CFRFGC Chapter 129

⌈”Dad, what are you doing?”⌋

Shen Hanshan was Old Master Shen’s full name.

Hearing his grandfather’s full name suddenly mentioned, Shen Xingyu froze for a moment.

But he quickly grasped the key point in the police officers’ words: His grandfather’s death and Lu Ran’s car accident were both related to his father, Shen Hongyuan.

Shen Xingyu felt an overwhelming sense of absurdity in that instant.

However, the officers gave him no time to process. One of them remained outside, questioning Shen Xingyu about his recollections of the two incidents, while the other two, after confirming with the doctors that Shen Hongyuan was conscious and still able to communicate, entered his room and stated their purpose.

Lying on the hospital bed, Shen Hongyuan, who had been living in utter misery recently, reacted violently.

He struggled to sit up, but his body wouldn’t obey. He could only glare at the officers with wide eyes and demand, “Evidence!”

The police calmly replied, “We’ve already apprehended Shen Cheng.”

Hearing this, Shen Hongyuan’s face froze completely, his expression turning rigid.

Even then, he struggled to argue, raising his voice, “He’s slandering me!”

The officers exchanged a glance and said, “We’ve also brought back Madam Hu, who was Shen Hanshan’s caregiver at the time, from abroad.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Hongyuan’s spirit finally broke completely.

—

Meanwhile, Lu Ran and Ji Min had been investigating Shen Cheng’s mistresses.

Whether due to his naturally licentious nature or deliberate intent, Shen Cheng had amassed quite a collection of mistresses and illegitimate children.

After much effort, they finally identified one woman, Madam Hu, who had once worked at New City Private Hospital.

Madam Hu had been Old Master Shen’s caregiver.

Shortly after Old Master Shen passed away, she left the country with a child she had with Shen Cheng. She changed her name and lived quite comfortably overseas.

However, all these years, she maintained financial dealings with Shen Cheng.

After reporting her to the authorities, more details emerged: the night before Old Master Shen’s death, Shen Hongyuan had secretly entered his hospital room.

He thought he had acted discreetly.

But coincidentally, Madam Hu had had an argument with Shen Cheng during their date that evening. She returned mid-way and happened to witness the entire scene through a crack in the door.

Madam Hu didn’t dare make a sound. Instead, she courageously recorded Shen Hongyuan’s actions from the door.

Old Master Shen had been suffering from diabetes in his later years.

He required daily insulin injections.

However, late that night, Shen Hongyuan administered another injection at a time when his blood sugar was already low.

In the late stages of diabetes, blood sugar fluctuations were severe. The risk of hypoglycemia could sometimes outweigh that of hyperglycemia.

Old Master Shen had been hospitalized several times due to hypoglycemic shock, so insulin usage had become exceedingly cautious.

Moreover, Old Master Shen had been strictly controlling his diet. And after losing his beloved grandson, his food intake had dropped significantly.

Thus, when Old Master Shen was found to have died of hypoglycemia the following morning, people merely lamented the unfortunate incident without giving it much thought.

But Madam Hu secretly kept the video.

Fully aware of her limitations as an ordinary caregiver, she knew she couldn’t directly confront Shen Hongyuan.

So she decisively contacted Shen Cheng.

The two of them, Shen Cheng and Madam Hu, struck a deal and promptly arranged for her to settle abroad.

Afterward, Shen Cheng began a blackmail campaign against Shen Hongyuan that lasted over a decade.

When Shen Hongyuan refused to cooperate with the police investigation, they had no choice but to leave temporarily, stationing two officers to guard the hospital.

Shen Xingyu completed his statement.

After receiving permission from the officers, he entered Shen Hongyuan’s hospital room, accompanied by them.

Shen Hongyuan lay on the bed, his jaundiced eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Shen Xingyu sat down beside the bed, keeping a deliberate distance.

He hunched over, his hands clasped together, pressing against his forehead. He stared at the floor for a long time.

Shen Xingyu wasn’t a fool.

After the police’s revelations, the discordant fragments in his mind all connected into a coherent narrative.

He remained silent for a long time before speaking in a hoarse voice: “You taught me since I was young that I am the eldest son and my existence is for the sake of the Shen family.”

His voice was heavy, laden with exhaustion and confusion.

“The day I entered the company’s management, you told me the truth about the inheritance.”

“You said Grandfather lost his mind before he passed and left everything to Ran Ran. But since Ran Ran couldn’t be found, letting this leak would endanger the Shen family. So you had no choice but to forge the inheritance.”

