Sisi lay on his chest, listening to her wildly beating heart and feeling his passion and love.
"Gu Chengfeng, please don't lie to me anymore, okay?"
"Okay..." Gu Chengfeng murmured, his voice tinged with a hint of languor, yet utterly sincere.
"I swear, I'll never lie to you again. If I lie to you, I'll..."
A few slender fingers gently pressed against his lips: "Stop talking, we're not allowed to say anything unlucky anymore."
Gu Chengfeng grinned sheepishly, "Okay..."
So, does this mean Shen Sisi has forgiven him?
Gu Chengfeng was chuckling softly when he suddenly heard Shen Sisi's rather stern voice.
"Don't be too happy yet. I haven't planned to forgive you. We'll see how you behave!"
Chen Sisi pushed him away, sat up, and quickly tidied her messy hair with her fingers.
The smile on Gu Chengfeng's face quickly disappeared, replaced by a look of tension.
Looks like I need to get better quickly so I can make a good impression on his wife...
His secret has been revealed; now it's time for Chen Sisi's secret.
"Sisi, what about you? What is the secret between you and Niu Niu?"
Chen Sisi's eyes darted around, wanting to tease him: "What's wrong? Are you bothered by it?"
"How could I not care about you and Niu Niu?"
"Do you care about me and Niu Niu as a person, or do you care about my past?"
Without even thinking, Gu Chengfeng blurted out, "I care about everything!"
He knew the standard answer was that people who care about them don't care about the past, but he had just promised Shen Sisi that he would never lie to her again.
He was obsessed with her past, to the point of madness.
Upon hearing his answer, Chen Sisi's face instantly darkened.
Sure enough, he still cared a lot about her past.
Gu Chengfeng keenly sensed her disappointment and, not giving her a chance to continue overthinking, he began to explain.
“I regret that I couldn’t be by your side during those years. I don’t know what happened to you or who you met, but I know that you must have suffered a lot.”
"I, Gu Chengfeng, have never been a gentleman, nor can I be considered magnanimous. I cannot convince myself not to care about the people who hurt you, or the things that hurt you..."
“I am your husband now. If you are ever bullied, no matter where you are, I will find those who bullied you and beat them all up.”
Shen Sisi was moved by his confident words, and at the same time found his recklessness quite endearing.
It turns out that what he really cared about wasn't whether she had a child with another man.
Instead, he wanted to avenge her!
Years have passed, but Gu Chengfeng's temperament remains unchanged.
He couldn't bear to see her suffer even the slightest injustice.
Upon hearing this, she finally let go of her worries: "Actually, things aren't as simple as you think, and I'm not as pitiful as you think."
Silently, she sat on the edge of the bed and began to tell him her story.
"Actually, Niu Niu is not my biological daughter. She was born to another female educated youth who shared a room with me back then."
"What?" Gu Chengfeng was so surprised he almost jumped out of bed.
Niu Niu isn't her biological daughter? Then why...?
Seeing his astonished expression, Chen Sisi told him not to get so excited.
"This is what happened..."
Back then, when Shen Sisi went to the countryside as an educated youth, her car broke down on the way, so she was a little late in reporting for duty. The dormitory for educated youth was already full, and she and another female educated youth were arranged to live in a dilapidated house on the other side.
"Her name is Xiao Chunyu. She's from Shanghai, from a scholarly family. Like me, she lost both her parents and is an only child. Our similar family backgrounds and circumstances made us get along very well, and we felt like we'd known each other for ages..."
Shen Sisi still clearly remembers the first time she met Xiao Chunyu.
That girl with two little braids, a pretty face, and a sweet voice truly embodies the gentle beauty of a woman from the Jiangnan water towns.
This was also the first time she had ever seen what a well-bred young lady from a prominent family in Jiangnan looked like.
Because she was a year older than her, Xiao Chunyu considered herself her older sister and took good care of her in every way.
"Those years were tough, but thankfully Xiao Chunyu was there for me. We supported each other and made it through until... the year the college entrance examination was reinstated!"
When the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) was reinstated in 1977, the passion for education was rekindled among students, who hoped to change their destiny by gaining admission to university through the power of knowledge.
Shen Sisi and Xiao Chunyu were also very excited. They made a pact to study together, take the college entrance examination together, and try to leave their small mountain village.
"During that time, I found some old textbooks using my own methods and studied them day and night, ignoring Xiao Chunyu and completely unaware of her unusual behavior."
At that time, Xiao Chunyu would leave early and return late every day, and would often laugh to herself, her face full of spring chill.
Shen Sisi even teased her, asking if she was in a relationship, but Xiao Chunyu didn't say anything, just kept being shy.
"I thought she had taken a fancy to some educated youth, but I never expected... she came back pregnant!"
In those days, it was considered a very bad thing for a girl to get pregnant out of wedlock; she could even be arrested and convicted of hooliganism.
When Shen Sisi asked Xiao Chunyu who the father of her child was, Xiao Chunyu gritted her teeth and refused to say. In order to prevent her good friend from being arrested and being gossiped about, Shen Sisi did her best to cover for her and take care of her.
“The conditions in the countryside were not good, and Xiao Chunyu’s pregnancy was very bad. She could hardly eat anything and was vomiting every day. She was so thin that she was unrecognizable. So I tried to exchange goat milk with someone to feed her and picked mushrooms to exchange for meat for her.”
"Luckily, she was very thin and her belly wasn't showing, and it was winter, so everyone was wearing thick cotton-padded coats, which allowed her to barely get away with it. But once spring came, it couldn't be hidden anymore. Xiao Chunyu's belly grew bigger and the villagers found out."
“At the time, everyone asked her whose child it was, but she refused to reveal it. That heartless scumbag never showed up. He dared to do it but didn’t dare to admit it. Seeing everyone looking like they were going to drown her in a pig cage, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I stood up and spoke up for her, telling everyone that the child was fatherless and that I would help raise it after it was born. I would never cause any trouble for the village.”
"Later, the old village chief agreed to my suggestion and told everyone that the child was found and no one knew whose child he was, so we would take care of him for the time being."
The matter was originally considered over, and Xiao Chunyu was at ease preparing for childbirth in the dilapidated house. Time flew by and it was June, which was the rainy season.
"That day, it was raining heavily, a really heavy downpour. Our house was leaking everywhere, and the wind was howling so hard it almost blew our house away. That very night, Xiao Chunyu suddenly had a stomachache. She...she was going into labor!"
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