“You found Yan Hui?!”
Yu Zhongbei jerked to his feet, only slowly sitting back down a moment later, muttering under his breath, “Good, that is wonderful. Finally.”
Yan Zhen’s face was also full of surprise. “Really? Is he doing well? What is his attitude toward you?” By the end of her sentence, she sounded almost tentative.
Compared to Yu Xiang’s parents’ obvious excitement, Yu Xiang’s maternal grandparents were much calmer. After a brief moment of surprise, the two old people fell silent with complex expressions.
Yu Xiang knew that for the older generation, accepting that their grandson was gay was no easy task. Even though he had come out with a bang ten years ago, the old folks still firmly believed that he just had not met the right girl yet.
It was only because he had remained single all these ten years, proving with his actions that it had to be Yan Hui or no one, that they chose to remain silent this time.
“He is doing well, better than I expected,” Yu Xiang said, flashing a sly smile. “Once I get kicked out of the house by Grandpa, I am sure things will get even better.”
Yan Zhen gave him a reproachful glare. “You brat! Who did you learn this trick of playing the victim from?”
“Old Chu, did he not rely on this exact trick to win his wife over?”
“You, you never learn anything good, only bad! You need to go properly apologize and make amends with him first.”
Watching the smiles on his wife and son’s faces, Yu Zhongbei felt a sudden wave of relief in his heart.
The massive boulder that had been crushing his chest for ten years could finally fall to the ground.
As the second child of the Yu family, Yu Zhongbei had an older brother who stood to inherit the family business above him, and a younger sister cherished by all below him. Since childhood, he had been sandwiched in the middle, feeling neither here nor there, and had suffered from neglect.
This differential treatment made Yu Zhongbei deeply feel the unfairness, while also fostering a competitive consciousness of trying to outdo his older brother and vie for favor against his younger sister, an obsession he passed down to the next generation.
For the title of the eldest grandson of the direct lineage, he married early and rushed things, but was still half a step too late. Yu Xiang was born half a year after Yu Hao, becoming an unloved substitute in the Yu family just like him.
Since the disadvantage of age was irreversible, he could only fight for superiority in terms of capability.
Naturally, Yu Zhongbei began pushing his kids hard. Whatever Yu Hao had to learn, Yu Xiang had to learn as well, and he had to learn more and better.
Yet, Yu Xiang was never someone who could sit still from a young age. He was great at equestrian sports and tennis, but his wealth management and language skills were only mediocre.
It would have been fine if there was no comparison, but the problem was that Yu Hao was right there next to him.
As a result, whatever Yu Xiang did well was not as good as Yu Hao being obedient and sensible; if he did not do well, it proved he was not even fit to carry Yu Hao’s shoes.
The more he fell behind, the more they had to compete. When he lost, Yu Zhongbei would get anxious, lose his temper, and resort to beating and scolding him three times a day.
It could be said that Yu Xiang’s rebelliousness and guardedness were all beaten into him by Yu Zhongbei.
This situation only eased up after Yu Xiang entered high school.
The reason for the easing was not that Yu Zhongbei had a change of heart, but rather that Yu Hao went abroad to study on his own merit, whereas Yu Xiang could only study by spending a huge sum of money. With such a massive gap, what else could he do besides give up?
Who would have thought that in his senior year of high school, Yu Xiang suddenly began to turn things around, using his own allowance to hire a private tutor and cramming day and night.
Before Yu Zhongbei could figure out what was going on, he saw his son stumbling into the study, his eyes brimming with tears.
“Dad. Yan Hui is missing. Please help me.”
Ever since Yu Xiang turned five, Yu Zhongbei had never seen him cry, let alone beg anyone for help.
That day, however, he knelt on the ground and cried for the eldest son of the Yan family.
Yu Zhongbei finally understood why his son had worked so hard, and at that very moment, his mind opened up.
Children have their own fortunes; you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
Yet, even though he had figured it out, he also deeply realized his own powerlessness.
Just like Yu Xiang’s group of silver-spoon friends who could not offer any real help, he could not help Yu Xiang either. Having money in hand and having power in hand were two entirely different things, let alone dealing with the equally wealthy and powerful Yan family.
If they wanted to pry open the Yan family’s mouths, they had to produce something of equal value.
Yu Zhongbei pointed this out to his son, watched him enter the School of Finance at Yunjing University, and then experienced bottomless regret on the day Yu Hao’s death was reported.
