“Liu Lai!”

Liu Qin Xin’s little face flushed and paled in rapid succession, looking utterly embarrassed. Fortunately, a thick layer of makeup shielded the newly appeared slap mark on her cheek, so the change wasn’t too obvious.

She hurriedly covered her son’s mouth.

But it didn’t help much.

Liu Lai’s words had been heard by everyone in the room—those who were meant to hear them and those who weren’t—and they’d heard every single word clearly.

And one of the parties involved, Fu Qiancheng, lying on the hospital bed, showed no sign of denying it.

So whether Liu Lai was telling the truth or not was immediately apparent.

As a result, subtle shifts appeared in the expressions of everyone in the room.

Mei Sao, the Fu family’s nanny, and Old Wu, the driver, exchanged a glance but dared not show too much emotion.

Liu Qin Xin, meanwhile, wished she could sink into the ground; her hand had already reached out to her son’s arm, but in the end she couldn’t bring herself to twist it.

Liu Lai, however, wore an obstinate expression, her little cheeks puffed out as if to say, “I’m not lying—I’m telling the whole truth. Believe it or not, it’s up to you.”

Shen Luochen and Liu Jia both wore blank, frustrated expressions.

The Gu brothers, on the other hand, wore amused looks, subtly glancing at Fu Qiancheng twice. If it hadn’t been for all the people present, Gu Yanyun would probably have already leaned over to pry for details.

Ming Shuo and Jiang Feng were the most inscrutable.

One of them seemed completely oblivious to the embarrassing conversation he and Liu Qin Xin had secretly overheard in the room, instead pondering something entirely different because of his son’s remark.

The other fixed Fu Qiancheng with a deep gaze, a faint smile playing on his lips, yet his fists clenched tightly in his pocket.

“Old Wu, go drive the car to the entrance. I need to step out for a bit.”

Fu Qiancheng had called Ming Yue many times, but there was no answer, so he gave this order to Old Wu.

Old Wu didn’t move.

He glanced at Shen Luochen, then began stammering and mumbling, clearly at a loss.

Fu Qiancheng grew impatient and furrowed his brow. “What, can’t you be bothered to obey me now?”

“Young Master, I…” Old Wu looked even more troubled.

Fu Qiancheng’s temper flared, and he made a move to get out of bed, but his parents stopped him.

Fu’s mother, Shen Luochen, went straight to issuing orders: “You’re not going anywhere right now—you must stay here in the hospital and rest properly.”

“I know my limits!”

Fu Qiancheng wouldn’t listen and still tried to get out of bed.

How could Shen Luochen possibly give in? With tears in her eyes, she asked, “You know your limits? What limits do you even have? With your so-called ‘limits,’ how did you manage to reduce yourself to such a wreck?”

She choked back a couple of sobs. “Fu Qiancheng, let me be frank: no matter what you think, no matter how much you love her, I will never approve of anything between the two of you. She was the one I kicked out. If you dare try to win her back, go ahead—but first you’ll have to step over my dead body!”

“Mom, that won’t scare me! I already lost her once before; I’m not making the same mistake again. If you’re going to use our mother-son bond to pressure me, you might as well just kill me first.”

Fu Qiancheng stopped arguing and threw back the covers, ready to get out of bed once more.

Fu’s mother, Shen Luochen, trembled with anger.

Fu’s father, Fu Yuan, sighed deeply as he tried to hold his son back.

Gu Yanyun also stepped in to help.

But before he’d even exerted much force, Fu Qiancheng, like a robot whose battery had completely run out, simply collapsed, closing his eyes and passing out again. Everyone panicked and rushed to call the doctors and nurses.

After all that commotion, there was another long wait.

Finally, once things had settled down, the Ming family, Jiang Feng, and the Gu brothers left one after another.

In the Ming family’s car, Liu Qin Xin was still shaken and pinched Liu Lai’s ear: “If I ever catch you talking nonsense outside again, I’ll twist your ear off!”

Liu Lai protested indignantly: “Nonsense? How could I be talking nonsense? That’s exactly what happened—just ask my sister! And Auntie and the nanny both saw it too!”

“You!”

“Alright, Lai Lai is still young—let’s teach her slowly in the future.”

Ming Shuo spoke up to stop Liu Qin Xin from losing her temper, then turned to Liu Jia, who was absent-minded in the passenger seat, his gaze deepening slightly.

In the Gu brothers’ car...

End of Chapter 19: The Scent of Perfume