“I believed you.”

“The day Ran Ran had the car accident, I asked you about it. You said you didn’t know anything. I believed that too.”

Shen Xingyu rubbed his forehead, his face creased in anguish.

His voice grew tight, barely audible: “I thought you were just bad-tempered but still had the family’s best interests at heart…”

“Now…”

Shen Xingyu started laughing, but it was a bitter, ugly sound.

He looked at the silent Shen Hongyuan lying on the bed and asked: “So, the day you were paralyzed, you threw a cup at me as soon as you saw me because… you thought I would treat you the same way you treated Grandfather?”

Shen Xingyu had always been steadfast.

He worked tirelessly for the Shen family, even though Shen Hongyuan only knew how to lose his temper, Madam Shen cared only about her clothes and jewelry, and Shen Xingzhuo acted like a child with no sense of responsibility.

Still, Shen Xingyu had always been the one holding the family together.

At times, he felt exhausted.

Like he was climbing a sheer cliff alone, with no one to catch him if he fell.

Below him lay an endless abyss and by his side, there was no one to share the climb—only a rope tied around his waist.

At the other end of the rope were Shen Hongyuan and the rest, dragging him down as he climbed upward, never able to see the summit.

Yet, the sense of duty and mission instilled in him since childhood kept him going.

Shen Xingyu couldn’t recall when he had started living this way.

He had clearly resented the heavy burdens placed on him as a teenager.

But in the end, he still persevered.

He worked tirelessly without rest.

He weighed the pros and cons, discarded his emotions, and tried to avoid any meaningless actions.

He thought he was safeguarding honor and treasure.

In the end, he discovered it was nothing more than worthless junk—not even deserving of being called garbage.

Leaning against the cold wall of the hospital, Shen Xingyu asked in confusion: “I… we… in your heart, what are we? After all these years, have I been protecting nothing but the sins you committed?”

Shen Hongyuan didn’t say a word.

He just quietly stared at the patterns on the hospital ceiling.

In his mind, his father’s scolding voice echoed again: “Useless thing.”

But Shen Hongyuan understood all too well.

His father and he were not the same.

When his father reprimanded him, it was out of anger—because he was displeased with his once-promising son.

Shen Hongyuan wished his father were like him.

That his father’s sharp words were just the result of old age and a temper grown erratic.

But Shen Hongyuan knew the truth: they weren’t.

With his father’s pragmatic and profit-driven nature, his refusal to let Shen Hongyuan inherit the company and calling him useless had nothing to do with venting emotions.

There was only one reason: In his father’s eyes, he genuinely lacked the ability. He truly couldn’t bear the weight of the Shen family enterprise.

This was more painful to Shen Hongyuan than death itself.

Seeing that his father would rather abandon him to train his grandson left Shen Hongyuan despondent for a long time.

Until one day, when Old Master Shen suddenly fainted from low blood sugar during an event.

The old man was admitted to the hospital and Shen Hongyuan took his place at the event.

At that gathering, Shen Hongyuan heard many compliments.

They praised his filial piety and his promising talent as a young man.

At that moment, Shen Hongyuan felt hope reignite within him.

He even thought that perhaps he truly hadn’t performed well enough in the past.

But that wasn’t entirely his fault, nor did it mean he was genuinely incapable.

The old man simply didn’t give him enough opportunities to gain experience.

He was always assigned to basic tasks or sent to subsidiary companies.

Without a chance to participate in major decisions, how could he ever become competent?

However, when Old Master Shen returned from the hospital, he immediately resumed his work.

Once again, Shen Hongyuan fell into despair.

One time, during a follow-up appointment with Old Master Shen at the hospital, the doctor explained the importance of monitoring blood sugar levels and the proper use of insulin.

Shen Hongyuan took note.

He dredged up the long-forgotten knowledge from his biology classes and recalled what insulin was.

Perhaps, at first, his attentiveness to these matters stemmed from filial piety.

But from that point on, it was as if a seed had been planted in Shen Hongyuan’s heart.

One day, he couldn’t hold back any longer.

While the old man was fast asleep, Shen Hongyuan administered an extra dose of insulin.

It was the first time he had ever done such a thing.

His heart pounded violently, terrified that the old man would wake up from the sensation of the injection.

He had even prepared an excuse: He would claim the blood glucose meter was faulty and had shown a high reading for the old man’s blood sugar.

Out of excessive concern, he thought it might be necessary to administer a dose.

