Father and Son

The neon lights on the street were flashing brightly, and the street lights cast a warm dim light. The two parked their electric motorcycles on the side of the road and sat on the curb.

Lu Xiye took a spoon and ate the strawberry cupcake in his hand. Jiang Zhizhi took out two cans of Coke from her handbag, placed one at Lu Xiye's feet, and took the other one for herself.

In her previous life, she would never have imagined that she would be so close to Lu Xiye. Fate is sometimes really amazing.

"You should have reminded me earlier that today is your birthday. That way, Rongrong would be here too and it would be more lively." Jiang Zhizhi took a sip of Coke and glanced at Lu Xiye who was eating heartily beside her. She felt an indescribable feeling in her heart.

She is actually not very good at socializing and is not very good at facing such situations alone.

"Come on, I don't want her to celebrate my birthday. She has nothing but bad things to say about me."

Li Rongrong made fun of him on the playground that day, and he was still angry about it.

Lu Xiye quickly finished the last bite of the strawberry cupcake, opened his favorite cola, took a big gulp, and showed a happy and satisfied expression.

"Cheers!" He handed the can of Coke to Jiang Zhizhi and said happily.

The atmosphere seemed to have completely relaxed. Jiang Zhizhi also raised her lips and smiled, clinking glasses with him, "Cheers."

After finishing the Coke, the two rode their electric bikes home.

As soon as he arrived at the entrance of the community, Lu Xiye saw that the lights on the fourth floor where he lived were on.

"Aunt Zhou must have forgotten to turn off the lights after cleaning in the afternoon," he complained.

"Maybe it's your father, here to celebrate your birthday."

Lu Xiye frowned, "What time is it? There's no way he can come."

"Let's go back and take a look."

When they arrived at the apartment building, Jiang Zhizhi entered the house on the first floor, and Lu Xiye continued to walk upstairs.

He still couldn't quite believe that Lu Hengshan would come specially to celebrate his birthday.

But in my heart, I still hold a glimmer of hope.

Standing at the door of his house, he took a deep breath and opened the door with his key.

As soon as he entered, he smelled a strong smell of alcohol.

It was Lu Hengshan, he really came.

But it was after I got drunk.

This made Lu Xiye feel even more uncomfortable.

He glanced at the sofa in the living room. Lu Hengshan was dressed in a suit and tie, half lying on the sofa. On the coffee table in front of him was a three-layer cake, and next to it was an exquisitely wrapped gift box.

Why... did you come so late?

Why hasn't he sent me even a Happy Birthday text message since he opened his eyes in the morning?

Lu Xiye had already given up hope, but when he saw Lu Hengshan really coming, his emotions suddenly surged out again.

"Xiao Ye? You're back." Lu Hengshan woke up when he heard the noise. Because he was drunk, his eyes were a little blurry and his speech was not very clear.

Lu Xiye didn't want to pay attention to him, so he went straight to his bedroom in a bad mood.

"Stop!" Lu Hengshan's voice suddenly became stern. He stood up and walked in front of Lu Xiye. His height of over 1.8 meters was full of oppression. "Dad, come here, don't you even say hello?"

Lu Xiye felt like he could hardly breathe. If Lu Hengshan spoke to him in a nice way, he might have given in, but his current behavior made Lu Xiye extremely disgusted.

Especially the smell of alcohol on his body, which further stimulated Lu Xiye's already limited rationality.

"You'd better not come over." Lu Xiye said in a low voice.

"What did you say?"

Lu Xiye looked up, fearlessly gazing at the drunken man before him, and growled resentfully, "I told you it would be better if you didn't come here! What are you doing here? Are you here to get drunk and go crazy with me?"

"I'm here to celebrate your birthday! Do you know how busy I am today? I was busy with social events until nine in the evening, and I rushed over to celebrate your birthday. What else do you want? I'm busy from morning till night every day, trying to please those powerful people, all for the sake of giving you a better life! I do it all for you! Can't you feel how much I love you? How can you be so cold-blooded!"

Lu Hengshan was in a bad mood today, but he still suppressed himself and came to celebrate Lu Xiye's birthday.

He saw in the news that Lu Xiye's grades in the midterm exam had improved greatly, and he felt comforted. He thought today would be a warm night between father and son, but he didn't expect Lu Xiye to treat him like this.

For a moment, under the influence of alcohol, he grabbed Lu Xiye's shoulders, his nails almost digging into Lu Xiye's flesh, and his emotions were almost insane.

The hideous and terrifying face of Lu Hengshan in front of him was like a knife stabbing into Lu Xiye's heart. He endured the pain in his shoulder and said in pain and collapse: "I'm cold-blooded? You actually said I'm cold-blooded? Saying you love me is ridiculous! It's obvious that you only love yourself the most! I have always hoped that you can love me, that you only have me in your heart, but the love I get is always just the little bit you spill in your spare time! What's the difference between your love for me and your love for kittens and puppies?"

"You're so ungrateful! Look at your peers. Who has more pocket money than you? Who lives a better life than you?"

"I'd rather not live like this! I just want my family to be together happily, not just me in an empty house! Do you know how much I envy Jiang Zhizhi? I envy her mother's unconditional love for her! I heard people say that as long as the mother is still alive, the home is still there. My mother is dead, and I have no home anymore. All I have is a cold father..."

“Bang!”

A slap landed hard on Lu Xiye's face.

"Do you think you're the only one dissatisfied? I'm not a qualified father, so are you a qualified son? Other children know how to be filial to their parents and respect their elders, but you only ever provoke me! Do you know how many people laugh at me behind my back for having such a useless son like you? But even so, I have to clean up your mess and consider your future, just because I'm your father!"

