“Zhen Han and Grandma were really close to each other. When he got the news, he almost collapsed. He kept calling Auntie all night long. Even though the battery of the other side was out and the phone was turned off, he still kept trying to reach her…”
It’s not that Zhen Han wants Yan Manjia to come back, but he felt that the two elderly people would want their daughters to come back and see them before they were cremated. A few days ago, Grandma even nagged Zhen Han, “When will our family’s Manjia come back?”
But until the body was cremated and the funeral was done, Yan Manjia did not come back. She called Zhen Han back and was blocked by him. She called Yan Sui and after learning about it, she was silent for a long time. She didn’t say anything and just hung up.
However, the process of the Yan family’s succession of power is not as stable as outsiders think. Even though Yan Sui grew up with an elite education, he was only twenty years old at that time, and he had only been exposed to the Yan family’s affairs less than a year after he went to university.
After he took over the Yan family, he worked extremely hard for three consecutive years, almost treating the office as his home. He became more steady, serious, and silent day by day.
In the eyes of outsiders, it took Yan Sui eight years to firmly control the Yan family, but for Yan Sui, it was eight years that he spent day and night. How many difficulties, how much hard work, how many calculations, this was his normal situation in his eight years.
“Zhen Han is not angry for himself. He felt Grandpa and Grandma didn’t deserve this.”
After Yan Sui finished speaking, a little anger also overflowed from his eyes.
And Meng Ting, who had been listening quietly to him, no longer hugged the person with his arms. He went over and sat on Yan Sui’s lap again. Then he hugged Yan Sui with both hands, rested his head on his shoulder, and patted Yan Sui’s back gently. He didn’t say any words of comfort, and he couldn’t think of anything particularly suitable either.
But he could empathize with Yan Sui’s emotions. That sad feeling made him feel distressed. He wanted to hug him and comfort him like this.
Zhen Han can vent to Yan Manjia, and he can vent to Yan Sui, but Yan Sui can’t. He had taken over the Yan family, so he was not qualified to be willful. He was also angry, he was also sad, but he couldn’t show it.
Even he needs to suppress them, so that he can be in an absolutely rational state. There was no doubt that it was really hard for Yan Sui, but at this moment, he received heartache from Meng Ting. This kind of heartache that he had not seen for a long time but was touching.
Yan Sui’s hand gently hugged Meng Ting back, his eyebrows softened a little. He rubbed the back of Meng Ting’s neck and whispered, “I’m not sad anymore.”
“Liar,” Meng Ting muttered the fact that he felt in a muffled voice, “You’re obviously still sad.”
Yan Sui smiled helplessly. He rested his chin on Meng Ting’s shoulder, closed his eyes, and didn’t speak again.
***
Yan Manjia held the wooden box and cried for who knows how long. When Yan Sui brought Meng Ting down for dinner, her eyes were still red and the makeup on her face was messy. She carried the wooden box up to the third floor. The room at the end of the corridor was her room. Nothing has changed, including the furnishings in her room. Everything remains as it was before she left the country without a second thought.
After she washed her face and came out, she saw Zhen Han just going out. The mother and son looked at each other, and Zhen Han snorted angrily again, but instead of going back to the room, he walked downstairs. He is not here to eat; he wants to look at Yan Sui and Meng Ting. He wouldn’t be won over by Yan Manjia’s pitiful appearance.
Yan Manjia stared at Zhen Han’s back for a long time before she followed. The four of them sat down and the dishes were already served.
At the dinner table, no one opened their mouths to talk. Everyone ate with their heads down. Yan Sui had Meng Ting to pick up the food for him, so he ate quite well, but Zhen Han and Yan Manjia were a bit uninterested in their food.
After everyone had finished eating, Yan Sui spoke, “Come to the study.”
After all, the living room is not a place for talking. The best sound insulation in the whole house is in the study room.
Yan Sui turned his head to look at Meng Ting, his tone softened a bit, “You come too.”
Meng Ting nodded. He didn’t like a serious place like the study room, but he also told himself that Yan Sui’s study room was different from other people’s study rooms. Not to mention that there was also a desk that Yan Sui had given him—there was also a place that truly belonged to him.
The lights were turned on and the curtains were drawn. It was getting dark, but the light in the study was still as bright as day.
There is also a sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the study room, with exactly four seats. After Meng Ting sat down, he tried to move the sofa, but unfortunately, he could only turn it. Unless the fixing screws were unscrewed, it was not that easy to move.
Yan Sui’s gaze was swept towards him, and then he moved his position and extended his hand to Meng Ting. Meng Ting immediately stood up and came over to sit next to Yan Sui.
These two people are so sticky that it hurts the eyes, Yan Manjia and Zhen Han thought so at the same time.
Yan Manjia and Zhen Han also sat down. There was another long silence; Yan Manjia was thinking about what to say, while Zhen Han was trying to control his temper.
About five minutes passed before Yan Sui broke the silence and said, “Let’s talk.”
There was no need for pleasantries, no need for transitions either. Just say it straight to the point.
As soon as his words came out, Meng Ting and Zhen Han both looked at Yan Manjia. From their standpoints, they couldn’t figure out why Yan Manjia didn’t even have time to return to the country to see her deceased parents.