At most, the old man would scold him for being foolish and probably wouldn’t think too much about it.

But to Shen Hongyuan’s surprise, the old man, who had been especially fatigued during that period, remained deeply asleep and difficult to wake.

Moreover, the insulin pen’s needle was extremely fine.

After more than a decade of daily injections, sometimes twice a day, the old man’s abdominal skin had long grown accustomed to the faint pain of the needle.

When Shen Hongyuan administered the injection, the old man didn’t react at all.

At that moment, Shen Hongyuan was so nervous that his entire body felt numb, as if devoid of any sensation.

He mechanically watched the insulin push forward a few units before quickly retracting it.

The next morning, the old man felt dizzy and unwell and was unable to go to work.

Shen Hongyuan’s experiment had succeeded.

He had tasted the sweetness of victory and proceeded with extreme caution.

On the surface, he remained the same troubled heir desperately trying to win his father’s favor.

He stayed by the old man’s side, obedient and accommodating in every way.

As a caregiver, he appeared to be diligent and utterly devoted.

But in secret, he used his role as a caregiver to inject medication into his sleeping father at night, creating opportunities to gain control.

Shen Hongyuan had thought it through carefully.

He didn’t need anything drastic to happen to Old Master Shen.

As long as the old man remained in a state of occasional weakness, Shen Hongyuan could gradually work his way into the management team.

By then, wouldn’t inheriting the Shen Corporation be a foregone conclusion?

He also planned to take good care of the old man in his later years.

This routine continued for a while.

One night, after Shen Hongyuan secretly administered another insulin injection and put away his hidden insulin pen, he was about to return to his room to sleep.

Suddenly, a drowsy voice came from behind him: “Dad, what are you doing?”

Shen Hongyuan broke out in a cold sweat.

He turned abruptly and saw his youngest son standing at the door.

The child was shuffling in small slippers, rubbing his eyes.

He looked so sleepy he could barely keep them open.

The boy was still at an age where he understood nothing, which allowed Shen Hongyuan to breathe a sigh of relief.

When Shen Hongyuan wasn’t angry, he could be both a dutiful son and a loving father.

The old man had first taken in his elder son to raise, but the boy couldn’t handle the pressure and cried to be sent back.

Then, he took in Shen Hongyuan’s youngest son, raising him from the age of two to the present.

Shen Hongyuan knew what kind of person the old man was.

Always critical, hardly ever offering praise, and his strict diet due to his illness was almost unbearable.

Although Shen Hongyuan didn’t dare defy his father, he felt deep down that his son was suffering by staying with him.

Not to mention, even now that the old man was hospitalized, he still insisted on having the child by his side.

Shen Hongyuan suddenly felt a pang of pity for his youngest son.

“Did I wake you up?”

He walked over and asked gently.

The boy shook his head and said, “I need to use the bathroom.”

“Then let me take you,” Shen Hongyuan said as he guided the boy toward the restroom.

But just as they started walking, the boy stopped, turned to look at the old man’s hospital bed, and asked, “Dad, what’s wrong with Grandpa? Why did you pull off his blanket?”

Shen Hongyuan froze for a moment, caught off guard by the question.

He was still holding the insulin pen in his hand, unable to put it down.

The child’s gaze naturally fell on the object in his hand.

Shen Hongyuan felt a flicker of panic but quickly told himself there was no need.

He crouched down to look at his younger son, trying to conceal his unease. “Grandpa is sick and needs injections all the time. Don’t you remember?”

“Oh! I remember now! After using it, it needs to be put in the fridge,” the child said, pointing to the insulin pen in Shen Hongyuan’s hand.

Shen Hongyuan relaxed a little, relieved the boy didn’t ask further questions, but was also surprised the child remembered insulin should be refrigerated.

Still, he didn’t think much of it.

It was just a four-year-old child, after all.

He took the boy to the restroom, tucked him into bed afterward, and then went to sleep himself.

The next morning, Old Master Shen experienced another bout of low blood sugar.

The frequency of such incidents had made it almost routine for the doctors.

However, later in the day, when the caregiver administered another dose of insulin, the child, who was quietly waiting for his meal, tilted his head and looked at both Shen Hongyuan and his grandfather.

“Grandpa already had an injection last night. Why does he need another one now?”

The child’s innocent and clear voice instantly silenced the room.

Both the old man receiving the injection and the doctors making their rounds turned to look at the child.

The boy, unaware he had said something wrong, instinctively glanced at Shen Hongyuan.

