Part 4 of Chapter 65
Please Like Her 16 – “Go tell your sister that the engagement with the Jiang family is hereby canceled.”
Late at night, at the Shang family’s mansion.
Shang An tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
During the day, he had deluded himself into thinking that he hadn’t done anything wrong, but at night, every word on that letter felt like a knife stabbing into his heart.
It hurt him, but also made him felt numb
In a daze, he heard some noise downstairs, as if something made of glass had been shattered.
Shang An got up and went downstairs, only to see the lights still on, and his son was cleaning up the glass shards on the floor.
It wasn’t just a glass, but even the whole teapot had fallen to the ground.
Shang An frowned and asked, “What are you doing up so late? Can’t you leave these things for the servants to do tomorrow?”
“Sorry, Father.” Shang Mu cleaned up the glass shards and threw them into the trash can, then poured himself another glass of water and swallowed a pill in front of Shang An.
Shang An’s gaze fell on the medication on the table and asked, “What kind of medicine is this?”
Shang Mu replied, “I have trouble sleeping, so I use it as a sleep aid.”
Hearing this, Shang An thought for a moment and reached out his hand, saying, “Give me one.”
Shang Mu immediately handed the pill over and poured a glass of water for Shang An, saying, “For mild insomnia, take one pill, for moderate insomnia, take two.”
After hesitating for a moment, Shang An swallowed two pills directly and washed them down with water.
He went upstairs and lay down in his own room.
This medicine was indeed effective.
In less than ten minutes, his brain began to feel heavy, and his eyelids started to droop.
Shang An soon fell asleep.
But he woke up several hours later.
He seemed to hear someone calling his name.
“Ah An, Ah An?”
The familiar voice immediately made him open his eyes wide, wanting to find the source of the voice. But at the foot of the bed, he saw the familiar figure in a light yellow dress.
The last time he had seen her was over twenty years ago.
His blood seemed to flow backward, and the last string of his sanity struggled and shouted in his heart.
The woman turned around, still as beautiful as in his memory, calling his name, “Ah An, so you’re here.”
“You’re back? You’ve finally come back…”
He repeated these two sentences continuously, tears of joy filling his eyes.
The woman nodded and looked around the room, asking, “Yes, I’m back. Where are my children? Why aren’t they here?”
Shang An was never one to draft lies. He spoke without hesitation, saying, “They all have jobs and are very busy. They’re not at home every day.”
“Is that so?” The woman continued to smile gently and asked him, “Did you read my letter?”
Shang An nodded, “I read it, I read it all.”
The woman walked to the edge of the bed, sat down, and asked him again, “So, have you done what I mentioned in the letter? Have you taken good care of our children and ensured their happy and healthy growth? If you haven’t, I will leave.”
“I have! I have! I’ve done it! I really have done it. I’m a good father, I am…” Shang An staggered to sit up, trying to grab the woman’s hand to stop her from leaving.
Then he watched as his hand passed through the air, not touching her.
Shang An couldn’t accept this and muttered, “How can this be? How can this be?”
The woman sighed lightly and said, “Because you lied. You haven’t done any of it. You didn’t take care of my Xiao Mu and Xiao Deer, and you don’t even love them. You don’t deserve to be their father; you’ve disappointed me so much.”
“No, that’s not true!” Shang An naturally wanted to deny it, desperately trying to explain, “These are our children; trust me, I love them. They… they actually love me too; it’s just that we don’t know how to express it.”
“You’re still lying to me.” The woman lowered her gaze and extended her hand, landing less than a centimeter from his face, filled with sorrow. “If you were good to them, they would love you. Why would my Xiao Lu refuse to show up even on your birthday, Ah An? You haven’t done anything; you’re a failed husband and a failed father. You’ve made me so sad.”
“I was wrong, I was wrong.” Shang An once again attempted to grab the woman’s hand but failed. He could only say, “I will be good to them, really, I’ll listen to everything you say, everything. Please stay; I beg you to stay, I’ll do everything you say.”
But the woman slowly got up and walked towards the door.
Shang An immediately followed, a taste of rusty blood in his throat. He said, “Stay, or you can take me away…”
The woman just glanced back at him.
In those eyes, there was only endless disappointment. Then she shook her head, didn’t open the door, but disappeared from there.
