The gun was still hanging at Shen Sixing’s side, his fingertip hooked around the trigger guard, forgotten there as he maintained an oddly rigid stance.
The subordinates in the office were still immersed in their superior’s ever-changing moods.
A few whose knees had gone weak had already begun inching toward the corner, trying to make themselves half an inch less visible to Shen Sixing.
Then, in the next moment, they heard Shen Sixing emphatically declare, “My true identity is that I’m your biological father.”
Everyone’s expressions turned subtly strange at once.
Biological father?
Even if Shen Sixing had been a prodigy who rose to prominence at a young age, the timeline still didn’t add up.
This was no longer a matter of being a young success. This was a biological miracle.
Countless thoughts raced through everyone’s minds, but no one dared raise their head. Their gazes remained firmly nailed to the floor three inches in front of their shoes.
Qin Ruolan was stunned as well. The fingers resting on the doorframe froze for half a second. She lifted a hand to cover her lips and let out a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh.
“I didn’t even say anything,” Shen Yi said from beside the doorframe, half her head poking outside. She blinked once, then again, and the corners of her lips slowly curved upward. “Dad, why are you so worked up?”
“You looked so cool today. I really like it.”
Shen Yi couldn’t help circling him once.
She thought: So it really is true that people shine brightest in the fields that suit them.
The stiffness at the corners of Shen Sixing’s mouth eased by half an inch. He gradually calmed down and lowered his head to look at the girl circling him. “...You like me this way?”
She actually liked him like this?
“I do.” Shen Yi nodded, brimming with delight. “It’s much cooler than when you’re half-dead on the sofa, calling for me to bring you water.”
“Wait a second.” Qin Ruolan raised a hand expressionlessly and rubbed her temple with her fingertips. “You like him like this? He was just willing to kill someone, little one.”
Shen Yi actually said she liked it?
Qin Ruolan found the whole thing absurd.
“Actually, Madam,” Shen Yi said, “the first time I met him, he was already firing at people like a lunatic. I knew that about him.”
That first shot had nearly killed her. No one knew better than Shen Yi just how dangerous he was.
It was only his usually listless appearance that had made her briefly forget.
“And you still dared to get involved with him?” Qin Ruolan asked.
Shen Yi merely smiled at her.
Qin Ruolan frowned. It was an ugly smile.
Ignoring Shen Yi, she turned her head and decided to tell her self-deceiving son a fact. “There’s no blood relation between you two.”
“Shen Sixing, did you know that?”
Biological father?
What kind of biological father was he? At most, he was a stepfather.
Qin Ruolan’s cold, unexpected words struck like nails driven with pinpoint precision.
The smile that had just begun to appear on Shen Sixing’s face froze halfway.
Shen Yi was stunned too.
She had almost forgotten about that.
Come to think of it, this couple—the sharpest sword of feudalism and the most stubborn pair in the Shen family—had been a little too efficient when it came to putting things into practice.
For the rich and powerful, obtaining DNA was never difficult as long as they paid attention. A bottle someone had drunk from, a strand of hair fallen onto a pillow, a tissue casually thrown into the trash—any of them could be used for testing.
Wen Ya was careless and paid no attention to such details, while Shen Yi had completely forgotten about the issue of blood relations.
And now, Qin Ruolan had pointed it out without the slightest hesitation.
For once, Shen Yi felt uneasy. She turned her head and glanced at Shen Sixing.
But Shen Sixing wasn’t looking at her.
His gaze had fallen on the man lying facedown on the floor in front of him.
The man was still pressing his forehead to the ground, his shoulders jerking as he silently counted how many seconds he had left to live. Every muscle in his body was trembling.
Shen Sixing put away the gun, took a step back, lowered his hand, and lightly nudged the man’s elbow with the toe of his shoe. “Get up.”
The man didn’t move.
He either didn’t understand what those two words meant—or understood them but didn’t dare believe them. His head remained firmly pressed to the floor.
Shen Sixing kicked him again, his tone openly cold. “Are you deaf? Get up. Get out.”
Only then did the man lift his face. It was covered in sweat, and his lips had gone white.
Shen Sixing had pulled this trick before—pretending to forgive their mistakes, then shooting them the moment they were about to leave, using one victim as a warning to the others.
But things were different today.
Shen Sixing’s child was here.
The office was clearly about to become the stage for a family drama, and Shen Sixing probably had no interest in pursuing the minor mess the man had made.
The man was overjoyed. After struggling to his feet, he backed out of the room.
The others didn’t dare move.
“All of you, get out.”
Shen Sixing’s tone was impatient.
At once, everyone retreated as though granted a pardon, moving backward toward the door with their faces turned toward Shen Sixing.
The moment they turned around, their footsteps echoed down the hallway as they ran.
...This group really looked as if they were playing some kind of battle-royale game.
Shen Yi watched their backs as they fled together, then quietly stole another glance at Shen Sixing’s expression.
It was awful.
The way he stared at Qin Ruolan was unlike a child looking at his mother. He looked more like someone staring at an enemy.
The door clicked shut, leaving only the three of them in the room.
Qin Ruolan spoke first, steering the conversation back on course. “I don’t know how the two of you ended up together. If blood isn’t the bond between you, then what is?”
She walked forward two steps. Her high heels struck the tiled floor, stopping half a step in front of Shen Sixing.
The woman smiled. “What you said just now really frightened me, Shen Sixing. What do you mean, ‘biological father’? Do you know that the two of you aren’t related by blood at all? What kind of father are you? At most, you’re a stepfather.”
“Besides, even your status as her stepfather has not been recognized through any legal process.”
Qin Ruolan’s words were painfully sharp.
Shen Yi clenched her hands tighter, suddenly unsure how Shen Sixing would react.
What did he think of blood relations?
The Shen Sixing of the future didn’t care about them.
But what about the Shen Sixing standing here now?
In his mind, the first reason he had been willing to accept her had been that they were related by blood.
If he learned that they had no blood connection whatsoever, what would he do?
Shen Yi didn’t know. Her heart quietly sank as she watched his reaction.
Shen Sixing’s Adam’s apple moved slightly.
He lowered his head and looked at the tiles beneath his feet. He showed neither the embarrassment of someone whose sore spot had been exposed nor the shock of learning that the two of them had no connection at all.
The young man’s reaction was unexpectedly calm.
“Of course I know we have nothing to do with each other,” he said.
Meeting Shen Yi’s astonished gaze, Shen Sixing blinked and drew out the next word.
“Blood ties—”
“Are just a very boring excuse.”
