Meanwhile, Shen Wanwan and Shao Yuye were on their way to the gym.
As people in the entertainment industry, both needed to manage their physiques. The price of enjoying such a hearty dinner was a large amount of exercise to burn off the calories.
By the time they returned home, it was already nine o’clock at night.
When the elevator doors opened, Shen Wanwan looked up and saw someone standing outside.
Surprised, she called out,
“Mom?”
Shao Yuye raised his eyes and unexpectedly found himself face-to-face with the woman as she turned around.
Both of them froze.
Shao Yuye stood rigidly in place, unable to describe what he was feeling in that moment.
Shao Yuye’s gaze first landed on the two large bags of takeout containers on the floor.
Then it slowly moved upward to the bag she was carrying in her hand.
She had never been the type to fuss over things like this before.
Silently, he lifted his eyes further.
An oval face. Almond-shaped eyes.
Brows like distant mountains painted in ink, skin as lovely as peach blossoms in bloom.
The years had left almost no trace on her. The only difference was that she looked a little thinner than she had in that video call, and a little more haggard.
Shen Mingzhen looked at him, and her eyes reddened in an instant.
“Xiao Ye…”
Over the past few days, Shen Mingzhen would occasionally dream about him. But in those dreams, she was still in the state of not knowing who he was.
Yet he was exceptionally kind to her.
He said that it didn’t matter if she couldn’t remember him, he would always be her son.
He also said that after all these years, he had truly missed his mother.
Shen Mingzhen had been moved beyond words. She tried to step forward and embrace him, but the gentle, warm young man suddenly became furious. He shoved her away, his eyes filled with icy rage.
Shen Mingzhen abruptly opened her eyes in the darkness, but the image of his obsidian-like eyes still lingered in her mind.
His final furious roar seemed to echo in her ears.
—“Since you don’t want me anymore, then I don’t want you anymore!”
She knew she shouldn’t disturb him, but she couldn’t help herself. Using the excuse of bringing gifts for the New Year, she came just to see him once.
Standing in the elevator, Shao Yuye looked at her coldly.
To him, her tears were the most useless weapon imaginable.
A mocking smile curled at his lips. As he stepped out of the elevator, he casually drawled,
“Well, well. What wind blew Mrs. Shen all the way here?”
His tone sounded teasing, but his eyes were utterly cold.
Shen Wanwan quietly stepped aside.
001 hurriedly said, {Aren’t you going to mediate? Your brother’s resentment toward your mother runs very deep.}
Shen Wanwan pressed a hand to her chest, “The person who tied the knot must be the one to untie it.”
The problems between the two of them could only be resolved by the two of them.
Her Brother didn’t reject her because she had been too young back then, she had never had a choice.
Shen Wanwan gently closed her eyes, suddenly feeling distressed.
She hadn’t experienced emotions like this for a long time.
But this day had always been destined to come.
Avoidance solved nothing.
She stood quietly to the side, waiting for the storm to arrive.
Shen Mingzhen’s eyes followed Shao Yuye.
“Xiao Ye… what happened back then… I really did wrong you.”
Shen Mingzhen had grown up pampered and cherished. Later, she smoothly married Shao Hongyuan. Blinded by love, she gave him two children. But the moment she discovered Shao Hongyuan’s affair, all her happiness collapsed.
All she wanted was a divorce and to leave Shao Hongyuan.
Shao Hongyuan’s demand was simple: the divorce could happen, but Shao Yuye had to stay behind.
He deliberately refused to sign the divorce papers, deliberately dragged things out, and openly continued his affair with Xu Qingxin.
Shen Mingzhen only wanted the nightmare to end as quickly as possible. Depression was driving her to the brink of madness. At one point, she had even considered taking both children and jumping from a building.
In the end, she compromised.
She agreed to leave Shao Yuye behind, and Shao Hongyuan immediately set her free.
The more she recalled that period of her life, the more she realized the pain was still as vivid as ever.
Even though her memories were incomplete, whenever this matter surfaced, the heart-rending agony would come flooding back, invading every corner of her heart.
Shen Mingzhen broke down in tears.
“I’m sorry… I’m truly sorry…”
A faint smile still rested on Shao Yuye’s lips.
“So a single apology is enough to dismiss the miserable life I’ve lived for more than ten years?
“Mrs. Shen, don’t you think you’re being a little too greedy?”
Looking at Shen Mingzhen, a dull ache spread through his heart, yet every word that left his mouth was crueler than the last.
“The most disgusting thing I’ve ever experienced in my life is being the son of you and Shao Hongyuan.
“A father with filthy blood running through his veins, and a mother who’s nothing but a lying fraud. Just look at yourselves. You two are actually a match made in heaven, aren’t you? Perfect for each other.”
As pain gradually appeared on Shen Mingzhen’s face, a storm raged through Shao Yuye’s own heart as well, but he continued speaking with ruthless satisfaction.
“Even if you lost your memory later and couldn’t find me, you abandoned me from the very beginning, didn’t you?
“Do you want me to remind you exactly how you lied to me?”
