Chapter 84 Is it true or false?
Kailin's words startled me so much that my hand slipped and Xiao Shi's phone fell on the quilt.
Could it be that Xiao Shi is really Lan Yan’s son? But last time he clearly took me to his mother’s grave, her name was Xiao Yan.
I came to my senses and was about to pick up Xiao Shi's phone to ask Kailin about the situation when the door suddenly opened. I was startled and looked up at Xiao Shi with a pale face.
"Xiao Wan, what's wrong with you?"
After Xiao Shi asked this question, he saw his cell phone in my hand and walked towards me quickly.
"Kayleen called you." I handed him the phone.
Xiao Shi glanced at me and quickly picked up the phone.
I don’t know what else Kailin said, I just saw Xiao Shi frowning and hanging up the phone.
"I'm drunk." Xiao Shi looked at me.
"Did she say anything to you?"
Feeling that he was trying to test me, I looked up at Xiao Shi calmly.
"She asked you if you ever liked her. I was about to tell her I was Yu Xiaowan, but you opened the door and came in, giving me a fright."
Xiao Shi looked at me for a while and then looked away.
"Is the meal ready?"
Xiao Shi said to wait a moment.
"I was just cooking when I suddenly remembered that I needed to call a client back."
"You take a rest, I'll go downstairs and cook for you."
I nodded and he went out.
When the door closed, my face fell.
After finding Jiang Nianhao's information in Xiao Shi and Zuo Wei's wedding room and hearing what Kailin's stepfather said, she always felt that Xiao Shi had some connection with the Jiang family. She even went to Grandpa Shao and asked him to help investigate Wang Yingzhi's best friend.
But Xiao Shi took me to his mother's grave, and Grandpa Shao said that Wang Yingzhi's best friend's surname was Lan, so I didn't think about it anymore.
But Kailin's words made me doubt Xiao Shi again. I even wondered if Xiao Shi's mother's death had anything to do with the Jiang family.
If Xiao Shi is Lan Yan's son and Jiang Ruohe's half-brother, then is his relationship with me true or false?
I'm feeling a little confused and panicked at the moment. It seems that I still need to find an opportunity to ask Karen what's going on.
I lifted the quilt and went downstairs. When I stood at the corner of the stairs, I saw Xiao Shi carrying a plate of food out of the kitchen, and I hurriedly stopped.
I thought he was the one who brought it to me, but I found that he was carrying the plate around the stairs and walked over. The dining table was outside the kitchen. What was he doing...
I quietly took two steps down and saw Xiao Shi standing in the corridor on the bathroom side with food in his hand. He pressed the switch on the wall to turn on the light, then pushed the door open and walked in. The door seemed to be painted white, just like the wall. If I hadn't seen Xiao Shi go in tonight, I would never have known there was a secret door there.
And why did he carry the tray in? Was it because there was someone in the secret door or something? At this moment, my heart was even more confused.
Afraid that Xiao Shi and others would find out, I chose to go upstairs.
After going upstairs, I returned to Xiao Shi's room and began to look at his room carefully.
Xiao Shi's room was very tidy. I walked to the desk and opened the drawer casually, but found some photos. They were photos of Xiao Shi and I in the hospital.
This is a photo of me when I almost fell in the garden and was hugged by Xiao Shi.
At that time, I had not divorced Jiang Ruohe yet. After these photos were exposed by the media, Wang Yingzhi had a quarrel with me and kept calling me a bitch.
I looked at these photos in confusion, wondering why they were in Xiao Shi's hands.
An idea popped into my mind: could it be that Xiao Shi deliberately exposed these photos to the media?
"Xiao Wan."
Xiao Shi suddenly called me from behind.
My hand shook and the photo fell to the ground. I turned around and looked at Xiao Shi in panic.
Xiao Shi walked over and looked at the photos on the ground. A strange look flashed across his eyes. He bent down and picked up the photos.
He opened the drawer, put the photos in it, then took out a recorder, turned it on and handed it to me.
The recorder contained the conversation between Xiao Shi and the newspaper reporter. He was the one who bought the photos, and it was Tian Rong who exposed them. Tian Rong took the photos secretly in the hospital. At that time, I had not discovered Tian Rong's true face.
I looked at Xiao Shi guiltily. I almost misunderstood him just now.
"Let's go, the meal is ready, let's go downstairs and eat." Xiao Shi took my hand and led me out of the room.
