Chapter 33: Fragility I will make Xiao Tan happy again.
Yuntan really couldn't reply immediately whether to go or not, it was too sudden.
Yun Tan never thought that traveling with Lu Wangshan and Leo during the Spring Festival was like a family vacation trip for the three of them.
However, Lu Wangshan didn't seem to care much about whether she went or not, Yun Tan guessed through observation.
As if she had asked him casually, he had already been preparing for the inspection trip. Because he wanted to bring Leo with him, he applied for a private business jet route so that Leo would not be confined in the small aerobic cabin and could run freely in the cabin. He also rented a large SUV from Xinjiang for self-driving.
As the year was drawing to a close, Professor Xiang took a holiday from school and returned to the old house with Lu Chengjun to prepare for the New Year, and invited his two sons to join them.
They had known for a long time that Lu Wangshan had not been living in the old house recently, but they always knew how to keep a proper distance from the children, so they did not ask too many questions.
"How is your foot?" Lu Wangshan asked Lu Shiyue.
"It's healed a long time ago, don't worry, brother." Lu Shiyue said as he jumped a few times to restore his position.
There are no competitions before and after the New Year, so I can take a good rest and recover.
Xiang Yin had a rare free day today, so he started baking at noon. When he heard Lu Wangshan's voice, he poked his head out of the kitchen and said, "Come and try the Basque I made."
That thing was so sweet that Lu Wangshan had no interest in eating it.
Lu Shiyue didn't like sweet things either, so he stood up and prepared to use the excuse of going to the bathroom to avoid dessert.
Unfortunately, it was useless. Xiang Yin fed his two sons one piece at a time.
Lu Wangshan frowned and swallowed it, and only after drinking a bottle of water could he overcome the sweetness.
"What are you guys planning to do for Spring Festival?" Xiang Yin asked. "Your dad and I are planning to go to New Zealand. Do you want to come with us? It's been ages since we've been out as a family of four."
Lu Shiyue said that he had to train, and athletes were restricted in their diet and couldn't eat many things, so he decided to give up.
Lu Wangshan said he was going to Xinjiang.
Xiang Yin was surprised: "Why are you suddenly going to Xinjiang?"
"Work."
"Just ask me! I'll tell your dad not to assign you any work during the Spring Festival."
Lu Wangshan raised his eyebrows and said, "Mom, your son is still the executive director of Wanzhou Capital. He is not under your husband's command."
"So you're investing in a project? What kind of project are you going to invest in Xinjiang?"
"It's a small project, a charity project for a stray dog base."
Xiang Yin is not a fool. There are too many people who can inspect projects of this level on behalf of Lu Wangshan, but he insists on going himself. There is no need to take up the Spring Festival holiday to do it himself.
Lu Wangshan works seriously, but he is not a workaholic who doesn’t understand the fun of life.
So he smiled and said, "Are you going alone?"
"And your grandson." Lu Wangshan interjected.
Sun Tzu refers to "Leo".
"Just the two of you?"
Lu Wangshan also laughed and didn't continue to hide it: "For now, it's just the two of us."
"You chose the wrong date. Who would want to ask a girl out for a trip during the Spring Festival? What if Xiao Tan's family has to celebrate the Spring Festival as well?" Xiang Yin simply pointed it out directly.
Lu Shiyue, who was standing by, felt more and more puzzled as he listened. He sat on the sofa, tilted his head back, and asked, "Mom, you also know about my brother and Yun Tan?"
"You call the person your brother likes by her full name?" Xiang Yin asked back.
“…”
Lu Shiyue couldn't help but curl his lips. "Yun Tan and I were classmates before. What else can I call her if not her name? Besides, my brother said they haven't confirmed their relationship yet. And to be honest, my brother and Yun Tan met because of me. The teacher wants to call my brother's parents."
Xiang Yin smiled and said, "That wasn't the first time your brother met Xiao Tan."
Lu Shiyue was stunned: "When was that?"
