Chapter 790 How unfortunate, yet how fortunate.
Wen Songyi: [Tch, what a tease!]
Shen Anning looked at the message and thought: Fool, I'm just teasing you!
FNA: [Don't rush, there will be a day when you'll be calling her "sister-in-law".]
Wen Songyi: [Once I win over the girl I like, I'll definitely introduce her to you all right away. I'm not as stingy as Nian'an!]
Shen Anning: 【…Don't speak too soon, kid.】
Han Xi: [He just loves to boast!]
Qin Shiyou: [Haha, I agree with what Xiao Bao said. Wen Songyi is a master of empty talk!]
Wen Songyi: [You can laugh all you want, but soon you'll be kneeling before me singing "Conquer!"]
...
Fu Nian'an smiled faintly, left the group chat, and put away her phone.
After that, he waited for another ten minutes or so, but Le Yan still didn't come downstairs.
He then got up and walked around.
In the past, small houses in the south were mostly built with granite, and the furniture was mainly made of solid wood.
The living room sofa is made of solid wood with foam cushions, and the coffee table is also made of solid wood with a transparent glass tabletop.
Directly opposite the main entrance is a hand-painted landscape porcelain sculpture. Below the sculpture is a square mahogany high table with a Buddhist shrine on it. It is said that in this part of the south, every household has a family Buddha, and people burn incense and pray on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month for peace and safety.
Fu Nian'an had heard about it before, but this was the first time she had seen it with her own eyes.
He found the differences in regional cultures quite interesting.
Fu Nian'an walked around the house.
The small house, about 100 square meters in size, has a kitchen and a bathroom on the first floor, as well as two rooms with closed doors.
The bedrooms should all be on the second floor.
Fu Nian'an waited a while longer, but Le Yan still didn't come down.
He glanced at Lin Minsheng, who was sleeping on the table, hesitated for a moment, and then went over to help him up.
Lin Minsheng was half asleep and half awake, groggily replying, "Hmm? Old Wang, I'm troubling you again. It's alright, I can walk by myself..."
Fu Nian'an knew he was really drunk, and remained calm.
"Uncle Lin, let me help you up."
Lin Minsheng hesitated for a moment, "Oh, it's Nian'an. Sit down, let's have a few more drinks. Uncle Lin, I've never amounted to anything in my life... This girl, Yanyan, has suffered so much following me..."
Fu Nian'an couldn't persuade him otherwise, so she could only help him sit back down at the dining table.
Lin Minsheng's face was very red, and his eyes were also very red.
Honest people aren't good with words, but tonight, after getting drunk, he's become quite talkative.
“I found Lin Xiuying and Yanyan at sea. If I had found them any later, they probably wouldn’t be here anymore. Later, I brought them back and spent most of my savings to save them. Xiuying said she had nowhere to go, and her husband blamed her for not being able to give birth to a son and abandoned her and Yanyan. I told her that if she didn’t mind, she could stay and I would take care of them…”
“Before Yanyan was one year old, she was always sick. At that time, everyone in the village thought she wouldn't survive. Lin Xiuying always said that if she couldn't be cured, she should just throw her into the sea to feed the fish. She always said that Yanyan killed her son and that Yanyan was a jinx. But I clearly remember that when I found them at sea, Xiuying was holding Yanyan high up. If she really hated Yanyan, in that critical moment, given her hatred for Yanyan, she would have directly abandoned her. But she didn't. So I think Xiuying was just saying things in anger…”
Fu Nian'an got up, poured a glass of warm water, and handed it to Lin Minsheng. "Uncle Lin, please have some hot water."
"Thank you..." Lin Minsheng wiped his face and continued, "We lived together for several years, but Xiuying never got pregnant again. Later I found out that she had her uterus removed when she gave birth to Yanyan. My mother was still alive then, and she kept urging me to send Xiuying and Yanyan away, but I refused. So my mother took her anger out on Xiuying and Yanyan. Xiuying and my mother were always arguing, and neither of them would give in. Later, I moved into this house with Xiuying and Yanyan. My mother came over and made a scene a few times, but in the end, nothing came of it." A few years later, my mother fell ill and passed away. Even in her dying moments, she blamed me for not carrying on the Lin family line. "Our place is different from yours in the city," she said. "In the city, only wealthy people are obsessed with having sons to inherit the family business. Here, every family wants a son. We say a son is the continuation of the family line. After someone dies, it's the sons who sweep the grave and offer sacrifices. Without a son, there is no descendant… Alas, I'm not a clever person. Just an ordinary fisherman. My father died young, and my two older sisters rarely kept in touch after my mother's death. As for me, there's really nothing to leave to my children. So be it, no descendants, I don't care…"
Lin Minsheng has never been as talkative in his life as he is tonight.
