CH 17

Translated by Coke

Edited by Sienz

The whole family was at a standstill, with different thoughts occupying their mind. Particularly An Wuji. He felt guilty. He just shared it without thinking it through as how brothers would act around, but he never expected his mother would be mad. 

“Okay, don’t scold the child while eating.” Father An Cheng added, “Wuyang, go shower if you don’t feel like eating so you can rest early. Don’t you have a part-time job tomorrow?”

Facing this child head-on, Father An felt helpless. Life was too busy. Sometimes it was not because he felt disinclined to guide and spend time with all his heart, rather, he could not manage it as he was caught up in his work.

“En.” Following his father’s notion to cast away the embarrassment, An Wuyang put down his chopsticks. “You guys enjoy the meal. I’ll take a bath first,” he said, all while his eyes cast down. 

Every time he got criticized by his mother, he would act stubbornly. But then, when the frustration subsided, the truth slapped more painfully. He was such a waste, and there was nothing wrong with others scolding him for it. 

‘Regardless if I have more time or little, all I could think of are superficial ideas. Can’t even think about more profound things about life and the future.’

As he drenched his body under the shower, An Wuyang wept silently. When he returned to the bedroom, his face felt hot, and Wuyang thought just how fucking frail he was. 

“Wuyang.” A knock on the door and Father An came in. While his wife was doing dishes in the kitchen, he wanted to at least comfort his second child. “Hey, don’t take it to heart. Your mother’s been under the weather recently, and the pressure from work is unusually high. Please understand her.”

The workload in her new position was difficult. And since Mother An was a very strong person, she had lofty demands for herself.

An Wuyang sat on his brother’s bed and felt glad inside that it was normal for the eyes to get red after taking a shower. “It’s okay. I’m aware, too, that what she said was right.”

But he still could not help but retort in his heart. ‘I really don’t have the money to spend, ah.’

“Anyway, don’t take it seriously,” An Cheng sighed. Then, deliberated his words, “To get to the bottom of it, your dad and mom only want the best for you. And we dread that you’ll suffer hardships in the future, not to blame you.”

If a family was wealthy, they probably would not force their child to work so hard. 

However, that’s the cold truth of society. An elite favored society. Only those who possessed the ability to compete could have room for survival.

In the end, it’s all about money.

“En, Dad, I get it. It’s okay.” An Wuyang looked at his father for the first time. A pair of dark almond eyes he possessed that looked exactly like his sister’s. 

An Cheng remembered that when this child was still a kid, he was all upright, obedient, and clever; occasionally being naughty which he would comply once An Cheng said not to do. 

‘This kid’s simply too well-behaved and inflexible.’

An Cheng let out a sigh and nodded. “Then Dad will go out now to watch TV. You should go to bed early and turn on the air-conditioner if it’s too hot. And don’t try to endure the humidity. If you’re uncomfortable, we’re also uncomfortable.”

“En,” An Wuyang responded.

Meanwhile, An Wuji, who was supposed to come in and get his clothes for the shower, waited anxiously at the door. When An Cheng went out, he came in and expressed outright, “Brother, I’m sorry.”

An Wuyang, who was touching his damp hair, looked at his brother and tossed, “I’m sorry, I won’t give you anything to eat.”

Then he picked up the towel and wiped his head attentively. 

“…” The younger brother pursed up his lips, turned around, and trudged to the closet to get his clothes.

As he picked up a set of clothes, Wuji’s eyes sneaked a few glances at the out-of-place stuff. The bags of unknown items piled up in the corner of the cabinet looked delicious even on the outside, although he did not know what kind of snacks they were. 

After his brother went out, the phone vibrated on the small desk. 

An Wuyang already guessed who the caller might be. 

He put down the towel on the table and picked the phone up. “Hello?”

“…” Huo Yunchuan turned on the video call, but only saw darkness. “Your phone doesn’t have dual cameras?”

An Wuyang almost jumped from the loud sound coming from his speakers. He immediately scrutinized the phone before him, and soon beheld a handsome face on the screen that women were obsessed with and men were envious of. “Mister Huo?”

‘It turned out to be a video call…’

An Wuyang was ignorant of how awful his current appearance was right now. His hair looked like a nest of a mad chicken, his eyes were bloodshot from crying, and the phone was a bit too close to his face. It could even be said he was broadcasting his nostrils live. 

“…” With all due respect to Huo Yunchuan, never in his entire life had he seen such a terrible image. 

And yet it captured not the wrong angle. He noted right away, “Why don’t you blow-dry your hair after taking a shower?” 

‘Does he not know that it’s easy to catch a cold with the air-conditioner on when the hair is wet?’

“I’m not used to using a hairdryer.” An Wuyang heard that while he skillfully seized the phone in one hand and wiped his hair with the other. 

When he noticed the bunk beds behind An Wuyang, Huo Yunchuan asked in disbelief, “Who are you sleeping in the same room with?”

An Wuyang replied, “My brother.”

Huo Yunchuan, in a now calmed voice, asked, “Who sleeps on top?”

An Wuyang engrossed himself in wiping his hair for a while, then mumbled, “Anyone can sleep on top. We take turns sleeping on the top. If I feel unwell, I sleep in the lower bunk.”

“…” Huo Yunchuan exerted a great amount of effort in restraining the urge to pick him right now. He gritted, “I shouldn’t have promised you to let you go home before.”

‘Just look at where they live. The room is too cramped, can you even turn your feet around?’

“Be quiet,” An Wuyang whispered in panic, wary that his brother would come at any time. “Why are you like this? You always regret what you promised.”

It wasn’t the first time he heard him say this.

