Chapter 22: She Plays Quite Wildly

“Didn’t you elope with someone? Why have you come back?”

Meng’s father’s face darkened. Ignoring the mother and son who were still clutching each other and sobbing, he asked the question outright.

Only then did Song Shijing remember why he had hurried home.

He immediately rose, stepped forward, and grasped Meng’s father by the hand. Casting aside his former cold and distant manner, he said anxiously, “Father, is Shuyue all right? Where is she now? I went to the Chinese medicine clinic to find her, but she wasn’t there. I wanted to apologize to her properly…”

He rambled on in a stream of humble, pleading words, leaving both Meng’s father and mother completely stunned.

Song’s father and mother, standing nearby, were equally bewildered. They could not understand why their son had suddenly begun showing concern for Meng Shuyue, whom he had once mentioned with undisguised contempt.

Only Su Yanyan, standing behind Song Shijing, wore an awkward expression. Her gloomy little face had turned so black it seemed capable of dripping ink.

Just then, Song Shiyu came in, dragging Song Shixuan behind him. He happened to hear Song Shijing say eagerly, “I want to marry Shuyue as soon as possible. She is my wife. I’ve kept her waiting for so many years. I want to give her a grand, splendid wedding, and then give her a…”

As he spoke, the corners of Song Shijing’s lips kept lifting.

A month earlier, he had fled the countryside and set out to find Meng Shuyue. Carrying her photograph, he had made inquiries everywhere and had finally managed to learn her whereabouts.

One or two villagers who had seen Meng Shuyue told him that she had been rescued from a tree together with a man and had probably already returned home.

He had wanted to call and ask about her, only to realize that he had left with neither money nor belongings. He did not even remember her telephone number.

He had taken odd jobs to save enough money for a train ticket, only to run into Su Yanyan, who had come looking for him.

The two of them discussed it and decided to return together to the capital.

They assumed that their parents would certainly be able to arrange their return to the countryside.

All along the journey, Song Shijing had been frantic to get back and find Meng Shuyue. But Su Yanyan was pregnant and had begun showing signs of bleeding, so she had been forced to remain in the hospital to protect the pregnancy.

That was why his return to the capital had been delayed.

Yet during those days, he had actually missed Meng Shuyue to the point of madness.

Every night, while caring for Su Yanyan in the hospital, he had imagined nothing but the tender married life he and Meng Shuyue would share.

Thus, he could hardly wait to marry her and bring her home, to make her his woman as soon as possible. Then the terrifying events from his nightmares would never happen.

Still holding his father-in-law’s hand, Song Shijing was filled with excitement as he spoke of marrying immediately. But when he looked at his own parents, whose faces had fallen as though they had seen a ghost, an inexplicable panic began to rise in him.

“What… What’s wrong? Weren’t you the ones urging me to get married as soon as possible?”

Meng’s father flung away Song Shijing’s hand and rubbed his aching temples, at a loss for what to do.

“Now that the biological father of Miss Meng’s child has returned and is willing to marry her, does that mean the matter can no longer be blamed on the two of us brothers?”

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The Song family’s patriarch and the others were still dazed, trying to figure out what the Meng family intended to do, when Song Shixuan, who had just slipped inside, asked the question aloud in front of all the elders.

He then walked up to Song Shijing and patted him on the shoulder. “Congratulations, Big Brother. Miss Meng is pregnant. You’re going to be a father!”

The smile on Song Shijing’s face froze. He widened his eyes in disbelief and blurted out instinctively, “What nonsense are you talking about? I never touched her. Where would the child have come from?”

His words were exactly the same as those Song Shiyu had used when denying that he was the child’s father.

Unable to bear it any longer, Meng’s father raised his hand in fury and slapped Song Shijing as well.

When Meng’s mother stood up, her face was already as cold as frost.

She looked toward the old master seated in the place of honor and Song’s father beside him, and said in anguish, “I never imagined that the sons of the Song family would be so irresponsible. Not one of you is willing to admit that you fathered my daughter’s child. In that case, the engagement is canceled!”

