Chapter 12
Dai Yan sat under the wisteria corridor, shoveling cream into her mouth. The screaming of the machines and the noise of the crowd behind her turned into the buzzing of flies through a layer of glass, which was not as loud as the sound of her chewing.
From a distance, she saw Kang Xingxing, standing under the tree-lined path that led from the outside of the hospital to the high-ranking cadres' ward. She was carrying a schoolbag, holding a crudely made Barbie doll in her right hand and a teddy bear in her left hand. The black and brown curly hair was all patinaed, and the black and white polka dot bow tie was a little faded. She forgot whether Zhou Tiancheng brought it back from Hong Kong or the UK, but Zhou Yue held it almost everywhere she went.
Kang Xingxing just stood under the mottled shadows of the trees, calmly watching the commotion in the hospital corridor through the glass, and then calmly looked at Dai Yan.
He was only eleven years old, but he had grown a lot in the few days she hadn't seen him. Now he was as tall as she was wearing high heels, and very strong. It was a bit oppressive to walk around the house, especially when she sat on the sofa and watched him. It felt like the roof had become shorter. He was still as quiet as when he was a child, silently emerging from a corner and silently walking into a room.
People really know how to deceive themselves. Even if Zhou Tiancheng didn't say it, Kang Xingxing's face is enough to tell the whole story.
Zhou Tiancheng has watery peach blossom eyes, and even the telephone poles look affectionately to him. Kang Xingxing has long and flat single eyelids, and her eyeballs seem to be framed. She doesn't react to anyone she sees, but when she sees Zhou Yue, she will subconsciously lower her eyes as if she is afraid and dodge.
Their voices are also different. Zhou Tiancheng likes to speak in a clear and melodious voice, while Kang Xingxing has a low voice and pronounces every word seriously and in full tones. He has called her "Auntie Dai Yan" over and over again for six years without getting tired of it and with great respect.
Zhou Tiancheng's thin lips floated lightly, and he smiled and spoke sweet words lightly, while Kang Xingxing's thick lips were too heavy to float. He only grinned awkwardly when he saw Zhou Yue, revealing a silly smile with teeth that were too white compared to his face.
Apart from the fact that they are all Chinese, everything else is completely different.
But Dai Yan was so annoyed and hated this damn kid. He made her afraid to even go home.
Every time Zhou Yue came back from her lover's place, he had gone to bed early, but he was still awake. He stood at the bedroom door in a white vest, looking at her silently. After a long time, he called out "Auntie Dai Yan". After that, he didn't say anything, turned around and went back to the bedroom, leaving her alone standing in the dark living room, her heart beating so fast that it was about to jump out of her throat.
He never called Zhou Tiancheng "Dad", only "Uncle Zhou", but in Dai Yan's opinion, he was completely "Zhou Tiancheng's faction".
Zhou Tiancheng would teach him how to change tires and repair the engine of the family's Santana. The father and son, covered in black, would crawl out from under the car, laughing and wrestling with each other.
Zhou Tiancheng usually goes to Guangzhou in autumn. When he is at home in summer, he teaches Kang Xingxing how to fish and tells him that the most important thing for a man is not strong muscles, but brains and patience.
In winter, things were even more bizarre. He got a hunting rifle from nowhere and took Kang Xingxing to the distant mountains to hunt. The two men, one big and one small, dressed up like eagles in black leather coats and mink hats. They carried their hunting rifles and backpacks and headed out into the snowy wild forest. After two or three days, they brought back all sorts of strange things, including hares, deer, and colorful pheasants...
Kang Xingxing's furry, deep eyes sparkled when he looked at Zhou Tiancheng. That was the young male's heartfelt admiration and respect for an older male with leadership charisma.
But all this is not the point. What makes Dai Yan hate Kang Xingxing the most is his attitude towards Zhou Yue. It is a kind of disgust similar to "disgust". Every time he goes to cover Zhou Yue with a quilt, Zhou Yue is rubbed in his arms, and her snow-white arms like lotus roots are around his neck. Her growth rate is far slower than Kang Xingxing. She feels smaller and smaller in his arms, as if she is tightly embedded in his body.
