Chapter 24: A Father’s Love Like a Slap
The young man before him wore a smile in his brows and eyes, looking at him with open curiosity. Since it was their first meeting, it was only natural to observe the other person’s looks a little more.
An Yi’s features were strikingly vivid, and among them, his eyes were the brightest part of all, like glossy black grapes. His skin was very fair, as if he had never been out in the sun.
It could be said that this face was outstanding to an extreme degree.
An Yuan was stunned for several seconds. Looking at the bright-eyed, white-toothed person before him, the tangle in his heart deepened by a few more layers as he stared at the small hand of friendship An Yi had extended toward him.
An Yuan hesitated a little.
No matter how one put it, the two of them now stood on opposite sides where interests were concerned. If he acted too friendly, would the other side see right through him and think he was easy to handle or something?
But looking at An Yi’s beautiful smile, An Yuan gritted his teeth.
Who could resist a sweet cutie?!
Just a light shake, just a light shake.
Just as An Yuan reached out, planning to shake hands with him, the person who had been standing only a few steps in front of him vanished in an instant, replaced by a tall and imposing figure.
An Yuan: ???
He slowly lifted his head to look.
Damn, a giant black bear!
Huo Beixing was nearly one meter ninety tall. After all, he was the type who played around outside, and he kept himself disciplined with year-round workouts, so there was absolutely nothing to criticize in terms of his body and appearance. An Yuan was not short either, standing at one meter eighty-four, but he did not have the same overt masculine aura as the other man. His build looked a whole size smaller than Huo Beixing’s, not especially sturdy.
Whether it was because the man was taller and looking down at him or for some other reason, An Yuan always felt as if the other party were radiating a strong hostility toward him, even though this was the first time they had ever met.
An Yi had passively triggered his blink skill. By the time his feet found their balance, he was already standing behind Huo Beixing. Just now, he had not even gotten a proper look at what An Yuan looked like, so he suddenly poked his head out from behind Huo Beixing.
“HI~~”
!
Beauty and the Beast!
Actually, when Huo Beixing was not wearing a dark expression, the stunning level of his looks was beyond challenge. But now, with the buff of a villain setting added on, he looked terrifying.
Before he turned stupid, he had always carried that easy, flirtatious air of a playboy. That face had attracted who knew how many wild bees and butterflies. An Yuan had heard the rumors about him before. Now that he was stupid, all his emotions were written directly on his face.
Looking at An Yi’s smiling face as he greeted him, An Yuan felt a little dazed. He had just been about to return the greeting when he received Huo Beixing’s death stare.
Huo Beixing looked down at him from above, those peach blossom eyes seeming to wish they could toss him into a zoo to keep the gorillas company.
He had disliked this man from the very first glance, and on top of that, this little dwarf had actually wanted to shake his wife’s hand.
Facing Huo Beixing’s death stare, An Yuan: ……
It felt like if he dared to greet him, then in the next second his head and body would be separated and sent off to live their own separate lives.
The moment Chen Lin saw Huo Beixing, her mouth formed a round O, exactly the same surprised expression An Yi made on a daily basis. Looking at Huo Beixing’s hard, sturdy frame, those broad shoulders, narrow waist, and nine-heads-tall proportions—
Her mind suddenly flashed back to her dearly departed hunky-men magazines.
Before this, she had not had much of a good impression of Huo Beixing. Rumor had it he was a lustful, fickle playboy, always changing the people around him one wave after another, with none of the best dowry a man could offer.
But looking at the son-in-law before her now, although he might not have had that “dowry,” his build and appearance truly left nothing to be desired.
As for him turning stupid—she still did not know whether that was good or bad for An Yi.
Previously, she had always thought there was probably just some small problem with him, perhaps he had simply collided with a bad stretch of fate. Wealthy families all believed in feng shui and destiny, so they had consulted a fortune-teller and arranged for An Yi to marry into the Huo family.
