CH 3

Shen Xi walked aimlessly on the empty streets of Zhongjing all night. Unbeknownst to him, the sky was gradually getting lighter.

Shen Xi was surprised to see the word “Cemetery” appearing in the mist ahead of him. He actually walked by accident to the place where his mother was sleeping.

Speaking of which, if you counted the previous life, Shen Xi had not been here for ten years. Judging by the relationship between his father and his mother, his father must have rarely visited his mother in those ten years. Was his mother lonely lying here alone? 

Thinking of it, Shen Xi walked around, exploring. The cemetery was silent in the early morning and there was no sign of anyone. Shen Xi climbed over the wall and followed his memory to his mother’s grave.

On the white marble tombstone, his mother smiled brightly, neither as unhappy as Shen Xi remembered, nor as scornful as when she argued with his father. His mother was really a beautiful woman, but it was a pity that his father didn’t love her. All her beauty was no different from a painting hanging on the wall in his father’s eyes.

Shen Xi slowly knelt down and placed his hand on his mother’s face, tracing her eyebrows on the picture. The stone under his fingers was very cold, but Shen Xi felt a warmth well up in his heart and smiled slightly.

Shen Xi’s mother came from Zhongjing’s Han family. Her father, Han Fuli, was a famous jewellery tycoon in China, and the family had been in the jewellery business for generations. Although the Han family was wealthy, they did not have many children, and in Shen Xi’s mother’s generation, there were only two of them, his mother Han Rou and his uncle Han Yu.

Shen Xi didn’t have much of an impression of his uncle. Before he was six years old, his uncle Han Yu was busy taking over the family business and Shen Xi could only see him during the New Year holidays. When Shen Xi was six, his mother jumped from the window to her death and his uncle was killed in a car accident while rushing to his mother’s funeral. In the end, the only impression Shen Xi had of his uncle was of a tall and thin figure.

At that time, with his children passing away one after another and the Han family’s business in trouble due to a major mistake made by Han Yu during his lifetime, Grandpa Han’s body collapsed under the double blow and soon the news of his critical illness spread.

Before the young Shen Xi could understand the meaning of his mother’s death, he had to face the fact that his grandfather was also leaving him. At his deathbed, his grandfather took his hand, trembling and repeating over and over again, “From now on, you will be the only one left, Xiao Xi.”

Over the years, many things had gradually faded from Shen Xi’s mind, but this was the only thing he had always remembered. Since his grandfather had passed away, he was really alone.

Thinking of this, Shen Xi let out a soft sigh, rubbed his numb legs, and sat down leaning against his mother’s tombstone. This was Shen Xi’s favourite pose in the past. Every time he did this, Shen Xi would have the illusion of leaning into his mother’s arms. Shen Xi liked to talk to his mother about his thoughts and all the bad things that happened to him in the Shen family, as if this could give him the strength to fight against all the cold treatment.

But this time, Shen Xi suddenly did not know what he should say. He had thought he had a lot of grievances to talk to his mother about, but when the words reached his lips, Shen Xi realised that not all of the grievances could be told. Some things, some pain, were too heavy and light words could not bear that weight.

Shen Xi sat in silence against his mother’s tombstone for a whole morning, until the sound of footsteps reached him. Only then did he snap back to his senses.

Shen Xi let out a long breath, rubbed his frozen face with his hands and stood up supporting himself on the tombstone. In the pale golden morning glow, Shen Xi took one last look at his mother and turned to leave. He had already decided. He was leaving Shen’s house and leaving Zhongjing. He was afraid that he would not have the opportunity to visit his mother again in a short time. But unlike in the previous life, this time he had the right to choose when he would come back.

Shen Xi left the cemetery at a determined pace, casually waved for a taxi and gave the address of the Shen family.

The driver looked curiously in the rear-view mirror at the pale teenager in the back seat. The young man seemed to have not rested well and closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep as soon as he got into the car. From the driver’s angle, he could only see the teenager’s soft hair hanging down, blocking his face and revealing his bloodless lips and sharp chin.

The driver thought for a while and reached out to turn down the radio in the car, but when he looked up, he met the boy’s eyes in the mirror, dark and cold.

The driver shivered and immediately sat upright, looking at the road carefully, not daring to look left or right.

Shen Xi indifferently looked away from the driver and stared out the window unconsciously.

Outside the window, Zhongjing seemed like a different world to Shen Xi. It was the morning rush hour in Zhongjing, and countless people and vehicles were congregating, horns, human voices and all sorts of sounds mingling, the whole city lively and energetic.

Shen Xi looked at everything in front of him greedily. That deathly silence and depression of ten years in prison almost immediately crumbled in this vibrant morning. Shen Xi could clearly feel the beating of his heart in his chest, alive and full of vitality.

This feeling was so good that when the taxi left the main city and turned into the western suburb where the Shen family lived, Shen Xi felt uncomfortable for a moment. This was the so-called wealthy area of Zhongjing, and unlike the hustle and bustle of the main city, the western suburbs were always neat and quiet. On both sides of the road there were tall trees surrounding mansions of all kinds, and the Shen family’s house was one of them.

