Chapter 48: Long Aotian, the Abandoned Son of a Wealthy Family
"... Maybe, I'm your sister, ha, ha."
Wu Lingnan laughed awkwardly twice, and then she wanted to slap herself twice. Help, what is she talking about? This atmosphere is so suffocating, someone come and save me.
Her eyes darted around, and she realized with despair that her good friends, because they were so attentive, were a full fifty meters away from them. No, this was too far!
This is a desolate place, someone please come and rescue her from this awkward situation!
Pei Yichen paused strangely: "So... actually you are my sister"
After all this time, you still don't know who is older and who is younger between us!
Snap——
This time, Wu Lingnan slapped herself mercilessly. She managed to calm down and said, "No, I was just kidding. I am indeed your sister."
The autumn wind blew, and a pile of dead leaves swirled past them. The two looked at each other in silence for a moment.
After a long silence, Wu Lingnan finally overcame her psychological barrier and took the first step to open the conversation: "How did you...find out..." My mother is your mother.
Pei Yichen turned his head away, not looking at her: "I..." he said slowly, "I once saw a portrait of my mother in my father's bedroom."
Wu Lingnan blurted out: "Are you sure the portrait you saw looks like my mother and not specifically like me?"
Pei Yichen's expression was very subtle. He held back his anger and said tactfully, "Then I should have recognized you the first time I saw you."
Oh, yes.
Wu Lingnan realized the difference belatedly, but she still felt something was wrong.
It is known that her mother entered the Pei family's gate with a face that looked very similar to hers, but the portrait hanging in her father's bedroom was not her mother's portrait, but a portrait of her mother's real appearance.
this……
It seems that her father still has feelings for her mother.
Wu Lingnan thought again of the gigolos her mother had found over the years, and her emotions became more complicated. Although she would definitely stand on her mother's side, she still had to say that her mother was truly... a grown-up woman.
Pei Yichen saw Wu Lingnan's expression was not right, and couldn't help but asked curiously: "...what's wrong?" Could it be that there was something else he didn't know?
Pei Yichen had no idea that his father, who appeared cold and ruthless in front of him and acted impartially, was actually a pure-hearted man who had been deceived by his wife and was partial to her, yet he still longed for her portrait to hang in his bedroom and shed tears every day. Wu Lingnan quickly laughed and said,
"No, nothing," she said, anxious to brush the matter off, and hurriedly changed the subject. "By the way, how was your childhood?"
As soon as these brainless words came out, Wu Lingnan couldn't help but want to slap herself a few times. Did her brain run away from home today? Why did she say things she shouldn't have said? How did Pei Yichen live in the past? Couldn't she see it?
Just as she was about to change the subject, Wu Lingnan heard Pei Yichen slowly say:
"I grew up in the Pei family. My father..." His gaze drifted to a blade of grass not far away, and he slowly recalled his childhood. "Although he didn't like me, he never shortchanged me for food, clothing, and other necessities."
His tone was indifferent, and it didn't seem like he was telling his own story, but more like he was recounting someone else's past.
"When I was little, I wanted my father's attention and praise, so I practiced hard day and night. But even after I broke through the third level of Qi training, he never even looked at me. Later, I realized that he didn't want to see me."
"Later, I was stuck at the third level of Qi training for ten years, but the Pei family never lacked resources for my cultivation. I never expected that he was the one who had been bearing the pressure from the clan. But actually..." He sneered, "I just think it's ridiculous."
"In the past three years, I know that people outside have been calling me an ungrateful person." His eyes fluctuated slightly, but he still didn't look at Wu Lingnan. This was the first time he said these words to someone, not even to Old Du.
"He never even glanced at me. He had no idea of the bullying and insults I endured behind my back. Whether it was my clan members, classmates, or even the servants, they all looked at me with a mixture of pity and ridicule. At that time..."
"Actually, what I want most is not to restore my cultivation talent, but hope..." He didn't say any more. Pei Yichen couldn't clearly say what he wanted now. Maybe it was just a hug, or maybe it was a promise. That thought was too far away, even he couldn't remember it clearly. After a long time, he just said:
"I will return all the resources that the Pei family has invested in me over the years." From then on, we cut off all ties.
Wu Lingnan didn't know what to say. How could Pei Yichen summarize the past ten years with just a few words? The past he just mentioned was a memory that she couldn't bear to look back on. She looked at Pei Yichen's cold profile and just said:
"So... the Pei family expelled you..."
Pei Yichen laughed very softly, so softly that it seemed like Wu Lingnan's hallucination: "Partly it was the elders who forced me to do it, and partly I just went with the flow." He said self-deprecatingly, "After all, I'm just a useless person who brought shame to the family, and..."
"I have wanted to leave the Pei family for a long time." He raised his eyes slightly and looked at the light white clouds floating in the distant sky. In a trance, he remembered his small self in the depressing Pei family compound and the free-flying bird he vaguely glimpsed from the corner of the window.
