When Shen Shuyuan heard Shen Jiyuan’s words, he started crying again.
At first he was only sobbing softly, but soon his crying grew louder and louder. He kept wiping away the tears spilling from his eyes with both hands, rubbing so hard that his soft cheeks turned red.
Before long, Shen Shu was crying so hard that he was sweating all over, gasping for breath.
Shen Jiyuan stood there, completely at a loss. The child’s crying left him flustered. He wanted to say a few words to comfort him, but couldn’t bring himself to lower his pride. When he reached out to wipe the child’s face, Shen Shu simply hugged his knees tighter and buried his face.
Unlike the usual times when he made a mistake—when he would cry while secretly peeking at Shen Jiyuan’s expression—this time, he was fully immersed in his grief, crying with heartbreaking sorrow.
For a moment, Shen Jiyuan had no idea what to do.
He wasn’t exactly a qualified father—Shen Jiyuan knew that himself—and that was partly because Shen Shu was simply too perfect of a child.
Shen Shu was obedient, well-behaved, and very smart. Apart from the suffering Shen Jiyuan endured while carrying him, this child had almost never caused him any trouble.
As a baby, he rarely cried. As he grew older, he quickly learned to speak and walk. When Shen Jiyuan was busy with work, Shen Shu would quietly play on his own.
In the beginning, before the child was born, Shen Jiyuan’s feelings toward the baby in his womb were extremely complicated.
Pregnancy and childbirth had gone against his will. He never wanted to give birth, but he had no other choice.
Rationally, he knew the child was innocent and shouldn’t bear his resentment. But in reality, he couldn’t accept it—disgust, resistance, pity… all kinds of tangled emotions mixed together, eventually forming a feeling that was both love and hatred.
He could only remain indifferent, forcibly stripping himself of his emotions.
But blood ties were never that easy to sever, especially when this child had been carried by him for ten months and born after a near-death ordeal—
The moment he saw Shen Shu cautiously offering him a crude little paper craft he had made by hand, the ice in Shen Jiyuan’s heart was finally shattered by the heat surging beneath it. He could no longer resist his feelings and pulled the tiny child tightly into his arms.
That’s right—this was his child alone, with nothing to do with that woman.
He would treat the child as a gift from heaven, an unexpected miracle in his life. As for who the child’s mother was, it simply didn’t matter!
Clenching his teeth, Shen Jiyuan forcefully suppressed the pain and resentment of facing the past, as well as the fleeting flashes of panic and fear.
He acted as both father and mother, raising Shen Shu little by little, loving him with his whole heart.
When dealing with the outside world, he became even colder than he had been years ago. Subordinates and business partners said he was more like a working machine now, and even his mother had gently mentioned it to him before.
Growing older, and having given birth alone overseas, the twenty-seven-year-old Shen Jiyuan had become even more distant and unapproachable.
If the twenty-four-year-old Shen Jiyuan’s coldness had been born of arrogance and a lack of hardship—a lofty, untouchable purity—
Then the twenty-seven-year-old Shen Jiyuan’s coldness was forged from having been hurt and no longer willing to let anyone close. It was sharp and thorny, far harsher than before.
All of Shen Jiyuan’s warmth was reserved for the child.
That wasn’t so bad. At least his surroundings were much quieter. A few years ago, people still threw themselves at him; now, there was no one at all.
Shen Jiyuan had stopped considering marriage.
Three years ago, on the top floor of a hotel in H City—after that entire night—how could he possibly marry a woman normally, have children, and form a family?
That night rewrote Shen Jiyuan’s life and changed his understanding of everything.
After that, even when he had physical reactions, the only thing that surfaced in his mind… was that night.
The slight physical stimulation went against his will. Recalling that night’s madness filled him with an urge to grit his teeth. Mentally, he loathed it. His restrained, self-disciplined nature made him despise his own body for reacting at all.
That was clearly a nightmare—so why, when he thought of it, did his teeth ache slightly, saliva gather in his mouth, his whole body grow weak, and his heart pound violently?
How could he be this pathetic?
Letting normal romantic relationships end with that night wasn’t so bad. He already had a child—Shen Shu was like a little angel.
Facing the child’s innocent, understanding face, the resentment and pain in Shen Jiyuan’s heart gradually faded.
But as wonderful as this child was, there was just one flaw.
Shen Shu always wanted a mother.
When Shen Jiyuan was busy working, Shen Shu would quietly play by himself. His favorite thing was drawing with crayons.
Drawing was quiet and could be done alone. Sometimes, when Shen Jiyuan finished working, Shen Shu would still be bent over, coloring seriously. Shen Jiyuan would walk over and gently pat his head.
“What are you drawing?”
When he looked down at the drawing, he froze.
On the sketch paper were three crayon stick figures. The drawing was childish, yet full of care. The three figures were holding hands. Shen Jiyuan could immediately tell that one was himself, the small one was Shen Shu, and the last smiling figure was…
Shen Shu held the drawing up high and looked at him eagerly.
“It’s Daddy and Mommy. Daddy, this drawing is for you.”
It felt as if Shen Jiyuan had been plunged into an ice cellar, his whole body going cold.
