Chapter 241: Three Years Ago, Like the Sound of Zhu Yuan's Crying

Ning Huaiqing was so shocked she could not speak.

She looked at Sheng Yu in disbelief.

She had been warned by a stranger that her phone was being monitored by Sheng Yu, but she had not expected Sheng Yu to actually have someone recover the text messages she had already deleted completely.

The secret she had kept hidden in her heart was no longer hers alone to guard; Ning Huaiqing felt a trace of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted, and her whole body went limp as she sat on the floor.

She knelt on the floor, covering her face with both hands, tears streaming down, "I don't know."

The sound of her aggrieved sobbing spread to every corner of the hospital room; Ning Huaiqing seemed to want to vent the mental torture she had endured during this time, but she still maintained her reason, knowing this was Sheng Yu's hospital room and she could not just cry and vent as she pleased.

She also did not want to be disliked by Sheng Yu.

She took a long breath and choked out, "The other party threatened me that if I insisted on going abroad, they would expose Youyou's existence and ruin your reputation; I just wanted to protect you."

Sheng Yu fiddled with the lighter in his hand, deliberately avoiding the spot where the paint had been scraped off by him.

Hearing these words from Ning Huaiqing, the look in his eyes as he turned to her became suddenly cold and sharp.

"If you truly wanted to protect me, you wouldn't have kept this child back then; besides, I don't need your protection, keep your good intentions for someone else."

Even though she knew he would no longer have any feelings for her, hearing such heartless words from him still made Ning Huaiqing feel a stinging pain in her heart.

"Is it only Zhu Yuan who can walk into your heart?"

Sheng Yu's hand holding the lighter paused, a numbness spreading across his chest, and he said coldly, "You are not worthy of mentioning her."

Ning Huaiqing smiled bitterly, and the tears brimming in her eyes rolled down; he really did hold Zhu Yuan in the palm of his hand.

Even though Zhu Yuan had the heart to abort their child, he still loved her so much that he wouldn't even allow others to mention her name.

"What did he threaten you with this time?"

Ning Huaiqing finally understood; Sheng Yu did not see her because she was going to take Youyou out of the hospital—he did not care about Youyou's health at all—but because he wanted to figure out what that mysterious person was trying to do.

From the moment she entered until now, not a single word he said was superfluous.

Throughout the entire process, only she was trapped in uncontrollable emotions, while he was completely detached, standing from the perspective of a bystander.

Her Youyou, who was so looking forward to seeing him.

Thinking of this, Ning Huaiqing trembled with heartache, "He threatened me that if I didn't take Youyou out of the hospital, he would let everyone know that Youyou is your illegitimate child."

Was that person going to such great lengths and risking being discovered by him just to warn and threaten Ning Huaiqing with this?

Sheng Yu narrowed his eyes slightly; Ning Huaiqing looked at him without dodging or blinking, without the slightest bit of guilt or retreat.

"Nothing else?"

Ning Huaiqing shook her head, "This alone is enough to threaten me; A Yu, I don't want to see you get hurt."

She didn't even want to call him Yu Ge anymore, as if she were back in the days when Yu Lan was alive, following Yu Lan's lead in calling him A Yu.

This long-lost form of address still did not move Sheng Yu in the slightest; he didn't even look at Ning Huaiqing again, leaning against the head of the bed to close his eyes and rest, "Get out."

Ning Huaiqing greedily looked at Sheng Yu's face, his features becoming increasingly sharp, and she suppressed the urge to go up and hug him, lowering her head and curling her lips in self-mockery.

After she went out, Situ and Enzo opened the door and came out from the adjacent room.

"Young Master Yu, I feel like Ning Huaiqing seems to be holding something back." Situ had sensed something wrong just now.

Sheng Yu gave a hum and slowly opened his eyes.

But from the conversation just now, he had also gained a lot of information.

Situ had not actually recovered the text message Ning Huaiqing deleted; it was merely a tactic he used to bluff her. She might be intelligent, agile, and calculating in front of others, but in front of him, she would always carry a sense of caution.

And it was that very caution that would make her lose her composure.

Now he knew that there was someone behind the scenes who had known everything about Ning Huaiqing's affairs before he even knew of Youyou's existence.

And before Ning Huaiqing had revealed anything about the child's biological father, the other party already knew the child was his.

Which means...

The other party also knows about what happened three years ago.

"Young Master Yu, there is one thing I don't understand. Why would that person threaten Ning Huaiqing with Youyou's background? Even if the other party knows that Ning Huaiqing is infatuated with you, what good does threatening Ning Huaiqing do for him?" Enzo was completely baffled.

It was a principle everyone understood: the person being threatened must have something worth the other party going to such great lengths for. But Ning Huaiqing was just the eldest daughter of the Ning Family; the Ning Family was wealthy, but he didn't think the other party wanted to get anything from Ning Huaiqing.

Sheng Yu toyed with the lighter, "Ning Huaiqing possesses a priceless treasure."

Situ was stunned, "Are you talking about that child?"

The moment he met Sheng Yu's pitch-black eyes, Situ suddenly realized.

If the other party was truly targeting Young Master Yu, how could they possibly give up such a matter that could ruin Young Master Yu's reputation, just to threaten the daughter of a second-tier family in Jingdu City?

So, while the other party used Young Master Yu to threaten Ning Huaiqing on the surface, their real target had always been that child.

Calling it a "target" wasn't quite right; Situ felt "objective" would be more appropriate.

He was about to speak, but saw that Sheng Yu's complexion was worse than before, and realized that since he came to find him in the morning, he hadn't rested properly; he had almost bled out, and it was already incredible that he had recovered to this state in such a short time.

"Young Master Yu, leave the investigation of the person behind the scenes to us, and I will also send people to keep an eye on Ning Huaiqing. Please get some rest."

Sheng Yu parted his lips, "Don't let that child be discharged; I want to run the DNA test again."

Ning Huaiqing did not know why Sheng Yu wanted to do another paternity test; even though it was just a strand of Youyou's hair, to her, it was a great humiliation.

Could it be that he was doubting that Youyou was his child?

For so many years, she had only ever had him as her man.

This was also the reason she had been able to persist all these years; whenever she thought back to that night, although she had been taken by him and frightened, looking back on it later, she was Sheng Yu's first woman, and they had the most intimate relationship in this world.

Yet he actually wanted to check it again.

Did he still not understand her heart?

However, when the test results came out the next day, they were exactly the same as they were in London.

Youyou was undoubtedly Sheng Yu's child.

Looking at the test report, the hospital room fell into a long silence.

Sheng Yu looked at the data on it with a cold, dark expression.

For some reason, after this injury, he could vaguely recall some things he had previously forgotten.

He did not know if those images were a disorder of his memory, or if he missed someone so much that he had gone mad and developed delusions.

That night three years ago, the crying he heard did not sound like Ning Huaiqing.

It was instead...

It sounded like Zhu Yuan's crying.

Zhu Yuan looked at him, her eyes calm and devoid of any ripples.