MCFEM C18

Chapter 18: Why Wasn’t Gu Yang in His Dream…

Yu Bai, still completely clueless as to what had just happened, dumbly caught one of the falling sheets and glanced at the contents.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Had Mrs. Nie synced minds with Gu Yang or something?

This was way too dramatic—was she planning to drop the bomb and then go straight for divorce?

Nie Runhua stared at the scene in disbelief. He was so stunned he couldn’t even react.

It was his assistant instead who sprang into action—shouting for everyone to shut their eyes and not look, while leaping about trying to snatch papers from the air.

Dripping with sweat, he finally scrambled together a few copies from the ground and breathlessly held them out. “Boss, I tried my best, but there was no stopping it!”

That snapped Nie Runhua back. The murmurs spreading through the crowd made it clear the truth couldn’t be hidden any longer.

Mrs. Nie had already descended the stairs and walked over. His expression complicated, Nie Runhua gave a bitter laugh and lowered his voice.

“Rulan, after all these years, you still can’t let it go? But today is A Ying’s birthday. Even if he isn’t your flesh and blood, you’ve raised him all these years, he’s called you ‘mother’ countless times. Couldn’t you give him at least this shred of dignity?”

Mrs. Nie glanced at him, closed her eyes, inhaled deeply—then slapped him across the face.

She pointed to Nie Ying, who trailed behind her as though the sky had fallen. “Your fine son.”

“Mom…” Nie Ying cried out in panic, trying to salvage the situation. “I didn’t mean to talk back to you.”

Her hand hadn’t been heavy, and the mark on Nie Runhua’s face was faint, but his expression darkened instantly.

“I’m not your mother!” she raised her voice. “Your mother was the maid who tended this garden twenty years ago.”

“Do you want to know what your mother was like?”

Nie Runhua hadn’t expected her to go this far, and his face sank as he gripped her wrist. “Rulan, we agreed back then. Don’t make a scene here.”

She tried to shake him off but failed, still forcing the words out.

“She was an honest one. Worked quietly, barely spoke. Too bad my bastard of a husband couldn’t keep his hands to himself—every woman he saw, he just had to test out his little thing.” Mrs. Nie sneered, shaking her head. “And wouldn’t you know, it actually worked.”

“Rulan! What nonsense are you spouting?!” For the first time, Nie Runhua’s composure cracked, his grip tightening as though to crush bone.

“Shot after shot of progesterone, her belly riddled with needle marks. I thought the child would be stillborn, but you—you really were born hearty as an ox, not a single defect. A medical miracle.”

“Fu Rulan!”

“I’ll say it! Why shouldn’t I?” she spat back. “Nie Runhua, you bastard, what promises did you make when you married me twenty years ago? And what happened instead? Drunk, you took it out on me. Sober, you went out whoring!”

“That’s because you—”

“Me what? You were the one calling me a barren hen, always degrading me, never once looking at yourself. I agreed to IVF with you, but the doctor had to search forever to finally find a single viable sperm.”

“Nie Runhua, the truth is—you’re the one with weak seed!”

His face twisted, hand raised to strike, but his younger brother rushed in to block him.

“Whoa, whoa, bro—use your words, don’t start hitting.”

Wedged between the couple, he tried to soothe one while pushing them apart.

Mrs. Nie’s fury was unlike anything before. After years of deadened endurance, everything now erupted at once.

She stood alone, ears muffled as though behind glass, the buzz of onlookers little more than a blur.

Yu Bai, forced to hear things he shouldn’t, squirmed in embarrassment—it was elders, after all.

Gu Yang poured a glass of water and casually handed it to her.

She accepted it, sipped a few mouthfuls, her trembling easing, her mood steadier.

The exchange was so natural, Yu Bai needed several seconds to process it.

In this context, Gu Yang’s gesture seemed almost like encouragement: drink up, and keep tearing the mask off.

Nie Ying cast Gu Yang a poisonous glare. At the same time, though, a flicker of forbidden hope rose in his heart.

