Chapter 17: Go with your brother

That sponge-clogged feeling came back.

Shuang Xu hated the feeling of being treated like a thief, but she had a guilty conscience and couldn't blame anyone.

I can only blame myself.

The whole world was telling her that she was wrong, that she was unforgivable for liking Shen Yu, and that he was an ungrateful and delusional person without any sense of shame.

Shuang Xu also hated to say this: "Don't worry, I'm just his sister. I won't have any influence on you."

Lu Manman shrugged: "I don't think so. I know you like him."

"So what do you want?" Shuang Xu looked at her directly. "You want me to break up with my brother in exchange for your peace of mind? Then I can answer you right now, it's impossible."

"I don't want to affect your opinion of my brother because of me. I have never thought of ruining your perfect marriage, but my brother will always be my brother, and no one can change that. If you can accept it, then accept it. If you can't accept it, then make your own choice. Don't put pressure on me. I have no obligation to be responsible for your 'unhappiness'."

"You are so gentle in front of your brother, why are you so tough with me?"

"Are you my brother?" Of course people are divided into close and distant relatives. How can family members and outsiders be the same?

Shuang Xu said bluntly: "If you don't want to listen to reason, then I'll just say it directly - it's up to you whether to get married or not."

To be honest, before today, Lu Manman thought that Shuang Xu was a gentle, well-behaved person who was easy to control.

But she had a feeling that this rebellious side was the real Song Shuangxu.

"I'm not that overbearing. After all, you've lived together for so many years. Even if you raise a dog, you'll have feelings for it, not to mention siblings. However, as your future sister-in-law, I have the right to know the details of your step-sister, right?"

"If you really think you have the right, wouldn't it be quicker to just ask my brother?"

Lu Manman smiled again: "Are you sure you want me to ask him, 'Does your sister like you?'"

Shuang Xu hated the fact that Lu Manman used Shen Yu to threaten her, but she couldn't deny that this method was indeed the most effective.

"Song Leyan must have told you about my life story. I was abandoned by my mother. When I was eight years old, she didn't want me anymore and sent me back to the Song family. My father was transferred to work abroad at the time, and Aunt Cui and Song Leyan moved to Europe with him. I was alone in China with no one to take care of me, so they entrusted me to the Shen family."

"Where's your grandpa?"

"My grandpa is the person who hates me the most in the world."

Shuang Xu held the handle of the coffee cup with her fingertips. The handle was very small. She stroked the smooth porcelain surface, as calmly as if she was telling someone else's story: "He was very dissatisfied with the fact that my mother gave birth to me secretly and sent me back. He also thought that I was timid and crybaby, and was petty, so he left me to the nanny and ignored me."

Lu Manman was pampered by the whole family since he was young, and grew up in a fairy-tale-like childhood. It was difficult for him to understand that there were some children in this world who were not loved by their fathers and were not wanted by their mothers. Although all their relatives were still alive, they were like orphans.

"Then why did Yue Zifeng say that it was Shen Yu who took you home?"

Shuang Xu looked at her for a while and answered with some reservation: "The Shen family and the Song family are neighbors. My brother passed by and took me back because he felt sorry for me."

Lu Manman showed a sympathetic look.

Shuang Xu was too lazy to judge whether her sympathy was real or fake, nor did she need to. She put down her coffee and picked up the bag on the chair.

"I have already told you everything you want to know. It is up to you to decide what to think. Don't bother me again in the future."

Night fell silently outside the glass window. There were very few customers in the cafe at this time of the day. She pushed open the door of the cubicle and left without looking back.

The Shen family's driver was waiting outside the cafe. Shuang Xu asked him to take Lu Manman home, and he walked along the quiet long street outside the mall and got on the bridge.

After night falls, Yancheng is brightly lit and has a unique sense of prosperity.

The cool breeze blew on my face, the river flowed under the bridge, and the lights on the river bank formed a line, extending from this moment to the year when I was eight years old.

The story she told Lu Manman was a simplified version.

For a child, being abandoned by her mother is devastating, especially when her mother clearly loved her all along but then just said no to her.

An eight-year-old child already understands a lot of things, and she knew her mother was sending her away. She didn't want to leave, and held on to the door frame, but her mother dragged her out.

That day, when she was waiting for Song Mianzhi to pick her up in the restaurant, she was always making a fuss. Her mother, perhaps reluctant to let her go, tried to coax her by saying she would buy her the ice cream she loved from the store next door. She was still making a fuss, so her mother went by herself and asked the store clerk to look after her.

She sat alone in the restaurant, watching people push the door open one after another. Every time a man of suspicious age came in, her resistance would increase. The last straw that broke the camel's back was a man with a very wretched appearance who kept staring at her.

She was frightened and impulsively ran out of the restaurant to go home. It was a place she was not familiar with, and she got lost and could not find the way home, and finally could not find the restaurant.

All the grievances came up at once, and she stood at the intersection and burst into tears, until a pair of very clean sneakers appeared in her tearful vision.

A boy who looked like the protagonist in a comic book squatted down in front of her and asked her with narrowed eyes, "What's wrong, little girl?"

She was crying so hard that she was out of breath, but he was very patient. He listened to her talk for a long time and even bought her a beautiful little cake.

He saw her defensiveness, so he took her to the police station and stayed there with her until her mother came to pick her up.

Shuang Xu always remembered what happened that day very clearly. She remembered how he smelled good, the warmth of his palms when he rubbed her hair, and that he said "goodbye" to her before he left.

I also remember that after she returned home, her mother, who had been looking for her all afternoon because she ran around, beat her severely.

She cried all night until her tears dried up. The next day, her mother sent her directly to the Song family. She was quiet along the way and never made any noise again.

As she watched her mother leaving, she hoped in her heart that she would look back at her, but it never happened.

Song Mianzhi had gone abroad the night before because of a job transfer. His mother's decision to send her back was sudden, as this sudden daughter was not included in his original plan. He only spared them lunch time, and left the restaurant without seeing anyone.

So, the Song family’s house is empty.

There were only two servants in the house who looked after the house. They didn't know her and were also secretive about her background.

The grief of being abandoned by her mother and the helplessness of being isolated and helpless overwhelmed her. It was only a few days later that Grandpa Song found time to come to the villa to see her.

He had a serious aura to begin with, and the way he looked at her was critical. The little girl's uneasy behavior annoyed him, and he left after just a few minutes.

The servant was only responsible for her three meals a day and didn't say a word other than that.

Frost Preface was left alone in the empty villa, like a person forgotten by the whole world.

Every day she squatted in front of the yard fence and looked outside, like a wild mushroom growing there, still fantasizing unrealistically that her mother would come back to pick her up.

She didn't wait.

But she waited for that handsome brother.

My brother would pass by the fence in the evening, wearing the school uniform of the affiliated high school and carrying a school bag on his shoulder.

Every time, Frost's mushroom head would spin with him like a sunflower.

Finally one day, he walked towards her across the green lawn, stood outside the iron fence of the garden, bent down and stared at her for a while, and asked her:

"Are you going with your brother?"

Shen Yu was sixteen years old that year.

Outsiders only knew that she was handed over to the Shen family for adoption, but they were all wrong about one thing.

The one who raised her was not Shen Changyuan and his wife, but Shen Yu.