Chapter 22 - 022 For You I Once Gave My All

Chapter 22: Chapter 022 For You I Once Gave My All

The hot water was scalding as she steeped a pot of fresh tea.

Shen Han sat on the sofa, his eyes flickering slightly as he watched her place the teacup down and then deliberately choose a seat a bit farther away from him.

“Afraid I’ll eat you?” Shen Han asked.

“No, I’m just used to sitting here.”

Shen Han was noncommittal, took a sip of tea, and looked around her small apartment—a tidy two-bedroom and one-living-room layout of ninety square meters. The complex seemed old from the outside, but inside it was clean and comfortable, much like her—quiet and easy to be around.

However, Su Shu had been giving him a bit of a headache lately.

“Haven’t had dinner yet?”

Su Shu nodded, thinking to herself, isn’t that a silly question? Can’t you see the soup still cooking in the kitchen? Can’t you smell the aroma filling the house?

Shen Han’s indifferent gaze subtly swept toward the firmly closed bedroom door, and Su Shu, with her keen eyes, noticed.

“Xiao’ai is still asleep.”

Shen Han grunted, showing no sign of embarrassment at having his thoughts exposed. Looking into Su Shu’s eyes, he said, “After many years, I didn’t expect you’d keep it a secret for so long.”

Jiang Meili said the child was Su Shu’s, but he didn’t believe it at all. His displeasure arose from facing Jiang Meili’s accusations, and the fact that Su Shu showed no intention of rebutting them. What was the child’s relationship to her, then?

Regardless of the relationship, Shen Han wasn’t foolish. He was aware that Su Shu liked him and how much she cared about his opinion of her. Yet, that night, she seemed indifferent to whether or not she appeared dignified in his eyes, which made Shen Han feel that something was off.

When had it started, and what had provoked it? When did Su Shu begin not to care about maintaining her image in front of him?

Tonight, his sudden visit here was something even he couldn’t explain.

After social obligations, he found himself driving, and inexplicably ended up at her apartment building. Seeing the orange-yellow light shining from her window, he felt an urge and came up.

Sitting here, in her presence, watching her constantly look down and rub her hands, Shen Han finally confirmed something—Su Shu had stopped revolving her world around him. Her life seemed to be heading in a direction beyond his control, and he was not comfortable with it.

Su Shu truly didn’t know how to face Shen Han.

All she wished for in this life was to never meet him again, but ironically, the more she wished to avoid someone, the more they appeared before her—a tangled mess impossible to escape.

When Shen Han spoke of many years without seeing each other, it was sarcasm on his part. If calculated by the time since her rebirth, yes, it had been many years since they had seen each other geographically, but they had never lost touch over video calls or mobile phones in the past few years. How could it have been many years? Yet, from her perspective, spanning from her previous life to now, they truly hadn’t seen each other for many years.

So much so, that the unexpected sight of Shen Han appearing in her home left her at a loss on how to treat him.

In her previous life, she had waited for him to come back, even though he never gave her a single promise. But everything he did fueled her hope, as if they could be together again the day he returned.

For Su Shu, who had harbored feelings for him for many years, nothing was more important than this waiting—she waited and waited until the news of his marriage alliance with Jiang Corporation flooded the news, and that was when she understood that to Shen Han, an orphan like her was utterly worthless.

The wedding of her dreams would never be granted by him.

In her past life, she wasn’t like she is now. Back then, she was young, unable to withstand the blow, and unable to let go of him. With no dignity left in her world of emotions, she endured all the pain and humiliation to stay by his side as a secret lover shamed into hiding.

All because he said, “Su Shu, having you by my side makes me truly happy.”

Yes, for his happiness, she sacrificed all of her own.