Still Frame Chapter 32

Chapter 32: A Mistaken Crush (3)

For a moment, Zhang Liuxin almost thought he had thought about that name too many times and misheard. He gripped the plate in his hand tightly, only to hear the boy’s equally surprised voice ask again, “Who did you say? Is it the Wen Jin I’m thinking of? Wen Yue’s Wen Jin?”

The blonde girl rolled her eyes. “Besides this Wen Jin, which other Wen Jin is there?”

“Seriously? Wen Jin is only twenty, and Zhang Qinnan is only eighteen. They haven’t even reached the legal marriage age, have they? And with the Wen family’s huge fortune, wouldn’t they want Wen Jin to have a child to inherit it?”

“For him to have a child, it would have to be Wen Jin’s seed. Wen Jin doesn’t seem to like women. We’ve never seen him get close to any young lady since he was little,” the blonde girl slowly sipped her tea. “My mother heard it from other wives. It’s highly likely to be true. A family like Wen Jin’s, they definitely need a marriage alliance. Wasn’t Mr. Wen and Madam Yue’s marriage an alliance?”

“There are so many other options for an alliance. Why choose the Zhang family? The Zhang family isn’t much, is it? Wouldn’t the He family or the Lü family be more suitable than the Zhang family?”

“The Wen family is close to the He and Lü families because Young Master Wen, Young Master He, and Young Master Lü are childhood friends. But outside of their circle, have you seen Wen Jin interact with anyone else? Isn’t it just the Zhang family? Besides, even Lü Zixia, who is so arrogant, is willing to actively hang out with Zhang Qinnan. Isn’t that obvious? As for feelings and all that, who can guess what a young master is thinking?”

Perhaps he had bitten into a lemon seed, as Zhang Liuxin felt a wave of bitterness spread across his tongue. He remembered what Lü Zixia had said that day: “You will have many more chances to meet in the future.” So that was what he meant. Zhang Qinnan was going to marry Wen Jin, so of course, they might meet many more times.

Zhang Liuxin could barely stand. He leaned on the armrest of the nearby sofa and sank down. Strangely, Wen Jin’s appearance surfaced in his mind again. They had only met a few times, yet he remembered every detail clearly.

The two continued chatting, gossiping about Wen Jin and Zhang Qinnan, mentioning that they had actually known each other since they were very young. Zhang Liuxin stared blankly at the piece of mint leaf he had shredded on the remaining plate.

In the Zhang family, he wished he could be an ant in the brick cracks, or dust in the corner that never saw the light of day, constantly convincing himself to deliberately forget everything about this family and stay as far away from them as possible. Yet, he had almost forgotten that the Zhang family and the Wen family had been in contact a few years ago. Wen Jin had even come to their house and taught Zhang Qinnan how to play the piano.

How could he have forgotten? Zhang Liuxin began to blame himself. Perhaps those few moments of interaction were too precious, making him learn to hypnotize himself.

The group left at some point, but the subject of their conversation walked over. Zhang Qinnan didn’t look much like Zhang Jiming; his features were softer, resembling Ren Shuyun. In fact, the first time Zhang Liuxin saw this younger brother, who was not much different in age, he thought he looked very cute, like a sweet cupcake covered in cream.

However, it wasn’t long before Zhang Liuxin understood that his brother was not a harmless dessert, but deadly arsenic.

“Why are you hiding here by yourself?” Zhang Qinnan asked him, frowning when he saw the leftover cream on the plate. “Don’t tell me you’ve been eating this the whole time.”

“What else? Why don’t you go beg your dad to let me go upstairs.” Zhang Liuxin pulled at the corner of his mouth, feeling tired and too lazy to pretend with him.

Zhang Qinnan hadn’t expected the usually docile Zhang Liuxin to suddenly snap at him. His eyebrows furrowed tighter. “What are you going crazy about?”

Zhang Liuxin wanted to ask him what he was going crazy about. So the photo he had suddenly sent that day was actually a warning, telling him to stay away from Wen Jin.

But Zhang Liuxin didn’t understand why someone like Zhang Qinnan, who was so ambitious and couldn’t tolerate a speck of sand in his eye, didn’t just tell him directly, but instead sent a cryptic, secretly taken photo.

Regardless, given his status, he wasn’t qualified to question Zhang Qinnan too much. He simply walked around him and headed upstairs. Zhang Qinnan frowned, wanting to stop him, but someone behind him called his name, so he gave up.

Tossing the tray aside, Zhang Liuxin walked up to the attic. This was the most secluded and quiet place in the Zhang house. He sat down on the floor, choked by the dust, and closed his eyes in annoyance.

He was grown up now and no longer afraid of the dark attic.

Zhang Liuxin returned to the Zhang family when he was six years old. Everyone here had black hair and black eyes, and they all looked at him like a monster. Before even entering the door, he wanted to go home, back to his mother, who had green eyes just like him.

What could a child understand? A child understood nothing, only sensitively perceiving malice.

Six-year-old Zhang Liuxin could only speak simple Yinzhou dialect, words like “Mama” and “Papa.” But his mother wasn’t around, and calling for his father earned him an impatient scolding, followed by being locked in the attic.

Zhang Jiming told him he would be let out when he stopped speaking Bernlinian and stopped crying for his mother. If his father hated him so much, why did he bring him back to this house?

