Chapter 71 Chapter 8 There is no sun in the sky
Around 9:40 in the evening, the condition of the most prestigious old man in the Yan family worsened. All the younger members of the family had to be present, and even several cousins who were far away in New York rushed back as soon as they received the news.
The old man is already old, and even though he has a private doctor by his side at all times and is being kept alive by expensive medicine and equipment, everyone knows that he doesn't have much time left.
In this case, the sudden worsening of the disease seemed nothing, but Yan Hao always felt that something was wrong.
This news is so sudden.
From the time the old man was sent to the emergency room, to the time he received the news, and then to the overwhelming news revelations on major social media platforms, less than an hour took place.
Too fast.
In addition, there are two other things that have also caused a lot of controversy. One is about the suspected internal leakage of new product content of a technology group under Yan Hao's name, and the other is about him being involved in a false scandal.
The whistleblower used a few blurry candid photos to vividly describe how Yan from the Yan family used his power to oppress others and control the life freedom of "underage girls". He was simply worse than a beast.
In fact, Yan Hao hadn't been in contact with anyone other than Sheng Qing for the past half month, and he had seen the photo, and it was Sheng Qing...
Except for one or two photos that are so blurry that they don't need mosaics, the rest of the revelations are pure text. The author does have some literary background, and the text he wrote is full of emotions and highly inflammatory.
He is being attacked and abused online...
At the end of last year, when the old man was still mentally clear, he said something about the future distribution of his inheritance. It all depends on each person's performance.
Therefore, over the past year or so, there has always been an invisible atmosphere hanging over the Yan family, and everyone has been trying their best to perform well in order to get more points.
As the eldest son of the family, Yan Hao had always had a good reputation. At the age of 30, he had never been involved in any gossip, never attended messy parties, and devoted himself to his career. He was famous for his self-discipline.
It can be said that he is a rare clear stream in the Yan family's generation, and even in the second generation circle.
It is reasonable that he should take the lion's share.
But now, as luck would have it, just at this critical moment when the old man fell ill, negative news about Yan Hao came out one after another. He didn't need to guess who was behind it.
Even though he wasn't in Binhai, it didn't mean Yan Hao didn't have any spies. He noticed almost immediately when Binhai started the attack.
He was not surprised by the series of events that had just happened. He just felt a little sad. How come after so many years, his half-brothers were still so clumsy and had not improved at all?
Not only am I useless, but the people I sent out are also a bunch of useless idiots. Not to mention whether he will find out, even his little snake can sense that someone is spying outside.
It's really clumsy.
At that time, Yan Hao quietly distracted Sheng Qing, only wondering what he would do. He had thought these "rats" in the dark would harm Sheng Qing, and during that time, he even dared not sleep too deeply. But this was the result?
Perhaps, they have been too low-key and self-cultivating in the past few years, so that they have forgotten how they left the country in disgrace?
Yan Hao was doing two things at once. After checking the medication usage over the past twenty days, he began to adjust the proportion of today's medicinal bath powder based on Shengqing's recovery, while thinking about the next arrangements.
There was the sound of a wheelchair rolling over the carpet outside the door, and a familiar smell of medicine still wafted faintly in the air.
He knew who was coming without looking up.
Yan Hao's gloomy face turned into a gentle smile as warm as a spring breeze the moment he looked up: "Why are you here? Didn't I tell you to wait for me in the bathtub for a while?"
The boy in the wheelchair wore a loose-fitting hooded sweatshirt on his upper body and a pure white silk robe around his lower body. Since the skin disease on his tail had improved, he didn't wrap it up as tightly as he had in the past few days, but instead wore it loosely, with a hint of pink and white scales peeking out from his waist.
When Yan Hao was speaking, he stared at him without blinking, with the tip of his tail wagging gently. When he finished speaking, he hummed very softly as a reply.
Yan Hao mixed the medicinal powders according to the proportions and shook them quickly to mix them evenly. Today's medicinal bath powder was ready.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Shengqing was still standing there, showing no intention of leaving. He asked tentatively, "Do you want to come with me?"
