Chapter 140 Shen Yu’s Perspective
When people in Yancheng mention Master Shen, they all praise him for being as gentle as jade, calm and elegant.
Shen Yu is a person who has manners and grace engraved in his bones. He knows when to advance and when to retreat, and he has understood since he was a child the principle of not commenting on other people's family affairs, not interfering, and not judging right or wrong.
The so-called upper class circles are only glamorous on the surface, but behind the scenes, every family has its own grievances and entanglements. It is not uncommon to see scenes of keeping mistresses, seizing family property, and brothers fighting with each other.
Family like the Shen family, where the couple lives in harmony and the family tree is clean and tidy, is rare.
Illegitimate children are a very common phenomenon. For example, in the Zuo family, Zuo Zhong is his mother’s only son, but he has three half-brothers and half-sisters.
It is a consensus in this circle not to mind other people's business.
When she was sixteen, Fu Yun mentioned the Song family at a dinner table. She heard that Song Mianzhi's daughter who was living away from home was going to be sent back by her mother, and she had a fierce argument with Cui Ning. Shen Yu didn't care about it.
On that ordinary afternoon, when his driver was taking him to school, the car passed through a busy street and saw a girl wandering and crying at the intersection.
The red light lasted for three minutes, and Shen Yu watched her cry for three minutes. She had a pair of eyes that made people feel sorry for her.
What made her so sad?
The traffic light turned green and the car passed the intersection. He told the driver to turn around and returned to her.
That was the beginning of it all.
She was pitiful and lovable. She was wary of the stranger and politely said "Thank you, brother" while sobbing when she took the cake from him.
Comforting a lost child and sending her to the police station was just a piece of cake. At that time, Shen Yu never imagined that the child he had shown tenderness to for a moment was the daughter of the Song family.
She was sent to the Song family the next day, but Song Mianzhi had left for a post abroad the night before and moved his family to Europe. The eight-year-old girl was abandoned by them in an empty house.
Fu Yun talked about the nanny who mistreat her at the dinner table and sighed.
The people working below are best at following their employer's lead. Staying behind to look after the house is just their job and they won't treat a girl who is not cared for by her own father or grandfather as their boss.
I heard that she could have any meals she wanted, and sometimes she would be given leftover food. She would forget about playing cards when she got addicted. She had beautiful hair, but the nanny cut it with a pair of scissors just to save trouble.
Song Mianzhi was so busy with his work as a new official that he forgot about his daughter at home on the other side of the ocean. No one had handled the procedures for her transfer to another school, no one took her out to play, and she was not allowed to go out alone, so she could only be like a bird in a cage, trapped in that beautiful but cold house.
Shen Yu can see her every day after school.
She always stayed in the Song family's garden, squatting behind the wrought iron fence, looking at the people coming and going outside through the gaps.
She seemed to be waiting for someone, but no one came for her.
She was left there, like a neglected mushroom growing in an abandoned corner.
Those empty and persistent eyes would light up briefly every time they saw Shen Yu.
She remembered him and always looked at him with her pure eyes without blinking, watching him pass by.
Shen Yu passed by many times.
Finally, on an evening with rosy clouds in the sky, he walked across the lawn, went to the fence, and brought her home.
She was like a newborn bird, relying on him, and her dependence became Shen Yu's bond for the next ten years.
He gave her the utmost indulgence and love, the best of everything, and a fairy-tale home. Even her biological brother could not have done better than him.
The abandoned lonely child was raised by him into a carefree little princess.
She was an illegitimate daughter that the Song family didn't care about, but no one in Yancheng dared to look down on her.
When talking about the daughter of the Song family, the first person that everyone thinks of is her: Oh, that’s the little girl who grew up with Master Shen.
Because of this, the domineering Song Leyan felt that Shuang Xu had stolen the limelight of "the eldest lady of the Song family" that belonged to her, so she deliberately gave Shuang Xu a warning as soon as she returned to the country.
Song Leyan stirred up a bloody storm on her own, and Shen Yu's heart was also disturbed.
His beloved sister, whom he loved since childhood, developed feelings for him beyond those of a sibling.
She is still too young, and Shen Yu doesn't think she understands what love between men and women is.
He thought that there was something wrong with the way he had brought her up. A seventeen-year-old girl had already grown into a lively and pretty girl, who would be liked by others and would also like others.
But he did not realize this in time and did not help her to develop correct gender awareness.
Shuang Xu has been close to him since she was a child. When she first came to Shen's house, she felt insecure and would sleep in his room. Later, she got used to it and still liked to stay here. Shen Yu was too indulgent towards her. She could come and go in his room at will by knocking on the door, read his books at will, and fall asleep on the bed when she was tired.
This habit continued until she grew up.
Shen Yu reflected on himself, wondering if he had not maintained enough sense of boundaries as an elder of the opposite sex should have. Shuang Xu had been with him since she was a child, relying on him and trusting him, so she mistook this feeling for love.
He was eight years older than her, but he shamelessly stole the love of a young girl by relying on her dependence on him since childhood.
At that time, Shen Yu thought so.
That period was a time of chaos and turmoil. Rumors spread overnight and drowned the Shen family.
Copper smelting, pervert, adultery... these labels were attached to Shen Yu.
Why did he bring up a girl who had no blood relationship with him? ——Everything has the most reasonable explanation.
People are always keen on gossip and keen on seeing the flower of Gaoling fall from the altar. During that time, all kinds of speculations about him and Shuangxu were almost unbearable to hear.
Song Mianzhi and Mr. Song were furious about this. They didn't care whether the rumor was true or not, they only cared that it damaged the reputation of the Song family.
They forcefully take Shuang Xu away from the Shen family and send her abroad without Shen Yu's knowledge. Fu Yun is troubled by rumors and finds out her secret in Shuang Xu's diary and helps the Song family hide her secret.
After Shen Yu dealt with the rumors outside, he turned around and found that Shuang Xu had already been sent away.
In fact, he often went to California to see her, sometimes showing up, and sometimes just looking at her from afar.
Sometimes she walked across the campus with a book in her arms, sometimes she sat by the lake and daydreamed, but other than that she seldom went out.
During those years, Shu Yang was the only person who stayed by her side.
Shen Yu considered many times whether to bring her back.
Those evil rumors would not affect him at all, because he was the eldest son of the Shen family. Even if those people cursed him as dirty or perverted behind his back, they would still bow and scrape in front of him.
But the frost sequence is different.
Those malicious and obscene speculations will accompany her for a long time. If she stays in the country, how will she deal with the rumors following her around?
At that time, Shen Yu hoped that she could stay away from all these disputes, but at the same time, inevitably, she was also staying away from him.
Every time Shen Yu went to see her, he felt that she was becoming more and more unfamiliar with him. She no longer called him "brother" in a dependent manner, but instead called him "brother" with a sense of alienation.
She no longer acted coquettishly towards him and no longer talked to him about anything like before.
The girl he raised was drifting away from him. Shen Yu saw the distance between them growing, but he could do nothing about it. They could never go back to the time when they were so close.
Shuang Xu never wanted to return to China, and Shen Yu knew that she was still blaming them.
After Shuang Xu returned to China, he reflected more and more frequently, wondering if that was a wrong decision.
Suppose he would never get the answer, but he had never regretted it as much as he did now.
During those long years, what was worn away was not only Shuang Xu's pure and carefree happiness, but also her most sincere feelings for him.
She once regarded him as the whole world, but now her world has tilted towards another person.