Wu Lingnan listened to Pei Yichen's words quietly. She sat with him quietly for a long time before she gently asked:
"So... do you hate him?"
Pei Yichen remained silent for a long time, his mind racing through the memories of his sixteen years in the Pei family. It turned out that he could remember every time he saw his father clearly. He couldn't explain his feelings towards him. Hatred? He had hated him before, but now...
"...I don't hate him. On the contrary, I just feel sorry for him." He had actually noticed the complicated look his father gave him. He raised the corners of his lips, half laughing, half mocking, "Look, he clearly still loves her, but he doesn't dare to go find her."
How pathetic and cowardly.
Wu Lingnan knew who Pei Yichen was referring to as "her". She frowned slightly, and the two of them were speechless again. Finally, Wu Lingnan slowly spoke:
"My...mom doesn't know how to take care of children. When I was very young, it was actually the other sisters and elders from the Five Immortals Sect who took care of me. Mom would only come to see me occasionally. Back then, she would often pinch my face, deliberately steal my things, and even play tricks on me to make me cry."
Wu Lingnan couldn't help but smile. "Seeing that she bullied me and made me cry, she felt that I was too hot to handle and threw me to the sisters who took care of me to comfort me."
Pei Yichen listened attentively. This was the past of his other two relatives that he did not know about.
"Later, when I was old enough to practice cultivation, my mother brought me home to raise me herself. Only then did she realize how troublesome it was to raise a child. Actually," Wu Lingnan laughed, "I was a very well-behaved child." After all, she was not a real child and was not that noisy.
"But she used to be very harsh on me, with very strict expectations. Sometimes I couldn't stand it and would hide in the room and cry quietly by myself." Wu Lingnan scratched the side of his face. "I'm actually not strong at all, haha, but my mother didn't indulge me. She thought it was the elders who spoiled my bad temper, and then..."
"If it weren't for my mother, I might not have been able to hold on in the initial stage. In fact, she gradually stopped restricting me after I gradually developed my own plans and methods." Wu Lingnan's voice gradually became lower, but the terrifying shadow left by her mother was really impossible to eliminate, causing her to still be frightened.
"...very good." Pei Yichen's drooping eyelashes trembled slightly. He noticed that his eyes were a little wet, and he blinked them back.
Wu Lingnan bit her lower lip, not knowing what to say next. She felt like whatever she said would be a little hurtful: "...I...I didn't mean that. I meant...I'm sorry..."
She was speechless.
"It's okay, I don't care." Pei Yichen turned around and smiled at her. "I know, I also want to know about your past with mother."
"And," his eyes were full of tenderness, as if he was looking at another self, "at least, you live better than me. We are brother and sister, and you live well with our mother. I am very happy." In this way, there is one less child like him in the world.
They are twins, a boy and a girl. Looking at each other is like looking at another similar yet different shadow in the world.
Wu Lingnan stared at him blankly, and suddenly felt a tightness in her chest. She tried to speak: "Actually... Mom is willing to..." take you away.
"Don't say anymore." Pei Yichen interrupted Wu Lingnan's unfinished words, "Don't say anymore, sister. I know everything."
Know...he is the child that his mother does not expect.
Wu Lingnan really couldn't help it, her heart was aching. She wanted to say that it wasn't his fault, in fact, there were people looking forward to his arrival, and he would meet many, many good people in the future. But through her tearful eyes, she vaguely saw Pei Yichen's gentle face, and suddenly she couldn't say anything.
She simply stretched out her left hand and gently touched Pei Yichen's right hand. Pei Yichen's fingers trembled slightly, and he curled up his hand slightly and wanted to retract it, but in the end he did not move. Wu Lingnan stopped testing and directly held his hand tightly.
Pei Yichen was startled. He wanted to pull his hand back, but looking at Wu Lingnan's tearful eyes, he hesitated to give up.
Wu Lingnan wiped her tears with her other hand, moved closer, and smiled brightly at her brother.
Pei Yichen was dazzled by the smile. He tilted his head uncomfortably: "You...don't cry."
He really wasn't sad at all.
Before he met the teacher, he had long been accustomed to being not expected by anyone.
Wu Lingnan didn't even look at him. She just held Pei Yichen's hand tightly, tilted her head back, and forced back the tears that were about to overflow. She smiled and said, "Pei Yichen, no, brother, I'm not the one who should be crying."
"When you're sad, crying will make you feel better." She said softly, "Brother, I'll cry with you, so you won't be alone."
"It's okay, brother, I'm with you." I know you are sad too.
Pei Yichen turned his head away in embarrassment, trying to say that he didn't, but when he felt the warmth from another person on his hand, his eyes couldn't help but become moist.
In fact, he had been looking forward to his mother coming to pick him up, just as he had once imagined in his dreams the image of his father proudly praising him.
【Author’s words】
Pei Zha's father has complicated feelings towards Wu Lingyue and his son, but parents don't say it in advance.
Raising a child is a very complicated matter. Pei Yichen will never forgive his scumbag father.
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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