A sharp pain suddenly pierced Shen Mingzhen’s heart as this long-buried memory surged back from the depths of her mind.
Her lips trembled as she called out to him.
“Xiao Ye…”
Shao Yuye was smiling, but his eyes were hollow and filled with sorrow.
Even before Shen Mingzhen and Shao Hongyuan divorced, he had already sensed that something was wrong.
He had found Shen Mingzhen and asked through tears whether she was abandoning him.
Shen Mingzhen immediately pulled him into her arms and affectionately tapped his little nose.
“Silly child, why would you think that?”
Why would he think that?
Because he had heard countless arguments between her and Shao Hongyuan in the study.
Their love had broken apart, and so, like dividing property, they began dividing the child born from that love.
Shao Yuye belonged to Shao Hongyuan.
Resting in his mother’s gentle embrace, he looked up and asked, “Will Mom take me with her too?”
Shen Mingzhen replied, “Yes.”
Receiving that answer, the clouds instantly cleared from Shao Yuye’s face.
He said, “I don’t want to be separated from my little sister. She’s still so young. She’ll want her big brother by her side too.”
On the day she left, his mother was still making promises to him.
She was always smiling. When she smiled, two little dimples appeared on her cheeks, making people instinctively believe whatever she said.
She told him, “Xiao Ye, Mom will be strong. Even if I separate from your father, I’ll still be strong. You have to be strong like Mom too, okay?”
Shao Yuye nodded, “Okay.”
“I’ll work hard to become a strong man and protect you and little sister!”
He was too young then to understand the meaning behind Shen Mingzhen’s smile.
Only after growing up did he realize that every outcome is preceded by signs.
That smile had never been meant to comfort him.
It was the bitter smile of someone preparing to abandon him.
Shen Mingzhen said, “Mom will take your sister downstairs first. Stay in your room and count to one hundred. When you finish counting, Mom will come back for you.”
A little frightened, Shao Yuye grabbed her clothes.
“What if I finish counting and you still haven’t come back?”
“You don’t need to worry. Mom swears on Ultraman.”
Shen Mingzhen seriously raised three fingers toward the giant Ultraman figure.
“If Mom lies to Xiaoye, then Mom will—”
She never got to finish the sentence.
Because Shao Yuye had covered her mouth.
The little boy shook his head at her. He knew the rest would be bad words, and he didn’t want his mother making such curses.
Obediently, he hugged the Ultraman doll and sat on the bed.
“Mom, go ahead. I’ll count properly. I’ll count as slowly as I can!”
That day, he counted several hundreds.
But his mother never came back.
Until he heard a car engine start downstairs.
A tremendous fear rose within him.
He had a premonition that in the next moment, that black car would leave without ever looking back.
From the window, Shao Yuye called out his sister’s name.
Five seconds later, his little sister ran out of the car.
She rushed back into the villa, saying she didn’t want to be separated from her brother.
He ran downstairs as well, and the two siblings clung tightly to each other.
But how much strength could children possibly have?
“I was too weak back then,” Shen Mingzhen said.
Weak as she claimed to be, she still had enough strength to pry him away from his sister, take the girl with her, and ride off into the distance, never to see him again.
“Mrs. Shen, please leave my doorstep.
“Otherwise, I’ll call the police.”
Taking out his phone, Shao Yuye looked coldly at the grief-stricken Shen Mingzhen.
Shen Wanwan stepped forward and hugged her mother tightly.
Leaning against her daughter’s shoulder, Shen Mingzhen wept as though she intended to shed every tear she had left in this lifetime.
Shao Yuye had already opened the door and gone back inside.
The door slammed shut with a loud bang.
The bright hallway lights illuminated the misery scattered across the floor as Shen Mingzhen repeatedly said,
“Wanwan, it was all Mom’s fault back then…”
Gently patting her shoulder, Shen Wanwan spoke in a voice so soft it seemed ready to dissolve into the surrounding air.
“It’s all in the past.”
…Everything would eventually pass.
After a long while, Shen Mingzhen finally stopped crying.
Previously, when she had only watched Shao Yuye from afar, waves of sadness would overwhelm her, and she could never understand why.
But today, after facing him directly and hearing those cold, razor-sharp words, she finally understood where that sorrow came from.
“Mom will do her best to remember. And I’ll do my best to earn your brother’s forgiveness.”
Shen Mingzhen wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes.
Yet as soon as her fingertips brushed them away, fresh tears welled up again.
One by one, she introduced the food containers she had brought.
“This one was made by Aunt Jiang.
“This one was made by me.
“Remember to put them in the refrigerator. Heat them up before eating…
“And talk with your brother tonight…”
Behind the door, hearing those instructions that felt both familiar and strange, Shao Yuye pressed his back tightly against the door as his shoulders shook violently.
He took two deep breaths.
The air he inhaled felt as though it would burst his chest apart.
Then, as he exhaled, he suddenly yanked the door open and coldly looked at the two people standing outside.
“Shen Wanwan.”
Since their reunion, this was the first time Shao Yuye had called her by her full name with such severity.
His gaze was filled with obsession.
“Between her and me, who do you choose?”