Chapter 55
Chapter 55
A sudden blow to the head could hardly have hit harder than this. Pei Yuming clutched his head as his blood pressure spiked, feeling as if the entire consultation room were swaying around him.
Seeing his face go deathly pale, Su Jin hurried over to support him. “Yuming, are you all right?”
Without letting anything show, Pei Yuming pushed her hand away. After steadying himself, he murmured in denial, “Impossible. Su Jin, don’t talk nonsense! I watched Xiaobei be born and grow up. She may look more like her mother, but she’s definitely my daughter. You must have made a mistake. Back then, you and Lu Dong… you two… could it be…”
“I didn’t!” Su Jin understood exactly what he had left unsaid. “Lu Dong and I started sleeping in separate rooms less than six months after we got married. Before that, the number of times we shared a bed could be counted on one hand. When Zixuan was born, we told people he was premature, but he was actually full term. He is your son. If you don’t believe me, we can have Lao Xiao compare your DNA with his again right now. Better yet, compare yours with Xiaobei’s too. How does that sound?”
Pei Yuming gripped the back of a chair and slowly sat down in front of the desk. He glanced blankly at his watch, as if talking to himself.
“There’s not enough time…”
“What?” Su Jin hadn’t heard him clearly.
Pei Yuming did not explain. He clenched his phone in his hand, lost in thought.
This time, Lu Zixuan was not the only one frozen outside the door. Pei Xiaobei was staring in shock as well.
The two of them were no calmer than the pair inside. Pei Xiaobei looked dazedly at Lu Zixuan and whispered, “Brother Zixuan, is what Aunt Su said true? If I’m not my dad’s daughter, then whose daughter am I?”
Lu Zixuan’s face slowly darkened from pale to black. At that moment, he actually felt a little envious of Pei Xiaobei. He would rather not know who his biological father was than acknowledge Pei Yuming as his dad.
In his eyes, Pei Yuming was practically the embodiment of “hidebound and stubborn.” More than once, he had heard his father, Lu Dong, complain about the man. Pei Yuming clearly had top-tier domestic expertise in his hands, yet he had no idea how to be flexible. For years, he had only earned that fixed hospital salary, living hand to mouth and dragging his wife and child along to suffer with him.
Even deputy directors who had joined the hospital later than he had lived in villas and drove luxury cars, yet Pei Yuming had stayed exactly where he was for ten years. Worse, he was always smug about it, relying on his talent and looking down on everyone else, like a man living under a glass dome who never took the initiative to engage with the outside world.
Young people tended to be arrogant and only willing to admire those who had achieved fame and success. In Lu Zixuan’s eyes, his father was the most inspiring and successful role model there was. Because of that, his hatred and contempt for Pei Yuming were no less than his father’s.
He shoved the door open and pointed at Pei Yuming. Through gritted teeth, he demanded of his mother, “So the reason you’ve hated Aunt Bai all these years, while pretending to be close to her, was so you could get near him?”
Su Jin was startled by her son’s sudden entrance. At first, she did not process what he had shouted. When she finally did, her instinctive reaction was to look at Pei Yuming beside her.
That one glance only made Lu Zixuan even more certain of his guess.
Ever since he was little, the person he had heard his mother curse the most was Bai Xue. A dish, a piece of clothing, a character in a book, or a role in a TV drama, anything that could possibly be connected to Bai Xue would be singled out by his mother. Then, with clear logic, she would extend it to Bai Xue herself before launching into a well-reasoned stream of abuse and curses against her.
When he was young, he had even found these things his mother said rather interesting. But as he grew older, he began thinking about why she did it. With his limited experience, he had hastily reached a conclusion: he believed his mother must be jealous of Bai Xue.
After all, Bai Xue was an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Even though she was so much older than him, he could still see her beauty without the slightest effort. Even the bad temper the people around her often criticized seemed cute and distinctive when set against her perfect figure and face.
A man could never truly, sincerely hate a beautiful member of the opposite sex, and Lu Zixuan was no exception. He had even often found himself curious about Bai Xue. He did not understand what kind of feeling that was, and he had never thought too deeply about it. He simply had not expected that getting close to Bai Xue would bring him an interesting relationship.
Pei Xiaobei looked a lot like her mother. That was the only thing that gave him any comfort.
When Lu Zixuan saw that his mother showed no guilt at all after being exposed, his disappointment and anger only grew. He went on rebuking her. “Mom, by doing this, how can you face my dad? He’s worked himself to the bone for this family all these years, and all of you take it for granted. But what did he ever do wrong? And Aunt Bai. She clearly didn’t do anything, yet she had to suffer your baseless hostility and this man’s betrayal. How innocent is she in all this?”
Lu Zixuan truly left no room for anyone, pouring out everything he had been holding back in one breath. Even Pei Yuming could hear how excessive those words were. Su Jin, meanwhile, was so furious at being turned on and accused by her own son that her whole body trembled. Her face went so pale that even Pei Yuming could hardly bear to look at her.
“Shut up!” Pei Yuming snapped. “What do you know? This is grown-up business. A child like you has no place butting in!”
Lu Zixuan looked utterly disdainful of Pei Yuming’s warning. He sneered, “What right do you have to control me? Let me make this clear today: even if I really am your son, I will never acknowledge you! If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened. You’re the one who started it all, and you still dare lecture me?”
“You shut your mouth!” Su Jin swung her arm and slapped her son hard across the face. “You don’t understand anything. You have no right to talk about him like that. And stop bringing up Bai Xue all the time. Do you think she’s some good person? Since when is it your place, as a child, to defend her?”
When Pei Xiaobei saw Lu Zixuan get hit, she hurried over and stood in front of him, afraid Su Jin would strike him again.
But unexpectedly, in the very next second, Pei Xiaobei turned the topic to her own mother. Confused, she demanded, “Aunt Su, what do you mean? Why are you saying my mom isn’t a good person?”
Only after Pei Xiaobei asked did Su Jin realize what she had said. She looked at Pei Yuming with some regret, hesitating over whether to reveal the things Bai Xue had done behind their backs.
Pei Yuming merely assumed she had misspoken in a moment of panic and did not think much of it. He had already known about Lu Dong and Bai Xue, so he was not surprised by why Su Jin would say such a thing.
Instead, he felt irritated that the two younger ones had united to defend Bai Xue and Lu Dong. Especially after what Lu Zixuan had said just now. What did he mean, unable to face his father? He made Lu Dong sound like some perfect victim.
“Xiaobei, your Aunt Su isn’t wrong. Do you remember why I fought with your mother last time?”
“Wasn’t it just because my mom sent a few messages that went a little too far?” Pei Xiaobei said indifferently.
“Then do you know who she sent them to?”
“How would I know? You don’t even know, and you’re asking me?”