It was the first time Bo Yan had ever heard anyone put it that way.
It wasn't his fault, nor was it entirely his mother's fault. The one at fault was the man who had so casually sown the seed that became him outside his marriage...
He was used to the strange looks around him, used to being cursed at, because even his own mother had called him a bastard and a monster that could never see the light of day countless times.
His days had passed in a muddled haze like that.
One day, Bo Yan had looked at himself in the mirror and curled his lips. The person in the mirror had curled his lips too.
He had said to the person in the mirror, "Hello there, bastard."
The person in the mirror had said to him too, "Hello there, bastard."
Yes, Bo Yan had long since grown used to it. Even he believed he should never have come into this world.
What business did an unwanted child have being born?
Why hadn't anyone strangled him at birth?
Yet now, someone had suddenly said that he wasn't the one at fault...
Bo Yan was a little dazed. He stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly at that overbearing figure's back.
A cold sweat suddenly crept over his back.
Like a stranded fish returned to the sea, Bo Yan suddenly braced himself against the wall and gasped for breath.
So he hadn't been in the wrong.
Without warning, he began to laugh, silently.
He laughed until it pulled at the wound at the corner of his mouth, until both his shoulders shook.
But there wasn't the slightest trace of mirth in his bloodshot eyes, only a complicated emotion resembling realization and self-mockery.
Bo Yan thought that habit really was a terrifying thing...
Meanwhile, silence briefly fell over the dining table.
Then Bo Xubai flew into a rage. "Wen Ning, say that one more time if you've got the fucking guts!"
Look at you, look at you. A little truth, and you're getting worked up again. Do you even remember your Beijing elite Buddhist saint persona?
Wen Ning folded her arms, crossed her left leg over her right knee, and committed fully to her vicious supporting female character persona. "Of course I've got balls. I just don't know whether Young Master Bo does."
Whether it was Bo Xubai himself, Jiang Tingwan at the table, the Nanny Wang squad serving the young masters and madams their meal, or Bo Yan eavesdropping outside the dining room, everyone was stunned by Wen Ning's outrageous words!
Wen Ning, sh-she-she actually dared talk back to the eldest young master?!
And insult him too?!
Since when had she grown such balls?
They were used to seeing Wen Ning act as Bo Xubai's simp. Now she was suddenly going head-to-head with him, even jabbing at his wounds with what he cared about most, and all of it was actually just for that illegitimate son!
It was all too unbelievable!
Enough to keep the Nanny Wangs stunned for an entire year!
Wen Ning's retort left Bo Xubai stunned for a long while too.
He truly couldn't believe the woman in front of him would say such things to him.
In the past, Wen Ning had always been extremely cautious around Bo Xubai, terrified of annoying him. After learning about Bo Yan's parentage, she had even gone to take out Bo Xubai's anger on Bo Yan from time to time.
Although Bo Xubai looked down on Wen Ning, at least she was on his side when it came to tormenting that illegitimate son, Bo Yan. He had taken it for granted that Wen Ning stood with him, and believed that was exactly where she belonged.
Because he wasn't wrong, and neither was his mother. It was all that hostess's fault, all that bastard Bo Yan's fault!
They were the ones who had turned his happy, stable life into a complete mess!
As for his father...
Had Bo Xubai ever resented him?
He had resented him, even hated him, but that was his own father, after all, the man who had raised him all these years. Even if he knew deep down that the hostess hadn't been solely responsible for that night, he still had to pin everything on her and that bastard Bo Yan!
The reason was laughable: in the Bo family, his father stood at the top of the food chain.
He was someone Bo Xubai could not defy.
But now, Wen Ning had mercilessly ripped away that fig leaf. After his initial shock, Bo Xubai's face flushed with rage, yet he couldn't muster a single word of rebuttal for a long time...
Silence hung in the air for half a minute.
It was suffocatingly quiet.
Just then, Wen Ning heard footsteps behind her.
They were quite light, but with the atmosphere so deathly still, the footsteps behind her stood out all the more.
"Sorry I'm late."
A low, husky voice came from above her head.
Wen Ning tilted her head back and met a pair of peach-blossom eyes covered in bruises and bloody marks.
Even injured like that, they still looked beautiful.
Especially with those two star-like tear moles at the outer corner of his left eye.
Wen Ning froze briefly, then immediately flashed a radiant smile. "Honey, you-"
Wait, no. We only just had a fight half an hour ago. Wrong mood!
