CHAPTER 185: CHAPTER 187: GIVING YOU A LITTLE STARFISH

"I don’t think he loves me," Su Xingyu said softly.

Mrs. Gui gave a bitter smile. That’s the problem; no one can guarantee that Lu Shifeng truly loves Su Xingyu. It’s likely that even Lu Shifeng himself isn’t sure. The word "love" means almost nothing to him. Years ago, Mrs. Gui occasionally brought up this topic with him, and back then, he scoffed at the idea of love.

To him, marriage is just a contract. Love? It doesn’t exist.

Mrs. Gui looked at Su Xingyu, her expression filled with both pain and a vague hope.

She dearly wished the gentle lady before her could help the young master understand what love is—that it’s the most beautiful emotion in the world and the purpose for every being to take a journey on this earth. She couldn’t bear to see the young master shut off all feelings, burdened only by heavy responsibilities throughout his life. Such a life would be meaningless, merely a machine of the Lu Family.

Yes, no matter how high the status, it’s just a machine.

It may seem glamorous on the surface, but behind the scenes, no one cares about the sorrow and coldness.

Mrs. Gui advised, "Days pass slowly, and you and the young master will be alright."

Su Xingyu slightly pulled up the corners of her lips into a smile, a weary and joyless one. "No matter what, thank you all for telling me this," she said. "I’m tired and want to rest a while. You may leave first."

Mrs. Gui and the family doctor exchanged glances and left the room.

In the hallway, light and shadow intertwined, and the autumn sun appeared like strands of dreamy thread.

Mrs. Gui’s slightly hunched figure walked alongside the family doctor, hesitating, "Mr. Lio... are we lying to the lady? You know the young master’s condition hasn’t been diagnosed, and he refuses to acknowledge it himself, yet we scare the lady saying he has ASD... what if..."

"What if what?" Mr. Lio interrupted her, speaking casually, "Mrs. Gui, you’re just worrying too much. Yes, the young master’s ASD hasn’t been diagnosed because he was too normal before the age of three, like any regular child, and it wasn’t until he was treated harshly by the old master that he gradually showed symptoms. His symptoms are peripheral, not typical autism, not even Asperger’s Syndrome; he belongs to the most indistinguishable type on the ASD spectrum, which could be either a physiological and congenital disease or a non-ASD psychological disorder caused by childhood trauma. But does it matter?"

The family doctor shrugged, looking at Mrs. Gui nonchalantly, "After all, it’s to scare the lady, and the more severe it sounds, the better. The more the lady thinks he has a terminal illness, the more likely she’ll care for him."

"You..." If she weren’t on the same side as this family doctor, Mrs. Gui would have called him insidious and crafty outright.

"Oh, right," the family doctor remembered something and reminded Mrs. Gui, "Make sure to tell the lady not to mention this illness in front of the young master. This illness angers the young master every time it’s mentioned. He won’t acknowledge it."

"Ah, right." Mrs. Gui quickly noted this down. Her young master was stubborn; he wouldn’t acknowledge any ASD or childhood trauma. He never admitted any flaws and always remained perfect.

The two continued chatting about this as they walked away.

In the bedroom, Su Xingyu lay weakly on the bed, her thin and soft body trembling with pain under the covers. She tossed and turned, unable to find comfort, cursing in her mind, Lu Shifeng...! That perverted beast!

What ASD, what neurosis!

She doesn’t care whether he has a disease or not!

Oh, it hurts so much...

It hurts to death...

Tears welled in her eyes as she angrily cursed him in her heart, marrying with an illness— isn’t this harming people! Isn’t this harming people! Harm! People! ...

Endless resentment...

After rolling around for a while, she received a call from Xia Ling. The girl’s crystalline laughter was so pleasant and melodious even through the wireless signal: "Xingyu, Xingyu, are you home? Ziheng and I just returned from Star Sea! I’ll tell you, it was so fun, and I brought you some sea stars and little crabs! I’m coming over to give them to you now."

Su Xingyu was writhing in pain, wanting to stop her but failed.

Xia Ling couldn’t wait to see Su Xingyu and stormed into the bedroom with a small bucket of sea stars. However, upon seeing Su Xingyu, who was struggling to get out of bed, covered in bruises, and trembling while looking for clothes, she jumped in shock: "Oh my! Xingyu, what happened to you, why are you like this?"

She abandoned the sea stars and quickly went over to check on her.

Su Xingyu instinctively grabbed a piece of clothing to cover herself, then looked at her with resignation, "Xiaoling, how did you get in here? Didn’t Mrs. Gui tell you to wait downstairs?"

"Mrs. Gui isn’t here." The girl pouted with a bit of complaint, but even that slightly rude gesture didn’t detract from her stunning beauty, "Besides, I don’t like your family’s servants; they always stop me. I saw no one, so I came up myself!" If it were someone else’s house, she might not have barged in like this, but she was very close to Su Xingyu and was eager for Xingyu to see her latest finds, so in her excitement, she just came up. However, she didn’t expect to see this scene.

She reached out to pull off the clothes Su Xingyu was using to cover herself: "How did you end up like this? It’s terrible!"

Su Xingyu wrapped herself even tighter: "It’s nothing. Xiaoling, you go out, and I’ll change clothes and come to you."

"No!" The girl threw a tantrum, looked at her with grieved eyes, "I barely managed to come to you to play, and you want to drive me away! I know, you don’t want me to see your wounds, right? It’s Lu Shifeng, isn’t it? That bastard, that domestic violence man!"

She wasn’t an inexperienced girl; she was well aware of how such scars are made.

Especially that deep and obvious bite mark on Su Xingyu’s pale shoulder, still faintly bleeding.

"I’ve long told you to leave him!" She was heartbroken and anxious, seeing all of Su Xingyu’s injuries, yet she was almost getting emotional to the point of tears, "Xingyu, does it hurt? Why did you marry such a beast? How can he treat you like this..."

As she spoke, her eyes reddened, and she actually started crying.

Su Xingyu sighed inwardly; despite her own injuries, she had to comfort this girl.

She held on to the clothes with one hand to cover herself while the other hand wrapped Xia Ling in an embrace and gently stroked her soft raven-black hair, "Alright, don’t cry. The family doctor has seen me, it’s nothing. Lu Shifeng, he..."

She sighed again, with countless words about this man stuck in her throat, not knowing where to begin.

Finally, she simply said, "The matter between him and me, I will handle it myself."

"You won’t handle it!" Xia Ling had cried to the point of smudging her makeup, raised her head from Su Xingyu’s shoulder aggressively scolding her, "Su Xingyu, you’re the dumbest! So dumb to be bullied like this! I’ll go find him!"