As he got closer to the house, Shen Xi’s emotions became more and more uncontrollable, and a deep disgust emerged in his heart. This disgust was not the weak, powerless disgust of the eighteen-year-old Shen Xi, but the twenty-eight-year-old Shen Xi’s uncontrollable destructive emotions towards the Shen family. These emotions were so strong that Shen Xi desperately had to try to control them until he could stand at the entrance of the Shen family’s mansion looking as normal as ever.

Looking at the house that was exactly as he remembered it, Shen Xi lowered his head in silence for a while, speculating on the emotions his eighteen-year-old self would have felt, finally raising his head again with an angry expression.

Full of impatient anger, Shen Xi pushed open the front door, ignoring the eyes of the surrounding servants who were used to seeing him like that, strode into the house and went straight to the dining room. According to his memory, at this time of the day, his father and Shen Ji would usually be eating in the dining room, and Shen Cheng would also join them if he woke up early. As for him, Shen Xi couldn’t help but sneer, who would care? He hadn’t had breakfast with his father since his grandfather’s death anyway.

As Shen Xi had expected, in the clean and cosy dining room, Shen Dehan, who was over fifty years old, was sitting at the main table, sipping his coffee and talking to Shen Ji beside him. Unlike the distasteful way he looked at Shen Xi, the man had always been a kind father to Shen Ji. At this moment, with a soft smile on his face, he was looking at Shen Ji intently. Shen Ji also had a smile on his face, and his body leaned slightly in the direction of his father. From a distance, it was really a picture of fatherly kindness and filial piety.

Shen Xi stood indifferently at the entrance of the dining room, looking at the warm scene in front of him. He sneered in his heart but his face wore a grumpy and irritable look as he barged in, casually pulled away the nearest chair and sat down heavily.

The warm atmosphere between Shen Dehan and Shen Ji was interrupted by Shen Xi’s behaviour. Shen Ji frowned imperceptibly and Shen Dehan gave Shen Xi a disgusted look and gently patted Shen Ji’s shoulder, “Your proposal is good, just do what you said.”

After saying that, he got up and prepared to leave at once.

Shen Xi watched his father’s figure coldly until he was about to disappear in the dining room’s door and then suddenly said, “I want to go abroad.”

Shen Dehan paused; without even bothering to turn his head, he directly instructed, “Ah Ji, make the arrangements.”

Shen Ji glanced at Shen Xi and said softly, “Yes, father.”

Even though he understood how indifferent his father was to him, seeing him not even bother to look, Shen Xi still felt a stabbing pain in his heart for a moment. Then Shen Xi scorned himself. Could it be that he was still praying for his ridiculous father’s love even now?

The self-deprecation flashed on Shen Xi’s face momentarily, but Shen Ji caught it keenly. He glanced at Shen Xi silently, without any expression.

Shen Ji’s attitude towards his half-brother had always been to ignore him. But thinking of his father’s order, Shen Ji took the rare initiative to speak up, “Which country are you planning to go to?”

Shen Xi gave Shen Ji a mocking glance, “Can I make the decision?”

Shen Ji watched as Shen Xi resentfully pushed the chair under him and got up to leave, frowned, thought of something and turned to Shen Cheng’s room.

At 8 o’clock in the morning, it was still Shen Cheng’s sleep time. Shen Ji unceremoniously opened the window and yanked off Shen Cheng’s blanket. When the cold wind blew in, Shen Cheng jumped up, complaining angrily, “Big brother, today is the weekend, there are no classes at school.”

Shen Ji gave a faint ”en”, ignoring Shen Cheng’s complaint, and asked, “Have you provoked Shen Xi in the past few days?”

“Shen Xi?” Shen Cheng was surprised that his elder brother would actually bother to talk about Shen Xi, and shook his head quickly.

Shen Ji watched Shen Cheng’s movement and raised an eyebrow.

Shen Cheng immediately chose to confess and hurriedly defended himself, “I didn’t do anything, I just wanted to see how excited Shen Xi would be.”

“Excited?” Shen Ji sounded puzzled.

Shen Cheng explained consciously, “Big brother, you don’t know, last night was Shen Xi’s eighteenth birthday. That boy is bent on Wenyao, and last night he was waiting with bated breath for Wenyao to celebrate his birthday. I took Shen Rong with me on purpose. I thought I would see a good show, but who knew that Shen Xi would run off somewhere and wouldn’t meet him.”

When Shen Ji heard Shen Rong’s name, his expression turned ugly, “Stay away from Shen Rong.”

Shen Cheng looked at Shen Ji’s dark face and nodded vigorously, “I know, he’s just an illegitimate child, I just took him along for fun, don’t worry, big brother.”

Shen Ji gave Shen Cheng a warning glance and left Shen Cheng’s room.

Shen Xi’s room was on the other side of the aisle. Shen Ji stared at Shen Xi’s door for a while, then turned and walked to the study. Was yesterday actually Shen Xi’s birthday? In that case, could the last night be the trigger that made Shen Xi suddenly decide to leave the country?

Shen Ji raised his hand and rubbed his brow. The family had gotten used to ignoring Shen Xi over the years and he hadn’t thought that Shen Xi was already eighteen years old.

He thought of the will in the lawyer’s hand, and his gaze sharpened.