Chapter 127: A Heart-to-Heart Talk

“We? What about us? Isn’t the way we get along perfectly fine as it is?” Song Wanning asked, puzzled.

“No. There’s still something missing.”

Wen Jingxing frowned and spoke to her about it with utmost seriousness.

“What’s missing?”

But when Song Wanning asked, Wen Jingxing fell silent. He simply took her by the hand and led her to a quiet corner.

Only then did his tone grow cautious. “What I said about your family just now… did it upset you? I was only so worked up because I saw them slandering you like that…”

Perhaps it was merely her imagination, but Song Wanning thought she saw a guarded, almost tentative expression on his face.

“Why are you overthinking things too?”

Song Wanning could not help laughing.

Wen Jingxing had been quietly working out a whole string of apologies in his head, and her laughter left him completely bewildered. “You’re really not upset?”

Even though he had previously said he would suppress the Song family and had tested Song Wanning’s feelings, she had remained calm and composed at the time. Still, Wen Jingxing found it difficult to believe.

Unless he heard it from Song Wanning herself, he could never believe that someone who had once cared so deeply for her family could suddenly come to hate them.

“Of course I’m not. Does it look as though I’m angry?” Song Wanning said, giving Wen Jingxing a broad smile.

Only then did he feel slightly reassured, though he was still deeply puzzled. “You used to like them so much. Why did you suddenly…?”

His question was not without reason.

The previous times they had met, it had always been at dinners or gatherings between their two families.

Each time, he had noticed that Song Xin and Song Wanning’s stepmother seemed, to varying degrees, intent on belittling Song Wanning.

Yet Song Wanning had always smiled so happily that he had wondered whether the family was simply close enough to joke without restraint.

At the mention of it, Song Wanning instantly lowered her head, her voice somewhat heavy. “Because I suddenly realized…”

Wen Jingxing could not see her expression clearly, but he could tell that she was in low spirits, so he leaned closer to listen.

Song Wanning knew that whether it was Song Zijiang’s infidelity, which had indirectly caused the death of the original owner’s mother, or his seizure of everything she had worked half her life to build, either reason alone was enough to make Song Wanning incapable of forgiving that family.

But she did not reveal the true reason.

She only said, “I realized that no matter how kind I am to them, they’ll never think well of me. Just look at this time. Because I refused to help, they scolded me from every direction. But even if I wanted to help, there was nothing I could do. I’m only one ordinary woman, while the company’s problems have accumulated over decades. Even if I wanted to help, I couldn’t change the facts.”

The more Wen Jingxing looked at Song Wanning, the more his heart ached for her.

“A-Ning…”

“Hmm? Why are you calling me that?”

“You’ve suffered a great deal in the Song family all these years.”

From now on, I’ll be the one to protect you…

Wen Jingxing did not say the words aloud. He could tell that the Song Wanning before him did not yet like him enough—she had only the faintest feelings for him.

He did not want to frighten her away.

The viewers in the livestream saw the two of them whispering together, only for the sound to suddenly disappear. They grew frantic.

[Director, director! I’m giving this a bad review! Why did the audio suddenly cut out?]

[Ah! Look at Young Master Wen’s heartbroken expression! He even defended Song Wanning just now. Does this mean he’s starting to feel sorry for her?]

[Don’t get excited. What if it’s all just part of the script?]

[Anyone else may deceive me, but the love between Song Wanning and Young Master Wen absolutely never will.]

[Does no one else think Song Wanning is truly miserable? Her biological father married a stepmother and adopted another child. In the end, the whole family has shares in the company except her. Isn’t that clearly treating her as an outsider?]

…

Song Wanning did not want too many people to know about her private affairs with the Song family.

As for Wen Jingxing, he had simply seen her mute her microphone and followed suit.

Song Wanning said indifferently, “I’m used to it. Besides, haven’t I finally managed to break free of them? We should be happy.”

With that, she lifted her face into a pure, radiant smile.

Watching her small expression, Wen Jingxing felt even more distressed. She had endured such unfair treatment, yet she could still force herself to smile so bravely.

He silently resolved that he had to buy her even more things, to make up for all she had been deprived of by the Song family in the past.

Song Wanning was genuinely happy. The Song family had brought about their own ruin, and from now on, no one would be able to trouble her anymore.

But there was still one thing she was curious about. “You said we were very close as children. Were we really that close?”

The story in the book had never described what had happened to the original owner during her childhood. Most of it focused on Wen Jingxing’s affairs at the company after he grew up, as well as Jian An’an’s arduous rise to prominence—overcoming obstacle after obstacle, defeating every capable romantic rival in her path, and painstakingly securing her position.

There had been very little mention of any connection between the original owner and the male lead. The only time they had interacted frequently was during that month on the variety show.

Yet a month later, the two of them had immediately gone their separate ways. At the time, the original owner had endured an entire month of online abuse. After leaving the show and learning the truth, she had withered visibly, as though she had aged several years overnight.

After that, she had fallen completely into Jian An’an’s hands, becoming someone the other woman could manipulate at will.

Not long afterward, egged on by Song Xin and her mother, she had gone to meet Old Master Wen and loudly denounced Wen Jingxing in front of him. That very night, Old Master Wen had been so enraged that he was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.

Soon after, she had lost all dignity at a tea gathering. Before long, the engagement had been called off, and from that point onward, the original owner had vanished from the book as a minor sacrificial character.

It was not until Jian An’an finally became Wen Jingxing’s fiancée, just as she had wished, that she smugly went looking for the original owner.

Only then did the book mention her again—and it stated that she had died of illness a few days later.

So Song Wanning truly had no idea what sort of relationship the original owner and Wen Jingxing had shared as children.

Wen Jingxing’s expression turned somewhat strange. “You don’t remember? We used to live in the same neighborhood. You would come looking for me to play whenever you had nothing else to do.”

Song Wanning thought that, given the Song family’s status, how could they possibly have lived in the same neighborhood as Wen Jingxing? It must have been because of the original owner’s mother, Xu Xiangling.

The Xu family was one of the most distinguished and powerful families in the capital.

Song Wanning’s expression became even stranger than Wen Jingxing’s. The original owner had gone looking for this cold and heartless male lead to play with whenever she pleased?

She certainly had been remarkably bold.

After all, this male lead had worn a cold expression from childhood onward. No one knew why. He had once been a cheerful child, but at some point, he had suddenly stopped smiling.

Song Wanning could only piece together the scattered details from the book and come up with what seemed the most plausible explanation.

“When my mother died, I was so devastated that I became seriously ill. After that, I gradually lost some of my memories from before.”

“I see… But then why did you continue sending me letters?”

In the end, Wen Jingxing voiced the question that had long troubled him.

End of Chapter