I followed Xiao Shi, looking at his back, feeling extremely conflicted.
I was also absent-minded while eating.
Xiao Shi put the dish into my bowl and asked me if it tasted bad.
I shook my head and said no, and quickly took a few bites. I have to say that Xiao Shi’s cooking skills are pretty good, comparable to Shao Han’s, but I really don’t have much of an appetite now.
Looking at the food, I raised my head to glance at the secret door, then turned to look at Xiao Shi.
"It tastes good. Maybe it's because I'm sick, so I can't eat much."
Xiao Shi put down the chopsticks in his hand, looked at me, and said that if I couldn’t eat, I shouldn’t force myself.
Xiao Shi reached out and carefully placed his hand on my forehead. He waited for a moment before letting go.
"It's still a little hot. I'll get you a glass of warm water."
Xiao Shi stood up and walked to the drinking water. Looking at Xiao Shi's back as he poured water for me, a complicated look flashed across his eyes.
Xiao Shi handed me the water. I took it, thanked him, and asked him to sit down and eat.
After I was full, I put down my chopsticks and turned to look at Xiao Shi. Xiao Shi reached out and gently stroked the corner of my mouth, saying that I had eaten all over my face.
"Don't move."
There was more affection in Xiao Shi's eyes. He just stared at me like that, making me particularly nervous and confused.
I originally came here to break up with him, but he saw the thing in my bag and misunderstood me. I'm afraid he won't believe me when I tell him I want to break up.
Another thing is that he is particularly good to me, but I am the kind of person who is easily shaken inside, so even if the words are on the tip of my tongue, I still can't say them.
And what Kailin said, I was thinking, even if he is Jiang Ruohe's brother, what if he is sincere to me, what should I choose.
Xiao Shi slowly moved his face closer and touched my lips, which made me tremble all over and feel a little at a loss. When he wanted to go further, Xiao Shi's phone rang. I hurriedly pushed Xiao Shi away and let him answer the call first.
After Xiao Shi answered the phone, the other party didn't say anything, so Xiao Shi hung up. Maybe he dialed the wrong number. He put the phone on the dining table, turned around and took my hand.
"Xiao Wan, after the New Year, will you move in here?"
I looked at Xiao Shi, not knowing how to answer.
"Why, you don't want to?" Xiao Shi's eyes were filled with hurt.
For a moment, I really didn’t know how to answer Xiao Shi, so I just shook my head.
"So that's what you're willing to do?" Xiao Shi smiled.
"I knew you would agree."
Xiao Shi just reached out to hug me, but his phone rang again.
Xiao Shi picked up the phone, but the other party didn't say anything. Xiao Shi called back, but still couldn't get through.
It seemed like the other party had a grudge against Xiao Shi. He called every two minutes. Before Xiao Shi put down the phone, his phone rang again, making it impossible for Xiao Shi to talk to me.
"Could it be one of those call-to-death apps? There were news reports before about people using that kind of app to call their enemies non-stop for two minutes."
Xiao Shi's face turned cold and he said maybe, then he turned off his phone.
He looked troubled and said that shutting down the phone was not an option and he had to go out and resolve the issue, otherwise he would not be able to answer customer calls all day tomorrow.
I looked at the alarm clock on the wall and it was already 11 o'clock at night. I asked him if there was anyone who could solve this problem now.
"Yes, I know a friend who should be able to solve this problem. I can just go to him directly."
I nodded and agreed to send him out, and told him to be careful on the road.
After closing the door, a strange look flashed across my eyes.
I took the dishes from the dining table into the kitchen and washed them quickly.
After leaving the kitchen, I quickly walked to the secret door.
Following Xiao Shi's example, I pressed the switch on the wall and waited for a few seconds. Then I tried pushing the wall and it really opened.
My mood at the moment is somewhat nervous and hesitant.
I want to know what secrets Xiao Shi holds in there, but I don’t want to go in because I’m afraid of misunderstanding Xiao Shi.
I felt a bit conflicted. After thinking about it for several seconds, I decided to give up. When I was about to retract my hand, I suddenly heard a woman's scream from inside. The voice was a bit sad.
Could it be that Xiao Shi just delivered food to that woman? Then who is this woman?
I made up my mind, pushed open the secret door and walked in. There was a very long staircase inside the secret door, which was similar to the layout of my house. It should be the basement.
