Wen Xian crouched in a sorry state behind the shrubbery, listening to the conversation between those two people. Without any obstruction, the rainwater recklessly poured toward her; her hair strands and eyelashes were covered with fine droplets of water.
She blinked slightly, and the raindrops rolled down from her eyelashes.
But at this moment, Wen Xian could not care about anything else, Shen Lingge’s voice passed straight through the curtain of rain into her ears.
Song Jinghong reached out to pull back Shen Lingge, who wanted to leave, she couldn’t help but ask: “I have left for exactly four years, these years I have not been at your side pestering you, are you much more relaxed?”
Shen Lingge glanced indifferently at Song Jinghong’s hand holding his sleeve: “Let go.”
Song Jinghong’s eyes suddenly filled with tears, her pair of bright eyes instantly full of watery light, she asked in a trembling voice: “Shen Lingge, these years have you really not felt anything at all? Were all the things I did before all useless?”
Shen Lingge looked at her fixedly: “Jinghong, eight years ago your mother passed away. After Jingzheng left, he entrusted you to me, his younger sister is my younger sister, I have fulfilled all the promises made to him.”
Mentioning Song Jingzheng, Shen Lingge couldn’t help but let out a low sigh: “Jinghong, I know your father bringing the illegitimate daughter home was a big blow to you, but I am not the shortcut for you to achieve your goals.”
“I am me, Shen family is Shen family, do you understand?”
Hearing Shen Lingge directly say out the reason why she approached him in the past, Song Jinghong couldn’t help but take a step back, she couldn’t help but cry out: “After mom passed away, dad doesn’t want me, brother doesn’t want me, now even you don’t want me.”
Eight years ago, Song Jingzheng and Song Jinghong’s mother passed away due to illness, after just three months, their father brought home a daughter only one year younger than Song Jinghong into the Song family.
Overnight, Song Jingzheng and his father fell out, he left the Song family, left Mingcheng, and never came back again, only before leaving, he entrusted this only younger sister to Shen Lingge’s care.
At that time, Song Jinghong needed a backer to help her secure her position as the eldest miss of the Song family, and Shen Lingge was obviously the best choice, but Shen Lingge never had any thoughts about her.
He only looked after her as a younger sister.
Shen Lingge raised his eyes to look at the crying Song Jinghong, not the slightest bit of the helplessness and fluster he showed when facing Wen Xian, he only said lightly: “Jinghong, you have already grown up, don’t be willful.”
Song Jinghong sobbed: “You are always like this, from childhood to now always this cold and indifferent appearance. Someone like you simply does not deserve to have love, I hate you!”
After saying that, Song Jinghong turned around and stepped into the curtain of rain.
Wen Xian did not come back to her senses until Shen Lingge also left, she staggered to her feet and walked under the corridor, she hugged herself in some helplessness, slowly squatting down leaning against the corridor pillar.
What were they just talking about?
Wen Xian’s mind was a complete mess, countless scenes flashing back in her brain.
When Shen Lingge appeared at her house for the first time, he indifferently told her he was called Gege. The next day he left, and when she summoned him back again he said he wanted to go to Mingcheng.
He understood everything, knew everything.
He bid on Chang Shuang’s jewelry for her, the Mr. Chi he spoke of was always just an excuse, he said in the future he would tell her, tell her everything she wanted to know.
Shen family, Shen residence, housekeeper, servants, luxury cars, and so on—these things originally belonged to him in the first place.
He was never her Wen Ge, he was Shen Lingge, he was precisely that Shen Mister in his own mouth.
The fear in Wen Xian’s heart was magnified infinitely, she had not created anyone, she had dragged innocent people into her own sorry life.
But why, why did he not tell her earlier?
Wen Xian thought in a daze, in the end her heavy body seemed unable to hold up and slowly fell to the side.
…
Shen Lingge called Wen Xian on the phone but no one answered for a long time, when it got to the fourth time he directly called Duoduo, Duoduo gave Shen Lingge the art studio teacher’s phone number.
After Shen Lingge asked for the room number, he directly walked toward that place.
At the same time, Chi Yanyu, because he was worried that Song Jinghong and Shen Lingge would make things look bad, found an excuse to slip out, but he did not see either of those two people.
He only saw a girl collapsed on the ground.
Chi Yanyu was stunned, he hurriedly lifted his steps and walked over, before he could clearly see the girl’s face, the phone beside her rang. He picked up the call, not yet able to speak when he heard a voice familiar to him: “Wen Xian? Why aren’t you answering the phone?”
Chi Yanyu: “……”
Chi Yanyu was dumbfounded: “Ge?”
Shen Lingge’s steps paused, he immediately turned around and walked back the way he came, he asked in a low voice: “Yanyu, where is the owner of this phone?”
Chi Yanyu lowered his head and glanced at the unconscious Wen Xian lying on the ground, swallowed a mouthful of saliva: “Seems like she fainted, I saw her collapsed on the ground right when I walked out the restaurant entrance.”
Restaurant entrance?
Shen Lingge’s heart sank slightly, he lifted his steps and ran toward the restaurant.
Chi Yanyu stared dumbfounded at the hung-up phone for a while, then he carefully brushed aside the hair covering Wen Xian’s face, revealing half of her face.
Chi Yanyu was startled, this was the girl from the photo, which meant this was his sister-in-law?
Could he just watch as his sister-in-law lay on the cold ground?
