Chapter 282

Sheng Hongyao leaned on his cane, pulled open the bedroom door, and walked out.

The moment the door closed, Ning Huaiqing clutched the bedsheets tightly, suppressing her sobs.

But suddenly remembering the phone call Sheng Hongyao had answered, her vacant eyes gradually regained their spark, a mix of grief and fear intertwined.

Enduring the discomfort in her body, she climbed out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom, her fingers stiffly curled, spasming and trembling as she turned on the shower, scrubbing her skin until red marks appeared, tears falling like a broken dam.

A Yu was coming.

She could not let him smell another man on her.

Ning Huaiqing scrubbed until the skin on her body was red; the pain on her flesh made her temporarily forget the feeling of Sheng Hongyao's hands crawling over her like ants.

Hearing the sound of a car engine, Ning Huaiqing walked out of the room, closed the door behind her, and acted as if nothing had happened.

Just then, the nanny came out of the nursery, holding Youyou, who had just woken up and was sucking on a baby bottle.

Upon seeing Ning Huaiqing, the nanny looked away with an unnatural expression.

Youyou had slept early last night, and she had been confined to the nursery by Sheng Hongyao's men to sleep with Youyou.

The two rooms were adjacent, and the soundproofing was not very good; she had heard the movements in Ning Huaiqing's room, the woman's uncontrollable, tearful moans and the man's low growls.

She knew what had happened inside the room.

While shocked to realize that Sheng Hongyao actually harbored such intentions toward Ning Huaiqing, she also felt a sense of horror.

In the face of power, even the eldest daughter of the Ning Family had to submit.

She was also one of Sheng Hongyao's accomplices, and even though she had been threatened, she still felt guilty and looked away when she saw Ning Huaiqing.

"Mommy~" Youyou held the bottle with both hands, calling out to Ning Huaiqing in a milky voice, her body wiggling as she wanted Ning Huaiqing to hold her.

But Ning Huaiqing ignored the nanny's guilt and shame; the moment she saw Youyou, her already poor complexion turned deathly pale, and she stepped back in terror and pain, her lower back hitting the doorknob, though she felt no pain, only looking at Youyou's face that resembled Sheng Yu so much.

She had forgotten that she also looked like Sheng Hongyao.

Tears blurred her vision, and she lowered her head in pain, closing her eyes.

This was a joke God was playing on her, wasn't it?

Or perhaps God wanted to punish her.

Knowing full well that Sheng Yu did not love her, she had stubbornly wanted to give birth to his child; while abortion was physically harmful, she had harbored a selfish motive, wanting a child with Sheng Yu.

Her selfishness had harmed Sheng Yu and Zhu Yuan, so this was the result God had set for her from the very beginning.

To tear her life apart like this.

How was she supposed to face Youyou, the child she had carried for ten months and looked forward to with all her heart, who was actually Sheng Hongyao's!

"Mommy?" Youyou looked at her in confusion, switched to holding the bottle with one hand, and reached out her little hand, fluttering, "Mommy, hold."

Ning Huaiqing covered her mouth with her hand and turned away.

The nanny knew what Ning Huaiqing had just gone through and guessed that she found it difficult to face her own son, so she held Youyou tighter and said, "Shall we go downstairs to play with toys? Didn't Youyou just say she wanted to find Mr. Dinosaur?"

"Mr. Dinosaur, Mr. Dinosaur!" Youyou's attention was immediately captured.

Ning Huaiqing's fingernails dug into the doorknob, snapping halfway and bleeding.

She took a deep breath, and watching Youyou's back as she went downstairs, Ning Huaiqing's tears fell like rain.

Before she could even wipe her tears, she heard the nanny's voice from downstairs, "Miss Ning, Chairman Sheng is here."

Ning Huaiqing's expression stiffened; she quickly wiped away her tears and took a few deep breaths, trying to make herself look as if she were crying tears of joy at his arrival.