Lu Hengshan's slap was filled with pent-up resentment, and under the influence of alcohol, he didn't even have an ounce of strength left.

Lu Xiye's face twisted unexpectedly, his lips were scratched by his teeth, and bright red blood flowed out.

The air fell silent for a moment.

After Lu Hengshan finished fighting, he remembered that today was Lu Xiye’s birthday.

But it's too late.

"Is this your birthday present for me?" Lu Xiye covered his face. The burning pain made his heart extremely cold. "That's right, you are not a qualified father, and I am not a qualified son. Knowing this, everything is clear. I will no longer expect your fatherly love."

After saying that, he walked around Lu Hengshan, entered his bedroom, and closed the door with a bang.

Lu Hengshan sat back weakly on the sofa in the living room and lit a cigarette silently.

Suddenly, the phone in my pocket rang twice.

Lu Hengshan took out his cell phone and found it was a text message from Jiang Zhizhi.

[Hello, uncle. I'm Jiang Zhizhi. Lu Xiye scored 675 on his midterm exam, ranking 132nd in his grade. Given his current grades, I suggest transferring him to a secondary or key class, which would be more beneficial for his studies.]

Looking at the message sent by Jiang Zhizhi, Lu Hengshan was stunned for a long time.

But in the end he still replied.

【I see. 】

*

The next day, Lu Xiye did not go to school. When Jiang Zhizhi returned home in the evening, she found out that he had a high fever.

He had a fever all night long. It was not until 6:30 in the morning when Aunt Zhou came to make breakfast for him that she discovered that her temperature had reached over 42 degrees Celsius when she measured it with a thermometer.

Aunt Zhou was so scared that she quickly took Lu Xiye to the hospital.

After he came back from the IV drip in the afternoon to reduce his fever, Aunt Zhou got off work and Cheng Yuping was still upstairs taking care of him.

When Jiang Zhizhi arrived at his house, she saw the still-unopened three-layer cake in the living room. It had been there for a day and looked soft, sticky, and damp.

As expected, his father came yesterday, but the two of them did not open the cake.

Did you have a fight?

"Zhizhi? You're here? That's great. I cooked apple porridge for Xiaoye. You can go and get some." Cheng Yuping came out of the kitchen holding a bowl of hot, sweet and soft white porridge, which exuded a strong apple aroma.

Jiang Zhizhi served herself a bowl of apple porridge and went to Lu Xiye's room to eat together.

Lu Xiye lay on the bed, leaning against the backrest. He looked completely different from his usual arrogant appearance and looked completely listless.

Cheng Yuping fed him carefully, mouthful by mouthful, and blew gently on each mouthful twice for fear that it would be burned.

Lu Xiye was so well-behaved that he didn't say a word and just ate in silence.

Jiang Zhizhi looked at them and thought about how her mother had taken care of her in the same way when she was sick in her previous life, and she felt warm in her heart.

Cheng Yuping finished the whole bowl of porridge for Lu Xiye and sighed helplessly, "Silly child, you didn't say anything when you were sick. If your Aunt Zhou hadn't found out, do you know how serious the consequences would be? 42 degrees, people will go crazy with fever. Next time you get sick, you must call Aunt Zhou, okay?"

She felt very sorry for Lu Xiye, a child who lost his mother at such a young age and whose father didn't care much for him. He was all alone, which was really pitiful.

"Okay, I understand." Lu Xiye nodded obediently.

*

At the class meeting on Monday afternoon, Lu Xiye was officially transferred to Class 1 and his seat was in the last row of the classroom.

But for some reason, he became very silent. He didn't talk to others during class breaks, but just did his homework and read books silently.

"My goodness, is that Lu Xiye? Am I dazzled?" Li Rongrong rubbed her eyes exaggeratedly and asked Jiang Zhizhi in front of her.

"Yes, it's him." Jiang Zhizhi nodded.

"Of course I know it's him, but how did he become like this? He's like an autistic child. It's really hard to get used to him." Li Rongrong said with a sigh.

Jiang Zhizhi said calmly, "Maybe it's because I'm in a bad mood."

He has become like this since his birthday. Although he tries to do his homework carefully, he always makes a lot of mistakes.

Something must have happened that night...

However, judging by his situation, he probably doesn't want outsiders to know.

"Hey, I'll try and see if it's a real person." Li Rongrong said, getting up from her seat, walking around and coming behind Lu Xiye.

Suddenly, she turned her body to the side and her elbow "just happened" to poke Lu Xiye on the head.

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry, Lu Xiye, are you okay?" Li Rongrong hurriedly touched Lu Xiye's head with a smile as if to comfort him.

However, before she could touch Lu Xiye, she was blocked by Lu Xiye's arm.

"Li Rongrong, are you sick?" Lu Xiye was speechless and cursed irritably.

Li Rongrong crossed her arms calmly, "Oh, so you can talk now? I thought you'd become mute after not seeing you for a few days. We're old classmates, and you didn't even come over to say hello when you were in the same class."

"Why should I say hello to you? Go away, don't disturb my studies!" Lu Xiye waved his hand at her disdainfully, as if to drive away an annoying fly.

Li Rongrong was infuriated by this action. "You're crazy! People are kind enough to talk to you, but you deserve to be ignored!"

She walked away with her head held high like a little peacock and returned to her seat, still feeling angry.

"It's hilarious! He's the last in the class, and yet he told me not to bother him! I could get a higher score than him even with my eyes closed!" Li Rongrong complained to Jiang Zhizhi in a bad mood, "I'm never going to talk to him again!"