Huo Yuchuan was simply manic. He glared at the other from his phone. “Then tell me now. Will you sleep on the top or bottom?”

An Wuyang felt apprehensive about the fierce appearance before him. “I’ll sleep at the bottom.”

If you slept in the top bunk and had to get up in the middle of the night, you would be miserable if you tripped and fell. 

The man’s expression on the screen softened, but only a little. “I’m not relieved at all that your living environment is so bad, you must move out as soon as possible.”

“My brother just finished showering. Can’t talk to you any longer.” An Wuyang picked up his brother’s movements and rushed to tell the man. 

“Hey—”

Before he could utter the words “no hanging up,” the screen before him returned to its initial interface. Huo Yunchuan spun in anger and kicked the bedside table, who did not do anything wrong. 

— Mister Huo, let’s talk via text. What do you want to say?

Even after receiving a text message from the teenager, Huo Yunchuan’s lost temper could not be saved. 

‘Can the feeling of SMS contact be compared to a video call?’

Even if you could not touch it, not hearing nor seeing them was off the charts. Not even giving the child a separate room, Huo Yunchuan capriciously took out his anger on An Wuyang’s parents. 

— Move out.

— ……

— You know yourself what’s best for you. Even if you don’t think for yourself, think for the sake of the child in your belly. Don’t be so childish and self-willed.

‘I was scolded twice in a row today. It’s fine since it was my mom, but the other came from a mere stranger.

An Wuyang flopped onto the bed and tucked the phone underneath his brother’s pillow. 

An Wuji, who pretended to be preparing to study on his desk, asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong with you? Are you still angry?”

An Wuyang shook his head and propped on the bed to look at his brother. “I’ll sleep on the bottom and you’re on top.”

After speaking, he immediately got up, took out the delicious food from the cabinet, and shared it with the others. “If you promise me, I’ll buy you delicious food every day from now on.”

‘Fragrant and scrumptious candied fruits, nuts, and other candies. Dang, every one of them tastes delicious.’ An Wuji never really cared where he slept at first, so he easily agreed when he had something to eat. “Where did you buy all these? They looked expensive.” It tasted wealthy. 

“It was given by someone else,” An Wuyang said. He was afraid the lottery scheme would get debunked early if said too many times. 

“From whom?” An Wuji asked curiously. Although the small foodie’s cheeks were full of food, it did not hinder him from chirping incessantly at all. 

“A female classmate, she likes me.” An Wuyang side-eyed his brother. “Eat. Why are you asking so much?”

“Then did you reply to her?” An Wuji unfurled another candy wrapper.

“Not yet,” An Wuyang said. 

The younger brother’s mouth hung open into an O shape, and he gaped, “You scumbag.”

The mobile phone buried and forgotten under the pillow rang. The older brother patted the food crumbs in his hands, and informed the younger brother, “He’s calling. Eat your food, and I’ll answer the call.” He stared at his brother intently. “No complaints.”

An Wuji gave a nod, indicating he would not. 

“Hello?” An Wuyang lay on his brother’s bed, pushed the electric fan’s power button with his feet, and received the call.

The man who waited for a reply on the other end, tried his utmost to suppress his temper, and asked, “Why didn’t you reply to the message all of a sudden? Do you know that others will worry about you?”

“… I’m eating what you bought.” To prove he wasn’t lying, An Wuyang stretched out a hand, twisted a piece of walnut, and popped it in his mouth. 

The sound of the boy crunching the nut transmitted into the earpiece, and flowed into the cochlea without any hindrance. 

At this moment, Huo Yunchuan was enlightened on their age difference, their generation age, and the vexing feeling of being a seasoned man in the face of childishness. 

‘But what else can I do? Of course to follow him.’

“Is it delicious?” Huo Yunchuan asked. 

“Yeah.” An Wuyang said, “It’s fragrant and crunchy. If you consume too much, you might suffer from excessive internal heat.”

“Then you should eat less,” said Huo Yunchuan with patience. He then raised the question that bugged his mind for a long time. “Why are your eyes red? You cried?”

An Wuyang glanced at his brother and replied, “I got bubbles on my eyes when I washed earlier.”

“Be careful in the future,” the man on the other end of the call exhorted.

“Okay.” Suspicions arose inside An Wuyang’s head. He felt that Mister Huo on the phone was gentler and kinder. 

Unlike their face-to-face interaction. His knees would buckle once the man stared at him. 

“That’s it.” Huo Yunchuan stopped pacing and looked outside before his floor-to-ceiling French window in the bedroom. He urged, “Go to bed early, and I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

An Wuyang: “Okay, bye.”

Only breathing sounded over for a while, and then, “Goodnight.”

An Wuyang also reciprocated, “Goodnight.”

After several seconds, the call was still on. Thus, he stretched out a finger and hung up the phone. 

It turned out that it was not just an illusion. Mister Huo was really a hundred times easier to get along with on the phone than in reality.

With this incredible thought in mind, An Wuyang yawned. He faced his back to the light, closed his eyes, and slept.

Mister Huo, who was thirty kilometers away, soaked his entire self up in the boy’s sweet and soft “good night,” which played on loop in his brain for N times. 

What made him even more irritable was that the intimate memories he painstakingly forgot a month ago rushed back and infiltrated his mind. Impossible to get rid of. 

In that chaotic bar where fishes and dragons mingled, the intoxicated young lad once said sweetly, “Gege, can you do me a favor?”

“…” Breaking the memory of that one night stand, Huo Yunchuan took off his shirt, stepped into the bathroom, and took a cold shower.

The author has something to say:

The family of darling Wuyang is a portrayal of many real families. It is the norm, and it makes sense from everyone’s standpoint.