TL: Hua
In this silent tug of war, Lu Xin was the first to step off the stage.
He was always a fun-loving person, and staying with Xia Shu’an for a week in a row was unprecedented. A week later, his symptoms finally “relapsed.”
“I want to go out and have fun!” He stood in front of Xia Shu’an and shouted loudly.
Xia Shu’an waved his hand and said, “Go.”
There was only one week left before the Chinese New Year. Xia Shu’an had already gone on holiday, and Shen Boyan followed the national statutory holidays. As the day approaches, there is also a noticeable increase in the festive atmosphere at home. The two aunts would stay with them until the morning of New Year’s Eve and then take the car back to their hometown in the afternoon. On the evening of the 30th, Xia Shu’an and Shen Boyan would go back to Xia’s home to celebrate the New Year and take a private plane to the vacation destination at night.
Everything went on as it should, and when there were still 3 days to go before the New Year, Xia Shu’an received an unexpected phone call.
“Hello, is this Mr. Xia Shu’an? This is Rongchuan City Heping Street Police Station…”
When Xia Shu’an arrived, he only saw a young lad sitting dumbly in the corner of the shop with a face full of confusion and downcast.
Xia Shu’an went in and sat down. “Tell me, what’s going on?”
Lu Cai looked at him with twinkling eyes and said, “Brother Xia…Brother Xia, I…”
Xia Shu’an sighed, raised his hand, and asked the clerk for two cups of tea, leaving Lu Cai time to calm down. Lu Cai had just come out of the police station. Although he said he was in a fight, there were no traces of fighting on his face or body, except that his eyes were red and his face was full of indignation and resentment.
Xia Shu’an knew from the way he brought people to rescue him twice before that the work he did might not be in line with the core socialist values, but being arrested for fighting on the street and taken to the police isn’t like him.
Seeing him gradually calm down, Xia Shu’an asked again, “What happened? Who did you fight with?”
Lu Cai’s lips moved a few times before he reluctantly said, “My biological father.”
“Pfft, cough, cough, sorry…”
Lu Cai looked at him speechlessly and muttered, “I knew it.”
Xia Shu’an coughed for a while before calming down and saying, “You and your biological father, you fight… your relationship…”
“We’re not on good terms; no, I should say our relationship is very bad. That old thing beat me and my mom when I was a kid. Later, he ran away because of loan sharks and left a lot of debt to my mom. It wasn’t easy for my mom and I to finally pay off the debt, and now he comes out and says he’s my dad. I won’t have the face to see my mom unless I beat him to death with a brick!”
Lu Cai became emotional again as he spoke, looking like he wanted to beat someone up. Xia Shu’an frowned and said, “If you beat him to death, how can you face your mother? She raised you so big just to let you kill someone and go to jail to ruin your whole life?”
The expression on Lu Cai’s face froze, and his body was half slumped on the chair like a salted fish, but he still said stubbornly, “I didn’t want to kill him; I’ll just beat him up so he won’t mess with me and my mom again.”
According to traditional values for thousands of years, this kind of family matter is very difficult to solve by law, and it has been a tradition since the beginning of the world. Bad people cannot be reformed by law; at most, it has a restraining effect.
“Where is your mother now?”
“At my hometown.”
“So what you need to do now is get your mother first, or set her up somewhere your dad doesn’t know about, and then…”
Xia Shu’an’s mind instantly flashed through countless means of dealing with people in their circle. He coughed lightly and said with a calm demeanor, “You didn’t call Shen Boyan today but called me instead; is it because you haven’t told him about this matter yet?”
Lu Cai hesitated and said, “I don’t want to cause any more trouble to the boss…”
Xia Shu’an had a look of hating-iron-for-not-becoming-steel1恨铁不成钢 [hèn tiě bù chéng gāng]: to feel resentful towards sb for failing to meet expectations. and said, It’s only trouble if you let him remedy your problems, aren’t you friends? He’s such a big boss, he can’t even handle this kind of thing?”
Lu Cai is different from the people he used to interact with. He appears to have entered society at a young age and emerged through hard work. However, he was actually not very old, only in his early twenties. At such a sensitive and vulnerable age, the opinions of friends or family can greatly influence them.
Xia Shu’an didn’t want him to get carried away by his emotions and ruin his life for his scumbag father. If Shen Boyan couldn’t even handle this, he might as well be Wenhui’s boss instead.
Lu Cai tousled his hair and laughed: “Brother Xia, how come you look so much like my boss when you say this? He also acts like this when he scolds me.”
He giggled for a while before his expression changed, and he said, “Brother Xia, you’re right; I’ll tell the boss. I’m just worried that this matter will bring back bad memories for him; that’s why I dare not tell him.”
Xia Shu’an frowned slightly and said, “What bad memories?”
Lu Cai blurted out, “It’s his abusive father…”
He knew he had slipped up and immediately covered his mouth. Xia Shu’an had already looked at him and asked, “Did Shen Boyan’s father also commit domestic violence against him?”
During the five years that he had been with Shen Boyan, the other party rarely mentioned his family, as if they didn’t exist. Xia Shu’an could guess that his family relationship was certainly bad, but he didn’t know exactly how bad.
“Aiya, it’s nothing really; it’s not the boss’s fault! His family situation is similar to mine, but I at least have a mom who loves me. He doesn’t have a mom or dad, and having one is just like not having one.”
“His family conditions were not good anyway. His father beat him, and his mother ran away because she couldn’t stand it. Then his scumbag father beat him even more severely. I didn’t go to school at that time, and I was just doing odd jobs. Because we had similar backgrounds, the boss picked me up and gave me proper work so that I wouldn’t go down the wrong path.”
