SM Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Which Side of Ye Lai is Real?

Chapter 43: Which Side of Ye Lai is Real?

Ye Lai’s words were shrouded in a thick fog, impenetrable and unyielding, wrapping him tightly. Within the fog, Ye Lai seemed to shrink, his shoulders slumped, his back hunched as he sat on the edge of the bed, motionless and lifeless.

The way he looked up at Sheng Mingqian, his eyes pleading, reminded Sheng Mingqian of an annual herb nearing the end of its blooming season.

It was helplessness, despair, disappointment, and the weakness of being powerless, as well as compromise.

But what exactly was he compromising?

Sheng Mingqian had never seen Ye Lai like this. In the five years of their marriage, they had been confined by the shell of their agreement. For the first two years, Ye Lai mostly endured him with obedience.

The Ye Lai of the first two years of their marriage was completely different from the Ye Lai who stopped him in the hallway of the audition hotel for “Bare Life,” begging him for another chance to audition, and from the Ye Lai who had just joined the crew, trying to be flamboyant, cheerful, and carefree.

He had never explored the reasons for that change, or perhaps, those were all just Ye Lai’s disguises.

In the past two years, when Ye Lai faced his occasional cold words, he either got through it with jokes, flattery, and acting like a spoiled child, or fought back in the same way. The latter was rare; he mostly begged for mercy in a way that was neither too soft nor too hard.

Their relationship started in bed. When they met, they did nothing but have sex. Ye Lai happened to have an extremely seductive face, and a single glance could easily trap someone in those vortex-like eyes full of attraction. Moreover, the words Ye Lai spoke in bed were three parts true and three parts false, mixed together, making it difficult to distinguish.

Sheng Mingqian always felt that he could not see through Ye Lai. He couldn’t see through him before, and he still couldn’t see through him now.

Reserved, flamboyant, gloomy, aggressive, disguised…

Which side of Ye Lai is the real one?

Sometimes, Sheng Mingqian felt that something intangible was pulling at him. This pulling wasn’t something that had just started; it would tug at him from time to time, like a string controlling him, pulling him left and right…

Ye Lai sat up straight again, tucked the quilt corner for Jiang Ying, and at the same time, retracted his gaze, no longer looking at Sheng Mingqian.

Sheng Mingqian silently exhaled, retracted his wandering thoughts, took out a cigarette case, left the ward, and went to the smoking area to smoke.

–

–

Jiang Ying’s cancer cells had spread and metastasized, and now some complications had appeared. Pleural effusion led to abdominal edema and difficulty breathing. Jiang Ying was sometimes conscious and sometimes confused.

The next morning, after the doctor checked on her, Jiang Ying was put on a ventilator. The sky outside was already bright, but still gloomy.

Ye Lai was taking care of her in the ward, not caring about Sheng Mingqian. Last night, he had fallen asleep beside the hospital bed, and vaguely heard the sound of the door opening and Sheng Mingqian’s approaching footsteps. A few minutes later, the footsteps left the ward again.

Ye Lai thought Sheng Mingqian had already left. When he pushed the door open to see the doctor out of the ward, he saw Sheng Mingqian sitting on a long chair outside the ward, holding his cell phone and making a call.

“Ye Lai’s phone is off. Yes, he is taking care of Director Jiang.”

“Yes, Director Jiang is fine. The doctor is treating her, and she will be able to go back after she gets better.”

“It may take a while.”

“Xiao Yu, be good, be obedient, and go to school.”

From Sheng Mingqian’s words, Ye Lai had already guessed that the person on the other end of the phone was Xiao Yu. He didn’t know how Xiao Yu had contacted Sheng Mingqian. Now, it sounded like they were very familiar?

Ye Lai suddenly remembered that on the night the agreement expired, Xiao Yu asked him if he was going to see “Long-Legged Uncle,” and also, that night, he had just finished attending the blind date dinner when he ran into Sheng Mingqian as soon as he came out.

Ye Lai couldn’t figure out how Sheng Mingqian had contacted Xiao Yu. He had bought Xiao Yu’s smart watch half a year ago, and only a few close people knew the number.

Ye Lai didn’t go over until Sheng Mingqian hung up the phone, his tone not very good: “Were you just on the phone with Xiao Yu? How did you get Xiao Yu’s phone number?”

Sheng Mingqian had just hung up Xiao Yu’s phone when another unknown call came in. Without thinking, he knew it was someone else who wanted to ask him about his divorce with Ye Lai. He immediately put his phone on silent and told the truth.

“Some time ago, I was driving past Xiao Yu’s school when I happened to see him getting out of school, so I took him to the amusement park.”

“Just once?”

“I also took him out to eat twice later.”

The more Ye Lai heard, the angrier he became. Xiao Yu always went home by himself after school. He used to tell the children that they couldn’t take things from strangers or go with strangers.

Xiao Yu’s safety awareness was so poor. Although he had taken Sheng Mingqian back once, it was only that one time. As soon as Sheng Mingqian said he was going to the amusement park, he went with him.

When he was a child, he was so easily believed smiling strangers, that’s why that person targeted him, and finally chose him. He had already passed the best adoption age, and he was planting the landmines for his future calamities himself.

Ye Lai thought that when he got back, he would have to discipline Xiao Yu properly and teach him a lesson.

