Chapter 66: Who Exactly Are You?

The man was momentarily stunned.

When he saw that the man beside her was Gu Yunci, he yanked his hand back.

Though he was the president of the Calligraphy and Painting Expert Committee, in plain terms, it was just a folk organization.

To some extent, he still had to rely on the Gu Clan for a living, so he dared not offend his patron.

"President Gu, you've misunderstood. I was just joking with Miss Meng."

After saying that, he turned his eyes to Meng Shutang. "Miss Meng, I had a little to drink today. Please forgive my rudeness.

I don't usually make things difficult for my fellow women."

Meng Shutang stood gracefully without a word.

The man left in disgrace.

"Thank you." Several times a day, he had come to her rescue.

The man could tell she was genuinely grateful to him. He instinctively grabbed her hand, wanting to pull her into his embrace. "Tangtang..."

Meng Shutang took a step back, a flicker of panic in her brow. Seeing this, the man promptly let go of her hand.

The sky was dark as though soaked in ink. The autumn rain pattered incessantly, and the evening wind carried a chill.

She hadn't brought an umbrella. If she walked home, her clothes would be drenched.

Before having her child, let alone rain this heavy—even rain far worse wouldn't have fazed her.

But she hadn't properly observed her postpartum confinement, leaving her with a chronic ailment.

If she went out in the rain, she'd get a headache again when she got back.

Just thinking about the headaches made Meng Shutang's heart fill with dread.

An umbrella was pressed into her hand. Their fingertips brushed inadvertently, and both of them froze for a moment.

"It's for you. Go on home."

Looking at the man's handsome, refined face, Meng Shutang's heart stirred slightly.

Could it be that he had always been this good, and there had been some misunderstanding when they separated back then?

But then she thought of the collapse of the display rack at Wenlüxiaozhen and the bead bracelet slipping off at the collection exhibition—both incidents had clearly been Bai Cixian framing her.

With his ability, he wouldn't even need to investigate; he could see it at a glance.

Yet he had simply let her be wronged.

Those two incidents had ruined her reputation.

If not for the selection mechanism of that national-level project "Literature as Foundation," in which she won the bid—

no company would ever have approached her again.

Thinking of this, and especially of her pale-faced mother on the hospital bed, the faint warmth in her heart slowly cooled once more.

Meng Shutang opened the umbrella and left.

She hadn't gone far when Chen Man's call came through.

"Tangtang, didn't you ask me to find your father?"

Meng Shutang's footsteps halted. "You have news about my dad? All these years, he hasn't been in Jiangcheng?

He must have been—otherwise, how could he not have come to visit me and Mom!

Where is he?"

She was too excited—she was about to see the father she had yearned for day and night.

"Tangtang, don't get too excited. Things might... not be quite what you think."

Meng Shutang grew anxious. "Is my dad sick too? What illness? I have the means now—no matter what it is, I'll find the best hospital, the most authoritative doctor, and get him cured."

"He doesn't deserve it..."

Chen Man hesitated. "Tangtang, I'll send you the address. You go ahead, but don't get too excited. I'm nearby, so I'll head over and wait for you."

Meng Shutang hung up the phone, saw the address Chen Man had sent, but didn't go directly.

Gu Yunci was still here watching, so she went home first. Only after seeing him drive away did she go downstairs and drive over.

A forty-minute drive, she made it in twenty.

She stood before the Camellia Hall of Junyan Restaurant.

The instant she saw Meng Zhibang through the window lattice, Meng Shutang thought it was an illusion.

In the warm yellow light, she quietly watched the man she hadn't seen for fourteen whole years, sitting at the table, carefully peeling a shrimp.

His temples were lightly dusted with frost, and his brow carried a few more shades of worldly weariness, yet he seemed as gentle as in her childhood.

It was this gentle man who, after she turned fourteen and Zhou Xingfan became a vegetative patient, helped her send Zhou Xingfan to Jiangcheng Yiyuan and paid the first installment of medical fees—then vanished completely from their lives.

Fourteen years, over five thousand days and nights—she had imagined countless possibilities.

She thought he had gone to prison, thought he was ill, thought he was dead... yet it had never occurred to her that he had been in Jiangcheng all along, perfectly fine.

"Yue'er, the first shrimp is for you." With a gentle unfamiliarity, Meng Zhibang smiled and placed the peeled shrimp onto the plate of the woman beside him.

Yue'er...

Those two words fell softly on her ears, carrying an indescribable trace of bitterness.

She clearly shouldn't know this person, but why—upon hearing this name—did she feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity?

Meng Shutang followed his gaze and saw a woman in a white dress, her features gentle and docile, her lips holding a perfectly measured shyness, looking clean and harmless.

Meng Shutang stood frozen in place, her hands and feet ice-cold, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

Bai Lianyue!

The woman being treated with such patience and gentleness by Meng Zhibang was actually Bai Lianyue.

Bai Lianyue was Zhou Xingfan's close friend, her bestie.

After Zhou Xingfan fell ill, Bai Lianyue had even come to Jiangcheng Yiyuan to visit her a few times.

Later, she didn't come anymore.

Meng Shutang still thought her feelings for her mother had faded; after all, Zhou Xingfan was in a vegetative state, unable to speak or move, so their relationship was distant, which was understandable.

But then she suddenly thought of something, and Meng Shutang gradually felt relieved.

Bai Lianyue was the adopted daughter of her grandmother Li Xiuyun; in childhood, both grandmother and mother called her "Yuer Yuer".

I suppose Meng Zhibang is the same as them!

Between them, it probably isn't the kind of relationship she imagined.

Moreover, Bai Lianyue is a good person and would never do anything wrong to her mother.

While thinking, Meng Zhibang peeled another shrimp and placed it on the girl's plate beside him.

"Try this, it's fresh."

Meng Shutang turned her gaze and saw a girl sitting with her back to her, also wearing a white dress, slender waist, but her face couldn't be seen clearly.

She struggled to stay upright, her steps as if filled with lead, walking to the doorway.

The door creaked open, and Meng Zhibang lifted his head.

Upon seeing Meng Shutang, he didn't recognize her at first; but once he saw her brows and eyes clearly, he sprang up, his face turning deathly pale.

Meng Zhibang had a delicate, scholarly appearance; Meng Shutang's brows and eyes resembled his.

Bai Lianyue wasn't too surprised, just panicked to the point of being unable to hold her cup.

Meng Shutang's attention was wholly on the girl in the white dress; upon seeing her face clearly, her pupils constricted in shock, and she could barely stand.

But she forced herself to greet them, saying, "Why are you all stunned? Am I interrupting your family of three having dinner?"

The three still didn't utter a sound.

"Since you won't speak, then I'll ask, Dad……"

Meng Shutang's voice was hoarse; even she herself couldn't tell it was her calling him.

Meng Zhibang's gentle expression froze, replaced by evasion, panic, and a hint of embarrassment at having his secret exposed.

"How did you come here?"

After not seeing each other for fourteen years, his first words were actually an accusation.

She didn't look at him, her eyes fixed tightly on the girl in the white dress.

"Who exactly are you?!"