Shang An stood still.
He thought it was a dream, a dream born from missing his wife too much and the pain in his heart from reading that letter.
But when his hand touched the doorknob and felt the icy touch, he couldn’t believe it. He opened the door.
It wasn’t a dream.
Every morning, the sound of the maid mopping the floor would echo downstairs, and the door opposite him suddenly opened.
Shang Mu smiled, “Father, you’re up really early today.”
Shang An looked at Shang Mu. His reaction was slightly slower than usual. He grabbed Shang Mu’s hand as if he had caught a lifeline.
The usually calm and steady man was now almost incoherent: “I saw your mother, it’s not a dream. She’s back, she’s really come home! She came to find me, she blames me… she blames me…”
Shang An slowly released his hand, clutching his own head in pain. The headache made him crouch down slowly, like a child who had made a mistake, leaning against the wall.
Shang Mu’s face showed a mix of surprise and confusion, and he immediately made a phone call.
Ten minutes later.
Shang An’s condition improved, and he sat at the dining table with a cold cup of coffee in front of him.
Shang Mu walked over and knelt in front of Shang An in front of the servants.
“Forgive me, Father. I called the doctor. Seeing mother might have been due to the medication I took last night. I usually only take one pill, but he said… taking two pills may cause hallucinations. You can punish me, whether it’s a beating or confinement, I deserve it for making such a mistake, and I won’t complain.”
These words made Shang An release his hand. He dropped the glass on the ground, spilling coffee everywhere, including on Shang Mu’s leg.
Shang Mu remained expressionless and took a step forward, his knees directly on the broken glass.
He had followed Elvis’s advice and revealed his plan to Chi Yan yesterday.
Chi Yan had lazily said, stroking his chin, “Didn’t you say his health was already deteriorating, and he wouldn’t last a few more years? Is this kind of method necessary?”
“Dying from illness would be letting him off too easily,” Shang Mu replied.
However, taking this medication more than three times in a month would cause irreversible damage to the nervous system.
Chi Yan was direct, “Unless you kill him in one go, if that old man figures out and investigates later, you might be in trouble. Your father is known for being infatuated. Why not take a chance and see what kind of hallucination he’s experiencing? Give him just one dose, and see if he’ll willingly take more for that hallucination.”
“Get up,” Shang an didn’t get angry, instead he extended his hand to help Shang Mu up. Then, he lowered his head, expressionless, and removed the glass shards from Shang Mu’s knee. He said each word deliberately, “Give me the rest of the medication.”
It was just a hallucination.
As long as he could see her one more time, even if it was a hallucination.
Shang An suddenly hugged his son and repeatedly patted Shang Mu’s back, as if hypnotizing himself, saying, “I’m a good father. I’ve raised you well. Although I haven’t done everything perfectly, you can understand me, can’t you?”
As soon as these words were spoken, before Shang Mu could respond, Shang An suddenly let go of his hand.
“You guys.”
Apart from Shang An, there’s also Shang Lu, who was his two children with his wife.
Shang Lu didn’t come home yesterday to celebrate his birthday, which in his wife’s mind proved that he was not good to her.
As long as Shang Lu is willing to come back home and continue calling him ‘Dad,’ his wife won’t blame him anymore.
Shang An, feeling a bit unsteady on his feet, sat back in his chair and muttered, “Go tell your sister that the engagement with the Jiang family is hereby canceled. If she needs any resources, our family can help, or if she has any other requests, she can also mention them. Let her…come home sooner.”
rokumi’s note :due to personal reasons, there will be no update for the next two days. I’m sorry.
His audacity leaves me piqued. He does not want to repent, no he seeks absolution for a purely selfish reason. Devotion to wife? No, he wasn’t debited to his wife. If he was, he could have seen her in his children, raised them to be someone who would make his wife proud. Instead he abused both his children and pitted them against each other. After sowing discord between children, he chained his daughter so that he could reap benefits and probably drove away the girl his son cared for.
Well, Father Shang can delude himself however he wants. But, I don’t think SL wanted to go back ever again. Ofc, she wants to cancel the engagement. But, refusing the engagement while he pushed for it is also her perfect excuse to cut ties with her family.
yaaaay the beginning of the end
Bro’s delusional af even without medicine. He really makes me so angry! 🤬