Chapter 284 But... you're my father.
284:
When Mu Shaowu arrived at Ye Qingxi's school, Ye Qingxi had not yet finished school.
After thinking for a moment, he felt that Ye Qingxi's emotions outweighed his current knowledge, so Mu Shaowu went to the school, asked the homeroom teacher for leave, and then picked up Ye Qingxi.
When Ye Qingxi saw him appear, she guessed that Feng Que must have already told him.
He obediently walked to Mu Shaowu's side, was led by him, and walked out of the teaching building together.
However, Mu Shaowu did not lead him out of the school, but instead led him to their school's playground.
At this time, the playground was empty and quiet, with no teachers or students, only bright sunshine and the occasional chirping of birds.
"Did you return the jade pendant to your Uncle Feng?" Mu Shaowu asked knowingly.
Ye Qingxi nodded, "Mm."
"I'm sorry." Mu Shaowu turned to look at him.
He said, "Baby, I'm sorry."
Ye Qingxi told Feng Que that he should apologize to his grandfather because his grandfather's feelings were genuine and he wasn't acting.
But Ye Qingxi's feelings were genuine, and he wasn't acting, so Mu Shaowu felt he should apologize to him as well.
"I shouldn't have agreed to Feng Que's request in the first place. Although we both agreed that this was just between us and had nothing to do with you, and that we wouldn't involve you, now that I think about it, how could it possibly be unrelated to you, and how could I not involve you? This is the first mistake I made," Mu Shaowu admitted.
He is already a father, unlike Feng Que, who is single.
He shouldn't have been so inconsiderate.
"After that, his grandfather contacted you. I knew perfectly well why his grandfather wanted to, but because you seemed happy at the time, I thought that once you finished filming and went home, you would gradually lose contact and your feelings would fade. So, even if I wasn't his fake boyfriend anymore and his grandfather stopped chatting and eating with you, you wouldn't be too upset, just like you and the friends you met on the show."
“But there was no hiding or deception between you and the friends you met on the variety show, while there was a layer of deception between you and Grandpa Feng. These two are different, and I shouldn’t have conflated them. This is the second mistake I made.”
Mu Shaowu looked at him, his eyes filled with guilt, "Xiao Xi, I'm sorry."
Ye Qingxi shook her head, "It's okay, I don't blame you, Dad, you don't need to apologize."
"Then why do you want Feng Que to apologize to his grandfather? Isn't it because this matter itself was wrong, so the person who did wrong should apologize to the person who was hurt?"
"But……"
Ye Qingxi looked at him, wanting to say: But... you are my father.
He is his best and most beloved father.
He's the kind of dad who unconsciously shows favoritism.
He is a father who will understand and forgive no matter what he does.
Therefore, he does not need Mu Shaowu to apologize to him.
He loves Mu Shaowu, so he doesn't need Mu Shaowu's apology.
“Dad, I’m not sad,” Ye Qingxi said. “Because I was very happy at the time, and that happiness was real. Even now, thinking about it makes me happy, so I’m not sad.”
"You don't need to apologize to me. If it weren't for what happened between you and Uncle Feng, I wouldn't have had the chance to meet Great-Grandpa Feng and Aristotle. I would still only be able to see the puppy in videos and not be able to play with it in real life."
Hearing his words, Mu Shaowu's heart softened completely. Even now, he was still thinking of him and wanted to comfort him.
"I just finished talking to your Uncle Feng before I came to see you. I am no longer his fake boyfriend, and he is no longer my fake boyfriend. From now on, we are just director and actor, and friends. He will explain this to his parents and grandfather. As for me, this is the first and last time. I will never do such a thing again, and I will never hide anything from you about this."
"Okay," Ye Qingxi replied.
"Now can you tell me your true thoughts?" Mu Shaowu looked directly into his clear, transparent eyes, which seemed to conceal everything. "Or... do you want to cry?"
Ye Qingxi didn't expect him to ask that question.
He looked at his father for a long time before finally revealing a trace of his emotions, "I don't want to cry, I'm just a little disappointed."
"It's not because you were disappointed that you kept it from me, Dad—I know everyone has their own secrets, things they're embarrassed to talk about. It's just that we had planned for Great-Grandpa Feng to come over during the May Day holiday. I would be his tour guide, and Uncle Li would drive us. I would take him out to play, and there would be cotton candy too. I wanted him to meet cotton candy and see my little cat..."
But now, none of that will remain.
He was not the great-grandson that Grandpa Feng thought he would become.
He would naturally stop liking him and wouldn't come here on May Day.
He won't see his kitten either.
Ye Qingxi said, "Dad, I don't really care why Grandpa Feng likes me, but now, we may not be friends anymore, so I'm a little disappointed."
“But it’s only a little bit,” Ye Qingxi immediately added. “It will disappear in a couple of days, so Dad, you don’t need to worry, and you don’t need to bother Grandpa Feng because of me.”
