Chapter 39: Lollipop
“Nian Nian, how could you get divorced?” Su’s father exclaimed, utterly exasperated.
The Shen brothers had come knocking, and in his panic, he had hoped to win over his son-in-law Gu Yichen—only to find that Su Nian had quietly divorced him?
Su Nian cast a fleeting glance their way, too indifferent to even acknowledge them, and focused instead on eating her fruit.
“You must remarry him…” Her father rushed forward, grabbing at Su Nian’s arm.
Gu Yichen stepped in to block him. “I am pursuing Nian again; please stop pressuring her. The past mistakes were mine alone; none of this can be blamed on Nian.”
Su’s father relaxed slightly, smiling kindly. “I’ve always trusted your judgment. Nian-Nian is still young and inexperienced; please be patient with her.”
His humble demeanor made Su Nian frown in displeasure. Just as she was about to retort, Shen Yuhuan asked with a gentle smile, “Nian-Nian, I recall that over ten years ago, the Su family had fallen into decline. How did they regain their prosperity?”
“I think it was because they developed the S Serum,” Su Nian replied uncertainly.
After all, so much time had passed. She only vaguely remembered that her mother had contributed her entire life savings to provide Su’s father with the research funds, which ultimately led to the creation of the S Serum.
Yet the three words “Agent S” struck like a thunderclap, freezing Su’s father in place.
His gaze darted away, alarm bells ringing loudly in his mind.
The Shen brothers knew!
They had indeed come to uncover evidence!
“Miss Su, sixteen years ago, which vacant villas did the Su family own?” Shen Yuxi suddenly asked.
Any evidence from that time must have been erased by her father; his only option was to bluff, hoping to catch him off guard and make him slip up in his panic.
Su Nian felt a strange unease but answered without hesitation: “I’m not entirely sure, but the Su family wasn’t wealthy back then. We didn’t own many properties, so it should be easy to find out.”
She glanced at her father, whose expression had turned grim, and vaguely sensed that something was wrong.
“Yes, there weren’t many properties back then.” Having seen much in his life, Su’s father quickly regained his composure and said cheerfully, “There was one villa by the Lakeside Community; all the others were sold to raise funds for developing the S serum.”
Shen Yuhuan smiled gently and asked, “Nian Nian, is there a small lake inside the villa at Lakeside Community, one filled with many ornamental fish?”
“No,” Su Nian denied, racking her brain to recall. “But I do remember a small lake at the villa registered under my mother’s name. I used to play there when I was little.”
A flicker of panic flashed in Su’s father’s eyes.
Shen Yuxi’s gaze shifted slightly, and he fell silent.
So it was true that back in the laboratory, he had indeed heard her voice, not merely a hallucination of his own making.
During those dark, sunless days, he had thought of Su Nian countless times—unwilling to let someone else claim his identity, refusing to be forgotten by her, and hoping to meet her again to clear up the misunderstandings. Those obsessions became the very source of his will to survive.
At that time, when he was first injected with the experimental serum and lay on the brink of death, he faintly heard Su Nian’s laughter, which rekindled his will to survive.
During those three years in the laboratory, Su Nian became his sole hope and obsession.
“Can we go take a look?” Shen Yuhuan’s eyes held a chill.
He sensed Shen Yuxi’s turmoil, and with that, confirmed his target.
Su Nian glanced again at her father’s grave expression, her heart skipping a beat as she hesitated before speaking. “That villa is already under my father’s name and has been completely renovated.”
Back then, she had been young and naive; coaxed by her father, she had transferred the ownership of the villa left behind by her birth mother.
After the Su family gained fame for the S-Agent, the villa was torn down and rebuilt from scratch, transformed beyond recognition. Even if anything had once existed there, all traces had long since been erased.
“If you two are interested, I’ll have Nian-Nian take you there,” Su Father said after careful consideration, his tension gradually easing as a smile returned to his face.
All evidence from back then had been destroyed; he had no reason to feel uneasy.
Shen Yuhuan said lazily, “As you wish. In any case, wherever Nian Nian is, that’s where I’ll be.”
He leaned in close and blew a soft breath into Su Nian’s ear.
Warm and ticklish, it sent strange, tingling shivers through her.
Su Nian shrank back slightly, pushing him away. “Mind your manners.”
The atmosphere at the meal was stiff. Su Nian’s father clung to Gu Yichen, acting every bit the doting father-in-law, alternating between discussing private matters concerning Su Nian and broaching topics of business collaboration.
Yet Gu Yichen remained cold throughout, bluntly interrupting several times without regard for propriety, leaving Su Nian’s father with an increasingly sour expression.
