Edited by Qiuxue and Noks
At twelve o’clock in the afternoon, Fan Jialuo and Bai Mu were already waiting inside one of the restaurant’s private rooms.
Shen Youquan arrived five minutes later. He did not bring his wife and children, and instead had a tall, strong, and handsome man beside him.
“Sorry, there was a bit of a traffic jam,” Shen Youquan apologized repeatedly with his hands folded. He was a man of medium height and had an ordinary appearance, but his temperament was very refined.
“This is my driver and bodyguard,” He said as he introduced the man behind him.
“Mr. Bai, Mr. Fan,” The bodyguard greeted and nodded politely as he quietly inspected the interior of the private room to ensure that there were no hidden or potential dangers before withdrawing.
He had simply come inside to make sure of his boss’s safety and didn’t really plan to have dinner with them.
Bai Mu focused his attention solely on Shen Youquan and didn’t care about the other man. Fan Jialuo, however, stared at the retreating bodyguard intensely, and the look in his eyes turned deep and dubious.
After this bodyguard closed the door, Fan Jialuo turned to look at Shen Youquan and directly asked, “Mr. Shen, why didn’t you bring your family along with you?”
According to common sense, this clearly wasn’t an appropriate request.
How could he possibly bring his wife and children along to a meeting with a stranger for the first time?
If it hadn’t been for Bai Mu who had invited him, Shen Youquan wouldn’t have even spared a glance for Fan Jialuo.
“Didn’t Mr. Fan invite me to discuss the terms for the out-of-court settlement? What does this matter have to do with my family? I’ll call my lawyer right now and you can discuss any questions you have with him.”
Shen Youquan couldn’t wait to get this meeting over with. Even with Bai Mu’s presence, he was not so patient as to deal with young people who did not know when to advance and when to retreat.
“The matter regarding the lawsuit is of far less importance and urgency than that of Mr. Shen’s personal matter,” Fan Jialuo said as he waved his hand.
“What?” Shen Youquan was amused by his answer. “What urgent matter could I have?”
Bai Mu didn’t interrupt their conversation. He just quietly poured out three cups of tea.
“If Mr. Shen continues to remain so ignorant, you will soon lose your only child,” Fan Jialuo stated as he sipped his tea lightly.
“My only child? Don’t you watch the news, Mr. Fan?” Shen Youquan satirized, “Those who know me all know that I, Shen Youquan, have two children. What do you mean by my only child?”
“Has Mr. Shen heard the story of the dove occupying the magpie’s nest? Other birds will lay their eggs in your nest, and after hatching, these little birds will squeeze your child off the high branches and let them fall to their death.”
“Oh, that’s terrible. But Mr. Fan, my two children are twins who were conceived by one mother and were born at the same time. If one of them is my own flesh and blood, then the other must be too. Isn’t this contradictory to this ‘only child’ nonsense that you’re talking about?
“My private life is very clean. I never mess around outside, and don’t even have an illegitimate child. Mr. Fan, are you slandering me?
“I heard that you dropped out before graduating from high school, and that your college degree was bought by the Fan Family. Now that you’re homeless and can’t even enter the upper class social circles, I’d like to give you a piece of advice—read more books while you’re still young and don’t randomly play tricks on others. Otherwise, you’ll get yourself into big trouble one day.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Bai Mu just placed his mobile phone in front of Shen Youquan in reply and said with a smile, “Mr. Shen, I will also give you a piece of advice. If you have free time, you should read more books and broaden your horizons.”
Shen Youquan was angry for a moment, but then his eyes inadvertently glanced at the big red title displayed on the mobile phone screen—《 Twins May Also Have Different Fathers 》
What kind of a tasteless title is this? Is it just for the purpose of making such a low-level joke?
Shen Youquan retrieved his gaze and walked away.
Fan Jialuo hurriedly followed after the other and told him, “Mr. Shen, in the meantime, please remember to take good care of your only daughter. After your family’s troubles are solved, we should meet again to talk about the settlement regarding the liquidated damages.
“Also, please bear in mind that today’s conversation is something that only the three of us should know about. Don’t tell anyone else, otherwise the situation will become extremely serious, so serious that even Mr. Shen, who usually has a good control of everything, will be unable to handle it.”
Shen Youquan’s response was to walk away as he slammed the door shut behind him to demonstrate his anger.
Bai Mu retrieved his mobile phone and asked curiously, “His daughter is in danger?”
“It’s a life-or-death situation,” Fan Jialuo said, emphasizing himself word by word.
Bai Mu didn’t doubt him.
He immediately sent a WeChat message to Shen Youquan, telling him to properly protect his daughter, because that little girl might encounter a deadly crisis in the near future.
By the time Shen Youquan received the message, he was already sitting in his car, and became so enraged that smoke began to come out of his head.
He typed out a response on his mobile phone and replied— [Mr. Bai, those who make friends with virtuous people will advance daily; and those who make friends with wicked people will erode daily. In order to reduce your losses, it would be better if you stay as far away from Fan Jialuo as possible. There’s a serious problem with this man’s conduct.]
