Chapter 47
Chapter 47
That one sentence brought every movement in the private room to a dead stop. Lu Zixuan climbed up from the floor in a daze, his face filled with disbelief.
Of course, he was not the only one. Everyone else in the room wore the same stunned expression. Lu Dong was the first to react. He raised a hand and slammed the door shut, locking the two wide-eyed servers outside, then turned back to Su Jin and asked, “Honey, what are you talking about?”
Su Jin bit her lip and did not answer Lu Dong’s question. Her gaze remained fixed on Pei Yuming, as if she wanted to see how he would react.
Pei Yuming looked at Bai Xue, then at Lu Dong, and said incredulously, “Su Jin, what are you talking about? How could Zixuan possibly be my son?”
Disappointment flashed across Su Jin’s face, but to her, now that she had already said it, there was no need to keep hiding it.
In a firm voice, she repeated, “He is your son. Everything I said is true.”
“This… Su Jin, you can’t just say something like that…” The news had shocked every bit of anger out of Pei Yuming. For a moment, he was almost at a loss.
Bai Xue looked at Su Jin warily, then tugged at Pei Yuming’s arm and asked, her face full of displeasure, “What exactly is going on?”
Pei Yuming was confused too. A trace of guilt even slid through his heart, but his mouth was absolutely certain. “I don’t know either.”
But Su Jin seemed determined to settle the matter today. In an even tone, she dropped another line. “If you don’t believe me, we can go to the hospital right now for a DNA paternity test. My department happens to have an expedited option. If you don’t trust me, you can go to Lao Xiao. The results can be out in three hours.”
Hearing how certain Su Jin sounded, Bai Xue was so angry she started hammering Pei Yuming with her fists. “Look what you’ve done!”
Pei Yuming lifted his hands to block her a couple of times, finding the whole thing absurd beyond belief. The last few times, he had stormed off furiously to catch Bai Xue and Lu Dong in the act. Now, with one turn of the tables, he had suddenly become everyone’s target.
As the poor fool who might have just been cuckolded, Lu Dong was far calmer than Pei Yuming, the person directly involved. He swept a complicated look over the group, then tentatively suggested, “Why don’t we get the paternity test first? You can have your wounds bandaged while we’re there.”
Pei Yuming and Lu Zixuan had fought two rounds back-to-back, and both of their faces were bruised and battered. Lu Zixuan had it especially bad. The corner of his mouth was split, and blood was still dripping from his chin.
“I’m not doing it!” Lu Zixuan glared at Pei Yuming with venom in his eyes. “How could I possibly be his son? Mom, don’t lie to me. Even if you’re trying to help me, you can’t say something like this. It’s completely ridiculous!”
Su Jin completely ignored her son’s protest and stared straight at Pei Yuming. “Do you dare go?”
Seeing how certain she was, Pei Yuming panicked on the spot. He even looked helplessly toward Lu Dong, hoping Lu Dong would step forward like he used to, smooth things over, and rescue him from this nightmare.
But this time, Lu Dong, the “nice guy,” chose to ignore him. He looked as if he were taking Su Jin’s lead entirely, as though the moment she said the word, he would immediately make the arrangements.
A silent stillness spread among them. The longer it lasted, the more it seemed to make the whole thing feel true.
Pei Yuming hesitated, then finally said to Su Jin with difficulty, “Was it that time?”
Su Jin understood exactly what he meant and nodded lightly.
When Bai Xue saw the two of them exchanging meaningful looks right in front of her, she instantly exploded.
“What the hell do you two mean? What ‘that time’? Did you two sleep together behind my back at the time?”
Pei Yuming shot her a dark look. “What nonsense are you talking about? That was before. I didn’t even know you back then.”
Bai Xue looked suspiciously between him and Su Jin, clearly not buying it.
Still, after her interruption, the matter of Pei Yuming being Lu Zixuan’s biological father seemed to have been settled just like that.
The faces of the Lu father and son were the first to darken. Lu Zixuan obviously did not want to accept this fact. He was just about to question Pei Yuming when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow moving by the window. The moment he saw who it was, cold sweat broke out all over him.
“Xiaobei! What are you doing?”
At his shout, everyone else in the room turned to look as well. Only then did they see that Pei Xiaobei had, at some point, climbed onto the only open window in the private room.
She was slender, and because she had learned some dance from her mother when she was young, she was extremely flexible. When the bottom-hinged window was fully opened, the gap was at most thirty centimeters, yet she had bent over and straddled it with no effort at all.
“Don’t come over!” Pei Xiaobei snapped, stopping her parents and Lu Zixuan as they tried to move toward her. “If anyone takes one more step, I’ll jump right now.”
“Don’t!” Pei Yuming spread his arms and blocked Bai Xue and Lu Zixuan at once. “We won’t go forward. Xiaobei, don’t get worked up. Whatever you want to say, we’ll talk it out. Whatever you want, whatever you want to do, it’s fine. Just don’t do anything rash. There are more than ten floors below. If you fall, not even the gods can save you. Do you understand?”
“I know,” Pei Xiaobei said. One hand gripped the edge of the window while the other wiped at her tears, her expression utterly despairing. “Dad, am I really Brother Zixuan’s half-sister? Tell me the truth. Was I with my own brother…”
Pei Xiaobei did not finish the rest, but everyone in the private room knew what she meant.
Pei Yuming’s face looked awful. His lips moved, but he had no idea what to say.
“Nonsense!” At that moment, Lu Dong, who had originally intended to stand by and watch coldly, suddenly stepped forward and said in an extremely certain tone, “Xiaobei, come down, okay? Your Aunt Su was lying to us. You saw it too. If she hadn’t said something to stop your dad just now, that knife would have gone right into Brother Zixuan. Why don’t you ask her now? She’ll definitely tell you the truth.”
Sure enough, Pei Xiaobei looked at Su Jin. Though she did not say anything, her meaning was obvious.
Everyone else in the room also looked at her nervously, waiting to see what she would say next.
“Yes…” Su Jin tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I lied to you.”
Hearing Su Jin say that, everyone let out a breath of relief, except for Pei Xiaobei, whose body was already half hanging outside the window.
Her gaze swept over her parents, then moved to Su Jin and Lu Zixuan. She could not help retching over the windowsill, and as she did, her body swayed uncontrollably. Pei Yuming broke out in a cold sweat at the sight and nearly lunged forward to grab her.
“Don’t come over!” Pei Xiaobei shouted in agitation. “Liars. You adults are all liars. Just looking at you makes me sick!”
Even Lu Zixuan, the youngest person in the private room, could tell that Pei Xiaobei was already on the verge of a breakdown. If they did not get her down soon, she could fall at any moment.
Normally, in a situation like this, calling the police would obviously be the safest option. But given Pei Xiaobei’s current state, there was no guarantee she could safely hold on until the police arrived.
Lu Dong shot Pei Yuming a look, signaling for him to rescue her from the other side. He deliberately walked in the opposite direction and spoke up to draw Pei Xiaobei’s attention.