To Covet (GL) - Chapter 65

“Crying?”

Yu Zhouwan let go of my hand to look for a tissue. I grabbed her hand before she could pull it away and rubbed my face haphazardly on her sleeve.

“No, a cold draft just went up my nose.”

Saying that, I exaggeratedly sniffed hard. The voice-activated light in the stairwell turned on immediately. Yu Zhouwan couldn’t help but laugh. The confusion and worry on her face disappeared for a moment and then returned. She pulled out a wet wipe, offering to clean my face.

“You’ve been unhappy all day.”

“Who is happy on the first day of school?” I brushed off her probing question with a joke. “I can wipe it myself.”

Yu Zhouwan didn’t listen to me and didn’t let go, showing a definite refusal to back down.

I felt the shape of the bones under the skin on the back of her hand. The wet wipe touched my hot face, chilling me and making me shiver. My eyes felt warm, and I thought a flood of salty heat was pouring out, but only a tiny drop flowed down my cheek and was absorbed by the tissue.

“Let’s go. I feel like my nose is getting blocked. If I stay out here, I’ll catch a cold.” I urged her to leave quickly.

On the way back from here, Yu Zhouwan and I maintained a tacit distance and silence, as we usually did. The only difference was that before entering the house, she suddenly turned to look at me, as if she had something to say, but with the beep-beep of the fingerprint lock, she gave up the idea.

“You’re back.”

Shi Yunya placed the third set of bowls and chopsticks down, looked up at me slowly changing my shoes in the entryway, and paused her movement of pulling out a chair to sit down. “Keyi is back too. Let’s eat.”

I glanced at the dining table, then went to the kitchen myself to get my bowl and chopsticks and served myself some rice.

“No evening class?” Shi Yunya asked me.

“No, only the 12th graders have evening self-study tonight,” I said, sitting down next to Yu Zhouwan.

Shi Yunya gripped her chopsticks, not touching the white rice in her bowl, and looked at me meaningfully.

I pretended not to understand, meeting her gaze while scooping a large spoonful of pork rib soup for myself.

“Keyi, are you planning to study Arts or Science?”

“Science.” I swallowed a large mouthful of rice, wondering why she was also paying attention to this matter.

“That’s great. Have you decided which university you want to aim for?” Yu Hanyang interjected.

“The teacher said today that Keyi’s grades are quite good. If she maintains this ranking, she can aim for the C9 universities,” he continued.

I reached for a piece of chicken. Yu Hanyang pushed the plate closer to me.

“Your teacher gave me quite a bit of praise for you today. You’ve made significant progress compared to before.” He looked genuinely happy and proud, just like a parent should be, solely because of the teacher’s praise for me.

“You haven’t chosen subjects yet. Aren’t you putting pressure on her?” Shi Yunya nudged Yu Hanyang with her elbow. “Keyi now likes to stay with her sister every day and wants to learn everything from her. Wanwan, you have to set an example for your sister, alright?”

Yu Zhouwan nodded in agreement.

“You have several exams in May, and you can’t neglect your college entrance exam subjects either. You need to focus now and prepare well. Don’t think about other irrelevant people or things.”

“Got it.”

“When you took your AS exams, the teacher told me that applying to a Top 100 university was guaranteed, absolutely no problem. But your performance in the exam last winter was not good enough. You can’t get a good finance offer, and your resume and awards aren’t comparable to others. Do you really need your mother to supervise you?”

“I will prepare well these two months,” Yu Zhouwan did not argue. “I’ll do my best.”

“Just ‘doing your best’ isn’t enough. You have to fight for it,” Shi Yunya was not satisfied with her answer. “Keyi, you need to supervise your sister. She’s been distracted a lot these past few months.”

“Okay.” I glanced at the quietly eating Yu Zhouwan.

“Such an obedient girl. Hurry up and eat.” Shi Yunya pushed the dishes closer to the two of us, showing the demeanor of the family’s head of the household who had everything under control.

After dinner, I was about to go and do my own thing, but Yu Hanyang suddenly knocked and came in.

“Doing homework?”

“Mhm.” I twirled the pen in my hand, continuing to work on an electricity problem.

“Did you spend the New Year at your grandma’s house this year?” he tried to be familiar. “Your grandma must have given you a big red envelope.”

