Chapter 87 – An He called

When he came out of the hospital examination, An Xumo was taken away by Xiao Zhang for an interview. He didn’t have a little rest until the scheduled mealtime.

While eating, An Xumo remembered what just happened during the check-up. He didn’t know what Xin Zimai said about the registration but unlike the imaginary one-on-one psychological counseling, almost the entire medical team came to An Xumo and asked him about it. They were fine when talking to An Xumo but once they started discussing with each other, their voices became fast and urgent, with a lot of jargon mixed in from time to time.

In addition, the other party asked too many various things and went through many bizarre scales and tests along the way. An Xumo thought about it again but can’t come up with many useful things.

But because of his good memory, An Xumo remembered an incident that happened during the examination when he was organizing his thoughts.

At that time, he happened to be finished being questioned by a bearded doctor, who took him to another room to find another doctor. When he pushed the door in, the bearded doctor walked in front followed by An Xumo behind him, who heard voices of two doctors talking in the room.

An Xumo originally did not want to listen to other people’s conversation but in one of the words, he heard the word ‘Chou’. Thinking of when Xin Zimai said that his brother is also being treated in Huashan Hospital, his attention was drawn to them.

The two people were discussing about Asperger’s syndrome, one of them was talking about the alleviation and treatment of AS symptoms. An Xumo couldn’t really hear it but vaguely heard a phrase similar to stimulated romance.

What is stimulated romance, a love game? An Xumo remembered Tang Tang mentioned that a stimulated romance game had come into contact recently, the game’s heat seems to be very popular, the monthly sales are also very good. But……An Xumo couldn’t imagine what his brother would look like playing a love game.

En…… it’s really unimaginable.

Apart from these titbits, An Xumo also searched keywords for Asperger’s syndrome. The information and opinions on the Internet are diverse and somewhat confusing to read but the point that can be confirmed is that the most basic and obvious symptoms are not present in An Xumo.

Xin Zimai said the results will probably come out in a few days and there is no use in worrying about it now. Therefore, An Xumo put the matter at the back of his mind for the time being.

The next few days were still busy as usual, during that time Tang Tang left one day and came back quite distracted. An Xumo asked her once but Tang Tang did not give a direct answer but only said that he should work well and don’t be too pressured. After going to school in a few weeks, there will be time to adjust.

An Xumo couldn’t help but have some doubts, he didn’t feel much busy lately, and his stomach was slowly improving so he didn’t know why Tang Tang would suddenly say that.

But his attention was soon drawn to another matter.

The phone call he had been waiting for for a long time finally came.

When the gentle voice hesitantly called out his name, An Xumo had not yet put down the water bottle in his hand. The boy hurriedly found a corner where no one paid attention to and his eyes silently turned red.

The transparent bottle being held was dent but the sound of the response was deliberately soft.

An Xumo was afraid that he would wake up from this beautiful dream if he made a little movement.

There wasn’t much conversation in the phone call. An He only said that she would contact him again tomorrow night. An Xumo nodded and said he was free tomorrow night and when he asked for the location, there was another hesitation.

“Let’s talk on a video call first……is that okay? You find a little more private space.”

“Okay.” An Xumo asked, “have you returned home safely?”

There was a moment of silence on the other side but both of them were obviously a little nervous as they talked and An Xumo didn’t think much about it.

“Wait for tomorrow night’s video call to talk ba. I’m here now, I may need to hang up the phone first……”

“Good, you go ahead and do your things ba. See you tomorrow night.” 

An Xumo finished speaking, he hesitated for a moment, wanting to call out that title but his lips seem to be stuck, and his throat was so dry that he couldn’t even call out the simplest of reduplicative.

When he finally plucked up the courage to call “mom”, there was a busy tone of ‘beeping’ from the other side.^[1]to clear it up, we were stuck between using mama/papa and mom/dad. Since mama/papa was used in the raw, but it didn’t feel right using them, so yeah… in case it’s a bit confusing.

An Xumo was stunned.

An Xumo was stunned.

Maybe it’s going through the customs or getting on the plane so the phone was turned off. An Xumo was relieved to think so, he put away the phone and let out a long sigh of relief.

The thin chain around the neck was hooked out by the slender fingers and An Xumo carefully held the pocket watch in the palm of his hand. The simple pocket watch case was opened and inside, in addition to the time, there was a miniature photo that had been hidden.

There were three people in the photo and it took eighteen years before An Xumo finally found their voices.

On the second evening, An Xumo who had always loved his job and worked hard took the initiative to leave early. The soundproofing of the dormitory is not good, An Xumo borrowed Tang Tang’s office. The latter is still busy outside and will not return to the company tonight, she let An Xumo go straight over.

More than ten minutes before the appointed time, An Xumo arrived at the office. He had never had a concrete concept of the word mother before and thought that after so many years, he had long ceased to be the little boy who cried for his mommy and daddy. But when he really saw that picture and heard the other party’s voice, he realized that those longings were only suppressed but never disappeared.

The hour hand overlapped with the minute hand and An Xumo took a long breath. He looked at the tablet in front of him, staring at the video call software that they had agreed on, and counted each and every second.

