck and hadn’t even stepped inside when he cornered her at the doorway.
Without a word, he rummaged through her backpack, pulled out the stack of cash, and hurled it violently at her face.
“Yu Sheng, you’ve really disappointed me!”
“If you needed money, you could have told me! Even though you’re not the Yus’ biological daughter, Uncle and Aunt never treated you poorly. What do you need all this money for?”
“Are you really so desperate for this petty cash that you’d throw away your dignity? If that’s the case, I might as well keep you as my mistress!”
Petty cash?
Hah!
The money he, Young Master Gu, looked down upon was what she had worked tirelessly for a whole month, squeezing out every possible moment between two part-time jobs!
And the money she had earned through her own labor was thrown right in her face.
It was truly…
Yu Sheng would always remember how she bent down, even half-knelt on the ground, picking up each bill one by one.
Several notes had been blown by the wind into the roadside flower beds, stained with mud. She frantically wiped them clean on her clothes.
And what did Gu Chen do?
He rushed over, yanked her up, and pinned her against the wrought-iron fence in furious exasperation, growling through gritted teeth.
“Yu Sheng, can’t you have some self-respect? When did you become so money-obsessed?”
At that moment,
Yu Sheng really wanted to throw the money in her hands right back at him, but she couldn’t!
This was her living expenses for the month—well, half of which she still had to hand over to the Yu family as her accommodation fee!
Tears began to fall at some point. Yu Sheng stared at him with reddened eyes.
After a long pause, her voice came out low and choked with sobs.
“Gu Chen, do you believe me, or do you believe Yu Jiaojiao?That was the last chance she gave this man, for the sake of their childhood bond.
And what was his answer? He stared at her with red, disbelieving eyes, as if she were some man-eating monster or vicious beast too horrifying to look at.
His nearly hysterical state, the way he roared at her—
Even now, the memory remained vivid.
He said, “Yu Sheng, Jiao Jiao has no reason to lie to me. She’s the Yu family’s young lady now—she has no reason to bully you either!”
From that moment on, her heart died completely.
When her thoughts returned to the present, the office door opened and Wen Zhuqing appeared before her. Noticing her slightly reddened eyes as if she had been crying,
Wen Zhuqing assumed she was still feeling unwell from vomiting earlier.
He walked over and gently ruffled her hair.
“Where do you feel uncomfortable?”
Yu Sheng didn’t know how to explain. She covered her chest with her hand, her pouting, aggrieved expression making Wen Zhuqing’s heart ache faintly.
As Wen Zhuqing half-crouched down and drew close, she paid no heed to the rumors circulating about this man, no matter how fearsome they portrayed him to be.
She simply rested her small head against his shoulder.
The faint sound of her sniffles betrayed her current emotional state.
Meanwhile, Wen Zhuqing’s peripheral gaze fell upon the phone clutched tightly in her hand.
So, was it Gu Chen’s message that had reduced her to this state!