Chapter 22

Fu Ziyi didn’t stay long. After switching the TV to a channel he liked, he was ready to leave.

“Let’s go. She has work tomorrow, don’t bother her.”

He Wei wanted to argue, but in the end, he was at a loss for words.

He knew nothing about me.

I walked them downstairs, and just as I was about to go back up, He Wei suddenly called out to me.

He asked, “Do you still resent us?”

Night was falling, the darkness deepening.

I turned my head, looking at him with a hint of curiosity.

We both knew exactly what he was referring to.

But if they hadn’t insisted on bringing me back to the He Family, He Yu wouldn’t have grown jealous and tried to get back at me.

If I’d stayed quietly in Nancheng, I wouldn’t have met these people who have been nothing but terrible to me.

My brother wouldn’t have died because of me.

Was any one of them truly innocent in my brother’s death?

When they lied to me, did they ever consider how important my brother was to me?

More than two years, over seven hundred days and nights-did they ever feel even a shred of guilt?

They worried He Yu would be blamed, would be hurt, so they made up lies, letting all the pain, curses, and accusations fall on me.

And they watched coldly from the sidelines.

So shouldn’t I resent them?

Am I not allowed to resent them?

He Wei looked up at me stubbornly, as if he needed an answer.

I shoved my hands into my pockets for warmth, met his eyes, and said calmly, “There’s nothing to resent or not resent. You’re just not that important.”

With that, I turned and walked away.

“Actually, Anan hasn’t had it easy these years either,” He Wei called after me. “You must have noticed it too. Maybe Mom wasn’t really unaware of the baby switch back then.”

He Wei knew how to keep someone with just three sentences.

I stood on the narrow steps in the corridor, taking a few seconds to decide to hear him out.

“When Mom was young, she treated Anan very badly. In my limited memory, she seemed to dislike Anan a lot. She never smiled at her, was always losing her temper, sometimes even hit her.

“When I was little, I didn’t understand why Mom acted that way. Dad told me it was postpartum depression. I sort of understood, sort of didn’t.

“Anan was even younger than me, so she understood even less. But she was more sensible than I was. She never cried or made a fuss, rarely got angry, always wore a smile, carefully trying to please everyone.

“Later, it took a long time before Mom finally accepted her. But the night before you came to the He Family, I overheard Dad and Mom arguing. Dad asked Mom why she secretly switched the children.”

This was the first time I’d ever heard fragments about He Yu’s past.

In those fragments, it seemed she hadn’t had it easy either.

But I didn’t respond. I just leaned against the wall, waiting to see what He Wei was really getting at with all this.

But He Wei just looked up at me, saying nothing more.

The autumn wind was bleak; this year, Jiangcheng’s autumn was colder than any year before.

I pulled my coat tighter, ready to leave if he didn’t say anything else.

“Can you not hate her?”

He Wei asked me this.

So many years had passed, and he was still so naïve.

I blinked, suddenly a little curious. “Do you really dislike me?”

He Wei seemed surprised by my question. He denied it: “Of course not.”

“Then why is it that every time you speak to me a little more kindly, it’s always to ask me to give in?”

He Wei was speechless.

I turned and walked away.

He Wei called after me, unwilling to give up: “But you’re happier than she is, aren’t you?”