NH chapter 009
by VolareHuo Ye picked up the packed fish balls and turned back before leaving, smiling politely as he said goodbye: “Goodbye, Auntie, I’m leaving now.”
Auntie stood there like a stone statue, her body stiff as she mechanically waved at him, creating a feeling as if her worldview had suddenly collapsed. She repeated “Oh” several times, finally exclaiming, “Huh?!”
After Huo Ye bought the groceries and returned to Han Cheng Liufang, strange noises were coming from inside the house. It turned out that the old lady was cleaning her little grandson’s bedroom and accidentally broke a cup.
“Don’t move,” Huo Ye grasped the old lady’s wrist, stopping her from bending down to pick up the broken glass shards.
As people age, especially in their later years, their bodies deteriorate and slender down at an alarming rate, much like a deflated balloon that has been drained of air, appearing shriveled and wrinkled. The old lady’s wrist felt like a half-broken twig; holding it felt as if it could snap at any moment.
This reminded Huo Ye of his grandmother, who was also a kind-eyed elderly woman. Huo Ye lowered his eyelids, not daring to use any force, and gently pulled the old lady up.
Huo Ye said softly, “Let me clean this up.”
“Ah, okay. I just slipped with my hands, haha.” The old lady withdrew her hand and rubbed her clothing, explaining, “This is my little grandson’s room. He’s moving back tonight, so I wanted to tidy it up and change the bedding… I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”
Huo Ye glanced at the clean, white bedding on the bed and couldn’t see any dirt. The old lady noticed and quickly added, “This bedroom hasn’t been used, it’s specifically kept for him. I change it every month or so, afraid he might come back any time. He likes cleanliness; he says he has obsessive-compulsive disorder and wants a new set of sheets and a thorough cleaning before he returns.”
Liking cleanliness, being obsessive-compulsive, having a temper, spoiled since childhood and never having faced hardship—this sounded remarkably like a spoiled princess who nitpicks over everything in a fairy tale.
The combination of these descriptors made Huo Ye think of someone he had recently encountered, and it seemed each word could describe him well.
But after a moment of distraction, Huo Ye didn’t ponder much and, after ushering the old lady out, he began to clean the room himself.
The room had a very simple decoration style, with a uniform black and white color scheme, cold and rigid, lacking any romantic touches. It almost resembled a model room from a guesthouse, conveying no warmth of home, but just a place to sleep.
Huo Ye guessed that this young master might be a person of absolute rationality with rather thin emotional ties.
Because if he had even a hint of childlike innocence, there would surely be a few figurines displayed in the glass cabinet on the bookshelf, rather than an orderly arrangement of high-end luxury watches.
—So many Patek Philippe watches.
A cupboard full of rich man’s possessions, a lifetime of an ordinary person.
After meticulously cleaning all the display cabinets, Huo Ye didn’t linger any longer and left the room. It was time to cook.
There were no classes scheduled at school that afternoon, so Huo Ye took Huo Yan, who was still waiting in the taekwondo gym, home. He told her that he wouldn’t be having dinner at home tonight and asked her mother not to wait. Huo Yan looked up at him and asked, “Will you come back?”
This was a question that Song Jianlan also liked to ask. Huo Ye’s personality when he was younger couldn’t compare to the gentleness he exuded now; he was actually quite rebellious. If he got bad grades or said something wrong, he would adhere to the “three no’s” principle he had with Huo Lijun: not bowing his head, not apologizing, and not saying a word.
After a long drama of arguments, when Huo Lijun told him to leave, Huo Ye really did limp out of the house, preferring to sleep on a park bench with stray cats than return home. Back in those days, he had almost become familiar with the stray cats in the park, and on one particularly cold night, Huo Ye held a small cat in his arms and sighed, saying, “Cats are good, but people are bad, especially my dad. My dad is the worst person in the world.”
In a family of four, it often felt like a hell for three. Sometimes, Song Jianlan was terrified that he might run away from home and never come back, yet at other times, she hoped he could escape the misery and never return.
Huo Ye paused, reaching out to ruffle her hair, making the little girl who loved to be vain scream in frustration. He smiled faintly and said, “I will come back.”