And the way he looked at her—how could Dai Yan not understand the way a man looked at a woman? Time and again, she dragged her daughter to her side, scolding her, telling her not to move, poking her nose with her fingers for a long time before finally letting go and yelling at her with lingering fear, "Stay away from your brother!"
A woman like Dai Yan perfectly illustrates what it means that "there must be something hateful about a pitiful person." She can only love bad men. If not Zhou Tiancheng, there are still Li Tiancheng and Wang Tiancheng, because she despises all good qualities and also despises men with good qualities. In her opinion, Kang Xingxing's "decency" is a waste of a good brain. Unlike Zhou Tiancheng, he is not good at scheming and can navigate the gaps in various policies. To put it bluntly, he can't make a lot of money. If he can't make a lot of money, how can he want to take advantage of Zhou Yue?
She had long noticed that her daughter was pretty. The saying that girls change a lot when they grow up was just a trick to fool average-looking girls. Which beauty wasn't beautiful since childhood?
Dai Yan's beauty is a bit vulgar, or to put it bluntly, she looks worldly. Zhou Tiancheng is decadent and feminine. The couple both look too "soft". Zhou Yue is different. There is a heroic spirit between her eyebrows, which just supports the soft and boneless charm.
Although Dai Yan may not be good at other things, she has a thorough understanding of beauty. She realized early on that her daughter's contradictory and unattractive face was the lever to unlock huge wealth.
The only lesson she'd learned from Zhou Tiancheng was that love is vain, and real money is what truly matters. The thought of handing Zhou Yue, this golden nugget, to Kang Xingxing's shady hands without a cent paid for it filled her with rage. What kind of future could he have? After college, he'd find a job. There were only a few good ones: doctor, engineer, civil servant... but the most likely option was to inherit his late parents' legacy and become a police officer. How much money could a filthy cop make? And before that, she'd have to pay a large sum to send him to college. It was a losing proposition no matter how you looked at it.
"Why are you looking at me?" She smiled and put the last bite of cream cake in her mouth.
Kang Xingxing lowered her head upon hearing this, and only raised it after a long time, looking at the chaotic crowd in the corridor.
The doctors and nurses rushed in in a hurry, and when they came out, their faces were uglier than each other. The onlookers blocked the door of the ward. The sharp whistling sound of the monitor turned into a buzzing sound in his ears, and only the leaves above his head trembled slightly.
"Why do you let Yueyue do this?" He was still as calm as ever, but without "Auntie Dai Yan", the only remaining respect was gone.
This brat has never looked down on her since the day he came into the house. He admires Zhou Tiancheng and loves Zhou Yue. The innocent and happy smile in his black eyes when he looked at them disappeared when he turned to her, like a person who was immersed in a beautiful dream and saw something that shouldn't be in the dream, and woke up all of a sudden.
What a heartless guy! He doesn't even consider who cooked for him, washed his clothes, and raised him to adulthood. Now that he has no backer, how long can he remain arrogant?
Dai Yan put away her smile, stood up and walked to Kang Xingxing, raised her hand and slapped him, her face expressionless and cold, she whispered softly: "She is my child, why do you have to control her?"
The slap made his nose bleed, and the sticky blood dripped into the soil and was quickly absorbed. His face was slapped to the side, and before he could turn around, he was hit a second time, and a third time... Dai Yan's palms were numb from the slaps, and the crisp sound of the slaps made the leaves tremble slightly, but there was no other sound.
Kang Xingxing never resisted Dai Yan. He didn't even say a word when she beat and scolded him. He was an orphan who was grateful for the upbringing of his stepmother, but her viciousness made him feel confused.
In his only remaining memory, his mother was always busy. Once she put on her police uniform, she would not be home for several days. But in the limited time she was with him, she was so gentle. She taught him kindness, courage and integrity. She told him that there were too many bad people in the world and she wanted to catch them all, so she was so busy.
In the eyes of young Kang Xingxing, bad guys are all big bad uncles who must be beaten down severely. However, she doesn't know that a bad guy can also be a delicate woman, a mother. She is very pitiful and often cries because of her husband's infidelity, but she will not hesitate to destroy her daughter who loves her wholeheartedly.
