Qiu Zhixuan wasn’t that kind of person, and after a few years of tempering in Rong City, she was even less that kind of person.

But this inexplicable show of intimidation today—she was supposed to swallow it?

Qiu Zhixuan furrowed her brows, and toward this home she actually quite liked now, she felt an indescribable... depression.

Late at night, when Feng Chengjin came back from visiting Yu Xi at the hospital, the moment he stepped through the door he couldn’t help leaning in, pressing his lips to hers, pinning her against the bedroom wall and kissing her hard. Only when her face flushed a deep red did he let her go.

Seeing her husband, all kinds of feelings stirred in Qiu Zhixuan’s heart. She wanted to hug him and remind him of what he had once promised: "If anyone in the Feng Family bullies you, you make sure to tell me."

She wanted to nestle sweetly in his arms and say it, but in the end, after thinking it over, she still swallowed it down and didn’t bring it up at all.

...

Deep into the night, at the hospital. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Ever since that stunning glimpse of a figure on the plaza, Feng Chengxuan had stood rooted there for nearly two hours and still couldn’t find her. When he returned to the hospital and stared at his son lying in the bed, he just kept zoning out.

This sort of absent-mindedness, back at noon, had left Feng Jingguo and Ye Xilan completely baffled.

Especially Ye Xilan, who looked at the porridge that had almost gone from hot to half-cold and couldn’t help shaking her head again and again. "Where did you run off to? Do you know Yu Xi’s food has gone cold?"

Feng Chengxuan stayed silent, not saying a word.

Watching him, Feng Jingguo was so angry he jabbed his cane straight at him. "One by one, none of you are normal. The grandson’s not normal, day in and day out dazed and speechless, and now the old man’s not normal either! What next, is he going to go drag race and crash a car someday?"

Ye Xilan snapped in a low voice, "Old man, what kind of death-cursing, ill-omened nonsense is that? Spit it out, spit it out!"

The little nurse and the doctor both turned pale with anxiety. They hurried over, carefully choosing their words: "Mr. Feng... it’s one thing to get worked up, but you really can’t just jab that cane around. The noise is too loud, it’ll disturb the wards downstairs, and it’ll be a stimulus to the young master’s rest as well..."

Feng Jingguo’s face went a bit ashen, and he muttered an apology.

Through all of this, Feng Chengxuan turned a deaf ear. Only when his parents switched shifts and went home to rest, and later when Feng Chengjin also came to see Yu Xi, and Feng Chengjie brought Yushan and Pitt to visit Yu Xi as well, did he still remain in that same state, never fully coming back to himself.

The moonlight grew thicker and thicker, and the hour hand raced desperately to catch up with the minute hand.

Finally, when the hour hand gave a clang and hit 22:00 on the dot—

Feng Yuxi let out another pained whimper on the bed, and only then did he jolt nervously back to his senses.

He walked over quickly, checked on Yu Xi’s condition in haste, and tried to wake him.

Realizing that Yu Xi was still sunk in a dream, moaning unconsciously, his heart clenched in a muted ache. He gently stroked Yu Xi’s cheek, soothing him.

Only then did he return to the window.

In that low, sunken mood, the silhouette in his mind from earlier refused to disperse, and a kind of indescribable pain spread layer upon layer from the depths of his heart.

After so many years, he had thought his stubborn wish to find her was only because, even after bowing to fate, he still loved her, still wanted to see her again, to see whether her life had turned out well or not.

Or perhaps, he wanted to explain one sentence to her: Su Xin, the one I love is you, from beginning to end it has always been you, there has never been room for another woman in my heart.

But actually seeing that familiar feeling and silhouette today, he realized he was suddenly seized by a bit of the reckless impulse of his youth.

He actually wanted to know if she was married. If she wasn’t, in this era when marriage and divorce were no longer as terrifying as in their time, if he divorced and was with her, would she still be willing? If she was married, would it be possible for him to take her away?

Divorce...

When that word popped into his mind, Feng Chengxuan startled himself—yet not completely.

The shock was because he could actually harbor such thoughts.

The lack of shock was because, as he turned this idea over, he found it didn’t feel abrupt in the least. It was as if something had been brewing in his mind for many, many years, something he had never dared to voice because of reality. But once it surfaced, it was like a dam bursting in a gorge, torrents of floodwater pouring down. In the moment when years of repressed feelings erupted, his impulsive thoughts were even less rational than those of ordinary people.

Feng Chengxuan paced out of the ward and couldn’t help lighting a cigarette.

Glancing back at his son, who let out another wail from inside the glass-walled room, he was torn again. The blood-deep bond of father and child wasn’t something he could fake. Son, daughter... these things were already fused into his veins; they were ties he was bound to carry.

...Could he really do it?

Feng Chengxuan felt utterly lost. He didn’t know.

With his heart being torn in two, he hesitated for a long time. In the end, he still pulled out his phone and called a very private friend. "Chen Ke, help me find her. This time, search with everything you’ve got."

On the other end of the line, just from that faint, hoarse voice, Chen Ke already knew exactly what state Feng Chengxuan was in.