She hurried downstairs and, sure enough, saw Sheng Yu, tall and long-legged, walking in from the foyer wearing a black shirt and matching trousers.

The man's brows and eyes were cold as always, the look Ning Huaiqing was most familiar with and liked the best.

Her eyes reddened in an instant, and she walked down to him, "Why are you here?"

"Wasn't it you who asked Yuan Fengye to tell me?" Sheng Yu's voice was cold.

Only then did Ning Huaiqing remember that she had called him the day she moved in, but her number had been blocked by him, so she had to call Yuan Fengye and ask him to relay to Sheng Yu that Sheng Hongyao had arranged a new place for her and Youyou.

At the time, all she could think about was whether this was another one of Sheng Hongyao's schemes to deal with Sheng Yu.

But now she knew that it was Sheng Hongyao who wanted to hide a beauty in a golden house.

To facilitate his possession of her.

Ning Huaiqing pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, suppressing the surging emotions, and nodded with red eyes, "I thought you wouldn't care about me and Youyou anymore."

Sheng Yu did not say whether he cared or not.

Since he had finally come over, Ning Huaiqing did not want him to leave so soon, so she turned and instructed the nanny, "Go make breakfast."

"No need," Sheng Yu said indifferently, "I've already eaten."

He looked at Ning Huaiqing, "Did Sheng Hongyao say anything to you?"

Ning Huaiqing broke her nail, the edge embedding into her palm; she bit her back teeth and shook her head at Sheng Yu, "Uncle Sheng didn't say anything."

Suddenly, a small hand grabbed Sheng Yu's trouser leg; he lowered his head, looking down at Youyou's soft, chubby little face.

"Daddy~"

Ning Huaiqing's face turned white in a flash, but she could not show any abnormality, especially in front of Sheng Yu; he was too sharp.

If he found out Youyou was not his child, he would know she had been defiled by Sheng Hongyao.

In this world, she least wanted Sheng Yu to know that she was not clean, that she was dirty.

Youyou had just finished her milk, a ring of milk staining her mouth, and she looked at Sheng Yu with a pair of dark, round eyes full of expectation, timidly yet tightly gripping his trouser leg.

Sheng Yu looked at her for a moment, and the two of them just stared at each other like that.

"What?" Sheng Yu spoke.

Youyou said in a milky voice: "Play, play with Youyou."

Just as Ning Huaiqing was about to step forward to take Youyou aside, Sheng Yu reached out and took Youyou's little hand, then pulled a tissue from the coffee table and, with a movement that wasn't exactly gentle but was the gentlest he could manage, wiped Youyou's mouth.

People's thoughts are truly strange.

Even Sheng Yu himself could not be an exception.

Only he himself was truly clear about the change in his attitude toward Youyou overnight.

It was like being tolerant of everything in life after a narrow escape from death.

Including this child.

As long as it was not his child, then everything was easy to talk about.

Sheng Yu only stayed in the villa for a while; Situ followed by his side, Enzo went to the restroom, and the group left.

After getting into the car, Enzo took a sealed bag out of his pocket containing a long strand of hair, "This is Ning Huaiqing's hair; I snuck into her room and got it."

He couldn't help but mutter to himself, just how bad was Ning Huaiqing's sleeping posture? The bed was such a mess, the pillow had fallen on the floor, and the key thing was, why was there an indescribable, strange smell in that room?

Looking at such an exquisite woman, he hadn't expected her to be so slovenly in private.

Truly, one cannot judge a person by their appearance.

Sheng Yu handed over a soft, short strand of hair from between his fingers, "This is Youyou's; send it to Qiao Mai Hospital and have them tested together."

The blood had been collected months ago, but the hair was newly grown.

He wanted to ensure there were no mistakes and confirm that there was truly a problem with Youyou's DNA.

The cold wind howled, and the snow fell even more heavily, burying the traces of the carriage in an instant.