Chapter 152

Chapter 152

Outside the main hall of Yuelai Villa.

The moment the ghost of “Madam Shen,” who had died fifteen years ago, appeared, the entire place erupted into chaos.

The Shen Family father and son were terrified.

The servants of the villa were even more terrified.

The guards lost every bit of their imposing air and retreated more than ten feet away.

As Shen Li listened to Ling Ling recount how the two of them had met and come to know each other all those years ago, he could not help falling into a daze.

“My lady…”

He opened his mouth, seeming to want to say something, yet he had no idea where to begin.

Ling Ling cut him off at once. “Don’t call me your lady. I refuse to acknowledge you as my husband!”

“Back then, I was blind. I invited a wolf into my home…”

She looked toward her daughter not far away, her heart feeling as if it were being carved open. “Shen Li, no matter what, Yue’er is your own flesh and blood. Just because you wanted your biological son to inherit the family fortune, you were willing to harm your own child?”

Shen Li stood there, stunned into silence by the question.

Over all these years, he had earned a reputation as a man of great virtue and prestige, and he also sat upon more wealth than he could ever spend.

But as he grew older, he became more and more afraid that all of it would be taken away by an outsider.

His daughter, Shen Yue, grew day by day, and her features came to resemble his late wife more and more.

Shen Li began to fear letting her go outside. Using her frail constitution as an excuse, he forbade her from leaving, and even more so from meeting outsiders.

Shen Yue was afraid of her father.

That fear seemed to seep out from her very bones.

Although her father always spoke to her gently, with a kind smile on his face, there was unmistakable distance and coldness in his eyes.

It made Shen Yue unable to tell whether her father’s love for her was real or false.

Until one day, without asking her opinion at all, he directly arranged a marriage for her.

From childhood to adulthood, she had barely even met two men from outside the family.

And then, all of a sudden, he wanted her to marry?

Shen Yue was so frightened she could not sleep at night. Even when she did fall asleep, she was plagued by nightmares.

She begged her father not to make her marry.

Shen Li merely coaxed her in a warm voice. “Yue’er, there is no need to be afraid. Even after you marry, you will still be the same as before, living carefree at Yuelai Villa. You will never have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of your life. Your husband will respect you, cherish you, and take care of you forever.”

When those words fell into Shen Yue’s ears, for some reason, they sent a chill down her spine.

She had a constant instinctive feeling-that the truth was not like that at all.

Later, the facts proved that her intuition had been right.

By chance, she went to the study to ask to see her father. When she reached the window, however, she overheard the conversation inside.

The people speaking were her father, Shen Li, and that “fiancé” of hers, whom she had never met.

From their words, Shen Yue learned a shocking secret.

Her “fiancé” was actually her elder half-brother, born of the same father.

In that instant, her stomach churned, and she finally understood the meaning behind her father’s words.

She knew she could not accept it, so she ran to her father, crying and making a scene.

Shen Li still tried to persuade her with all manner of explanations. “It is only a marriage in name. Why can’t you be obedient? Wouldn’t it be good to have one more elder brother in this world who loves you the way your father does?”

Everything he said sounded perfectly logical.

But the more she listened, the colder her back became.

Seeing that she refused to comply, Shen Li locked her in the ancestral hall and punished her by making her kneel.

As she stared at the memorial tablet of “Madam Shen, née Ling,” Shen Yue inexplicably gave birth to hatred. She loudly demanded to know why her mother had given birth to her, and why she had abandoned her and left.

At the moment when she was most desperate, why was the mother closest to her by blood not by her side?

Shen Yue raised her hand and smashed the memorial tablet.

After Shen Li learned of it and rushed to the ancestral hall, he said nothing and simply gave her a resounding slap across the face.

Her father had never hit her before. That was the first time, and the disgust on his face was completely undisguised.
At the word of command, she was locked inside her room.

And once locked away, she remained there for more than two whole months.

Shen Yue had always been sensitive and suspicious by nature, but after being confined to her quarters, she began to lose her mind. She smashed everything in the room, injured the maids, and even tried to escape by jumping out the window, only to be caught and dragged back again and again.

To make her settle down, Shen Li obtained some kind of drug from who knew where. Once she drank it, her entire body would grow weak and heavy, and she would fall into a deep sleep.

Yet during that time, a woman’s voice would always drift faintly by her ear.

Although she could not see what the woman looked like, the voice made her feel indescribably close to her.

It felt as though, long ago, she had experienced this before…

Only then did Shen Yue realize that her mother had been guarding her side all along in another form.

At last, she also saw her mother’s face. In that instant, her nose stung and her eyes swelled with tears. The emptiness that had always lingered deep inside her heart was finally filled in that moment…

After Yan Zhengchu listened to Ling Ling’s account, he was utterly shocked. His eyes widened in fury at once. “You would arrange for your own son and daughter to marry? Is that something a father should do?”

Yu Lang was just as furious. “This is a complete violation of human decency!”

“You deserve to be struck by lightning!”

“Death would be too good for you!”

“…”

The two of them took turns cursing him, filled with righteous indignation.

But Qin Shu suddenly glared at them. Yu Lang immediately turned and pointed at him as well, scolding, “You’re no good thing either. You ought to be cut to pieces!”

“…”

While they were venting their anger over here, Ren Fengjue glanced at Shen Li and said, “Old Master Shen naturally would not truly let the siblings marry. It was merely an act for outsiders to see, so that his biological son could enter Yuelai Villa openly and legitimately, just as he himself once did.”

Yu Lang immediately picked up the thread. “Well, no wonder. After all, he’s an ungrateful wretch who preyed on a family with no heirs and took over their estate.”

“A wolf with a guilty conscience sees everyone else as a wolf too. Of course he’s even more afraid of running into one himself.”

“Isn’t that right, Old Master Shen?”

Shen Li’s true face had already been exposed before everyone, so naturally, he had no defense to offer.

But then, with brazen shamelessness, he said, “You can say such things because you have never experienced what I have.”

“Have you never heard the saying, ‘Do not urge others to be kind if you have never suffered their pain’?”

“If you were me, what would you have done?”

Yu Lang clicked his tongue twice on the spot. “This Young Master wasn’t urging you to be kind. For someone like you, it would already be a blessing if you didn’t commit evil. Kindness?”

“Besides, no matter who it was, I doubt they could come up with such a vile scheme.”

“Your son is your own flesh and blood. Is your daughter not?”

Those words left Shen Li speechless once more.

He gave another cold laugh. “Even so, this is my family affair. What does it have to do with any of you?”

Seeing him act so utterly shameless, Yu Lang almost wanted to teach him a lesson himself.

Yet the thought had only just arisen when Shen Li suddenly slapped himself twice.

His bizarre behavior was baffling, but it was satisfying enough.

As for Shen Li, not only were there two clear palm prints on his face, blood was also leaking from the corner of his mouth. One glance was enough to tell he had held nothing back.

Qin Shu, who stood closest to him, could not help freezing. He had just opened his mouth to call out, “Father,” when Shen Li, in a towering rage, slapped him twice as well.

“Who exactly is playing dirty tricks behind my back?”

Shen Li thought someone had set him up, and he was beside himself with anger.

Seeing this, Yu Lang clapped his hands with a grin and cheered, “Slapping yourself, then slapping your son-Old Master Shen, this performance of yours is truly entertaining!”