No one in his entire life had ever said those words to him. Shen Yue ridiculed the word "happy" in his heart. There was no such thing as "happy" in his dictionary. To him, the word was only a reminder of the painful hell he grew up in. While others were living their "happy" childhood, he was forced to face the bitterness and cruelty of the adult world. He, who should've lived an ignorant and joyful upbringing like all the others, had to instead mature quickly and live a life of ugly, brutal truth. At a young age, he had already learned the meaning of silent suffering, the meaning of indifference, and the meaning of abuse. But he had never learned the meaning of happiness, whether it was in the past or in the present.
Shen Yue curled his lip mockingly and announced, "I'm full."
He put down his chopsticks and left the meat untouched in his bowl. Walking to the garbage can, he directly dumped all of the contents of the bowl before entering the kitchen.
Xu Wenqi was quite hurt that her goodwill had been discarded so harshly like that. She couldn't figure out just where she offended him.
'Sure enough, the villain's brainwave is completely different from small cannon fodder like me,' Xu Wenqi thought bitterly. 'Well, I didn't expect it to win his favor so easily anyway.'
Sitting at the dinner table alone, she finished the rest of her sumptuous meal and lazily waited for a while before walking up the stairs. After taking a fresh shower, she laid on her stomach in bed scrolling through the original owner's phone. The original owner was relatively popular in the upper echelon circle with many other wealthy friends. Especially noticeable was her group chats of plastic sisters who were all the same type of white lotus b*tches. Xu Wenqi wasn't interested in dealing with them so she didn't enter the chat and exited the messaging app. Instead, her mind drifted to Shen Yue and she unconsciously went to Baidu. Wanting to know more about Shen Yue's condition, she searched up "schizophrenia" and looked through the results. The symptoms of the disorder were quite shocking. Delusions, hallucinations, psychosis, and much more. Reading about the complex condition, Xu Wenqi couldn't fathom Shen Yue experiencing any sort of a psychotic episode and undergoing mental fragmentation. She diligently took note of the different ways she could help him if she encountered him hallucinating or experiencing an episode.
'It's definitely not easy being Shen Yue,' she surmised. 'His whole life was riddled with difficulties.'
She recalled his dark background and shook her head in pity.
His mother Shen Muqing was a gold digger who loved to spend money to purchase all types of luxurious goods. Being quite the beauty, she would mix in high-society and sleep with various rich men in exchange for large sums of money. Shen Yue was the accidental product of a one night stand with President Huo, who at the time was in his late 40s and was still a womanizer who loved to chase skirts and sleep around. After a passionate night together, President Huo sent the money, patted his buttocks, and left. However, unbeknownst to President Huo, Shen Muqing found out she was pregnant several weeks later. Her body was too frail to handle an abortion, thus forcing her to keep the child. Shen Muqing decided to raise the kid secretly first before going to the Huo Family to demand them to take responsibility. She knew that if she went to make a ruckus when she was pregnant, President Huo's wife or the elder generation might force her to abort right away. If the kid was already born, they would have no choice but to recognize it and thus provide her with some benefits as they were an affluent family who cared greatly about face-saving.
Nine months later, Shen Muqing had an extremely difficult labor with her weak constitution and had a Cesarean delivery, leaving her with a scar on her stomach. She was disgusted at its appearance being the vain woman she was. This, coupled with the fact that she couldn't afford to take care of Shen Yue with her poor savings and spendthrifty ways, led her to vent all her hatred onto him and blame him for everything. She would slap, scold, and beat him in one moment and sob hysterically in the next. At first, Shen Yue didn't understand why other people's mothers were so gentle and warm to their children but his mother would only ever show an irritated expression to him. Later on, he grew accustomed to such treatment and became immune to the constant abuse.
