Chapter 24: Desolation

Shen Lan's heart skipped a beat immediately.

Could Si Rong have found out something?

But that shouldn't be; every time he and Li Xuan were in public, they never crossed the line.

Their meetings were also arranged during his business trips, and every time, it was a genuine business trip.

It could be said there wasn't the slightest flaw, which was how they had been safe and sound for over a dozen years.

He smiled faintly, "Her? She's just a very ordinary middle-aged woman. To be honest, between these two friends of yours, I'd actually prefer you to hang out with Ming Zi."

He was quite good at spinning tales; Si Rong just watched his performance quietly, "Is that so? I thought you would like someone like Li Xuan."

"Nonsense! I only like someone like you!"

Shen Lan put his arm around her waist; this distance made Si Rong feel extremely repulsed.

She had no choice but to pretend to have motion sickness to move a bit further away from Shen Lan.

"Wife, are you alright?"

After the fake concern, Shen Lan still couldn't help but ask again, "Do you know that Jiang Cheng once wrote you a love letter back then?"

He didn't know why he had suddenly started caring about this matter.

Perhaps it was the possessiveness unique to men; he hoped he would always be the only man in Si Rong's heart.

He also hoped Si Rong would answer him, saying she knew about it, but no matter how outstanding Jiang Cheng was, she only had him in her heart.

Unfortunately, Si Rong did not do as he thought, only saying faintly, "I don't know."

The love letter had been hidden away by his mistress, so how would she know?

After this day, a heavy rain fell in Huaiyang.

Si Rong didn't want to stay at home, and most of the time she stayed in the dance studio with Ming Zi to rehearse dances.

On the day the rain stopped, she and Ming Zi were at the entrance watching a rainbow appear on the horizon.

The uncanny workmanship of nature was breathtaking.

Just as the two of them were watching intently, they saw Jiang Cheng walk down from a jeep by the side of the road, holding a young girl in her teens by the hand.

Si Rong remembered what Ming Zi had once said, that Jiang Cheng seemed to be raising his daughter by himself now.

The brows and eyes of this father and daughter were indeed quite similar.

They were actually heading toward their dance studio.

"Old classmate, we meet again."

There was a gentle luster in Jiang Cheng's phoenix eyes, "My daughter Jiang Zhi, she wants to come here and learn dance; are you still accepting students?"

"We are," Si Rong had originally planned to hire another Dance Teacher, and they were still continuously enrolling students, "Come in quickly!"

"Your daughter is truly beautiful!" Si Rong's words were not entirely out of flattery for an old classmate; Jiang Zhi was indeed extremely beautiful.

Her features were very well-defined.

It was just that the look in her eyes when she glanced at her was a bit strange.

Jiang Zhi was a freshman at Huaiyang No. 1 Middle School; her grades in academic subjects were average, but she loved dancing, so Jiang Cheng thought of sending her here to learn.

Si Rong took the father and daughter to tour the dance studio for a while, then asked in detail about Jiang Zhi's class schedule.

After communicating the class times, Jiang Cheng paid the fees and left with the child.

When class was held on Wednesday, it was replaced by an old Nainai with a head of silver hair who came to drop Jiang Zhi off for class.

The girl was placed in Si Rong's class; her physique was relatively flexible and talented among this batch of students.

Coincidentally, there were also Jiang Zhi's classmates in the dance class. During the break after class, Si Rong was originally getting water in the pantry, and Jiang Zhi was holding a pink water cup, drinking in small sips.

No one could dislike such a well-behaved girl.

Si Rong couldn't help but yearn as she watched; if only her body were normal, how wonderful it would be to be able to give birth to a daughter of her own.

During this period, her communication with Shen Yuan had decreased a lot; it seemed that between mother and daughter, as long as she stopped giving, there were no topics left.

She was watching Jiang Zhi's well-behaved profile in a daze.

The next second, she heard several chattering voices coming from the restroom next door.

"Do you know? That Jiang Zhi's parents are divorced!"

"Ah? Divorced? How pitiful."

"It really is pitiful. I heard no one wants her; now she seems to be living at her grandmother's house with her uncle."

Si Rong noticed Jiang Zhi's head slowly drooping, her expression somewhat vacant, and then she cleared her throat, and the voices of those girls became quieter.

She walked over and held Jiang Zhi's hand, "Do you like drinking osmanthus tea?"

Jiang Zhi's lips parted slightly in surprise, and then she said, "I do."

So Si Rong brewed her a cup of the osmanthus flower tea she often drank, and the two sat opposite each other in the elegant pantry.

"Don't throw away your whole day's happiness because of someone else's words; this is a sentence I find very meaningful, and I share it with you."

Perhaps because she hadn't raised a child herself, Si Rong felt she could talk to a young girl more like a friend.

When Jiang Cheng came to pick up Jiang Zhi, this was the scene he saw.

The corners of that person's eyes were rippling with a smile, which had once stunned his entire youth.

It was just that she now belonged to someone else.

Thinking of this, a huge sense of desolation filled his heart.