Originally, they were going straight home after work, but Fang Pingjue changed the route at the last minute and asked the chauffeur to drive the car to Fang Mu’s villa.
When he entered the house, he saw the nanny coaxing Fang Shan.
After losing a grandson, Fang Pingjue had become even more loving toward this grandkid. He took Fang Shan from the nanny’s hand and hugged him in his arms for a while. The more he looked at him, the more he liked him. He called Fang Mu and brought the nanny and child back to the main building, planning to bring them over to raise for a few days.
Fang Mu was still working overtime. When he received the call, he agreed to his father’s request without hesitation.
Fang Pingjue brought the child home and instructed Xu Pingfei, “This child is also pitiful. Since he doesn’t have his mother, Pingfei, you have to pay more attention to him.”
Xu Pingfei was at the age where she craved the company of children, so she naturally agreed with a smile.
The couple played with Fang Shan for a while. Fang Pingjue saw that it was getting late and handed the child to Xu Pingfei. “I’ll take a shower.”
“Go ahead.” Xu Pingfei continued to carry the sleeping child.
When Fang Pingjue came out of the shower, Xu Pingfei had yet to come up. He turned on the television and casually flipped through it. He randomly flipped to an entertainment channel and happened to hear the name “Mu Chen.” Fang Pingjue was originally preparing to change the channel, but the name made him stop.
[Today is the 18th anniversary of the death of a famous movie star, Madam Mu Chen. Numerous celebrities and fans in the industry have sent out messages to commemorate her. Madam Mu Chen’s manager, Liu Ying, has organized a fan memorial event to commemorate the scene. Many fans…]
On the screen played a video of Mu Chen attending an interview. The Mu Chen on the television was young and beautiful. She had worn a white shirt and looked breathtakingly beautiful.
Fang Pingjue looked at her face in a daze.
When he had met Mu Chen, she had been only 21 years old and had yet to graduate from university.
He was the one behind her rise.
Mu Chen had thought that she could chase away Lisa, Fang Pingjue’s wife, then enter the house and become the mistress of the Fang family. Hence, Mu Chen secretly gave birth to Fang Mu when she was 22 years old. Later on, Lisa found out about Mu Chen’s affair with Fang Pingjue and resolutely divorced Fang Pingjue.
Mu Chen had hoped to marry Fang Pingjue as soon as possible. Fang Pingjue had indeed wanted to marry her at that time, but Old Master Fang was against their marriage.
Mu Chen was naturally unwilling. At first, she could still bear with it, but when she could not, she threw tantrums at Fang Pingjue. Fang Pingjue doted on her, but couldn’t handle her tantrums. Gradually, he became tired of her.
Later on, the Old Master introduced Fang Pingjue to the daughter of the Xu family in the north, Xu Pingfei.
Xu Pingfei was young and beautiful. Her manners were dignified, and she was gentle and virtuous. Fang Pingjue, who Mu Chen was constantly pestering, got a good impression of Xu Pingfei.
After that, he married Xu Pingfei and was even less in the mood to deal with Mu Chen.
Mu Chen finally realized that there was no hope for her to marry into a wealthy family. She also realized that Fang Pingjue had lost his feelings for her, and he had even flared up at her several times. Mu Chen called Fang Pingjue many times, but Fang Pingjue ignored her.
In the second year after Xu Pingfei married into the Fang family, Mu Chen found someone to tamper with Xu Pingfei’s car and almost killed her. In a fit of anger, Fang Pingjue cut off his relationship with Mu Chen. He even took back the luxury houses that he had given her. He publicly and secretly expressed many times that he had nothing to do with Mu Chen anymore. Whether Mu Chen lived or died had nothing to do with him.
Gradually, the news that Mu Chen had offended Fang Pingjue spread around. Some people were afraid of Fang Pingjue’s status and stopped looking for Mu Chen for endorsement deals. After that, almost no director dared to get her for any roles.
Mu Chen went from being simple to extravagant, from extravagant to frugal. During the years she followed Fang Pingjue, Mu Chen was used to being extravagant. Without Fang Pingjue as a powerful backer, Mu Chen could not earn money and maintain a glorious life. She could only find other financiers.
Fang Pingjue would give Fang Mu support fees during those years. That money was not a lot, but it was definitely enough to support Fang Mu.
However, Mu Chen used that money to buy luxury brand items.
