TRMLCM Chapter 81

Chapter 81: He Was Abandoned Again

Chapter 81: He Was Abandoned Again

When Cheng Yi groggily woke up the next day at noon, his phone had slipped into the blankets, long since powered off due to lack of battery.

His head was heavy and muddled, the aftereffects of the previous night’s heavy drinking still lingering in his body.

“Haa…” Cheng Yi squeezed his eyes shut, lazily sitting up. His thick, long eyelashes fluttered, and he opened his still-sleepy black eyes, twisting his neck and stretching languidly.

He casually plugged his phone in to charge and got up to wash his face.

As he moved, the chaotic memories of the previous night began to return bit by bit. Suddenly, Cheng Yi’s eyes widened, his body freezing in place.

He remembered!

He remembered everything!

The liquor he hadn’t refused the previous night because he was in a bad mood, his insistence on not going home to defy Cheng Fu, and his silly, affectionate behavior towards Shen Chang’an…

The former didn’t matter so much, but the affection…?

Damn it, was his strong and sturdy macho image just gone like that?

Cheng Yi’s black eyes flickered, and he took a deep breath, striding into the bathroom with a relaxed and unconcerned expression. However, no matter how you looked at it, his back betrayed a hint of shame and indignation.

By the time Cheng Yi came out of the bathroom, that slight, flustered emotional tremor had been suppressed and disappeared without a trace.

He turned on his phone, and there were already several messages in the green chat bubble, from Shen Chang’an, Cheng Fu, and a few friends like He Zhou and Lin Zhihao.

After replying to Shen Chang’an with a “Good morning,” Cheng Yi first checked the message from Cheng Fu.

The message was short, consisting of only a few hastily written words.

As he expected, it was another evening event, scheduled for tonight at a five-star hotel in City S’s most prosperous district. This hotel was very private and notoriously difficult to book, with waiting lists stretching out for a month. Especially during the end-of-year holidays, reservation slots at the hotel were being scalped for exorbitant prices.

Just from the address alone, one could imagine how much effort the event’s organizers had put in.

Cheng Yi casually replied with an “Understood” and assured him that he wouldn’t be late.

Birthday banquet?

Looking at those three words, Cheng Yi raised an eyebrow. He chuckled softly, a hint of mockery flashing in his black eyes.

It was nothing more than a large-scale matchmaking event.

His father was really breaking his back worrying about his sexual orientation!

Among the numerous banquets he had been dragged to in the past few days, such matchmaking-oriented banquets were countless. Even at the rare business-oriented banquets, Cheng Fu would specifically take him to converse with entrepreneurs who brought their daughters, with whom he was fairly acquainted.

On the surface, he would smile magnanimously and openly, as if he didn’t mind anything and was easy to talk to. In reality, he was secretly worrying about how to straighten out his sexual orientation.

Cheng Yi simply let him do as he pleased, attending the banquets punctually when asked. However, he would not be forced to interact with his friends’ daughters.

He acted as if he hadn’t heard the saying that men and women shouldn’t touch hands when passing things, and he would immediately turn and walk into the crowd with a wine glass in hand, chatting and laughing with those middle-aged men who were several rounds older than him.

He called it expanding connections for the company, opening up markets, and creating more diversified development possibilities for the company.

Cheng Fu’s teeth itched with anger, but he was concerned about his reputation and couldn’t expose him in front of outsiders. While other bosses couldn’t stop praising and complimenting Cheng Yi, the fake smile on his face was barely holding on. He had to nod and humbly say:

“Oh, please, he’s just an ignorant little brat.”

His eyes coldly fixed on Cheng Yi’s departing figure, the corners of his mouth twitching for a moment, revealing a rather resentful expression.

Anyway, Cheng Yi didn’t care about what was happening here.

He knew without needing to think that Cheng Fu was very displeased with him, so if he didn’t run now, when would he?

The only thing that made Cheng Yi feel uneasy was that he hadn’t told Shen Chang’an about the true nature of these banquets.

Perhaps it was a surge of male chauvinism. Cheng Yi was confident that he could handle these matters alone. He didn’t want Shen Chang’an to worry about him, nor did he want him to be concerned about him.

