In the spacious restaurant, the tables were laden with delicious dishes.
But only Huo Beichen and Hua Fei sat facing each other at the dining table.
The housekeeper and nanny had already discreetly left, leaving dinner time for the two of them.
Huo Beichen moved the plate of shiitake mushrooms and bok choy to his front, looked at it for a while, and then picked up some with his chopsticks to taste.
“It tastes the same as before,” he suddenly said.
Hua Fei looked up at him. This was the first time they had openly and face-to-face discussed her identity as "Sheng Nanyin".
“But I’m different now,” she said frankly.
"It's all my fault," Huo Beichen replied, gazing at her with the same deep look.
“So you bankrupted the Sun family,” she asked. “Do you want to atone for the lost child?”
“I want to atone for losing you,” he said.
Hua Fei was startled.
Huo Beichen stood up and came to her side.
Gazing at her frail figure, he felt an overwhelming sense of pity, tenderness, and guilt... If he could do it all over again and spare her from the suffering of these past few years, he would give anything for her.
He reached out and encircled her, holding her tightly in his arms as if he wanted to meld her into his own flesh and blood.
“Nanyin…” he uttered a sound from his throat.
Hua Fei was overwhelmed with mixed feelings; a flood of memories surged into her mind like a bursting dam…
Sweet, painful, sad, desperate...
He was once her everything, and he also inflicted the deepest pain on her, but now, after going through many twists and turns, their fates are intertwined again.
"You bankrupted the Sun family, but the Sun family isn't so easily defeated, is it?" she said softly, tears welling up in her eyes.
Hot tears streamed down his arm, as if burning a hole in his heart.
He cupped her face in his hands, bent down, and his soft yet firm lips sucked away her tears.
The familiar yet strange feeling sent a shiver down her spine. Reason told her to run away, but her body instinctively wanted to get closer.
Intertwined figures rolled onto the carpet.
A satisfied sigh escaped from deep in his throat.
They were always the perfect match.
A whole night of dissatisfaction.
After an unknown amount of time, Hua Fei slowly opened her eyes to the sound of birdsong. She stared blankly at the ceiling, her gaze calm.
She had that dream again.
She has had the same dream frequently over the past few years.
In the dimly lit room, a woman lies on the operating table.
The room was cold, and the woman couldn't help but shiver.
However, the scalpel was even colder and sharper, slicing mercilessly across the woman's face.
She knew that the woman lying on the operating table in her dream was herself.
In fact, she couldn't see what was happening during the actual surgery.
Having undergone so many surgeries, she can no longer distinguish between reality and imagination.
At that moment, the mattress shifted slightly, and she was pulled into a large, warm embrace.
She came to her senses and realized where she was and what had happened last night... A blush appeared on her cheeks.
"What are you thinking about?" Huo Beichen's deep voice sounded in her ear.
“Zeze’s nightmare,” she replied.
"He always said that on that stormy night, there was a woman standing behind the vase."
"Did you tell me?" she asked.
Immediately afterwards, she felt Huo Beichen's body stiffen slightly.
She understood. "You never trusted him, did you?"
"If you believe him, he won't have this problem."
Huo Beichen was silent for a moment before saying, "You've healed him now, haven't you?"
After saying that, he withdrew his arm, got off the bed, and stood up.
She turned her head away, wanting to say something, but caught off guard by the sight of him completely naked... and so he walked into the bathroom.
She opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing.
She went back to her room to wash up, but feeling upset, she went for a walk in the garden alone.
Turning a corner unintentionally, I saw Aunt Li pruning the flower branches.
There was a patch of Marguerite daisies planted here. She had seen them bloom once before, which was quite unexpected.
She really likes this flower.
But she didn't think this flower had anything to do with her. She had never mentioned her preferences to Huo Beichen, and even if she had, he probably wouldn't have remembered them before.
"Madam," Aunt Li greeted her, "Have you eaten?"
Hua Fei shook his head: "I don't have much of an appetite right now."
She casually remarked, "You still have to take care of these flowers? Don't you hire a professional gardener to maintain the garden?"
“The gardener comes every two months,” Aunt Li replied, “but the master instructed that this patch of flowers needs to be taken especially good care of.”
"Why?" Hua Fei's heart skipped a beat.
Could it be related to Sun Xiaowei?
"Because the young master likes it," Aunt Li said. "Two years ago, the young master started learning to paint, and he liked to copy this kind of flower the most, so the teacher told us to plant a patch of them."
It turns out it was for Zeze.
Hua Fei couldn't help but laugh at herself, realizing that she had unknowingly started comparing herself to Sun Xiaowei in everything.
What gave her these thoughts?
Aunt Li had finished working and was packing up to leave. "It's so convenient now, it only takes about 20 minutes to get ready," she remarked casually.
Hua Fei asked curiously, "Did it take a long time before?"
Aunt Li sighed softly, "The leaves used to wither very quickly and in large quantities. It would take two or three hours to clean them up each time. Later I found out that Miss Sun didn't like this flower bed and had secretly sprinkled pesticide on it..."
"Oh, Madam, have I been too talkative?" Aunt Li suddenly realized she had said something she shouldn't have. "Madam, please don't take it to heart. Miss Sun will never be coming here again."
Hua Fei shook her head: "Tell me more about her, I want to know."
Aunt Li looked embarrassed; she didn't know if she could speak, but Hua Fei had already sat down on the bench next to her.
"What's wrong?" Hua Fei asked. "Didn't Huo Beichen tell you not to tell?"
"No," Aunt Li immediately denied. "Madam, what would you like to know?"
Hua Fei was also at a loss. "Just say whatever you want to say."
Aunt Li thought about it and figured that given Hua Fei's relationship with her husband, she would probably be happy to hear about some of Sun Xiaowei's shortcomings.
"In my opinion, Miss Sun is a very good actress."
"In front of outsiders, she seemed to treat the young master very well, even better than his own mother, but at home it was a completely different story."
Sun Xiaowei wouldn't put on an act in front of nannies like Aunt Li.
A nanny was once fired by Sun Xiaowei for heating milk to too high a temperature.
Therefore, even if the nanny was mistreated by Sun Xiaowei, she didn't dare to complain to Huo Beichen.
"So, Huo Beichen had no idea that she was two-faced?" Hua Fei asked.
Aunt Li shook her head, "We dare not say, but there are still people in the family who dare to say it. The housekeeper is not afraid of Miss Sun."
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