With a slight curl of his lips, Chen Ke said, "Chengxuan, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but it’s been so many years. You’ve been out of touch with her for almost twenty-six years, and the Su Family has been gone from Rong City for nearly twenty-four. Where are you supposed to find her now? All these years, I’ve followed through on every request you’ve made, but every time there’s been not a single trace. And this time, your son’s in this kind of situation; maybe you should..."

Before he could finish his line of consolation, Feng Chengxuan cut him off. "I think I saw her today."

"What? On the other end of the line, Chen Ke’s voice was full of surprise.

Feng Chengxuan gave a gentle smile and said, "All I saw was a figure from behind, and there was a sea of people between us. I can’t be sure if it was just my eyes playing tricks on me, but my gut tells me, that was her, Chen Ke, she’s back..."

Their rapid breathing lightly rippled at both ends of the phone.

After a moment, Chen Ke said firmly, "Fine! I believe you! As long as you’re sure you saw her, this time we’ll dig three feet into the ground if we have to, but we’re going to drag her out!"

Feng Chengxuan nodded, let out a faint laugh, gave a few instructions, and hung up.

When he paced back into the ward again, Yu Xi had already made it through the worst of the pain and sunk back into a deep sleep.

He looked at your son, who had lost his memory, paused, then turned his gaze to the bright moonlight outside the window.

In the dark-blue, almost black night sky, there weren’t many stars. The soft moonlight hung on the edge of the clouds, just like the jolt in his heart when he first saw Su Xin at eighteen.

Back then it was the early 1980s, red revolutionary songs and pop songs were ringing out across the length and breadth of China.

In those days, people’s idols were Teresa Teng and Anita Mui.

But in his own social circle, there always seemed to be a bit more elegance and refinement than usual.

A girl listening to a Suzhou folk tune brushed past his shoulder; he turned back to look at her, as if seeing an orchid blooming amid rosy clouds, more gentle and moving than the girls of Jiangnan, beautiful like a silk painting you could gaze at your whole life and still never see enough of...

And so, some feelings, once they are poured into your heart in that instant, you never forget them for as long as you live.

His fingers curled lightly. He understood Chen Ke’s initial hesitation too. To be honest, with your son like this, even if they did find her, then what? He hadn’t figured that out yet.

But at the very least, he would never again let her slip away from his sight.

Especially... she was actually in Rong City too. She had even given him this chance!

...

Very soon, after the heavy grief, the second piece of news that could somewhat ease people’s minds came to the Feng Family!

When the bright and sunny March arrived, the marriage between Yu Yuanshen and Feng Yuning finally kicked off!

The Feng Family had been living in the extremes of ice and fire during this period, busy on both fronts: on one hand they had to prepare the wedding banquet, on the other they had to receive condolences amid their sorrow, shuttling in and out of the hospital so often that the Feng Family’s nerves were worn down to exhaustion.

Fortunately, Yu Yuanshen’s status in Rong City was outstanding, and the social circles of the two families weren’t all that different. After the Yu Family finished drafting the entire guest list, the Feng Family made a few additions and cuts, and it was more or less settled.

And if it really came to it, wasn’t the guest list from the third son’s wedding still around? The Feng Family could just use that list and invite everyone again!

As for the purchasing for the wedding, the dowry and all those other matters, aside from what Li Zhi, as the mother, had to worry about, the Feng Family also had two especially capable head and deputy stewards, so it didn’t take all that much effort.

Feng Yuning’s marriage was very lavish, but not the same kind of lavish as Feng Chengjin’s. Perhaps because everyone in the Yu Family had such gentle temperaments, they all carried a snowy, feather-like aura about them.

At Feng Chengjin’s wedding, many of the decorative colors leaned toward champagne gold, black-and-gold and the like.

At Yu Yuanshen’s wedding, it was utterly and completely a dreamy blend of pink and snow-white.

Snow-white was what Yu Yuanshen liked; pink... naturally belonged to Feng Yuning.

When it came to Feng Yuning’s insistence that there had to be lots of pink at the wedding venue, Yu Yuanshen really couldn’t understand it when he looked at this woman who didn’t exactly look like a little girl anymore—at best, you could call her an overgrown "old maiden".

But Feng Yuning couldn’t care less. She only had this one wedding in her life, and she wasn’t old yet!

So what if she liked pink bubbles all over the place?

The only thing was, on the wedding day, facing all the guests who came, it really put Feng Yuning’s acting skills to the test.

Some people paid attention to the occasion, and today they only talked about happy things. They came all smiles, and Feng Yuning would immediately put on her brightest grin, looking every bit the most beautiful bride in Rong City today!

But there were always those who tried a little too hard to get close, who couldn’t figure out what was appropriate. They would come over with concern about Feng Yuning’s younger brother and ask after him.

No matter what she was thinking inside, at that moment Feng Yuning had to let her expression dim, and, following what was expected of her, sigh sadly a few times.

After enough rounds of this, Feng Yuning had to truly laugh one moment and truly cry the next.

After several such cycles, she was so annoyed she wanted to smash the bouquet to the floor and yell, "Hey! You people with too much rich-people’s disease, would it kill you to say a few less ’thoughtful’ words? Did you all come together today just to mess with me? Screw you!"

But she couldn’t say any of that; all she could do was keep a smile plastered on her face.

When Yu Yuanshen saw the expression on her face, he couldn’t help but chuckle, his shoulders shaking.

As for Qiu Zhixuan’s side, well...