After the Early-Deceased White Moonlight of a Wealthy Family Returns (GL) - Chapter 37

“You knew I would come.”

In the exclusive lounge, Shen Huaijin sat on the guest sofa, her eyes full of wariness and vigilance as she stared at the woman across from her.

“Su Wu, you knew all along.”

The woman picked up the pot to pour tea for her, but Shen Huaijin reached out to block the rim of the cup. “No need.”

Su Wu shrugged and poured a cup for herself instead.

The green tea was pale, with ripples dancing on the surface.

“Astra is under my group; the identities of everyone on board are registered. From the moment you stepped onto the ship, Shen Huaijin, you were right—I knew.”

Shen Huaijin sneered. “Then you should also know why I’m here.”

“Who is she?” Her phone screen lit up, and Shen Huaijin pushed the device over. Between them lay a striking photo of a girl in a dark green school uniform standing side-by-side with the woman.

Su Wu responded leisurely with a question: “You don’t recognize her?”

Shen Huaijin furrowed her brows, suppressing her rage. “That’s exactly why! Su Wu! What on earth is going on here!”

“I thought this was just a farce—that someone had sent a boring, photoshopped image to trick me into coming back. Until today, when I saw the girl beside Meng Dongdong.”

“Su Wu, what are you trying to do!”

Shen Huaijin stared deathly at the woman in front of her. They were once friends.

“If I said I wasn’t trying to do anything, would you believe me?” The gloomy, taciturn friend of her memory now possessed the aura of a high-ranking leader. Even under such interrogation, Su Wu’s eyes remained perfectly indifferent.

“My sister is dead. Can’t you just let her go?” Shen Huaijin truly couldn’t understand. “Yes, over these years, I know you’ve been looking for her. Deep down, I appreciate that you cared so much, but Su Wu, she’s dead! That accident ten years ago! She’s been dead for a long time!”

“I was hot-headed back then, but now that I’ve calmed down, we both know her death wasn’t your fault.”

“You don’t need to be this guilty, nor do you need to… I don’t know where you found someone like this…”

Su Wu let out a light chuckle. “If your Shen family could find someone to impersonate You’an, why can’t I?”

“Su Wu!” Shen Huaijin looked like an angry lioness whose tail had been stepped on.

Without a change in expression, Su Wu picked up a folder that had been sitting on the table from the start and pushed it toward Shen Huaijin.

“Open it and see,” she said.

Shen Huaijin was incredibly wary. “What are you doing?”

Su Wu: “Didn’t you ask who she is? The answer you want is in there.”

Shen Huaijin snorted, grabbed the folder, and opened it roughly.

The first document she pulled out stated: DNA Test Results: Match.

Shen Huaijin froze instantly. She was like someone who had been traveling in the desert for a long time and suddenly saw an oasis; her first reaction wasn’t joy, but doubting her own senses. That wasn’t an oasis—it was a life-consuming mirage.

“Impossible…” Shen Huaijin murmured to herself while flipping through the pages. “You’an clearly died ten years ago… even if she came back, how could she not have changed at all… She…”

“There are many impossible things in this world,” Su Wu said. “I’m willing to view all of this as a miracle.”

“The person who sent you the photo didn’t lie to you.”

“Shen Huaijin, she really is back.”

The documents in Shen Huaijin’s hands scattered across the table.

“How long?” her voice was raspy. “I’m asking you—how long has she been back!”

“The date is on the DNA report,” Su Wu said. “Why are you still like you were before, never looking at things carefully?”

Shen Huaijin clenched her fists. “Since you knew about this from the start, why didn’t you tell me?”

Su Wu looked as if she had heard a joke.

“Tell you?” She set down her cup. The water rippled, and a small green leaf swayed. “Shen Huaijin, what would telling you achieve? Would you bring her back to the Shen family to live with Shen Zhirou? Or would you take her with you, wandering the mountains and seas all day to escape?”

Shen Huaijin repressed her feelings. “Regardless, Su Wu, she is my sister. This is a Shen family matter; it has nothing to do with you.”

“You have your own sister,” Su Wu said, cutting straight to the point. “She is currently living in the Shen house, calling You’an’s mother ‘Mom,’ and enjoying everything that should have belonged to You’an. Shen Huaijin, who is really the one with ‘nothing to do’ with this?”

“You don’t understand at all!” Shen Huaijin slammed both palms onto the table.

“What don’t I understand?” Su Wu sat still, looking up at the woman who had stood up. Her eyes were calm, without wind or rain, but they brought to mind a stifling, oppressive afternoon—the kind of moment just before a storm hits.

Shen Huaijin was inexplicably dazed by whatever was brewing in those eyes.

“Go on,” Su Wu said. Even now, she had the leisure to smile at Shen Huaijin. “I’m listening.”

Shen Huaijin felt that even standing, she hadn’t gained the upper hand. She simply sat back down.

“About Shen Zhirou… no one wanted it to be like this,” she said. “You’an had her accident, Mom was critically ill, she misidentified a daughter… Su Wu, do you think I didn’t try to stop it? You’an had just left! I had to watch another girl move into the house. Do you think I felt good? I tried everything, consulted all kinds of doctors. No matter what we tried, the conclusion was the same: if we forced Mother to accept the truth, it would lead to her total mental breakdown.”