The moment he thought of Shen Chang’an, the suppressed longing surged and swelled up, the waves of longing in his heart surging and surging.

Cheng Yi frowned and sighed softly. He somewhat regretted returning so quickly. Being in a place of insincerity, playing along, and every sentence carrying probes of varying depths, the more he talked and interacted with them, the more he missed that quiet and peaceful little village.

Leisurely, comfortable, and moving according to one’s heart.

Feeling a rise of frustration in his heart, he couldn’t help but drink a bit too much.

However, the weather forecast said that it would be raining in City C for the next few days, so it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to lie on the rocking chair in the courtyard, basking in the sun…

……

Cheng Yi was sitting cross-legged in front of the floor-to-ceiling window with his tablet and pen. The sunlight shone on his handsome features, soft and warm. He was scribbling and drawing in his notebook with the pen, and the different broken lines on the tablet were constantly changing. Among the dancing numbers, faint red light was somewhat blurredly reflected in his dark eyes.

The afternoon passed by unnoticed in the midst of his busy work.

It wasn’t until nearly 5:30 PM that Cheng Yi finally stopped his messy calculations on the draft. Judging from his slightly relaxed expression, the results of his stock trading were satisfactory to him.

After changing into a newly delivered, well-tailored white suit, he casually grabbed a car key from the full drawer and went out.

As he was going down to the underground garage in the elevator, his phone suddenly rang.

Looking at the caller ID, Cheng Yi’s eyes softened, and with a swipe of his finger, he answered the call.

The corners of his mouth were raised in a smile, his voice low and gentle.

“An An?”

It was a bit quiet on the other end. Cheng Yi took the phone away from his ear and looked at it. He wasn’t mistaken; the caller ID clearly displayed the two characters “An An.”

He asked with some doubt, “What’s wrong?”

Cheng Yi blinked, subconsciously softening his breathing. He focused his attention and listened carefully.

The person on the other end of the phone still hadn’t spoken. Amidst the faint buzzing of static, there was only a heavy, hurried breathing sound.

After waiting for quite a while, there was finally some sound on the other end.

“…Cheng Yi, Grandma, she’s gone…”

The hoarse voice sounded as if it was being squeezed out bit by bit with great difficulty, and was a little soft, mixed with bursts of static. The words were calm, but the bland voice was like that of a lost child, carrying some helplessness and bewilderment.

The smile in Cheng Yi’s eyes suddenly froze, and he was stunned for a few seconds. As the elevator doors opened with a ‘ding—’ sound, the nerves in his brain that had stalled seemed to reactivate.

He lowered his eyes, only feeling a inexplicable dryness in his throat. In the quiet space, the atmosphere was stiff and incomparably rigid.

He wanted to comfort Shen Chang’an, but he didn’t know how to start.

On the other end of the phone, perhaps because of the initial start, Shen Chang’an said, somewhat blankly, to himself, “I just went to the field to pick vegetables and came back… I was originally going to cook noodles tonight. When I saw there were no vegetables in the fridge, I told Grandma before leaving. It wasn’t far, just in that field next to the courtyard.”

“In just those few minutes, she… passed away.”

Cheng Yi sat in the car, listening quietly. Shen Chang’an’s blank voice heavily struck his heart. The originally somewhat sorrowful, solid defense in his heart was breached by a corner. His heart, unable to truly empathize, also became sad along with him.

Shen Chang’an seemed to have remembered something, and slowly said, “She’s been sick these past few days. No, ever since Grandpa passed away, her body has been ill…”

He suddenly understood, his voice faintly carrying sobs, “That illness of hers never healed. Before, her body had just gotten a little better, and she secretly stopped taking her medicine. I saw it. I just rummaged through her drawer, and there’s still so much medicine left inside!”

The suppressed emotions of sadness within his body suddenly burst forth, pouring out from the vent. Tears rolled down his cheeks in large drops, his eyelashes covered in layers of mist. He was silently crying, his mind muddled, not knowing what he was saying.

Shen Chang’an’s eyes turned to look at his grandma, only seeing her lying peacefully with the corners of her mouth slightly raised.

……

——He was abandoned again.

This one thought suddenly flashed through Shen Chang’an’s mind…

It was so clear and resolute.