The answer was still a "hmm", but this time the voice was a little louder than before.
"Okay, let's go."
The wheelchair was pushed by the human behind him. Sheng Qing didn't have to do anything. He just sat on it and felt the movement of the wheelchair. With his nostrils twitching slightly, he carefully analyzed the information he had just smelled.
Snakes, with their keen sense of smell, can not only smell disease but can even sense human emotions.
However, Sheng Qing is not a human being after all. Even though he can smell the scent of human emotions, it has always been difficult for him to distinguish the meaning behind this smell.
Later, Shengqing stayed in the circus for a long time. He changed several animal trainers of different heights and weights, met countless tourists, and even communicated with other animals. Only then did he have a little understanding of human emotions.
He divides human emotions into three types: one type has a bland smell, as bland as morning dew, and the human emotions of this type of smell are neither good nor bad;
One type of smell is sweet and greasy, like the aroma of sweet food or fresh flowers. People with this smell are in a good mood. If a trainer has this smell, he will most likely not be beaten that day. Tourists with this smell will also smile at him.
There's also a complex smell that sometimes smells like pungent gasoline, sometimes like spicy chili peppers, and sometimes like moldy, damp soil.
Sheng Qing didn't understand what this smell meant, but he knew that if the trainer who trained him had this smell, he would probably not have a good day that day, but the degree would vary, so he generally classified this kind of smell as bad.
Just now, a bad smell emanated from Yan Hao's body. It was a smell similar to that of spoiled food and rotten fresh fish.
He remembered that the smell was... disgust?
Sheng Qing sniffed, trying to collect more odor molecules in the air for identification, but Yan Hao's emotions were like a tangled ball of wool, and he couldn't sort it out after a long time.
Moreover, he actually had two scents on him!
Yan Hao poured the powder into a transparent measuring cup and reached in to test the water temperature. Once everything was ready, he deftly lifted Sheng Qing from his wheelchair and gently placed him on the edge of the tub. As he withdrew his hand, his fingertips curled slightly, seemingly inadvertently, as if sensing something.
"Try it, how's the water temperature?"
Afraid that the little snake wouldn't understand, Yan Hao always spoke very slowly when talking to Sheng Qing, and pronounced each syllable clearly.
Shengqing had taken the bath more than twenty times before. He skillfully immersed the tip of his tail in the medicinal bath, and when he felt the temperature was just right, he slid along the wall of the bathtub into the bath.
He still remembered his first medicinal bath, when he was extremely wary of the human who had rescued him from the trash can. Even though the human had said a lot to him before the bath, he completely forgot about it and just kept his body tense, ready to protect himself at any time.
It really hurts.
The wound was so large that as soon as it came into contact with the potion, white bubbles began to bubble up, as if millions of needles were piercing it simultaneously. The familiar pain made him think that this was a new trick the humans in front of him had come up with to torture the snake, even though Yan Hao kept asking him if it hurt.
After repeated medicinal baths, the irritation in the wound gradually subsided. Shengqing witnessed the wound on the tail's arm gradually healing, and felt the pain inside the scales gradually subside after applying the medicine. Even the itching that usually felt like a piercing pain was lessening each time.
At this time, Sheng Qing finally understood.
It turns out that this human didn't mean to hurt me. It turned out that he was saving me.
Every time he applied the medicine, humans would stare at Shengqing with a very strange look, with a few cracks on their brows.
He remembered the last time a human looked at him like this, it was because they disliked him for not being able to sell for a good price. Yan Hao was staring at him in the same way, but the smell on his body was a new smell that he had rarely smelled before.
Unlike the three emotions Shengqing had known in the past, this time the overall taste was sour and astringent, and it had a dull feeling when it smelled, like sadness but a little different.
What does this mean?
Is it good or bad?
It would be a long time before Shengqing would realize that this sour, stuffy, suffocating feeling was heartache.
