Meng Ruozhao slowly raised her head. Her eye sockets were bloodshot, but there were no tears.
She just stared at him with an empty look filled with endless confusion and pain.
"Pei Jiangmu," her voice was extremely hoarse. "I'd like to be alone for a while."
Pei Jiangmu's heart tightened suddenly, and the pain almost made him unable to breathe.
He tightened his grip on her hand, but then whispered, "Okay. I'll be right outside. Call me if you need anything."
He took a long, deep look at her, then stepped out of the small room. But he didn't go far. Instead, he leaned against the wall.
Soon, soft sobs came from the room.
Pei Jiangmu lowered his head, his eyes filled with complex emotions - guilt, pain, heartache, and a hint of anger.
It turned out that she wasn't completely indifferent to this child.
After losing her memory, just knowing that she had once had a child was enough to cause her so much pain.
Then why, back then, did she give up this child?
And why didn't she tell him?
Was it because she never thought of having a future with him?
An indescribable bitterness welled up in his heart.
But she should have told him.
Even if she didn't think of having a future and didn't want that child, he would have agreed.
She should have known that as long as she coaxed him a little, he would have been willing to do anything for her.
If she didn't want a child, then they didn't have to have one. Just the two of them living a lifetime together would have been good too...
Just a wall away, both of them were immersed in pain.
However, Pei Jiangmu soon calmed down from these emotions.
Because he suddenly remembered a very important thing. Yan Qiubai had just said that Meng Ruozhao should have been his. If there hadn't been any accidents, they should have grown up together as childhood sweethearts...
What did this mean?
Did the two of them know each other before?
But he had investigated Yan Qiubai before and found no intersection between them.
The Yan family had always been doing well. When Yan Qiubai was born, his father was expanding the family business in the United States, so he was born there.
Later, when his father took over the domestic business and returned to China first, he continued to live abroad with his mother for a few more years.
It wasn't until he was in high school.
The old man of the Yan family's health had declined significantly, and the younger generation needed to "show their faces" in front of the old man. That was when he returned to China to study.
After all, the old man of the Yan family had three sons and two daughters. Yan Qiubai's father was the third son, and the competition within the family was not easy.
As the most outstanding heir of the Yan family's younger generation, he had shown his talent at a very young age and had won the old man's attention.
The outside world had always speculated that he would be the next person in power of the Yan family.
But wearing the crown of the "heir" wasn't easy.
The large number of family members meant that competition was everywhere.
He had to be the best and the most perfect to firmly hold that enviable yet suffocating position.
So it could be said that Yan Qiubai's world was a magnificent cage built by elite education and family expectations.
His childhood and adolescence were filled with strict schedules, countless business cases, and the never - ending expectations of his elders.
The things he could choose freely were extremely limited.
From the food on his plate to his future major and life trajectory.
Everything was carefully calculated, and the family's interests and his identity as the heir were the primary considerations.
This long - term life of being planned and controlled had planted the seeds of paranoia and a desire for control deep in his heart.
He longed to have something that was completely his own and that he could absolutely control, in order to prove the existence of an invisible "self".
Meng Ruozhao was the "exception" and the "possession" he had chosen for himself under this extreme suppression.
He might have noticed her at an unexpected moment.
Pei Jiangmu didn't know exactly what that moment was for now.
But he could guess that it was probably -
She was completely different from the rich girls around him who had been carefully cultivated by their families. She was like a tenacious and mysterious wildflower that suddenly barged into his field of vision.
This "difference" strongly attracted him and tore a hole in his world filled with rules.
It made him have a strong impulse to incorporate her into his territory.
This impulse gradually fermented into a paranoid desire for possession.
He investigated her and learned about her past. Although, due to Pei Jiangmu's actions, that past might be one - sided, he still knew about her vulnerability and difficulties.
In his eyes, Meng Ruozhao was a treasure that needed to be saved by him and that rightfully belonged to him.
He was self - touched by the fact that he could "find" her and "give" her the identity of the Yan family's future daughter - in - law.
And he equated this kind of giving with a hint of charity to deep affection.
Therefore, he should really like Meng Ruozhao to the point of being "loath to part with her".
Because she was the only bright color he had chosen in his boring and suppressed life as an heir.
She was a symbol of his attempt to prove his own will.
But at the same time, he was "eager to control" Meng Ruozhao.
Because deep in his heart, he lacked a sense of security. He was afraid that this bright color would break free from his control.
He was also afraid that this only "self - choice" would ultimately prove to be a mistake and would shake his image as a perfect heir.
He couldn't accept Meng Ruozhao's independent will.
Her aloofness, her refusal, and even the slightest connection with her past would be regarded by him as a challenge and betrayal of his control.
So during this conversation, Meng Ruozhao's firm attitude sharply magnified that feeling of being challenged and betrayed.
That was why Yan Qiubai, who was usually calm and reserved, lost control of his behavior and spoke extremely extremely.
As a rival in love, Pei Jiangmu believed that he didn't really mean to say those words to hurt Meng Ruozhao.
For Yan Qiubai, losing Meng Ruozhao didn't just mean losing a woman he liked.
It also meant that a corner of the world he had carefully constructed to prove his own will had collapsed. This was a failure he absolutely couldn't bear.
So he was furious and even exposed the fact that he had investigated her.
If Meng Ruozhao had been a bit calmer, she might have noticed the loopholes in his words and then suspected whether their start a year ago was also a lie...
Pei Jiangmu felt irritable for no reason.
Anyway, Yan Qiubai was so obsessed with Meng Ruozhao.
He even didn't hesitate to fabricate the outrageous lie that they had been in a relationship for a year and were already engaged. This almost paranoid madness couldn't be explained by ordinary love at first sight.
Yan Qiubai's feelings for Meng Ruozhao weren't love at first sight but a long - planned scheme.
He had an obsession with her.
That was why after she returned to China, he quickly took advantage of Du Feng's snobbishness and the gap caused by Meng Ruozhao's memory loss. He took advantage of the situation and wove a huge lie.
He portrayed himself as a deeply affectionate fiancé, trying to tie her firmly to his side.
Just thinking of this, Pei Jiangmu's eyes instantly turned ice - cold, and a terrifying aura of rage emanated from his body.
There was actually someone, in a corner he didn't know about, coveting his lost treasure so deliberately for so long?
This made him feel extremely uncomfortable and angry.
He walked to a corner, took out his phone, and directly dialed Qi Yu's number.