Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The Shen Family scandal blew up in spectacular fashion.

When clips from the wedding livestream spread online, every headline was more sensational than the last. Some called it a wealthy family’s bid to steal life. Some called it the bride’s counterattack. Some claimed the eldest son of the Shen Family had faked his death for eighteen years. The police soon issued a statement, worded with great caution, saying only that a certain Shen family was suspected of unlawful imprisonment, attempted intentional assault, and falsifying relevant documents, and that the case was still under further investigation.

The day Xu Lingyi was taken away, she was still wearing that pearl-white suit.

She did not look at me again. Before getting into the car, she only turned back once to glance at the West Building. That look was hollow, as if an obsession that had lasted eighteen years had finally been dug out of her, leaving behind not remorse, but an even deeper wasteland.

The old butler and Mr. Liu were also detained.

Mr. Liu’s real name was Liu Chengzhang. In his youth, he had studied folk rituals and numerology. Later, he made money by performing so-called fortune-changing rites for the wealthy. At his residence, the police found large quantities of documents like the Marriage Contract, life-binding contracts, drugs, and victim files. The Shen Family was not the only family to believe in him, but the Shen Family had been the most deranged.

Zhou Yan said, “The law won’t put metaphysics on trial, but it will put the crimes committed in the name of metaphysics on trial.”

I asked, “Then what about my mother?”

He was silent for a moment.

The fire from eighteen years ago was too far in the past. Key evidence had been badly damaged. There were problems with the Shen Family’s death certificate, fire report, and medical records from that year, but reconstructing every detail would be difficult. The police found several retired old servants. Some testified that Lin Tang had been forcibly kept in the West Building the night before the fire, while others had seen Xu Lingyi and Lin Suyi get into a fierce argument.

But my mother was gone.

So was my grandmother.

The belated truth was like a letter sent to the wrong era. It had finally reached my hands, but there was no one left to open it for me in person.

I went to my grandmother’s old home.

It was a tiny apartment in the south of the city. On the windowsill were still a few pots of orchids she had raised while she was alive, watered all this time by a neighbor. I opened the wooden chest she had left behind and sorted through the things inside one by one: restoration knives, old tweezers, paper pattern albums, various Marriage Contract rubbings, and a notebook with a blue cloth cover.

The last few pages of the notebook were about the Shen Family.

My grandmother’s handwriting was steady, and her notes were restrained. There was no venom in them, only fact after fact.

“Shen Family sought old life-extension method. Refused.”

“Xu Lingyi’s obsession deepens by the day. Fear she may harm Tangtang.”

“Mingche is innocent, but the living cannot take the place of the dead.”

“Jianwei entered the Shen Family young, sickly, with fear in his eyes. This child is pitiable as well.”

When I saw that line, I stopped for a long time.

My grandmother had met Shen Jianwei long ago.

She had not written him as a bad person. She had only written that he was pitiable. But pity was not a get-out-of-jail-free card. Later, my grandmother had added another line:

“If one who is trapped turns around and traps others, that too is evil.”

I closed the notebook and suddenly understood why she had only warned me not to sign the second Marriage Contract, but had not stopped me from falling in love with Shen Jianwei.

Fate was not a straight line.

She could see danger, but she could not decide every choice for me. She had hidden the key to breaking the deadlock in old paper and left the judgment to me.

Half a month after Shen Jianwei was hospitalized, he sent me a message.

“Can we meet? Only to discuss the case.”

I went.

The sunlight in the hospital room was good. He was leaning against the headboard, his right hand still wrapped in gauze, his whole frame thinner than before. When he saw me come in, he instinctively tried to sit up, but I stopped him.

“Don’t.”

He smiled faintly, a little bitter.

“You used to always say I had too many formalities.”

I did not respond.

He did not try to make small talk again. Instead, he handed me a document envelope.

Inside were photocopies of old internal Shen Family files, transfer records between Xu Lingyi and Liu Chengzhang, several audio recordings, and a statement written by his own hand.

I flipped to the end and saw a separate sheet of paper.

It was an apology letter from him to me.

I did not open it.

Shen Jianwei saw that and said quietly, “It’s all right if you don’t read it. I just wanted to put the words that should be said there.”

I put the document envelope away.

“Shen Jianwei, I came today because I want to ask you something.”

“Ask me.”

“If Xu Lingyi hadn’t acted ahead of schedule, if I had never learned the truth, would you really have taken me away before the wedding?”

He was silent for a long time.

Outside the room, someone pushed a medication cart past, the sound of its wheels rolling away from the doorway. Sunlight fell across the white sheets, so bright it was almost glaring.

At last, he said, “I don’t know.”

That answer was more honest than any defense.

He said, “I thought about it many times. After the engagement, and after I learned the truth. I booked plane tickets. I prepared a car. I even put your passport in the bag you usually used. But every time I was about to say it, I was afraid the way you looked at me would become the way you looked at me that night.”

I said, “So you chose to drag it out.”

“Yes.”

“You dragged it out until I was nearly drugged and forced to sign the Marriage Contract.”

“Yes.”

His eyes were red, but he still looked at me without turning away.

“I’m not innocent, Mianmian. I only did one right thing at the very end, but that can’t cancel out everything I did wrong before.”

All at once, I felt relieved.

Not for him. For myself.

I had once been terrified that he would cry and beg me for forgiveness, terrified that I would soften because of all the tenderness we had shared in the past. But he did not. At last, he admitted he was not a paper puppet pushed along by fate. Every silence had been a choice.

That was good.

Guilt returned to where it belonged, and feelings returned to where they belonged.

I stood up.

“I won’t read that letter.”

His fingertips twitched slightly.

I said, “From now on, live properly. Cooperate with the investigation. Bear whatever you ought to bear. As for us, this is where it ends.”

Shen Jianwei looked at me. The faint light in his eyes slowly dimmed, but he did not try to keep me.

“All right.”

When I reached the door, he suddenly said, “Mianmian, I hope you’ll be safe from now on.”

I paused for a moment, but I did not look back.

“And I hope you’ll stay clear-headed.”