Shi Junhe had tears in his eyes. Sadness and helplessness filled his pupils, and Shi Qingxue felt heartbroken to see that.
Qingxue had never seen Shi Junhe show such complicated emotions. Even though she had nowhere to vent her depression, she couldn’t bear to make things difficult for her father.
But Qingmin…
“If you worry that the environments in all the villas of our family are not good enough, I can buy another villa which is fit to live in and then send the most capable servants and those good at taking care of a baby in our mansion to the villa. And we will provide food, clothes and daily necessities in time. Anyway, I won’t make Qingmin suffer.”
Shi Junhe correctly guessed what Shi Qingxue was worried about and made the best arrangements.
“Don’t worry. Qingmin is my son. I won’t treat him unfairly anyway. Just trust me, okay?”
Since Shi Junhe begged Shi Qingxue in a humble tone, she had to make a concession no matter how resentful she was.
She turned away and didn’t want to look at Shi Junhe. Then she just said in a hoarse voice, “Qingmin is still waiting for me in the villa. I will bring him back at the feast.”
Shi Junhe knew that Shi Qingxue agreed to Dong Hui’s three requirements.
So he sighed with relief.
Although he knew that Dong Hui would be unhappy to see Shi Qingmin at the feast for the babies’ completion of their first month of life, he didn’t want to think about so much. He nodded repeatedly. “Okay, okay. You must come back then.”
After saying that, Shi Junhe looked at Shi Qingxue hesitantly. He wanted to say something yet stopped himself.
“Qingxue, you…”
Shi Qingxue understood Shi Junhe’s hesitation, but she still complained in secret about her father’s arrangement, so she didn’t speak on behalf of him considerately like she would do as usual.
Shi Junhe smiled bitterly and then stated, “Qingxue, I will tell the servants to take good care of Qingmin. Please move back home. When you are not home, it is not so lively.”
As Shi Junhe begged her softly, Shi Qingxue knew that her father missed her all the time, and then she wasn’t mad at him anymore.
Her anger disappeared soon.
However, she didn’t agree immediately. After a long while, she pursed her lips and replied in a low voice, “I will consider it.”
Afterward, she left.
Shi Qingxue left the Lanxun Villa in a hurry, and she came back in a rush, too.
She did it not just to avoid the affairs in Duke Shi’s mansion.
A baby would get hungry easily, and Shi Tianyou was like this, so Shi Qingmin was certainly the same.
Moreover, Shi Qingmin didn’t eat milk, and the sugar water was not nutritious enough, so he would be hungry more frequently than those at the same age.
Shi Qingmin was finicky when Shi Qingxue raised him. He would rather be hungry than drink the sugar water fed by others, so Shi Qingxue returned to the Lanxun Villa in haste after deciding the related matters.
She was afraid that the little baby would be hungry.
In fact, this was what made her hesitate most when Shi Junhe asked her softly to return to the mansion.
If she was not here, who would spoil Shi Qingmin?
The first thing Shi Qingxue did after she came back was comfort Shi Qingmin. She was busy with everything and finally heaved a sigh of relief after she rocked the baby to sleep.
It happened that Mo Junyang came, so Shi Qingxue told him in depression what had happened today.
Qingxue was not satisfied with the result of the negotiation, but she couldn’t figure out a way to make Dong Hui change her mind.
She had seen how stubborn her mother was.
“Junyang, what do you think I should do?” Shi Qingxue rested her head on Mo Junyang’s shoulder and asked gloomily.
Mo Junyang was happy as the beauty threw herself on him, so he conveniently held her in his arms. Then he waved away the servants and stated casually, “It depends on what effect you want.”
Shi Qingxue was stunned and raised her head from Mo Junyang’s arms.
She knew that since Mo Junyang said that, he had a way to satisfy her, but when she looked at him, she couldn’t speak a word.
She couldn’t speak out what she wanted.
Did she want Shi Qingmin to have an identity?
Dong Hui had admitted that Shi Qingmin was the first young master of the family.
Did she want to give Shi Qingmin a better living environment?
Shi Junhe had made a promise.
Then what else did she want?
“I just…” Shi Qingxue pursed her lips and said with a lot of effort, “I just want to take Qingmin back to Duke Shi’s mansion and let him enjoy the treatment as the first young master.
“Hmm, more than a good life materially, I want him to see his parents and not to be alone.”
Mo Junyang pondered for a moment and then expressed, “If you want Qingmin to live at home, it is easy.”
Shi Qingxue’s eyes lit up at once, and she fixed her eyes on Mo Junyang, with expectancy and desire.
“However, you need to know something,” Mo Junyang added unhurriedly.
He didn’t keep her in suspense but continued in a deep and indifferent voice, “Your mother doesn’t like Qingmin and repels him from the bottom of her heart. Even if I make Qingmin return to the family, she won’t care about him sincerely but may even…”
Mistreat him.