Xiang Yin glanced at Lu Wangshan, leaned against the dining table with his arms crossed, and said calmly, "You were very young then, you don't remember anything yet."
…
When Xiang Yin first married Lu Chengjun, she still had to attend many parties with wealthy ladies.
Although she married Lu Chengjun, she was just a university lecturer at the time and her family background was not as good as those wives. For a while, she was ridiculed openly and covertly and was often marginalized in such occasions.
But Lu Chengjun has loved and respected her for many years, and is a well-known "wife-controller". On the contrary, those wives divorced in middle age and fought against mistresses.
Xiang Yin was promoted to associate professor at the age of 32, and gave birth to Lu Wangshan and Lu Shiyue. Her family was happy and her career was going well. Lu Chengjun also officially inherited the entire Lu Group and became the person in power. Her position in various evening parties and dinners became increasingly central.
She didn't participate often later on, and only took her two sons with her when there was a dessert-themed afternoon tea on weekends. Although Lu Wangshan and Lu Shiyue didn't like sweets when they grew up, they both liked them when they were young.
That time, Lu Shiyue was taken away by the nanny for a routine check-up, so only Lu Wangshan was brought along.
That was probably what Xiang Yin remembered, the first time Lu Wangshan met Yun Tan, a very cute and beautiful little girl brought by Yuan Qinrong.
Xiang Yin likes Yun Tan very much. She dreams of having such a cute little daughter.
Then she was surprised to find that her son, who never liked to play with girls, actually took the initiative to hand the cake to Yuntan.
The ladies around him teased him, asking him to let his mother give birth to a younger sister.
Lu Wangshan said no seriously.
Yuan Qinrong also laughed: "It seems that these two children have a good eye for each other."
After eating the cake, the two of them wanted to go out to play in the garden. Xiang Yin reminded them to be careful, but unexpectedly an accident still happened.
Lu Wangshan fell into the rockery pond. He couldn't swim at that time. Yun Tan was scared but still slid down the rocks into the water to save him.
Fortunately, the splashing sound of water attracted bystanders and no accident happened that day.
…
"My brother was saved by Yun Tan before?" Lu Shiyue was stunned. "What is this? A gender-swapped hero saving a beautiful woman? Brother, you didn't fall in love with Yun Tan from that time, did you?"
Lu Wangshan lazily drooped his eyelids and denied: "You already have someone you like before you're ten?"
"Actually, Xiao Tan can't swim, and she didn't know the water was so deep. But if Xiao Tan hadn't fallen into the water and struggled, maybe no one would have found her. So it's not wrong to say that she saved your brother." Xiang Yin said.
Therefore, she has always liked Yuntan, not only because she wants a lovely daughter, but more because of gratitude.
She was grateful to the girl for her chivalrous spirit and for being brave and kind at such a young age.
Xiang Yin continued with a smile, "But your brother did think she was beautiful since he was a child. At that time, he was taking an oil painting class as an interest, and he drew a portrait of Xiao Tan, thinking I didn't know."
"Then isn't my brother just being attracted by beauty?"
Lu Shiyue said, "Brother, when I was called to the school as a parent that year, were you actually very happy to see Yun Tan?"
"You are a teenager and you were beaten to tears by a girl. Why should I be happy? It's almost embarrassing." Lu Wangshan simply couldn't stand the two of them and spoke mercilessly.
He didn't think he had liked Yuntan so early.
In fact, he had never had much interest in girls. At that time, he just thought Yun Tan was cute, especially when she smiled, and her personality was different from the rich girls like Xiang Wu he usually met.
Not long after falling into the water, Yuan Qinrong became pregnant, and Lu Wangshan rarely saw her again.
It just so happened that on those rare occasions, I happened to see Yuntan crying.
She gradually became very different from when we first met.
Her bright smile is gone, her soft personality is gone, and her dried tears have shaped her into an increasingly hard person time and time again.
