Jun narrowed his eyes. He glanced at Ai for a moment, wondering the same as her.
How was he connected to everything?
"I apologize Mr. Liu for my sudden appearance like this but after I saw Yahui being taken away outside Shi Publishing…I knew I had to come here."
Zhan Yahui felt like tearing the whole world apart. She already had to tolerate the Liu family's presence who was her biggest enemy and now came Shi Shuren as well, whom she hated just like she hated the Lius'.
"Yes, please come," she sneered. "You were the only one left to join this party. Now all my enemies are in one place. If you…If you hadn't betrayed Mom, if you hadn't left her then we would never have suffered in the first place. It was you who made our life nothing but a tragedy!! Everything started because of you!"
Shi Shuren felt as if he was standing on thin ice. Her screams of agony rang harshly in his ears that struck deep into his heart.
"You are right. Everything started because of me. Because even though I was married, I fell in love with another woman and had relations with her. It was an arranged marriage with Zhelan. I didn't love her, but I was forced to abide by my family's wishes anyway. This is not an excuse for my cheating Zhelan. I understand that now but back then, I was disappointed and angry at everything. Furious at the compromises I was making. I tried to give our marriage a chance, but I just couldn't. The fact that I was forced to marry her bothered me like crazy and everyday became a struggle for me."
Everybody silently listened to him except for Zhan Yahui who didn't care about his story. She only wished to kill him.
Shi Shuren exhaled shakily. "A year later, I met Kai-Ming in a bar. She was working many odd jobs and being a barmaid was one of them. We kind of hit it off and even I didn't understand why I began to visit the bar frequently. But yes…we fell in love with her and we…I was too afraid to reveal my marriage to her because I knew she wouldn't agree for our relationship."
He felt a burning tingling in his eyes as he remembered the past. "I kept it a secret and continued my relationship with her. To me, they were the best days of my life. The time when I felt like I wasn't compromising anymore. That everyday wasn't a struggle anymore. But the inevitable happened and she became pregnant with you. Things had gotten too far to continue keeping my marriage hidden anymore so I told her everything. Naturally, Kai-Ming was hurt and furious and wanted to leave me. But I promised her I will sort everything out and separate from Zhelan."
A wry and defeated smile came to his lips. "But Zhelan refused to divorce me."
Jin frowned. "She wasn't affected by your cheating?"
"She was. She was just as furious as the rest of my family was. But no matter how much I tried to convince them, neither my family nor Zhelan agreed for our separation. And I…became a coward. After one point, I just couldn't get through them. I couldn't oppose their iron-willed decision. Many times…many times I felt like I would just run away and start my new life with Kai-Ming and my child. But I was afraid. Will I be able to pull it off? Can I give a good life to them? What if I failed? What if I became a terrible husband and father? What if I became a joke in front of everyone?
In the end…the pressure and my fear got to me and I stepped back from my responsibilities. I couldn't fulfill my promise to Kai-Ming anymore. Kai-Ming left me and I went back to living my cowardly life," he mockingly smiled at himself. "But even so I never forgot her or you, Yahui. Every single day, I thought of you two. What is Kai-Ming doing? How is my child growing up? Every single day…"
He pressed his lips, forcing himself to continue. "Then one day Huan was born. It had been almost eight to nine years to Zhelan and my marriage that there wasn't a child in the family. She was a child born out of nothing but for the sake of appearances. I love Huan but there was no love behind her birth."
Ai and Xing Bi, who was listening on the other end, felt an urge to cry.
Huan…
Jian narrowed his eyes. "If you and Zhan Kai-Ming had already gone your separate ways, then how are you connected to anything?"
He trembled. "Because one day I met Kai-Ming once again. Around three years after Huan's birth. I was in another city for a business trip and I crossed paths with her there…"
Jun slightly widened his eyes.
Zhan Kai-Ming had left Beijing after the kidnapping incident…
Zhan Yahui stared at him, bewildered. "Are you fucking lying to me!? You never met Mom! She never told me that she met you!"
"She kept it from you and I can understand why. I had no right to be back in your life anymore, someone who had lied to her and then ran away from his promise. But I-I didn't care any of that. I was just so happy to meet her again…" his tears fell as his body shook. "The love and all those emotions gushed back to me. I was so tired of everything, of my life with Zhelan that when I saw Kai-Ming again, I felt like I was being pulled back to her. All my frustrations just melted away and this time…I really, really wanted her."
He clenched his fists. "This time I had made up my mind. I won't be a coward anymore. Whether Zhelan or my family disagreed, I will get back together with Kai-Ming at any cost and make her my wife. I will bring her and you to my family. I will do anything to escape my hellish life and be the woman I always loved. But…I was too late because I got to know that
she was pregnant with someone else's child and..."
Jun and Ai exchanged glances and felt a bad foreboding.
I feel I know where this is going.
Shi Shuren bit his lip. "And I got angry. I know, I know! I had no right to feel that way. I acted cowardly and left her in the past. I betrayed her. She moved on with her life and found a new love. But I couldn't bear it. It was frustrating! It was agonizing because I couldn't move on from her at all! It was just so damn irritating! I tried like anything to convince her for us to get back together. I would accept her child too, but she stubbornly kept refusing. A-and in a fit of fury one day...I...I...f-forced myself on her."
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