Although celebrities looked good on the surface, they had a lot of bad debts behind their backs. Fang Mu’s childhood was terrible. Mu Chen did not care about him when she was busy, and the child did not know how to cook. He would always be hungry or eat dirty fast food. There was no one accompanying him, so he was always cold.
Mu Chen had then passed away in a car accident. When Fang Pingjue brought Fang Mu home, the child was already twelve years old. Yet, Fang Mu was not even as tall as other ten-year-old kids.
Fang Pingjue felt guilty toward Fang Mu, so he had been compensating Fang Mu all these years.
He was very good to Fang Mu, so good that he completely forgot about his eldest son.
Fang Pingjue looked at the woman talking and laughing on the television. He thought of those distant past events, and his mood became complicated.
Hearing Xu Pingfei’s footsteps coming upstairs, Fang Pingjue quickly turned off the television.
“What were you looking at?”
Xu Pingfei took off her shawl the moment she entered the room. On the stairs, she had heard the television. However, when she reached the door, the television was off. So she could not help but ask that question.
Fang Pingjue naturally shook his head. “It’s all random shows. There’s nothing to see.”
“Television shows these days are getting more and more boring,” Xu Pingfei said as she held her nightgown. “When we were young, television dramas were really good. The dramas these days only have a few people in them. The colors are too bright, and it doesn’t feel like the past years.”
Fang Pingjue nodded and said, “Perhaps, it’s because we’re old, but the youngsters nowadays still think that television is good.”
Xu Pingfei felt a little emotional when she suddenly heard Fang Pingjue use the word “old” on her.
“In the blink of an eye, you’re already a grandfather.” When she had married Fang Pingjue, he had been in his thirties.
In a flash, half a lifetime had passed.
When Xu Pingfei showered, she thought about her life and could not help but feel regretful. When she had married Fang Pingjue, she had been very young and did not have the time to fall in love. Marriage to Fang Pingjue was a pure business marriage. Fang Pingjue was not a romantic person. Come to think of it, I have never fallen in love in my life.
After taking a shower, Xu Pingfei walked out of the bathroom and sat in front of the dressing table. As she applied skincare products on her face, she sized up the person in the mirror.
Even a few thousand yuan of frost could not cover her light wrinkles.
Old!
She ran her fingers along the wrinkles and could not help but say, “I’m old too.”
Fang Pingjue looked up at her, his gaze a little distant. He could not help but recall the first time he had seen Xu Pingfei. The first time they had met, Xu Pingfei had been wearing a rose-red V-neck dress. Her black hair and fair face were abnormally gentle and not inferior to celebrities.
Xu Pingfei stared at the phone in Fang Pingjue’s hand. When she thought about how she had heard the female emcee say Mu Chen’s name when she was on the stairs, she instantly felt that her life was a joke. “Fang Pingjue.” She rarely called him by his full name.
Fang Pingjue regained his senses and turned off his phone to look at her.
“You…” Xu Pingfei looked at the mirror and saw Fang Pingjue watching her figure. She couldn’t help but ask on an impulse, “Did you love me?”
This question stunned Fang Pingjue.
The two of them had been partners for a lifetime, and they had never talked about love in the first half of their lives. Tonight, Xu Pingfei mentioned love to him.
Fang Pingjue narrowed his eyes. After carefully thinking about it, he felt that he loved Xu Pingfei, but it seemed that his love for her wasn’t too deep. However, he still had her in his heart.
Seeing Fang Pingjue remain silent, Xu Pingfei cynically smiled. As if she were angry, she said, “I’ve never loved you.”
This time, it was Fang Pingjue’s turn to feel stifled.
“Sleep.”
Fang Pingjue felt upset when he heard his wife, who had spent half her life with him, say that she had never loved him.
The two of them were in the same bed, but they had different dreams.
Xu Pingfei woke up in the middle of the night and could not help but open Fang Pingjue’s phone. She saw that his phone was still on the Baidu webpage, and the webpage was filled with news about Mu Chen. Xu Pingfei turned off her phone but could not fall asleep in the latter half of the night.
***
Perhaps, it was the news Fang Pingjue had accidentally seen on television the previous night that triggered his memories of his youth.
The next day, Fang Pingjue worked for half a day and did not eat lunch. He asked the chauffeur to drive him to the place where Mu Chen was buried.
