Chapter 256: No idea

Chen Liling and Chen Guiren were stunned.

“What?”

Jianyu said expressionlessly. “Yes. I want to be the CEO again. I want to get back to work.”

“But why so suddenly? What happened? Is everything alright with Serena?”

“Mom, please.” He said with a tone of finality. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Chen Liling was getting worried.

Her son looked so different tonight. It felt like he had built huge walls around his heart. He had changed and drastically. There was a storm in his eyes, which also looked lifeless at the same time.

Something terrible must have happened between them.

Did they fight? Did they break up?

Chen Liling said, “First, sit down Jianyu. I will make your favorite hot chocolate for you-“

“Mom, enough. I just came to tell you that I want to be back.”

She was startled with his cold tone. He had never talked like that. Chen Guiren squinted his eyes.

He put his hand on her shoulder. Chen Liling looked back at him, and he shook his head.

Chen Guiren nodded. “Okay. You can come tomorrow.”

Jianyu didn’t respond. He didn’t wait for a second longer and went out.

“Jianyu!” But he was gone. Chen Liling panicked. “Guiren, what is happening? Why is Jianyu behaving like that? He didn’t look like our Jianyu at all. He was so distant, so cold. I…I felt like there were no emotions, no feelings left in him anymore. He looked so…dead.”

“Liling calm down-“

“Guiren, I want to know what happened.” Chen Liling felt terribly anxious. “I cannot sit here when our son is like that. He was talking as if we were strangers. Please do something!”

Chen Guiren held her shoulders. “Liling, I will find out. But first, sit down.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Guiren…After so long, I saw him happy since the banquet night. But now…something serious has happened!”

Guiren nodded. He also understood it.

Just what storm was his son facing that made him change like that…

—

At the Huo villa, the family doctor was checking on Huo Shen. Huo Liwei stood at the side, worriedly looking at his father. He was pacing back and forth. Huo Xiao Fan was standing at a distance. Huo Liwei refused to let her even enter the room.

Her sight blurred due to tears, watching him in this condition. He looked so weak that it was making her more and more guilty of his state.

Shen…Please wake up…

The doctor gave an injection. He put down his stethoscope and looked at Liwei.

“Can we go outside?”

Liwei nodded and gestured towards outside.

Huo Xiao Fan immediately steadied herself.

Liwei anxiously asked, “Doctor, what happened to Dad? Why did he suddenly…”

The doctor said, “Thankfully, it was a small heart attack. If it had been a major one, then his condition could got have serious.”

Both froze.

Liwei exclaimed. “What!?”

He nodded. “Yes. But he is fine now and resting. You know he has diabetes. If he gets more stress, then it isn’t good for his health.”

Huo Xiao Fan was stunned. “Sh-Shen is diabetic?”

The doctor frowned. “You are his wife, right? You don’t know? He has had diabetes for nine years now.”

Huo Xiao Fan bit her lower lip and shamefully lowered her gaze.

‘I didn’t know…’

Liwei sneered. “It’s an alright, doctor—no need to tell her anything. My stepmother was busy with too many things all these years that her husband doesn’t matter to her anymore. She doesn’t know anything about him. By the way, Xiao Fan…” He looked at her. “Even Zhilan knows about his condition. Guess you were the only one in the dark. You couldn’t bother, right?”

She kept quiet.

The doctor awkwardly smiled. He sighed as he found himself in the middle of Huo’s family problems.

But the wife not knowing her husband’s condition…even if the relationship is not amicable, the partners usually know about such things as the health condition of their spouse.

“I have given an injection, and here are some medicines. He will be fine by tomorrow morning.”

Liwei nodded while the doctor left.

Huo Xiao Fan was walking towards the room when Liwei harshly pushed her away. “Where the fuck do you think you are going?” He growled in anger.

“I want to see him.” She said in a low voice.

Liwei clenched his fingers into a fist. He really wanted to throw this woman out.

