This was the first time he had ever felt truly helpless.
He had actually had a very smooth life, rarely encountering problems that were truly unsolvable, and if he did, Qin Zigui was always there for him.
Qin Zigui was very smart, smarter than everyone else he had ever met. He seemed to know everything, understand everything, and be able to solve everything for him.
So from the time he could remember, he was very dependent on Qin Zigui, and Qin Zigui always took care of him.
But what if Qin Zigui leaves?
But why would Qin Zigui leave?
He clearly promised himself he wouldn't leave; he always keeps his word.
Sheng Yan lowered his head and rubbed his eyes, trying not to let some kind of liquid fall out.
Anyway, he won't let Qin Zigui leave.
He has always been an unreasonable and domineering person since he was a child. Since Qin Zigui said it was his, no one else could take it away.
Thinking it over, Sheng Yan took a deep breath, took out his phone, and decided to try calling Ms. Xu.
But just as I took out my phone, there was a noise at the door.
Sheng Yan hurriedly went outside and saw a young man wearing a black skull T-shirt and jeans casually changing his shoes at the door. The young man seemed surprised to see him: "Sheng Yan, what are you doing here? Didn't you go to the hospital?"
"What hospital?" Sheng Yan felt that Jiang Fei must know something.
Jiang Fei slowly changed his shoes: "What hospital could it be? The Municipal People's Hospital. My aunt hasn't been feeling well for the past few days. Last night, she was vomiting and suddenly fainted, so she was taken to the Municipal People's Hospital. They said it's because she's an elderly pregnant woman and so on. I don't really understand, but it was quite dangerous. They were busy for most of the day, and she's only just stabilized. Your grandparents and my uncle all rushed over to be with her, even my grandmother came. Didn't you know?"
Sheng Yan didn't know.
His family never tells him about things that would worry him, distract him, or that he wouldn't be able to help with.
Is that why I didn't have time to answer his call?
"What about Qin Zigui?" Sheng Yan asked, his fingers digging into his palms with tension.
Jiang Fei, however, didn't seem to care: "I don't know. Anyway, my grandma said she was coming to take care of my aunt. There was no room at home, and her dad came looking for her, so we asked her to vacate the place. But it seems she has a bit of heatstroke, and it's quite serious. She should be at the hospital getting an IV drip right now, with her dad with her."
The moment he finished speaking, Sheng Yan had already bypassed him, run to the elevator, and frantically pressed the down button.
Worry, anxiety, fear, hope, wishful thinking, prayer.
Sheng Yan couldn't describe his feelings. He only knew that he wanted to see Qin Zigui as soon as possible. As long as he saw Qin Zigui, he wouldn't let Qin Zigui leave.
The hospital was exactly two kilometers from home, but given the terrain of Nanwu, taking a taxi was not as fast as running, so Sheng Yan ran there as fast as he could.
The summer nights during the dog days of summer are so still that there isn't even a breeze. The air is scorching hot and clings to one's skin, making it almost impossible to breathe.
When Sheng Yan arrived at the hospital, the back of his T-shirt was soaked with sweat. He then rushed into the air-conditioned room without resting for even a second and ran straight to the infusion room.
In the quiet, sparsely populated infusion room late at night, he ran to the door and saw Qin Zigui lying quietly in the corner of the first row.
He must have finished his IV drip and was sleeping. He was a tall, large man, leaning against a narrow chair, his eyes and brows filled with exhaustion. His skin, which was usually so pale it looked unreal, was now covered with an abnormal and uneven red, which was distributed on his bare arms and neck. It was obvious at a glance that he had sunburned.
Qin Zigui can't stand the sun, and today is the hottest day of the summer so far. How could he have gotten so sunburned for no reason and even suffered from heatstroke?
Sheng Yan felt his eyes starting to sting again.
But he can't be sarcastic, otherwise Qin Zigui will definitely laugh at him.
Sheng Yan took a deep breath, trying his best to hide all his bad emotions so that Qin Zigui wouldn't notice. However, before he could go forward, he saw a man in a suit and tie carrying a water glass walk out of the water dispenser on the other side.
The man sat down next to Qin Zigui and asked, somewhat reservedly yet feigning friendliness, "Zigui, are you feeling better?"
Qin Zigui kept his eyelids closed and did not respond, his indifference evident in his expression.
The man put down his water glass, folded his hands on his knees, and sighed: "Zigui, I know you blame me, hate me, resent me, that's okay, but if you come with me, I can still make it up to you. What's the point of you staying here? You saw how Old Madam Jiang treated you today. What else can you do but suffer if you stay here?"
"I wasn't mistreated," Qin Zigui replied calmly with his eyes closed.
The man seemed to think he was showing off: "Isn't this considered being bullied? That kid from the Sheng family, one phone call and you had to search for his things for three whole hours under the scorching sun. After you found them and delivered them, you were called to the hospital. When you got to the hospital, before you could even exchange two words, that old lady Jiang made you make room. You suffered from heatstroke and sunburn, and did anyone even ask you a single question? Are these people really worth you staying?"
"They don't deserve it, but do you?" Qin Zigui asked without even lifting his eyelids, his tone almost sarcastic.
The man paused slightly, then softened his voice: "I know it was my fault for not taking you with me back then, but I had my reasons. I'm coming back now to make it up to you. If you come with me, all of our family's businesses will be yours. If you want to study abroad or start a business, I can provide the funding. You won't have to live under someone else's roof anymore, being pointed at and gossiped about. If you miss this place, you can come back to visit often. There's nothing wrong with that."
