Chapter 50
Chapter 50
“Do you think Su Jin still likes you?” Cao Lei asked bluntly.
Pei Yuming did not have time to look away. He blinked twice in quick succession and denied it. “I don’t know. She never said anything. Our relationship has always been perfectly normal.”
“Normal? What do you mean?”
“We’re colleagues!” Pei Yuming answered with a frown, growing impatient with Cao Lei for harping on the same point.
Cao Lei narrowed his eyes at him. “Really?”
Pei Yuming licked his lips. “Really.”
Cao Lei looked at him for a while. Whether he believed him or not was impossible to tell.
“Then Su Jin hid the fact that your biological son existed for so long. Do you hate her?”
Hate her? Pei Yuming had not even thought about that question yet.
Everything had happened too suddenly. Even now, he had not recovered from the grief of his daughter jumping off a building. But if he thought about it carefully, if Su Jin had not deliberately kept it from him and then suddenly revealed it, Xiaobei would never have thought of jumping. As for Zixuan, he had no intention whatsoever of acknowledging him as his real father.
Thinking of the slick, cowardly personality Lu Zixuan had been raised with, Pei Yuming desperately hoped, at that moment, that Su Jin was lying to him.
Maybe she really was lying to him.
Then Xiaobei would not have been hurt because of this, and Bai Xue and Lu Dong would not have had the chance to accuse him…
Clinging to that hope, Pei Yuming got off the subway. He gripped his phone, hesitated for a long time, but still did not make the call. He had no idea how to ask Su Jin.
In the end, he walked downstairs to his building and sat dispiritedly on the steps, smoking while he waited for Su Jin to show up.
He had not even finished one cigarette when she arrived.
“Why are you sitting here? Aren’t you going upstairs?” Su Jin held a bouquet of flowers and wore a simple, understated dress as she walked slowly toward him in high heels. From the inside out, she radiated a quiet, gentle air that Pei Yuming had never noticed before.
Pei Yuming silently stood. He stared at her with a complicated expression, hesitated again and again, and still could not bring himself to ask outright.
But Su Jin sensed something at once. “What is it? Do you have something to say?”
Pei Yuming sighed, then reached out and grabbed Su Jin by the arm, pulling her into a corner.
“I have something to ask you. You have to tell me the truth.”
Seeing him like this, Su Jin’s expression also turned a little tense. “What is it? Did something happen?”
Pei Yuming’s lips moved, but the words caught in his throat several times. He raked his fingers hard through his hair and finally asked, “Su Jin, I want to ask you… is Zixuan really my son?”
“You…” His question nearly startled the flowers out of Su Jin’s hands. Her eyes widened, her face full of shock, as if she could not believe what she had just heard.
“Is he?” Pei Yuming urgently wanted an answer and pressed her again.
“Did you hear something? Why are you asking this?” Su Jin took a step back, trying to put some distance between them.
But Pei Yuming immediately moved forward again. Both his gaze and his body language were intensely oppressive. His interrogating manner made Su Jin’s expression darken.
Bai Xue turned the salt container completely upside down, sprinkling the last bit of salt over the cleaned fish. Dissatisfied, she clicked her tongue. “Not enough!”
She picked up her phone, found Su Jin’s number, and called directly.
Buzz, buzz… The sudden vibration of a phone rang out between the two of them.
Su Jin avoided Pei Yuming’s gaze and reached into her shoulder bag for her phone.
Pei Yuming pressed down on her flustered hand. “Don’t answer it. Answer me.”
Su Jin bit her lip. For some reason, her eyes began to redden.
Bai Xue frowned at the unanswered call on her phone. With a sigh, she took off her apron, grabbed her keys, and went downstairs.
When she reached the lobby, she had not even pushed the door open before she spotted someone standing by the pavilion across the way, a figure who looked very much like Su Jin. Curious, she studied the person for several moments and noticed a familiar pair of leather shoes beneath the part hidden by the trees.
Without realizing it, she softened her movements, pushed the door open, and carefully walked toward the pavilion.
Before she got close, she heard her husband’s suppressed roar.
“Su Jin, all I want is the truth. Why is that so hard? Tell me honestly. Is Zixuan my son or not?”
The keys in Bai Xue’s hand fell to the ground with a clatter.
She instinctively covered her mouth and slowly moved closer.
Then Su Jin’s gentle, tear-choked voice drifted over from not far away. “Why are you asking me that? Why are you only asking now?”
“Yes or no?” Pei Yuming rested a hand on Su Jin’s shoulder, patting her lightly to comfort her.
Su Jin covered her face and cried for a long while before finally raising her head. She stared fixedly at Pei Yuming, the fragility on her face gradually turning into resolve.
Just as Pei Yuming thought she was about to speak, he caught sight of a slender figure approaching from the corner of his eye. He quickly withdrew the hand he had on Su Jin’s shoulder and called out in surprise, “Honey?”
Bai Xue walked over with a cold expression and shoved Su Jin aside before Su Jin could react. Then she pointed at Pei Yuming and snapped, “Well, well! I was wondering why a few messages from me were enough to make you want a divorce. Turns out you’ve already found your next woman!”
Pei Yuming froze for a moment before realizing Bai Xue was talking about the ambiguous texts he had previously discovered between her and another man.
Although only a few hours had passed since the murder case, to Pei Yuming it felt longer than half a month. Too much had happened in between. He had almost forgotten what had started all of this in the first place.
Looking at Bai Xue’s furious face, he suddenly found it laughable. What right did she have to say something like that to him?
“So the guilty party makes the first accusation,” Pei Yuming said sarcastically. “Wait until you’ve cut things off cleanly with Lu Dong. Then it won’t be too late to accuse me.”
Bai Xue’s eyes flickered. She glanced at Su Jin, who was standing beside them, dumbstruck by her appearance. “What nonsense are you talking about? What happened between me and Lu Dong?”
Pei Yuming gave a cold laugh, too tired to argue with her about it. He looked at Su Jin. “Su Jin, tell me the truth. At least let me know where I stand.”
“Pei Yuming!” Bai Xue was enraged by his dismissive attitude. She grabbed his sleeve, forcing his attention back onto her. “What do you mean by this? You’re not even bothering to hide it from me now? I knew it. You two work together every day. How could there be nothing going on? Every time we had a gathering, you found excuses to huddle together, saying you were talking about work or office matters. In the end, you even talked yourselves into having a child!”
“You’re completely unreasonable.” Pei Yuming violently shook off Bai Xue’s hand, nearly sending her stumbling to the ground.
Fortunately, Su Jin reached out from the side to steady her. Bai Xue glared at Su Jin and snapped, “Let go of me! Hypocrite.”
Su Jin’s face went pale, and she hurriedly retreated two steps.
But behind her was a fish pond. Although the water was not deep, if she really fell in, she would definitely be injured.
Pei Yuming moved before he could think. He shoved Bai Xue hard out of the way and rushed over to grab Su Jin’s arm. “Careful!”
Su Jin cried out as one foot stepped into empty air. Luckily, Pei Yuming caught her in time, and she did not fall in.
He had saved her, but Bai Xue, standing off to the side, exploded.