——Pick me up at home.
This made my eyes warm for no reason.
So many years.
It's like no one has ever said this to me.
He was the first one.
I tried to open my eyes wide, holding back the tears, and looked up at him, "Zhou Fang, if I weren't you, could we... could we still be friends?"
I actually had a slight desire to hold on to this absurd bit of warmth.
Even if it's just to be friends.
We can only be friends.
Hearing this, Zhou Fang raised his eyebrows, smiled at me, and calmly said three words, "Impossible."
…
I walked out of the room in a daze.
I sat on the sofa and thought for a while before I realized that I didn't even understand whether he was answering the first half or the second half.
It's impossible for me not to be Shen Qingli.
Still, we can't be friends anymore.
"Hey, did you just come?"
Jiang Lai had just come out of the shower and was drying her hair when she asked him.
I came to my senses and nodded, "Yes."
After applying a facial mask, she swung her fair, slender legs and sat down next to me. She used her fingers to smooth the mask over her face while wondering, "Why is Zhou Fang looking for you so urgently? What happened?"
"He thinks I'm Shen Qingli."
I opened a bottle of mineral water and prepared to take my allergy medicine.
Jiang Lai held me down and said, "Have you eaten yet? Then take the medicine?"
"Eat it."
I smiled.
Zhou Fang didn't let me eat that instant noodle because I'm allergic to it.
But before he sent me upstairs, we had dinner in the restaurant downstairs.
I paid for it.
Yes, I bought it.
"Then go ahead and eat."
Jiang Lai finally let go, placed a pill in my hand, and asked indistinctly, "How could you possibly think you were Shen Qingli? Doesn't the Shen family already have a Shen Qingli? Besides, didn't you ask Lu Shiyan for help to check your background?"
"Because I was allergic to yam at the Shen family's banquet two days ago, but Shen Qingli from the Shen family didn't have any."
As I said that, I told Jiang Lai the whole story.
After hearing this, Jiang Lai took off her facial mask, looking shocked. "So, you are the real eldest daughter of the Shen family? The daughter of a famous family?"
“…I think it’s unlikely.”
That's why I asked Zhou Fang that question before entering the door.
It’s because I feel the possibility is too small.
If I were a person whose parents were unknown, I might still dare to make some guesses.
But now, the possibility is basically zero.
"nonono."
Jiang Lai raised his index finger and shook it, seeming to think, "Let's make a bold guess! Have you ever considered that perhaps the information Senior Lu found for you was from another person?"
"who?"
"Ruan Nanzhi."
"?"
"The real Ruan Nanzhi."
Jiang Lai stared and thought for a moment, the more he thought about it, the more certain he became, "It is very likely that this is the case."
"you mean……"
My heartbeat quickened, my head buzzing. "I'm not the real Ruan Nanzhi, my parents' biological daughter. Maybe she's already... dead? Was I adopted later?"
"It depends on the results of the paternity test."
Jiang Lai was a little hesitant to continue guessing, and only said: "If the result of the paternity test is that you are Shen Qingli, then it is most likely what I said."
From childhood to adulthood...
I'm not even myself?
I'm not Ruan Nanzhi at all?
Seeing this, Jiang Lai touched my head and said, "Why don't you ask your aunt?"
"aunt……"
I shook my head helplessly and said, "Forget it, let's wait until the paternity test report comes out."
I had asked my aunt about my background several times before, but in the end nothing came of it.
Even if I ask her like this now, my aunt still won’t tell me anything.
Jiang Lai also agreed. She leaned back on the sofa and thought for a while.
Then he turned his head to look at me, his eyes shining, "Then you are the one who was engaged to Zhou Fang as a child, the legendary little fiancée?"
"Puff, cough cough..."
I was just drinking water when she said that out of the blue. Not only did I spit it out, but I also choked.
Coughed for a long time.
She laughed and handed me some tissues. "Why are you feeling guilty?"
“Who’s feeling guilty?”
"Zhou Fang's childhood fiancée is feeling guilty."
She laughed and shook her head.
…
For two days in a row, I felt a little distracted in everything I did.
The thought of that paternity test not only determines my future, but also negates the past twenty years of my life.
Deny what's left in my memory: every moment my parents loved me.
I have no idea at all.
It was as if I had gone from being a person with roots and foundation to being a small ark in the ocean.
Although every second felt like an age, the day of the paternity test report finally arrived.
Zhou Fang came to the hotel to pick me up.
On the way to the Shen family's old house, it was just spring and a thin layer of sweat appeared on my palms.
It's tense.
I dare not think about it, Shen's father and mother...
What would I do if they were my parents?
Especially Mother Shen. It turns out that the person who locked me in a small dark room and made me kneel in the snow... is my mother?
Zhou Fang controlled the steering wheel with one hand and wrapped his other hand around the back of my hand. "Are you scared?"
"Um."
I lowered my eyes and nodded, then glanced at him again, "Aren't you afraid?"
He should be afraid too.
He waited for Shen Qingli for so many years, and always thought I was.
Today's ending is probably the most important thing in life, both for me and him.
"good."
He twitched his lip, overtook a car, and stepped on the accelerator. "But no matter what happens today, you have to trust me this once."
"What's the meaning?"
"I've checked on Shen Qingli, who lives at the Shen family, over the past two days."
Zhou Fang spoke casually, his tone slightly cold. "Her background is indeed exactly the same as what I found out before. She grew up in an orphanage. She alone couldn't have pulled off this scheme."
I couldn't help but ask, "Do you know who did it?"
"More or less."
Zhou Fang's fingers tapped intermittently on the steering wheel. "But this should be a bit complicated. There's a high possibility that other people are involved."
I frowned slightly, "What's their purpose?"
"Are you after my beauty?"
He smiled cynically.
I glanced at him and said, "I feel pretty good about myself."
Zhou Fang raised his eyebrows, "Maybe, each has their own purpose."
When we arrived at the Shen family's old house, it was Mrs. Shen who was waiting for us at the door.
The three of us went in.
They went not to Old Lady Shen's courtyard, but to the Shen family's meeting room.
In addition to the three of us, there are also Shen's father, Shen's mother, Shen Xingyu, and Shen Qingli.
Two days later, Shen Qingli was not only pale, but also had a hint of blue in her eyes.
Apparently he didn't sleep.
When she saw us come in, she trembled.
Zhou Fang pushed me onto a chair, and then I heard Father Shen speak: "A Fang, you must not be fooling around with such a big thing."
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