Shen Hongyuan’s heart leaped to his throat.

He quickly responded, “You’re mistaken. Last night, Grandpa had a short-acting insulin injection, which requires two doses. This one is a single-dose injection.”

He rattled off an explanation based on what he had recently researched and then instinctively scolded the boy, “Don’t interrupt. Grandpa still needs to finish his injection and eat breakfast.”

The child pouted, seemingly wanting to insist he wasn’t wrong.

But after being snapped at, he closed his mouth.

On the bed, Old Master Shen frowned at his son.

But his mind quickly shifted back to work as he remembered an assistant’s report.

No one noticed that in the air-conditioned room, the back of Shen Hongyuan’s shirt was already soaked with sweat.

That same day, Shen Hongyuan used the excuse that the boy missed his mother to take him back home.

But before long, the old man brought him back again.

What concerned Shen Hongyuan even more was his youngest son’s attitude.

It seemed that the incident from that night had left an impression on the child.

Every time the old man received an insulin injection, the boy would lean nearby, watching intently.

Shen Hongyuan couldn’t help but feel that perhaps the old man was starting to guard against him.

Out of caution, Shen Hongyuan refrained from acting for several consecutive nights.

The old man’s health visibly improved during this time.

Even the doctors remarked that if his blood sugar stabilized for a bit longer, he could be discharged.

Shen Hongyuan once again felt a deep sense of frustration.

After having attended various events as the heir and even acting head of Shen Corporation, he found it increasingly unbearable to return to his former subordinate position.

His mood became exceedingly gloomy.

He even carried an invisible wariness toward his youngest son. At home, he frequently quarreled with Madam Shen.

To placate his wife and find a moment of relief for himself, Shen Hongyuan planned a short trip.

Using the excuse of summer vacation, he decided to take his youngest son along to keep him from blurting out anything inappropriate while he was away.

Unfortunately, the trip failed to ease his troubles.

Most of the time, Shen Hongyuan sat in his SUV smoking, finding even the luxury of Madam Shen’s caravan irritating.

During the trip, the children proved to be a handful. As expected, he and his wife quarreled again.

Retreating to his car, Shen Hongyuan wasn’t thinking about the argument.

On the one hand, he worried that the child might say something indiscreet about the nighttime incidents, which would certainly provoke the old man’s fury.

On the other hand, he felt stifled by the seemingly endless wait to inherit Shen Corporation.

When people suppress their frustration for too long, extreme thoughts can arise.

For a fleeting moment, Shen Hongyuan wondered why the old man couldn’t just die.

Elderly people are supposed to make way for the younger generation—why wouldn’t he just let go?

But as soon as the thought surfaced, guilt washed over Shen Hongyuan.

He silently berated himself for harboring such a notion.

Snapping back to reality, he glanced up and caught sight of a small figure walking away in the rearview mirror.

Shen Hongyuan’s brow instantly furrowed.

He cursed inwardly, blaming everyone at home. Not even a single competent person!

With his wife present and a nanny hired, how could they let such a young child wander off on his own?

It was so dangerous!

If he, the father, hadn’t noticed in time…

Suddenly, Shen Hongyuan froze in the middle of opening the car door.

A peculiar impulse arose in his mind.

This impulse didn’t require him to do anything, nor did it demand difficult decisions.

All he had to do was stay where he was and do nothing.

That would be enough.

Do nothing…

And everything could be resolved.

He wouldn’t even need to think about an explanation afterward.

Because no one could prove that he had seen anything.

He simply… hadn’t noticed, that’s all.

Shen Hongyuan stood frozen in place as if immobilized, unable to move.

Yet his heart began pounding wildly, in sync with the child’s gradual disappearance behind the car.

In the rearview mirror, the child’s figure grew smaller and smaller.

Finally, at a corner, the child vanished.

Shen Hongyuan snapped out of his daze as if waking from a dream.

He glanced outside the car window furtively, like a thief.

The driver had gone to the restroom and hadn’t returned.

No one had stepped out from the nearby caravans ahead.

For a moment, Shen Hongyuan thought to himself that this wasn’t his fault at all.

After all, hadn’t they also failed to notice?

Before long, the driver opened the door and climbed back into the car.

He said, “Mr. Shen, it looks like it’s about to rain. Let’s get going.”

Shen Hongyuan felt himself smile, calm and composed as if everything were normal.

He replied, “Alright.”

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Moonlit: Shen Hongyuan, you piece of sh*t art!