This was the first time Yan Sui had heard these words. He switched to this channel because Old Master He had notified him to watch it. He could roughly guess what it was about. However, whether Old Master He came out to say these words or not made no difference to Yan Sui’s preparations.
Soon, other news continued to be broadcast, but no one in the living room spoke. Or rather, everyone was waiting for Yan Sui to say something.
Yan Sui curled his lips, but it didn’t seem like a smile. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll handle the rest.”
“Mm, I believe you,” Meng Ting immediately replied. From the time the incident happened until now, Meng Ting has indeed been the person who trusts Yan Sui the most.
He wrapped his arms around Yan Sui’s waist, pressing his entire body against him. Before Yan Sui could make any other move, Meng Ting continued to nuzzle upwards, then leaned against Yan Sui’s shoulder, holding him tightly with both hands.
Meng Ting is using an embrace to tell Yan Sui that he wants to be with him, even though he can’t be sure if Yan Sui needs it.
Yan Sui hugged Meng Ting back, his hand gently stroking his back, the layer of indifference on his body fading away. He turned his head and couldn’t help but kiss Meng Ting’s cheek. Meng Ting’s unhesitating and unconditional trust was something Yan Sui had anticipated, but he still felt moved.
But this kind of emotion, he couldn’t express to Meng Ting in words.
Yan Manjia and Zhen Han exchanged a glance, and neither of them stayed in the living room any longer. Yan Manjia went back to the studio, while Zhen Han returned to his room.
Normally, Meng Ting would start feeling sleepy around this time, but today his eyes kept blinking, showing no signs of sleepiness at all. Yan Sui, on the other hand, tirelessly continued to pat him.
“Stop patting me, I’m about to fall asleep…” Yan Sui’s skill in coaxing people to sleep was getting stronger and stronger. Meng Ting lazily yawned and finally couldn’t help but speak up. He whispered in Yan Sui’s ear, “But I don’t want to sleep yet, I want to keep you company.”
“Accompany me to do what?” Yan Sui asked, but still stopped the action of coaxing the person to sleep as Meng Ting requested.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’ll accompany you in whatever you’re doing.”
Meng Ting said, gently biting Yan Sui’s ear, “Don’t think about driving me away.”
His intuition is sharp; Yan Sui is deliberately coaxing him to sleep early tonight. It’s different from the usual times when he’s sleepy, and Yan Sui is coaxing him.
Yan Sui listened, and a faint smile finally appeared on his face, reaching his eyes. “Got it.”
He said this while letting go of Meng Ting, then pulled him upstairs. The two of them changed into a new set of clothes and then got into a car to leave the Yan residence.
Yan Sui was driving himself, with Meng Ting sitting in the passenger seat. Yan Sui also casually stuffed a bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts that he had brought back for Meng Ting after get off work into his hand. Meng Ting glanced at Yan Sui, peeled a chestnut, glanced at Yan Sui again, and peeled another chestnut.
He truly didn’t know where Yan Sui was taking him, but his intuition wasn’t wrong; Yan Sui originally planned to slip away on his own. With this thought, Meng Ting’s cheeks puffed up slightly.
How could Yan Sui not know what Meng Ting was thinking? He stopped at the traffic light, leaned over, pulled Meng Ting in, kissed him on the lips, and seeing Meng Ting dazed, he kissed him on both cheeks as well.
After the kiss, Yan Sui straightened up and continued driving. Meng Ting’s cheeks turned red as expected, but he didn’t say anything. He obediently peeled chestnuts for himself and occasionally fed one to Yan Sui.
***
After driving for about two hours, Yan Sui finally stopped the car. Meng Ting, who had been munching on chestnuts the whole way and occasionally blushing from Yan Sui’s kisses, wasn’t too sleepy. When he got out of the car, the cool night breeze completely woke him up.
Yan Sui walked over, took Meng Ting’s hand, and then whispered, “Let’s go meet Grandma and Grandpa, don’t be afraid.”
Meng Ting nodded, “I’m not afraid.”
To meet Yan Sui’s grandparents, they had come to the Nanshan cemetery. After communicating with the night watchman, Yan Sui held Meng Ting’s hand and climbed up all the way.
The moon is fullest on the 16th, and without a flashlight, the moonlight alone is enough to see the road clearly. However, walking among tombstones, those with poor nerves might still break out in a cold sweat.
Meng Ting stopped eating the chestnuts, and as he scanned the surroundings, he felt a bit chilly, but he wasn’t scared because beside him was Yan Sui, the person he liked and trusted the most. The night wind was a bit cold, but Yan Sui’s hand holding his remained warm.
