If You Could Hear My Heart

Old Cheng had been with Shen Chi for several years, but this was the first time he saw him making dinner.

The man put on a clean, ink-colored shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His eyebrows were furrowed as if studying how to cook.

This man was noble and aloof, completely out of place in the kitchen setting. Old Cheng felt a warmth in his eyes as he watched.

Back at the Shen Family, the meals were always prepared by professional chefs, and Old Cheng didn’t understand why the Waterside Pavilion had not hired a cook.

When Old Cheng approached the kitchen door, he was somewhat afraid to speak out because he saw anticipation on Shen Chi’s face.

However, as soon as Shen Chi turned his head, he saw Old Cheng. His lips slightly curved, “Has she come?”

Old Cheng shook his head, “Miss Xu has a lot of homework, so…”

The color in Shen Chi’s eyes instantly dimmed. He moved his lips, wanting to say something, but not a single word came out.

The hands that had been chopping vegetables stopped, his eyes filled with boundless darkness.

Old Cheng broke the silence, “President Shen, Miss Xu and the others have midterm exams coming up, there really is a lot of homework. When I went earlier, I saw that she still had several papers unfinished. Maybe…”

“It’s alright,” Shen Chi’s voice deepened, he waved his hand, stopping Old Cheng from continuing.

He lowered his eyelids and continued to chop vegetables.

“President Shen, let me help you!”

“It’s okay, I can manage by myself,” Shen Chi said in a flat, deep tone, calm as the water.

Soon, Shen Chi had prepared several of his specialties; though they were called specialties, they were actually her favorite dishes.

By the time he had brought all the dishes he’d made to the table, it was precisely 7:30 in the evening.

Although the table in the living room wasn’t large, with only Shen Chi sitting there, it still appeared to be especially spacious and particularly bleak.

“Old Cheng, sit down and eat with me. There’s too much food for me to finish alone.”

Old Cheng felt a warmth in his eyes yet again. These dishes, they were all Miss Xu’s favorites.

In the past, Old Cheng often heard Xu Chaomu bicker with the butler, “I want to eat Kung Pao chicken, I want to eat sweet and sour Mandarin fish, I want to eat fresh shrimp and egg dumplings soup”…

Back then, Shen Chi would always scold her, “Eat whatever the butler makes, stop being picky!”

But every time Shen Chi scolded her, Xu Chaomu would pretend to be angry, “Fourth Brother, you’re the most annoying, I’m not asking you to cook, what are you shouting for, you just know to yell at me.”

Remembering all this, Old Cheng’s eyes warmed once more.

Now, Shen Chi had truly made her favorite dishes by hand, but she was unwilling to come back.

“Come, sit down, join me for dinner,” Shen Chi said to Old Cheng.

“Alright.”

Old Cheng sat down, afraid that Shen Chi would be lonely eating by himself.

In the vast dining room, only Shen Chi and Old Cheng were eating.

Old Cheng took a few bites and found that Shen Chi’s culinary skills were quite good.

But after only a couple of bites, Shen Chi frowned, “Old Cheng, why does everything taste so bland?”

Old Cheng’s hand paused with his chopsticks, this must be what is meant by “losing one’s taste for food.”

“President Shen, if you miss Miss Xu so much, why not go to her school to see her? Don’t keep it all bottled up inside. Eight years of affection can’t just disappear because the adoption relationship has ended.”

In Old Cheng’s heart, Xu Chaomu was the sister Shen Chi cherished most, and her temper tantrums were probably because Shen Chi had initiated the end of the adoption relationship.

Sometimes, Old Cheng genuinely felt that Shen Chi cared more about Xu Chaomu than about Miss Bai.

For instance, he would make a whole table of dishes for Xu Chaomu.

“Eat,” Shen Chi said gravely.

Old Cheng shook his head but did not say anything more.

Nonetheless, Shen Chi only took a few bites of the meal and then he really couldn’t eat anymore.

He heavily set down his chopsticks and sat alone on the couch watching television. He switched to a channel and silently watched it.

Old Cheng hastened his pace of eating, but by the time he was done, he realized that the TV channel had never changed.

Shen Chi just stared at the TV screen, though the screen had long been playing a lengthy advertisement.

Old Cheng truly felt sorry for Shen Chi and let out a sigh.

After cleaning up the table for Shen Chi, he spoke like an elder, “President Shen, you finally have a day without overtime, get some rest early.”

“Hmm,” Shen Chi responded.

“Then President Shen, I’ll be heading back. Call me anytime if you need anything.”

“Okay.”

Throughout it all, Old Cheng never saw any change in Shen Chi’s emotions.

This man was accustomed to concealing all his feelings.

Sometimes Old Cheng wondered if living this way wasn’t very tiring.

After Old Cheng left, Shen Chi still leaned on the couch watching television. Others watched TV for the programs, but Shen Chi was truly just watching the television.

He held the same position, motionless. His thin lips tightly sealed, his gaze deep and profound.

That is, until his cell phone rang.

“Xiao Mo.”

“President Shen, you asked me to look into the matter of Miss Xu Chaomu’s past abduction. I have found some leads.”

“Oh?” Shen Chi didn’t expect Xiao Mo to find leads so quickly.

Before, he had handed the matter over to Li Beiting. Li Beiting had been slow to find any clues and had provided no conclusions. He was starting to doubt whether Li Beiting was keeping something from him.

Therefore, he had entrusted the matter to Xiao Mo in secret.

“The ones who abducted Miss Xu are into human trafficking, also known as kidnappers.”

“Hmm, go on.”

“But they also act on orders from their employer; without money, they wouldn’t abduct people.”

“So…”

“The employer is a woman. If my investigation is correct, it’s none other than Miss Bai Man’s mother, Jiang Zhilan,” Xiao Mo reported.

Shen Chi’s hand, holding the phone, clenched tight, and a strong chill flashed in his eyes.

His already profound eyes were suddenly tinged with crimson.

“Heh, Jiang Zhilan.”

“Yes, President Shen. As for the motives, it was to have these people take Miss Xu to the mountains, to be sold off as a wife, never to escape for the rest of her life.”

Shen Chi of course knew that once sold into the isolated mountains, one might never escape, doomed to become nothing but a breeding tool for coarse men.

At the thought, a chill enveloped his entire being, a cold sweat broke out on his back.

A throbbing in his chest. If he hadn’t found her back then…

The consequences were unimaginable.

For years, he had kept her well protected, ensuring she never appeared in any media, even using Bai Man as a shield, all to protect her.

In the cutthroat world of business, if anyone found out that Xu Chaomu was his weak spot, then she would undoubtedly be the one to suffer.

But he never expected the Bai Family to play a move against him first.

Li Beiting had always been protective of Bai Man. No wonder…

“Xiao Mo, afterwards, what else did Jiang Zhilan do?”

“She silenced them.”

“Then why did she abduct Chaomu and not someone else? And why didn’t she just kill Chaomu outright but rather planned to send her deep into the mountains?”

Shen Chi remembered he had always disguised his feelings for Chaomu well; in everyone’s eyes, Xu Chaomu was just his sister.

Jiang Zhilan abducting his sister, this… didn’t make sense.