I Want a Lifetime with You
Chapter 493

Fu Chengyan was surprised by her words. He didn't expect Shi Nuan would come out with such a condition to Su Huaibei, but he still rubbed her head affectionately. "No, you're not bad at all." "But... I can see that he loves Shu Qing deeply. She's probably the only woman he has ever loved in his life, yet I cruelly asked him to break up with her! What if someone else forces you to break up with me the same way as I did?" Shi Nuan couldn't explain what she felt right now. She only knew she felt extremely terrible after visiting Su Huaibei.

Fu Chengyan brought her to his lounge and patted her back comfortingly. "May, humans are selfish by nature. I know you must have your own reasons for requesting that, right?"

Shi Nuan curled her lips in disdain. "I don't have any reason for requesting that. I just think I could accept Su Huaibei as my father because I can feel his desire to atone for his sins, and I'm not repulsed by him But Shu Qing doesn't like me in the first place, so I don't want to force myself to accept her. Isn't that selfish of me?"

"Silly girl!" Fu Chengyan pulled Shi Nuan into his embrace. "No one is perfect. Besides, even without your interference, they may not end up together. Their problem stems from distrust, and no one can save them from it. Had their love been strong enough, no one in the world could've separated them at all.”

Shi Nuan smiled. "Yan, you are really good at comforting me."

"I'm only good at comforting you and no one else." Fu Chengyan patted Shi Nuan and tightened his hug. "This is not something you can control. Since he has agreed to your condition, he must have thought it out, right?"

Shi Nuan nodded. Fu Chengyan planted a kiss on her forehead and asked in concern, "Now, is there anything else bugging you?"

"What if, what if I regretted it? What if I tell him that I don't need him to agree to that condition of mine?"

"I told you, he must have thought it out when he made that decision. If you ask me, I'll say he's the one who should regret it later on and not you. Since he doesn't regret his decision, that means his end with Shu Qing will still be the same regardless of your conditions. So there's no need to feel bad about it, okay?"

"Okay." Shi Nuan nodded and nuzzled her head against Fu Chengyan again. "I didn't interrupt your work, did I?"

"Nothing is more important than you." Fu Chengyan lifted her chin and uttered, "Don't ever think of yourself as a burden to me, okay?"

"Okay." Shi Nuan straightened herself and cupped Fu Chengyan's chin to plant a kiss on his lips. "Here, your reward for comforting me. Go ahead and settle your work. I'm taking a nap." "Alright. I'll wake you up when I'm done." Fu Chengyan carried Shi Nuan to the bed and tucked her in the blanket. He then landed another peck on her forehead before leaving the lounge.

Zhou Zheng, who had been waiting outside for ages, immediately approached Fu Chengyan the moment he came out. "Mr. Fu.”

Fu Chengyan nodded in acknowledgment. "You've gotten the materials?"

"Yes. These are all Su Huai-” Before Zhou Zheng could speak, Fu Chengyan cast a warning gaze at him and eyed the lounge behind him. Zhou Zheng immediately caught his meaning and lowered his voice. "These are records of the happenings between Su Huaibei and Jiang Yuan after they departed for the capital twenty-five years ago. It's incomplete, considering how long ago it was, but it's enough to understand what actually happened back then. Shu Qing is Jiang Yuan's stage name. She was indeed in love with Su Huaibei during her younger days, but conflict often happened between them when they were in the capital. It was not easy to survive in the capital back then. In order to secure her career in the entertainment industry, Jiang Yuan would join parties and dinners with rich producers and investors. One of them happened to be Shen Feng. But his relationship with Jiang Yuan is a bit complicated. He was only acting with Jiang Yuan in a rumored relationship. Oh, and turns out, it was Jiang Yuan who saved Shen Feng's wife in a car accident many years ago."

Fu Chengyan narrowed his eyes at Zhou Zheng's explanation. "What about Shen Qianan?"

"It's just as you guessed!" Even Zhou Zheng didn't expect the two would be siblings. "Mr. Fu, how did you know Mrs. Fu and Shen Qianan are sisters of the same parents?"

"Their face." No two people could look so similar unless they were born from the same set of parents. Fu Chengyan had guessed if they had different fathers, Shen Qianan would never look so similar to Shi Nuan. Of course, this fact was just speculation without any proof until today.

"Oh, by the way, Shen Feng has also arrived at Jiang City. He has met up with both Shu Qing and Su Huaibei a few days ago."

Fu Chengyan nodded. "Okay, you may go now."

"Alright."

"Wait!" Fu Chengyan halted Zhou Zheng. "Other than Su Huaibei, who else did May saw at the hospital?"

"Shu Qing. But she didn't meet her in person, she saw Shu Qing entering the hospital and she waited downstairs until Shu Qing came out. She also saw Shu Qing having a talk with Fu Yi."

Fu Chengyan narrowed his eyes at Zhou Zheng's report. "Okay, you may leave now."

Once Zhou Zheng left, Fu Chengyan flipped through the materials in his hands. As expected, the contents were almost the same as his deductions. Both Shen Qianan and Shi Nuan were indeed daughters of Su Huaibei and Shu Qing.

As for Shen Feng and Shen Shixiu, their role in all that had transpired came as a surprise to Fu Chengyan. It turned out that Shen Feng wasn't in a relationship with Shu Qing at all, and that he raised Shen Qianan to repay for Shu Qing's deeds in saving his wife. As for Shen Shixiu's alternative identity as Shi Yu...

