Translator/Editor:- Max
Yao Xiuyuan opened the wine, poured it for the both of them, and Ying Nian took a sip. Indeed, the alcohol content was very low, and had a more sour and sweet flavour like fruit wine.
“It tastes pretty good.”
Yao Xiuyuan didn’t like drinking fruit wine. To him, this type of wine was more of a beverage. That’s why he hadn’t touched it since it was given to him by someone else. If he hadn’t seen Ying Nian drinking today, he might have forgotten about this bottle of wine.
He added some more to Ying Nian’s, “As long as you like it.”
Ying Nian glanced at him and asked, “Aren’t you going to sleep?”
“I’ll sleep later. I’m not busy these two days, so I can sleep in a bit in the morning.”
Ying Nian sighed, “I feel like I’ve been troubling you these past two days.”
“Why are you being polite again?” Yao Xiuyuan looked at him, “You don’t change despite repeated admonitions ah?”
Ying Nian smiled and shook his head. “No, it’s just how I feel. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you’re quite gentle?”
“There must have been.” Yao Xiuyuan replied after taking a sip of his wine. “I’m such a good person. How could no one have said that.”
“Also quite narcissistic.”
“This is self-confidence.” Yao Xiuyuan retorted.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“With your qualities, you haven’t had a girlfriend yet?” Ying Nian asked curiously.
“P vjafv lc mbiifuf, yea kf ygbxf eq ijafg. Coafg atja, P’nf yffc yers klat kbgx, jcv P tjnfc’a wfa jcsbcf P qjgalmeijgis ilxfv, rb P tjnfc’a vjafv rlcmf.”
Tlcu Rljc ibbxfv regqglrfv. “Tbe’nf bcis tjv bcf ulgioglfcv lc mbiifuf? P atbeuta sbeg ibnf tlrabgs kbeiv yf delaf glmt.”
Tjb Wlesejc ijeutfv ktfc tf tfjgv atlr, tlr fsfr rilutais gjlrfv klat j tlca bo qglvf, “P rffw ab yf nfgs qbqeijg klat kbwfc, gluta?”
“Isn’t that so?”
“Well, yes and no. I’m not like Shao Yong, attracting butterflies everywhere.”
“Does Shao Yong know that you talk about him like this behind his back?”
“Why talk about him behind his back?” Yao Xiuyuan took the beer that Ying Nian had opened earlier and poured himself a glass. “I’ve told him this to his face countless times. But this kind of matter of impression of each other and passionate love are between the willing parties involved. Outsiders can’t control it.”
Yao Xiuyuan took a sip of his wine as Ying Nian watched him. And he also took a few sips himself. Perhaps due to the beer he had earlier and combined with the fruit wine in his hand. Under the influence of alcohol, although Ying Nian was not drunk, he was more relaxed than usual. He spoke somewhat emotionally, “Yeah, when it’s about feelings, it ultimately comes down to oneself.”
He took a sip of the wine, the sweet and sour taste relaxing his taste buds. However, his mood became heavy again by this sentence, so much so that unconsciously, he poured himself two more glasses of wine.
Yao Xiuyuan saw that he suddenly stopped talking and kept drinking. He reached out to hold his hand and advised, “You drank too fast. Slow down.”
Ying Nian looked up at him, his eyes as clear as water, tinged with a hint of sadness and confusion under the light.
Yao Xiuyuan unconsciously let go of his hand and asked him, “What’s wrong?”
Ying Nian didn’t speak, just looked at the wine in the glass. Yao Xiuyuan sensitively felt that he was in a bad mood and didn’t know what to say. There was a moment of silence between the two of them.
After a long time, Ying Nian sighed, shook his head. He smiled at him, and said, “It’s nothing, I just remembered some past events.”
Yao Xiuyuan guessed that the past events in his mouth should be related to Tang Yu. He looked at Ying Nian and asked tentatively, “Would you like to talk to me about it?”
Ying Nian seemed not to have expected that he would say that, and was a little surprised for a moment.
Yao Xiuyuan smiled and said gently, “Keeping things bottled up in your heart will only make them heavier over time. Sometimes, letting it out can make you feel better. It’s like those tree hole posts online. I promise, I’ll just be a tree hole, I won’t talk about your matter.”
Ying Nian listened, looking somewhat dazed at him, but didn’t know where to start or what to say. He was never one who liked to trouble others, nor did he like sharing his feelings with anyone else. He could love Tang Yu unreservedly, let Tang Yu know he loved him, but he couldn’t tell others his emotions. He had become accustomed to loving only one person, taking responsibility, and sharing his emotions with that person. For him, this was not a simple and ordinary thing.
Seeing that Ying Nian seemed unable to speak, he thought he might not be willing. After all, emotional matters were always quite private. So, he pretended to be casual and said, “I don’t seem to resemble a tree hole. How about this, you wait for me, and next time I’ll buy you a tree hole. Then, you can whisper to it quietly.”
Ying Nian’s face, which just moments ago didn’t know what to do, now lit up with a smile upon hearing this. He involuntarily lowered his gaze but slowly raised it again to look at Yao Xiuyuan. Yao Xiuyuan still wore that gentle demeanour, as if regardless of whether Ying Nian spoke or not, he wouldn’t mind.