Back then, Chen Lin had been so upset she could not sleep night after night, thinking: what if Huo Beixing never changed his ways, married An Yi, and then continued going out and attracting bees and butterflies? But only after An Yi married over did she find out that Huo Beixing had actually gone stupid.
For a moment, she did not know whether she ought to feel unhappy or heartbroken. In any case, there was nothing to be happy about.
Now, seeing An Yi completely shielded behind him, with not even a strand of hair peeking out, Chen Lin began to worry again.
Would he bully An Yi by taking advantage of his stronger physique?
Since Huo Beixing had gotten married, it was impossible that the Huo family had taught him nothing at all. Some things were also just instinct. And with a nature like his, even if he had gone stupid, there was no guarantee those instincts had disappeared. Besides, he was only twenty-five, right in the prime of youth. Combine that with his current eight-year-old mentality, and what did that make him if not a hot-blooded young brute?!
Looking at An Yi’s little frame, how could he possibly endure that?
No, when there was no one around later, she had to ask him. If he really was being bullied, how could that possibly do?
Humans were creatures with self-preservation instincts. Out of regard for his own physical safety, An Yuan ultimately only responded to An Yi’s greeting with his eyes and did not step forward.
After dinner, while Huo Beixing became interested in the family’s little dog, Chen Lin pulled An Yi aside.
Looking at Chen Lin’s worried expression, An Yi was a little surprised.
Did he have a grain of rice stuck to his face?
He raised a hand and touched his cheek.
No, nothing there.
Then he asked, “Mom, what’s wrong?”
Chen Lin held his hand. “Yiyi, tell Mom the truth. After going to the Huo family, have you been living well? Does that child Beixing bully you? Do you two fight?”
An Yi felt a burst of guilt under her gaze.
Fight? The two of them practically fought every day.
Come to think of it, recently Huo Beixing really had liked bullying him quite a bit. The hunky-men magazine had nearly died in his hands.
But An Yi knew these things absolutely could not be said to Chen Lin. Her tear ducts seemed naturally overdeveloped. Once she started crying, it was never a matter of just a short while.
And besides, if he really did say it, then no matter how much anyone tried to comfort her later, Chen Lin would fall into a cocoon of guilt and shut herself inside it. Rather than waste breath soothing her afterward, it would be better to cut the road off at the source now and put up a big sign saying Under Maintenance.
What Chen Lin mainly worried about was that Huo Beixing might bully him, that he wouldn’t be able to fight back, and that he would suffer hurt and humiliation.
Thinking about whether An Yi suffered in that area, and knowing he was shy, Chen Lin asked in a more roundabout way, “Have you been sleeping well at the Huo family? Any insomnia?”
An Yi did not catch her meaning. “Pretty well. No insomnia.”
Since childhood, give An Yi a quilt and he could sleep anywhere.
Although on his first day at the Huo family house he had been a little unaccustomed to sleeping there—because the mattress was too soft, so that the moment he lay down, it felt like sinking into cotton—An Yi’s psychological quality and adaptability were both strong. By the second half of the night, he had already fallen into a deep sleep.
Chen Lin pressed her lips together and asked a little more directly. “Then when he fights with you, do you suffer? Do you get bullied?”
An Yi: !
How did she know he and Huo Beixing fought?!
Looking at Chen Lin’s worried, sorrowful expression, although he had no idea who had told her that, it was still best to stop her from worrying. After all, although he and Huo Beixing did fight, there had never really been any substantial harm. More importantly, several times it had actually been Little Frog who captured the high ground and emerged victorious, with glorious battle achievements to his name.
So he smiled and said to Chen Lin, “Mom, you don’t need to worry about that.”
Chen Lin said, “How could I not worry? That child Beixing is so much taller and stronger than you. And right now he only understands so much. He might not know how to cherish people. What if he doesn’t know how to control himself and—”
“It’s really okay.” An Yi patted his small chest. “I used to work in the fields almost every day, and whenever I had spare time I’d run around and play in the mountains too. I’m in good health.”