“He knows I’m not his future great-grandson, which is already bad enough for him. If you go to him again and ask him to continue being friends with me like before, that’s not fair to him.”
"Actually, Dad, you're right. We're not in the same place now, so we'll gradually lose contact and our feelings will fade. I've thought before that in about a year, we'll stop talking to each other. It's just a little earlier than expected, so it's okay, really."
Mu Shaowu felt a pang of pain in his heart upon hearing his words.
“What can I do for you?” he asked his child.
Ye Qingxi smiled, her eyes crinkling into crescents.
He opened his arms and said, "Daddy, just give me a hug."
"My dad comforted me, and then I wasn't so disappointed."
Mu Shaowu almost burst into tears because of his words.
He leaned over and hugged Ye Qingxi, coaxing her gently, "Don't be disappointed, our little Xi isn't disappointed. When May Day comes, Daddy will take you out to play. You can go wherever you want, Daddy will go with you."
"Mm." Ye Qingxi nodded.
Mu Shaowu lowered his head, kissed his eyebrows and eyes, and hugged him tightly.
If Ye Qingxi hadn't forbade it, he really wanted to call Grandpa Feng and ask him if he could stay with Ye Qingxi a little longer.
Let's just say he genuinely likes him, regardless of whether he is Feng Que's future son.
He said he still wanted to be good friends with him and continue exchanging photos of their cats and dogs.
He knew, of course, that they would eventually forget each other, but not now, not so suddenly. It should be gradual, slowly, step by step, unnoticed.
But this is yet another form of deception.
Ye Qingxi refused.
He couldn't do it either.
He had just told Ye Qingxi that this was the first and last time.
He can't lie to him anymore.
Mu Shaowu held his child tenderly, with a look of guilt.
He thought, if only Grandpa Feng really liked him.
When Feng Que returned to the Feng family, it was already dark.
Under the pitch-black night sky, Feng Que stood outside the door for two minutes before finally opening it.
Grandpa Feng was watching TV when he saw him return. He teased, "Why are you back so early? Didn't you go to find Shao Wu? What, did Shao Wu send you back?"
Phoenix Palace: ...
Feng Que looked at his grandfather, his eyes filled with indescribable heaviness, guilt, self-blame, and sorrow.
When Grandpa Feng saw him like this, he immediately stopped smiling.
"What happened? Did you and Shaowu have a fight?"
Feng Que shook his head.
He walked up to his grandfather, looked at him, but didn't know what to say.
"You child, say something! You're driving me crazy!"
"Grandpa, I..." Feng Que's voice was very low, "I..."
"What's wrong with you?!" Old Master Feng asked anxiously.
I'm sorry.
He lowered his head, unable to face his grandfather.
Grandpa Feng was puzzled. "What's wrong with you? What have you done to wrong me?"
I lied to you.
"Lie to me? Lie to me about what?"
The emperor found it difficult to speak of it.
He remained silent for a long while before finally speaking, "Mu Shaowu is not my boyfriend. I hired him to deceive my parents. I never expected my parents to tell you this, let alone that you would visit the film set and become close to Xiaoxi. I..."
Grandpa Feng looked at his grandson in shock, feeling as if there was something wrong with his ears.
"What did you say?! Mu Shaowu isn't your boyfriend?!"
Feng Que nodded and said frankly, "I don't want my parents to keep setting me up on blind dates, so..."
"So you found a fake one! To fool your parents?!"
Phoenix Palace: ...
Feng Que nodded again with difficulty.
"Nonsense!" Old Master Feng stood up angrily. "How could you come up with such a plan? How could you do such a thing?!"
He looked at his grandson, unable to believe it!
His favorite grandson!
His proudest grandson!
His grandson, whom he always trusted completely!
They actually did something so absurd!
He used to think it was just a joke when he saw TV shows about renting a boyfriend to take home for the New Year. But now, a real-life example is happening right around him, even written, directed, and acted by his famous director grandson.
"Even if you don't like it, you can't do this! How upset will your parents be if they find out?!"
Grandpa Feng said angrily, "Even if your parents are pushing you a bit too hard, they're not unreasonable or unable to distinguish right from wrong. Just talk to them properly, why lie to them!"
"I'm sorry," Feng Que said.
He was indeed annoyed at the time. He felt that he had crossed the Pacific Ocean from abroad to China, but he still couldn't escape his parents' arranged marriages.
So he thought of a way to solve the problem once and for all.
At that time, Feng Que had actually planned it out. When the agreed-upon deadline with Mu Shaowu arrived, he would say that they had broken up.
Mu Shaowu agreed.
However, neither of them expected Ye Qingxi to find out.
What he never expected was that his grandfather would give Ye Qingxi a valuable jade pendant, and that Ye Qingxi would return the jade pendant to him after discovering the truth.
Feng Que took the box out of his pocket and placed it on the table.
"Xiaoxi asked me to return this to you."
"Xiao Xi?"
"He overheard my conversation with Shaowu and discovered that we were pretending to be each other's boyfriends, so..."