Reacting quickly, Wen Ning pulled a long face again, turned her head with a cold scoff, and ignored him!
Bo Yan stared at the back of her head for a few seconds, clicked his tongue softly, and pulled out a chair to sit down.
Who knew what he was clicking his tongue at.
Bo Yan's arrival made the atmosphere even stranger, especially after Wen Ning's crisp, cheerful "honey."
Never mind Bo Xubai-even Jiang Tingwan's lips twitched at that.
But Jiang Tingwan's attention was still on the string of prayer beads around Wen Ning's wrist.
She simply couldn't stop caring about those prayer beads.
They were supposed to belong to Bo Yan. They were very important to him!
In her previous life, those prayer beads hadn't appeared until much later. Bo Yan had worn them around his wrist and almost never taken them off.
But now, not only had those prayer beads appeared far earlier, they were on Wen Ning's wrist!
Had Wen Ning stolen Bo Yan's prayer beads?
Or had Bo Yan given them to her?
Thinking of how Wen Ning had just stood up for Bo Yan, Jiang Tingwan involuntarily tightened her grip on her cutlery, her face turning a little pale.
She would not allow anyone to disrupt her plans. She had to win over that madman Bo Yan, and she had to make him stand on her side!
The atmosphere at the table remained tense. Bo Xubai didn't want to stay any longer and rose to leave.
But just as he was about to go, his daughter asked, "Daddy, aren't you going to eat with Zhizhi?"
Seeing the timidity in his daughter's eyes, Bo Xubai swallowed his anger and sat back down.
At four years old, the child already knew how to read adults' expressions. Seeing the unpleasant looks on the adults' faces around the table, Bo Zhizhi tugged at her mother's clothes. "Mommy, I want some milk."
Still staring at Wen Ning, Jiang Tingwan abruptly came back to her senses and hurriedly gave her daughter some milk.
After that little interlude, the atmosphere in the dining room actually eased considerably.
Wen Ning still remembered the "good show" that Nanny Wang at the door had mentioned. She had switched Bo Yan's water glass earlier, so the one in front of him now was hers.
It should be fine, right?
Surely they hadn't drugged the bacon and eggs? That would be far too obvious.
As for the female lead, she was watching her too. If Jiang Tingwan drank any water later, she would flip the table immediately!
Wen Ning muttered inwardly, distracted even as she ate.
As though sensing her gaze, Bo Yan looked up at her.
Their eyes met. Wen Ning froze, then scoffed, lowered her head, and viciously speared a piece of bacon before stuffing it into her mouth.
Watching her chew the bacon so forcefully, Bo Yan suspected she was chewing it as though it were his brains.
He smiled silently and picked up the water glass beside him.
Wen Ning had never been so intensely focused during a meal. She felt this still wouldn't do. She had to find Nanny Wang and get a clear answer.
That "good show" was now like a blade hanging over her head. She didn't know when it would fall, or what would make it fall.
Clack.
Wen Ning set down her knife and fork. "I'm going to the restroom."
With that, she headed out of the dining room.
Her abrupt clatter had come out of nowhere, but there was nothing particularly strange about it. Apart from Bo Yan, both Jiang Tingwan and Bo Xubai were too distracted to pay much attention.
Bo Yan, however, watched Wen Ning's increasingly hurried retreat, looking thoughtful.
Wen Ning followed the direction in which Nanny Wang had disappeared to look for her. Before she found her, a WeChat message arrived-
[Young miss, you scared this old servant to death! You don't usually sit there! Thank goodness you switched the water! I saw that bastard drink it already, but that woman hasn't touched her bird's nest soup yet. What do you think-should I put something in her water too?]
Wen Ning: "?"
Wen Ning: [Who told you to act on your own!]
After typing that, she hurried toward the dining room while typing a string of messages about canceling the plan and not fucking messing around anymore!
But a second before sending the message, Wen Ning hastily pulled her finger back!
No, I can't leave evidence!
Whatever the original owner had done before, she couldn't hand anyone leverage over herself!
Looking again at the message she had just sent, Wen Ning breathed a sigh of relief.
But less than two seconds after she let out that breath, her heart shot straight back into her throat!
In the dining room, more than half the water in Bo Yan's glass was already gone!
And across from him, Jiang Tingwan had picked up that bowl of drugged bird's nest soup too!
Wen Ning was about to go numb!
Hehehe, hooray! It's a big greedy girl and a big greedy boy! We're doomed!