Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Nine: From Triumph to Sorrow (I)

“He’s doing well.” Yan Jin’s steady tone gave no indication of deceit. “His grades are decent, and, before graduating, his performance attracted the attention of a professor. Things are very hopeful for him.”

Actually, Xiao Zihao had been expelled a while back for his poor grades and propensity for fighting. Xiao Zihao was only a little over twenty, but he had already dabbled in all kinds of shady business dealings starting two years ago. Gambling was only the beginning; Xiao Yu didn’t even dare to think of the other stuff.

When Yan Jin had found out about this, in spite of all his experience with the underworld, even he was shocked. It wasn’t all the actual stuff that Xiao Zihao did that made him surprised; Yan Jin had come across some of the most wicked people before. Rather, he couldn’t understand how Xiao Zihao could develop so many problems and get involved in so many illegal activities in such a short period of time. It was like he could waste away in gambling dens while paying for prost.i.tutes at the same time.

On some level, Xiao Zihao seemed to be a naturally evil person. Neither laws nor the morality of good vs. evil could contain these kinds of people. They weren’t afraid of such abstract restrictions. Nor were they concerned with the most basic of ethics. It was like they were wild animals following only the basest of instincts. Only a stronger threat like a gun to their head could evoke any reaction in their muddy, filthy eyes. In a certain way, it was amusing that only the type of primitive fear evoked by an animal tamer’s whip was effective.

At the very least, Yan Jin really wanted to laugh. However, he didn’t think Xiao Yu would find it so funny if he learned the truth, so he didn’t tell him.

Ah, his little Fishy. It would be fine if the little hamster that could fit in his palm stayed innocent forever.

Chairman Yan smiled strangely.

“Really? That’s great.” Xiao Yu grinned.

“Do I get a reward?” Yan Jin’s hands returned back to their original location.

“You don’t give up, do you? So troublesome.” This time, Xiao Yu rolled himself into Yan Jin’s embrace. Using his arm to cus.h.i.+on his head, he said, “Why did he need so much money then? Graduate school doesn’t require so much money.”

“The cost of living in Country M is larger than you’d think. Also, Xiao Zihao also has some additional expenses.”

“Like what?”

“He has a very close friend who’s also a foreign exchange student. Unfortunately, after leaving China, she developed a serious illness. Her family already spent all that they had on her education and didn’t have any more money. So, your dear little brother stepped forward to help.”

“Really?” Xiao Yu was surprised. “How come he never brought this up with me?”

“Maybe he didn’t want anyone to get worried?”

“Really! He could have said something long ago,” Xiao Yu grumpily said. “It’s a good thing. Whether he likes her or is just helping a friend, we’re all fellow compatriots. It must be fate for two compatriots to meet overseas. We definitely would have supported him if he had said something. Healthcare is so expensive in Country M. He must have had it pretty rough these past few years.

Xiao Yu completely believed Yan Jin’s random made-up story. He even began to draw other conclusions.

“In the beginning, he didn’t ask for a lot of money. Then, he started to ask for more and more, especially last year, when he asked for almost two million yuan. Is his friend…”

“She must have already pa.s.sed away. Otherwise, he definitely would have asked for more money after learning that his mother sold the apartment.” Yan Jin continued his story, following Xiao Yu’s lead.

“My goodness, that’s so sad.”

“We can only strive to do our best and leave the rest up to the Heavens. Life is short.”

It really was ridiculous for these words to be coming from Yan Jin. To many people, Yan Jin was someone who had even fate dancing in his palm.

Xiao Yu felt that the card in his hands was extremely heavy. He rubbed his head and slowly recounted, “My father left behind two apartments. Originally, both were supposed to be for Auntie Fang. She didn’t need to consider me. I was already very touched when we reached our agreement. But now, she’s broken our agreement and has given me the money from selling me the apartment. I don’t know how I can thank her. I…”

“It means that she approved of you even long ago.” Yan Jin forcefully moved the topic away from the dowry and suggested sincerely, “You should take this opportunity to have a heart-to-heart talk with her.”

Xiao Yu lifted his head to look at Yan Jin. Then, after a while, he buried his head into Yan Jin’s chest and softly said, “Yes.”

