Shen Luoan seemed to be smiling…
However, when Ye Qianqian examined him, she noticed that he looked a little pitiful.
Actually… it seemed like he wasn’t completely indifferent toward Shen Manting.
Ye Qianqian smiled at him and said, “Okay, thank you… big brother. ”
Shen Luoan was older than she was, so it wasn’t over the line to call him “big brother” when she wasn’t with Shen Zhilie.
Hearing how Ye Qianqian addressed him, Shen Luoan smiled. He nodded and said, “Go ahead.”
Shen Zhilie went back to their room and brought out their coats. Then, he took Ye Qianqian outside.
They went out onto the streets and were instantly surrounded by their familiar neighbors.
Regardless of their age, once they saw Shen Zhilie, they nodded to him and said, “Hi.” Ye Qianqian could see that Shen Zhilie had a certain degree of popularity in this area.
“Old Shen,” Ye Qianqian said.
“Huh?” Shen Zhilie looked at her with a trace of doubt in his eyes. He raised his eyebrows slightly.
Ye Qianqian pondered for a moment before saying, “Have you seen Shen Manting recently?”
“Um… no.” Shen Zhilie was being honest. He shrugged and said, “My brother doesn’t know how to find her, and she doesn’t seem to want to go back home with him anyway. She’s staying in a small village while she’s pregnant.”
“In a little village?”
“Uh-huh.” Shen Zhilie and Ye Qianqian slowly walked together, side-by-side. He said, “She’s currently in Jiangnan. It’s not clear whether she’s working as a personal teacher or as a personal assistant, but she seems to be doing okay. She’s alone right now, and it seems like she doesn’t have many people to care of her.”
“She must have already been pregnant at the time she attended Lili’s wedding, right?”
“I think so. It’s been so long since then,” Shen Zhilie said. He stopped right in front of the river, looking at it. He didn’t know what emotion he was feeling. He uttered slowly, “I just don’t understand her. If she knew she was pregnant, why did she run away? If she doesn’t like my brother, why didn’t she get an abortion?”
Ye Qianqian glanced at Shen Zhilie’s confused and troubled expression. Deep in her heart, she felt like she knew an answer to Shen Zhilie’s questions, but even she herself wasn’t sure.
Leaning against the railing near the river, Ye Qianqian looked across the river and said, “Once upon a time, a painter told me something.”
“Huh?”
Shen Zhilie glanced at her. Qianqian’s face was illuminated like a painting under the glistening, golden rays of the blurry and obscure streetlights.
Ye Qianqian turned to look at Shen Zhilie. She said softly, “She told me that pregnant women don’t have brains. While they do have some form of rationality left, they’ve been brainwashed by the idea of becoming a saint-like mother. They have a kind of inexplicable love and expectation for the baby in their belly, even if they don’t know yet whether their child will be born.”
Shen Zhilie raised his eyebrows slightly and nodded. Most of the patients he received were women. More or less, Shen Zhilie could understand such a sentiment. However, he knew Shen Manting too well. He had always thought that Shen Manting was particularly rational and determined.
However, could it be that Shen Manting wanted to keep the child because of such saint-like feelings?
Shen Luoan thought he understood this, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure.
Ye Qianqian looked back at the river and sighed. “It’s so cold.”
Shen Zhilie hugged her from behind and said softly, “We don’t have to go back home tonight. Shall we sleep out instead?”
Ye Qianqian looked back at him in surprise. She stared deeply into his amber eyes and saw through his intentions right away.
“Won’t Grandma have a problem with that?” she asked.
“Well… Based on how she usually reacts, she most certainly will,” he said.