He watched day by day as his son lost his smile and grew more and more like his grandfather and older brother, yet he was powerless to stop it.
Fortunately, a turning point had finally arrived.
Yu Zhongbei cleared his throat, though his voice still sounded somewhat husky when he spoke.
“We cannot keep freeloading and living off him like shameless parasites either. Here is what we will do: before we have a showdown with your grandfather, have Zizhen make a trip over, take the gold the family has stored away, and I will find an opportunity to give it to you later.”
Hearing this, Yan Zhen clapped her hands. “That is right! Why do we not go buy some more right now? Gold prices are high right now, would Xiangxiang not have living expenses once he flips it?”
Unable to laugh or cry, Yu Xiang stopped her. “Please do not. Grandpa will trace any large expenditures and figure out what is going on immediately. Rest assured, since I have decided to resign, I definitely have a backup plan. I will not go hungry, and I certainly will not let Yan Hui support me.”
Forget the money for buying a house, a car, starting a business, or making investments, he had even budgeted the money to hire an English tutor for Shenshen, determined to beat that wretched accent right out of him!
“Achoo!”
The suddenly drifting cigarette smoke irritated Yan Sheng into sneezing. He rubbed his nose, turned around, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head before he hurriedly jumped off the sofa and ran toward the kitchen.
“Dad! Dad! Smoke! Smoke!”
Yan Hui was jolted awake by his son, only to realize that before he started cooking, he had both forgotten to close the kitchen sliding door and failed to turn on the range hood, causing the smoke to drift all over the apartment.
As for the food in the wok, it had long since turned into charcoal.
Yan Hui quickly turned off the fire, switched on the exhaust fan, pushed open the kitchen window, and instructed Yan Sheng, “Shenshen, go open the living room windows.”
“Okay.”
With the joint efforts of the cross breeze and the range hood, the smoke quickly dissipated. Yan Hui pressed his lips together as he looked at the charcoal in the pan, then reached back to untie his apron.
“Shenshen, how about we have McDonald’s for lunch today? Dad will order delivery.”
“Yay!” Yan Sheng cheered, his eyes shining brightly as he followed Yan Hui over to sit on the sofa. “I want fries and a chicken burger!”
“Alright, fries, a chicken burger.” Yan Hui placed the order for his son, looked around and could not find anything he wanted to eat himself, so he simply gave up and paid directly.
Putting down his phone, he watched Yan Sheng play a round of a game, and only when the child sneezed again did he realize the room was too cold, prompting him to get up and close the windows.
After closing the windows and the kitchen door, Yan Hui dragged the electric heater over to the side of the sofa, reached out to feel Yan Sheng’s forehead, and with a heart full of self-reproach, brewed a packet of cold medicine to act as a preventative measure.
Watching his son drink the light-brown liquid, Yan Hui considered it a small piece of psychological comfort, mentally self-deprecating as he washed the cup.
After all these years, how was it that he had not made any progress at all? Acting so insecure and anxious like some kind of fool!
Things had reached this point; all that was left was to wait for the outcome. Good or bad, this was the last time!
Even so, Yan Hui still had no appetite whatsoever.
After Yan Sheng went out to play, he played a game for a while, then watched a nonsensical movie, feeling entirely distracted and sitting on pins and needles.
As the time crept closer to three o’clock in the afternoon, his fluttering nervousness escalated into sheer panic. He could not do anything else, just staring blankly at his phone.
Suddenly, a ringtone sounded, and three bold characters popped up on the phone screen: Bai Shaoyu.
Yan Hui’s eyes widened instantly.
Confirming that it was still five minutes until three o’clock, the sense of unease in his heart grew even more intense.
The annual meeting had not even started yet, so why was Shaoyu calling?
Could it be?
His heart hammered relentlessly against his fragile nerves. Yan Hui closed his eyes and pressed the answer button.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Yan Hui. Your husband looks like he wants to walk from April Manor all the way to the highway. Tell me, should I give him a free ride, or should I give him a ride, or should I give him a ride?”
Yan Hui was stunned for a few seconds before he suddenly burst into laughter.
“Up to you. Giving him a ride is fine, not giving him a ride is fine too.”
Outside the window, a ray of sunlight pierced through the heavy clouds and spilled downward, not quite enough to warm the chilly weather, but bringing with it a sliver of hope.
In just over ten days, spring would finally arrive.