My heart was beating very fast. After I got to the basement, I found two rooms. I entered one of them at random and found a bed and some women's daily necessities. When I saw the dinner plate on the table, I was stunned.
I couldn't describe my mood at the moment. When I took a step and wanted to turn around and leave the room, a white hand suddenly appeared on my right shoulder.
I was so frightened at the time, my heart was in my throat, I was completely frozen in place. I turned my head slightly to the right, and suddenly a face appeared in front of me. At that moment, I felt like my soul had been scared out of me. I actually sat down on the ground.
I could feel my face, which was definitely whiter than white paint, and I looked terrified, as if I had seen a ghost.
The woman standing before me was dressed in a thin white dress, with disheveled hair. She looked to be in her forties, and I was frightened by her distorted face, which was covered with several scars and a bandage on her forehead.
She was looking at me warily, then she suddenly shuddered and her eyes became colder.
"It's you, are you here to laugh at me too?"
I was a little confused by what she said, and before I could react, she suddenly pounced on me, sat on me, and strangled my neck fiercely.
Although she was thin, she was very strong. I don’t know if it was because I was sick, but I didn’t have any ability to fight back.
She looked at me coldly, which made her face even more terrifying, and she increased the strength in her hands. I looked at her with a flushed face. At that moment, I really felt that I was about to be strangled to death by her.
After a few seconds, she suddenly let go of my neck. I hurriedly breathed in the fresh air and started coughing lightly. She climbed up from me, reached out and grabbed my long hair, dragged me out, making my scalp hurt.
After what she had done to me, I had no strength to resist. She dragged me to the second room, which was a bathroom with a full bathtub of water.
Without saying a word, she grabbed my head and pushed it directly into the bathtub. It felt extremely uncomfortable. I struggled hard, but she was stronger than me and held my head down tightly, not letting me get up.
At that moment, I felt a little regretful. Curiosity really killed the cat.
If I wasn't curious about what secrets were hidden in Xiao Shi's secret door, I wouldn't have been abused by this woman.
Just when I felt like I was about to suffocate, I suddenly heard hurried footsteps, and then the person holding my head loosened and pulled me up.
With my face wet, I looked at the nervous Xiao Shi, collapsed on his legs, coughed a few times, and spit out the water.
Xiao Shi hurriedly squatted down and held me in his arms.
I looked up at the woman, but she was standing quietly by the wall, like a little girl who had done something wrong, looking cautiously at Xiao Shi, who had a stern face and was full of anger.
"She came here to laugh at me." She looked at Xiao Shi with some grievance.
"It's not her, she is my girlfriend, Yu Xiaowan..."
The woman looked up at Xiao Shi, then pointed at me.
"But she looks exactly the same."
"You should take your medicine."
The woman suddenly remembered something and hurried to the next room.
Xiao Shi looked up at me and picked me up horizontally. There was no blame in his eyes. He just said that I had just been sick and was like this again, so I had to go up and blow-dry my hair quickly.
I quickly shook my head and looked at him.
"First, tell me who this woman is?"
There was a strange look in Xiao Shi's eyes.
"I'll tell you after I dry my hair."
"Don't worry, I won't lie to you."
Xiao Shi carried me out of the room. When passing the first room, I saw the woman sitting at the table, taking medicine obediently. When she saw Xiao Shi holding me, she turned around and smiled at me.
That smile made me feel a little creepy, and I quickly huddled in Xiao Shi's arms. Xiao Shi trembled a little and carried me to the second floor.
I sat on the edge of the bed, still terrified. Xiao Shi found a towel and a hair dryer, wiped my face with the towel, and then his fingers fell on my neck. A complicated look flashed across his eyes, and he took the hair dryer to blow my hair.
He blew my hair very carefully, moving his fingertips back and forth in my hair. After a few minutes, Xiao Shi put down the hair dryer, took a comb and helped me comb my long hair.
His silence made me feel a little nervous. I was actually waiting for him to ask me why I knew about the secret door and why I went into the basement, but Xiao Shi said nothing.
After he combed my hair, he put down the comb, sat next to me, and took my hand.
"Come on, let's go downstairs and talk."
I didn't say anything and let Xiao Shi take my hand and slowly walk down the stairs. When we reached the secret door, he opened it and pulled me down.