Perhaps Yun Tan never knew that Lu Wangshan was the one who witnessed the development of her current personality.
…
Dinner was ready, and Lu Chengjun went downstairs. He happened to hear the three people talking about something, and then he remembered the blind date that Mr. Lu had arranged before, so he asked, "You and Ruan Zhao have met, how do you get along?"
"I pitched a script she wanted to film, and she was responsible for telling her family that she wasn't interested in me."
Xiang Yin smiled and said, "Okay, even if people look down on my son, your grandfather can't do anything about it."
No one noticed. Lu Shiyue quickly turned off his phone and turned his head: "Brother, has she been filming recently?"
"Not so fast."
"So what has she been doing lately?"
Lu Wangshan felt strange and looked at him sideways.
Lu Shiyue really couldn't lie, so he turned his head away with a flawed look on his face: "I was just asking casually."
-
After the company went on holiday, Yun Tan was bored and stayed at home every day. At the end of December, he asked Jiang Zhier to go shopping together. He bought himself some new clothes for the New Year and also bought some for his grandmother.
After lunch, I went downstairs and happened to pass by an outdoor clothing brand store.
Jiang Zhier asked, "Want to buy it? Have you decided to go to Xinjiang?"
"I can't tell." Yun Tan was still hesitating, but he walked into the store honestly and went to the men's clothing area.
She wanted to buy some clothes for Lu Wangshan as a gift in return for his care for her these days. He was going to Xinjiang for the New Year, so a windbreaker would be the perfect choice.
"This is our brand's new model. It's a three-in-one multi-purpose jacket, down jacket, and ski suit. It can be adapted to a variety of scenarios. It's very convenient and sells very well." The salesperson came forward to introduce.
Yuntan bought it quickly, choosing Lu Wangshan's size and the gray and white style.
He is a clothes hanger and looks good in anything he wears.
Jiang Zhier had already taken a photo of Yun Tan choosing clothes and posted it to the group chat. Elara had taken a lead and imitated her, saying, "I'm picking out a New Year's gift for the Chinese captain."
Yuntan paid with a credit card. One piece of clothing cost her one and a half months’ salary, which really hurt her.
When she left the store, she saw Elara's reply: "Tsk tsk tsk, I've never seen a sex partner buy clothes like this."
Yun Tan raised an eyebrow: "This kind of clothes? What do you mean by 'this kind'?"
Elara: "Usually, for serious sex partners like us, we'd give them underwear, socks, or belts as gifts, or you could just wear your sexiest pajamas as a gift. In short, we definitely wouldn't give them formal winter clothes like this."
Yun Tan: “…”
She suddenly felt that the shopping bag she was carrying had become much heavier.
-
After parting with Jiang Zhier at the entrance of the shopping mall, Yun Tan went back home to see his grandmother.
Yun Jin also came back today, still lying on the sofa like an old man playing with his mobile phone. Beibei didn't come. Her mother signed her up for the school's winter camp, and the two of them went to Europe together.
Yun Jin seems to be on a blind date recently, which was arranged by Yun Qihui. When asked about it, Yun Jin kept complaining that the blind date had a bad figure and was over 30 years old.
Yuntan couldn't stand it anymore and turned away.
She and Yun Jin were really born to be incompatible. She felt uncomfortable all over whenever she heard Yun Jin's voice.
During the meal, Yuan Hongren still sat next to Yuntan and stuck to Yuntan, but fortunately he didn't make any noise today and ate his meal obediently.
Yun Tan breathed a sigh of relief and took out the New Year gift prepared for Yuan Hongren from his coat pocket, a small children's camera.
She had taken a photo of herself in advance and told Yuan Hongren that he could look at the photo if he missed his sister.
She didn't hate Yuan Hongren, she just hated Yuan Qinrong for using him as an excuse to restrict herself.
Yuan Hongren also prepared a New Year's gift for her. He took Yuntan's hand and walked to the stairs. He took out a red woolen hat from a red gift bag. He had spent a lot of time knitting it by hand.