Zhang Liuxin realized with a start that the first time this question surfaced was when he was six years old.

He also just remembered that Zhang Jiming was annoyed by him because he couldn’t understand Bernlinian. So, even when he eloped with his mother, he wasn’t willing to learn her language for her sake.

For a child, the attic was too dark, causing him to develop an almost reflexive fear of darkness and difficulty sleeping at night. Yet, for the current Zhang Liuxin, this small room that once trapped him had become his safe haven in the Zhang family.

In this silence, Zhang Liuxin thought from Wen Jin to his mother, but the memories related to these two people were too few. He tragically found that no matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn’t remember more details.

He got up and returned downstairs. The housekeeper, sharp-eyed, saw his dirty clothes and quickly pulled him into a room, lecturing him for being so clueless and making himself look so messy.

Then, a manager from Zhang Jiming’s company saw them and walked over, instructing the housekeeper to find a new set of clothes for him to change into.

It was the first time Zhang Liuxin saw the housekeeper being so subservient to someone else. The manager did look a bit fierce. He said to Zhang Liuxin, “Can you be more composed? What happened just now that made you look so miserable?”

Zhang Liuxin turned his face away, but the manager turned it back. The manager said, “Today is not an ordinary day. Don’t embarrass President Zhang. Just be as useless as you should be, understood?”

His tone was cold, leaving Zhang Liuxin stunned in place.

Perhaps finding him foolish, the manager didn’t leave even after the housekeeper brought a new suit. He watched Zhang Liuxin change and then asked, “Do you know how to tie a necktie?”

Zhang Liuxin nodded and tied it himself.

The other man was dissatisfied. “Tsk, ugly.”

He then came over and retied it for him. “This will do. You’re too thin; you can’t even fill out a suit.”

After saying this, he left. Watching his tall back, Zhang Liuxin cautiously asked the housekeeper, “Uncle Housekeeper, which manager from Dad’s company is he?”

The housekeeper gave him an annoyed look and said, “Levi. He’s a talent President Zhang brought in.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Zhang Liuxin felt that the person just now was indeed very capable, seemingly more shrewd than Zhang Jiming.

Perhaps because of the half-true, half-false rumors about Zhang Qinnan and Wen Jin, Ren Shuyun’s birthday banquet this year was much grander than last year. Many prominent families sent gifts, implicitly suggesting that Zhang Jiming shouldn’t forget to promote them in the future.

Zhang Qinnan smiled and nodded from the side occasionally, accepting all the guesses and probes.

After the evening ended, Zhang Liuxin escaped. He slipped out while the servants were cleaning up and took a taxi back to school.

After arriving at school, Zhang Qinnan sent him a message: “Zhang Liuxin, where did you go? Are you getting so bold now? Dad is looking for you.”

Their chat history still stopped at that day, and Zhang Liuxin inevitably saw that photo again.

Passing by Huanshi’s famous bridge, Zhang Liuxin’s eyes were stung by the fireworks being set off on the opposite bank. He rested his forehead against the car window, his eyes moist, while secretly cursing himself for being weak and simultaneously comforting himself that he was only this pathetic because he didn’t have his mother.

“What’s wrong, young man?” The taxi driver saw him staring motionless out the window, pulled out a few tissues, and handed them to him. “Here, wipe your tears.”

Zhang Liuxin felt embarrassed. The last time he cried was when he was very young, and no one had seen him then either.

“Did something sad happen? You look so young. Did you have a fight with your family?”

Zhang Liuxin shook his head and turned off his phone screen.

“Then what is it? You said you’re going to State University. What a brilliant student you are. Don’t cry anymore.”

The driver played a cheerful song and said, “Life is only thirty thousand days. What is there to be unhappy about? Look at me, I don’t have much money at home, couldn’t even afford college. Now I have to drive night shifts every day just to support my kids, but I’m still happy and content.”

Zhang Liuxin wiped the moisture from his eyes and curved his lips. “Yes, you’re right.”

The streetscape outside the window gradually became familiar. Zhang Liuxin opened his phone and saw several missed calls from Zhang Jiming. He called back, and Zhang Jiming’s furious voice quickly came through the line: “Zhang Liuxin, where did you run off to?”

“Something urgent came up at school. I went back to school.”

“What urgent matter could there be this late? You really think you have wings now…”

Zhang Liuxin hung up the phone. The driver probably heard the conversation and didn’t speak for the last half of the journey.

“Fifty is fine.”

Zhang Liuxin pointed to the meter. “It says fifty-three up there.”

The driver laughed heartily. “Three yuan is nothing.”

Zhang Liuxin took out his phone and scanned the code. “Thank you, drive safely.”

Only after he walked into the school did the driver pick up his phone and see that the latest payment was 55 yuan. Below it was a small line of text. He squinted for a while before recognizing that the young man’s payment note was: “Thank you for the tissues. Your daughter is very cute.”

He immediately rolled down the passenger window, watched the thin figure disappear into the night, and then retracted his gaze. Looking at the photo of his daughter smiling widely on his phone’s lock screen, he sighed. Such a good kid, burdened with troubles in his heart. It was truly painful to see.

He shook his head, stepped on the gas, and hurried to the next pick-up location.