TYAM Chapter 95

June 1st, Children’s Day, falls on a Sunday. Even though there was no holiday the next day, Peng Jiahui and Du Wenjuan still took leave, intending to spend an extra day with Peng Xingwang.  

They tried their best to accompany him, as if no matter what he wanted to buy or where he wanted to go, they would do everything they could to fulfill his wishes.  

Their guilt was like the thin layer of condensation on a bottle of iced soda — cool and damp to the touch, evaporating easily but always reappearing, subtle yet impossible to erase.  

During the day, Peng Xingwang visited the late cherry blossoms and early lotus blooms in Yuhan with his parents. At night, he returned to his brother’s home to sleep. The two days felt like a dream.  

The amusement park, the botanical garden… those were nice, but sometimes, he longed for something less deliberate.  

‘If only it were Dad helping me with my homework. If only it were Mom picking me up from school. If only I could see them every day. How wonderful would that be?’

Yet, such an ordinary wish was the real luxury.  

He had always known this deep down.  

When it was time to part, Jiang Wang hosted a meal for everyone.  

Ji Linqiu originally considered himself an outsider and wanted to excuse himself, but Du Wenjuan personally invited him, treating him completely as part of the family.  

“Xingwang has been staying with you two, and we really feel bad about it,” Du Wenjuan said as she stood to raise her glass. “His father and I have been discussing it. Either he’ll transfer to Yuhan for work to take care of our son, or I’ll rent a place here so I can be with Xingxing through middle and high school. We’ll find a way. We won’t trouble you both for too long.”  

Xingwang sat among them, unusually quiet. He just smiled and continued eating.  

Sensing his son’s subtle emotions, Peng Jiahui raised his voice cheerfully. “Wasn’t it nice to have Dad and Mom visit this weekend? Were you happy?”  

“When work slows down, I’ll come see you more often. In the future, we can even live in a big house together. Life will only get better and better!”  

Du Wenjuan chimed in, “Xingxing, Daddy and Mommy always think about you. Make sure to listen to Brother Jiang and Brother Ji, don’t be naughty, okay?”  

Jiang Wang sipped his beer, watching the younger version of himself.  

They were so much alike.  

He had always been the type to wear his emotions on his face. Over the years, he had tried to change, but he hadn’t changed much at all.  

A gathering like this was supposed to be lively and joyful, yet the meal felt somewhat heavy.  

When it was time to say goodbye, Peng Jiahui went to start his car, Chang Hua arrived with Yinyin to pick up Du Wenjuan, and one by one, they all got into their cars, waving farewell.  

“We’re off, see you next time!”  

“Xingxing, Mommy will come visit again soon. Yinyin, say goodbye to your big brothers!”  

The three of them stood there, watching the two families drive away before finally getting into their own car and heading home.  

Ji Linqiu had slept a full twelve hours the day before, and today, his phone had been lighting up non-stop with messages and calls. But he ignored them all, resting against the car window with his eyes closed.  

Jiang Wang focused on driving. A section of the road was under construction for a new subway line, and a power outage had plunged the area into darkness. He had to carefully navigate through the dimly lit streets.  

In the darkness, Peng Xingwang suddenly spoke.  

“Do you have to learn how to act like this to be considered grown up?”  

His words came out of nowhere, yet Jiang Wang understood exactly what he meant.  

He rolled down the window for some fresh air and only replied after a long pause.  

“Probably.”  

At that moment, he wanted to light a cigarette, but when he glanced at the boy in the rearview mirror, he simply pressed down on the brake pedal instead.  

The kid had figured it out.  

Jiang Wang had worried about this for a long time, but there was no real way to solve such an impossible problem.  

A normal family was like a train running steadily along its tracks. But in Xingwang’s family, the locomotive was heading south while the caboose was going north, leaving him stranded like a solitary, directionless rail.  

Even though he existed, he seemed out of place, helpless and adrift.  

Jiang Wang should have had many words of comfort for the boy at this moment.  

Xingwang is his younger self. He had always wanted to give him an overwhelming amount of love, meticulous care, and clear, unwavering guidance.  

But now that the dreaded moment had finally arrived, Jiang Wang ran through all the comforting words in his mind — then decided to say nothing at all.  

The boy understood. That was enough.  

The traffic light flickered uncertainly, a faint arc of light blinking intermittently in the night.  

At some point, Ji Linqiu opened his eyes and handed him a cigarette.  

“Go ahead.”  

Jiang Wang looked at him, reached up to take it, and lit it with a deep inhale.  

The smoke filled his lungs, stinging his eyes.  

Xingwang stayed silent for a while, then shook his head.  

“I won’t think about this kind of crappy problem anymore.”  

Two days of rest didn’t seem nearly enough.  

For months, Ji Linqiu had spent every weekend either working overtime or traveling for conferences. Now that he had finally caught up on sleep, he decided to take two more days of annual leave.  

The HR department was both amused and exasperated when they heard.  

“Teacher Ji, are you kidding us? You’ve been working non-stop, either on business trips or overtime. You’ve accumulated nearly half a month’s worth of unused leave. Take all the time you need,. Your annual leave won’t be deducted at all!”  

Ji Linqiu, unaccustomed to such indulgence, took a moment to process before nodding in agreement.  