So he realized that all the times he had been close to him, invited him to dinner, invited him to his home, sent him red envelopes for the New Year, and given him gifts were because he treated him like a future great-grandson.
Grandpa Feng sighed and slowly sat down.
This kid... really doesn't take advantage of others at all.
He had barely discovered it when he gave the gift to his grandson and asked him to return it.
Isn't it said that kids this age are all very possessive and self-centered, only thinking about themselves?
How come when it comes to Ye Qingxi, even the gifts she sent out can be returned?
"I'm sorry, Grandpa," Feng Que said in a deep voice.
"Of course you're sorry." Old Master Feng's anger hadn't subsided. "Not just to me, but also to your parents and Xiao Xi."
"I know, I will apologize to them."
"Is an apology all it takes? Does an apology erase the whole thing from memory?!"
Feng Que lowered his head and said sincerely, "I will do my best to make up for the impact of this matter."
"You'll make amends? How will you make amends? Will you at least stop hurting your parents, or at least stop upsetting Xiaoxi? You're all adults, yet you act so impulsively. When you think about problems, don't you consider the chain reaction and consequences this will cause?"
Feng Que obediently endured the scolding without uttering a single word in rebuttal.
Seeing how hard he was bending his neck, Old Master Feng's heart softened again.
After all, he was his own grandson, his only biological grandson. He was used to seeing him arrogant, confident, and radiant. Now, seeing him not daring to say a word and letting him scold him, he couldn't bear it.
"Of course, this can't be entirely your fault," Old Master Feng softened his tone, "Your parents also bear some responsibility. If they hadn't been pushing you so hard, you wouldn't have resorted to such a desperate measure."
“I also bear some responsibility.” His tone was soft, tinged with helplessness and weariness. “I’m getting old, and I’m always worried that I might not have a tomorrow. That’s why your parents want you to settle down as soon as possible. They were already anxious because you weren’t dating, and with my situation, they’ve been pushing you even harder. They can’t wait until I’m gone to see you get married, start a family, and have a wife and children.”
“It’s none of your business,” Feng Que quickly said. “This is none of your concern.”
Grandpa Feng raised his hand, indicating that he didn't need to say anything more.
This is not the time to talk about whether it's related or not. The event has already happened, and it's pointless to try to figure out whose fault it was.
What we should do now is solve the problem and deal with it.
"I don't understand," Grandpa Feng said, looking at his grandson. "Since you and Mu Shaowu have already planned to put on this act to deceive your parents, then you should have discussed how to end it. You can't really keep up this act forever, can you?"
Feng Que nodded. "Originally, we planned to wait a year before announcing that we had broken up."
“So I don’t understand,” said Grandpa Feng, “even if Xiao Xi found out, and Mu Shaowu decided to end this charade early for the sake of the child, you could have told me you broke up with him. As long as you said that, neither I nor your parents would know anything, and everything would still proceed as you expected. Why did you change your mind and decide to tell us the truth? What changed your previous decision and made you willing to be honest with me now?”
"Because when Xiaoxi gave me this jade pendant, she said something very true."
Feng Que looked at him and said, "He said I should apologize to you because your feelings were real. You weren't acting. In this fake boyfriend act, whether it was me or Mu Shaowu, we were all acting, pretending to have feelings for each other, pretending to like each other. Only you and Xiao Xi, only you two, truly had feelings for each other and liked each other. So you are the biggest victims of this act. You should know the truth and you should receive a sincere apology."
"and……"
Moreover, he feared that if he really said that his relationship with Mu Shaowu was just a so-called breakup, and not that they had never been together, then perhaps the relationship between his grandfather and Ye Qingxi should truly come to an end.
The relationship between ex-lovers is already delicate, and their relatives naturally find themselves in an awkward situation as well.
Ye Qingxi's attitude was already very clear when she returned the jade pendant to her grandfather.
He probably won't contact his grandfather again.
At this point, if his grandfather also mistakenly believes that he and Mu Shaowu have broken up, and is therefore too embarrassed to bother Mu Shaowu or continue his relationship with Ye Qingxi, then for Ye Qingxi, this will only deepen his suspicions and make him more convinced that their relationship is only based on the false identity of him.
“I know you like Xiaoxi very much, and Xiaoxi likes you very much too. My mistakes should not be paid for by you.”
"Regardless of whether Mu Shaowu and I are actually boyfriend and girlfriend, your feelings for each other are real, so I don't want to make up lies again and cause you unnecessary harm."
The relatives of a former lover are different from the relatives of a friend who was never together.
It would be difficult for the former to maintain their relationship.
The latter, on the other hand, can continue their relationship.
Therefore, only if he tells his grandfather the truth can their relationship continue and even develop in a healthier way.
This time, they will no longer have any secrets. They can directly skip over his so-called "romantic relationship" with Mu Shaowu and establish their own independent feelings.
He is no longer the link between us.
Based solely on their feelings.
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