There were many graves in the cemetery, but Mu Chen’s tombstone was the most eye-catching. So many fresh flowers lay in front of her tombstone that they spread over to the other graves. Thanks to her grave, the surrounding graves that no one cared about were filled with fresh flowers. Fang Pingjue pulled out the fresh flowers and walked to the tombstone. He stared at Mu Chen’s photo on the tombstone and felt a little guilty.
In this world, Mu Chen hated him the most.
They were all debts from his youth.
He didn’t bring any flowers with him, afraid that he would disturb Mu Chen’s soul.
Fang Pingjue stared at the tombstone for a long time before quietly leaving.
When he left the grave, he brushed past a middle-aged man in a hat. Fang Pingjue did not mind it. He got into the car and went straight home. The weather was a little hot. When he got home, Fang Pingjue could not wait to take a shower.
When Aunt Li helped tidy Fang Pingjue’s clothes, she realized his pocket contained a USB flash drive.
Aunt Li handed the USB flash drive to Wan Lang, who went upstairs to knock on Fang Pingjue’s door.
Fang Pingjue opened the door and saw Wan Lang, so he asked, “What’s the matter?”
Wan Lang took out the USB drive and handed it to Fang Pingjue. “Sir, you forgot your USB drive in your pocket.”
Staring at the USB drive, Fang Pingjue narrowed his eyes but did not say anything. He took the USB drive and closed the door.
Wan Lang turned around and went downstairs.
Fang Pingjue held the USB drive and looked surprised.
He never carried things like USB flash drives with him. This USB flash drive was not his either. Who placed it in my pocket? He remembered that when he got off work at noon, his pocket was empty. After thinking about it, Fang Pingjue had a guess in his heart.
It was the person he had met in the cemetery.
Generally speaking, it was better not to look at this USB drive, because the things inside would cause trouble for others. However, Fang Pingjue was not afraid of trouble, so he decided to open it and take a look. He was worried that the USB drive contained a virus, so he found a new computer, inserted the drive in the port, and opened it.
The USB drive contained only one video. From the angle and the clarity of the video, it seemed the video had been taken secretly.
At first, it was a car chasing after another car. One could see the right rear-view mirror of a car in the lower-left corner of the video. It was snowing in the sky and it was night, so there were not many cars on the road.
Fang Pingjue stared at the car, his expression changing.
This Mercedes-Benz belonged to Mu Chen. He had given it to Mu Chen back then. He would not be mistaken.
It seemed that the person who took the video was a paparazzi.
The chase lasted for more than ten minutes. At this moment, the van that had been driving steadily in front suddenly changed lanes and crashed into the Mercedes in front of it at an extremely fast speed.
The Mercedes hit the guardrail on the spot and fell down the slope. A woman could be seen flying out from inside. The van flew out of the ramp and fell into a pile of rubble. The paparazzi cried out in surprise. As the accident ahead had happened too suddenly, he made a sharp turn, and the front of the car crashed into the guardrail.
The camera fell from his hand. The image churned, finally settling on the roof of the car.
The paparazzi must have fainted.
The scene did not change for a long time.
Fang Pingjue thought that the video was over. He moved the mouse but found that there were still twenty minutes left. He calmed down and continued to watch the video.
After about three or four minutes, the paparazzi woke up. The paparazzi’s face appeared on the screen.
His face was bleeding.
He did not pick up the camera but leaned against the window to look at the scene of the accident.
Then, his chest appeared in the video, revealing that he was wearing a blue down jacket. It was unknown what he saw, but he suddenly shrank back. Sneaking around, he picked up the camera and quietly extended it to the window, aiming it at the scene of the accident on the slope outside the road.
Mu Chen lay on the slope, her Mercedes-Benz pressed against her abdomen and legs.
Mu Chen was seriously injured and covered in blood.
A meter above her stood a thin boy. Dressed in a black sweater, the boy seemed to be talking to Mu Chen.
Due to the distance, Fang Pingjue could only hear some vague conversation in the video.
Fang Pingjue raised the Television’s volume and vaguely heard Mu Chen say, “Save me, Mu Mu. Call 120. Save Mom. Mom is in pain.”
The boy standing above Mu Chen was Fang Mu, who was not even ten years old.
After a moment of silence, Fang Mu said, “Just Die. If you die, that person will take me away.”
