Chapter 20: A Misunderstanding 

“You’re a monster in human skin! This is absolutely immoral and scandalous!”

“Dad, you’ve misunderstood. I…”

“Shut up! I saw it with my own eyes—how dare you try to argue?! Shameless! Despicable! You… you little beast, I’m going to beat you to death!”

Jiang Wanwan lay on the floor, pinching her nose and catching a glimpse of Director Shen from the corner of her eye. He was filled with rage after jumping to conclusions, waving his belt and chasing Shen Tingjun all over the room. She was completely bewildered.

Standing at the doorway was a good-looking middle-aged woman, who was shouting, “Stop hitting him!” but her smile was impossible to hide. Without a doubt, this was Shen Tingjun’s stepmother, Mrs. Yao Hongjuan.

Yao Hongjuan finally noticed Jiang Wanwan’s gaze and quickly composed her expression. She walked over along the wall and comforted her, “Don’t you worry, my dear. Our Old Shen is the most selfless person. He’ll definitely give you justice!”

She said it quietly, but just loud enough for Director Shen to hear. Jiang Wanwan watched as the belt strikes became even more powerful. If Shen Tingjun hadn’t been so agile, he would have been severely wounded.

“Uncle, you’ve really misunderstood. I just…” Jiang Wanwan was worried he would actually hurt him. She scrambled up, not even caring about her nosebleed, and tried to explain, but she was immediately interrupted.

“Oh, my dear, you’re bleeding! That Tingjun… what a ruthless child!”

Shen Tingjun was infuriated by Yao Hongjuan’s exclamation. He remembered he still had to take Jiang Wanwan to the hospital and turned to explain to his enraged father. “The blood is from her hitting her head. I was just about to take her to the hospital!”

But Director Shen seemed to be too blinded by rage to understand Shen Tingjun’s words. He looked at him in disbelief. “You hit her head just to satisfy your animalistic urges?!”

He followed up with a vicious belt strike, hitting an unprepared Shen Tingjun hard on the shoulder.

Jiang Wanwan couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed Yao Hongjuan away and rushed to shield Shen Tingjun.

“My nosebleed is from eating too many red dates and getting a fever! What does that have to do with Shen Tingjun?!”

But Director Shen didn’t seem to believe her. He still glared angrily at Shen Tingjun. “Is he threatening you? Don’t be afraid, Xiao Jiang! I’ll beat him to death today so he can’t keep flaunting his connections to my family and bully people outside!”

He was about to get past Jiang Wanwan to hit his son again. But Shen Tingjun kept pushing her from behind. “Get up, you’re going to get hit.”

Jiang Wanwan’s anger surged, and she snatched the belt from Director Shen’s hand and tossed it aside.

“We’re dating officially! How is that bullying anyone?! I don’t know what you think you saw, but I came here to return some books and fell off the chair. I also got a nosebleed, and Shen Tingjun came out of the shower and thought I hit my head. He was so worried that he didn’t even put a shirt on; he just wanted to get me to the hospital. I knew I was fine and didn’t want to go, and we were just pushing and shoving when you walked in! That’s all that happened, and you didn’t even ask! You just started yelling about killing him! What is he, not your real son? Did you pick him up from a dumpster?!”

Jiang Wanwan was furious. Shen Tingjun tugged on her arm from behind, trying to remind her to deal with her nosebleed. But Jiang Wanwan thought Shen Tingjun was trying to calm things down and not let her speak, so she yanked her arm away. She heard him hiss from behind her, taking a sharp breath.

She forgot all about arguing with his father. She turned around and lifted Shen Tingjun’s shirt, revealing a three-finger-wide, swollen red welt. The edges of the mark were even broken and seeping blood. And that was through his shirt, which showed just how hard he was hit.

Jiang Wanwan’s heart ached, and tears instantly welled up. She couldn’t understand why Shen Tingjun was the one who got hit, yet she felt an overwhelming sense of injustice and sadness. She turned back to Director Shen, sobbing as she spoke. “Look at what you did! What have you done to him?!”

Her voice broke into choked sobs.

Director Shen had been stunned the moment the belt was taken from him. Now, faced with the crying girl, he was at a complete loss. What was going on? The girl who he thought was a victim suddenly rushed to his aid, and before he could even process that, she burst into uncontrollable tears. He watched his son, who was now consoling the girl, wiping away her tears and using his shirt to blot her nosebleed. He saw the genuine look of concern on his son’s face and fell into deep thought.

What should he do now?

Feeling guilty for having jumped to conclusions and misunderstood his son, Director Shen had a sudden idea. He would call Engineer Xu’s office and invite him and his wife over for dinner that night. Since the two young people were truly dating and their feelings for each other were genuine, then it was high time to meet the in-laws!

When Xu Weishan received the call, he didn’t dare make a decision on his own and immediately went to find Jiang Wanwan’s mother. As soon as she heard that her daughter was trapped in Shen Tingjun’s bedroom, her world went black. She couldn’t even wait for the end of the workday. She immediately asked her boss for a leave of absence and rushed to the Shen family home.

When she arrived, Jiang Wanwan was sitting on the living room sofa, her head resting on the backrest. Although she had stopped crying, she still gave an occasional hiccup. Shen Tingjun was sitting beside her, gently patting her forehead.

Yao Hongjuan leaned against the kitchen doorway, looking at the two of them as if they were a strange sight. How did this little devil suddenly turn into a lovesick fool? She curled her lip, shook her arms, and went back into the kitchen.

Jiang Wanwan’s mother didn’t know her daughter had a nosebleed. She thought she was being shameless, sitting in a man’s living room and flirting. She went to hit her, but Shen Tingjun blocked her.

“Auntie Jiang, hold on. She was just bleeding from her nose. I was patting her forehead to help her feel better. If it doesn’t stop soon, she’ll probably have to go to the hospital.”

To his surprise, Jiang Wanwan’s mother looked even more furious.

“You deserve it! Your grandmother sent that one bag of dates just for you. You were so afraid someone else would eat them, you hoarded them all for yourself. Of course you’d get a fever from it!” She said as she sat down between Jiang Wanwan and Shen Tingjun, forcibly separating them.

Shen Tingjun rubbed his nose and saw that Yao Hongjuan was still hiding in the kitchen, pretending not to notice their visitors. He had no choice but to get up and make tea for his future mother-in-law himself.

Jiang Wanwan’s mother took Shen Tingjun’s place and patted her daughter’s forehead. As soon as he left, she lowered her voice and asked, “What trouble did you get into this time? I told you to get your wedding planned, not to get into his bedroom!”

Jiang Wanwan felt terribly wronged. “I just came to return a book!” But then she fell, got a nosebleed, and had to watch a fight scene between Shen Tingjun and his father.

Her mother asked if anything inappropriate had happened. Seeing Jiang Wanwan sullenly shake her head, she finally let out a sigh of relief. In the end, her mother repeatedly told her not to speak during dinner, that everything would be handled by the parents.

But what Jiang Wanwan’s mother never expected was that Director Shen would not follow the rules. He started crying the moment they sat down for dinner, leaving both her and Engineer Xu—two respectable people—at a complete loss for what to do.