Chapter 51

Yan Zhao took a half-day off.

Knock knock knock.

He knocked on the door, and after the other person replied, “Please come in,” he entered the room.

Grandma Shen looked very well, with a rosy complexion. She took off her reading glasses, waved her hand, and gestured for Yan Zhao to sit down.

Yan Zhao took out a book from his backpack. The cover was printed with English text, with a very old-fashioned style. A modern blonde girl was dressed in Chinese attire, wearing a cheongsam, styling her hair in a bun, and holding a paper umbrella, striking a pose in a narrow alley.

Grandma Shen flipped through the book and smiled happily: “Oh, this is the one. Isn’t it out of print? How did you manage to find it for me, Zhao Zhao?”

Yan Zhao replied, “A friend of mine works at their magazine company. I asked him to check the warehouse, and luckily there was one copy left.”

Since Shen Yuanting brought him to see Grandma Shen once, he had often come to visit her. Sometimes with Shen Yuanting, sometimes alone. Today was the latter.

Yan Zhao took an apple from the fruit basket and started peeling it. The sharp blade embedded in the flesh of the fruit, and a string of thick red peel with snow-white flesh fell down.

The Old Lady Shen chuckled, “Zhao Zhao, you don’t often peel apples at home, do you? Your variety show, what’s it called, I watched it. I even gave you a thumbs up.”

The fact that the old lady watched the variety show he filmed made Yan Zhao feel a bit embarrassed. He smiled apologetically, “Star Chef.” “I didn’t peel it well, Grandma, please don’t mind.”

The old lady replied, “I’m just happy you came. How could I possibly mind? But be careful not to cut your hand.”

Yan Zhao nodded and peeled the apple earnestly, trying to make the peel thin and leave more flesh.

Grandma Shen flipped through the magazine, pointing to a page with a phoenix jade hairpin, “I wore this back in the day. Pearls swayed as I walked, quite ostentatious. People on the street would turn to look at my hairpin.”

Beauty lies in one’s bones, not just in the skin. Even though she was old, with white hair and wrinkles, one could still vaguely see her youthful beauty.

Yan Zhao sincerely said, “They were probably looking at you, Grandma, not just the hairpin.”

The old lady chuckled, “I was considered one of the most beautiful women in the city back then. Matchmakers were practically breaking down my door. I don’t know how I ended up marrying a fool. Regrets, I tell you!”

On the bedside table in the hospital room, there was still a photo of the old lady and her late husband. The silver bracelet on her wrist was also a gift from her late husband, kept shiny and well-maintained over the decades. Despite her playful complaints, the couple had a deep affection for each other.

Yan Zhao asked curio, “How did you and grandpa get together?”

The old lady reminisced for a moment and smiled, “I pursued him, asked him to marry me. It took over ten years in total.”

Yan Zhao was somewhat astonished. Mr. Shen had married into the family, and he thought it was Mr. Shen who had won the old lady’s heart. He never expected it was actually the old lady who pursued him.

The old lady explained, “He was just a poor boy driving a yellow cab. I don’t know where he got such arrogance. Even the richest girl in town tried to court him, but he paid her no mind, always buried in his foreign books. I had no choice, I hired his cab, rode in it for six months, and he remained as indifferent as a log. Later, when the war reached our area and I had to move, he finally gave me a silver bracelet, saying if he survived the war, he would come find me. I waited for him all along, while the neighborhood girls were getting married off one by one. My mother was almost driven mad with anger, pointing at me, saying I was stubborn as a bull…”

Her eyes gleamed with nostalgia, her smile serene and graceful, as if she were back in her youth, sitting in the yellow cab, asking him, “How do you say ‘I love you’ in Russian?” Or waiting outside the courtyard on the night after the war, hoping the big yellow dog would lead the man who gave her the bracelet back to her.

The old lady added, “Luckily, he didn’t deceive me, or else even if I turned into a ghost, I would seek revenge on him.”

Yan Zhao smiled at her, thinking Shen Yuanting’s stubbornness was truly a family trait.

As the old lady continued to smile, she sighed, “I persisted for ten years, expecting a happy ending, believing that persistence always pays off. But reality doesn’t always work that way… Mutual affection is called persistence; one-sided infatuation is just shameless. Zhao Zhao, has Yu Wei come to see you?”

The old lady was indeed well-informed. Yan Zhao replied, “I bumped into her by chance.”

The old lady advised, “She might hold some resentment towards us, her words might not be pleasant to hear. Don’t take it to heart.”

Her words weren’t particularly unpleasant, it’s just that her tone carried more malice. Yan Zhao hesitated and asked, “Grandma… does she seem to dislike Yuanting?”

“…Is that so? She didn’t even bother to hide it?” The old lady sighed deeply, her figure as withered as an old tree in the winter, “It’s all karma…”

Yan Zhao’s knuckles slightly flexed inward and then relaxed. He shouldn’t inquire further, but he recalled the confrontation and silence between Shen Yuanting and Shen Zhuo after they met, and he remembered the slight bewilderment and self-deprecation in his eyes upon hearing the name “Yu Wei”.

Yan Zhao thought, Would he be angry if I do this? But I came here to understand all of this, didn’t I? If he gets angry later, I’ll appease him; if he’s saddened, I’ll still comfort him… In the end, I’ll just have to go along with whatever he wants, whatever punishment he seeks.

He asked, “Grandma, could you tell me what really happened between them?”

