Chapter 204: Long-Standing

"How many more grandiose excuses do you still want to make for yourself?"

Lu Xiwán's lips curled slightly upward, her icy gaze fixed on Fu Sijue.

The deep affection in his eyes was so familiar to her, yet also so alien.

How could Fu Sijue have the nerve to say such things?

"You may claim your unwavering love for me, but what then is Gu Qingmeng's existence? What do the things I saw with my own eyes even count for?"

Lu Xiwán alone bears those dark memories, and now Fu Sijue's remark—having waited for her so many years, he wants to uncover the past—feels like a betrayal.

"Those are all misunderstandings..." Fu Sijue grasped Lu Xiwán's hand.

Yao Yao watched from afar, feeling that something was off.

"Mommy doesn't look very happy..." Yao Yao said with furrowed brows, worried.

Lu Xixi was unfazed, and comforted Yao Yao, "Mommy is probably so overjoyed that she hasn't reacted yet; they'll be here soon."

Fu Sijue only said half of it, then awkwardly lowered his head.

Lu Xiwán thought he didn't want to explain, and coldly brushed his hand away.

"What's the point of saying this now?"

Not only can it not change the past, it will only make her think Fu Sijue is deliberately trying to win her back.

"You have to give me a chance to explain." Fu Sijue's demeanor was unusually firm, his gaze on Lu Xiwán's eyes even more earnest.

Her eyes slowly settled on his face, but Lu Xiwán could only think of laughing.

His explanation came too late; the moment Lu Xiwán needed it had long passed.

"Yao Yao is your child with Gu Qingmeng." Though she no longer cared about the matter, a hint of disappointment involuntarily flashed in Lu Xiwán's eyes.

Between her and Fu Sijue lay thousands of mountains and rivers; no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't fill the gap of these years.

Fu Sijue couldn't suppress a flash of joy, and he slightly turned his body to look toward Yao Yao in the distance.

"Yao Yao is not my child." Fu Sijue deliberately lowered his voice and whispered into Lu Xiwán's ear.

He lifted his gaze and met Lu Xiwán's stunned stare.

"I don't ask you to forgive me, only to give me a chance. Years ago, during an avalanche, Gu Qingmeng saved my life; to repay that debt, Gu Qingmeng arranged for me to be with her."

This was the beginning of all the nightmares.

Back then, Gu Qingmeng said she wanted him to help fend off the school's boys' advances, repeatedly promising that once she found someone she liked, she would leave him.

Fu Sijue believed her words.

Fu Sijue's eyes were filled with sorrow that didn't seem acted, and Lu Xiwán fell into contemplation.

"After I married you, Gu Qingmeng didn't come to see me for a while, but she said someone was harassing her and asked me to investigate. I never imagined the scenes we deliberately staged would be seen by you."

Then their relationship cracked, and Gu Qingmeng gradually carried out her sinister plan.

"What about the child? Did President Fu go so far as to produce a child to repay Miss Gu's love?" Lu Xiwán's voice couldn't help being a bit agitated; she was eager to learn the truth behind the incident that almost cost her life back then.

"Back then, Gu Qingmeng was with Fu He Song; not long after, Fu He Song went abroad. At that time, Gu Qingmeng was found to be pregnant. She begged desperately, saying that even for the sake of the Fu Family's reputation, I must acknowledge this child."

Saying that, Fu Sijue inhaled, "If I were to mention other reasons, my uncle and my cousin really aren't people worth entrusting."

No matter what Gu Qingmeng did, the child is ultimately innocent.

"So I acknowledged Yao Yao; all these years, for Yao Yao's reputation, I never exposed Gu Qingmeng's lies."

A bitterness rose in Lu Xiwán's heart.

"Then how did you know it was Gu Qingmeng who saved you back then?"

"Gu Qingmeng could be considered someone who grew up with me; that overseas trip, children from several prestigious families of Haicheng all went."