Chapter 53 The Wedding at Eighteen (Part Two) The Beginning of Loving Someone...
"It's been several months..."
Yan Quan tried to appear calm, but his voice trembled as he spoke. His fingers, neck, heart… all four limbs shook uncontrollably.
Yan Quan couldn't understand why... why, despite his painstaking efforts, scheming, and finding every possible way out for himself, he still couldn't escape the vortex of "betrayal."
"He's been pregnant for four months, please... please, he's your own brother."
Wu Yingxue struggled in Yan Quan's arms, reaching out to cup Yan Quan's face. Her blood-stained hands left mottled fingerprints on Yan Quan's pale skin.
"Qianqian, Mom knows. You have a way, right? You have a way to save Yan Shi, right?"
“The Yan family can’t just end like this. Your younger brother is still so young, how can he suffer with us…”
"If... if... the Yan family survives this crisis, your brother... he will be the true heir of the Yan family, he won't be an illegitimate child anymore, and he can grow up in the Yan family..."
“Mom…” Yan Quan’s hoarse throat suddenly let out a sarcastic, mocking sound: “Didn’t you say you loved me the most in this world? But why are you always threatening me…”
Yan Quan's cut reopened. Bright red blood flowed continuously. But Yan Quan felt no pain—he was probably numb.
"You choose one, Mom."
It turns out that some words have been suppressed in my heart for too long. So much so that when I finally spoke them, it felt like cutting out flesh that had long since rotted and was infested with maggots.
"Choose me, or the younger brother."
“Choose me, and come with me. We'll leave here and go to Federation A. I'll take care of your brother just as I loved you…”
Even if this baby has the disgusting blood of Yan Zhengdong flowing through its veins.
“Qianqian…” Wu Yingxue stared blankly at Yan Qian, two lines of tears streaming down her deep eyes.
At that moment, Yan Quan was filled with hope... anticipating the answer her mother would give.
Until… Mom started shaking her head, gripping Yan Quan's wrist, and began to plead in a low voice, "Please, Quan Quan…"
"Ha..." Yan Quan's eyelashes drooped, a rush of air squeezed through his chest, and he began to cough violently—
Because Yan Quan understood. He had been abandoned by his mother.
Mom didn't choose him.
Mom chose the younger brother, or rather... the Yan family.
"Qiuqiu, you have a way to save Yan Shi, don't you?"
Wu Yingxue knelt down tremblingly, tightly grasping Yan Quan's hand, and placed Yan Quan's palm on her lower abdomen, near her uterus.
As if sensing a "survival crisis," the slightly pregnant fetus moved slightly in Wu Yingxue's palm.
"Qiuqiu, he's your own brother." Wu Yingxue's hair was disheveled and messy, her face showing a mixture of crying and laughing, looking like a concubine in a cold palace.
"Quanquan, do you really want to see your brother and me living a life worse than death after the Yan family goes bankrupt?"
"Do you want to see your brother grow up like you, experiencing the same tragic and pitiful life?"
Plop... A tear fell onto the floor tile.
This time, it was Yan Quan's tears.
Mixed with a salty, bitter taste, Yan Quan finally realized belatedly that her mother's "love" was fake.
“Mom…” Yan Quan tilted her head back and wiped away her tears forcefully. “I will save the Yan family, and you will continue to be the wealthy wife of the Yan family. Your younger brother will also become the true heir of the Yan family.”
"But, Mom, this is the last time."
I love you mom.
But this is the last time.
From now on, I will no longer be controlled or "used" by you in the name of "love".
*
With the new district's real estate development imminent, various businesses are eager to get a piece of the pie. The bidding competition between the Yan and Yan families has become fierce.
On New Year's Eve, Yan Quan stood alone outside the gate of Nanzhong School and made a phone call to Yan Ceyan.
After a few rings, the call was connected.
On the other end of the receiver, there was a cacophony of footsteps, the rustling of papers, and the incessant ringing of a phone… Yan Ceyan was at the Yan family company.
"Come to the gate of Nanzhong School, I have something to tell you."
Before Yan Ceyan could refuse, Yan Quan spoke quickly first: "If it's very important."
Yan Quan had barely finished speaking when the call was abruptly cut off. Yan Ceyan didn't even say another word.
The temperature in the capital was very low that year. But it didn't snow.
Only the cold wind rages.
Yan Quan stood there from daytime until evening.
The cold wind blew into my kneecaps, feeling like they were frosted.
Yan Ceyan never came.