In summary: durable.
Chen Lin’s pupils shook in an earthquake.
But looking at An Yi’s easy expression, he did not seem to be speaking against his heart, and her own heart relaxed a little. Even so, she still could not fully set her mind at ease. She looked at An Yi’s small frame, then looked at Huo Beixing.
His mind was immature now, so maybe he did everything purely based on mood.
But no matter how durable her An Yi was, the other side still had to know how to be gentle!
For a moment, she felt that An Yi was just like the little white dog currently hopping around beside Huo Beixing—there was simply too great a difference in strength.
An Yi sat with Chen Lin for a while before An Shaofeng called him into the study. An Yuan, who had originally only been watching from the side, instantly became alert.
Chen Lin walked over to Huo Beixing to see if she could find any topic to talk about with the child. After all, the An and Huo families were now related by marriage. Even though Huo Beixing’s mind was incomplete, his thoughts were simple. Since he had come to their home, they could not just leave him to entertain himself alone—it would be too rude. Not to mention that she was the elder here.
“Beixing, would you like something sweet to eat?”
Taking advantage of the moment while Chen Lin was speaking with Huo Beixing, An Yuan got up from the sofa and headed upstairs to the third floor.
His heart beat uneasily in his chest as he wondered what exactly An Shaofeng had said after calling An Yi into the study.
Was it about the will he had seen yesterday?
An Yuan began spiraling into wild thoughts.
Now that An Yi had returned, had he become an outsider?
Would the An family still be his home in the future?
He had never wanted to be switched at birth. That had not been his intention either. He was a victim too. He had always felt guilty toward An Yi; sometimes just thinking about it kept him awake all night. Would An Yi also think he owed him something?
But he had his own grievances too.
He had never received fatherly love. That was something An Yi had. Since An Yi had grown up all the way in the mountain ravines, surely his adoptive parents must have treated him quite well. He had at least received the emotional warmth An Yuan himself craved.
When An Yi came out of the study, before he could even head downstairs, An Yuan pulled him into a music room. The room was elegantly decorated, and a piano stood in the center.
Being dragged in so suddenly startled An Yi. Looking at An Yuan’s tense, hesitant expression, An Yi felt the other man was acting strangely. He did not know why he looked this way. Although he had heard Chen Lin mention him before, this was still his first time seeing him in person.
Blinking at him, An Yi asked, “What’s wrong?”
An Yuan pressed his lips together. “What did Dad say to you when he called you into the study?”
Before An Yi could answer, he continued, “Did Dad talk about the shares? He wants to give you all of the company shares he holds!”
An Yi: ???
What shares?
An Yi had no idea what the other man was talking about.
After An Shaofeng called him in, he had assumed the man would talk with him about work or career matters. After all, with this bargain-bin dad, An Yi did not really have many topics to talk about. But instead, An Shaofeng had only given him a few newly released European and American editions of hunky-men magazines.
The last time An Yi left home, An Shaofeng seemed to notice that he quite liked that version of the magazine. Although the sight of them annoyed him, he had still thickened his old skin and asked someone abroad to buy them back for him.
An Yi was afraid that taking them downstairs from the study would be too conspicuous. Besides, Huo Beixing now regarded hunky-men magazines as a thorn in his eye, so he had temporarily left them in the study, planning to take them when they departed.
Looking at An Yuan, An Yi felt that he seemed a bit neurotic. “We didn’t talk about that.”
They had not talked about it, but sooner or later those things would all be An Yi’s anyway.
An Yuan knew he could not fight for them, because fundamentally none of those things had ever been his. The resources the An family gave, the status of being the An family’s young master—none of it belonged to him.
It gave rise to an unprecedented sense of crisis in him. Ever since An Yi had been recognized and brought back, he had been terrified. Terrified that at any moment An Shaofeng would sweep him out of the house, because An Shaofeng had never had that much affection for him.