The tomb of Yan Sui’s grandparents is halfway up the mountain. They walked for about half an hour to get there, but someone arrived even earlier than them.
“Dad!” Meng Ting called out without any hesitation. He glanced at the person sitting in the wheelchair next to Yan Yu, thought for a moment, and then called out, “Dad He!”
He Yue and Yan Yu are partners, so calling him ‘dad’ is naturally more appropriate than ‘uncle’. Meng Ting didn’t think he had called him wrong.
But after he called someone, the already quiet Nanshan Cemetery became even quieter, and the already weird atmosphere became even weirder.
Yan Sui paused, glanced at Meng Ting with a helpless look, then continued to lead the person forward. However, instead of speaking to Yan Yu and He Yue first, he knelt in front of the two connected tombstones, bowed his head, and only then did Yan Sui begin to speak.
“Grandpa, Grandma, I brought Meng Ting to see you.”
“I am Meng Ting, your granddaughter-in-law, that is, Yan Sui’s wife,” Meng Ting remained kneeling and did not get up. Under the moonlight, the photos of the two elderly people were slightly blurry, but at home, Meng Ting had seen their photos. Grandpa looked somewhat stern, while Grandma appeared very kind.
“You don’t need to worry, Yan Sui and I are doing well. I will treat him well, I promise.”
After Meng Ting finished speaking, he kowtowed again before letting Yan Sui helped him up. After that, he didn’t say anything more; he knew Yan Sui had something to say to them.
“The Dr. Gu Li you are looking for, I found him.”
Hearing this, Yan Yu tightened his grip on He Yue’s hand slightly. He looked at Yan Sui, his gaze a mix of pressure and urgency, “Where is he?”
Yan Yu’s greatest obsession to this day is He Yue’s leg. He Yue has given up on it himself, but Yan Yu still doesn’t want to give up.
The Gu Li that Yan Sui mentioned is a brilliant doctor who immigrated from the Middle East to Northern Europe. He is known as a surgical genius, and many diseases that others cannot cure have been healed under his hands.
But his whereabouts are unpredictable, making it very difficult to find him. Especially in recent years, he has offended an organization abroad and has been hunted down continuously. Yan Yu has almost crossed paths with him several times, but each time he was mistaken for an assassin sent to kill him.
“He will come to Haicheng the day after tomorrow,” Yan Sui naturally wouldn’t give Yan Yu any vague information. He came here to confront them because he had prepared something that Yan Yu and He Yue couldn’t refuse.
Yan Yu indeed couldn’t refuse. He looked at Yan Sui’s face, his expression slightly fluctuating, but after experiencing He Yue’s near-death incident, he had already understood what was most important to him.
“Conditions.” Yan Sui’s conditions for helping him.
Yan Sui didn’t react to the words, but Meng Ting’s cheeks puffed up. He turned his head away with a huff, only to meet He Yue’s gaze. He blinked and opened his mouth slightly.
He hadn’t noticed before, but now he realizes that He Yue is quite good-looking. Even though he’s not young anymore, he can still be considered attractive. A gentleman is like bamboo[mfn]君子如竹 (jūn zǐ rú zhú): From the saying 君子如玉，人淡如竹 (jūn zǐ rú yù, rén dàn rú zhú), lit. A gentleman is like jade, a person is as quiet as bamboo. In Chinese culture, a gentleman is an ideal personality. Bamboo has upright and slender branches, is green all year round, defies frost and rain, is not afraid of severe cold, is elegant on the outside, indifferent on the inside, elegant and refined, and does not flatter the world. Therefore, people often associate bamboo with gentlemen, believing that gentlemen are like bamboo. Confucianism believes that a gentleman should be respectful on the outside and strong on the inside; be lenient to others and strict with oneself; and be restrained and not show off one’s brilliance. The qualities of jade are most similar to those of a gentleman, so the Chinese use and wear jade for moral and spiritual reasons.[/mfn], and He Yue gives off that kind of feeling.
Among Yan Sui’s features, the eyes and nose resemble Yan Yu, but the mouth looks even more like He Yue’s.
Meng Ting slowly crouched down, met He Yue’s gaze, and then softly said, “You also think it’s not good for Dad Yan to talk to Yan Sui like this, right?”
“Why is it not good?” He Yue spoke up, his voice clear and quite pleasant to hear.
“Yan Sui isn’t at fault; Dad Yan can blame many people, but he shouldn’t blame him.”
Meng Ting said with a light sigh, he knew that Yan Yu and He Yue were also victims, and it didn’t seem right for him to be serious like this.