He spent half a day doing chores at his parents’ house, then went to the garden to feed the fish and water the plants. For some reason, he found himself thinking about retirement.  

…Even when Jiang Wang was seventy or eighty, he’d probably still be a mischievous old man full of wild ideas.  

Ji Linqiu could already picture it—this man dragging him around the world after retirement, the two of them wrinkled and slow, but their lives just as colorful as ever.  

‘Ah. How did I end up liking this person so much?’

Just then, the sound of a key turning in the lock came from the front door. Ji Linqiu, still holding a shovel, glanced over to see Ji Changxia carrying several large shopping bags inside.  

“You didn’t have work today?” They spoke in unison.  

“I took a couple of days off to rest.”  

“Oh, oh,” Ji Changxia set a paper bag down on the entryway cabinet. “I was thinking of baking some bread. Want to help, big brother?”

Ji Linqiu readily agreed.  

“You guys get off work this early?”  

“No way, I quit a while ago.”  

“You became a housewife?”  

“Brother,” Ji Changxia pressed her forehead. “How long has it been since you last came home? Mom’s tailor shop is doing too well now. She can’t handle all the work. Since I know a bit about it, I came back to help her with custom tailoring.”  

The two of them washed their hands, sifted the flour, and poured the milk, chatting first about the changes at home over the past few months, then about Peng Xingwang’s earth-shattering violin skills, before finally circling back to Ji Linqiu himself.  

“Brother… have you guys ever considered a marriage of convenience?”  

Ji Linqiu was kneading the dough when he heard this. He glanced sideways. “Jiang Wang told you?”  

He was sure he’d never mentioned this before.  

“No,” Ji Changxia smiled. “You’re my own brother, how could I not tell?”  

At first, she’d been puzzled. There were so many outstanding female teachers at his workplace, yet none of them ever seemed to click with him. Then, during a conversation with friends, she thought carefully and realized just how special Jiang Wang was.  

Once that idea took root, everything about their interactions made perfect sense.  

Ji Linqiu frowned slightly, considering her words. “We’ve thought about moving abroad or waiting for the right time to talk to our parents, but a marriage of convenience… that’s risky. It could easily go wrong, and it wouldn’t be fair to the woman involved. Better not.”  

“Then have you two thought about kids?” Ji Changxia lowered her voice. “I heard from a friend. There’s adoption… and surrogacy.”  

“I heard a lot of people go abroad for surrogacy, and you can even pick the baby’s eye color, hair color—Brother!!”  

Ji Linqiu reached out and pinched her face, playfully dusting them both with flour like when they were kids.  

“What are you even thinking?”  

“Two men having a baby through surrogacy? Even if Jiang Wang and I are doing fine, forcing someone else into the picture just to give us a child… whose child would that even be?”  

Ji Changxia frowned. “I get what you’re saying. Even if the baby’s born, they’d have a stranger’s blood. It does feel weird… But wouldn’t that make it even harder for Mom and Dad to accept you two being together?”  

Ji Linqiu handed her the dough and turned to grab the shredded coconut powder.  

“I have a feeling Mom already knows something.”  

“No way!”  

“I can’t explain exactly why,” he looked at her. “But do you remember when you had that first crush in school?”  

“You two barely even spent time together, never even walked home together, and yet Mom just knew. She had no reason to suspect it, but she still figured it out.”  

Ji Changxia froze. “Mom always knew about my first crush?! Brother, you told me you were covering for me!!”  

“I never said anything, you can trust me on that. Besides, you and that guy broke up ages ago.” Ji Linqiu lowered his voice. “But this past New Year’s, while washing dishes, Mom was happily reminiscing about taking care of you back then. Everything she guessed lined up perfectly with what actually happened.”  

Even without any clues, she’d somehow known her daughter was secretly in love.  

Ji Changxia’s breath hitched. “Then right now… oh no, I asked Brother Wang to pick her up from class!”  

Ji Linqiu paused. “She’s not at the tailor shop today?”  

“She has a class at the senior citizens’ university! I just thought it’d be a good chance for Brother Wang to get to know her better. You better message him and give him a heads-up!!”  

Meanwhile, outside the classroom, Jiang Wang stood watching, fascinated.  

He hadn’t expected the senior citizens’ university to have foreign teachers, and the lesson was surprisingly well-structured.  

When the bell rang, elderly students in their fifties, sixties, and even older stood up. Some waved goodbye to the teacher, while others crowded around, eagerly asking questions. The atmosphere was warm and lively.  

“Teacher David! Come have dinner with my daughter sometime!”  

“Dinner? Forget dinner. Teacher David, explain comparative and superlative adjectives to me again—”  

Chen Danhong had been waiting on the sidelines but turned her head on a whim and spotted Jiang Wang. She waved at him with a bright smile. “Ah, Wang-zi! Here to pick up Auntie?”  

Jiang Wang grinned and waved back, just as Ji Linqiu’s message came in:  

[My mom might already know about us. Be careful what you say.]  

His heart skipped a beat, but he kept his expression neutral, helping Chen Danhong with her coat. The more he tried not to slip up, the more his words fumbled.  

“Mom—uh, no, Auntie, let’s go out for dinner tonight!”  

Chen Danhong, still blissfully unaware, gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder. “Calling me Mom is fine too! In my heart, you’re already like my godson!”