Chapter 31: Stop Playing Hard to Get

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Song Shijing’s eyes were bloodshot as he gripped Meng Shuyue tightly by the throat. His furious roar nearly burst her eardrums.

“Go and get rid of that bastard, and we’ll get back together. Otherwise, don’t expect me to marry you!”

“Keep your voice down. You’ll frighten the baby in my belly!”

Meng Shuyue rubbed her aching ears, utterly unfazed by his behavior.

After all, she had already died once. How could she possibly be frightened by a bookish fool like him?

She stared speechlessly at the man before her. She had never imagined that even after she had taken the initiative to leave him, this conceited man would still think she wanted to marry him.

Then again, it made sense.

The old her had fawned over him far too much, indulging his every whim. Wherever he went, she followed, making him believe she could never live without him.

Still, she was curious. He clearly no longer cared about her and had even agreed to let Song Shiyu pursue her. So why was he suddenly so fixated on the fact that she was carrying another man’s child?

Song Shijing released his grip in shock. Staring at her indifferent expression, his face grew darker and darker.

“You don’t want to get rid of the child? You truly don’t want a future with me?”

A trace of panic and unease flashed through his eyes. In the past, whenever he lost his temper and threatened to call off their engagement, she would become frantic, agreeing to whatever he wanted and accepting any condition he imposed.

He still vividly remembered the period after they had first been sent to the countryside, when he had proposed giving her nursing position to Su Yanyan.

She had objected just as strongly then.

But the moment he mentioned breaking off their engagement, she had been so terrified that she had clung to him through her tears and agreed to his demand.

Yet now, he was merely asking her to abort the child—a minor matter, in his eyes—and she did not take his words seriously at all.

Song Shijing laughed in fury. He cast a cold glance at the woman before him and finally said icily, “Don’t push this little game of playing hard to get too far. You may find yourself unable to clean up the mess.”

“Get out of my way.”

Meng Shuyue shoved Song Shijing aside, pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped her neck with an expression of disgust.

“Who would want a lecherous doctor like you, all false virtue and hypocrisy? You pretended to examine your foster sister, then got her pregnant!”

After wiping herself, she tossed the handkerchief into the trash and added, “Don’t worry. I’m not playing hard to get. I’ve already agreed to marry your younger brother, so stop flattering yourself.”

“Meng Shuyue!”

Song Shijing’s eyes nearly split with rage. Watching the woman walk away without even looking back, he slammed his fist into the wall. Pain shot through him, and he quickly withdrew his hand, clutching his scraped knuckles and yelping.

He hurried after her. Outside, Meng Shuyue was crouching down to pick up her clothes. Song Shijing abruptly wrapped an arm around Su Yanyan’s waist and ordered in a tone of condescending charity, “Move into the storage room at the back. Yanyan is heavily pregnant, so let her have your room. Besides, this room originally belonged to Uncle. If he comes back and finds out you dirtied it, he certainly won’t let you off. I’m only doing this for your own good!”

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Meng Shuyue nodded and answered with an indifferent “Oh,” accepting his decision without the slightest concern. She packed up the luggage on the floor and moved into the gloomy, cramped room at the back.

Seeing how unconcerned she was, Song Shijing inexplicably grew even angrier. His hand tightened around Su Yanyan’s waist, making her frown in pain.

“Shijing, what’s wrong? Thank you for giving me the largest room. Why don’t you come and share it with me?”

Song Shijing hurriedly released her waist, his face full of remorse.

“Yanyan, I only did that to make Shuyue angry. Don’t take it to heart. I’ve always regarded you as my younger sister.”

“Your younger sister?”

Su Yanyan’s eyes widened, and tears instantly filled them.

Choking back sobs, she said, “Then what about the child in my belly? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t let people laugh at me for giving birth to a bastard? Didn’t you say you would be the father of my child? Why are you still thinking of marrying someone else? Sob, sob… I might as well die!”

Her weeping continued without pause.

A pang of tenderness rose in Song Shijing’s heart, accompanied by overwhelming guilt.

After all, it had been she who had braved the freezing winter waters to rescue him years ago, giving him a second chance at life.

So even though he had no romantic feelings for her, he was still obligated to protect her for the rest of his life.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you and the child for the rest of your lives. But I only want to marry Shuyue.”

Song Shijing reached out and drew the tearful Su Yanyan into his arms, his eyes filled with conflict.

“Don’t worry. I’ll hold a wedding banquet for you and give you a proper status in front of everyone. As for Shuyue, I must register my marriage with her. She can only be my wife!”

At the corridor, Meng Shuyue had finished moving her clothes and returned to pick up the daily necessities scattered across the floor.

She stood at the corner.

When she heard Song Shijing utter such absurd words, the wound in her heart—one that had finally scabbed over and begun to heal—seemed to be ripped open once more by a merciless claw.

It was not because she still had feelings for this man. It was the humiliation of having her sincerity trampled beneath someone’s feet. The pain spread through her chest in waves, leaving it cold and aching. She could not believe that such a bastard existed—someone capable of treating another person’s genuine devotion with such contempt.

How could he say that he would register his marriage with her, yet hold a wedding banquet with Su Yanyan and give Su Yanyan’s child a legitimate status?

She had no trouble believing that even if the child in her belly were Song Shijing’s, he would still give Su Yanyan and her child recognition first.

So was her own child simply destined to be called a bastard by everyone else?

If he loved Su Yanyan so much, then he could register his marriage with Su Yanyan. She had heard that Su Yanyan had already divorced Zhou Dajun. Why, then, did he have to come and provoke her?

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Meng Shuyue clenched her teeth, regretting everything so deeply that her guts twisted.

Had she known Song Shijing was such a bastard, she never would have leapt into the lake to pull him ashore. She should have let that worthless little scoundrel drown. Then she would not have had to die once, nor waste so many years of her life.

She stopped looking at the two of them and returned to the smaller storage room at the back of the house.

The room was at the very rear of the courtyard. Although it was filled with assorted belongings and smaller than the one she had occupied before, it was still larger than her room at the traditional medicine clinic, so she had no real reason to complain.

Besides, she was pregnant now. It was inconvenient to return to her parents’ home with a swollen belly and endure the pointing and whispering of acquaintances, so she could only swallow her grievances and remain here.

But after Song Shijing, using Su Yanyan’s advanced pregnancy as an excuse, moved into the Song residence because it was inconvenient for her to stay elsewhere, he moved into the storage room as well.

For some time afterward, Song Shijing was searching everywhere for a storefront so he could open a small clinic after the hospital dismissed him.

Meng Shuyue, meanwhile, was also searching for a place to open a traditional medicine clinic. Song Shiyu accompanied her, rushing around from morning to night and scouring every street and alley for a suitable storefront. As a result, the three of them lived in relative peace at the residence and rarely crossed paths.

During that period, a letter arrived from the south every other day.

As soon as evening came, Meng Shuyue would excitedly take the letter from the box and hurry back to her room to open it. The next day, she would go to the post office to send her reply.

The letters were filled with descriptions from her husband, whom she had never met, about the disasters in the south, along with amusing little stories from his daily life.

Unlike before, today’s letter ended with several astonishing lines:

“Are you in good health? I miss you!”

Those few brief words were enough to make her cheeks burn.

As she touched the thin paper and traced the man’s bold, powerful handwriting, she could not help imagining what he looked like.

Her husband served in the same military unit as the maternal uncle of the three Song brothers. She wondered whether they would try to sow discord between them and deliberately make things difficult for him.

Her thoughts in disarray, she took out the fountain pen she had just bought and began writing her reply on the letter paper.

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