They’d done IVF—that meant they had tried to have children.

Gu Yang’s words had to be lies. His mother was just playing a cruel joke on him.

“That child…” Mrs. Nie’s voice softened, memories pulling her far back. “We forced him into this world. The pregnancy nearly failed so many times, and that damned man insisted we keep it.”

“But during that time, I kept having dreams,” she said, her expression crumpling. “Dreams that I’d give birth to an unhealthy baby. That by insisting, we’d only condemn him to needless suffering. We never even asked his will.”

Even after so many years, the memory made her tremble on the edge of collapse. “So I quietly had an abortion. Enough was enough.”

To be lifted high, only to be dashed down again—Nie Ying had lived this twice already. It was like the floor dropped from beneath him. He blurted, “Why did you kill him? Did you ever think—that child was supposed to be me?!”

The words broke her completely. Eyes wide, Mrs. Nie nearly collapsed, saved only by Gu Yang’s steadying hand.

He lowered his gaze, silent, even his inner voice quiet.

Looking, for once, almost obedient.

Yu Bai had noticed this before.

Gu Yang might hold humanity in equal contempt, but with older women—especially mothers—he showed surprising patience.

It had even made Yu Bai secretly suspect: was Gu Yang’s kink… married women?

Nie Ying was unraveling. His eyes locked on Gu Yang. “Satisfied? Are you satisfied, seeing me like this?”

“Aren’t you still the Nie family’s eldest young master? What’s there to be so pathetic about?”

There was always a subtle sting in Gu Yang’s words, a note of mocking detachment that made Nie Ying’s skin crawl.

“Oh, our Young Master Nie, so ashamed of being a maid’s son that it tarnishes his noble image,” Ye Chen chimed in smoothly.

“Shut up!” The word “maid” ignited Nie Ying like a fuse. He swung his fist, only to be restrained by his two cousins.

The scene was nearly identical to the one before. Gu Yang turned his face away with disdain. “The power of genetics really is impressive.”

The birthday banquet was ruined beyond repair. None of them lingered much longer.

But tonight’s spectacle—without a doubt, it would soon dominate their circle’s gossip.

On the way back, Gu Yang belatedly realized something.

The plot had diverged from the novel again.

Here, Mrs. Nie revealed the DNA report at the banquet. But in the book, she only gave it to Nie Ying afterward. Unable to accept it, he’d ripped it apart on the spot, stormed out, skipped school, wallowed in self-destruction for days until the Nie family dragged him back.

Same as at the Ying family—the timeline kept shifting forward, Liu Chaoyin’s scandal exposed early.

He couldn’t make sense of it, so he tossed the thought aside.

The process might differ—but the outcome was the same.

—

Song Yinxing had a long, long dream.

On the surface, nothing was out of place. He was admitted to Guanli High, scholarships and subsidies each year easing his financial strain.

One evening on his way home, he stumbled across a fellow student in uniform, surrounded by their schoolmates.

He knew the ringleader’s name—Nie something. The infamous troublemaker, not someone to mess with.

He should have stayed out of it. Life had already taught him to be cold, detached. But in the end, he still called the police.

The retaliation was swift. Dragged before him with jeering laughter, he couldn’t produce the money. Forced to kneel.

He worked himself ragged, juggling jobs to pay for those shoes, thinking it was over.

But Nie wasn’t finished.

That arrogant face now twisted with malice, he loomed above him.

“I heard your mom used to work as a maid?”

“So you’re a maid’s son?”

The lackeys piled on, sneering that a maid’s child had no business sharing their school.

Rage consumed him. He beat the one who said it until the boy’s eyes rolled back, forcing the vice principal himself to intervene.

Dragged away, he still heard Nie’s chilling words.

We’ll meet again.

Song Yinxing tore himself awake from the nightmare, chest heaving.

Dawn was breaking outside. He sat up in bed, his eyes dark and heavy, staring blankly until clarity returned.

The dream had felt too real. Every detail aligned.

But why…

Why wasn’t Gu Yang in his dream?