When I entered the room, the woman was already lying quietly on the bed and fast asleep. Looking at her face now, although it was a little creepy, I wasn't so scared anymore.
Xiao Shi walked over and reached out to cover her with a blanket. This made me particularly curious about the relationship between this woman and Xiao Shi.
"She is my mother." Xiao Shi said suddenly.
I looked at Xiao Shi in shock.
He had clearly told me before that his mother had passed away during his senior year of high school, and he even took me to his mother's grave. How could this happen now...
Xiao Shi walked up to me and took my hand.
"Xiao Wan, I actually hid something from you, but I didn't mean to deceive you, and I'm definitely not taking advantage of your feelings. I'm actually Jiang Ruohe's half-brother, and my mother's name is Lan Yan."
Xiao Shi said that the reason he said his mother was dead was because when he was eighteen, his mother suffered inhuman abuse. For Lan Yan, the current life is simply worse than death, more painful than death.
Xiao Shi pulled me into the living room and sat me on the sofa. He put his arm around me and let me snuggle in his arms. With the other hand, he took out his wallet, pulled out a photo and handed it to me.
It's a photo of Lan Yan. I have to say, she was a beauty when she was young, but now she looks like this.
When Lan Yan was 20 years old, she met Jiang Nianhao. They became friends and even introduced him to her best friend, Wang Yingzhi. However, Lan Yan didn't expect Jiang Nianhao to be a playboy and get involved with Wang Yingzhi. When they were caught in bed, Lan Yan became pregnant. Jiang Nianhao knelt on the ground and confessed to Lan Yan, saying that he had made mistakes due to drinking and mistook Wang Yingzhi for Lan Yan. He wanted to beg for Lan Yan's forgiveness.
But Lan Yan couldn't stand the betrayal of her boyfriend and best friend, so she broke up with Jiang Nianhao. After the breakup, Jiang Nianhao came to find Lan Yan and wanted to reconcile with her, but she refused.
Wang Yingzhi became pregnant that night. Half a month later, she came back to see Lan Yan and said some unpleasant words.
Later, when Jiang Nianhao came to find Lan Yan, Lan Yan lied that she had aborted the child in order to get rid of his entanglement, and then disappeared from Jiang Nianhao's sight.
After Jiang Nianhao's search failed, he married Wang Yingzhi.
"My mother went back to her parents' home. But when her family heard she was pregnant, they wanted her to have an abortion. My mother refused. Her brother and sister-in-law said a lot of unpleasant things to her. My mother didn't want to embarrass her parents, so she left."
"Later, she hid in a mountain village and gave birth to me under a different name. From then on, we lived together until I was fifteen and was admitted to a key high school in Nannan City. My mother took me to live in the city so that I could have a better future."
"Until one day..." Xiao Shi's eyes turned cold.
Xiao Shi said that it was when he was in his third year of high school. After evening self-study, he returned to the apartment he and Lan Yan rented and saw a woman in high heels scolding Lan Yan.
I guess that woman is Wang Yingzhi. Given her character, it is easy to imagine what she said to Lan Yan.
"That woman is Wang Yingzhi." Xiao Shi said.
I looked at the secret door with a bit of heartache.
"After eavesdropping on their conversation, I found out that my father wasn't dead. He was Jiang Nianhao from the Jiang Corporation. Wang Yingzhi had always believed that my mother had aborted the child and hadn't noticed my existence. She told my mother to get out of South City immediately, or else she would have her boss at her company fire her and make it impossible for her to find a job in South City."
As the wife of the Jiang family, Lan Yan could indeed not find a job in South City. Jiang Ruohe had treated me the same way before.
At that time, Lan Yan worked as a waitress in a restaurant for financial support, and Xiao Shi was about to take the college entrance examination. Going to college would require a large sum of money, and she did not want to lose her job, so she knelt down in front of Wang Yingzhi and begged her to let her go.
Wang Yingzhi naturally scolded her and asked her to choose whether to leave Nancheng on her own initiative or be forced to leave Nancheng.
"When she came out in high heels, I hid and saw her arrogant face clearly."
Xiao Shi said that he waited for a while before entering the house. He knew Lan Yan's character, and entering the house and seeing her in such a state would only make Lan Yan feel worse.
When Xiao Shi entered the house, Lan Yan had already concealed all her emotions, cooked delicious dishes for Xiao Shi, and never mentioned that Wang Yingzhi came to see her.