Perhaps he was truly too drunk tonight, or perhaps it was seeing a seemingly reliable and trustworthy man beside his beloved daughter; in any case, he spoke haltingly, but mostly about Le Yan—
"Later... I heard that Yanyan's biological father was a wealthy businessman in the city. Xiuying always hoped that the businessman would come to pick her up, but she waited year after year, and the businessman never appeared. Until Yanyan was thirteen years old, a famous director came here to scout locations, saw Yanyan, and was amazed by her beauty. He inquired around and found her home, telling Xiuying and me that he wanted to take Yanyan to the north of the city to film a movie. At the time, I was actually not very willing. Yanyan was only thirteen years old, a little girl who didn't understand anything." She should be studying hard at her age. I'm not highly educated, but I know that knowledge can change one's destiny. Yanyan has been clever since she was little. She told me she wanted to go to university, so I wanted to help her reject the big director. But Xiuying disagreed. She said Yanyan was her daughter and inherited her beauty, so she should become a big star and make a lot of money. I'm just an adoptive father after all, and I couldn't persuade Xiuying. Yanyan is so young, and Xiuying could coax her with a few words, and she went with Xiuying..."
"Of course, Yanyan herself also loves performing. From a young age, every year on Children's Day or during the Ghost Festival, she would be more excited than anyone else if there was a performance. I know she wants to make movies, so even though I knew that Xiuying brought her back to Beicheng with the intention of bringing Yanyan back to the rich businessman, I still couldn't bear to stop Yanyan. I thought that if Yanyan made movies and became a big star, Xiuying's attitude towards her would be better..."
"But I'm just not very bright, I tend to oversimplify things. After Yanyan returned to Beicheng, she became increasingly unhappy. Xiuying's attitude towards her worsened year by year. Yanyan always said she was busy with work and rarely came back to see me. Even when she did come back, she only stayed for a few days before going back. I don't really understand the news online, and every time I saw her being criticized by netizens, I would worry about her and call her. She would tell me that those were all fabricated by the company to give her more traffic, that they were all fake, and that even though she looked miserable on the surface, she actually made a lot of money from that traffic... I don't understand the entertainment industry, but every time she came back, she would buy a lot of things and always give me money. At first, I refused to accept it, and she would get angry with me. Later, I accepted it and put it in a card. When she gets married, all of that will be her dowry. I, her adoptive father, am not very capable. My life savings combined are not even enough for what she gives me in a year..."
Lin Minsheng kept talking to himself.
The sounds of firecrackers and fireworks outside grew louder and louder, while inside, the kettle was boiling and steaming.
At the dining table, Fu Nian'an and Lin Minsheng sat facing each other.
Lin Minsheng listened quietly to the stories that belonged to Le Yan, just like a storyteller.
Sometimes Lin Minsheng would speak in his hometown dialect, which Fu Nian'an couldn't understand, but she could still understand most of it.
It seemed that Lin Minsheng was thirsty after talking too much. He picked up the water glass in front of him, took a sip, and frowned.
A moment later, he picked up the glass and examined the clear liquid inside.
"It's definitely baijiu, but the flavor tastes weak..."
Fu Nian'an remained expressionless: "You're drunk, so it's normal that you can't taste the alcohol."
"Really?" Lin Minsheng waved his hand and laughed, "I rarely drink this much, mainly because Yanyan won't allow it. The little bit of bulk liquor I drink every day is only with Yanyan's special permission! I just wanted to buy an extra ounce, but the convenience store wouldn't sell it to me, saying that Yanyan would scold me and they wouldn't dare sell it to me. Sigh, don't let her usual coquettishness fool you, I'm terrified of her when she gets fierce. I'm not good with words, and I've been afraid of her crying since she was little. She nearly drowned when she was seven and almost didn't survive. Ever since then, her respiratory system has been a bit weak, and she easily gets asthma when she cries..."
Fu Nian'an listened quietly to Lin Minsheng's words.
From this simple and honest father, he could almost imagine how Le Yan depended on Lin Minsheng.
It is a kind of kinship dependence that surpasses blood ties.
Although her biological parents, Lin Xiuying and Xu Chengyang, did not love Le Yan, she had an adoptive father who doted on her as his own daughter.
How unfortunate, yet how fortunate, the little girl.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com