Chapter 184: Catching a Piece of the Truth

As if her sore spot had been touched, she turned around abruptly towards Jing Heng, her tone agitated, and asked, "What's wrong with me?"

Yu Yan simply raised her eyes and looked at him coldly, "What's wrong with you?"

"..."

Xiang Jingheng stood still, while Yu Yan, even sitting there, exuded an aura of authority. After all, she was a teacher, and Xiang Jingheng felt like he was being lectured as a student.

"Sit back down."

Yu Yan raised her chin, picked up her teacup, and poured him another cup of tea: "We're not finished talking yet."

"..." Xiang Jingheng pursed his lips and sat back down.

Yu Yan also tried her best to talk to him calmly.

"When adults divorce, the children are the ones who suffer the most. It is the parents' dereliction of duty that they were unable to give them a complete and happy family."

Yu Yan took a sip of tea. "To be honest, I never thought about fighting for custody of you before, not because I didn't love Xiao Chu, but because he didn't like me as his mother. He's always been closer to you, his father, since he was little. When he first learned to call people, the first word he uttered was 'Dad.'"

That is.

Xiang Jingheng revealed a smug look on his face, a rather irritatingly arrogant expression.

Yu Yan was too lazy to pay attention to him. Originally, she said these things to reason with him and appeal to his emotions.

“Xiao Chu and I have gotten along quite well during this time. I asked him what he thought, and he also expressed his desire to live with me. Of course, the biggest reason is probably because of Shao Yun.”

Yu Yan said calmly, "No matter what, I am Xiang Chu's mother, and that's a fact you can't change. I want to talk to you about co-parenting to reassure the child and increase his sense of security."

After listening to Yu Yan talk for a long time, Xiang Jingheng was almost persuaded.

However, he still harbored resentment over something.

“But you still want Shao Muyan to become my son’s stepfather,” Xiang Jingheng said, looking at Yu Yan.

Yu Yan glanced at him. "This is a fact that you can't change."

One sentence completely left Xiang Jingheng speechless.

Indeed, he has neither the right nor the standing to interfere in Yu Yan's life now.

After a moment of silence, Xiang Jingheng looked up at Yu Yan, his deep eyes even revealing a plea: "You really don't want to try with me again, to give me another chance?"

Yu Yan looked at him quietly: "We no longer have this fate, why force it?"

Xiang Jingheng met Yu Yan's eyes. He could still see her in his eyes, but her eyes were now completely still, devoid of any trace of him.

She really... let go of their past.

Xiang Jingheng ultimately refused to budge.

"If you want custody of Chu, you either have to remarry me or promise never to remarry again for the rest of your life. You must meet one of these two conditions."

He threatened Jingheng, "Otherwise, there is absolutely no possibility of co-parenting."

Thus, the conversation ended unhappily.

—

Meanwhile, Shao Muyan went to the orphanage.

Several more babies have recently arrived at the welfare home, and Shao Muyan is preparing to allocate a sum of money from the Shao Foundation to them. He also has some questions for Director Xia.

As soon as the car stopped, Dean Xia saw a woman being escorted out.

The woman had silver hair at her temples, a slender figure, and wore a simple black down jacket. Her face looked familiar from afar, but Shao Muyan couldn't remember where he had seen her before.

As Shao Muyan walked to the door, the woman had just left. As she left, Shao Muyan noticed that the woman had a limp, and her gait was uneven.

"Mr. Shao has arrived."

"Dean Xia."

The two shook hands, and Shao Muyan looked at the departing woman: "And who is this?"

"This is what I told you before, Xiaomei."

Dean Xia smiled, his eyes crinkling with deep wrinkles. "I watched her grow up. Now she's old, with gray hair. She's got a lot to worry about."

Shao Muyan immediately understood.

No wonder she looked familiar; it turned out to be Mei Nan's mother.

