145 The Truth Behind the Dream; I Owe Him an Apology
This dream was long. It probably went on for longer than half of Sang Qianqian’s short life.
The dream started when she confessed to Shen Hanyu and was rejected. She cried as she called Sang Pengcheng. After the call, she went home and cried for the entire afternoon.
In reality, she had a nightmare, which was why she managed to stop Sang Pengcheng from taking revenge on the Shen family. However, in her dream, after she finished crying, she went abroad with Wen Xu to relax that night.
When they returned ten days later, Shen Hanyu was forced to quit school, and the Shen family’s company went bankrupt. Shen Shaofeng was so shocked that he died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage.
When Sang Qianqian heard this news, it was as if she had been struck by lightning. Her hands and feet felt cold.
She had been away from Shen Hanyu for more than ten days, but it did not make her feel any better. Instead, she missed him even more.
She even thought that it didn’t matter if Shen Hanyu didn’t like her. She just wanted to be friends with Shen Hanyu. Maybe he would like her once he got to know her better?
However, she really did not expect that everything would change when she returned to Ming City.
After Shen Shaofeng’s death, the Shen family’s company went bankrupt and they were in huge debt.
The tragedy had already happened, and Sang Qianqian couldn’t stop anything.
Thus, she mustered up her courage and went to look for Shen Hanyu. She knocked on the Shen family house’s door and gave him a check. The money on the check was enough for him to pay off the Shen family’s debts and the rest.
Shen Hanyu glared at her. The coldness and hatred in his eyes scared her. It was as if he would strangle her to death the next moment.
“I’m sorry.” She said in a trembling voice as she stepped back. “I didn’t know things would turn out like this. I’m only here to help you…”
Shen Hanyu’s expression was grim. He gritted his teeth and hissed, “Get lost.”
The door closed and Sang Qianqian stood there for a long time, her heart filled with a sour feeling.
She regretted her impulsiveness that day; She shouldn’t have called her father. She felt even more guilty about the Sang family, which caused the Shen family’s downfall.
She didn’t know how to help Shen Hanyu in a way he would accept. However, she really wanted to make up for her actions.
She really didn’t want to see things end like this.
Soon, she found out that Shen Hanyu had to sell all of the Shen family’s a.s.sets, including the house he and his mother stayed in at Cui Zhu Yuan District because of debt.
Sang Qianqian had secretly hired an agent to buy it. She had also said that the owner was going abroad and that they could live in the house as they wished. They only had to pay the monthly rent, which was much lower than the market price.
Afterward, she secretly found Shen Hanyu’s good friend, Guo Muyang, and convinced him to keep it a secret. She then gave him the check to help the Shen family clear their debts and tide over the crisis.
After Guo Dingsong made some secret arrangements, he handed Shen Hanyu the check under the pretense that the check’s owner was Guo Dingsong’s friend.
Shen Hanyu was unwilling to accept it at first, but Guo Dingsong persuaded him for a long time.
“My friend doesn’t lack money. He just can’t stand the Sang family treating the Shen family like this, so he’s trying to be generous. When you have money in the future, just pay him back with interest. Moreover, those debt collectors wouldn’t let you and your mother off so easily. What if your mother finds out about Shaofeng’s matter when those people come to your home one day?”
Shen Hanyu did not tell his mother that Shen Shaofeng had pa.s.sed away. Instead, he only said Shen Shaofeng had gone abroad for an important project and would only be back after a long time.
He was very knowledgeable in the internet field. In order to hide it from his mother, he even used Shen Shaofeng’s voice to make a very realistic voice-changing software and called his mother every night.
Mrs. Shen mistakenly thought it was her husband on the phone, but she didn’t know that it was her son on the other end. Her body was weak, and she was bedridden all year round. She didn’t have contact with anyone else.
Therefore, even if the public opinion outside was abuzz, Mrs. Shen wouldn’t know about it and only thought that Shen Shaofeng was still abroad.
The situation that Guo Dingsong had said of debt collectors coming to the house was indeed possible. At that time, Mrs. Shen would not be able to take the shock.
Shen Hanyu was silent for a long time before he finally accepted the check.
He had asked Guo Dingsong to pa.s.s on a message to Sang Qianqian. “I will definitely repay your kindness several times over in the future.”
If things had ended there, perhaps the situation would not have been the worst.
However, Xia Sitong and her father, Xia Zhixin, kept coming to visit Mrs. Shen and asked about her well-being. They were a little over-concerned.
When Shen Shaofeng was mentioned, the Xia father and daughter forced a smile and stammered, which made Mrs. Shen suspicious.
Mrs. Shen paid careful attention and finally found out the truth of Shen Shaofeng’s death. She fainted because she couldn’t stand the shock and was sent to the hospital. Alas, she couldn’t be saved.
When she found out that Mrs. Shen had pa.s.sed away, Sang Qianqian’s heart sank even further.
She didn’t dare to pay her respects on the day of Mrs. Shen’s burial. Thus, she only went to the cemetery the next day, wanting to give Shen Shaofeng and Mrs. Shen a bouquet of flowers.
She really felt sorry for their deaths. She always felt that they had died because of her. If she hadn’t called her father in tears, perhaps nothing would have happened.
It was raining heavily that day.
Even though Sang Qianqian was holding an umbrella, her skirt was still wet from the rain.
When she arrived at the cemetery, she saw Shen Hanyu there. He didn’t even have an umbrella. Instead, he just stood there, completely soaked from the rain.
His back view exuded an indescribable sense of loneliness, causing Sang Qianqian’s heart to ache for him. She stood behind him for a long time, feeling extremely sad and guilty.
The rain was heavy and the wind was cold, and her teeth were chattering.
However, Shen Hanyu seemed to be unaware of her presence. He just stood there silently.
Sang Qianqian didn’t know how long Shen Hanyu was going to stand there. After a moment of hesitation, she turned around and looked for the cemetery’s caretaker, asking the staff to give Shen Hanyu her umbrella.
Of course, she didn’t dare to say it was hers. She only asked the staff to claim the umbrella as theirs..
Additionally, she also handed the flowers she had bought for Shen Shaofeng and Mrs. Shen to the staff and asked them to place them in front of their graves after she left.
Sang Qianqian left the cemetery in the rain after that.
Due to being exposed to the cold wind for so long, she had a high fever and fell sick when she returned home. It later turned into pneumonia and she had to stay in the hospital for almost a week.
After her dischargement, Shen Hanyu was nowhere to be found.
He paid the rent for the house in Cui Zhu Yuan District and moved out.
Even Guo Muyang didn’t know where he had gone. Or perhaps, Guo Muyang didn’t want to tell her.
Sang Qianqian was at a loss for a long time. She really wanted to apologize to Shen Hanyu for her irrational behavior back then. But even if she did, he might not be willing to listen, and he would definitely not forgive her.
She owed him more than just an apology. Moreover, she had even caused his parents’ deaths.
Not long after, Sang Qianqian listened to her father’s arrangements and went overseas to study. Although she wasn’t often in the country, she would always ask the cemetery staff to send a bouquet of flowers to Shen Shaofeng and Mrs. Shen every year on their death anniversary.
She didn’t expect them to forgive her, but doing so would more or less make her feel better.
—
Several years had pa.s.sed, and the next time Sang Qianqian saw Shen Hanyu was when the Sang family was in trouble and her father jumped off a building.
She had rushed back from abroad overnight and cried her heart out in front of her father’s body.
The man, who exuded a cold aura from head to toe, was unusually handsome, but his eyes were unusually cold. He looked down at her quietly from above.
“Sang Qianqian, I’ve been looking for you for a long time,” he said.