……

After a lot of thought and support from Yan Jin, Xiao Yu and Fang Wanqing finally agreed to meet at a restaurant with a decent ambience for a long and close talk.

Yan Jin sat in the car waiting all by himself. The twenty minutes they had scheduled quickly turned into two hours, and Xiao Yu still had no intention of ending his conversation with Auntie Fang.

Under the hot sun, Yan Jin grouchily stared at Xiao Yu through the restaurant window. Unfortunately, Xiao Yu didn’t notice Yan Jin’s gaze.

He was really too much.

They really were taking way too long. The original intention was just for Xiao Yu to confirm Fang Wanqing’s stance on the matter. Even if they had begun talking about the past, it wouldn’t take that long, would it?

Yan Jin wasn’t concerned that Fang Wanqing would reveal her own past ident.i.ty. There would be way too many problems and implications. Even if Fang Wanqing did reveal the G.o.d creation or gene projects at this time, they would sound more like science fiction. There wouldn’t be any news about “Long-retired researcher reveals the Nan and He Families’ anti-humanitarian experiments”. It would instead be interpreted as a symptom of Alzheimer’s.

As long as his own role wasn’t revealed, Yan Jin didn’t mind Fang Wanqing talking about anything else.

However, he was interested in what the two of them were chatting about.

Yan Jin was extremely curious. He couldn’t help but think about the audio eavesdropping system in Xiao Yu’s phone.

Just as he was debating whether to do something morally corrupt and listen in, someone knocked on his car window.

“Did you wait for a long time?”

“Nope.” Yan Jin released his own seatbelt and walked to the other side to open the car door for Xiao Yu. “It’s pretty hot today and you seem to be sweating. There’s an internet-famous ice cream store a block down. Want to go check it out?”

“I’m fine. Do you think I’m some little girl to be interested in that?” Xiao Yu rolled his eyes. “I’ve walked like two steps outside. Am I some delicate baby to you?”

“I heard their limited summertime products are very popular: the sea salt strawberry and the green tea powder cheese milkshake with fruit.” Yan Jin waved the store’s advertis.e.m.e.nt poster on his phone in front of Xiao Yu. “You really don’t want to go?”

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Xiao Yu nodded his head like a chick pecking at its feed. “I’ll pay for it as compensation for you waiting for so long.”

Yan Jin calmly turned the steering wheel. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a baby as long as you listen.”

“…You’re not happy, are you.”

“How could I be unhappy when talking to you?”

Xiao Yu pouted.

He could hear that Yan Jin wasn’t in a good mood.

Yan Jin had clearly said that he hadn’t been waiting long and refused to admit he was unhappy. But then, he was clearly throwing a tantrum right now.

There was a saying that acting tsundere could ruin opportunities.

*Sigh*, he was probably the only one that could handle Yan Jin’s temper.

Xiao Yu suddenly praised himself happily. Then, he reached his hand into his pocket and grabbed an object in his fist. Then, he used that fist to knock on Yan Jin’s shoulder. “Hey.”

“What?” Yan Jin was still trying to maneuver them out. He hadn’t selected a good s.p.a.ce to park in earlier and was now stuck in an awkward spot. Parked cars surrounded them on both sides and it wasn’t easy to get out.

“We’ve been living together for so long now. Let’s get married.”

His fist slowly opened to reveal two beautiful diamond rings.

If these two diamond rings designed by a world-cla.s.s designer were released onto the market, they would definitely cause a sensation.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t be sold. They could only be given to his beloved.

With a great effort, Yan Jin ripped his gaze away from the dazzling diamond rings glittering under the sun. Then, he saw an even more dazzling sight:

The deep red cheeks and the bashfully teary eyes of the person he loved the most.

……

After a very loud crash, one of the eyewitnesses on the street around them called the police.

However, by the time the police arrived, the owner of the damaged car had already been completely subdued by Yan Jin’s tyranny and riches into one of his honorless grunts.

“Don’t mind us, don’t mind us. Someone was just a little careless when backing out and scratched my car. Sorry for the trouble, officer!”