Before Shao Muyan could ask, Dean Xia said, "Xiao Mei is very thoughtful. She heard that a few more children had come to the orphanage, so she made several small quilts by hand and brought them over. It's cold, and she was worried that the children would get cold."

"In the dead of winter, those parents who have just given birth simply leave their babies outside without even wrapping them in a thick blanket. It's truly a tragedy."

A caregiver sighed as she looked after the child, saying that such things happen every day, and there are too many to count.

The blankets that Aunt Mei brought were wrapped around the children's small and delicate bodies. When Shao Muyan saw those little red blankets, he suddenly remembered something, and his eyes changed abruptly.

A string in my head tightened.

"Dean Xia," Shao Muyan asked, "was the blanket that wrapped Shao Yun back then exactly like this?"

Dean Xia was taken aback and thought about it carefully.

"Let me think... red cotton quilts are all pretty much the same. I'm really getting old, I can't remember clearly. But I remember that Xiaomin took Bao Yun'er's quilt back then."

Upon hearing this, Shao Muyan immediately called Shao Min, sensing that he had grasped a corner of the truth.

"Sister, Dean Xia said that when you adopted Yunyun, you took that red quilt with you, right?"

"yes."

Shao Min said, "Dean Xia gave me all the things related to Yunyun back then, but they're all kept with my parents. What happened?"

Knowing that Shao Min was working out of town and not in Beijing, Shao Muyan called his second brother after hanging up the phone.

Shao Mushi and Lin Miao were having dinner with friends outside.

"What's wrong?" Shao Mushi asked. "Your sister-in-law and I are having dinner outside with President Yu and President Nan. Would you like to say hello?"

Shao Muyan briefly greeted Yu Jinwen and Nan Song, then asked Shao Mushi to go to his uncle's house and show him the red cotton quilt.

"Is it urgent?" Shao Mushi put down his chopsticks. "If it's urgent, I'll come over now?"

"urgent."

There's no need for formalities between brothers. With a single word from Shao Muyan, Shao Mushi felt like he was on fire, letting Lin Miao and his friends continue eating while he went to his uncle's house.

Lin Miao and Nan Song also had an appointment for a physiotherapy session at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic that afternoon.

Seeing Shao Mushi leave in a hurry, Nan Song asked, "Are you alright? If there's anything we can help with, just let us know. Don't be shy."

"Who's being polite with you?"

Lin Miao and Nan Song were also longtime friends, and they spoke without reservation. "It's about my younger brother. The third brother is always the most reliable. When something happens, it's always a big or urgent matter. Let his second brother handle it. If he can't, then I'll step in."

Nan Song and Yu Jinwen both smiled, realizing that after fighting for so many years, the two had indeed fallen in love after getting married.

—

Shao Muyan did nothing all afternoon but waited for his second brother's call at the coffee shop on the first floor of the experimental center.

I feel somewhat uneasy.

When Yu Yan returned from the tea restaurant, she saw Shao Muyan sitting silently by the window, almost like a statue.

Having known him for so long, this is the first time I've seen him so uneasy.

"Uncle Yan, what's wrong?" Yu Yan asked quietly as she walked over, afraid of startling him.

Shao Muyan snapped out of his daze upon hearing Yu Yan's voice.

He pushed the still-warm coffee in front of Yu Yan and asked gently, "How did your chat with Xiang Jingheng go?"

"A complete mess."

Yu Yan took a sip of coffee, shook her head, and explained the conditions she had proposed to Jing Heng.

Shao Muyan frowned. "I think he doesn't want to get better."

Yu Yan could not meet either of the two conditions that Xiang Jingheng proposed, because he had not been communicating with her on an equal footing in the first place.

"Never mind him," Yu Yan said, too lazy to argue with Xiang Jingheng anymore. She asked, "How was your trip to the orphanage? Did you learn anything new?"

"have."

Shao Muyan said, "I saw Mei Nan's mother at the entrance of the orphanage."

Yu Yan raised an eyebrow: "Aunt Mei?"