Although Yuan Hongren has intellectual disabilities, he is very good at making these kinds of handicrafts.
Yun Tan smiled and said, "Thank you, Hongren. My sister likes it very much."
Yun Qihui said comfortingly, "It would be great if you could stay like this forever."
Yun Tan ignored her and turned to her grandmother, saying, "I bought you some new clothes for winter and spring. I'll take you to try them on after dinner to see if they fit you well."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's expressions became a little strange, especially Yun Jin.
Yun Tan noticed it keenly: "What's wrong?"
No one else said anything, and Yuntan immediately stood up and walked towards grandma's room.
Because my grandmother has difficulty walking, her bedroom is located on the first floor.
She pushed the door open and saw that it was no longer her grandmother's bedroom. There was a new table and desktop computer next to the bed, and an ashtray on the bedside. It was obviously Yun Jin's room, but he had not lived here since he got married.
Yun Qihui sighed almost irritably: "Grandma's bedroom has been moved to the one next door."
Yun Tan pushed open the door next to him, paused at the door for more than ten seconds, and then turned around: "You let grandma live in a room like this? Even the window is so small, isn't this a nanny's room!"
Grandma stood up and walked over, patting Yun Tan's back to comfort him: "It's okay, Xiao Tan, don't be angry, it was me who said I wanted to move there."
"Why did you move out of the room you lived in before? Yun Jin, are you still a man? Shouldn't you have moved out long ago when grandma gave you the room?!" Yun Tan hadn't been this angry for a long time. He pointed at Yun Jin and cursed with red eyes.
Yuan Qinrong also explained: "After Yun Jin's divorce, the marital apartment was given to the woman, so he can only come back to live here for the time being."
"Then can't he live upstairs?"
Yun Jin felt that the upstairs was too close to Yuan Hongren. She could always hear his noisy screams. Not to mention sleeping, she couldn't even play games properly.
"Xiao Tan, grandma knows you are worried about me, but it's really not a big deal." Grandma said gently.
Yun Tan turned around and asked seriously, "Do you want to move to the place I rented? It's not as big as here, but at least the room has windows and good ventilation."
Grandma shook her head slightly: "I have lived here all my life. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I moved somewhere else."
She was also worried that she would cause more troubles for her granddaughter. The elderly, who used to be the most caring towards them, are now most worried about becoming a burden to the younger generation.
Yun Tan was silent for a moment, then said, "Okay, then Yun Jin must change the room back today."
"What's it to you, Yuntan?"
Yun Jin pointed his index finger at Yun Tan and retorted, "Don't act like you care about Grandma so much. You've only been home a few times, and every time you come back you try to turn the house upside down! The entire Yun family is in turmoil because of you! You left the country without a word, and how dare you lecture me? Even though I'm a piece of shit, I've been by my family's side all these years and have always been filial to them!"
"Filial piety?"
Yun Tan sneered, "Your filial piety means getting the last place on every test, bringing home an unmarried pregnant girl, getting married and then divorced and then being kicked out of the house because it was your fault, being unable to find a job and living a life of idleness, and even driving your eighty-year-old grandmother to live in a small room. If this is your standard of filial piety, then I'm afraid all the bastard men in the world can be called filial!"
"Yun Tan!" Yun Qihui called her name, "This is your brother!"
"Yes, this is still your son."
Yun Tan turned to look directly at Yun Qihui and continued to scold him without stopping for a moment, "If you continue to indulge him like this, you will be the one to be kicked out in a few decades."
"You are so arrogant, what have you accomplished?"
Yun Jin sneered, "When you went abroad, I thought you had the guts to settle down there. But what happened? You came back! Yun Tan, don't you think you're ridiculous? You mess around all day but end up with nothing. Your parents divorced and didn't even want to take you with them. What's the point of studying hard? What have you accomplished?"
Yun Tan's expression suddenly turned cold: "Say it again if you dare."
