Lin Xinyan knew that she wouldn’t have chosen Peichuan to help her out if she didn’t have a proper reason. She chose to confide in him because she knew he could be trusted and was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
“I want to go meet Bai Yinning.” She’d been to Bai Yinning’s place before and knew which hotel he was staying in.
Hearing that, Shen Peichuan’s eye twitched. He knew very clearly how much Zong Jinghao hated Bai Yinning’s guts.
“Peichuan, you’re Jinghao’s closest friend. What do you think I should do?” Lin Xinyan was torn.
She was worried that her selfishness would hurt Zong Jinghao.
After all, Cheng Yuxiu was his mother.
However, Shen Peichuan was confused. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Cheng Yuxiu. If she really is Jinghao’s biological mother, should I tell him?” She stared at Shen Peichuan, hoping for an answer that would soothe her conscience.
“How’s can that be? This could never happen. It’s impossible!” Shen Peichuan couldn’t believe it.
That was way too strange of a scenario.
How could Cheng Yuxiu possibly be Jinghao’s mother?
One shouldn’t make jokes like that.
“I mean it. If it turned out to be true, should I tell him?” Lin Xinyan’s expression and tone of voice didn’t seem like she was joking. At that moment, Shen Peichuan went silent.
After a long time, he finally started speaking again. “I don’t know. It seems like something that would take a toll on him. How would you feel if you found out that you hated your own mom for so long? How’s he supposed to feel about this?”
Then he turned towards Lin Xinyan. “Anyway, is it even true?”
It just seemed too strange to be true. Cheng Yuxiu as Jinghao’s mother?
“You’ve heard about Wen Xian and Zong Qifeng’s marriage being an arranged one, right?” Xinyan pressed her lips together. Her voice sounded slightly hoarse.
She felt like that was life’s way of playing tricks.
“I’ve heard of it.”
“At the time, Wen Xian already had someone else she loved. She didn’t love Zong Qifeng at all. After they got married, they were simply acquaintances. They never loved each other as a married couple would. After that, Wen Xian felt sorry for Zong Qifeng and started looking for a woman who would be willing to accompany him instead.”
“And that woman happened to be Cheng Yuxiu?” Shen Peichuan felt as if he had gotten struck by lightning. How could that be?
Why would someone help their own husband find another woman to love?
Was it really just because she didn’t love him?
“You probably know how powerful the Wen family is. Wen Xian wanted to give this child a proper identity, so she lied to everyone. Not even the other Wen family members knew, only herself.” There were even more details that she didn’t bother getting into.
Peichuan didn’t know what to say.
“But still, that doesn’t explain why you’re going to see Bai Yinning. What does he have to do with all this?” Shen Peichuan felt like this old case involved quite a lot of people.
“You’ve been to Baicheng before, so you’ve probably heard about Bai Yinning’s background. He’s Bai Hongfei’s adopted son, and Bai Hongfei was Cheng Yuxiu’s first love. When Wen Qing found out about Yuxiu and Qifeng’s relationship, he thought Cheng Yuxiu was the homewrecker who ruined his younger sister’s marriage.”
By the time she finished, Shen Peichuan was pretty much all caught up on everything now. So Cheng Yuwen, the Cheng family, and the tea silk were all connected.
“Bai Yinning looked for Yuxiu’s midwife. His goal was to work with Jinghao and take Wen Qing down since he’d gotten hurt by her before,” Lin Xinyan explained.
“And you don’t want Jinghao to know?” Despite it being a question, Xinyan could hear the determination in his tone.
Lin Xinyan wrung her hands together. She was feeling indecisive, too. “I don’t think it’s fair to him. Why should he have to suffer the consequences of what happened to the last generation? If Wen Qing also knew the truth, I don’t know how things would turn out.”
“Can’t you tell how much Wen Qing hates Cheng Yuxiu? He’s already become that desperate and insane from just being slightly near her. If he knew the truth…”
She didn’t need to say anything explicitly. They were definitely gonna start arguing.
“I don’t know. Will he hate me after knowing?” Lin Xinyan was starting to choke up. This was really causing a ton of problems for her.
“Remember what you’re feeling right now. You can burn that bridge when you get to it. Jinghao will understand why you’re doing such a thing. In fact, this secret will probably get buried after a while.” Shen Peichuan stopped by the side of the road. He didn’t know how to console Lin Xinyan, so he just passed a piece of tissue to her.
But Lin Xinyan didn’t take it. She simply wiped the corners of her eyes with her fingers. “I’m alright.”
She wasn’t crying for herself; she was crying because she felt horrible for Jinghao.
Shen Peichuan looked at her. She had always been a skinny girl, and her weight never fluctuated much, not even while she was pregnant. She had always looked frail because of that. However, she never did anything that would make anyone think of her as “weak”.
That was probably why she was getting closer to Cheng Yuxiu, too, because she knew about this twisted backstory.
Now that Bai Yinning had dug it back up, she was trying her best to settle everything calmly so that it would cause the least amount of damage.
If she thought about it calmly, it was obvious that keeping it a secret would be beneficial to everyone, no matter whose perspective they looked at it from.
If Zong Jinghao’s true identity got revealed, he’d be known as a bastard child.
He wouldn’t just have to suffer everyone’s scrutiny; he’d also have to suffer through the realization of being lied to for so long.
Would he hate himself, or would he hate the people who lied to him?
What good would it do if the truth came out and sent everyone into an uproar? Would it even benefit anybody?
Soon after that, Shen Peichuan started the car again and got back on the road. “I think I get why Jinghao likes you so much now.”
His voice was hushed, and Lin Xinyan barely heard him. “What?”
“Nothing.” Shen Peichuan went back to focusing on the road.
They arrived at the hotel pretty quickly. After Shen Peichuan parked the car, he went over to help Lin Xinyan down from her seat and into the wheelchair that he had taken out.
Shen Peichuan pushed her into the elevator. Once they reached Bai Yinning’s floor, she turned to look at him. “Wait for me here, okay?”
“I’ll go inside with you.” He felt uneasy about leaving her alone with him. After all, Bai Yinning hadn’t always had the best intentions toward her. Besides, he brought her here, so he had to make sure he would be bringing her back in one piece, too.
“Okay.” Shen Peichuan knew about everything anyway, so there was no reason to hide anything from him.
When they reached Bai Yinning’s unit, Shen Peichuan rang the doorbell. Very quickly, Bai Yinning came to open the door. He didn’t seem the least bit surprised at the sight of Lin Xinyan.
It was obvious from the moment that she cut him off at the hospital because she didn’t want Zong Jinghao to find out.
Bai Yinning knew that Lin Xinyan would be coming, so he had already asked Gao Yuan to return to his room. He looked at Shen Peichuan and said, “I would like to talk to Ms. Lin alone.”
“She’s not in the best condition right now. I have to keep an eye on her.” Shen Peichuan was determined, not backing down in the slightest.
Bai Yinning chuckled. “Sure, come along. You probably know what’s going on. One thing’s for sure, though, I’m the boss here. I can always choose to stay silent and not say a word.”
Upon hearing that, Shen Peichuan’s face soured.
“Peichuan, it’s okay. Just wait at the door. I’ll call you if anything happens.” Lin Xinyan looked at him and shook her head, reminding him to calm down. “He won’t do anything to me.”
With that, Shen Peichuan glared at Bai Yinning one last time before walking out of the room.
After the room door creaked shut, Bai Yinning turned to look at her. He wasn’t trying to hide his feelings in the slightest. “Should I be happy right now, or should I be sad about your visit?”
