Seeing his expression, Wei Shu knew that he already had an answer in his heart.
"Third Master, since you have Miss Yuan in your heart, you shouldn't have brought up what happened four years ago back then. By doing so, you're only pushing Miss Yuan further away," he sighed.
"But I had no other choice, Wei Shu. What else could I do?" Yan Yincheng said with a bitter smile. Even Wei Shu felt a twinge of pity at the humility in his tone.
"I know it was all my fault. Back then, I shouldn't have just left without a word, leaving her to face everything alone and raise the child by herself. I shouldn't have deliberately approached and deceived her at the beginning just to take the child away, and treated her in such a harsh manner."
"But later on, I was serious."
It was true that he had deceived her. But when it came to getting engaged to her and wanting to marry her, he was serious. If it weren't for that dream, he might have continued to deceive himself like this.
But the scenes in the dream and her ending in the previous life, her short and bitter life, made him suddenly wake up. He realized that, in fact, he was the one least qualified to get close to her in this world.
He clearly understood this truth. So when he heard her say that she would rather forgive Yan Zhen and let that kid from the Pei family be her boyfriend, he didn't stop her.
Even when he returned to this place and learned that she had left, he didn't dare to use his power to search for her whereabouts.
Other than torturing himself here and holding onto that faint glimmer of hope, what else could he do?
"I know you were serious," Wei Shu squatted beside him and patiently comforted him. "But it doesn't matter that I know. Miss Yuan doesn't know. Third Master, you shouldn't be so down. You should pull yourself together, stand in front of her again, and tell her your feelings."
"She won't forgive me," Yan Yincheng said.
Wei Shu said slowly, "Maybe she won't forgive you at first, but I believe that as long as Third Master you do your best to make up for the mistakes you've made, one day you'll surely gain Miss Yuan's forgiveness. By then, you can pursue Miss Yuan Xi in your true identity as Yan Yincheng. Wouldn't that be great?"
These similar words made him recall her playful voice:
"How about we get to know each other again? Hello, Mr. Yin. My name is Yuan Xi, but I should have been surnamed Xu. My nickname is Zixi, with the 'Zi' from 'midnight' and the 'Xi' from 'stream'."
He also hoped that one day, he could stand in front of her upright, hold her hand, place a gentle kiss on the back of her hand, and say to her:
"Miss Xu Zixi, my surname is Yan, and my name is Yincheng. Nice to meet you."
Yes, he really couldn't be so down anymore. He had promised to take on everything and shield her and the two children from all the malice in this world. He couldn't break his promise.
On that night four years ago, the whole world thought that she had lost her virginity to a complete scumbag, and even she herself thought so.
As for why she appeared in his room and why they found her innocent lost the next day but didn't know that it was him who had spent the night with her, there must be some problem hidden in this.
He would surely investigate what happened back then thoroughly.
Whoever had schemed against her and hurt her, he wouldn't let any of them off.
Yan Yincheng said, "Bring the food here."
Finally, a smile appeared on Wei Shu's face. He quickly picked up the still-warm food and handed it to Yan Yincheng.
The smell of the food made Yan Yincheng feel nauseous, and the food tasted like wax in his mouth. But in order to stand in front of her again in good condition, he still forced himself to take a few mouthfuls, then got up and planned to go and rest.
However, he didn't go back to his own room. Instead, he slept in the bed where Xu Zixi used to sleep, covered with the quilt she used to cover, and listened to the piano pieces she played over and over again in his ear before he could barely fall asleep.
But he woke up with a start after sleeping for less than three hours. The first thing he did when he woke up was to search everywhere in the house for her and the two children.
It was only when he found that the whole villa was empty that he realized she had left.
But this time, he didn't sink into depression again. He washed and changed his clothes as usual and started his day's work. Sitting in the dining room, he forced the unpalatable food into his mouth while listening to the work report from the Yan Group's headquarters, just like every day before he met her.
He could feel a dull pain in his stomach, but he had to endure it and there was no other choice.
At this moment, Wei Shu rushed in from outside and whispered a few words in his ear.
Yan Yincheng's handsome and pale face instantly turned extremely cold.
He parted his thin lips slightly and said, "Get everything ready. Go to the Pei Group immediately."
His reckoning would start with the Pei Group!
At this moment, the Pei Group was on the verge of a storm.
After the product design competition ended, everyone should have gone back to work as usual, and it seemed that everything had returned to the previous peace. But when a piece of news spread like wildfire within the company, this superficial peace was like a punctured balloon and exploded.
Early in the morning, the human resources department received an instruction from Pei Mingyuan, asking them to settle Xu Zixi's salary, pay her a high amount of compensation, and the buyout fee for the design copyright of "City of Hope". This news was so explosive that a small clerk in the human resources department immediately spread it.
Xu Zixi had defeated Pei Weiwei in the design competition and won the first prize. She not only slapped the faces of those who didn't think highly of her but also proved her strength. Therefore, when most people learned that she was being treated like this, they all secretly felt indignant for her.
"Obviously Yuan Xi won this competition. Why is she being fired? Why don't they fire Miss Pei, who plagiarized someone else's work?"
"What else could it be? Do you know who Mr. Yan, who presented the first-prize award that day, is? He's the uncle of Yuan Xi's former fiancé. She cuckolded Yan Zhen in Fengcheng before. Of course, the uncle won't let her off!"
"Exactly. The Yan Group is so wealthy and powerful. How can the Pei Group afford to offend them? Of course, they'll sacrifice Yuan Xi to protect themselves!"
"But I didn't think Mr. Yan looked like he wanted to make things difficult for Yuan Xi when he presented the award that day?"
"What do you mean? Didn't you see Yuan Xi run away right after she got the trophy, and Mr. Yan chasing after her desperately? His expression looked so terrifying at that time!"
Inside the emergency exit on a certain floor of the Pei Group.
"Sorry, the number you dialed is powered off. Sorry..."
Hearing the emotionless prompt tone in her ear again, Zhou Yaru paced anxiously on the spot.
Yuan Xi, Yuan Xi, where on earth have you gone? Why can't I get through to your phone all the time? Don't you know that the company is going to fire you?! After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yaru opened the message interface and found that none of the messages she had sent in the past few days had received a reply.
"What should we do? Are we really just going to watch Yuan Xi get fired like this?" Dai Sha was also at a loss because of this sudden news. "General Manager Pei has always taken good care of Yuan Xi. Why is he suddenly going to fire her this time? Is it really the Yan family that's putting pressure on General Manager Pei behind the scenes?"
"I'll go and settle the score with him!"
Zhou Yaru couldn't bear it anymore. She took a deep breath, tightened her grip on her phone, and turned around angrily towards the elevator.