Chapter 40: A Real Man

Looking at Shen Yilong and Zhu Kailan, their eyes red-rimmed, sitting by his bedside, Shen Jiafeng said apologetically, "Dad, Mom, I'm sorry."

Shen Yilong opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing, only letting out a sigh.

Zhu Kailan sat beside him wiping her tears. A child she gave birth to herself—no matter how infuriating, she could never truly hate him.

Shen Jiajia had arranged the best doctors for a consultation on Shen Jiafeng's behalf, but the conclusion they reached was only to do their best and leave the rest to fate. Some illnesses really can only be left to luck.

Especially for someone like Shen Jiafeng in the late stages, with only a few days left to live.

When he went downstairs at noon to buy food, Shen Mo saw Shen Yilong sitting alone in the garden, smoking and wiping away tears.

After a moment's thought, Shen Mo delivered the food upstairs, then came over and sat down beside Shen Yilong.

In Shen Mo's memory, Shen Yilong had always been an elegant, calm, silent, dependable, thoroughly manly fellow.

The most deeply etched memory was from when he was nine, when Shen Mo was being bullied at school.

In the end, it was Grandma who found Shen Mo. The little old lady flew into a rage upon hearing what happened, dragged Shen Mo to the school and caused a tremendous scene.

But what could a small child plus a tiny old lady really accomplish, no matter how big a fuss they made?

The teacher, devoid of professional ethics, uttered that line: it must be that your grandson has a problem—otherwise why wouldn't they bully someone else's kid?

Furious, Grandma called Shen Yilong on the phone.

Shen Mo hadn't expected Shen Yilong to come. After all, he had heard Grandma talk about his own background. Grandma had told him that love cannot be begged for, especially when one's very existence is a harm to others—at such times one must learn to love oneself.

So Shen Mo truly hadn't expected Shen Yilong to come.

But the result was that Shen Yilong did come, striding forward against the light.

After hearing Grandma's account of the school bullying incident, Shen Yilong said nothing. The next day he brought his bodyguards, took Shen Mo to the school, and—smack, smack—gave the teacher two slaps across the face, then said coolly, "If you weren't in the wrong, why would I hit you?"

The words were thrown right back.

Then Shen Yilong reported the teacher's bribery to the Education Bureau, effectively ending the teacher's career on the spot.

After that, Shen Yilong took Shen Mo door to door to confront each family. He did nothing—merely had his bodyguards work out in front of those parents, and produced a divorce certificate, documents showing no assets under his name, and a mental illness certificate.

Those parents were so terrified that they beat their own children savagely in front of Shen Mo.

Afterward, Shen Yilong said coolly to Shen Mo, "I don't like you, and I don't love you either. But you are my son, so I have the responsibility to take care of you."

At that moment Shen Yilong paused, then said coolly, "Remember—it's responsibility."

Back then, Shen Mo was a little puzzled, but since he didn't yearn much for parental love, he didn't say anything more about it.

Later, as he grew older, Shen Mo came to understand the meaning behind Shen Yilong's words that day. It was a man's first lesson: responsibility. Shen Yilong was teaching Shen Mo by example to learn how to bear it.

After finishing one cigarette, Shen Yilong reached for another and only then realized he was out.

"Try one of mine."

Shen Mo handed Shen Yilong one.

The two sat by the flower bed, beginning to blow clouds of smoke.

After a long while, Shen Yilong slowly spoke, "Thank you for this time."

"It's nothing." Shen Mo said very calmly, "You and Aunt Zhu have helped me a lot, and taught me a lot of things. Repaying you a little is only right."

Shen Yilong fell silent again. After a while, he said, "Want to come into the company?"

"Or want to start your own company?"

"I don't want to." It was a refusal without hesitation.

After finishing a cigarette, Shen Yilong got up and went upstairs.

When Shen Mo finished his and prepared to leave, he saw Liu Yue not far away, smiling.

A little awkward.

He'd been caught smoking.

Liu Yue walked straight over, pulled a cigarette from Shen Mo's pack, took a deep drag, exhaled, and said with relief, "I've been dying for one." Well then, no more awkwardness.

Later, Shen Mo learned that Liu Yue had quit a long time ago.

【Having a wife by my side feels really wonderful.】

After finishing a cigarette, Liu Yue took Shen Mo by the hand and walked him out of the hospital.

In Liu Yue's words, her husband had kept her company at the hospital all night, so it was time he got some rest too.

Shen Mo was happy.

【Nothing in this world makes a person happier than having a wife who cares for me.】

The excited Shen Mo tried to comfort Liu Yue, but was refused, because…

"Doing that sort of thing in broad daylight isn't very nice."

"Besides, there's still a lot going on these next few days—we need to conserve our energy."

【A little disappointed, but it's alright.】

Over the next few days, Shen Mo followed Liu Yue in and out of Liu Group, accompanied Li Mingming to her lawsuit, and went to the hospital to visit Shen Jiafeng.

Within Liu Group there were large numbers of students who had been sponsored through school by the Liu Family.

These people grew up receiving the Liu Family's benefits. As adults, they lived in housing provided by Liu Group, earned stable high salaries, and had no pressure from daily life, making them extremely loyal to the Liu Group.

So Liu Group's problems were not significant—everything was moving forward in an orderly fashion, with large amounts of cash flowing in every day, and crucially, very little debt.

The little debt that existed was the banks begging Liu Group to take out loans.

This made Shen Mo quite emotional—what a big group, truly impressive.

Li Mingming's lawsuit progressed quickly. Under the professional legal team Liu Yue hired with a flood of money, the opposing party's evidence of fraud, marriage scam, home invasion robbery, and assault was collected perfectly. On top of that, Liu Yue bought publicity so that the whole internet knew about the other side's freeloading and "eating the heirless" behavior.

Under Liu Yue's manipulation, the court quickly handed down a sentence.

This made Liu Yue famous for a time, and Liu Group along with her.

Everyone discovered that over the years the Liu Group had rescued quite a few orphans and single mothers raising children.

It was also at this time that Shen Mo discovered that beneath Liu Group there was also an intermediary company for nannies and childcare workers, providing jobs for many single women.

Of course, there's a moral assessment involved.

The Liu family's actual charitable acts were also officially commended by Jinghai City authorities because of this fame, and in the officials' words, the Liu family lived up to the title of a century-old establishment.

Afterwards, Liu family products sold like hotcakes.

The only surprise was that Liu Xinhua also exposed Liu Qingqing's charitable work, letting Liu Qingqing ride this wave to whitewash her reputation a bit.

Shen Jiafeng's illness, under the specialist consultation, ultimately only received the latest conservative treatment.

The results were very poor.

Shen Jiajia and Shen Jiayun wanted to go take revenge on the yellow-haired girl's family, but were stopped by Shen Jiafeng.

Shen Jiafeng said with a dim expression: "Meeting the wrong person was my own poor judgment, but as a man, I can't push all the blame onto a woman."

"Although she was greedy and lacked vision, we were husband and wife after all. She gave me a different kind of first love, and she's still the mother of my child. So, arranging a way out for her is also something I should do."

Shen Mo thought Shen Jiafeng spoke quite well, quite manly of him, just a bit of a love-brained fool.

Yesterday I didn't stir-fry the green beans thoroughly, gave myself a bit of food poisoning, went to get an IV drip.

So, this just proves the importance of keeping a dog.

Today I'll keep stir-frying; I refuse to believe it.

(End of chapter)