The door opened.
Before she could react, a strong force pulled her straight into a warm, hard chest.
The mother and child were both locked tightly in an embrace.
A thick masculine scent rushed into her senses, mixed with a faint smell of smoke. Panic flashed across her face as she struggled.
“Let go of me! Or I’ll bite you!”
“I won’t.”
The man only tightened his arms.
“Wife, it’s me.”
“I know it’s you, Shen Yunhe! Let me go!”
“Not letting go.”
His voice was low and firm, completely domineering, as he lowered his head and lightly kissed their son.
The little boy blinked up at him with wide, bright eyes.
That look softened his entire heart.
His voice instinctively dropped.
“Baby… I’m your dad.”
The child had been staring at him through the glass for a long time earlier, and he too had been watching the child. The more he looked, the more he liked him. Several times he had wanted to get out of the car and hold him.
This was his child.
His blood.
His continuation in this world.
The mother was still in his arms. The man’s breath brushed against her ear, warm and disturbing. Her face flushed as she tried to push him away, but his chest was solid and unmoving.
“I really will bite you!” she snapped.
“Go ahead,” he said lightly, almost teasing.
“You—!”
The child froze, quietly watching his father.
In his memory, his father had always been serious, quiet, rarely smiling. All his warmth had only ever been for the children.
After what had happened in his past life—after all three children’s tragic endings—his father had grown even more withdrawn, living like a man with no will left, throwing himself into dangerous missions as if he didn’t care whether he lived or died.
For him, perhaps death had long become a kind of release.
The mother finally couldn’t take it anymore. Feeling suffocated by the man’s presence, she bit down hard on his arm.
“Mm?”
He looked down at her in surprise.
This woman had always been soft in temperament—soft-spoken, gentle. When had she learned to bite like this?
“Let me go!” she said again.
“Alright.”
He released her and took the child from her arms instead.
“I’m staying with the children,” he said, voice hoarse. “I am their father. I want to watch them grow. I don’t want them growing up without me.”
“No!”
Her voice was sharp.
She remembered the endings from the book. She could not allow anyone near her children. Not again.
She stepped back, holding the child tightly, eyes guarded and cold.
“Why won’t you let me see them? They are my children too,” he asked, voice tight.
Her expression turned icy.
“Your children?” she said bitterly. “If you cared so much, why couldn’t you protect them properly?”
“What do you mean?” His heart tightened painfully.
He didn’t understand.
She forced herself to calm down, while the child quietly tugged her sleeve, silently begging her not to go further.
Finally, she softened slightly.
“It’s nothing,” she said coldly. “If you remarry in the future, I’m afraid your new wife will harm them. Compared to that, having no father is nothing.”
His face changed immediately.
“I won’t remarry,” he said quickly. “This life, I only want you. If you won’t reconcile with me, I’ll stay single forever.”
She laughed coldly.
“Leave. Don’t come back. I don’t want to see you again.”
The night outside was completely dark, no moonlight at all.
Her anger surged uncontrollably when she thought about the children’s tragic fate. If anyone dared touch them again—especially that woman named Liu Juan—she would risk everything to protect them.
“Babe…” he stepped forward again, reaching for her hand.
“Get lost!”
He slowly lowered his arm.
His eyes were red and swollen, his throat tight, his chest rising and falling as if something had shattered inside him.
He closed his eyes briefly, hiding the pain, then turned and walked out step by step.
Behind him, the little boy softly called out, “Dad…”
But she had already closed the door.
She carried the child upstairs without looking back.
On the street outside, Shen Yunhe stood motionless, staring at the closed door, letting the pain in his chest spread through his entire body.