Chapter 98 Butterfly Wall
Fan Shengmei looked at Xu Qin, and was stunned for only a second before she regained her composure.
She calmly dragged a chair over, deliberately letting the legs of the chair make a harsh sound on the floor.
"Let's get started, Qinqin."
She sat down, raised her eyebrows and smiled faintly, "If I remember correctly, this is our second conversation of this kind. Let me see if your acting has improved."
Xu Qin's fingers pinching the corner of her clothes trembled slightly.
At that moment, she seemed to see the shadow of Fu Wenying, and the oppressive feeling that had enveloped her since childhood made her instinctively take a half step back.
"Has Meng Yanchen taken you to see this butterfly wall?"
Xu Qin asked softly, running her fingertips over the wings of a blue morpho butterfly.
Fan Shengmei chuckled, "It's just a pile of corpses, what's so good about it? There are fresh living people right in front of us, who would still hold a pile of corpses and reminisce about the past?"
Xu Qin chuckled, "If Meng Yanchen heard you talking about his collection like that, he would probably go crazy."
"Yeah?"
Fan Shengmei smiled faintly and said, "Then I'll try next time and see if it's easy to appease the mad Meng Yanchen."
Xu Qin's eyes lingered on the wall of specimens. "Do you know why he is obsessed with these specimens?"
Her voice suddenly drifted away. "Being in the Meng family, especially him, he has been nailed to the standard of being the heir of Guokun since he was a child. He must be perfect and cannot make any mistakes."
Fan Shengmei's eyes swept across the entire wall without changing her expression.
“There weren’t so many before.”
Xu Qin suddenly turned around and picked up a Jade Swallowtail Butterfly. "Do you know when this butterfly appeared?"
Her fingertips gently traced the butterfly's wings. "One time, we were secretly eating spicy noodles, and my mother caught him wiping my mouth. The next day, this butterfly appeared on the wall."
Xu Qin's voice became softer and softer. "At first I thought it was a record of my mother's discipline..."
She gently raised her eyes and looked directly at Fan Shengmei, "Later I realized that the way he looked at me had changed."
The room was eerily quiet, with only the cold light reflected from the specimen glass dancing on the wall.
Xu Qin's fingertips flicked across the butterflies. "This one was when he caught me skipping class for the first time... This one was when he stayed with me all night because I had a fever..."
Her voice trembled subtly. "Every time you look at me, there's another specimen on the wall."
Finally, a slight fluctuation appeared on Fan Shengmei's calm face.
At this moment, Xu Qin finally understood Ye Zi's original feelings, the joy of watching the winner slowly wake up from a dream and falling from a great height.
"I've tried many times. The longer he looks at me, the more prisoners he gets."
She slowly approached Fan Shengmei and said, "Who are these butterflies all over the wall looking at? - Sister-in-law!"
The last word "sister-in-law", although soft, was heartbreaking and full of irony.
Fan Shengmei took a deep breath and slowly stood up.
"It's a good story, but I don't believe it."
She walked over to the butterfly wall, calm and rational. "Meng Yanchen has a mild case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. If he were to arrange this, the composition would be absolutely symmetrical."
Her fingertips traced over several obviously incongruous arrangements. "Instead of being like this... a mess."
Xu Qin's pupils suddenly contracted.
She didn't expect Fan Shengmei to be so perceptive——
The real butterfly wall was not in this villa, but in Meng Yanchen's flat. Moreover, it was demolished by Meng Yanchen himself after she got engaged to Song Yan.
He personally dismantled the obsession that had imprisoned him for many years, and the one before him was a fake that she had hastily restored.
"Pay attention to detail next time."
Fan Shengmei patted her shoulder, a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "After all, details determine success or failure."
"etc!"
Xu Qin suddenly called her, her voice softening instantly, "I'm sorry... I did lie to you."
Her eyes quickly turned red and she looked pitiful.
"I know everyone disapproves of Song Yan and I being together, but in that home, in that home where I was almost suffocating, it was Song Yan's appearance that saved me. He made me feel like I was at least still alive. Back then, Mom and Dad were so against it. The one who had the hardest time was my brother, as he had already fought against the family for me once."