With that, she turned around, supported Meng’s father—who was trembling with rage—and left the Song residence without looking back.

The news of Meng Shuyue’s pregnancy struck Song Shijing senseless.

He stood motionless, his heart breaking as though it had been cut by a knife. Song’s father had been about to rush over and teach him a proper lesson when, unexpectedly, Song Shijing suddenly vomited blood, tilted his head to one side, and collapsed unconscious on the floor.

The people who were still furious moments before were terrified. In frantic confusion, they carried the unconscious Song Shijing to the hospital.

Outside the emergency room, Song’s father—who had initially been worried that something might happen to his eldest son—paced back and forth without stopping.

He looked at his two sons, Song Shiyu and Song Shixuan, sitting side by side on a bench with their heads resting against each other, and grew angrier the more he thought about it.

He was especially displeased with his younger son, Song Shiyu, who lied at every opportunity.

In Song’s father’s eyes, although his eldest son was hopelessly muddled when it came to relations between men and women, he firmly believed that the boy would never lie.

If his eldest son said he had not touched the Song family’s daughter, then he certainly had not touched her.

That meant the only explanation was that it was his younger son, Song Shiyu, who had gotten the girl pregnant and then stubbornly refused to admit it, driving his brother to vomit blood.

And yet there he was, sleeping peacefully, drooling onto his second brother’s shoulder.

The angrier Song’s father became, the more unbearable the sight was. He rushed over, seized Song Shiyu by the ear, grabbed the IV stand beside him, and began beating him with it.

“You unfilial son! How dare you lie to me? I’ll beat you to death!”

Song Shiyu was still dreaming when a burst of pain tore him awake. He cried out miserably without pause.

Song Shixuan opened his eyes to find their elderly father beating his younger brother. He hurried forward to break up the fight, only to take several blows himself.

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For a moment, the entire area outside the hospital descended into chaos once again.

Song’s mother covered her face with a handkerchief and wept uncontrollably at the sight.

Seeing this, Su Yanyan was worried about Song Shijing and wanted to go over to comfort Song’s mother, but the older woman suddenly raised her head and glared her back into place.

Terrified, Su Yanyan stood helplessly where she was, watching this entire family tear into one another over a woman. She nearly ground her silver teeth to dust.

* * *

“Time for your medicine. Beds four, five, and six…”

The little nurse’s call dragged Song Shijing out of his nightmare and jolted him awake.

He rolled his eyes, then lifted his gaze toward the snow-white ceiling. He realized that he was in a hospital.

He turned his head to the side, only to be startled by the two people lying in the neighboring beds.

“Why… why are you two in the hospital as well?”

Song Shijing stared in astonishment at his younger brother, Song Shiyu, in bed six with both feet wrapped in bandages and suspended high in the air. Then he looked at his second brother, Song Shixuan, in bed five, both hands wrapped in bandages.

The two brothers, however, simultaneously bared their teeth in fury and cried out together, “It’s all that Meng Shuyue’s fault! She got the two of us beaten by Dad!”

At that moment, Su Yanyan arrived with food for the three of them.

In the hospital ward, the two brothers indignantly recounted everything that had happened recently, including Song’s father’s demand that one of them take responsibility for the child in Meng Shuyue’s womb.

Song Shiyu’s handsome, almost androgynous face twisted with rage.

“I never touched her! Why should I be forced into an arranged marriage? Marrying that black coal briquette is humiliating enough. Now I’m supposed to have some little black coal briquette calling me Dad? No way!”

Song Shijing listened from the side, his face deathly pale, unable to utter a single word.

Meanwhile, as she fed Song Shijing, Su Yanyan put on an exaggerated look of shock and said, “No way. That little girl, Meng Shuyue, always seemed so honest. Who would have thought she was so wild?”

“But I suppose it makes sense. She used to cook at the lumberyard, where she was surrounded by rough men, and she lived alone. Who knows how many men she was involved with?”

“Luckily, your eldest brother was clever. Every time she tried to make him let her stay the night in his room, he drove her out. Otherwise, she would have claimed this child was his too!”

After hearing those few sentences, Song Shijing’s face turned even paler.

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