But Dai Yan saw a completely different meaning in all this. This silence filled her with hatred and fear. Just as she was about to hit him again with trembling hands, she heard someone shouting in the distance, "Family members? Where are the family members? Who are Zhou Tiancheng's family members?"
This shout woke her up, and she lowered her palm, which had been raised in the air, softly. She took one last look at Kang Xingxing and said with a dull face, "Don't look at me like that again." Then she walked away like a wandering soul in the direction of the people who were passing by...
Born in 1963, Zhou Tiancheng has been a madman and a self-willed man his entire life. In the words of his businessman, "I've made enough money!" If you told him that he would die in the prosperous year of 2000, he would just laugh a few times, cigarette in hand, and spit, "Die! Who the hell doesn't die!"
During those two years of his glory, some clueless younger brothers would always ask him if he had any regrets in his life. Every time they asked, his flying eyebrows would always darken, but in the blink of an eye, his face would be as if he would rather let others down than be let down by others. He would put his feet up on the table, point his hand to the sky, and say slowly in a drawling tone: "God first, I second. I have never lived for others in my life! Everything is for myself. What is there to regret?"
After he finished speaking, he always had to light another cigarette, look up at the blue sky and white clouds, the tube-shaped buildings were short, and the smell of cooking fumes from the kitchen downstairs floated through the window to the rooftop. It was his favorite braised pork ribs.
"Alas... so I still can't be the emperor!"
He lay on his back in the chair and watched the flames burning half the sky. The younger brothers around him were stunned. No one knew that when the boss smelled the aroma of spare ribs, he thought of Lady Gouyi. He thought that if Lady Gouyi had cooked such a pot of spare ribs for Liu Che before being buried with him, even Emperor Wu of Han, who had unified the world for thousands of years, would not be able to do it.
He never regretted marrying Dai Yan. Did she think she could control him just because she was pregnant? What a joke. No one could force him unless he was willing.
He enjoyed pulling her flying big waves, watching her fox eyes, which were red from the corners of her eyes to her temples, and squinting to make her look so charming. He enjoyed throwing handfuls of banknotes in her face, making the banknotes fly all over the sky, watching her raise her delicate hands to hit his chest, screaming at him, "You are so annoying!", while twisting her slender waist with a smile on her face and crawling on the ground to pick up the banknotes one by one, with those two peach petals swaying and tilting, and he was so excited that he wished he could die.
From the first moment he saw her, he had decided that she would have to cook for him, sleep with him, and bear him children for the rest of her life. Although she had daughters, she could not have a son.
This stupid woman was cruel. She was cruel back then. She tilted her head back and drank half of the abortion medicine for pigs. He slapped the remaining half bottle into the toilet. The daughter was saved after being sent to the hospital, but no matter how he tortured her, her flat stomach didn't move.
He had only one rule in his life: never owe anyone anything, and that applied to her as well. So, Yueyue was his only daughter, but after thinking about it, what was wrong with that? Didn't Chairman Mao say that women hold up half the sky?
But he also regretted that he felt sorry for Yueyue.
He saw through Dai Yan at first sight. A woman can be stupid or bad, but she cannot be both stupid and bad. So he made up his mind early on that when he was about to die, he would take her with him. The money he earned was enough for his daughter to spend for the rest of her life, not to mention that she also had Kang Xingxing.
That day she was sleeping on the hospital bed. After he woke up, he leaned against the pillow and looked at her for a long time, looking at her gray hair roots and her hands that were swollen like carrots. The ring was not a wedding ring. He was so poor when they got married that he just bought her one at a street stall. The next year it was so black that it was unrecognizable. He had forgotten how many diamond rings she was wearing now. It fit her hand perfectly originally, but now it was so tight that it was about to break. In the end, the fruit knife that was against the center of her head became his gently caressed hand.
So Zhou Tiancheng had no regrets. Even though the King of Hell had told him that repentance would lead to an early reincarnation, he still firmly believed that what happened with Dai Yan could not be called regret. Those who regretted it were short-sighted losers. How could he, so smart, not know the consequences? It was reluctance, inability to let go, the love he had written in half-written words with a bright red pen on his hospital bed!
It was also fate, his fate, Dai Yan's fate, and the fate of Zhou Yue and Kang Xingxing. It happened long before Zhou Yue was born, long before that bloody evening.
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