Volume One, Chapter 77: What About the Love She Once Had—Has It Shifted Elsewhere?

Huo Mingting went upstairs.

Ye Sheng asked him to find an empty room, so Huo Mingting took her to the master bedroom where the two of them had once stayed.

…In truth, they had never really lived together.

Since their marriage, Ye Sheng and Huo Mingting had always slept in separate rooms.

Most of the time, she was alone in her empty room, or she slept with their child.

As for Huo Mingting, he slept in his study, in the guest room, and for half a year he didn’t even come home at night. Where he spent those nights, Ye Sheng had no idea.

He came and went like the wind, impossible for Ye Sheng to grasp.

It would be a miracle for a couple like this to develop any affection for each other.

After all, if things were so disharmonious in one aspect, it was difficult for them to be harmonious in any other… Of course, President Huo was only disharmonious with her; it didn’t mean he was so with others.

“Is it appropriate for me to go in?” Ye Sheng didn’t want to make a fuss, but she also didn’t want to create unnecessary trouble. “Would Qin Minshu be happy about it?”

Huo Mingting frowned, “What does Minshu have to do with this?”

As if he could read her thoughts, Huo Mingting’s eyes grew cold and stern. “Ye Sheng, let me make this clear once more: Minshu is not a third party, and I have never done anything to betray you.”

Ye Sheng had always thought that Huo Mingting never defended her because he was insensitive—a typical straight man, clueless and incapable.

On countless lonely, sorrowful nights, she had racked her brains to find all sorts of reasons and excuses for Huo Mingting…

But all of that collapsed completely when Qin Minshu returned.

How many times had she watched Huo Mingting smile at Qin Minshu, watched him buy her gifts, accompany her to candlelit dinners, even turn a cold face to Ye Sheng for Qin Minshu’s sake, defending her so fiercely as he had today.

And so Ye Sheng understood: it wasn’t that he didn’t know how, he simply didn’t want to.

How could a man as intelligent as President Huo not see through Qin Minshu’s little tricks? He simply chose to indulge the one he loved, and had no intention of indulging her. That was all.

Some truths become crystal clear once you step back and look at them.

“OK, I understand.”

Ye Sheng didn’t want to argue with him. “You and Qin Minshu are innocent, a pure love.”

“…,” Huo Mingting suspected her words were laced with sarcasm, but could find no proof.

Ye Sheng still didn’t go in. “Let’s go to the dressing room. I’ll just say a few words and won’t take up your precious time.”

—

Upon hearing that Ye Sheng wanted to take Huo Cong to stay with her for a few days, Huo Mingting flatly refused.

“Impossible! Don’t even think about it!”

Ye Sheng looked at him quietly. She had expected him to be reluctant, but not that he would react so violently.

“Keep your voice down,” Ye Sheng said. “I’m discussing this with you.”

“There’s nothing to discuss.”

With a cold expression, Huo Mingting couldn’t possibly agree to let her take Cong’er to live with another man!

Was she out of her mind?

Ye Sheng was burning inside too. She took a breath and tried to stay calm. “There are serious problems between Cong’er and me.”

“As his mother, I have the same responsibility and obligation as you to educate him and to nurture his physical and mental well-being. It’s necessary for us to share this responsibility. The child is still young, his mind and character are growing and not fully formed yet. I think I still have a chance to repair our relationship. Huo Mingting, I don’t want to become enemies with my own son.”

She looked up at him. “And I think you don’t want Cong’er to hate his mother forever—even if you don’t love that woman.”

Huo Mingting’s long lashes trembled.

She spoke of “that woman” in such a calm and indifferent tone, as if she wasn’t referring to herself.

A chance to repair the relationship… But why was it only the mother-son relationship she wanted to repair, and never their marriage?

It was as if, in her eyes, only her son existed—never her former husband.

Where had her love gone?

Had it vanished, or had it been given to someone else?

“Ye Sheng.” Huo Mingting suddenly spoke coldly. “I will never let my son call another man ‘father.’ No one will ever take that role. You’d best give up that idea.”