Oh no! My yandere school beauty is so clingy!

Shen Yu's voice was not loud, but each word struck Shen Daoliang's heart.

Either tell the truth, or let's end this here and have nothing more to do with each other.

This is not a threat, it is a statement.

Shen Daoliang fell silent.

He didn't answer immediately; he just looked at Shen Yu quietly.

After a long time, so long that Shen Yu almost thought the conversation was really over, Shen Daoliang finally let out a very soft sigh.

"You've grown up, Shen Yu."

Shen Daoliang finally spoke, his voice still flat and devoid of much emotion, but his words themselves seemed to carry a peculiar meaning.

People always grow up.

Shen Yu responded calmly.

Sometimes, growth is forced, a bloody stripping away.

Shen Daoliang stopped looking at Shen Yu and lowered his gaze slightly, landing on the cold glass tabletop between the two of them.

His fingers tapped unconsciously on the edge of the table.

After a moment, he raised his eyes again and focused his gaze back on Shen Yu's face.

"My family used to be very poor..."

"Your mother is pregnant, and later tests revealed it's twins, a boy and a girl..."

Shen Yu's heart skipped a beat when he heard the words "twins".

Despite having suspected it beforehand, when the word came out of Shen Daoliang's mouth in such a calm, almost factual tone, it still felt like being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, making it hard to breathe.

"We simply can't afford to raise two children..."

"The burden was too heavy... Back then, money was hard to earn, and there was no end in sight... If we left two, we might not be able to support even one of them."

He paused for a moment, his gaze seemingly drifting away for a second before returning to Shen Yu's face.

"So I suggested that we leave one..."

"The other one, discard it."

Shen Yu's breathing suddenly stopped for a moment.

Despite his best efforts to control himself, his brows furrowed uncontrollably.

Shen Daoliang's gaze was fixed on Shen Yu's eyes, as if to ensure that every word was clearly heard and etched into his mind:

"I've kept you here."

"They abandoned your sister, who's two hours younger than you, at the gate of an orphanage..."

younger sister.

My younger sister is two hours younger than me...

Those brand-new girls' clothes... that pregnant photo with "I love you all" written on the back... all the fragmented clues were connected at this moment by this cold sentence.

He has a younger sister.

A younger sister, born to the same parents but only two hours after him, who should have grown up with him...

Shen Daoliang continued in that straightforward tone, adding the following:

"For this, your grandfather gave me a severe scolding."

"However, no one mentioned it again after that."

As Shen Daoliang's voice faded, only the faint hissing of electricity remained in the visiting room.

Shen Yu sat there, his body still upright.

Silence spread between the two.

Shen Daoliang seemed to have said everything he wanted to say, or perhaps he felt he had said everything he needed to say, and he calmly looked at Shen Yu, waiting for his reaction.

Shen Yu slowly raised his head and asked:

Where is that orphanage?

Shen Daoliang seemed surprised by the question. He stared at Shen Yu for a few seconds, then his lips twitched upwards and he let out a snort.

"You really want to go back there?"

"Even if you go, you might not find her. So many years have passed, who knows where she is, whether she's dead or alive, what name she uses, who adopted her, or..."

"They didn't survive at all."

Even if you're lucky enough to find her...

"There's no guarantee they'll acknowledge each other... She might not even know about her past, or even if she did, she might not want to... Do you know what someone who was abandoned as a child is thinking?"

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze seemingly piercing through Shen Yu's eyes through the thick glass:

Even if they recognize each other...

"Aren't you afraid she'll hate you?"

"Hate me?" Shen Yu finally spoke, his voice still steady, but if you listened carefully, you could hear a barely suppressed tension beneath: "Why do you hate me?"

Shen Daoliang twitched the corners of his mouth again, a smile that was cold and subtle:

"Because you were the one left behind. She was the one abandoned. Growing up in that kind of place, how do you think she would view her brother who was left at home? Jealousy? Resentment? Or would she feel that she was abandoned precisely because of your existence?"

Every word he uttered was an attempt to shake Shen Yu, or rather, to show him the most realistic and cruelest possibility.

But Shen Yu just looked at him quietly, her eyes showing no sign of being persuaded.

Shen Yu spoke slowly, each word distinct:

"I told you, this has nothing to do with you. You just need to tell me the truth."

His gaze was fixed on Shen Daoliang, without pleading or anger.

He no longer treated him as a father, and no longer tried to get any emotional response or understanding from him.

Shen Daoliang met his gaze, a complex array of emotions flashing rapidly in his eyes...

He was silent for a moment, then he shook his head.

"I don't remember."

"It's been too long, and back then... I didn't pay much attention to which one it was... I only remember it was a rainy night, in front of an orphanage in an old town... I've forgotten the exact name and address."

Shen Yu stared at him for a full five seconds, then slowly took a deep breath...

"All right."

Then, he released his grip on the receiver.

He stood up without the slightest hesitation.

The chair legs made a slight sound as they rubbed against the ground.

He glanced at Shen Daoliang one last time...

Just as he turned around, preparing to walk away...

"Shen Yu".

Shen Daoliang's voice came through the still-connected telephone receiver once more.

Shen Yu paused for a moment...

As Shen Daoliang watched Shen Yu's retreating figure, his eyes behind his glasses narrowed slightly, and the curve of his lips seemed to widen a little.

"You speak with much more confidence now."

"How..."

"What kind of emotional support have you found?"

Shen Yu stood still for only a second, and then slowly turned half of his body around.

He spoke clearly into the microphone:

"It's none of your business..."

"You can die here slowly."

After saying that, he didn't linger any longer, turned around, and walked towards the exit of the visiting room.

Shen Daoliang remained seated, still holding the receiver in his hand.

He watched Shen Yu's figure disappear through the doorway, his gaze behind his glasses deep and unfathomable.

After a long while, until the prison guards came to take him away, he finally looked towards the now-empty doorway and softly uttered a sentence:

"All right..."

"I hope you can find your sister, although I think it's unlikely..."