Later, the large screens on the street began broadcasting warnings of low nighttime temperatures and disruptions to public transportation, urging citizens to dress warmly when traveling.
The gloomy sky began to rain, a cold, pattering rain mixed with icy pellets. It was said to be rain mixed with hail. But Yan Quan felt that hail was also rain, a more violent kind of rain.
It's raining so hard.
Yan Quan felt that Yan Ceyan might not come.
But Yan Quan stubbornly waited.
The coarse snow and rain fell harder and harder. Yan Quan stood under the eaves and struggled to open his umbrella.
In truth, Yan Quan didn't know what he was so persistently waiting for: the Yan family's interests? Or the government's tender documents?
Yan Quan's rational purpose seems to be this.
But……
In the torrential rain, everything was blurred and grayish-white. Yan Quan struggled to open her eyes in the cold wind, and through her hazy vision, she glimpsed a tall figure—
It is Yan Ceyan.
He ran all the way here without even using an umbrella.
"Bang bang—" Chunks of rain mixed with hail pelted the nylon umbrella, like heavy artillery shells bombarding a war zone...
In that instant, the hard outer shell of Yan Quan's heart seemed to be smashed open and shattered along with hail.
It turns out, I was just waiting for a possibility.
The odds are even lower than winning the lottery, a one in ten thousand chance—it will never be "abandoned" and will always be firmly "chosen".
Yan Quan stared blankly at Yan Ceyan, who ran up to him soaking wet, "Idiot..."
"You still came in such heavy rain." Yan Quan's nose felt a little sore.
"..." Yan Ceyan was soaked to the bone and didn't reply.
A torrential downpour of cold rain fell from the sky, washing everything in the world away as if distorting its reality. After a long while, a faint voice finally drifted through the rain-soaked curtain.
—It was Yan Ceyan's voice.
The sound clearly landed on Yan Quan's eardrums, rising in decibels along with his heartbeat, almost deafening:
"Yan Quan, ask me."
"The new district real estate project, Yan's bidding proposal... Yan Quan, as long as you ask, I will never lie."
The rain pattered loudly, pounding against her eardrums, and Yan Quan's heart pounded faster and faster.
"Yan Ceyan, I lied to you before."
With the umbrella facing against the wind and her shoes wading through puddles, Yan Quan was fighting against the howling resistance with every step she took forward.
"I actually want to accept your marriage proposal."
"Let's get married, Yan Ceyan."
*
"Beep—" The hotel room key beeped.
"Mmm... Hah..." Their wet lips intertwined in a kiss, and Yan Quan stumbled inside, supported by the back of Yan Ceyan's head.
As Yan Quan continued kissing, he felt a bit short of breath, his body felt weak and limp, as if he were sinking into a cloud.
Then... "Bang—"
Yan Quan collapsed onto the soft down-filled bed, and as she looked up slightly, she met Yan Ceyan's dark, deep eyes—in which burned a fire.
"..." Yan Ceyan leaned down again and pressed down on Yan Quan's forehead, cheeks, collarbone... showering him with a flurry of kisses.
The numerous, mottled kiss marks, like cherry blossoms in full bloom, spread further and further down...
"Mmm..." Yan Quan was a little dazed from the kiss. She was panting slightly and raised her hand to touch Yan Ceyan's neck, signaling Yan Ceyan to stop.
"..." Yan Ceyan buried his head in Yan Quan's neck and took a deep breath. After forcing himself to calm down for several seconds, he finally spoke in a low, hoarse voice, "What's wrong..."
"Take a shower first. You're very wet right now."
Yan Quan's ears were burning, so he covered his eyes with the back of his hand—the silver ring on his ring finger was sparkling.
Yan Ceyan's hair, damp with water, hung down as he took Yan Quan's ring finger and gently kissed it. His voice was even hoarser. "Okay."
...
The sound of running water came from the hotel shower stall. Yan Quan stared blankly at the ceiling, her cheeks burning hot.
After thinking for a while, Yan Quan bit her lip and "click-click" adjusted her pheromone-blocking neck ring to the highest setting.
Then Yan Quan obediently took off his rain-soaked shirt, crawled into the quilt, and lay down.
The indoor heating was on full blast, and the sound of shower water echoed in my ears, a soft, pattering sound that seemed to grow closer and then further away...
After a while, Yan Quan vaguely felt his head being gently lifted by a pair of hands: "...Yan Ceyan?"
With her eyelashes fluttering, Yan Quan saw Yan Ceyan's face clearly, and naturally opened her lips, tilted her head, and kissed Yan Ceyan.