Yan Manjia’s gaze gradually lowered, her makeup washed away, and the things that concealed her sharp edges were gone.
“I suspect my brother didn’t die.”
After her words came out, the study fell silent. Yan Sui and Zhen Han never thought that her not returning to the country would actually involve a person who should have been dead.
“Although it was only a back figure, I am certain that it was my brother.”
Zhen Han glanced at Yan Sui carefully. Frowning, he looked at Yan Manjia again, “Be specific.”
“I chased Brother Xiao Zi to F Country…”
Xiao Zi is the ‘Xiao bastard’ that Zhen Han referred to before. Zhen Han had been using it to refer to him since the first swear words he learned.
He is the person Yan Manjia has liked since childhood. In the past few years, she has chased him from domestic to foreign countries. What crazy thing she hadn’t done for his sake? The face of the Yan family’s Miss has been trampled on countless times, but she still gladly endured the hardship and was unwilling to give up.
More than twenty years ago, even Yan Manjia herself could not explain how she got Zhen Han. However, even when she gave birth to a child that was not Xiao Zi’s, she still would not give up her pursuit of love.
In the M country where they settled, she heard that Xiao Zi had taken a woman to F country to play. She came to ‘put on a show of force’, but she didn’t see Xiao Zi; instead, she first saw a familiar figure at a flea market, a figure she thought she would never see again.
She shouted loudly, “Brother, Brother! I am Manjia, I am Manjia!”
She spent that afternoon looking for the person at the flea market. She searched like crazy, but she couldn’t find him. The back figure seemed like a figment of her imagination. But after thinking about it carefully, Yan Manjia still didn’t believe it was a delusion. For more than a month, she searched frantically, scouring the entire city and even the surrounding towns. She wanted to turn the whole world upside down to find him.
But her brother, Yan Sui’s father, Yan Yu, never showed any trace again. Yan Manjia has always been a person who doesn’t know how to give up. When she couldn’t find him in Country F, she continued to expand the scope of her search. She vowed not to rest until she found the person.
But at this very moment, her parents had a car accident back home. When she received the news, they were already dead.
With her deceased parents, who had not yet been buried, on one hand, and her brother, who had been ‘dead’ for many years but now had a glimmer of hope, on the other, Yan Manjia chose to stay abroad. Between the dead and the living, she chose the one who might be alive. She wanted to bring her brother back and together they would go to their parents’ grave to kowtow.
“But he disappeared. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find any trace of him.” After so many years, sometimes she began to wonder if she had seen it wrong, but she and Yan Yu had grown up together, how could she have seen it wrong?
Yan Manjia gritted her teeth as she spoke. If Yan Yu were in front of her right now, she would definitely pounce on him and take a few bites.
Zhen Han looked at Yan Manjia for a long time before snorting again and turning his head away. However, this angry snort was obviously less ‘angry’ than before. After a while, he turned back and said, “Why don’t you say it? Is it interesting to let Yan Sui and I misunderstand you?”
He has been so angry these years, but it seems to be nothing to Yan Manjia!
Thinking like this, he became angry again.
Yan Manjia looked at Zhen Han with an apologetic expression. She sighed softly, “If I said it at that time, wouldn’t it cause trouble? I can’t help you guys with anything, I can’t let you guys worry about me too.”
More importantly, she didn’t want Yan Sui to be disappointed. That was his biological father, it was impossible for him not to care.
As for Zhen Han, she is indeed not a good mother, but it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t like him. It’s just that in the previous years, she valued her love more, which was a complete mess and ended up being an empty love.
“You have been investigating for so many years, but have you ever let anyone know that you suspect that he is not dead?” After quickly organizing his thoughts, Yan Sui interrupted the staring between mother and son and asked.
Yan Manjia turned her face away when she heard the words and shook her head gently, “No, I know what’s appropriate. That’s why I had such a hard time looking for him.”
“Good. You don’t have to worry about the next thing, I’ll check it out.”
The Yan Sui eight years ago was not stable enough, experienced enough, or strong enough, but now he is enough. When he said this, Yan Manjia nodded, she had no objection.
List of Idiom in Chapter 034.2
感同身受 (gǎn tóng shēn shòu): to feel as if it has happened to oneself; to sympathize; (polite expression of gratitude for a favor received by a friend etc) I take it as a personal favor; feel indebted as if the favour were received in person; feel as if one experiences sth in person; Originally used to express gratitude on someone else’s behalf.義無反顧 (yì wú fǎn gù): honor does not allow one to glance back (idiom); duty-bound not to turn back; no surrender; to pursue justice with no second thoughts; to proceed without hesitation; honour permits no turning back; forget all else in the pursuit of duty; morally, one can only move forward courageously and cannot hesitate to look back.
甘之如飴 (gān zhī rú yí): lit. as sweet as syrup (idiom, from the Classic of Poetry); to endure hardship gladly; a glutton for punishment; enjoy (pain, grief or hardship) as if it were malt sugar—take adversity with a smile; Describes being willing to endure hardship and pain in order to do a certain job.
咬牙切齒 (yǎo yá qiè chǐ): gnashing one’s teeth (idiom); displaying extreme anger; fuming with rage between gritted teeth; gnashing one’s teeth in anger.
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