Shengqing sat in the bathtub, the water level just covering his chest. He continued to sink down skillfully until his shoulders and neck were also submerged in the light blue water, with only his head exposed.
He looked up at the male human standing by the bathtub. He was wearing a white shirt with a black vest on the outside. His sleeves were half rolled up. His hair was combed meticulously, with only a few strands hanging in front of his forehead.
The man and the snake looked at each other. It was unknown what Yan Hao was thinking, but he showed that expression again - his brows were slightly wrinkled, and the muscles around his lips were tightly tensed.
at the same time,
The sour smell in the air became stronger.
Sheng Qing suddenly became curious about what humans were thinking, but his speech was not very standard, and he was a monster completely different from humans, so he could not always communicate with humans.
This was what the animals in the previous circus told Shengqing. Although his upper body was human, he was not a complete human after all. If such a monster could speak fluently, humans would only feel fear.
Because of this, the circus did not teach him to speak like a normal person. All they taught him were some rhymes, some auspicious words of blessing, and they even specially taught him a version with the heaviest accent.
It's a very funny version that other humans will just laugh out loud when they hear it.
"Does it still hurt now?"
A human voice suddenly rang out overhead. Sheng Qing hummed, then shook his head.
After adjusting to the potion's stimulation, he could only feel a slight tingling sensation. He'd been told that it was growing, so he figured his tail would be back to health soon, right?
The little snake stared at him in a daze again.
Yan Hao was already used to this, so he began to talk in a gentle tone about leaving Yongxing soon. Afraid that he wouldn't understand, he spoke very concisely.
"We'll be leaving in a moment."
leave?
Where to go?!
Sheng Qing's pupils dilated slightly, and his tail, which was soaked in the bathtub, swayed restlessly, causing ripples on the calm water surface.
"Of course, I will take you with me. I definitely won't abandon you." Yan Hao paused and emphasized, "I will take you back to my home. It's much bigger than here now, and it will be your home in the future."
Home?
Shengqing tilted his head slightly, his expression confused. It was obvious that he was trying hard to understand this unfamiliar word that he had never heard of before.
What is that thing...
Can I eat it?
＊
The little snake seemed to really regard the temporary hotel suite as Yan Hao's home.
When leaving the hotel that night, the wheelchair-bound "boy" looked from the room to the outside, repeating this over a dozen times with an indescribably strange expression on his face.
He seemed to want to say something, his lips moved several times, and finally closed again.
"Didn't I tell you before? This isn't my home. This is just a hotel. Um...how can I explain a hotel to you? It's just a temporary place to stay..."
He patiently explained to a little snake what a hotel was and what a home was, but the only response he got was the little snake's silent stare.
I don’t know whether Shengqing understood it or not, but in the end he still left with Yan Hao. He just looked into the room a few more times before leaving.
Are you reluctant to give up this suite?
Or did something fall?
When Yan Hao half-bent over and asked patiently, Sheng Qing shook his head again to deny it.
Yan Hao lowered his head to check on Sheng Qing in the wheelchair: he was wearing a baseball cap and a mask, a snow-blue long-sleeved sun-protective jacket on his upper body, and a beige windproof blanket covering his waist, which was long enough to cover the entire footrest and also hide his tail tightly.
When pushing Shengqing into the elevator, Yan Hao found that the elevator attendant had been replaced by a new face that he was not familiar with.
The other person was a very warm-hearted young man. As soon as the elevator door opened, he took the initiative to help Yan Hao push the wheelchair. He even tried to talk to Sheng Qing twice while the elevator was going down.
There was probably no ill intention on his part, but Shengqing was extremely nervous when he spoke to him. He hung his head and turned a deaf ear to the elevator attendant's greetings. The second time, he even reached out and grabbed Yan Hao's clothes.
Yan Hao placed his hand on the back of his hand, and his palm was icy cold, as if he was holding a piece of cold jade without any temperature.
"I'm sorry, my friend is a bit introverted and doesn't like talking to strangers."