Yuan Qinrong also pulled his clothes and scolded him in a low voice: "Yun Jin, you should also stop talking!"
Yuan Hongren cried again.
The crying and screaming pulled at Yuntan's nerves, causing him great pain.
"Alright! You two siblings have been arguing since you were little, and you're still arguing now that you're this old!" Yun Qihui said, "Yun Tan, you've always been the most obedient. Why are you becoming more and more disobedient after your trip abroad?"
If Yun Tan was more angry before this, then after this sentence she was suddenly overwhelmed by overwhelming grievances.
She didn't expect that when she was in her twenties, she would one day feel aggrieved by Yun Qihui's words.
Shouldn't you be used to it by now?
"So just because I'm obedient you can bully me, right?" Yun Tan's eyes suddenly turned red, and he turned to ask Yun Qihui in a very soft voice.
Yun Qihui's head got even bigger, and his brows furrowed even tighter. "What are you doing? Why are you crying with Hongren for no reason?"
Yun Tan couldn't stop. Her chest was heaving violently, and her whole body was trembling slightly with excessive anger and grievance.
She looked at the people in the room. Yun Qihui was furious because she had once again broken the barely maintained peace in this family, Yun Jin looked like he was enjoying the show, Yuan Qinrong coaxed Yuan Hongren into silence, and only her grandmother stood behind her, patting her back soothingly. However, she was too old and could no longer be a supporter. Even if she wanted to stay with Yun Tan for a few more years, she had no choice but to pray to God.
"I thought that if I was obedient and studied hard, you would all like me, but in the end I found that it was just a reason for you to bully me and treat me badly."
Yun Tan looked at Yun Qihui stubbornly, trying to see any regret for the past in his eyes, but he turned his head away from beginning to end, with a frown on his face.
There was not a trace of regret, Yuntan only saw impatience and irritability.
She finally looked away and raised her hands to cover her eyes: "If that's the case, why did you let me give birth to you in the first place?"
-
After all, he was going to Xinjiang during the Spring Festival, so Lu Wangshan stayed with his parents at the old house for a while longer and got up to say goodbye at ten o'clock in the evening.
I drove fast all the way and arrived home a little after eleven o'clock.
It’s not too late. Usually Yuntan is still awake at this time.
But the house was very quiet today. Lu Wangshan tiptoed into the bedroom and saw that she was already asleep, with her fair and round shoulders showing from the corner of the quilt.
He went to the guest bedroom to take a shower, then came back and got into bed carefully and turned off the lights.
Most of the time, Yuntan doesn’t like to hug someone when she sleeps, especially face to face. She feels uncomfortable with his breath hitting her cheek, so she always sleeps with her back to him.
But if she fell asleep first, Lu Wangshan would secretly hold her in his arms.
At this moment, just as he had put Yun Tan's arm around his waist, he heard her suddenly speak in a muffled voice: "Lu Wangshan."
Lu Wangshan paused, then continued to wrap his arms around her, hugging her back and locking his legs around her: "Well, you haven't slept yet."
"I was woken up by your actions."
He said "Oh" apologetically, and then he chuckled. Then he lowered his head and kissed Yun Tan's lips, whispering, "I'm sorry, go to sleep."
"But it's so hot, and your breath is tickling my neck."
Lu Wangshan sighed in his heart, loosened his arms and motioned her to find a comfortable position.
Yun Tan turned around without any reluctance, and when she played with her long hair, a few strands of hair brushed directly across his face. Lu Wangshan pushed her hair aside, hugged her from behind, and gently lifted her waist back to his chest.
"Lu Wangshan."
"Um."
"Is it too late for me to tell you now that I want to go to Xinjiang with you and Leo?"
Lu Wangshan paused, not allowing himself to appear too happy. "Of course, it's a business jet. You can go anytime you want."
Yun Tan sighed and said, "I'm so envious. I wish I were as rich as you."
