Chapter 10

I always remembered that day. It was an ordinary Wednesday evening.

I walked out of the school gates and immediately spotted Fu Liuchuan in the crowd.

His expression was stern and cold, but it softened slightly when he saw me. “Liuliu.”

“I’m taking you to the hospital. If you’re scared, just hold my hand tight.”

The sunset bled across the sky like a wound.

It wasn’t until dusk was completely swallowed by night that I finally pieced together the truth from the words of the people around me:

Fu Liuchuan’s father had been keeping a young mistress for two years.

Recently, the woman had gotten pregnant.

He had planned to divorce my mother after the child was born, but she found out beforehand.

They argued in the car, he lost control of the steering wheel, and they crashed into a fuel tanker. There was a deafening explosion.

Underneath the white sheets were two bodies, burned beyond recognition.

My gaze had just flickered towards them when my vision went dark, covered by a cool palm.

Fu Liuchuan leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Don’t look, Liuliu. It will scare you.”

He was only nineteen then, but he handled everything with a calm and decisive hand.

He arranged the funeral, kicked out his father’s wailing mistress, and took over the entire Fu Group.

By the time I came to my senses, we had already reached that night of disintegration.

When my mother was alive, she always complained about my strange temper.

In the privacy of our room, she would pull my ear and hiss, “You’re just like your real father, a complete lunatic.”

“I’m warning you, Fu Liuliu, if you dare cause any trouble in the Fu household, don’t blame me for being harsh.”

In front of Fu Liuchuan and his father, she would spare no effort to put me down, forcing me to eat things I hated. “Celery is so nutritious. You will eat it, do you hear me?”

I was holding my chopsticks, contemplating whether to just knock the bowl over, when Fu Liuchuan suddenly reached over with his chopsticks, picked up the pieces of celery, and put them in his own bowl.

“Liuliu can eat whatever she wants,” he said coolly. “We’re not a family that forces our daughter to eat things she hates.”

My mother looked at him and gave a fawning smile. “This child of mine has always had a strange temper.”

“It’s normal for a young girl to have a bit of a temper,” Fu Liuchuan’s voice grew even colder. “Besides, I watched her grow up. I’ve never thought there was anything strange about her.”

I was very young when my mother married into the Fu family.

She was too busy trying to please her new husband to pay any attention to me.

Fu Liuchuan was five years older than me.

He practically raised me.

So, when I realized he was intentionally distancing himself from me, I had no choice but to put on a mask of hatred.

Anything to keep him from discovering my filthy, despicable feelings.