The car owner turned a blind eye to the fifty centimeter long gouge in the car door and instead pointed at a hardly noticeable scratch.

The policy officer said, “…Hasn’t your car’s door entirely caved in?”

“Aiya, the door was already broken. I had been planning to get this fixed for a while, and then all this commotion happened. I’m very sorry.”

Yan Jin rolled down his car window and said, “Yeah, I only slightly scratched the car door when I was reversing my car.”

Xiao Yu holed himself up in the pa.s.senger seat and covered his face in his arms. He was too embarra.s.sed to look at anyone.

The officer said, “Then, what happened to this railing here?”

“This is our store’s railing. It was already crooked. I’ve been looking to get it fixed for the past few days. But then, it was b.u.mped into by this customer and fell over. Sorry, it’s our fault; we didn’t take proper care of it.”

It was the owner of the restaurant who had also been bribed in a similar fas.h.i.+on. The railing that Yan Jin had knocked over was part of the restaurant’s outdoor seating decoration. At its top, there was a little furnace that could be lit up at night.

The officer looked at the other car owner, then looked at the store owner, and then finally looked towards Yan Jin… and his priceless Rolls-Royce.

The front of Yan Jin’s car was caved in, one of the lights were shattered, the railing was knocked over, and the neighboring car had a fifty centimeter long gouge. The truth couldn’t be more obvious.

But to the officer, this clearly didn’t need an incident report. The people involved were very agreeable. It didn’t matter what had happened. Even though the police were very curious why everybody was speaking up for the offending driver, the police didn’t need to argue.

They never would have guessed that this was all because of Chairman Yan’s reaction to receiving his lover’s marriage proposal.

……

“Are you still able to drive us home?”

Initially, Xiao Yu was worried that the damage to the front of the car would make it impossible to drive. But, when he saw Yan Jin’s face full of excitement and happy humming, he was more concerned whether Yan Jin himself could drive.

“No need. I called a taxi to pick us up.” Yan Jin laughed and added, “Let’s eat ice cream first before going home.”

“… I know you’re happy, but could you let go of my hand?”

“No, not in my lifetime,” Yan Jin said seriously.

Xiao Yu: “…” He’s really asking for it.

Their hands, with the rings on them, were firmly entwined. It was a truly a scene out of a storybook.

Of course, it wasn’t like this scene had persisted from the car accident.

Perhaps calling it a car accident was an exaggeration. When Xiao Yu had taken out the rings and popped the question, it wasn’t clear whether Yan Jin was excessively moved or had spasmed, but the steering wheel had turned a hundred and eighty degrees. Just as the Rolls-Royce had been about to pull out from its parking spot, it had collided with a bang, to Xiao Yu’s great alarm, with the neighboring car. Unexpectedly, that hadn’t been the end of it. The collision had pushed the neighboring car a few centimeters and the Rolls-Royce had swiped across to hit the railing, where it had finally died.

Throughout this entire process, Yan Jin had unexpectedly never let go of his hand. When the winds.h.i.+eld had cracked, Yan Jin had even covered Xiao Yu’s body with his own.

Fortunately, nothing bad had happened.

Xiao Yu felt scared even thinking back on it now.

He never would have expected that a pair of rings could provoke such a reaction from Yan Jin. Yan Jin had always been calm as ever no matter what happened. Xiao Yu had even believed that everything was under Yan Jin’s control.

It seemed that he had accidentally stumbled across one of Yan Jin’s secrets.

Xiao Yu’s heart missed a beat.

He never would have dared to think that one day he could honestly speak his thoughts to the resolute Madam Fang and tell her that he liked and wanted to marry another guy. He definitely wouldn’t have dared to imagine that she would give them her blessing.

Everything had been given to him by Yan Jin. Every time he had thought something was impossible, Yan Jin seemed to easily give it to him.

Now, he discovered that perhaps it hadn’t been so easy for Yan Jin either.

To Xiao Yu, Yan Jin was a miracle. In his twenty-six years, Yan Jin was the biggest and greatest miracle to him.

Yan Jin glanced at his phone and said, “Our ride is here. Let’s go.”

“Yan Jin.”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you.”