{We don’t need to have any further contact in this lifetime. 3}

“Shen Qiyue, I could have easily chosen not to be so kind to you. Being kind to two young, naive children shouldn’t be something I regret, should it?” Qian Xu thought the child’s mindset was still far too immature, treating her as a fool from start to finish. “You speak so confidently, assuming that you can achieve what you want by coming here. Should I naively agree?”

“This isn’t some selfish goal,” the child said with an unwavering expression, taking the opportunity to present her supposedly flawless plan. “This is an excellent opportunity. People like you might never get a chance to be on a family variety show. Shouldn’t you seize it?”

“Yes, I am quite interested,” Qian Xu replied without anger, choosing instead to explain calmly, “but it should be to appear alongside my own child, not with two children who aren’t related to me.”

“See, this woman finally admits it!”

And with that, the whole farce came to an end as Shen Qiyue spoke. Her father, Shen Qi, had actually been present all along, observing the awkwardness and embarrassment on Qian Xu’s face with great interest, as if her so-called “rebellion” amused him.

“It’s not worth getting upset over two kids,” he remarked dismissively.

With Shen Qi’s arrival, the atmosphere immediately shifted. His mere presence silenced the two children who had been about to speak. Yet, Shen Qiyue didn’t feel that anyone was there to support her; she only felt a nervous tension.

Shen Qi, dressed in custom-tailored clothing, had barely glanced at the banquet, as if the grand event wasn’t worth his time. The guests, too, were unimportant to him.

“Do you think that saying these things will quell my anger, or that a woman like me is easy to dismiss?” Qian Xu couldn’t help but find this ridiculous. Even now, Shen Qi seemed to assume that his appearance, along with a few so-called “fair” words, should make her grateful. “You think that by ‘graciously’ resolving the awkward situation with your children, I should be grateful?”

“Shen Qi, I don’t know where you get your confidence…”

He seemed to ignore everything she said, instead focusing confidently on another detail he had held on to: “You’re right. Perhaps we will have a new child.”

Shen Qiyue was stunned by his words.

This was what she had feared all along, and a big part of why she resented Qian Xu.

“Do you even understand what you’re saying, or how repulsive it sounds?” Qian Xu looked at the overly self-assured man, a cold smile on her face. “I don’t like you, I don’t like your children, and I certainly wouldn’t consider having a child with a man who can’t raise his own children properly—a man who lacks even basic dignity and self-respect.”

“Shen Qiyue, don’t look so heartbroken. I will never be with your father, so your biggest fear will not come true—”

“I have one last request.”

Qian Xu stated firmly, “From today on, we’re strangers. Let’s pretend we don’t know each other, alright?”

For one last time, she bent down for someone else’s child. “If, after all this, you still think I have any interest in your father, then you likely lack the ability to distinguish right from wrong. You’re just being foolish.”

Shen Qiyue was aggrieved. “How can you say that about me?”

And yet, she could say it without hesitation.

Even though she understood that Qian Xu would never bear another child with her father, there was a hint in her words that she might have a child with someone else. Shen Qiyue didn’t understand why, despite her dislike for Qian Xu and the conviction that the woman had no place in her future, she still felt deeply hurt.

“The final severing of ties—I made that clear back in Ohio. I don’t want to repeat it again,” Qian Xu added pointedly. “If you or anyone else continues to disrupt my life, I’ll go to the police and file for a restraining order.”

She rose gracefully, her gaze holding many things—the vast, endless night sky, the manor’s rustic fences, the distant stables—but none of it included the people standing right before her.

Without Shen Qi, and without Shen Qinian or Shen Qiyue.

“I’m giving your father back to you.”

“I don’t want him anymore.”