The Real Young Master Wants To Get Married First When He Returns Home Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Don’t Be Mad at Me

Everything depended on him alone.

This was something he had known for a long time; no one would help him for no reason.

It was just that Gu Yunzhao had been so misleading this past week that it was inevitable for him to develop some unspeakable hope.

“Da Huang…” Shen Li sobbed, biting his wrist.

He suddenly missed Da Huang very much. So, so much.

If Da Huang were still here, at least there would be a warm belly to wipe his tears on.

But his grandmother wasn’t here, and neither was Da Huang.

There were no faded handkerchiefs, and no furry bellies.

Only the cold tiles would catch his silent tears.

Shen Li lowered his head, not knowing what he should be thinking.

“Knock, knock.”

The sound of knocking came from outside the door.

Shen Li was startled awake by the noise. He had leaned against the door and cried for a while last night, falling asleep at some point.

Now that he was awake, he realized his body ached all over, especially his neck, which felt like it was on the verge of a stiff neck from leaning against the door all night.

He didn’t need to think to know who was knocking at this hour. Gu Yunzhao knocked three times, paused for a moment, and then continued, clearly not intending to leave until he saw him.

Shen Li didn’t have time to wash up. He hurriedly wiped his face twice and opened the door.

Gu Yunzhao was standing outside holding a cake box. Seeing Shen Li’s appearance after the door opened, his originally gentle expression turned to surprise. He reached out to smooth Shen Li’s messy hair, his tone filled with guilt. “Xiao Li…”

“I’m fine,” Shen Li quickly interrupted. He didn’t need to look to know how miserable he appeared. Between the crying and sleeping on the floor, he probably looked no better than a beggar. His best move should have been to take the opportunity to play the victim and get some benefits from Gu Yunzhao.

In the past, he might have shed a few tears to his advantage, but now, Shen Li didn’t want to show weakness in front of Gu Yunzhao at all.

Since the man already treated him like a toy, he couldn’t look down on himself too.

“I’m fine, Mr. Gu. You should go to work.”

In truth, his whole body was uncomfortable. Not only were his back and waist stiff from sitting all night, but the pain from yesterday’s beating hadn’t subsided much either.

However, an unspeakable pride made him suck in a breath and straighten his back, standing before Gu Yunzhao like a thin but upright little tree.

Gu Yunzhao couldn’t help but sigh. The task of raising this child was truly a long and difficult road.

“Cake.” He held out the cake box. “Xiao Li is angry with me.”

It was a statement, not a question.

“No,” Shen Li shook his head and denied it. He had simply recognized his place.

He wasn’t exactly angry; he ate the man’s food and lived in his house, so he had no right to be angry with Gu Yunzhao.

Shen Li knew in his heart that his future life depended entirely on whether he could please Gu Yunzhao.

If Gu Yunzhao was happy, his living conditions would be good.

The Shen family would never provide a safety net for him. If he couldn’t cling to this high branch that was Gu Yunzhao, he might as well pack up and find a place to die.

He had no education and no job, and his grandmother’s illness required a lot of money to maintain. Now that he was in the city, he couldn’t live off the land like he did back in his hometown.

To put it bluntly, if he went out to beg right now, he wouldn’t even have his own bowl.

So when he said he wasn’t angry, he truly wasn’t, not even a little. Someone who relied on others to live had no right to be angry.

“Are you really not angry?”

Gu Yunzhao didn’t believe him and leaned down to look into his eyes. The boy before him had messy hair and a stiff neck, staring back at him. After a few more questions, his eyes reddened, and he bit his lip without a word, tears falling silently like pearls.

“You’re crying,” Gu Yunzhao said with certainty. “Are you acting spoiled again?”

“I’m not crying.”

“Let go.”

“If you bite any harder, it’ll bleed. I can’t tell if you’re afraid of pain or not.” He sighed again, unsure of what to do with Shen Li.

If he said the boy wasn’t afraid of pain, he had cried silently after just a few hits yesterday. Today, he looked like he wanted to break off all ties and never be close to him again.

But if he said he was afraid of pain, he was biting his lip so hard it was almost bleeding without making a sound.

Shen Li sniffled, trying to suppress the urge to sob to make his voice sound colder. “I said I’m not crying! If you have work, then go!”

But as soon as he spoke, he couldn’t hide the sob in his voice. His voice was hoarse and soft, catching at the end.

Gu Yunzhao’s heart softened instantly.

Forget it, he thought. He’s just a child; why bother arguing with a child? An adult should have the patience to guide them, especially since Shen Li was already a teenager and had grown up in such an environment. It would take time for him to accept parental discipline; he just needed to spend more time teaching him.

He had to bear the consequences of his own actions. He was the one who made the boy cry, so now he had to be the one to coax him. “I was wrong. Xiao Li, stop crying, okay?”

“I’m really not crying.” Shen Li’s voice was muffled; he refused to admit it.

Being spanked was embarrassing enough; admitting he cried because of it would be no different from showing weakness.

Shen Li felt he might as well die.

“Fine, fine, you’re not crying.” Gu Yunzhao reached up to wipe his tears. “Xiao Li, come eat cake with me, okay? It’s from the shop you like.”