He carefully peeked at the expression on Xia Shu’an’s face and whispered, “Brother Xia, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I’m just afraid that you will dislike the boss when you find out. After all, he likes you so much…”
It’s not that Xia Shu’an had never thought about this possibility, but when he really got the exact answer from others, he still felt very complicated.
For five years in his last life, he sometimes didn’t want Shen Boyan to have any kind of misery, as if that would clear him of what he had done to him. But sometimes he wished for some kind of tragic past, so that it would offset a little of his hatred.
He was angry and annoyed with Shen Boyan, but when he got the answer, he didn’t feel happy, nor did he understand his past any better. His brain was confused and sluggish, and those words flowed through his auditory central system without arousing too much emotion.
Lu Cai looked at Xia Shu’an’s complex and deep (dumbfounde) face and felt that his buttocks were a little hot, so he changed his sitting position and said, “Brother Xia, you don’t really dislike the boss, do you? You don’t want to… If you really do, can you please not tell the boss that I told you about it?”
His brain, which was stuck like an old computer, finally started working again.
“You said Shen Boyan likes me very much…”
Xia Shu’an raised his head and stared at the young lad sitting opposite. “Why?”
“What does he like about me?”
“Huh?” Lu Cai was stunned: “Ah, how would I know!”
Is this something that a young, innocent boy like him, who has never even held a girl’s hand, can answer?
…….
…….
Xia Shu’an recently had a new confusion in his heart: Why does Shen Boyan like him?
Xia Shu’an considers himself an ordinary person and doesn’t think he’s very outstanding. Why does Shen Boyan love him? There is so much love in the world that it is indeed possible for it to come right to him.
—As for Shen Boyan’s twisted love, he believes that it’s the cause of Shen Boyan’s twisted character and has nothing to do with “love,” which is not sinful.
But why?
Doesn’t love need a reason?
Perhaps because he looked at the man too many times at the dinner table, Shen Boyan put down his chopsticks and looked at him gently: “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Ever since Shen Boyan pretended to be pitiful and begged him for peace that day, the two of them had made peace for the time being.
Xia Shu’an is a very ordinary person. He’s very lenient with others and very lenient with himself. If he can’t handle it, he will just let it go. Now that Shen Boyan is willing to show kindness and take a few steps back, Xia Shu’an can just make do with it and continue to live with him.
[I can’t live without () anyway]2It’s also censored like this in raw.
Xia Shu’an hesitated and said, “You, um, why do you like-”
“Sir, we’re leaving for our hometown.”
Aunt Qiao and Aunt Yu came over. Xia Shu’an and Shen Boyan also stood up: “Thank you for your hard work, Happy New Year!”
“Happy New Year to you as well!”
The two aunties happily received the red envelopes from them. There’s a little story about this red envelope. They checked the amount in advance to avoid giving too much to one party and too little to the other party. It felt like two couples discussing how many red envelopes to give to the younger generation who came to the house, which gave Xia Shu’an a strange feeling.
After seeing them off, Shen Boyan looked at Xia Shu’an again: “What did you want to say just now?”
Xia Shu’an: “You… um, forget it; I’ll study it further.”
He felt a little shy when he asked the question just now. Apart from being intimate with Shen Boyan, Xia Shu’an had basically never had any behavior beyond friendship with the opposite sex or the same sex in his two lives. Therefore, he had no understanding of how ordinary couples get along, nor did he know how to naturally ask such questions.
He couldn’t help but feel a little depressed.
Am I too immature?
Forget it; I’ll find some romance novels to read in my free time.
The young man had a look of determination on his face.
Shen Boyan: ?
Soon after the two aunts left, they went to their parents’ home. The two elders decorated their home with red and prosperous signs everywhere, making people feel the New Year’s atmosphere at a glance. The door of the house is wide open, the new year program is playing in the living room, and the family is sitting inside drinking tea and chatting, which is very lively.
Mother Xia was very happy, and she’s quite open-minded about their situation. She has never had a daughter-in-law before, so she wouldn’t know how to deal with her, but it’s different with a male daughter-in-law. It’s just like having one more son!
Xia Shu’an was playing chess with his father when Shen Boyan suddenly interjected. Xia Shu’an gave him several disdainful glances, and the tall man apologized repeatedly. Mother Xia watched from the sidelines, laughed a little, and went into the kitchen to get some fruit.
While making dinner, three men entered the kitchen one after another and were kicked out according to the time they spent in there. Among them, Xia Shu’an stayed the shortest, only three minutes. His mother couldn’t stand the child and kicked him out.
Shen Boyan, who was leaning at the door: “…”
The man was trying to contain his laughter.
Xia Shu’an’s forehead popped with blue veins. “…You go in!”
Shen Boyan went into the kitchen with a smile and came out half an hour later.
Xia Shu’an: “…”
The dinner table in the evening was very rich, including fish and meat, as well as dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and other staple foods. He didn’t know exactly where it’s customary, but being able to sit together with Shen Boyan and his parents for New Year’s Eve dinner again was like a dream to Xia Shu’an. The tip of his nose felt slightly sour, and then he sniffed. Suddenly, he felt a hand touching his under the table. The man next to him was still talking to his father, but their fingers were entangled with each other.
They didn’t leave until 11 p.m. to catch up on their sleep during the journey because everyone was still watching TV in the living room after dinner. After Shen Boyan finished playing chess with Father Xia, he didn’t see Xia Shu’an in the room, so he walked out of the room and saw Xia Shu’an sitting on a small bench in the courtyard, looking up at the sky.
He walked closer, squatted down, and rested his elbow on Xia Shu’an’s leg.
“What are you looking at?”
“The stars.”
“The stars are pretty tonight, but the sky in Rongchuan is still a bit bleak. When we get to the island, I’ll watch and count the stars with you.”
“I’m looking at the stars, not counting them.”
“Alright alright.”