Obviously he couldn’t, Chi Yanyu raised his hand preparing to pick up Wen Xian, but before he could touch Wen Xian, a slightly cool and damp hand grabbed his wrist.
The man covered all over in raindrops looked at the girl on the ground with heartache, he said in a low voice: “Let me.”
Chi Yanyu moved aside.
He watched as Shen Lingge took off his outer coat, wrapped it around Wen Xian’s body, then carried her horizontally and walked into the rain. Shen Lingge’s steps were fast and urgent, completely lacking the usual composed appearance.
—
Wen Xian had a fever, in her daze she kept talking nonsense.
Shen Lingge tightly held her hand, continuously and softly comforting her: “Xian Xian be good, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”
After the doctor finished giving the injection, he quietly retreated out. He understood that this man right now had no mind to care about him.
After calling for her father and mother, Wen Xian started calling Gege again. Shen Lingge was so pained by her calling that his heart was about to break, his gaze dark and unreadable as he looked at the little girl lying on the bed.
Her face was full of tear stains, no matter how he wiped them, he could not wipe them clean.
“Ding—”
Shen Lingge’s phone rang once, but he acted as if he didn’t hear it, only looking at Wen Xian. Until the second ring sounded, he slowly took out his phone and glanced at it, it was the restaurant entrance surveillance video sent by Chi Yanyu.
For a moment, Shen Lingge actually did not dare to click it open, but he needed to confirm whether Wen Xian had heard the conversation between him and Song Jinghong.
As the phone screen dimmed, Shen Lingge’s gaze also little by little darkened.
She knew.
Shen Lingge had never thought of letting her know about this matter at this time. Originally, he planned to go to Licheng at the end of the month to personally tell her, but he never expected such an accident today.
Until eleven o’clock at night, Wen Xian’s condition finally stabilized, she slowly fell asleep under the effect of the medicine.
During this period, Shen Lingge kept guarding her side, not leaving a single step.
He was afraid that once he left, when he came back he would no longer be able to see her, that she would definitely run away, would hide from him far, far away.
Wen Xian had a very long dream.
She dreamed that Wen Tianlin and Chang Shuang returned to her side, she was still the little princess held in their palms, but in the blink of an eye they disappeared before her eyes, in front of her was a field of mist.
But just behind this boundless mist, someone was calling her name in a low voice, in the suppressed and restrained voice there seemed to be surging emotions about to burst forth.
Wen Xian blankly looked toward the front.
In front, aside from darkness, there was nothing.
Wen Xian woke up at two o’clock in the morning. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Shen Lingge sitting at the bedside. Seeing her awake, he leaned down to test the temperature on her forehead. He softly called her name: “Xian Xian.”
At this moment, Shen Lingge did not look good. His black hair was still wet, his complexion also looked very bad, his shirt was wrinkled into a ball, and he was staring fixedly at her.
The emotions contained in his gaze were complicated and dark.
After Wen Xian was quiet for a moment, she suddenly called out to him: “Shen Lingge?”
Shen Lingge had never known he could be so afraid to hear his own name from Wen Xian’s mouth, so much that for a long while he didn’t know how to respond to her.
Shen Lingge’s throat was dry, his voice hoarse as if squeezed out from his throat: “It’s me.”
Wen Xian stared blankly at the man in front of her. No matter for what reason he hadn’t told her the truth, the days he had been by her side had all been very happy.
He had always treated her sincerely.
Even though something so strange and absurd had happened with him.
Wen Xian slowly withdrew her hand from his palm, she turned her head aside and said in a sorry state: “I’m sorry, bringing you so much trouble. I didn’t know you were going back to Mingcheng, bringing you back without permission, I’m sorry.”
“These days making you put in so much effort, I’m sorry.”
“Bringing you into my life without permission, I’m sorry.”
Shen Lingge listened silently to her speaking the whole time, and could also see the tears at the corner of her eyes sliding into her hair. He once again reached out to hold her hand, his voice hoarse: “Xian Xian, you once said, asking me if I wanted to be your family.”
He firmly grasped her small hand in his palm: “I said yes.”
Wen Xian suddenly realized, in this world there was no one who truly belonged to her, whether it was Wen Ge or Shen Lingge. But that was also fine, she no longer had to worry he wouldn’t fit in with this world.
He belonged here in the first place, it was him who had always been indulging her.
What had he said to that woman, he said he was not the shortcut for her to achieve her goals.
And now, everything she enjoyed had been brought to her by him, starting from that set of jewelry everything had gone into disorder. She was still that Wen Xian who, aside from that empty Wen family villa, had nothing else.
But now it had turned into an empty house again.
Four years later, Wen Xian once again lost her home.
Wen Xian turned her back toward Shen Lingge, her whole body had no strength, she closed her eyes and said softly: “I want to be alone for a while.”
Shen Lingge slowly straightened up, after a long moment he finally responded hoarsely: “Alright, if… if there’s anything, just call me.”
Wen Xian did not respond. Until Shen Lingge closed the door and left, she couldn’t hold back anymore, clutching the corner of the quilt and sobbing in a low voice. Her life had been stirred into a complete mess by her own hands, she felt she was utterly terrible.
Shen Lingge stood in front of the door, listening to the muffled and faint crying sounds coming from inside the room. He endured and endured, only barely stopping himself from pushing the door open and barging in again. He painfully closed his eyes.
It seemed, he was about to lose Wen Xian.
—
Author’s Note: Don’t scold me!!! They will make up very soon!!! Really!!