"Mmm..." After their lips lingered for a while, Yan Quan felt her head getting increasingly dizzy. She didn't know if it was the scent of the wildly climbing datura flowers in the room, or something else entirely.
During the brief moment when he could catch his breath, Yan Ceyan abruptly stopped. He moved the hand that was supporting Yan Quan to Yan Quan's forehead.
“It’s very hot…” Yan Ceyan paused for a moment, then immediately came to the conclusion: “Sweet Orange, you have a fever.”
"...Fever?" Yan Quan's mind was sluggish; he just stared blankly at Yan Ceyan.
"Yes, you have a fever. You need to take medicine." Yan Ceyan propped himself up on the bed. "Stay here obediently, I'll go to the pharmacy to buy medicine."
"……good."
Yan Quan continued to nod blankly.
"Bang—" The door slammed shut. The room fell silent again, as still as a pool of water. Yan Quan's aimless gaze lingered on the corner of the bedside table.
Yan Ceyan's cell phone sat quietly there.
Who buys medicine without their phone... Yan Quan thought for a while with a muddled mind, and finally realized belatedly that Yan Ceyan did it on purpose.
If nothing unexpected happens...
Yan Quan unlocked the screen with his fingerprint—inside were documents outlining Yan's bidding proposals.
At that time, dusk was deepening, and the camphor tree branches on both sides of the street outside the window were shaken to pieces by the torrential rain.
The raindrops pattered against the window. Yan Quan huddled under the sheets, covering her trembling lips with the back of her hand: "Idiot, Yan Ceyan."
Yan Quan's life motto is—he will never fall in love with anyone in this lifetime.
In fact, even after wearing the ring, Yan Quan still knew perfectly well that it was a "deception" to save the Yan family.
But... a strong and intense pain gradually crept up from the softest corner of her body. Yan Quan felt as if her heart was being torn apart and broken into pieces.
This sadness wasn't for Yan Quan himself, but entirely for another person—
Yan Quan felt that Yan Ceyan was "pitiful".
You could have pushed it away, you could have stayed out of it, you clearly had so many other choices in this world besides yourself...
But Yan Ceyan was just that foolish. Time and time again, he willingly "was used" and "fell for the fool".
The silver ring tightly bound Yan Quan's ring finger. At that time, Yan Quan was unaware—
The beginning of loving someone is feeling sorry for them.
*
After winter comes spring. There's a saying in the capital, "a sudden cold snap in spring," which means that spring can be colder than winter.
With the annual holiday over, construction teams from various real estate companies are about to start work on their projects. The Capital New Area project is no exception.
On the day of the public bidding, the conference hall of the capital's government building was packed. The general managers of the Yan family and the Yan family sat on opposite sides of the hall, their eyes gleaming with intense exchange.
"Now, we will announce the bid evaluation results." The host opened the sealed envelope. "The winning bidder for the Capital New City project is..."
"Yan Group".
Four words, a wake-up call. The room fell silent instantly, and the faces of those in the know turned ashen.
Everyone knows that this project was initially spearheaded by the Yan family and organized by the government... The Yan family winning the bid was practically a foregone conclusion! How could this unexpected turn of events occur!
"Haha..." Yan Zhengdong, upon receiving the news and seeing the soaring stock price and additional investments, let out a hearty laugh, feeling relieved to have weathered the crisis.
"Yan Quan, you really are... my good son."
The Yan family's failed bid can only be described as a "significant blow." Their foundation in the real estate industry remains intact, but what truly dealt the Yan family a fatal blow was...
A week later, the government announced that Yan's Construction had been disqualified from bidding because it had provided false information during the bidding process, and the project was awarded to Yan's Real Estate.
On the same day, several senior executives of Yan Group were taken away by the procuratorate for investigation on suspicion of commercial fraud.
"The Yan family tampered with the soil testing data! The land plots planned for the construction of the new city in Area A are severely contaminated with heavy metals!" The news spread like wildfire throughout the industry.
Overnight, the Yan family was embroiled in scandal, severely damaging industry confidence. Meanwhile, the Yan family, taking advantage of the new district construction project, aggressively opened up pre-sale loans for properties, forcibly seizing control of and exploiting the Yan family…
The Yan family and the Yan family were bitter rivals who had been locked in a fierce competition for years. The undercurrents of their business rivalry finally came to an end—with the Yan family suffering a crushing defeat.
*Recollection of the dividing line, the end*
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