Eventually, the bills racked up and massive debts accumulated, leading Shen Muqing to head to the Huo family for help. However, President Huo refused to deal with such matters at the time due to the precarious situation at the company. The company under President Huo's negligence was beginning to fail, sparking the elder generation's anger. Where did he have the mind to acknowledge a wild species outside as his child when there was turmoil in his family and company? President Huo simply sent Shen Muqing away with 10 million dollars, which she spent like running water with her non-stop addiction to luxury. As a result, the debts were still not settled and Shen Muqing was too cowardly to face all the responsibilities, causing her to choose to commit suicide instead. Her child was now a useless tool anyway as President Huo didn't even want to recognize him.
Imagining Shen Yue's trauma as he came home from school and entered the musty bathroom witnessing the graphic scene of his mother bleeding out of her wrists in the tub with a boxcutter in her hand at just 7 years old birthed a sense of distress and sympathy in Xu Wenqi. However, the story didn't end there as Shen Yue was later taken by the police to the orphanage following his mother's death and his relatives' rejection to raise him. Not only was Shen Yue already bullied at school for being quiet and gloomy, but he was also bullied severely at the orphanage by the other children for the same reasons. By chance, the orphanage was run and funded by the Huo family. On a visit to showcase the generosity of the Huo family to the media, Chairman Huo met Shen Yue.
Chairman Huo, the father of President Huo, was shocked that Shen Yue looked almost like a carbon copy of his son in his son's younger years. Leading the business scene for so many years, Chairman Huo had seen a few things and quickly took a DNA test with Shen Yue to confirm that he was a part of the Huo family. With the positive results of the test, Chairman Huo brought him back to the household where he lived a still abysmal life. President Huo already had several children and no one in the family was pleased with the arrival of Shen Yue as an illegitimate child. After all, more children meant more competition for the position of the heir in the future.
Mrs. Huo, who knew of her husband's derailing ways, was already livid and treated Shen Yue extremely coldly, letting him live in the basement of the villa with only a raggedy blanket for company. Even the servants in the household were treated better than Shen Yue. President Huo, who already knew the existence of the child a long time ago, closed one eye and opened the other to all affairs pertaining to Shen Yue. This was terrific news to Shen Yue's two other siblings, Huo Lizheng and Huo Baolian. They often trampled on him viciously, pulling all sorts of cruel pranks. Huo Lizheng was the wildest in his treatment of Shen Yue as he was the only pampered arrogant young master of the family and felt greatly threatened by the arrival of a second young master. Shen Yue grew up in deep hatred and resentment of the Huo family, which eventually led to his transformation as the villain opposing Huo Lizheng in the future.
After reaching adulthood, Shen Yue left the Huo family and disappeared abroad to avoid eyes and ears as he garnered investments to build his company from scratch. No one knew Shen Yue was the president of that company until the present point of the plot where he came back to China to develop the company domestically and launch a full-out commercial war with Huo Lizheng. Huo Lizheng, who was now the president of the Huo company, suffered under Shen Yue's repeated attacks and spent a great deal of effort in planting a spy into Shen Yue's company. Shen Yue did not trust anyone and only Secretary Chen could enter his office, making everyone believe that the two were engaged in an unspeakable relationship. However, in reality, Shen Yue was afraid that he would have a schizophrenic episode, leading the other employees in the company to know about his condition.
It wasn't until the commercial spy Huo Lizheng planted snuck into Shen Yue's office and bugged the place that Huo Lizheng finally grasped Shen Yue's weakness: his mental illness. While it was unclear in the book as to why Shen Yue developed schizophrenia, it was highly likely that the poor environment he grew up in, along with his inherent genetic structure, triggered the life-long condition in his late teens. The disorder was the perfect handle for Huo Lizheng to bring Shen Yue's demise. Huo Lizheng used the disorder against Shen Yue, stimulating him until Shen Yue went mad with paranoia and attempted to kill Huo Lizheng, which was exactly what Huo Lizheng wanted. Huo Lizheng was then able to send Shen Yue to prison, thus solving the villain and living the rest of his life happily with the female lead.
Fortunately, the plot hadn't reached the point of Shen Yue's end, giving Xu Wenqi a chance to save him.
unimportant note:
this chapter was so long >~< im tiredd