This was a very unspoken sigh. Lu Wangshan asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? I didn't ask you just now why you went to bed so early. Did something unhappy happen to you?"
"Um."
Yun Tan suddenly turned around again, hugged Lu Wangshan's neck and buried her head in his relaxed, soft chest, like a baby burrowing into its mother's chest. She took a deep breath, sniffing the clean, fresh scent on him, and whispered, "I'm not happy today."
The words were spoken almost close to Lu Wangshan's heart. The vibration of his vocal cords rubbed against the beating of his heart, causing his heart to tremble violently for an instant.
He keenly noticed that Yun Tan had changed. Perhaps she herself didn't realize it, but she was willing to show her vulnerability to him.
"Why are you unhappy?"
Yuntan put his arms around his neck and told him incoherently what had happened at home today.
Later in his speech, Lu Wangshan felt wetness on his neck.
"Xiao Tan, if you want I can..."
Yun Tan covered his lips in time. She knew what Lu Wangshan wanted to say. He was simply willing to help her take care of her grandmother, provide money and a house. This was too easy for Lu Wangshan.
"No, really." Yun Tan said, "That would exceed our boundaries."
Lu Wangshan was silent.
"My grandma is very stubborn. She doesn't even want to go to my place, let alone you to arrange it." Yun Tan said, "Besides, I have already forced Yun Jin to get out of that room, and grandma still lives in the original place."
Lu Wangshan held her chin and gently lifted her head up, wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes.
"Did you cry at home today too?" he asked in a low voice.
"Yeah, but they don't care whether I cry or not." Yun Tan's voice was muffled in his arms, but his tone was very relaxed. "They just blame me for making such a mess at home, and why I can't be as obedient and patient as before."
Lu Wangshan recalled the first time he accidentally saw Yun Tan crying. She was still very young at that time.
She squatted on the deserted back steps of the bookstore, her chin resting on her knees, crying as she broke the sausage into small pieces and fed them to the stray cats.
Lu Wangshan didn't go forward, but just listened to her talking to the kitten.
"Is your mother gone too?"
"My mother went to live abroad, and later I found a new mother. She was very good to me, especially good. But after my brother was born, she seemed to dislike me. I don't know why."
"She didn't even smile when I got first place in the exam."
Later, after they were together, Yuntan skipped class one time and didn't want to go to school.
Lu Wangshan, relying on the fact that he was a few years older than her, persuaded her to be obedient and go to class.
At that time, Yun Tan said: "Being well-behaved and obedient is the most useless thing in the world. You will only be bullied."
At that time, Lu Wangshan just thought that this was Yun Tan's excuse for not wanting to go to class.
But now I feel like I have found the reason why she feels wronged.
She used to be well-behaved and obedient, so she was seen as a symbol of weakness and easy to manipulate.
That's why she shouted at the top of her lungs with red eyes that day, "This is my life!"
Lu Wangshan lowered his head and kissed her forehead, then said softly, "Well, you can be whatever you want to be. This is your life."
Yuntan felt a sore nose and hugged Lu Wangshan's back tightly.
The first time she rebelled in her life was the day she met Lu Wangshan after the college entrance examination.
The 18-year-old Yuntan naively wanted to use sex as a medal of rebellion and disobedience.
She later realized how dangerous it was, but fortunately she met Lu Wangshan.
Maybe this is the only luck God has given her.
She sniffed lightly and looked up at Lu Wangshan's eyes. When the sharp and cold eyes were mixed with tenderness, they became a deep pool that always attracted people to stop and look.
Yuntan seemed to have missed a step and fell into it.
On this damp night, she fell back into the pain of the day she turned 18.
"Lu Wangshan."
"Um."
"Do you want to do it?"
She needs some external stimulation to numb her heart.
"Do it." Lu Wangshan turned over and kissed her, sliding down and whispering, "Cry if you want to, okay? Leave the rest to me, I will make Xiao Tan happy again."
-----------------------
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