Was a mother really that important?
“Shen Shu, you don’t have a mommy. Isn’t having Daddy enough? Daddy can give you the best of everything.”
At first, Shen Shu would cry when he heard this. Recently, as he grew older, perhaps realizing how painful this topic was for Shen Jiyuan, he hadn’t brought up the subject of a mother in a long time.
So why did he suddenly say something like that today?
Shen Jiyuan’s first reaction was that someone must have said something to Shen Shu when no one was around—most likely a woman trying to cling to him, deceiving the child and coaxing him into calling her his mother.
“Was someone here just now?”
A faint anger rose in Shen Jiyuan’s heart, which he forcibly suppressed as he asked calmly, “Xiao Shu, did someone lie to you just now?”
“That wasn’t lying…”
Shen Shu sobbed, finally willing to speak.
His head, already dizzy from the fever, grew even more muddled after crying for so long.
Tonight, because Daddy had left him again to work, he was alone in the lounge, feeling uncomfortable and lonely. Suddenly, he became very scared and secretly slipped out.
The venue was so big, and no one paid attention to him. He wandered all the way to the fountain without meeting a single person. The moon was so bright, shining over the fountain, and he suddenly felt very lonely.
The garden was so large, the moonlight so bright—yet there was only him.
Shen Shu hid there alone for a while, and for some reason his heart felt stuffed and unbearably sad.
He had planned to cry alone for a bit, as usual, and then sneak back, but at that moment, he heard footsteps approaching from afar.
“Tap, tap, tap…”
The crisp sound of high heels, unhurried, slowly drew closer. The banquet was in full swing—was there really someone else, like him, hiding in the deserted garden?
A sudden curiosity and sense of fondness rose in Shen Shu’s heart. He lifted his head, wanting to see this unexpected visitor. If possible, he wanted to talk to this person and become good friends.
The hopeful look in his eyes froze the moment he clearly saw the face under the moonlight.
Standing before him was a young woman in an expensive evening gown. The moonlight fell over her, cold and sharp like a biting winter wind. Her pair of black eyes—cold yet bright—were fixed on him.
Her face felt strangely familiar to him.
Shen Shu stared blankly into those eyes. From her brows to her gaze, her expression was so indifferent, as if she were merely encountering a kitten or puppy hiding in the bushes. Yet Shen Shu himself was so overwhelmed with emotion that he could hardly contain it.
Before he could even react, he had already burst out crying.
“Auntie… are you my mommy?”
The mommy he had always imagined—the one he drew with crayons on paper—had never had a clear face in his mind.
But now, facing those dark, shining eyes, every vague image suddenly took form.
Mommy.This was his mommy.
Shen Shu cried so hard he could barely catch his breath, almost unable to speak.“I didn’t lie… Mommy didn’t lie to me either…”
Why would Daddy think Mommy had tricked him?Why was Daddy’s first reaction always that someone had deceived him?
“She wouldn’t lie to me…”
“Because she never even said she was my mommy. I asked her, and she didn’t answer at all…”
It was only his own feeling. In reality, the woman had merely patted his head, said just one sentence, and then turned away without the slightest hesitation.
After listening to the child’s aggrieved defense, a strong, ominous premonition suddenly surged in Shen Jiyuan’s heart.
He forcibly suppressed the rising fear and unease.“…What else did she say?”
Seeing the sudden change in Shen Jiyuan’s expression, Shen Shu grew anxious too. After a long pause, he stammered,
“…She said you look a lot like your daddy.”
Shen Shu recalled the expression on the woman’s face as she smiled and stroked his head, imitating her tone.
“That’s what she said. She only said that.”
Shen Jiyuan’s face instantly drained of all color.
He braced himself against the edge of the fountain, trying to calm his buzzing mind. The world spun before his eyes, his chest tight, unable to breathe.
When Shi Qing returned to the banquet hall, Shen Jiyuan never reappeared before the event ended.
She handled the entire round of social obligations. Only after asking a waiter did she learn that Shen Jiyuan had already left early.
The reason was… a sudden stomach ailment.
Halfway through the banquet, he could no longer endure it and had hurriedly departed.
So he had already learned of her presence.
Shi Qing thought of the child with eyes wet like a puppy’s, carefully calling her “Mom,” and then of Shen Jiyuan. A faint smile curved her lips as her fingertips lightly traced the stem of her wineglass.
Was he really that afraid of her?
But trying to avoid her like this was impossible.
She had a project in hand that involved cooperation with the Shen Group. Weeks earlier, Shen Group had already sent an invitation to meet. In H City, her influence had expanded to its limits—it was time to make a move into A City.
She and Shen Jiyuan would meet again very soon.
This reunion was also one of the key nodes in the original storyline.
In the original plot, after the female lead returned to the country, she took a job as a typist at a Shen Group subsidiary, only to coincidentally run into the inspecting big boss, Shen Jiyuan, once again.
Only this time, the setting was different.
She was no longer the flustered, anxious single mother from the original story, trying to hide in the crowd and avoid being seen by Shen Jiyuan.
When they met again, what kind of expression would Shen Jiyuan wear?
Shi Qing smiled and drained the wine in her glass in one gulp.