14: Chapter 9: Identity 14: Chapter 9: Identity Lin Xiaoguai awoke under the intense gaze of Shen Chi.
She glanced at the ink-black night outside the window and squinted her eyes, mumbling, “What’s wrong?” Her tone carried an unmistakable anger.
Forgive a pregnant woman who’s beginning to feel drowsy.
Shen Chi extended a hand to help her sit up, touched his nose, and smiled, “Did I wake you?
If you’re truly sorry, shouldn’t you let me keep sleeping?
Lin Xiaoguai looked somewhat speechlessly at the hand resting on her shoulder.
Although Shen Chi’s features could be considered somewhat androgynous, it was because his facial features were too delicate for a man, not because he had the peach-blossom eyes and cherry lips of a big man.
At most, you could say he had a more refined and graceful appearance.
In fact, Shen Chi’s features were absolutely top-notch among men, with eyebrows like drawn swords, eyes full of spirit, a high nose bridge, and thin lips that possessed a distinctive male beauty and sexiness.
Especially those eyes, deep black and intense, yet pure, revealing the sharpness characteristic of a soldier.
At this moment, his eyes still carried the tenderness of recent days, yet they seemed somewhat different.
It should have been an intoxicating look, but Lin Xiaoguai couldn’t help but remember the scene when this man had held a gun to her head and asked her in a gentle tone if she wanted a divorce…
The Shen Chi before her seemed to overlap with the one from that time.
“I’m very tired,” Lin Xiaoguai replied indifferently, shifting her body to the side as if unintentionally.
Even though he was her husband, she wasn’t used to being so close to a man.
“I know.” As if in response to her movement, Shen Chi raised his hand to touch her cheek, whispering softly, “I’ll let you sleep after I finish speaking.”
Considering the stubbornness in the marrow of Shen Chi’s bones, Lin Xiaoguai sighed and said, “You speak, I’m listening.”
Ignoring Lin Xiaoguai’s resistance, Shen Chi pulled her into his arms, his chin knocking against the top of her head, “Xiu’er must have told you about the family matters.”
He spoke declaratively, and Lin Xiaoguai didn’t feel there was anything worth hiding, so she nodded almost imperceptibly against the “pressure” on her head.
“But there are some things even Xiu’er doesn’t know, do you want to hear them?” Shen Chi chuckled lowly, in a languid yet casual way.
“Yes,” Lin Xiaoguai answered without hesitation.
Since she had decided to spend her life with this man, she couldn’t afford to ignore certain matters as she did in her previous life.
Moreover, if it wasn’t something significant, Shen Chi wouldn’t have brought it up.
Seemingly not expecting her to respond so decisively, Shen Chi was taken aback for a moment before speaking in a low voice, “You must know that Dad treats Shen Zhu as his own son because I enlisted, and he was afraid I’d die on the battlefield with no one to care for him in his old age.”
“Isn’t that the case?” Lin Xiaoguai countered.
She really couldn’t think of any other reason why a father would neglect his own son in favor of a stepson, no matter how cowardly the father might be.
“There is such a reason, but it’s not the main one.” After pausing, Shen Chi continued in the same tone, “In this family, only Xiu’er is truly the blood of Dad and Mom.”
What does that mean!?
Lin Xiaoguai’s eyes widened.
Shen Chi didn’t play games, “Originally, Dad and Mom were married for several years without children.
The village barefoot doctor couldn’t diagnose them, so grandma and grandpa scraped together some money and took them to a big hospital in the province for a check-up.
Mom had no issues, but Dad was diagnosed with cold sperm syndrome, and there was a possibility that he would never have children in his lifetime.”
“At that time, I was three years old and had been abandoned in a creek.
Grandpa found me when he was up in the mountains chopping wood and brought me home, making me the adopted son of the Shen family.”
“…Why have I never heard about this?” Lin Xiaoguai was astonished.
Setting everything else aside, Wang Zhaodi would not have been stingy about using this information to ridicule and belittle her, but she had never heard her mention it.
It couldn’t be right to say that Wang Zhaodi didn’t know either, given that her former husband was from Yuanjiazhuang.
As a daughter-in-law who had married into the family for many years, it made no sense that she wouldn’t know.
“Besides you and me, only grandma, grandpa, and Dad know about this,” Shen Chi explained as if aware of her confusion.
“At that time, grandma and grandpa were still young.
They stayed home to farm, while Dad and Mom took advantage of their contacts and joined the production teams for tea-picking and cotton-picking, where working more earned more work points.
So, the couple didn’t want to rest for even an hour, not even returning home for New Year’s, preferring grandma and grandpa to visit them.”