Qin Mu subconsciously glanced at her once more, simply waiting for her to open the door, but as Qin Mu looked inside, he immediately restrained himself.
"President, Miss Qin has arrived!"
Mu Yichen had just finished signing a document, put down his pen, closed the file and tossed it aside, then leaned back in his chair, hands clasped together, looking down at her with a supercilious gaze.
Qin Mu took one look at him and stepped forward, "What agreement am I signing?"
Going straight to the point.
Mu Yichen let out a faint smile, "Have a look first!"
He lowered his gaze toward the desk, where there was an envelope.
Qin Mu subconsciously looked in that direction and then walked over to the opposite side of the desk to pick up the envelope; upon opening it, she was startled and froze upon seeing the first few words.
He just looked up at her, his presence domineering, his gaze merciless.
It took almost a minute for Qin Mu to process the news, then she looked up at him, "You knew it all along."
"Take a look at this one too!"
After he spoke, he leaned forward to pick up another document from the desk and tossed it in front of her.
Qin Mu already had a bad feeling, but she still picked up the document.
The strap of her bag slipped from her shoulder, her shiny eyes struggling to finish reading the contents of the agreement.
Of course, she was protesting from the very first word.
He was party A, she was party B, he wanted her daughter, and he didn’t allow her any visitation.
This was something he had said before, her almond eyes moved slightly, suddenly remembering the day he mentioned this, and she couldn’t help but glance at him again, "So you knew all along that Huanhuan was your daughter?"
He sneered, yet his gaze was filled with such ruthless severity.
"Yes, I, the big fool, all realized she was my spitting image, yet I was kept in the dark. Do you know when I discovered it? It was the night I went to Austria to find you. I suddenly realized this little girl resembled my sister a lot, and my sister looks just like me, doesn’t she?"
He smiled, yet it was laced with mockery.
Going round in circles, it turned out, Huanhuan was indeed his biological daughter.
At that time, he felt like strangling her, yet he held back.
Qin Mu felt her mouth was a bit dry, even though she had just applied lipstick.
Her lips moved slightly, and she looked down at the agreement, choking up several times without being able to ask him anything.
"Before signing the agreement to set you free, don’t you want to explain the origin of this daughter to me first?"
"Aren’t you smart enough to figure it out?"
She no longer looked at him, merely placed her bag gently in the chair next to her. She stood there, looking at the critical line on the agreement.
She wasn’t afraid that he wouldn’t recognize her from then on, but the thought of him taking everything from her was utterly heartbreaking.
"Almost three years ago, in Paris that night,—so that’s why you didn’t let me go to your apartment later, right?"
Of course he had thought about it, how could he not? He just couldn’t accept it, this outcome.
He sat in his chair like a monarch high above, looking disdainfully at her, glaring at her with hatred.
Every word had been through a thousand reincarnations.
She gave him that one word in response.
She didn’t know why her mouth tasted bitter, nor why her eyes were blurring.
Her clean fingers still rested on the line of black text on white paper, which she could not see clearly but had already etched into her mind.
Those memories, both beautiful and unbearable, between them over the years, from fuzzy to deeply etched.
"Good, really good, turns out you’re not as fragile as I thought, you’re quite capable!"
He spread his hands and then rose from his chair.
Qin Mu subconsciously looked up at him, and Mu Yichen walked around behind her, his gaze filled with deep loathing.
"So, why have Huanhuan if you dislike emotional entanglements so much?"
He glared at her profile, her long, tear-dampened lashes, really filled with hatred to the point of clenching his teeth.
"Because she’s the only family I have left in this world!"
Qin Mu’s voice softened and wavered; she carefully chewed over her words as well as the flavor in her mouth, and then slowly, a tear fell inexplicably, making a plop as it landed on the agreement.
Mu Yichen subconsciously glanced at the paper in her hand but immediately looked away.
"So it was all for yourself!"
As if answering his own question, not needing her response, he turned and walked behind the couch, then turned again to look at her, his hands sliding involuntarily into his trouser pockets.
How could one person hurt another so deftly without exerting any effort, making them completely flayed?
He was truly living that experience.
Yet there were some questions he still didn’t understand.
"I can understand you later coming back to find me for your development in Rongcheng, but what about Huanhuan? If you didn’t plan to acknowledge our relationship from the start, why bring her to see me?"
She felt almost suffocated by these questions, yet they had repeatedly surfaced in her mind before.
It seemed she had thought through her words from the beginning.
But now, when it came time to speak, she found them too hard to articulate.
It seemed she deeply understood how her words would hurt him, as if she were cutting flesh from her own body.
But perhaps it was better to lay bare the truth, her innermost thoughts, so that from then on, he would cut his losses and she wouldn’t have to feel guilty about him anymore.
"Because I couldn’t leave her alone in Paris, because, sooner or later, she had to acknowledge her father."
"So, I’ve never been part of your life plan."
She turned to look at him, and he angrily raised his finger toward the couch, accusing her bitterly, word by word.