“It doesn’t matter whether you come back or not, but Yan Sui hopes you will be well.”
Yan Yu had searched for Gu Li for so many years without success, but Yan Sui found him in such a short time. He must have paid a considerable price. However, what he wanted was definitely not for Yan Yu to ask him what conditions he wanted as soon as he opened his mouth. Meng Ting felt a bit sad, feeling sorry for Yan Sui.
“Mm, it’s Yan Yu’s fault,” He Yue said, but he smiled gently.
Yan Yu lowered his gaze speechlessly, but how could he possibly refute He Yue’s words? Meng Ting didn’t even glance at him, so he couldn’t vent his anger on him. In the end, he could only glare at Yan Sui.
“It’s too cold here, let’s change places… and talk.”
Due to complaints from He Yue and Meng Ting, Yan Yu could only change the ‘discuss’ in ‘discuss conditions’ to ‘chat’.
Yan Sui nodded, then pulled up Meng Ting, and gently touched his cheek to check if Meng Ting wasn’t feeling cold as well.
Although He Yue was sitting in a wheelchair, he wouldn’t feel cold with the coat covering him. However, Yan Sui and Yan Yu had so much to say that it would definitely take more than three to five minutes, and this place was indeed not a good place for a conversation.
Yan Yu turned around and carried He Yue on his back. He glanced at the wheelchair, then stepped forward directly. Yan Sui held Meng Ting with one hand and pushed the wheelchair with the other to follow them.
***
Yan Yu and He Yue have a place to stay in Haicheng, which is not far from the Nanshan Cemetery. After descending the mountain, it takes them twenty minutes on foot through the alleys to get there.
Yan Yu definitely had grievances against his parents, but once a person is dead, it’s like a light going out, and he wouldn’t continue to hate them. Every year around the Qingming Festival[mfn]清明節 (Qīng míng jié): Tomb Sweeping Day (annual Chinese festival observed on the first day of Qingming). The Qingming Festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day, Ancestors’ Day, the Clear Brightness Festival, or the Pure Brightness Festival), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by ethnic Chinese. A celebration of spring, it falls on the first day of the fifth solar term (also called Qingming) of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4, 5 or 6 April in a given year. During Qingming, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites and make ritual offerings to their ancestors. Offerings would typically include traditional food dishes and the burning of joss sticks and joss paper. The holiday recognizes the traditional reverence of one’s ancestors in Chinese culture.[/mfn], he and He Yue would come back to pay their respects. In the past, they only visited He Yue’s adoptive parents, but later they also visited his own parents.
But this time he came back because Yan Sui delivered the message to him, insisting that he return around the Mid-Autumn Festival. The message was vague, but it mentioned some old matters that concerned both him and He Yue, so they really did come back.
But they just got off the plane yesterday, and the first time they came to Nanshan tonight, they were blocked.
Yan Yu and He Yue’s residence is a one-bedroom apartment, and the interior decoration is quite simple, resembling a studio apartment near a university. Yan Sui suddenly thought of Haicheng University, which is not too far from here, and realized that this place must have been where He Yue and Yan Yu used to live.
“It’s a small place, just sit wherever,” Yan Yu said as he placed He Yue on the sofa and then sat down himself. He then spoke to Yan Sui and Meng Ting.
Yan Sui and Meng Ting also didn’t stand on ceremony, and the two of them sat down next to each other.
“Originally, I was just going to find Gu Li and didn’t plan to find you,” Yan Sui spoke up. He didn’t intend to hide it. In his original plan, he would help Yan Yu find the person and then deliver the person to him in a seemingly coincidental manner, and that would be that.
But Su Siyu’s words made him have to care a little more; he didn’t want to regret it later, so he decided to find the person and tell them everything. Whether they chose to come back or not would be up to them.
Yan Sui recounted the conversation he had with Su Siyu that day to Yan Yu, emphasizing Su Siyu’s claim that Yan Yu would die within the next few years. As for He Yue, Su Siyu didn’t even notice him, and since he didn’t mention him, Yan Sui naturally couldn’t tell Yan Yu anything more either.
“Whether anything can be changed, I can’t guarantee, but I have to give it a try.”
Try to save Yan Yu’s life. He and He Yue had already been through enough turmoil. If He Yue’s leg could be healed, Yan Yu would never willingly choose death.
I received a crocheting kit for my birthday a few days ago, and I can only say that it has slowed the pace of my translation. 🫣🫣
Check out my completed & current project at my carrd. If you like my translation, you can buy me coffee at Ko-fi~ Thank you.