Qin Zigui remained silent.
The man seemed to be getting impatient too: "Why are you so stubborn, child? Yes, they took you in and took care of you, but I also said I can pay back all the money you've spent over the years. Didn't you hear what that old lady Jiang said about you? She said you're an outsider, a cuckoo in their nest, coveting their family's property. And before, your aunt was good to you because she didn't have any children. They were counting on you to take care of them in their old age. But now they have their own biological children. In their eyes, you're just an outsider dividing the family property. Why can't you understand this?"
These were clearly nothing more than the most mercenary words, but every single one of them, when they reached Sheng Yan's ears, made him feel a sharp pain in his heart.
So Qin Zigui is a liar. He said he could find it by calling the KTV, but he actually searched for it for three hours under the scorching sun, going back and forth along that street. He just wouldn't tell me that.
That's why he left his things outside the door and left without waiting to see me; he was afraid I would find out he was sunburned.
Moreover, even though he had already suffered from heatstroke and sunburn, he was still chased away by the old lady of the Jiang family.
That's where Qin Zigui has lived for several years. Why should she be forced to leave just because she says so?
How can you say hurtful things like "a stranger who has taken over someone else's family home," "coveting the family fortune," or "you won't want him anymore once you have your own child"?
How could that old lady be so mean to Qin Zigui?
How could Qin Zigui be so good-natured as to ask him to vacate his home?
When Sheng Yan thought of how Qin Zigui, such a proud person, could simply pack his things and leave without saying a word when faced with that unreasonable old lady, he knew that even after so many years, Qin Zigui still felt that he was a burden and an unnecessary person, so he never dared to ask for anything more or make any demands.
The only request he had ever made in the past ten years was probably to be given a formal title, but he had simply let Qin Zigui indulge him without any fear of reprisal.
How could I be so bad?
Qin Zigui's father clearly knew what truly hurtful words were, and he sighed, "Zigui, if you come with me, I can do my best to make it up to you, but if you stay, you will always be a person without a home."
At that moment, Sheng Yan finally couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward, grabbed Qin Zigui's hand, and stood in front of him, saying to the man, "You're talking nonsense! Who said Qin Zigui doesn't have a home! My home is Qin Zigui's home!"
When teenagers face real adults, they try to show their fearlessness with the greatest momentum, but the sobs in their voices betray the delicate, sensitive and fragile emotions that only teenagers have.
Qin Zigui opened her eyes upon hearing his voice, looking somewhat surprised: "Ayan, what brings you here?"
Sheng Yan turned around and glared at him fiercely: "Shut up first, I'll settle the score with you later."
Then, looking at the middle-aged man again, she said with unusual certainty, "Qin Zigui will not go with you."
When Qin Zigui's father saw him, he was slightly taken aback at first, but then quickly realized: "You must be that kid from the Sheng family."
Sheng Yan didn't deny it: "Yes, I am that kid from the Sheng family, the one who cried and chased after you and bought Qin Zigui from you for three yuan and two mao. So you sold Qin Zigui to me back then, why are you coming back to find him now?"
Faced with the younger man's questioning, the middle-aged man seemed somewhat embarrassed, but more so guilty. He could only try his best to explain gently, "I came to take Zigui away for his own good, to make amends..."
"He doesn't need your compensation." Before he could finish speaking, Sheng Yan interrupted him directly, "You just said that if he goes with you, he won't be called a dependent anymore, and people won't point fingers at him. But where were you when he was called a dependent, pointed at, spat on, and called a bastard back then?"
“You weren’t there. He begged you to take him away time and time again, but you weren’t there.” Sheng Yan felt a pang of heartache when he thought of Qin Zigui from before. “When he was bullied, I was the one who fought for him. When he was mocked for not having parents, my grandparents came to our door and said they were his parents. When he had chickenpox, my aunt and uncle took care of him day and night. We’ve been by his side all his life. So what if some people don’t like him? We are the real family. It has nothing to do with you or those people. Do you understand?”
After Sheng Yan finished speaking, he grabbed Qin Zigui's wrist and walked out. He walked faster and faster, not daring to stop, slow down, or look back, for fear that if he slowed down, someone would catch up with him, and he was also afraid that if he turned around, Qin Zigui would see that his eyes were red.
Qin Zigui let him lead her along in this utterly dull summer night, where even the cicadas' chirping had begun to fade.
The two walked for a very, very long time, until they reached a place where there was no one else around. Only then did Qin Zigui softly call out, "Ayan."
Sheng Yan finally stopped, but did not turn around.
Qin Zigui called out again, "Ayan."
Sheng Yan wiped his eyes before finally turning around, suppressing a sob, and tried to speak calmly, "Qin Zigui."
Qin Zigui reached out and wiped away the last bit of moisture from the corner of his eye, and asked gently, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing much." Sheng Yan's throat tightened, then he said nonchalantly, "I just wanted to say that I've never been a very reasonable person since I was a child."
"so?"
"So I've brought the Little Prince home for you, please don't leave now."
Sheng Yan reached out and presented the one-of-a-kind little prince and fox he had made himself to Qin Zigui. His eyes were slightly red, like a wronged child trying to hold onto something.
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