Grandma Shen hesitated, her lips parting and closing as if struggling with whether to reveal the family’s secrets to him. Finally, she spoke, “In the beginning, I was a professor at University A, and Yu Wei was my most outstanding student…”

Yu Wei was the department’s beauty queen at University A, stunning in appearance and outstanding in academics. After completing an experiment in the project group under Mrs. Shen’s name, Mrs. Shen, thinking her husband was away on a business trip and her son was working late, invited Yu Wei over for dinner at her house. However, Shen Zhuo returned home earlier than expected and coincidentally ran into Yu Wei.

And from there, everything went off course.

Shen Zhuo fell in love with Yu Wei at first sight, but Yu Wei already had a boyfriend from childhood.

Yu Wei rejected Shen Zhuo’s confession of love and, while preparing for her wedding with her boyfriend and gathering materials for studying abroad, she soon faced a breakup when her boyfriend fell for another girl. Shen Zhuo pursued Yu Wei once more, delivering breakfast, flowers, and securing a recommendation letter for her studies abroad, yet Yu Wei remained unresponsive.

Initially, Mrs. Shen believed her son couldn’t win over his crush, and Shen Zhuo gradually stopped mentioning her student. A year later, she thought Yu Wei was studying abroad, but one day, Shen Zhuo informed her that Yu Wei was pregnant, and they were to marry.

It was then that Mrs. Shen learned her son had locked up Yu Wei in a villa outside the city for a year.

At that time, Yu Wei’s mental state was already very bad. Mrs. Shen quickly took Yu Wei back to the mansion and hired a nutritionist to help her recuperate.

Yu Wei recovered quickly. She didn’t even resist Shen Zhuo’s touch and often smiled at him. Mrs. Shen suspected that Yu Wei was suffering from Stockholm syndrome and hired a psychiatrist to treat her, but the doctor insisted Yu Wei was normal.

To this day, Mrs. Shen wonders whether Yu Wei’s apparent tranquility hides deep-seated resentment towards Shen Zhuo, or if Shen Zhuo manipulated the psychiatrist to conceal the truth.

During childbirth, Yu Wei faced complications and heavy bleeding. Shen Zhuo suggested an abortion, but Yu Wei disagreed, thankfully resulting in the safety of both mother and child.

Yu Wei proved to be a loving mother, tenderly reading picture books to Shen Yuanting every night, taking him to their hometown manor to pick oranges, and teaching him to play the piano.

Just as Mrs. Shen thought their troubled relationship might settle into a peaceful and warm state, Yu Wei surprised them.

She jumped from the third floor in front of Shen Zhuo and Shen Yuanting.

It was then that Mrs. Shen realized Yu Wei could not possibly not hate them. She wanted to weave a dream and then destroy it herself. Her silence and endurance were all for revenge.

After Yu Wei recovered, she no longer concealed her disgust for her husband and son, mocking them coldly. Unable to bear seeing them torment each other, Mrs. Shen forced Shen Zhuo and Yu Wei to divorce, helped Yu Wei leave the country, and left without any hesitation, never contacting her ex-husband or son again.

Until now, she has returned.

…

Yan Zhao bid farewell to Mrs. Shen and returned home.

Wang Zai grabbed the blanket from the sofa and wrapped himself in it to sleep. Hearing movement at the door, the cat’s head popped out, and upon seeing Yan Zhao, it meowed twice, then jumped down from the sofa and rubbed against him.

Yan Zhao rubbed the cat’s belly, replaced the withered flowers in the vase, and returned the manga books on the coffee table to the bookcase. He opened a drawer, took out a medicine box, checked the sleeping pills, and returned them to their place.

He lowered his head and saw Wang Zai still by his side. He put on his cat-grooming gloves and stroked its fur, getting black and white cat hair all over the gloves.

Yan Zhao: “Let me make you a little brother.”

He rubbed the cat hair together and rolled it into a cat head.

Wang Zai raised his paw and pressed the cat head onto the ground.

Yan Zhao then made two cat balls. Wang Zai sat down, and the cat balls flattened.

Wang Zai: “!!!” Cat’s balls!

Yan Zhao played with the cat for a while, then cooked shrimp porridge, washed vegetables, set the alarm, and lay on the sofa playing with his phone while waiting for Shen Yuanting to come home.

After playing for a while, he got sleepy. He took a nap and woke up covered with a blanket.

Yan Zhao sat up, ran his hand through his messy hair, hugged the person next to him tightly, and leaned his head on his back: “You’re back? What time is it now? I made porridge…”

Shen Yuanting: “The porridge is ready, and the vegetables are fried.”

Yan Zhao sniffed the air and indeed smelled a delicious aroma.

Yan Zhao said, “How dare you steal my job!”

Shen Yuanting: “I saw you sleeping so soundly.”

Yan Zhao put on his slippers and said, “Next time, wake me up, okay? Household chores need to be divided and cooperated, you know?”

Shen Yuanting replied, “Okay.”

After having dinner together, Yan Zhao and Shen Yuanting tied a leash to Wang Zai and went out for a walk with the cat.

After being affectionate, they turned off the lights and went to sleep.

It was past midnight, but Yan Zhao still didn’t feel sleepy.

He secretly investigated Shen Yuanting’s secret; he should apologize.

Yan Zhao opened his eyes, and the man was facing him. His eyelashes were distinct, his nose was high, and his thin lips were soft.

He must be asleep, right?

Yan Zhao stretched out a hand suspiciously, and placed his fingers under his nose, sensing his breathing rate.

Steady and regular.

Yan Zhao moved a bit closer to him, and put his hand around his waist.

I’ll tell him tomorrow morning.

As the breathing beside him became steady, as if entering dreamland, Shen Yuanting’s eyelashes trembled, and he opened his eyes.