“Get. Out.” He pronounced each word, gritting his teeth hard. “I already said that you don’t need to act like you care about him. So, why don’t you get busy in reminiscing your happy memories of that bastard Yu Tengfei like you always do? And like how you always ignore my Dad. Nothing has changed. For you, nothing can ever change. So, get the hell out.”

His words cut her like the sharpest knife in the world.

Always remembering Tengfei, …right…I have done nothing but only think about him.

She didn’t respond and quietly turned away. She ambled as if in a daze and reached her room.

Huo Xiao Fan collapsed at the corner of the bed on the floor.

“He has diabetes.” She muttered to herself. “I had no idea.”

“He knew everything. But I had no idea.”

“He loved me. But I had no idea.”

“He was suffering all this time. But I had no idea.”

“He was hiding his pain. But I had no idea.”

Then she slowly remembered how Huo Shen had once asked her to go for a vacation when everything would be over. But he brushed it off as a joke, seeing her hesitation.

She laughed, mocking herself. “He really wanted to go on a vacation, didn’t he? He wanted to spend time with me. But once again, I had no idea.”

As she said it, Huo Xiao Fan realized the fruitlessness of these twenty-two years that she wasted behind Yu Tengfei. She hopelessly chased behind a man who was never hers, to begin with.

Illusion, lie, deception…She lived in a lie for twenty-two years, which Huo Shen couldn’t even shed light on it even if he wanted to.

Her love, her revenge for a man who never deserved it. And the man always standing behind her back got nothing.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. She choked on her sobs as she was feeling breathless.

“How can I be so cruel to Shen? Why did I become so heartless…How could I do this to Shen?”

Who can understand the pain of an unrequited love better than herself? She knows how hurtful it is. She understands the loneliness it brings when the person you love doesn’t return your feelings.

And Huo Shen lived with that pain for twenty-two years… When every second is a torture, when every moment stabs your heart like a dagger is thrown at it, Huo Shen gave away twenty-two years to her and with not even a single complaint out of his mouth. And twenty-two years was not a short period.

No matter how hurt he was, he always had a smile on his face. He loved Serena so much like it felt she was his biological daughter, and so much so that he never wanted her to be the part of her revenge.

And now Huo Xiao Fan was feeling his pain, which she should have a long time ago.

“Shen…I…I’m sorry Shen…I’m sorry Shen…Shen, Shen, Shen, please forgive me…”

Huo Xiao Fan clutched her dress and silently cried her heart out.

Twenty-two years were gone, and no matter how much she wanted now, she couldn’t turn back the time. What was lost was lost forever.

—

The next morning, Nana slowly opened her eyes. She didn’t have any wish to get up. She was staring ahead in a daze at the empty space. Serena’s betrayal was still weighing heavily on her heart.

Then, she felt a soft peck on her cheek, and a warm voice breathed into her ear. “Good morning, wife.”

Nana turned her gaze at Jinhai and silently looked at him. “Good morning…” There was not the usual vigor in her voice.

Naturally, he understood that.

Jinhai asked, “Nana.”

She didn’t respond, but he knew she was listening.

“Why don’t we go on a trip somewhere?”

Jinhai felt that a change of place would really help Nana to forget about what happened and slowly move on. If she kept on with her regular routine, she would always remember what happened, and it would become difficult to deal with it. Not that he didn’t want to give her some time to sort out her feelings, but since she was pregnant too, it wasn’t wise to stress out and be depressed.

He thought that Nana would reject his idea, but to his surprise, she nodded.

Jinhai smiled and pecked her lips. “I will make the arrangements.”

Then Nana tugged his shirt. “Before the trip, I want to see Mom once.”

He nodded. “Alright, I will take you to her.”

—

Jinhai stepped out of the room, and just at that time, Assistant Xin called him.

“Sir, as you said, Huo Corps shares are rapidly going down. I’m keeping all updates. They would be bankrupt in no time.”

“Good.”

He cut the call and curled the corner of his lips into a sly smile. Now, he just had to wait for a certain call.