Fan Shengmei turned around and saw Xu Qin's trembling shoulders.
"I don't want to see him in trouble anymore."
Xu Qin raised her tearful eyes and said, "As a sister and a daughter, this is the only thing I can do for him and my parents before I go abroad."
She suddenly grabbed Fan Shengmei's hand and said, "The Meng family's final marriage partner must be of equal status. I admit that I don't like you... but I feel more sorry for my brother. Can you really bear to see him break with the family again?"
Fan Shengmei pulled her hand back, but Xu Qin took out her cell phone.
"What I just said wasn't a complete lie. Look at this."
On the screen was a photo—of the actual butterfly wall.
Each specimen in the picture is exactly where it belongs, with almost perfect symmetry, which is indeed Meng Yanchen's style.
"Do you know Xinle Cereal? The factory that's about to go bankrupt..."
Xu Qin's voice was as light as a feather. "My brother bought it because I love their oatmeal."
This sentence hit Fan Shengmei like a thunderbolt.
She had heard Chen Mingyu mention this strange acquisition before, but she had never imagined that there was such a secret behind it.
"I know I hurt him so badly..."
Xu Qin's tears finally fell. "Even if it's just as a sister, I don't want to see him get hurt again. And you..."
She looked at Fan Shengmei and said sincerely, "As a woman... can you really accept a husband who has been hiding someone else in his heart for more than ten years?"
The butterfly in the photo glows coldly in the sunlight.
Fan Shengmei suddenly remembered the can of oatmeal in Meng Yanchen's study that he could never finish.
It turns out that every morning, he is swallowing the habits left by another person.
Xu Qin's voice became vague and ethereal. "He's always kept his emotions locked away in a safe since he was little... Once, when I changed my shoes in front of him and my skirt lifted up, he would immediately look away."
She smiled bitterly, "I believe that my brother will love you very much, and he can even hide this secret so that you will never find out. But is this fair to you?"
Fan Shengmei stared at the photo, as if she could touch Meng Yanchen who was standing in front of the butterfly wall and crying through the photo.
Each of those butterfly specimens nailed to the wall carries his love that has nowhere to express, and those wings that are nailed to the wall represent his obsession that has been suppressed to the extreme.
The wings behind him are the territory circled by Xu Qin, and the cage built by Meng Yanchen himself is the confinement from which he can never fly.
Fan Shengmei's heart seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible hand.
She was madly jealous - Xu Qin had actually had such a passionate and desperate love from Meng Yanchen.
That kind of soul-burning feeling may only happen once in a person's life, but it was trampled upon by the woman in front of him.
In Fan Shengmei's eyes, the butterflies on the wall were twisted into evil moths.
They ate away at Meng Yanchen's sincerity and drained his soul.
While he cried in front of this butterfly wall countless nights, the woman he loved deeply was making love in the arms of another man.
That was the man Fan Shengmei loved deeply.
Why does Xu Qin have the right?
Fan Shengmei raised her head and a tear silently fell.
She took a deep breath and suddenly raised her hand——
“Pah! Pah! Pah!”
Three loud slaps landed on Xu Qin's face.
She reached out and pinched Xu Qin's chin, forcing her to look up.
"Miss, your wishful thinking is wrong. You can bully him, isn't it because he is kind and well-educated? Bullying him makes him dare not overstep the line. As a brother, can I give you a complete family? If Mr. Meng and the others find out, will they protect their precious son or you, the daughter who is causing trouble? But I, Fan Shengmei, am not a good person."
Her fingers gently brushed Xu Qin's swollen cheeks, and a sarcastic smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
"You've probably forgotten my personality. I'm a money-worshiper. How could I possibly bear to leave Meng Yanchen?"
Fan Shengmei stood up and looked down upon Xu Qin.
"The living can never compete with the dead. They are just a pile of corpses. They will never be able to break free from their cocoons."
Fan Shengmei raised her eyes and met Meng Yanchen's pale face.
He stood at the doorway, his entire body frozen in place as he saw the butterfly wall. His eyes, always calm and composed, were now filled with an unprecedented fear...
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