About fifty or maybe a hundred, the green microphone finally popped out.

An Xumo squeezed his sweaty fingertips and clicked on the screen.

A delicate, soft, and gentle woman appeared on the screen. An Xumo only took one look at her and understood why Zhang Zhiwei had identified him at first glance.

Except for age and gender, An He and he are almost carved out of the same mold.

An He was obviously also taken aback by An Xumo’s appearance for a moment, she only smiled after half a second, “……Hello.”

An Xumo was somewhat reserved, “Hello.”^[2]An Xumo said “您好” which is a more courteous greeting.

The electric waves transmitted in the screen and the atmosphere were like returning to that previous phone call. An Xumo subconsciously bit the tip of his tongue and his palms were a little sweaty.

Both ends were quiet for a moment until the voices of other people talking came faintly from the other side. It seems that someone said something to An He. She nodded out of the camera then turned to An Xumo and said, “I heard from Zhiwei that you have turned eighteen years old.”

An Xumo nodded.

An He said, “So now……you should also be clear about what happened before.”

Before? An Xumo was stunned and he saw An He take a soft breath and explained.

Twenty years ago, An He who was still studying in art school had an outstanding appearance and excellent acting skills. Before she graduated, she was given many opportunities to appear on stage. With a chance encounter, she became acquainted with Zhou Yunshan, a wealthy son from a well-off family. Zhou Yunshan soon pursued her with flowers, perfumes, luxury brands, and picking up and dropping her off with luxurious cars. The young An He’s romantic experience is almost like a blank sheet of paper. Although many people advised her that Zhou Yunshan just wanted to play her, she still failed to resist the other party’s attack.

What moved An He the most is that during the graduation season, not only did the two ‘break up after graduation,’ but Zhou Yunshan even asked her for an engagement.

An He, who was deeply absorbed in love, gave up acting to avoid her fiancé feeling jealous and agreed to break off her relationship with her former classmates and teachers. Because of the great disparity in family conditions, her parents also obeyed the Zhou family and kept telling their daughter to keep a firm grip on Zhou Yunshan’s heart.

While An He was waiting for the wedding ceremony with great anticipation, Prince Charming’s dream suddenly shattered in front of her.

An He returned early but in the villa where the two lived alone, she bumped into Zhou Yunshan entangled with someone in bed.

What’s more, she couldn’t believe that the person who was fooling around with her fiancé was a man.

An He stumbled out of the house but there was nowhere to stay in such a big city. She ran to a coffee shop and was alone in the corner in torment that she wished she was dead.

A strange man came forward and stroked up a conversation, saying that he pitied the beauty and could not bear to see her cry alone. An He refused several times at first, then slowly moved by the man’s words of enlightenment, she burst into tears, but under the comfort of the person, she’s finally willing to drink a sip of coffee that had been untouched for a long time.

As a result, it was this sip of coffee that knocked her out and made her unconscious. When An He woke up again, she was already sleeping in bed with a strange man.

What’s even more frightening to An He is that this man was the one she saw in Zhou Yunshan’s bed last night.

His name was He Wenbin.

Zhou Yunshan suddenly appeared with a gloomy expression; he looked at An He and sneered. Unexpectedly made unfounded charges, accusing her of not knowing how to behave, sleeping with another man behind her fiancé’s back. An He could not argue with the other but Zhou Yunshan has already kept the evidence and he teamed up with He Wenbin to threaten An He. Even if she told others that Zhou Yunshan was having an affair with He Wenbin, no one would be able to believe her.

It was only then An He realized that from beginning to end, what she had been facing for the past two years was a scam.

The only person Zhou Yunshan loved was He Wenbin but the Zhou family did not allow him to marry a man so Zhou Yunshan went to the young, innocent, and easy to control An He, and tricked her into coming home as a puppet. After He Wenbin slept with An He, the latter could no longer sue the Zhou family. She nearly fell apart but was forced by Zhou Yunshan to live on and continued to be his shield.

Two months later, An He found out that she was pregnant.

There was no need to find out whose child it was as Zhou Yunshan had never touched her. At that time, An He only thought that this was her lover’s respect for herself, she was contented with Zhou Yunshan’s thoughtfulness when she caught wind of the spreading rumors being taken care of.

Now she knows that there is only one reason Zhou Yunshan can’t get hard on the opposite sex.

With the baby, Zhou Yunshan became more and more fearless, and even when An He was at home, he was able to act directly with He Wenbin in the living room without any scruple. Forced into a desperate situation, An He called home for help. She cried and said she wanted to go home but her parents hesitated on the phone and even told her to take good care of the child.

Before Zhou Yunshan chose her, he had already found out everything about her, including her poor family conditions, and her parents’ greed for money.

An He fell into the abyss but was still having the most considerate and expensive pregnancy care.

Eventually, in everyone’s expectation, An He gave birth to a boy.

Taking the father’s name, Xumo.^[3]I’m not quite sure if this refers to An He’s father since Xiao Mo’s father is He Wenbin. It wasn’t clearly specified.

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The author has something to say:

It’s impossible for a normal person to be unconcerned towards their own flesh and blood for 18 years, right?