“No, I spent it at my uncle’s place.” I saw no need to lie to him about this. “She gave me two hundred. I didn’t take it. I’m almost an adult. Why would I still need New Year’s money? A red envelope as a gesture is enough.”

I tried to remind him not to talk to me in a teasing tone reserved for a child, although for a middle-aged man like him, there was little difference between sixteen and eighteen.

“Your uncle? Wow, have they made up with your grandma now?” Yu Hanyang pressed on. “Is your grandma still living in that old house? Or is she living with your uncle?”

“She’s living with my uncle.”

“Mhm, that’s good. She’s old, and there’s someone to look after her,” Yu Hanyang pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “Your grandparents died early. I didn’t even get a chance to be a dutiful son.”

“This New Year, we went to your Auntie Shi’s hometown, Fengcheng. We can go together sometime. It’s only a half-day drive.”

“Sure.” I didn’t object.

“Oh, right. The things your mother left behind, did your aunt give them all to you?”

“What things?” I turned my head. Yu Hanyang’s eye bags were even more pronounced than when I first saw him in the fall. He looked a bit haggard, suggesting he had plenty to worry about in the latter half of the year.

“You don’t know?”

“She didn’t tell me,” I answered seriously. “I’ll ask her next time I go back.”

“Then I guess they must have burned them all together. Don’t ask, don’t ask,” Yu Hanyang sighed. “I still have photos of your mother on my old phone. If you want them, I can find someone to print them out.”

“Let’s not bother. It’s fine.”

“How can you call it a bother, Keyi? Dad is a rough man. I don’t know how to comfort you. This is all I can do for you…” Yu Hanyang showed subtle dissatisfaction with my blunt refusal. “I failed you and your mother. I’ll give you whatever you want. You and Wanwan are both my daughters. I’m definitely fair to both of you.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Are you still angry with Dad, thinking that I abandoned you both and didn’t care? Alas… It’s complicated adult business that I can’t explain clearly to you right now. Your mother is no longer here, so I thought we should just turn the page.”

“After all, you two are sisters. I thought Wanwan would throw a tantrum. Your Auntie Shi told me she’s an independent child who never gets close to anyone, yet you two get along very well.”

I flipped the page of the exercise book. There was a large problem still blank on the previous page, but with Yu Hanyang talking next to me, I couldn’t fully concentrate on solving it.

“What about you and her?” I asked him. “When did you and Auntie Shi get married?”

“Keyi, your mother and I were separated for more than two years. It’s already considered a default divorce.” He instinctively cleared himself of guilt.

“I mean, how long had you been with her when my mother died?” I unconsciously asked the question I wanted to say, quickly trying to patch up the bluntness. “I’m not interrogating you. I just want to understand why you got back together with Auntie Shi. I still don’t know what kind of person she is. She’s too busy with work. We’ve barely spoken in six months.”

“Her? Alas…” Yu Hanyang slapped his thigh. “That’s just how she is. She talks about ambition, completely dedicating herself to her company. I think she’s obsessed with money and doesn’t care about the family all day long. If you ask me, she’s a mother now. She should be more considerate of her children. The company isn’t going to run away. She’s even changing chairmen.”

“But your Auntie Shi is a good person. She’s kind. Cold on the outside but warm on the inside. When I suggested bringing you over to study, she agreed without even thinking about it.”

“If your relationship with her was so good, why did you break up with her back then and marry my mother?”

“That…” Yu Hanyang couldn’t tell if I was interrogating him or just curious. He was afraid of offending me, but saying nothing would only make him look guilty.

“There were many reasons. Hey, Keyi, I’m only telling you this. Don’t let her find out. You haven’t met her parents. They’re old now, but when they were young, they were truly snobbish. They would do anything. When I was a poor college graduate back then, they looked down their noses at me.”

“Your Auntie Shi and I had been married for over half a year, and they insisted on sending her abroad to study at that critical time.” Yu Hanyang scratched his head, uncomfortable talking about the past.

“Let’s not talk about it, let’s not talk about it. It’s nearly twenty years ago. In the blink of an eye, I’m halfway in the grave. As a family, let’s just live well in the present. Watching you and Wanwan grow up safely, I don’t have any other ambition.”

With that, he tried to turn and leave the room.

“Give me that old phone,” I called out to him. “You don’t need to print the photos. I’ll just keep it and look at them myself.”