“She even attempted suicide once.” Shen Huaijin ran her hands through her long hair in despair, covering her forehead. Her elbows rested on her knees as she looked down. “During that time, she finally had a moment of clarity, and I thought things were improving. One day I came home and called out, but no one answered. I went to her room, pushed the door open, and saw her lying in a pool of blood… Su Wu, tell me. Tell me! In a situation like that, what could I do?”

“You’an was already gone; I couldn’t let her leave too.”

From the day Shen You’an had her accident, life had been like a set of dominoes—seemingly orderly, but actually fragile. Knocking down one card destroyed everything in an instant.

All the strength was drained from Shen Huaijin’s body. She asked hoarsely, “Su Wu, tell me, if it were you, what would you choose? If your mother fell into such a state because a sister left…”

“I would tell her the truth,” Su Wu said without a second of hesitation. “If she couldn’t accept it and chose to face it that way, then I would respect her choice.”

Shen Huaijin let out a cold laugh. “It was stupid of me to ask you such a question. I forgot you’re the person who could send your own mother to a mental hospital without blinking.”

The moment the words left her mouth, Shen Huaijin was startled by her own cruelty. She bit her lip and watched Su Wu’s face.

The other woman didn’t seem hurt by that poisonous verbal blade. This caused the guilt that had just begun to form in her heart to dissipate again.

“What about You’an then? Though I don’t know why you care about her so much.” Shen Huaijin was now desperately looking for a knife to stab the flawless woman across from her, wanting her to feel her helplessness and pain. “If one day she faces this situation, would you choose to tell her the truth, or let her live in a lie forever?”

“Shen Huaijin, no matter how you look for excuses now, you know yourself that this ‘stability’ over the years is nothing but whitewashing a mess,” Su Wu replied unmoved. “Auntie had her accident, the Shen family was in turmoil, and you chose to go abroad, leaving the family business in Shen Run’s hands.”

“Ten years.”

Su Wu raised her eyelids to look at Shen Huaijin. “Have you not noticed who the biggest beneficiary is in this chaotic arrangement of fate?”

Shen Huaijin’s brow furrowed into a tight knot. “What are you trying to say?”

“You’an has an accident, Auntie falls ill and is hospitalized. Shen Zhirou comes to express thanks, coincidentally gets misidentified by Auntie, and then logically moves into the Shen house to become the ‘sole medicine’ for her recovery. You couldn’t handle it, so you gave up your studies and left. Shen Run returns to the country, takes charge during the crisis—a man whose interests never lay in business but in academia silently takes control over the Shen Group’s life and death until today.”

“Just two days ago, You’an told me she heard Shen Yanchen—oh, your cousin—ranting at your current sister, saying that if it weren’t for Shen Run, Shen Zhirou couldn’t have everything she has now.”

Su Wu tapped the table with her finger. “Don’t you think those words are very interesting?”

“Are you saying—”

“I’m not saying anything,” Su Wu said. “I’m just stating facts.”

Shen Huaijin wasn’t stupid. She understood Su Wu’s implication. The air went still for a moment.

Su Wu asked, “Who sent you the photo?”

Shen Huaijin: “A virtual number. I checked, but couldn’t track anything.”

Su Wu raised an eyebrow slightly.

Shen Huaijin grew impatient. “Just say whatever you’re thinking.”

Su Wu: “More than who sent the photo, I care about why the photo was sent at this specific time.”

The timing was subtle. Sending a photo to bring Shen Huaijin back—what could that accomplish? To Shen Run, this was of no benefit. He would likely prefer Shen Huaijin to remain an absentee owner, knowing nothing of the Shen family’s affairs.

If Shen Huaijin came back, the only thing she could do was what she was doing now: interrogate the other person in the photo.

And then—

Su Wu lowered her eyes, surreptitiously shifting the focus.

“That day was at the school,” Su Wu said. “Did you know? Your sister is also studying at that school now.”

“Oh, I meant Shen Zhirou.”

Shen Huaijin rolled her eyes. This woman was definitely doing it on purpose, constantly reminding her of the choices she had made in the past.

“The situation is unclear, Shen Huaijin. You should know better than I do that You’an is safest staying with me for now,” Su Wu said. “If Shen Run really had a hand in what happened back then, the water is likely deeper than we think.”

“Don’t try to make yourself look good,” Shen Huaijin mocked. “Even if she doesn’t go back to the Shen house now, I have a place to settle my sister.”

She emphasized those last four words.

“Settle her where? Do you even have friends left in this country?” Su Wu said. “You never reply to Meng Xi’s messages, only sending a yearly email to say you’re safe. Do you have connections? Do you have the ability? How are you going to take care of her?”

Every one of Su Wu’s words pierced Shen Huaijin’s heart like a needle.

She took a deep breath. “Even so, don’t pretend you’re doing this entirely for my sister’s sake. If you truly wanted to help the Shen family out of this mess, you would have told me your suspicions long ago. But you didn’t. Not once.”

“You resent me.” Su Wu pointed out Shen Huaijin’s emotion, looking back with a breeze-like calmness. “Who told you I want to help the Shen family out of a mess? From the day you all welcomed Shen Zhirou home with lanterns and decorations and stopped searching for You’an, I stopped caring whether your family lived or died.”

“Then you—”

“From beginning to end, I only care about one thing.” Su Wu spoke frankly, without hiding a thing. “Shen Huaijin, I only care about her.”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t have the face to appear before her at all.”

“You made your choice a long time ago, didn’t you?”

Shen Huaijin gritted her teeth. “Stop trying to gaslight me.”

“Do you dare call You’an over and let her choose for herself?”