That insolent boy! Su Nian’s father cursed inwardly while maintaining a beaming smile outwardly. Glancing again at Su Nian, who was dining with impeccable decorum, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of resentment toward her as well.
Raising a daughter for nothing; she can’t help the Su family in the slightest, and now she’s even brought our enemy to our doorstep.
“Nian Nian, fish is your favorite. Let me remove the bones for you.”
Watching Shen Yuhuan shower her with attention, Gu Yichen felt a suffocating tightness in his chest, yet he was utterly at a loss. After eight years together, he still knew nothing of Su Nian’s preferences.
Su Nian thanked him politely. But just as she obediently began picking at her rice, her expression suddenly froze.
Just moments ago, something lightly brushed against her ankle, then brazenly rubbed against it.
Su Nian steadied her nerves, pulling her leg back and shifting away, but the thing advanced once more.
She shot a fierce glare at Shen Yuhuan, only to find his smile growing even more unrestrained and triumphant.
“Nian Nian, what’s wrong?” Su Xingye asked, puzzled.
Su Nian quickly covered it up, smiling as she replied, “It’s… nothing…” The two words were separated by a second-long pause, her expression utterly unnatural.
“Stop it,” Shen Yuxi said, putting an end to the commotion.
Gu Yichen’s pupils contracted slightly as he cast a cold gaze toward Shen Yuhuan.
Su Xingye was even more direct; he bent down to look under the table, his expression darkening instantly before he lashed out with a sharp kick.
Shen Yuhuan couldn’t retract his leg in time and took the full force of the blow. Yet, far from being angered, he merely flashed a provocative smile.
Just as tensions threatened to boil over again, Su Nian gently set down her bowl. With an impassive face, she said, “I’m finished. Please, enjoy your meal. Yuxi, come back to the room with me.”
She took a napkin to wipe her mouth, paying no heed to the varied expressions on the faces around her.
Su Nian returned to her room and, the moment Shen Yuxi stepped inside, she closed the door and locked it from within.
“Yuxi, is there some kind of conflict between you and my father?” she asked carefully. Her father’s attitude was far too strange, stirring a sense of unease within her.
“Yes, and it’s a significant one,” Shen Yuxi replied frankly.
Gazing at the radiant Su Nian, his eyes flickered with a momentary daze, as if lost in memory. “Miss Su, do you remember that peach tree by the roadside sixteen years ago, and that mango-flavored lollipop?”
Su Nian showed a flicker of surprise, but her expression chilled the next instant. “That’s old history; I have no desire to bring it up. I’d rather we had never met!”
If not for that lollipop, she would never have endured that melodramatic, torturous romance with Gu Yichen, nor would she have lived so suffocated.
Shen Yuxi fell silent for a few seconds, sorrow welling in his eyes as he whispered softly, “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing when everything is fine?” Su Nian asked, bewildered.
She took a few steps forward, her lips curving into a gentle smile. “Did I frighten you?”
“No.” Shen Yuxi suddenly reached out and, before Su Nian could react to her shock, pulled her into his embrace.
It was a warm hold. For a fleeting moment, Su Nian felt disoriented, instinctively longing to linger within it.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have deceived you back then,” Shen Yuxi murmured softly, his warm voice like a spring breeze unfurling an ink-wash painting. “I shouldn’t have written that note or given you false identity information. But the pain was unbearable; they beat me severely and threatened both Huan and me. I had no choice but to compromise. I never imagined it would end up harming you.”
Su Nian was bewildered. “What are you talking about?”
Her heart tightened, and she felt vaguely that what Shen Yuxi was saying was something profoundly important—important enough to overturn her long-held beliefs.
“Is your affection for Mr. Gu connected to the lollipop from your childhood?” Shen Yuxi stepped back slightly, asking with earnest sincerity.
Su Nian paused, clutching his clothes tightly. “Yes. Without that childhood connection, I would never have sought him out, never have interacted with him so deeply, and the likelihood of falling for him would have been slim.”
Without that foundation of shared experience, things between Gu Yichen and her would never have evolved into what they are today.
“So, I’m sorry.” Shen Yuxi apologized for the third time, hesitating slightly before reaching out to pat Su Nian’s head—three gentle taps. “They said Mr. Gu was a child prodigy with limitless potential ahead of him, and that you deserved someone so extraordinary. I believed you were a perfect match, destined for happiness together, so I stopped holding firm to my principles.”
Thus, he had sealed away that memory from sixteen years ago, never investigating further nor confirming whether Su Nian, living within that web of lies, had truly found happiness.
Su Nian stood stunned, a vague understanding dawned in her heart, yet she dared not believe it. “Yuxi, what exactly do you mean?”
She had believed this story for sixteen years, yet today Shen Yuxi told her the truth was nothing like she had imagined?
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