“I’m not eating it.” Shen Li shook his head. “Go to work. I’ll be fine after a nap.”

“Today is Saturday. I don’t have work.”

“You’re the boss. You should work more overtime and do more work. Create your own revenue; don’t just take breaks whenever you feel like it.” Shen Li just wanted to kick him out so he could calm down, regardless of how forced his excuses were.

Gu Yunzhao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. On a legal weekend, Shen Li’s words practically tried to revoke his vacation and force him into manual labor.

He sighed inwardly. Was this a case of shooting himself in the foot? He had intended to use some discipline to get the child in line, ideally all at once, but he had gone too far. The favorability he had built up over a week had been reset to zero overnight.

If Shen Li’s favorability could be seen, his progress bar would probably be in the negatives.

“Then what should I do?” Gu Yunzhao put on a troubled expression. “I bought two tickets and wanted to take a certain kid to the amusement park during the break. Should we still go?”

“No.” His tone was firm, rejecting Gu Yunzhao’s peace offering.

Actually, he did want to go.

When Shen Li was little, the children who went to work with their parents would come back to the village and vividly describe life in the big city.

They talked most about the colorful amusement parks and the various shopping malls.

When Shen Li was first brought back by the Shen family, he had also fantasized. He wondered if his biological parents were like those in the village who came back once a year, eager to spend all the love they had saved up.

What if his mother kept crying while holding him? Shen Li had been so worried while sitting in the car.

He had rehearsed the conversation in his head over and over, and the things he wanted to say could have filled a ten-thousand-word essay.

Shen Li, who was only focused on how to comfort a crying mother and a strong father, didn’t notice the worried look and reddened eyes of Old Lady Xu sitting opposite him.

His guess wasn’t wrong; his biological parents were indeed a crying mother and a strong father.

Unfortunately, they weren’t his. They were Shen Zhao’s.

He didn’t get to say a single word of his rehearsed essay because there was no one at the station to pick him up.

Shen Zhao was sick.

On Shen Li’s first day home, his welcome gift was a deserted train station from day to night, followed by a ten-kilometer walk with his luggage while asking for directions.

Ms. Xu and Mr. Shen didn’t return until the third day. It took the housekeeper telling them three times before they remembered they had a biological son who had just been brought home.

“Just find any empty room for him to stay in,” Ms. Xu told the housekeeper impatiently. “Just arrange it yourself.”

She was too annoyed.

Shen Zhao’s condition kept fluctuating for no apparent reason. He kept saying he was uncomfortable and in pain, but those useless people at the hospital only said the test reports were healthy.

A bunch of useless fools, Ms. Xu couldn’t help but curse. How could a healthy person always feel unwell?

Mr. Shen patted her shoulder to comfort her. “Alright, don’t lose your temper at the hospital later. If Xiao Zhao sees you’re angry, he’ll blame himself again.”

Shen Zhao was a very sensitive child. If he saw his parents’ emotions affected by his illness, he would surely cry out of guilt.

“I know.” Ms. Xu barely suppressed her emotions, but when she turned and saw the housekeeper still waiting for instructions, her temper flared again. “Don’t you know why we brought him back? He won’t be living here for more than a few days anyway. Just find him a random place to stay. Do I have to handle everything personally?”

The housekeeper didn’t dare add fuel to the fire. She swallowed the words that there were no suitable empty rooms and simply nodded.

Thus, after waiting for three days, Shen Li was moved into a dust-covered attic with his luggage.

“I’m staying here?” Shen Li was incredulous. Everyone had told him he was coming back to enjoy a good life and be compensated by his guilty parents, but everything before him was completely beyond his expectations.

“Where are my parents? I want to see them.” Shen Li felt there must be a misunderstanding. He had read those novels where servants would intentionally target the protagonist and put them in a bad place.

This must be the case. Shen Li was determined to see his parents.

The housekeeper only looked at him with deep sympathy. “Young Master Shen Li, you should just settle in for now.”

Shen Li didn’t know, but the housekeeper knew the real reason the Shen family had brought him back.

If the Shen family hadn’t been unwilling to let Shen Zhao jump into the fire of that marriage contract, Shen Li’s fate would likely have been to stay in the countryside until he died of old age.

Thinking of this, the housekeeper couldn’t help but sigh. They shared the same blood, yet they had such different fates.

“My mother’s… instructions? How is that possible?” Shen Li shook his head, repeatedly denying the housekeeper’s words. “How could my mother arrange this?”

The housekeeper shook her head, but she couldn’t help telling the truth to the person who still had hope for his parents.

The truth of the substitute marriage shattered the last bit of hope Shen Li had for his biological parents.

The housekeeper felt a bit of pity. She was an older woman, and Shen Li was almost young enough to be her grandson.

Seeing Shen Li’s swaying body and pale face, she whispered, “Do you need anything else? I’ll try to satisfy you as much as I can.”

Need? Shen Li stared at the housekeeper for a long time, and in the end, he only asked for a bed.

When the servants moved the furniture into the attic, Shen Li looked down at the floor for a long time before he couldn’t help but ask the housekeeper one question.

“Did they miss me before?”

The housekeeper looked at him and said nothing.