"At first he would explain and apologize to the girl, but later everything became taken for granted, until he started staying out all night frequently."
The girl rarely saw him, and she was raising the child alone. Every time she brought it up, the man would become impatient, saying he was working so hard for the family. Arguments with him only resulted in him slamming the door and leaving. The more she pleaded with him to come home and spend time with the child, the longer he stayed away. Over time, the woman grew increasingly haggard and forlorn; a beautiful flower withered away under the man's unseen torment.
Song Mai grew angrier as she listened. She had initially thought it would be a happy story, but it had turned out this way.
Frowning with anger, he couldn't help but curse:
"What a scumbag! He clearly just wants to take advantage of someone's wealth, yet he talks such high-sounding words. I think he had ulterior motives from the beginning, and that love at first sight was probably all an act. It's disgusting!"
After she finished cursing, she remembered to turn her head and look at Ji Fenghe.
The man's eyes were half-closed, filled with pain.
"And then what happened?"
At this point in the story, she believed that he was not just telling a story, but rather expressing himself, and that he must want to continue.
"Later, when the woman realized she had been deceived, she wanted to take back her family's company and run it herself. However, by then, the company had been hollowed out and was just an empty shell. Even though she and her father went around asking for help and tried every means to fight back against the man, it was too late. Their resistance also angered the man. Seeing that the woman had completely discovered the deception, he simply stopped pretending and completely swallowed up the woman's father's company. The woman's father's life's work was completely destroyed. He couldn't accept the blow, and his already weak body completely collapsed. He suffered a stroke overnight and became completely paralyzed in bed."
The man and woman completely broke off relations. He started rarely returning home, sometimes only a few times a year. The villa became like a vast prison, trapping the woman inside, from which she could no longer escape. She developed depression, losing her appetite and spending all her time at home except to visit her father in the hospital. The man would occasionally come back to see the children, but he showed no affection, looking at them with the coldness of someone looking at a stranger. He would often leave after only a short while. The woman begged him to stay longer and spend more time with the children, but all she received in return was verbal abuse from him.
"As time went by, the woman's spirits weakened, and she even had trouble sleeping all night. Her health also deteriorated. The boy grew up and became more sensible. Because his father did not love him and his mother had a mental illness, he was often bullied by other classmates. Fortunately, he was still quite strong. He often stayed by his mother's side to comfort her. The woman would only smile when he was around. At other times, she was lifeless, like an empty doll."
For the woman, she had long lost the desire to live. She only lived to raise her son and take care of her father. Countless nights she cried out in regret, regretting why she had fallen in love with this man, which had harmed herself, her father, and her whole family.
Finally, when the boy was seven years old, the woman's father passed away. The woman was heartbroken and lost a lot of weight in just a few days. On the day of the funeral, the man finally appeared, but he was not the only one there. There was also a young woman beside him and a five-year-old boy.
The woman wore a pure white dress, looking delicate and beautiful, like a jasmine flower. She was so young that it was hard to believe she already had a five-year-old child. In contrast, the man's wife, who was only in her early thirties, looked as old as a woman in her forties or fifties.
The woman was holding the man's arm, her eyes full of innocence and harmlessness. The five-year-old boy was also very cute. However, the moment they appeared, the man's wife instantly realized something. Even though none of the three spoke, she knew clearly what their relationship was.
Suddenly, she understood everything. Unable to bear the blow, she fainted. When she awoke, only the strange woman was beside her. The woman, no longer the weakling she once was, arrogantly told her that she had always been the man's first love. He had always wanted to marry her, but her family background was too poor, and his parents disapproved, so he married another woman. However, she claimed their relationship had never ended over the years, and that every time he said he was working overtime, he was actually with her. At the end, she mocked the woman's failures, saying that the woman's family's ruin was all her fault. The woman, already suffering from depression, finally couldn't bear the repeated blows and jumped off the building.
As Ji Fenghe finished speaking, a tear rolled down his cheek, and he gritted his teeth to swallow the pain that welled up in his mouth.
A bitter, silent ache spread through my chest and lungs.
Song Mai silently pulled out a tissue and handed it to him. The man took it and choked up, remaining silent for a long time.
What happened to the boy afterward?
Song Mai asked quietly, afraid that her words would hurt the man even more.
"Not long after the woman died, the man married his first love. The boy, who had lost his mother, was forced by the man to call his mistress 'mother.' He refused and argued fiercely with the man. In a fit of anger, the man simply sent him abroad. The woman was used to acting, putting on an act in front of the man and being two-faced. In front of the man, she was a virtuous wife and loving mother, doting on the boy even more than her own son. In reality, everything she did was calculated, just to ruin the boy. However, she didn't expect that the man, in order to prevent the boy from affecting his and the woman's lives, would send the boy far away, leaving the woman powerless to do anything to the boy."
Later, after the boy graduated from university and returned to his home country, the woman began to scheme to seize his inheritance, wanting the man to leave all his property to her own son.
The story ends here, and even without asking, Song Mai knew that the boy in the story must be himself.
And that man is Ji Xiangyang, the current chairman of the Ji Group.
She was unaware of the intricate relationships and conflicts between these wealthy families, and only now, upon hearing about it, did she realize that every family has its own troubles.
Not all rich girls live a good life; things inside wealthy families are far more complicated than ordinary people like them can imagine.
Recalling what Manager Xu said at the airport, and the time she ran into him at the restaurant, she could understand a little after making a connection.
"So, was arranging your blind date with Yao Qianyu part of her plan?"
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