Bai Mu also replied quickly— [No wonder my business has been doing better lately, it turns out that I’ve made a good friend. Thank you for your advice!]
Shen Youquan was so angry after reading this that his facial expression cracked. He typed a long string of words in response but soon deleted them one by one.
Forget it! Talking to those who had no clear sense of vision was useless, and it was just better to avoid them.
This Fan Jialuo was really too much. In order to not lose any money, he had even fabricated such an outrageous lie!
Did Fan Jialuo want him to owe a favor or did he want to ruin his family?
While Shen Youquan was preoccupied with such thoughts, his driver was also observing his expressions through the rearview mirror.
He asked with concern in his voice, “Mr. Shen, did the talk with Mr. Bai just now not going well? I can see that your expression isn’t too good.”
Shen Youquan wanted to spit out complaints, but somehow ended up closing his mouth instead.
Fan Jialuo’s voice kept echoing in his mind— Don’t tell anyone, otherwise the situation will become extremely serious…
“Well, they wanted to settle the liquidated damages for breaching the contracts out of court, but they didn’t want to lose too much money, so the discussion fell apart,” Shen Youquan casually explained in a few words.
The driver was also aware of the two lawsuits filed by the KN Group against Fan Jialuo, so he merely nodded and didn’t ask any more questions.
He was originally en route to the company, but suddenly heard the other say in an unprecedented manner, “Don’t go to the company, send me home.”
“Yes, Mr. Shen.” The driver immediately changed lanes.
An hour later, Shen Youquan returned home with a heart filled with displeasure. Then, before he could even enter the living room, he heard his daughter crying from the outside.
His daughter was a healthy, energetic and playful child. She would start wailing at any grievance, which would then make his head ache.
In contrast, his son had a weak constitution, and so was gentle and well-behaved. Whenever he was wronged, he didn’t cry out loud and just teared up silently.
In addition to all this, his daughter looked more like him—very ordinary; whereas his son looked more like his mother, and looked very cute with his small face and large eyes.
Because of these things, Shen Youquan’s heart was naturally biased more towards his son, not to mention that he believed that a son was inherently more valuable than a daughter.
He finally walked into the living room and saw his daughter crying on the floor. His son was being held in his wife’s arms. His eyes were red, and he carried an expression of being somewhat wronged on his face.
Grandmother Shen stuffed a plush rabbit toy into her grandson’s arms and coaxed him softly, “Xiao Bao, don’t pay attention to your sister. She is a bully, she just wants everything that looks good.”
“The rabbit is my toy, his is a bear!” cried the little girl, “You said so when you bought them for us, then why do you give them all to my brother?”
Shen Youquan’s wife roared angrily in response, “Don’t cry! It’s just a toy. Can’t you just give it to your brother? Why are you so selfish? You are the older sister, just let him play with it!”
“But every time I let him, he robs my toys!” The little girl had cried so much that her throat had become hoarse. Then, she saw Shen Youquan standing on the porch.
She ran to him and hugged his leg. She sobbed as she said, “Dad, tell brother to give the rabbit back. He already has a bear and a fox, as well as cars and transformers, and I only have this rabbit. Dad, Dad, I just want this rabbit. Can you ask my brother to return it to me?”
Normally, Shen Youquan would certainly join his family in reprimanding his daughter, but for some reason, he couldn’t do so today.
Upon looking at his daughter’s face that was so similar to his own and seeing her cry so much, to the point that she was almost convulsing, a lump formed in his throat and prevented him from uttering even a single word.
At this time, Grandfather Shen came down from the second floor and said in a vicious tone, “Cry, cry and cry some more! You only know how to cry all day long! Your brother was robbed of so much nutrition by you that he has to grow up with a weak body! And you’re still being selfish? Why are you so ignorant? You should know that you are the reason your brother keeps falling ill, suffers from fevers and has to be hospitalized. You will owe him for your whole life!”
For the first time, Shen Youquan felt that his father’s words were too harsh, and he couldn’t help but shout, “Dad, don’t say such things in front of the children! Xiao Bao and Xiao Nan are siblings. They should love each other and support each other, it’s not a matter of who owes who!”
Grandfather Shen snorted coldly. Instead of replying, he went to hold his grandson and coaxed him with a smile, “Don’t cry, Grandpa will buy you a lot of cars. This little thing isn’t good.”
The little boy shook his head and answered softly, “But I like this little rabbit.”
Grandfather Shen immediately changed his tone and agreed, “Yes, yes, this rabbit is a good one. If your sister loves to cry, let her cry. Just ignore her.”
The little boy broke into a smile. He was not holding the rabbit tightly or lovingly, but had casually grabbed one of its ears and was letting it drag on the ground.
He didn’t particularly like plush toys, he was just used to snatching things.
Although he was still young, he instinctively knew how to fight for the love and attention of his family.
Such a disposition was truly terrible.
