Seeing Ruan Shengpeng's heartbroken expression, Yao Tongjia showed no pity whatsoever: "Actually, you don't need to put in any effort on me. I respect all of Mom's choices."
"If Mom wants to be with you, I won't object, but if you make Mom sad, I will make Mom leave you!"
"Tongtong, I didn't come to see you because of your mother. I just want to talk to you!" Ruan Shengpeng said cautiously, looking at Yao Tongjia's face, "Can you come and talk to me?"
"Where should we talk?" Yao Tongjia didn't really want to talk to this scumbag father.
"I live in a cave nearby. Why don't you come with me there? I can't stay out here for too long!"
Actually, he was afraid that someone with ulterior motives would see them talking. He was not safe at the moment and could not implicate his daughter, but he really wanted to talk to her!
These words reminded Yao Tongjia of her scumbag father, who had also loved her when she was little and had once smiled kindly at her!
I don't know when it started, but that kind and sincere smile turned into a hypocritical fake smile. Every time she needed to appear and ask her mother for resources, he would buy all sorts of expensive things for himself!
The moment he got the resources, his smile vanished! In his memory, he never seemed to have ever said he wanted to talk to him.
Yao Tongjia picked some wild herbs from the ground: "We've never met since I can remember. Is there anything you want to say to me?"
Yao Tongjia's unfamiliar tone made Ruan Shengpeng feel incredibly bitter: "I just wanted to know how you were doing. Last time I visited your mother, I didn't have a chance to tell her about you!"
Time was limited, and he wanted to learn more about Yao Yanxin's situation, so there really wasn't much time to talk about their two children.
Yao Tongjia thought for a moment and then nodded: "Let's go!"
These words immediately made Ruan Shengpeng laugh: "Come with me!"
The cave was quite dark, and it took Yao Tongjia a while to adjust before she could see clearly what was inside: a pile of straw spread on a large rock.
It was obvious that the straw was where he slept, and there was also a kettle and an earthenware pot around it. The cooking utensils were quite simple.
Seeing his daughter looking around, Ruan Shengpeng felt a little embarrassed: "This is just my current place of residence!"
Actually, these people who do missions don't have high requirements for the environment; they just need a place to live. But seeing his daughter looking at him like that, he suddenly blushed!
Yao Tongjia didn't respond: "What do you want to see me about? Or what do you want to know? I don't have any memory of what happened in Beijing. As far back as I can remember, we've lived in this village."
Are you all doing well here?
"Do you think it's a good idea? Mom is a very delicate person, raising just the two of us siblings who are both prone to illness. Do you think it will be a good thing?"
"I heard that we both got fevers before we even reached the suburbs. Mom was taking care of both of them by herself, and she didn't have any money or even a new set of clothes. Do you think she'd get better?"
Ruan Shengpeng had anticipated that it would be difficult, but he never imagined it would be this difficult even before leaving Beijing!
"If we hadn't met Aunt Xiao, who was in the same situation, we might not even be alive!"
These words felt like a knife piercing Ruan Shengpeng's heart. It was all his fault. He shouldn't have let her live in Beijing. He just wanted to be closer to her.
He thought he could see her whenever he wanted when he wasn't on a mission, but he never expected to be sent abroad and stay for more than ten years!
If he had known... he actually wanted to transfer people to Beijing, after all, the Ruan family still had some power there, but he never expected that the enemy would be someone close to him.
"When Aunt Xiao first came here, she wasn't able to earn money right away. She spent all her money on the way. She was a woman with three young children."
"You should know how difficult it was more than a decade ago!"
“My mother goes to work in the fields every day and is exhausted, but when she comes back every day, she still has to cook. She has fainted from exhaustion several times, but she still has to grit her teeth and persevere for our sake.”
“My younger brother was already weak, and after coming here, without timely medical treatment, his health deteriorated to a very low level. He can only lie on the kang (a heated brick bed) every day and can't even get up!”
"How could this be? When I left home, although he was weak, he was no different from a normal person!"
"I had a fever all the way, which damaged my health. I spent many years on the kang (a heated brick bed) afterward. It was only in the last year or two that I was able to go out and go to school!"
"What grade are you in now? Who does your younger brother look like?"
"It's said that daughters usually resemble their fathers and sons resemble their mothers, but my two children are the opposite. You can see from my face that I look like my mother, right?"
Ruan Shengpeng nodded, but fearing that Yao Tongjia might not see his nod and think he was unhappy with her, he quickly added, "You really look like your mother!"
"Ah Xu looks more like you, only his eyes are similar to mine and Mom's!"
"It would be better if your eyes looked like your mother's; my eyes aren't pretty!"
Yao Tongjia looked up at Ruan Shengpeng. Ruan Shengpeng's hair was now all white, but this did not affect his image as a handsome uncle at all. He certainly wouldn't say that he looked bad!
Of course, Yao Tongjia didn't want to argue with him about such things: "Before, Axu could only stay on the kang (a heated brick bed) every day, and I was afraid he would become depressed!"
"Fortunately, Aunt Xiao bought a lot of books to help Brother Xiao pass the time, so Ah Xu can also read some books!"
Yao Tongjia told Ruan Shengpeng about their past in a very detailed way. She didn't hide anything, but she told him the difficult parts, unlike Yao Yanxin who tried to gloss over the truth!
Upon hearing this, Ruan Shengpeng once again mentally added a mark against his sister and mother!
After telling her story, Yao Tongjia asked her scumbag father, "And what about you? You spent over ten years abroad as an undercover agent? You didn't do anything to betray my mother?"
"There are confidentiality regulations regarding things that happen abroad, so I can't tell you. But I've never done anything to betray your mother. Wherever I go, I pretend to be gay."
"G stands for homosexual, did you know that?"
Yao Tongjia didn't expect this scumbag father to be so persistent, daring to say he was gay: "Have you ever been tackled by someone of the same sex?"
Ruan Shengpeng: "..." Who can tell me who taught his daughter all this nonsense?
Seeing that Ruan Shengpeng hadn't answered her question for a while, Yao Tongjia looked at him and saw that he seemed hesitant to speak: "What do you want to ask? Just ask, what are you hesitating for?"
"You know about homosexuality? How did you find out?" Ruan Shengpeng's tone gradually became serious as he spoke, as if he wanted to drag the person who taught him over and beat him up!
Yao Tongjia: "..." Is it too late for her to take back what she just said?
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