Mo Junyang didn’t make it clear. Instead, he reminded her, “Don’t say that a child doesn’t know anything. On the contrary, the child is more sensitive. If Qingmin knows how his mother treats him and that she even almost killed him because she was disgusted with him, do you think that he will be happy?”
No, he wouldn’t.
Shi Qingxue was speechless after hearing Mo Junyang’s evident yet incisive questions.
She had never considered such a question, but she had to attach importance to it after Mo Junyang mentioned it.
She did hope that Shi Qingmin could be loved by his parents, yet she couldn’t force something like this.
If she demanded forcefully, she might push Shi Qingmin into another fiery pit.
“But if Qingmin is raised in a villa, after he grows up, he will know that his parents don’t love him and that he is not valued, right?” Shi Qingxue asked in frustration.
Mo Junyang shook his head and his eyes became deep. “How would he be disappointed if he doesn’t expect anything?”
If Shi Qingmin didn’t expect his parents’ love from the beginning, Duke Shi and his wife would be only his parents in name, and there was no kinship between them, so he wouldn’t be sad after he was treated coldly.
Shi Qingxue held her breath as Mo Junyang’s explanation made her feel cold.
She suddenly thought of what had happened to Mo Junyang in the previous life.
In the previous life, Mo Junyang was abandoned by all people from the beginning, and he suffered hardships and experienced the fickleness of human nature at an early age.
Shi Qingxue didn’t know if Mo Junyang had expected something, nor did she dare to imagine what this man thought about.
However, she knew that the fact that he was distant to affairs of human life had something to do with what had happened to him when he was a child.
It happened to prove that he wouldn’t be disappointed if he didn’t expect anything.
Shi Qingxue finally accepted Mo Junyang’s words and stopped thinking about letting Shi Qingmin return to the Shi family.
However, she didn’t feel better but got more depressed.
“Junyang, you…”
Qingxue opened her mouth and wanted to ask about the man’s childhood experiences that she didn’t know, yet when she was going to ask, she couldn’t speak it out.
No matter what had happened in the past, the consequence was shown.
If she did that, it would almost expose Mo Junyang’s healed wounds again and show the fresh blood.
Was it proper?
Shi Qingxue couldn’t bear to see that, so she had to hold back her words.
“What do you want to ask?” Mo Junyang’s deep voice emerged beside Shi Qingxue’s ear.
Qingxue was shocked and looked up at Mo Junyang, yet she avoided the man’s deep eyes with guilt when she saw them.
“No, nothing.”
How would she have the nerve to tell Mo Junyang that she planned to dig into his wounds because she selfishly wanted to know his past?
However, Mo Junyang turned her face back forcefully and looked at her seriously. “I can tell you anything that you want to know.”
He paused for a moment and then added, “I am not forced.”
“Really?” Shi Qingxue was uncertain.
She always thought that Mo Junyang accommodated himself to her wish.
She had this feeling since long ago.
She would be glad and even complacent then.
However, now she didn’t feel happy but became more afraid.
Shi Qingxue couldn’t help wondering if she really deserved Mo Junyang’s love for her.
What would she repay him with?
When Shi Qingxue was in a dead corner of hesitation, Mo Junyang gently hugged her shoulder.
Their faces clung to each other, and they hugged in the most intimate way.
“I will give you anything that you want, with pleasure.”
Shi Qingxue couldn’t speak. It seemed that something was stuffed in her heart, and it was full yet stuffy.
Mo Junyang smiled at her and continued, “I just want you…to love me more, okay?”
It was Shi Qingxue’s first time to hear Mo Junyang express his feelings to her so frankly, while it was so simple.
He just wanted her to love him?
Shi Qingxue couldn’t stand it anymore. She hugged Mo Junyang’s neck and embraced him tightly, shouting in a sobbing voice, “I love you. I love you alone.”
When Shi Qingxue couldn’t see it, there was finally a smile in the man’s distant eyes.
Nevertheless, he still asked in a flat voice with no feeling, “Do you want to know my past?”
Shi Qingxue nodded and then hurriedly shook her head as she seemed to think of something. “In fact, I don’t want to know it so much. If it will make you unhappy, don’t tell me.”
“In fact, I want to tell you,” Mo Junyang said with regret.
Shi Qingxue’s eyes lit up at once. “Say it. I want to hear.”
After she said that, she regretted being so plain-spoken. How could she say that so soon?
As expected, Mo Junyang smiled, but he just stated, “Hmm, I can tell you everything.”
He held her in his arms gently, as if holding the only treasure in the world. He just cherished her.
“In fact, it’s nothing. Since I was young, I knew that I was born to King Rui’s wife and the emperor, as I heard it when that woman talked with her trusted maid in secret. She wanted to live a better life in the imperial palace and even…”
She even coveted something that didn’t belong to her.
Mo Junyang knew that his mother was ambitious.
It was a pity that she was unlucky and died before her wish came true.