Fu Chengyan felt uneasiness crept into his heart as he read through the documents.

As a man, Fu Chengyan could see that the way Shen Shixiu looked at Shi Nuan was very much different from how he looked at Shen Qianan.

The way he looked at Shen Qianan was just like how siblings looked at each other. But his gaze towards Shi Nuan definitely didn't look as simple as that.

Just because he wanted to repay Shu Qing's favor and repent for his mistakes, Shen Feng actually made his son care for Shi Nuan as a parent. And the most surprising part was Shen Shixiu actually agreed to it. This was not good news to Fu Chengyan. To him, Shen Shixiu was a man that could threaten his status in Shi Nuan's heart.

Fu Chengyan kept the materials and eyed the sleeping Shi Nuan in his lounge. "This silly girl," he muttered while shaking his head helplessly. I bet she's not even aware of Shen Shixiu's coveted thoughts towards her.

Meanwhile, Su Huaibei was hospitalized for a few more days before getting discharged and returned to the Su family's mansion to rest. Throughout the time, none of them mentioned Shu Qing at all. The Su family's attitude was clear; they could accept Shi Nuan as a member of a family, but not Shu Qing. But that day, they came to know of another news, and that was Su Huaibei's plan to get Shen Qianan to return to the Su family as well.

The Su family was not against that idea. Su Yumin simply nodded reluctantly in acknowledgment and replied, "If she no longer wants to be part of the Shen family, our family will always welcome her. But Bei, if she doesn't want to come back, don't force her."

"Okay."

With that, Su Shaoqing helped Su Huaibei upstairs to his room. After the sudden recurrence of his old injury, Su Huaibei had slimmed down a lot, which made him looked much older than his age. "Inform Fu Chengyan of my arrangements; we shall pay a visit to the Shi family, and then to the Jiang family next."

Su Shaoqing froze at his words. "Uncle Huaibei, shouldn't you do so after you fully recover?"

Su Huaibei shook his head. "I know my body condition well. I don't have much time left. There are some age-old matters that I must settle by now."

"Alright." Su Shaoqing agreed after some time of contemplation. He knew that Su Huaibei had nothing to worry about other than Shi Nuan and Shen Qianan now.

Getting Shi Nuan to return to the family was not too hard to arrange, but as for Shen Qianan... It would be hard to get her back.

After Su Shaoqing passed Su Huaibei's message to Fu Chengyan, Fu Chengyan immediately arranged for the meet-up with the Shi's and the Jiang's. It was not easy to get Shi Nuan out of the Shi family and return her to the Su family. Shi Yunsheng would never let her go like that. Even if he were not against the idea, with Shi Nuan's current status as Fu Chengyan's wife, both Shi Jingzheng and Jiang Yu would be the first to disagree with Shi Nuan's return to the Su family. Especially since Jiang Yu hated Su Huaibei and Jiang Yuan to the core.

Fu Chengyan called Shi Yunsheng personally and told him of his plan to return for dinner at the Shi residence. The old man was very happy to hear of their return since he had no idea what happened for the past few days. He wasn't even aware of the complicated relationship between the Su family and Shi Nuan. He only knew that since Fu Chengyan had decided to come back with Shi Nuan for dinner, it could only mean Fu Chengyan had recognized his relationship with Shi Nuan and officially considered himself as an in-law to the Shi family.

Although Shi Yunsheng wasn't a man of tradition, he was still Shi Nuan's closest relative. Hence, he was not exactly pleased with Fu Chengyan not making his relationship with Shi Nuan official after getting together for so long.

While Shi Yunsheng was happy for their return, Shi Jingzheng and Jiang Yu were unhappy deep down. Despite that, they were willing to bear with it, especially when Fu Chengyan was willing to return as Shi Nuan's husband. This could only mean he intended to make his relationship with Shi Nuan official, which would greatly benefit the Shi family and also Huancheng in the future. No matter how much they disliked Shi Nuan, Shi Jingzheng and Jiang Yu didn't mind using their relationship with Fu Chengyan to expand their influence within the city.

As such, Jiang Yu ended up being the most excited person in the household. She even called Shi Wei and demanded her to come back no matter what.

They must at least show they treasured Shi Nuan as their family member and let Fu Chengyan know she had a family to support her. This way, he would never mistreat Shi Nuan in the future. As long as Fu Chengyan remained sweet to Shi Nuan, then the Shi family's fortune would be guaranteed with their affiliation with Fu Chengyan.

On the other hand, Shi Wei had just returned home from filming. She was about to take a rest when she received her mother's call, who asked her to bring Fu Xicheng back home that instant.

"For what?" Shi Wei asked impatiently. For the past few days, many random strangers had been bombarding her phone with calls to ask her out. But Shi Wei was no fool. She knew these were all traps set up for her. After the previous incident, she dared not even leave her house to meet up with those acquaintances of hers.

"Nuan and Fu Chengyan are coming home for dinner. How can you not come back as her elder sister?"

"What is she coming back for?" Shi Wei replied in frustration. "For what reason must I go back to welcome her return? Who is she to me?"

"Enough, don't say such nonsense. She's your sister."

"I have no sister like her!" Shi Wei raised her voice. "Yes, she's married to Fu Chengyan. But so what? What is she trying to do, huh? Is she trying to show off her husband to me? I can tell you for sure that her happiness won't last long. A man like Fu Chengyan would never be short of pretty women around him and most likely has multiple mistresses outside. It won't be long before she's dumped by him, so there's no point for us to lick her boots like a dog"