Chapter 122: This Life Is Unbearable

"I'll go wherever I please—get out of my way!"

Long Yubei refused to let her leave. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what's going on."

"Oh, still pretending to be clueless?" Gu Lili's eyes narrowed coldly. "I want to hear it from you. You know exactly what you've been hiding. There's no point in keeping secrets now."

Long Yubei wracked his brain, trying to recall what he could have possibly concealed from her. Then suddenly, a thought struck him—he had gone to Yunan Garden earlier, and she had called asking where he was. Had she seen him?

"You saw me at Yunan Garden, didn't you?"

Gu Lili pressed her lips into a thin line, silent, but her silence spoke volumes.

"So that's what this is about?" he said, a little incredulously. "Did you really need to blow it so out of proportion? You could've just asked me directly."

"Oh, really?" she scoffed. "You said you were working late—turns out you were off visiting your little mistress and her lovechild. Why didn't you tell me you had an illegitimate daughter? If I'd known, I never would've married you!"

A glimmer of amusement flickered in Long Yubei's obsidian eyes. "Who told you she's my daughter? Has your imagination always been this theatrical?"

"I made inquiries," she snapped. "Someone heard that child call you 'Daddy.' Are you still going to keep pretending?"

She sat down on the edge of the bed, her tone biting.

"I can explain everything," he said patiently. "I didn't think it was a big deal. If I'd told you I went to Yunan Garden, I figured you'd jump to conclusions about me sneaking around upscale neighborhoods at night. So I kept it to myself. But that child isn't my daughter—she calls me Daddy because I'm her godfather, nothing more."

But Gu Lili found that explanation utterly unconvincing. Godfather?

So she was unknowingly made someone's godmother? And he'd never even brought it up?

"This marriage is impossible," she murmured.

"I've just explained everything to you."

"Explained?" Gu Lili hurled a pillow at him. "That nonsense about being her godfather? Do you take me for a fool?! Who would believe that?"

"The woman's name is Nan Yuesheng. The child's biological father is Mo Lingqi—my sworn brother. We went to university together, shared everything. He vanished overseas during an accident—no one's heard from him since. I truly am the child's godfather. I rented that apartment in Yunan Garden for them. They used to live in Qinyuan, but after I married you, Yuesheng said it would be inappropriate to stay so close, worried you might misunderstand, so she moved out voluntarily."

Gu Lili paused at this and asked, "Then why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't think it was significant. And if I had, you'd probably want to meet her to verify everything. I figured it'd be easier not to mention it."

She lay back against the bed. "When did this friend of yours—Mo Lingqi—go missing?"

"When Yuesheng was heavily pregnant. No one's seen or heard from him since—alive or dead. She's been searching all this time without a trace. Her family background's terrible—her father's a gambling addict, her mother remarried and abandoned her. She had nowhere else to turn, so I took care of her. But a lovechild? That's absurd. Your imagination's something else. If anyone else heard this, they'd die laughing."

"What's the child's name?"

"Yueqi. A blend of both their names. She's two now, still hasn't been registered. The Mo family never accepted Yuesheng. They weren't married, and with Lingqi missing and the child being a girl, they refuse to acknowledge her."

Gu Lili's voice softened. "How pitiful... Bring them back. Let them live with us."