However, Ying Nian noticed that, subconsciously, he wanted to speak. Those things had been accumulating in his heart for so long, settling and decaying. He carried the past alone, and occasionally, when he glanced down, those matters felt like a swamp dragging him down, making him feel heavy and embarrassed.
If I could speak about it, perhaps… it would be better.
Ying Nian drank a glass of wine, and Yao Xiuyuan didn’t stop him. He drank another glass, and just as Yao Xiuyuan was about to persuade him, he slowly began, “I actually…,” He looked at the wine in his glass, blinked, and whispered softly, “Actually… I don’t know how to say it.”
Yao Xiuyuan had thought that he didn’t intend to tell him anything, but he didn’t expect that he simply didn’t know how to begin. “Do as you like. You can say whatever you want, however you want. Anything is fine. You can talk about whatever you can think of.”
Is that so? Ying Nian thought quietly for a moment, then began slowly, “I’m not from here. My hometown is a village in the neighbouring city’s county, very small, just a couple of hours’ walk from village’s end to end. It’s very poor. When I was young, we didn’t even have running water. Having a well in the backyard was already considered very good.”
Yao Xiuyuan knew he wasn’t a local, but he didn’t know just how impoverished Ying Nian’s hometown was. “It wasn’t easy for you.” He felt somewhat reflective. He realised that while he had been flying overseas to see the sea as a child. For Ying Nian there, having a well in the backyard was a luxury.
When Ying Nian heard this, he felt a little uncomfortable. It wasn’t that Yao Xiuyuan’s words made him uncomfortable, but that when he recalled his childhood, those days seemed to reappear before his eyes again.
“When I just entered junior high school, my parents passed away. I was still underage at that time, and my aunt didn’t want me. So, my uncle took me to his home and became my guardian. My uncle was very good to me, let me continue my studies, and they gave me food and a home. His children got along well with me too. Although my aunt wasn’t very close to me, she didn’t hit or scold me either. So, all in all, their family was pretty good to me.”
Yao Xiuyuan was taken aback. He hadn’t expected Ying Nian to drop such a heavy bombshell right from the start. He knew that Ying Nian wasn’t a local, so he had thought that Ying Nian’s parents were still in his hometown. Unexpectedly, they were no longer alive.
He was shocked but quickly concealed his surprise, and said “En’ in response.
“When I was young, my parents always taught me to study hard. In our area, education was the only way out. I also worked very hard and consistently ranked in the top three throughout junior high school. Our junior high school was the best in the county. Before the high school entrance exam, students from here, No. 6 Middle School, would go there for independent enrollment. They only pick the top three, and if you’re lucky enough to meet the criteria, some sponsors might even pay your high school tuition for three years. In our year, I was the only one who met the criteria, and I was very lucky. The teacher told me that someone wanted to sponsor me. That person turned out to be Tang Yu’s father.”
“No wonder you said yesterday in the ward that if you could go back, you’d rather not have his father’s sponsorship and also not get to know him.”
When Ying Nian thought back to yesterday’s scene in the hospital, recalling what had happened yesterday, and again thinking back to when they first met and fell in love, he felt a tightness in his chest, as if someone were squeezing it with both hands, causing unbearable pain.
“At that time, I was very happy, truly happy. I felt that even though I had a bad life and my parents were gone, I could still live a good life in the future. I believed what my parents had always told me, that education was crucial. Look, I was already on my way to the city because of my studies, right?”
“I happily returned to my uncle’s house and told him about it. I packed my bags, and my aunt helped me pack too. Then, she saw me off. As we approached Tang Yu’s father’s car, my aunt said to me, ‘Xiao Nian ah, since you’re going to the city to study, don’t come back. You’ve seen how the situation at home is. It’s already difficult to raise two children, let alone raise you. Your parents passed away suddenly and didn’t leave much money for us. Over these three years, your aunt has been extremely benevolent and has done her utmost duty. Now that you’re leaving, don’t come back.'”
Yao Xiuyuan was stunned for a moment. He completely did not expect this follow-up. He watched Ying Nian quietly, while Ying Nian stared at the wall ahead, seemingly not looking at anything at all. His eyes shimmered under the light, and Yao Xiuyuan felt like he was about to cry.
But in the end, he didn’t cry.
Even after all these years, Ying Nian still clearly remembered those words. He also remembered his own confusion and panic when he first heard those words. His aunt looked at him, calm and peaceful, eyes devoid of any emotion of parting. It was as if she hadn’t said, “Don’t come back again” but instead that “The weather is nice today”.
Ying Nian tried hard to express his emotions, saying that he wanted to come back, that he had no home now, and that this place was his home. But his aunt refused, saying, “You are not our family’s child. You will always leave.”
On that day, Ying Nian left his uncle’s house and left his hometown where he grew up. His uncle called him twice after he arrived in the city, but never once mentioned anything about him returning home. Ying Nian knew that he had been abandoned. It was not just his aunt who wanted him to leave, but also his uncle.
He spent the entire night crying quietly under the covers, silent and hidden, sobbing silently without letting others know. Then, when the alarm clock rang the next morning, Ying Nian got out of bed, washed his face, and comforted himself. It didn’t matter. As long as he studied hard, he would have a good future. He had persevered through the loss of his parents before, and now, he would definitely do well.
He picked up his school bag and went to school. But after school one day, Tang Yu’s father took him back to the Tang family.
That was so bleak. How cruel that was and how lonely. He had no one.
😭✨😭✨
Thanks for the update!