Chapter 202: It

Seeing him deny it without a second thought, Zhu Yuan became even more certain, "It was exactly what you said!"

"Heh..."

Sheng Yu's lips curled up, a clear flash of amusement in his eyes. His arms tightened around her without a sound, pulling her close into his embrace, and he said with a frank expression, "That was too long ago, I don't remember."

What a fine "don't remember"!

Zhu Yuan might believe others had a bad memory, but she would never believe Sheng Yu had one!

Too many years had passed, and she had forgotten the events of that day herself.

Reminded by Sheng Yu, some images finally flooded into her mind.

She remembered that the Lunar New Year that year was very warm. Her grandfather had taken her to the Jingguantai to play. She remembered she had stuffed her pockets with many candies that day, and was holding a lollipop in her hand, taking pictures everywhere in the scenic area.

That day, she saw a handsome older boy, older than her, sitting in a corner, looking very depressed.

Before her grandfather went to the restroom, he had warned her not to run around. Bored, she walked up to him with the lollipop in her mouth.

Since she was a child, she had been a helpful, good kid. She took a candy out of her pocket and handed it to him, "Here, have some candy! My grandpa said eating candy makes people feel better, because eating candy makes the human body secrete some... what was it? I forgot what it's called, but it's a good thing anyway."

The boy raised his eyes and glanced at her, "I'm a kidnapper, go away."

"Yo-ho!" She let out a cry and retreated rapidly, the flesh on her face jiggling up and down.

That candy fell from her hand the moment she retreated, and the boy caught it casually.

Whether it was because her movements were funny or something else, the boy looked at her and suddenly curled his lips in a smile, "Like a little pink pig."

She immediately turned red with embarrassment and raised her voice to retort, "Let me tell you, just because you're a kidnapper doesn't mean you can be picky and insult people! I'm not a little pig, I am... I am..."

"Fatty Yuan!"

Not far away, her grandfather had come out of the restroom and couldn't see her, so he called out to her anxiously.

As soon as she heard her grandfather call her nickname, her face turned completely red. She glared at the boy with a fierce, childish look before running toward her grandfather.

That boy's face overlapped with the mature, cold face before her—was it not him!

Watching her look puffed up like a little kitten that had been provoked, Sheng Yu felt a softness in the depths of his heart.

He had always cared little about what others thought, and even less about a woman's emotions. Even when his mother was still alive, the most he would do was fob her off after she nagged him.

Yet he had never treated other women the way he treated Zhu Yuan; beyond the softness, there was pity and wild joy.

"Calling you a little pink pig was a compliment," he said with a straight face.

"I gave you candy, and you actually called me a little pink pig! I was so angry at the time I wanted to snatch the candy back, but in the blink of an eye, you were gone. Luckily, I'm a girl who has been generous and tolerant since I was little, thinking I wouldn't hold it against you. But just because you laughed at me for being a little pink pig, I started dieting as soon as I got home!"

Although the process of dieting was very long, after all, she was only eight years old at the time, the age when she loved to eat.

Her single sentence, "I want to diet," had broken her family's hearts.

Her grandfather stopped calling her "Fatty Yuan," praising her slim, devilish figure every day. Her older brother cooked delicious food for her himself to coax her, and her parents took her on trips to clear her mind, letting her taste delicacies from all over.

"You've cared about what I said since you were little?" A smug smile hung in Sheng Yu's eyes.

"You're still laughing!" Zhu Yuan pounded his chest with her small, pink fists.

Sheng Yu took the opportunity to grab her hand and press it against his heart, his gaze fixed on her eyes, which were as clear and bright as they were when she was a child.

His voice was very low, very slow, "I ate that candy later."

Zhu Yuan was slightly stunned.

She hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now that she knew that boy was Sheng Yu, she had assumed someone with his personality wouldn't eat candy.

Just as she was about to speak, the strength in Sheng Yu's grip on her hand increased, his eyes as dark as the night.

Zhu Yuan's spine suddenly stiffened.

New Year's Day, fourteen years ago.

New Year's Day.

Wasn't that the time Sheng Yu's mother passed away?

But, the woman with Sheng Yu in that photo—Sheng Yu had clearly said it was his mother.

Could it be...

After the mother and son left the Jingguantai that day, did Sheng Yu's mother pass away?

It might even have been their last photo together.

Thinking of this possibility, Zhu Yuan's eyes were filled with heartache. She held Sheng Yu's hand in return, pressed her face against his chest, and said softly, "Can you tell me what happened?"

Against the chest she leaned on, the heart beat with an abnormal calmness.

"Do you want to know?"

"Mm."

The vibration caused by his speech against her ear made Zhu Yuan's heart ache.

"She ignored the advice of her grandfather and the others, insisting on giving Sheng Hongyao one more chance. She believed Sheng Hongyao would definitely turn over a new leaf. That day, when we returned to Kyoto City, we were kidnapped on the way home. The kidnappers told her to call Sheng Hongyao, but Sheng Hongyao was busy taking Shen Yijing to buy gifts, ignoring our lives. When the kidnappers couldn't get the ransom, they set a fire, wanting to burn us to death. She pushed me out of the sea of fire with all her might. By the time I rushed back in, I couldn't save her."

His calm, almost cold narration stirred up monstrous waves in Zhu Yuan's heart.

She could sense his resentment, his regret, and his self-reproach.

To this day, she finally understood why Sheng Yu hated Sheng Hongyao and Shen Yijing so much.

For so many years, he had carried so much.

Sheng Yu's warm, broad palm gently cradled the back of Zhu Yuan's head, "That night, the residents at the foot of the mountain discovered the fire. By the time the rescue team arrived, I had already passed out. When I woke up, my mother was already in the morgue. When I sat there, my whole body was numb. I couldn't feel pain, I couldn't feel cold, and I couldn't feel fear..."

Suddenly, Zhu Yuan stood on her tiptoes and hugged his neck tightly.

Her palms stroked the back of his head, slowly, gently.

"It's not your fault."

Responding to her were the man's hands, which held her even tighter.

After coming down the mountain, they returned to the hotel.

Roses and fine wine in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside the window were the fireworks he had prepared for her, as if lighting up the entire city.

On this night, not only Yucheng, but the entire country knew that Sheng Yu loved Zhu Yuan.

That fireworks display of the century was unforgettable to all who saw it.

Sheng Yu's warm, dry fingertips roamed over her body, stirring up waves of tremors.

She did not know if it was her imagination, but Sheng Yu's movements tonight were heavier than any time before.

Several times, her waist felt like it was about to snap from his tight grip, and when she cried out in pain, Sheng Yu grabbed her chin and kissed her fiercely.

Her whimpers of pain were swallowed up by him, and only when she finally kept calling his name in his ear did his movements soften, as he suppressed a rough pant, "Yuanyuan, be good."

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away in Kyoto City.

Ning Huaiqing watched the live broadcast of the fireworks show on her phone, where the billboards in all the major city squares of Yucheng had been changed to the names of Sheng Yu and Zhu Yuan.

She gripped her fingers tightly, tears sliding down silently.

Could Sheng Yu really never belong to her again?