And after learning that An Shaofeng had quit smoking because of An Yi, An Yuan had been even more shocked. An Shaofeng had always championed profit above all else. He was not someone who would change himself because of others, let alone quit something addictive like smoking just because An Yi had told him to.
He simply could not compare to An Yi.
An Yi felt that, rather than talking to others, the other man was currently more suited to being alone with himself. He turned and prepared to leave. “I still have things to do.”
Seeing that he was about to go, An Yuan hurriedly called out, “Wait!”
An Yi turned to look at him: ?
An Yuan stood there. He knew he had taken many things that should have belonged to An Yi. But he had not meant to. He really had not meant to. The repression he had been holding in for so long was beginning to show signs of exploding.
“What happened back then, when we were switched, was an accident. I never meant to replace you. I only found out a few months ago that I’m not the An family’s child.”
An Yi did not know what exactly he was trying to say. After all, this topic was quite sensitive between the two of them. As long as the other party did not provoke him, An Yi did not want to bring it up, because he feared it might give rise to resentment in his own heart.
No matter what his personality was like, he was still human.
He had lived a hard life in the mountains, so hard that it wore him down to the point of being unable to lift his head. Truthfully, he very much resisted seeing how polished and bright An Yuan’s life had been, because it would make him imagine how wonderful it would have been if he had never been switched at birth at all.
But imagination was imagination. Things had already become fixed. If he lived on fueled by resentment, all he would do was bind himself up and trap himself in a vicious circle he could never escape.
Besides, in the first twenty-three years of his life, he had also had many moments of joy amid hardship. Watching the sunrise and sunset from the mountaintops, going down to the river to catch fish and splash around in the water. The girls in the village often came to play with him too. Whenever they wove flower crowns, they would always make one for him as well, though as a grown young man he had been a little too embarrassed to wear them.
He felt that in a person’s life, the happy things ought to outweigh the unhappy ones. Otherwise, no matter how blessed you were, you still would not feel it. All you would do was think about what you lacked, what in life had treated you unfairly.
If he lived like that, then he would not be Little Frog anymore.
The reason Little Frog was Little Frog was because even at the bottom of the well, he always remembered to sing.
He did not sing of hardship.
He sang of his joy and his longing.
That was why he had shown goodwill to An Yuan. After all, the other party could not possibly have expected such a bloody melodramatic thing to fall upon him either. He simply hoped the two of them could get along well.
Meeting An Yi’s probing gaze, An Yuan said, “Even though we were switched, and you were forced into the mountains to live a miserable life, I… I also had things that didn’t go well. I had grievances too.”
“When I was little, Dad didn’t like me very much. He never came to parent-teacher meetings, never cared about me. I never once felt fatherly love.”
“But An Yi, you did. You had the fatherly love that I didn’t.”
At that, An Yi frowned.
He did not know why the other man insisted on comparing these things. He did not want to compare, because once you dug these matters up, they felt bad in the heart.
An Yuan said, “I’m miserable too. Same as you.”
He wanted to feel better that way. Since An Yi had not lived a good life, then at least he himself had not received fatherly love either.
An Yi fell silent for a moment. His eyes darkened a little, and in a low voice he said, “We’re not the same.”
An Yuan froze, looking at a loss. “But you did have fatherly love. Your adoptive father gave you fatherly love. I can’t return the good life I used to live back to you, but can the fatherly love you got be returned to me?”
An Yi said, “If you want it, then of course I can return it to you.”
An Yuan was a little dumbfounded.
How was that supposed to be returned?
The next second, An Yi bent down, kicked off one slipper, and picked it up in his hand.
An Yuan: ???
Holding the slipper, An Yi smacked it against the cabinet beside him.
The force was so great it cut through the air with a sharp whoosh.
Then he lifted his eyes and looked at An Yuan.
An Yi: “Come on.”
An Yuan: !!!