However, the fact was that this sort of attitude wasn’t a special case, but rather a common phenomenon that could be found among most children. Children could be both innocent and cruel at the same time.
Witnessing such innocence and cruelty often made adults shudder.
Shen Youquan usually didn’t observe the relationship between his two children too carefully, but today, he involuntarily paid attention to all the subtle details and analyzed the meaning of the various phenomena he noticed.
He held his daughter, who was crying so much that she was out of breath, and looked at his smiling son. Suddenly, he could feel his heart drumming deafeningly in his chest and couldn’t help but feel anxious.
He had always thought that his daughter was on the strong side and his son was on the weak side. But now, it seemed that his daughter’s strength was just a facade.
His son was indeed still young, but he had learned how to use the mask of weakness to fight for limited resources.
The contrast between the two children seemed to give weight to the metaphor—‘The dove occupies the magpie’s nest’—and this made him feel an incomparable sense of discomfort!
He took his daughter and son to the sofa, sat them down side by side, and then lectured them word by word on how they should get along with each other peacefully.
Neither his parents, his wife or his children found anything unusual about his behavior today.
Only he himself knew that hidden underneath his act of talking like a car wheel were crazy thoughts which had fully occupied his mind.
He carefully compared the two children’s looks, and tried to find evidence that they were both indeed of his own blood.
Obviously, his daughter was almost like a copy of himself with his ordinary features, but his son was different.
Shen Youquan had dark skin, but his son’s skin was very fair; Shen Youquan had single eyelids, his son had double eyelids; Shen Youquan had an oriental face like any ordinary Chinese person, but his son’s face was more sharp, just like his mother’s.
All in all, his son was lovely, but this lovely appearance was contrary to what was expected of the Shen family’s genes.
Shen Youquan’s voice turned hoarse as he kept speaking, and his throat was suddenly dry.
A seed of suspicion had taken root in his heart, and he could no longer bear to be with the two children at this moment.
He hurriedly walked away and tried to comfort himself by arguing that the idea of twins coming from two different fathers was ridiculous and that it was simply impossible for such a thing to happen!
However, soon after entering his study, he secretly checked a few authoritative papers related to this matter and researched it well. Then, he fell into a mesh of pain.
In order to rid himself from the grasp of such tormenting emotions, he secretly pulled out a few strands of his own hair, then obtained those of his son, his daughter, and his wife, and then secretly sent them to the hospital for paternity testing.
If the result of the test showed that all of this was just a false alarm, he swore that he would certainly make Fan Jialuo pay a huge price!
No one can mess with my children!
…
the patriarchy really be the root of all evil 💀 thank you for the chapter!
Poor girl!! I really don’t understand how those family members can be so cruel to such a small child and why would they think that she is still the cause of his weak body? Is she not letting him eat or something?
……in this case, it’s most likely a biased household’s view that caused the ‘weak’ and ‘sickly’ thoughts. Fair skinned kids do look frailer, after all. They’re thought not to be able to play outside like darker skinned kids. I do hope it’s not because of that driver though. He’s so sus.
Yeah…he is really suspicious, He didnt seem like a driver at all.
Thank you very much:)♡♡♡♡.
I guess the boy is the bodyguard’s son. Thank you for the amazing translation! When this story gets updated, it makes my entire day, so thank you for picking up this novel. I love everything about it.
Poor girl… She’s just being suppressed when she hasn’t done anything bad…
FJL is always right eheh
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️❤️
OHHH. That’s evil. Hmmm I’m suspecting of the bodyguard, Fan Jialuo stared him so much, that must mean there’s something fishy.
I hope the wife, boy and parents are kicked out of the house for mistreating the poor girl.
Thanks for the chapter!
I really hate plotlines like this. I have an adopted sister. Blood relationship has no influence on whether or not people are family. I’m only three weeks older than my sister and to me we are twins as much as any biological twins are.
i don’t think it’s about looking down on adoption so much as the wife cheating with the bodyguard and passing off her illegitimate son as shen youquan’s without ever telling him, plus USING the son to suppress and bully the daughter… adoption and blended families is about honesty and loving both adopted + bio kids equally, not favoritism or looking down on either.
You’d be surprised Mr Shen. Twins actually can have different fathers. There was a book I read for school about this lady who got pregnant in college(black man) and mistakenly had sex with her friend’s husband (french/white man) while she was about 2 months pregnant and gave birth to twins (one white, the other black and the light one was sickly at birth)
I clicked next chapter so fast that I forgot to left a comment about his interaction with those people around him.
The most important question is WHO is the male lead? WHO is the male lead? WHO is the male lead?
Geez, there’re so many potential ML that idk what to expect anymore
( ･ั﹏･ั)
Maybe the handsome bodyguard is the father of the boy…
Daamn that lil boy already is so spoiled and devious (￣ヘ￣;) He knows how to capture the hearts of adults and make his sister suffer, if she really ends up dying I’ll feel so bad for her and if it’s revealed that she was the only real Biological child from that guy that’ll be his ultimate L