"Oh, I see... Sorry, sorry..."
When the elevator arrived, the hotel valet had already driven the car out of the parking lot and put some of the couple's luggage into the trunk.
All Yan Hao had to do was to carry the "mobility-impaired teenager" into the passenger seat himself, and the hotel staff would help put the wheelchair away and into the trunk.
Over the past twenty days, Shengqing had gotten used to being held by humans, so as soon as Yan Hao approached, he consciously opened his arms to him.
Yan Hao picked up the baby and weighed it. Although it was a little heavier than the first time, it was still too thin overall and felt light when he held it.
Too thin, too thin.
"You should eat more."
He said this out of the blue.
When Sheng Qing, who was observing the interior of the vehicle, heard this, he tilted his head slightly and subconsciously looked at Yan Hao's empty hands.
What to eat? Nothing.
The car started, and the scenery outside the window quickly receded. Yan Hao suddenly thought of the last time Sheng Qing was in the back seat of the car.
The snake-man youth lay motionless, breathing weakly, and the rotting wounds on his body attracted several flies that kept circling around him. Undoubtedly, these flies, which could smell the scent of death, were waiting for Sheng Qing's death so they could take over and make it their breeding ground.
And now, they are still in the same car, and the same little snake is still sitting in it, but Shengqing is now fully awake, with a rosy complexion and in excellent mental state.
He curiously surveyed the interior of the car when his attention was suddenly drawn to the neon lights whizzing past outside the window. The vibrant lights drifted across his jade-like face, casting the shadow of his eyelashes under his eyes, flickering.
This vibrant scene made Yan Hao glance sideways involuntarily, with only one clear thought in his mind: Fortunately, fortunately...
“…”
The fresh and unfamiliar night wind blew in through the half-open window.
Shengqing stared out the window without blinking.
He recalled how, when he was with the circus, he would often stay in one place for only a few days before moving on to the next town. He often stayed in hot and airless shipping containers, only occasionally getting a little bit of information about the outside world through the wind that came through the cracks.
For example, whether it has rained here, whether it is about to rain, what animals have passed through the air, what cargo is loaded on the passing vehicles, and other information that humans cannot perceive.
Shengqing could sniff out vast and complex information from the wind, collecting and analyzing it. His eyelids drooped at this moment, not because of the smell outside, but from inside the car.
He could clearly smell his own scent, although it was very faint, but he could still detect that the faint smell was coming from the back row, a smell of endangered life.
It was a smell that I was very familiar with before, immersed in it day and night, but not long ago it gradually receded until it disappeared...the smell of decay.
So he smelled so rotten back then? Shengqing had never before seen so clearly how close he had been to death.
He was not afraid of death, but when he thought that he might really die without this human being, he felt an indescribable feeling in his heart.
Humans are such strange creatures. He was hurt by humans, but was also saved by humans. For a moment, he didn't know whether to classify humans as good or bad...
The black car sped into a deep tunnel, and the sudden darkness brought Shengqing's wandering thoughts to a halt. His body instinctively stiffened, but the next moment, a warm weight suddenly appeared on the back of his hand.
Those were a pair of human hands, warm and dry, and much wider and thicker than Shengqing's hands.
"Are you afraid of the dark?" The person's tone was extremely gentle. "It's okay, I'll be out in a while."
The snake's keen perception allowed Shengqing to capture the flow of blood under the human skin, the vibration of the voice in the air, the subtle swallowing sound when the Adam's apple rolled, and even the heartbeat transmitted from the human's wrist was beating clearly in his ears the moment the palms covered him.
Once, once, and again.
This is a healthy human heart.
The summer night wind blew in through the window, and the car unknowingly sped away from the dim tunnel. The human did not withdraw his hand, and Sheng Qing in the passenger seat also did not say a word.
The blazing heat was like a small flame, slowly seeping through Shengqing's cold, cold skin along the lines of his palm. It was so warm! The little snake-man looked out the window at the thick night. There was no sun in the sky.
*
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