"She was a little depressed during those days, and I couldn't help it. I told her that I already knew about it and asked her to stop studying and take her away from South City, away from this place that made her sad."
At that time, Lan Yan slapped Xiao Shi in the face and said that it was impossible for a person to compromise easily. If he stopped studying, what would he achieve in the future?
After slapping him, Lan Yan hugged Xiao Shi and cried. She had only one wish in her life, which was to raise Xiao Shi into a useful person. If one day, even if the Jiang family knew of his existence and wanted to take him back to the Jiang family, he would be able to refuse in a dignified manner.
Lan Yan said that this was her business and she would solve it so that Xiao Shi could study with peace of mind.
"My mother kept telling me not to worry and to wait for her to handle this matter. Do you know what I'm waiting for?" Xiao Shi turned and looked at me.
"My mother was raped. They used many inhumane methods to torture her. They scratched her face, which caused her to become mentally ill and crazy."
I looked at Xiao Shi in astonishment. Xiao Shi's eyes were red, and he was suppressing his emotions.
There is no doubt that Wang Yingzhi must have hired someone to do this.
"Where are those people?" I asked.
"He escaped and disappeared without a trace."
"Later, the whole school knew that my mother had been driven crazy by Lun. Some people would sympathize with you, but some would keep stepping on your pain. At that time, I could only endure it."
"Later, the principal of our school learned about my situation and found an entrepreneur to sponsor me. The entrepreneur was a lonely old man in his sixties. After learning about my experience, he paid for my studies and placed my mother in a mental hospital." Xiao Shi choked up when he said this.
I felt a little distressed looking at Xiao Shi, knowing the pain in his heart.
"At that time, I was extremely reluctant to let my mother go to that kind of place, but I had no choice. I had to study hard so that I could afford to bring my mother back."
Xiao Shi said that in order to prevent Wang Yingzhi from causing trouble for Lan Yan again, he could only say that she was dead and erected a tombstone for her there.
"After I finished university, the man who sponsored me passed away. When he left, he handed over Minghua, the company he founded, to me and told me to develop it."
"Later, I went to the mental hospital where my mother was staying. The doctor said that my mother's condition had not improved in recent years and she was prone to violent attacks. He did not agree to discharge my mother, but I still forcibly took my mother back from the mental hospital."
"My mother is the kind of person who is sometimes lucid and sometimes crazy. The moment she saw me, she was lucid. She hugged me and cried, saying how her son had become an adult in just a short while."
Hearing this, my nose felt a little sore, and I reached out and gently stroked the tears on Xiao Shi's face.
Xiao Shi said that she fell ill the day after Lan Yan took her back and beat up the nanny who was hired to take care of her.
"No one dared to take care of a mentally ill patient. And I didn't want to send her back to that cold hospital. So I turned the basement into my mother's residence and took good care of her."
"In the past few years, her attacks have become less and less frequent. I've tried taking my mother out for walks, but as soon as she sees a lot of people, she loses control of her emotions and always thinks they are all bad people. She feels like they are laughing at her. I have no choice but to let her continue living in the basement. I set up a computer for her in the basement so she can read the news. I don't know what happened recently, but she suddenly had an attack. Today, before you came, she went crazy and hit her head against the wall. I even found a private doctor to come and bandage her."
No wonder today when we got off work, we had agreed to go out for dinner together, but he took an important phone call and left.
Xiao Shi looked at me with red eyes.
"Xiao Wan, there are two main reasons why I don't want to tell you about my life story. One is because I don't want to have anything to do with the Jiang family. The other is that I'm afraid that after you know it, you will think that I have other intentions when I'm with you."
"As for my mother, she's so sick, I really didn't dare tell you, but I didn't expect you to see it tonight."
"My mother is actually a very good woman when she's normal. When she feels better tomorrow, I'll take you down to see her."
Xiao Shi reached out and gently stroked my neck, his face full of heartache.
"I'm really sorry for what my mom did to you. I regret that I should have told my mom and me earlier. I also regret that I didn't protect you."
"Xiao Wan, I really like you."
I looked at Xiao Shi for a long time and said, "I believe you." Xiao Shi was very happy and hugged me.
"Xiao Shi, I want to ask you a question."
"Have you ever hated the Jiang family?"
Xiao Shi trembled.
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