“Sorry. Did I scare you and your sister that time?” Angus didn’t sound apologetic. Yan Nuo looked down at the clean staircase and did not reply.

  Angus lit his cigarette again and continued to smoke.

  Yan Nuo really didn’t know how to get along with him. He got up and was about to leave when Angus suddenly said in a painful tone, “You’re not me. You don’t understand me.”


  He stopped and glanced at Angus.

  Angus asked him, “If you realize that someone who treats you very well is actually just taking you as a form of comfort. All the good and doting she gives you is not sincere. All the happiness you can get is thanks to someone else. If it’s you, what will you do?”


  Yan Nuo’s pupils shrank. He asked Angus, “Are you talking about you and my mother?”


  Angus did not answer Yan Nuo’s question.

  Yan Nuo left without waiting for an answer.

  There was silence in the corridor for a long time. When the cigarette in Angus’s pipe was completely gone, he sighed. “So I killed her. When she died, she didn’t torture me anymore.” That way, he wouldn’t feel pain or happiness.

  He could live calmly like a walking corpse.

  Yan Nuo returned to his room and Ji Yinbing planned to get up. She was changing her clothes. When Yan Nuo pushed the door open, Ji Yinbing was still not done wearing her sweater. She was rubbing her waist. After messing around last night, her waist was indeed a little sore and uncomfortable.

  Seeing this, Yan Nuo walked over and gently rubbed Ji Yinbing’s waist.

  “What are you guys doing downstairs?” Ji Yinbing asked Yan Nuo.

  “Watching Sister and Major General make breakfast.”


  “Major General knows how to make breakfast?” Ji Yinbing was a little surprised. She looked up at Yan Nuo and teased him. “It seems like Major General Sha is better than

  you.”


  Yan Nuo snorted. “What’s so good about knowing how to cook?”


  “At least you won’t.”


  Yan Nuo stopped talking.

  After rubbing it for a while, Ji Yinbing stopped him from rubbing it anymore. She put on her sweater and picked up a comb to comb her hair. Yan Nuo sat by the window and looked at the distant Zhuang Long. Zhuang Long was indeed a man who knew how to enjoy himself. There were hills behind his manor. Unlike Fang Yusheng, he was not interested in horses. He built the hills into a golf course.

  Zhuang Long was probably in a bad mood as he held the golf club and vented his anger. Not a single ball entered the hole.

  Yan Nuo suddenly said, “Angus asked me something strange just now.”


  Ji Yinbing tied her hair up before asking him, “What are you asking about?”


  “A very strange question.” Yan Nuo told Ji Yinbing what Angus had said. “What do you think he meant by that?”


  Ji Yinbing pondered for a moment before saying, “Yan Nuo, there’s something I haven’t asked you about. I think this matter might be important.” “Yes?”


  Yan Nuo sat up straight and thought that Ji Yinbing was going to ask something big, so he waited patiently.

  Ji Yinbing asked her, “Did Madam Yan Mei like Neya?”


  “How could that be!” Yan Nuo acted as if he had heard a joke. When he answered, his tone was filled with absurdity. He said, “It’s an undeniable fact that Neya likes my mother, but my mother?” Yan Nuo thought of how his mother had died. She was clearly in so much pain, but she was still worried that the two children would hate their father.

  “My father stabbed my mother four times. It was almost fatal.” When Yan Nuo said this, his tone was calm. His eyelids were lowered, and his long eyelashes were fan-shaped and dark under his eyes. “My mother and my father met and loved each other for ten years. When they met, my father was an actor. At that time, he was not famous. In order to pursue him, my mother temporarily put down everything she had on hand and applied for an assistant beside my father as an ordinary person.”


  “She chased him for two years before she succeeded.”


  “They dated for a year, but then my father’s agency arranged for my father to be a rumored couple with an actress. They were the kind of people who showed their love in public and entered each other’s houses at night to create ambiguous topics. My mother refused, so she asked my father to reject her.”


  “But my father yearned for success and disagreed. They almost broke up.”


  “They did break up after that. My mother and father separated for a year. A year later, my father won the Best Newcomer Award at the film festival. After the award ceremony, my mother arrested him. She locked my father up for six years. For the first two years, she was afraid that my father would run away. My mother even shackled him.”


  “Later on, my father also figured it out. In addition, my mother was pregnant with my sister, and my father was willing to stay away from that circle for her. Only then did my mother untie my father. After that, their lives were relatively peaceful. My father actually liked my sister very much because my sister looked like him, especially with those eyes.”


  “After that…” Yan Nuo thought of what happened in the Fourth Hall that night, and his breathing became heavier.” When he stabbed my mother to death, he seemed to have gone crazy. When he realized that my mother was about to die, he woke up from his dream and came to a realization. He didn’t care if my mother was dead or alive and ran away overnight.”


  “My sister and I knelt beside our mother and cried. She was bleeding so much. She was in special pain, but she was begging us to love our father and not blame him.” So over the years, Yan Nuo and Yan Yu tried not to think about Angus.

  How could they not hate him?

  After all, Angus had killed their mother.

  But they loved him just the same. After all, Angus’s blood flowed in their veins.

  “After that, I haven’t seen him for many years. When I saw him again, he had already become a movie star in America.” Yan Nuo looked at Ji Yinbing and sighed. “It was also at that time that I found out that our father was actually a citizen of America and an actor.”


  Ji Yinbing was shocked by this melodramatic and strange story. It was actually like this!

  She was shocked for a long time before she came to her senses. He heard Yan Nuo ask, “Why do you think my mother loves Neya?”


  Ji Yinbing quickly said, “I saw a diary.”


  “Yes?”


  “Three years ago, I saw a diary in the study on the fourth floor. It seemed to have been written by Madam Yan Mei, but I read her diary privately. It was impolite of me to not tell you. However, the content of the diary is very strange. I remember that it recorded Madam Yan Mei’s love for Mr. Neya.”


  Ji Yinbing said in confusion, “Besides, Madam Yan Mei said in the diary that she has always treated Mr. Angus as Mr. Neya’s substitute.” Yan Nuo felt that it was ridiculous. “Substitute?” he said firmly. “Impossible! They have almost no similarities. How can there be a substitute? Besides, Mr. Neya once confessed to my mother, but my mother rejected him. Later on, Mr. Neya slept with Annita when he was drunk, so he married Annita.”