Although he understood Sheng Mingqian’s character, if he really encountered a bad person in the future, the consequences would be unimaginable. Xiao Yu was a big child, and he had to set an example for the other children.

Otherwise, if something really happened in the future, he would only have to cry.

“Sheng Mingqian, why do you keep looking for Xiao Yu? What do you want?”

“Nothing,” compared to Ye Lai’s exasperation, Sheng Mingqian looked calm, not preparing to continue, changing the subject, “How is Director Jiang? Is she awake?”

As soon as Jiang Ying was mentioned, Ye Lai didn’t have the energy to argue with Sheng Mingqian: “She only woke up for a few minutes and then fell asleep again.”

“I know the director of the oncology department of this hospital. I’ve already made an appointment. He can come over for a consultation this afternoon and check again. Maybe there is still hope.”

Because of the anger caused by Xiao Yu, Sheng Mingqian’s words leaked everything again. Although he knew that there was no way to cure Jiang Ying’s illness, he still didn’t want to give up.

“Thank you…”

Sun Ayi came to the hospital in the morning to bring Jiang Ying daily necessities and changes of clothes, and also brought them breakfast. She couldn’t leave the orphanage for too long, so she had to leave after dropping off the things.

Sheng Mingqian also received a call from Lin Han. The promotional activities for the new movie started at 11 a.m., and the director and main actors had to participate. He had to go over to prepare.

The activity location was in the same direction as the orphanage. He said he would drive Sun Ayi back first.

“Call me if you need anything,” Sheng Mingqian said to Ye Lai before leaving, and then remembered that Ye Lai had blacklisted his cell phone, “My cell phone number, you’ve blacklisted it.”

Ye Lai pursed his lips and didn’t speak, looked up at the IV drip, it wasn’t time to press the bell for the nurse, and casually said, “Nothing.”

Sheng Mingqian reminded him: “Did you forget in a few minutes? The director of oncology will come this afternoon.”

–

–

Escaping is not the only solution. Ye Lai turned on his phone after all. As soon as Sheng Mingqian left, Ye Lai took the person out of the blacklist.

As expected, the vibration and text message notification sounds came one after another, and the phone calls came one after another. Ye Lai kept pressing to disconnect, and the Weibo background message reception was almost stuck, so he turned off private messages again.

Just glancing at the page, most of them were scolding him, and some were greeting his ancestors for eight generations.

Ye Lai sneered at those words. He didn’t even know who his ancestors were for eight generations.

Zhang Yihao’s messages were the most. Although he had already called Zhang Yihao with Ning Yuan’s cell phone when he was eating last night, Ye Lai still smiled when he saw Zhang Yihao’s sulking and scolding in the messages, which couldn’t hide his concern.

Chen Yu-chuan called him several times, and also sent messages asking him if he was okay, and suggested that he go out for a walk. Sun Yuhao and Zuo Qi indirectly got his news from Zhang Yihao, and posted two comments of blessing under his divorce message.

Taking sides was not a good choice at this time, but they still did so.

It seemed that the situation wasn’t as bad as he thought. His friends were still there. Ye Lai replied to them one by one, saying that he was fine, but had something urgent to deal with.

Some reporters and crazy fans already knew Ye Lai’s location. Last night, the photos of him appearing in the hospital emergency hall were quickly spread, and soon his current location was found.

Fortunately, Jiang Ying lived in a VIP ward, and outsiders could not enter, but Ye Lai was photographed when he went out to buy things at noon.

Although he bought a hat and mask, such disguise had almost no effect.

In one night, even his photos from middle school were found. A person who claimed to be his classmate in middle school also posted several long essays, revealing his various bad deeds in middle school: extremely poor grades, bad character, bullying classmates, liking to hang out with hooligans in society, puppy love, promiscuous private life, often going to bars and nightclubs, regardless of men and women, and even taking drugs in private.

Tsk tsk tsk, Ye Lai couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. The person who wrote the essay was really interesting. If the words “Ye Lai” weren’t clearly written on it, he would also want to scold him a few times. How could there be such a bad student.

However, his name in middle school was not Ye Lai.

From kindergarten, his grades were not very good, but they were also mediocre. He had always been among the top few in the class. Although he was withdrawn and didn’t have many friends, he also had one or two good friends. He had transferred schools three times in middle school for various reasons, had never been in love, and had never taken drugs. He had been bullied, but he had finally found them all back. He didn’t suffer losses, but he didn’t bully others either.

This person who claimed to be his classmate didn’t know how he made up the story.

Ye Lai suddenly understood at this moment. He had already reached this point, so don’t be too shameless and just open it up. He wasn’t someone who swallowed his anger in the first place.

Only Sheng Mingqian was an exception. He could be patient and shrink back, but to others, he had no reason to indulge them.

Also, he better not let him find the person who pinched the milk at him last night…

Ye Lai directly forwarded the account that posted the essay, and added the text: It’s fake, evidence has been collected. Article 246 of the “Criminal Law” stipulates that whoever publicly insults others or fabricates facts to slander others by violence or other methods, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, control, or deprivation of political rights. Everyone is equal before the law, and I will call the police to deal with it…

Those strange bombing calls had never stopped. Just before Ye Lai’s phone was about to run out of power and automatically shut down, a term came into view.

Sheng Mingqian liked Ye Lai’s Weibo post.