Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After Pei Yingzhang returned, he called his parents to report what had happened.

His father, who was usually unreadable, flew into a rage. Once he calmed down, he only said to leave it for now and not interfere.

Pei Yingzhang did not know why, but the adult world was always like that, calm on the surface while storms raged underneath.

His brother-in-law’s affair was handled lightly, and life continued forward in a strange state.

Pei Yingzhang would occasionally think of that girl’s eyes, pure and innocent, so different from her mother’s.

By all logic, he should have hated her.

After all, her mother and his brother-in-law had crossed a moral line. Yet for some reason, he always felt that he and she were the same kind of person.

He could not bring himself to feel anything negative toward her.

Soon, he found the reason for what truly repulsed him.

In September of that same year, his brother-in-law began going out frequently. His behavior caught his sister’s attention. Paper could not wrap fire forever, and in the end, his brother-in-law was exposed.

The moment his sister learned the news, she fainted from anger on the spot.

After she woke, she began to lapse into trances, lose her memory, and fail to recognize people.

She would stare at his face, mutter the name of a strange man, and cry as she asked why he had betrayed her.

She was so sorrowful, so fragile.

No matter what he did or said, no matter how he explained that he was her younger brother, she rejected him. In the end, he could only give up appearing before her.

His brother-in-law knelt beside her bed and begged for her forgiveness.

But mending the fold after the sheep were lost was already too late. One afternoon, when everyone was careless, she slit her wrists and killed herself.

The reason Pei Yingzhang and Song Qiyu were afraid of the dark came from that afternoon.

They had followed Auntie Zhuang to bring her cookies and pushed open the door to the master bedroom on the third floor.

Inside the pitch-black room, bright red blood had spread across the floor. She lay in the center, eyes open, staring resentfully toward the door. The instant his gaze met hers, his scalp went numb and he nearly broke down.

Auntie Zhuang reacted quickly and covered his eyes. Song Qiyu did not see clearly in the end, but a child’s instincts are always sharpest. She burst into tears and cried out for her mother.

And so Song Qiyu and he were both sent to psychological counseling. For those days, they drifted in a daze, their memories shattered and chaotic.

It was not until his sister’s funeral, when his father, already over fifty, said he would take him to kowtow, that Pei Yingzhang resisted. But when he saw his grandparents’ hair turning white as they still had to arrange their daughter’s funeral, he swallowed his fear and grievance.

That was why, at the funeral, he heard the disgrace the entire Pei family had tried so hard to hide.

It turned out his parents were actually his maternal grandparents, and his sister was his biological mother.

He finally knew the answer. His birth was so shameful, and that was why his “parents” disliked him.

He began to sink into extreme self-loathing. On the surface, everything was calm, but deep at night, he would remember everything about her and toss and turn without sleep.

He could not understand why she had given up her life. The betrayer was still living perfectly well. Was trading her life for a few guilty tears worth it?

There was no answer anymore.

His feelings for her became complicated, like a knot tied dead. He could not let go, could not forget, and could not free himself.

No matter how painful life was, it could only move forward. It would not stop for anyone. The clearest example was his brother-in-law’s remarriage.

At first, his maternal grandfather and the others were furious, saying that if he remarried, he could only leave with nothing. But it was clear his brother-in-law had leverage. He had learned of Pei Yingzhang’s birth and used it as a threat.

Grandpa Pei had lived a life of power and success. Who would have thought he would stumble again and again over his own daughter?

The daughter he had raised with such care was coaxed and deceived into giving birth to a child, then lived in depression afterward. To preserve the family reputation and to ensure his daughter would have someone to rely on after he was gone, he had no choice but to choose a son-in-law with no foundation to maintain appearances.

He could only do everything in his power to cultivate Pei Yingzhang and force him to grow quickly.

Life was unpredictable. His son-in-law had cheated, his daughter had died young, and the son-in-law who had always depended on them turned around and bit them viciously. He declared that he would rather drag everyone down together, even if it cost him, and let the Pei family lose all face in C City so everyone would know what kind of daughter the Pei family had raised.

Pei Yingzhang did not know what his maternal grandfather felt at that moment.

Grandpa Pei staggered back, his figure slightly hunched. He was old, and he only wanted to protect the last dignity of his daughter, even if the other party kept pushing further.

In the end, the two of them talked in the study for an entire night. When Grandpa Pei came out, his hair seemed even whiter. He patted Pei Yingzhang on the shoulder and gave him two choices.

The first was to go abroad. Grandpa Pei would leave part of the assets to the Song family and do his best to train him, but Song Qiyu would have to live in the Song family.

Before he could finish, Pei Yingzhang refused. He could not abandon Song Qiyu. Leaving aside Song Zhiyu’s duplicity, the woman Song Zhiyu was going to marry was selfish and heartless, not even caring properly for her own daughter, let alone Song Qiyu.

Pei Yingzhang unexpectedly thought of that girl.

But staying meant facing a tangled mess. The responsibility and pressure on his shoulders were like carrying a mountain while trudging forward alone.

Grandpa Pei urged him to think it over again. Pei Yingzhang shook his head and refused.

So he could only choose the second path: live in the Song family with Song Qiyu. Song Zhiyu would still be the Pei family’s son-in-law in name, but the assets he received would be sixty percent less than under the first option.

To be honest, Song Zhiyu had thought a ten-year-old boy could not withstand much pressure, which was why he held Song Qiyu in his hand as a threat.

But unexpectedly, Pei Yingzhang insisted on staying by Song Qiyu’s side.

The Pei and Song families reached an understanding. Grandpa Pei returned to the business world and began paving the way for Pei Yingzhang. More than anything, they could no longer return to their former state. Their communication happened almost entirely through phones.

No matter how much Song Qiyu objected, it was useless. All she could do was think of ways every day to target her stepmother and make her retreat.

She did not know that when a person was determined to do something, even crashing into a wall would not stop them.

During those years, the Song family was like a chaotic marketplace. Song Qiyu jumped up and down making trouble, and Pei Yingzhang was exhausted from managing her. Yet he also envied how freely she lived.

If possible, he would rather she remain that innocent and lively forever.

He would become someone she could rely on for the rest of her life.