“Are we home?” A woman’s voice came from the other end of the phone, her tone plain and cold, lacking warmth but possessing a certain poise.
Shen Tingyu sat in the backseat of a taxi. His “vehicle” had collided with Huo Ye in Lanjing City and was just sent for repairs. He didn’t know how long it would take to fix; before that, he could only rely on taxis. Watching the rapidly retreating scenery outside the car window, Shen Tingyu said, “We’re almost there.”
Most of his luggage was still in transit; only a suitcase of personal items remained in the trunk. —Though he was just returning to Lanjing for two years, Shen Tingyu had nearly moved his entire home over, refusing to buy new items he wasn’t accustomed to using.
On the other end of the phone was Shen Tingyu’s mother. Li Luoyin had always been decisive in handling affairs, and when her son said goodbye, she did it without hesitation.
Li Luoyin knew he was upset but never softened her tone to appease him. She lectured him blandly, saying, “I’ve spoiled you too much over the years, which has made you so arrogant. After you return, you need to listen to your grandmother, study hard, and I hope the next time I see you, you’ll have mellowed out and not be so sharp-tongued.”
“Aren’t you arrogant?” Shen Tingyu retorted with a cold laugh. “Isn’t my dad arrogant? Besides Grandma, is there anyone in the Shen family who isn’t arrogant?”
Li Luoyin didn’t respond, her tone turning even colder as she called out his full name: “Shen Tingyu, are you talking back to me?”
“…” Shen Tingyu pressed his lips together and fell silent.
The Shen family had been landlords for generations. Although they had experienced a period of decline, they quickly bounced back through business. This family was large, excellent, and traditional, almost entirely comprising highly educated elites who had never experienced genuine romantic love, only business marriages based on social standing, including his parents.
This created a discordant yet strangely self-consistent vicious cycle in the Shen family; everyone was haughty and distant, harshly logical in their words, and maintained fragile emotional ties, as if they were inherently incapable of understanding how to love.
The Shen family had strict upbringing, high expectations, always alert to potential dangers, believing that emotions were an abstract influence on rationality. They scornfully refrained from pursuing emotions at unnecessary times, convinced that they didn’t even need them.
And Shen Tingyu was born from such a family as a “necessary product” for continuing the family lineage and inheriting the estate.
The old lady was the only one in their family who had any warmth.
After finishing her speech, Li Luoyin fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “The reason the Shen family remains wealthy to this day is due to the continuous efforts of generations of parents. Without me and your dad, you’d just be an ordinary person; don’t forget your roots. During these two years in Lanjing, don’t think of yourself as a young master. If something goes wrong, resolve it yourself, and don’t come to me and your dad to clean up the mess. It’s time for you to be independent.”
“You froze my card a year ago.” Shen Tingyu replied flatly, “Why don’t you just kick me out?”
Li Luoyin responded, “I will. Once you turn eighteen, I won’t give you a single penny for living expenses. Whether you go learn to trade stocks or work at KFC, just make sure you don’t starve to death.”
“I won’t starve to death in front of the door.” Shen Tingyu said.
“Suit yourself.” Li Luoyin replied.
The dialogue between the mother and son was calm and indifferent, and if one disregarded the sharp sarcasm in the content, it didn’t sound overly confrontational.
“During the two years leading up to your college entrance examination, you’ll only get a thousand a month for living expenses. You’ll take your meals at home, with the help of an Auntie. Do not eat that junk food outside.” After giving general instructions, Li Luoyin let the atmosphere settle, yet she didn’t hang up right away.
Shen Tingyu held the phone to his ear, his long, dark eyelashes drooping. His eyes were unclear, and his pale fingers absently toyed with the buttons on his shirt. His tie had been loosened, and his school uniform jacket lay crumpled beside him, not even hung up.
Both seemed to have things they wanted to say but found no words.
After half a minute of silence, Li Luoyin seemed to find a suitable endpoint for her topic, saying, “Don’t try to sell the watches in your room for money; they all have serial numbers, and I can trace them.”
Shen Tingyu responded, “……”
Shen Tingyu abruptly hung up the phone.