Upon hearing this, Shen Jianhua felt a surge of anger rising to his heart; so many years had passed, and his wife was still suspicious of him.
If he had actually done something to wrong his wife, it would be one thing; the key point was that he had not.
"Don’t make trouble out of nothing. Mianmian is a child I found, and I made it very clear the day I brought her back. How many years has it been, and you’re still bringing this up? Aren’t you afraid of becoming a laughingstock if word gets out? Look, does Mianmian resemble me at all?"
Seeing the serious look on Shen Jianhua’s face, which didn’t appear to be a lie, Zhou Lanfang started to believe him. After so many years, she was no longer as impulsive as the first time she had her suspicions and had learned to think things through.
The child of the affair didn’t resemble her husband at all. At that time, she felt the child resembled some mistress from outside, but now that she thought about it, even if she resembled a mistress, how could she not bear any resemblance to her husband whatsoever?
"Jianhua, are you sure she isn’t your child with some other woman?" To coax the truth out of Shen Jianhua, she prodded, "So much time has passed; even if she is a child you had with another woman, I won’t make a fuss anymore. I haven’t been able to bear children for you. If you have your own flesh and blood, I would feel a bit more at peace, not feeling guilty towards you. All I want now is to hear the truth, so I can die knowing what was really going on."
"What is this nonsense about dying knowing the truth?" Shen Jianhua glared at his wife. "So all these years, you’ve been suspecting Mianmian to be an illegitimate child of mine from outside? I’m telling you, don’t bring this up again; Mianmian is a child I found outside and is not my own daughter at all."
"Really not?" Zhou Lanfang believed him somewhat, but couldn’t help asking again.
"If I say she isn’t, then she isn’t," Shen Jianhua snorted. "If she was my own girl, would I not let her go to school and instead send Siyu?"
Although he always said he treated Mianmian as his own daughter, Shen Jianhua knew in his heart that it simply wasn’t possible. If Mianmian was his biological daughter, regardless of what anyone said, he would have insisted on her schooling.
He wouldn’t have let his wife bring her niece from her hometown to raise. If he had his own children, be it a boy or girl, who would be willing to raise someone else’s child? He wasn’t a fool.
When Zhou Lanfang heard her husband’s words, she didn’t feel happy; instead, she was stunned. She had been guarding against it for so many years, hating it for so many years, and it turned out to be a groundless suspicion?
Seeing his wife’s reaction, Shen Jianhua snorted, "You think I really believed that your sister bought those clothes for Siyu? I just didn’t want to expose you. Do you think I don’t know about those wounds on Mianmian? I’m not blind. I just didn’t want to argue with you over these things. If Mianmian was my own child, would I let you treat her that way? You don’t use your brain to think about these things. If I really had a child with another woman, what would I need you for? Wouldn’t I have divorced you a long time ago?"
When Zhou Lanfang heard the knowledge her husband had about the things she’d done, she felt a little guilty; but upon hearing his following words, she suddenly felt aggrieved, "I am unable to have children for whom? If you divorce me, do you have any conscience left?"
"If I lacked a conscience, I would have divorced you when I was young." He lacked a conscience? If he really was heartless, his family line wouldn’t have ended with him.
Sometimes, he truly regretted that he hadn’t... Forget it, at this age, it’s pointless to talk about these things.