Are you still sad about Chapter 6?
Lu Chong became very clingy after getting drunk, and it was almost midnight by the time I got him to sleep.
Mu Yan was exhausted and lay down hastily because he had to go to work the next day. As soon as he lay down, Lu Chong pressed himself against him and hugged him from behind.
His shoulders were broad, and when he held Mu Yan, he could hold him tightly in his arms.
"Why did you take so long, honey? I was sleepy and wanted to hold you while I slept," Lu Chong mumbled sleepily, seemingly genuinely tired.
"I...I'm going to take a shower." Mu Yan turned her gaze away, avoiding looking into Lu Chong's eyes.
Mu Yan had already taken a shower in the morning, but he still wanted to take another one.
The water in the suite heated up very slowly, and Mu Yan shivered as he splashed the cold water on his body.
He changed out of the clothes Shang Qiyue had bought for him and shrank back into his loose pajamas, but he didn't feel any better.
"What did Yan Yan want to say to me this morning?"
Lu Chong's arms were warm. He was wearing the same coral fleece couple pajamas as Mu Yan. The material was very soft, and they had bought them by chance when they went to a night market once.
Mu Yan is a beta and can't smell pheromones. Lu Chong says his pheromones smell like vetiver and he intentionally sprays similar perfumes on himself.
Mu Yan nestled in his arms, inhaling the familiar scent of vetiver, and shook her head.
"Is Yan Yan still sad?"
Mu Yan nestled in his arms, her shoulders trembling almost imperceptibly.
Even if Lu Chong wasn't usually very considerate, he was even less aware that Mu Yan was quietly crying in his arms when he was drunk. He just hadn't heard Mu Yan answer him for a long time and asked in confusion, "Yan Yan?"
"Go to sleep, you're drunk. Goodnight."
Mu Yan didn't sleep well that night. He had an unusual insomnia and his head started to ache as he stayed up late, feeling as if he were the one who had drunk too much.
She finally drifted off to sleep, but was soon woken up by the alarm clock. Lu Chong had already gone to the company. On the dining table was a cup of soy milk and two cold red bean buns, which he had probably left for Mu Yan.
Mu Yan didn't feel hot, and ate the two cold red bean buns with the still slightly warm soy milk.
Lu Chong doesn't like eating breakfast and doesn't have the habit of going for a morning run, so this must have been something he bought specifically for Mu Yan.
Judging from the packaging of the soy milk, it was from the brand that Mu Yan usually liked, but unfortunately it was a bit cold.
This should be Lu Chong's apology.
Mu Yan glanced at the time, dragged his tired body out to catch the subway.
Mu Yan's silent phone vibrated, and he saw that it was his niece Jiajia calling. He answered it immediately.
"Jiajia, what's wrong? Have you arrived at kindergarten yet?" he asked with a smile, trying to cheer himself up.
Although they are not related by blood, Mu Yan, her brother, and her stepmother have always relied on each other and have a very good relationship. When Mu Yan sees the innocent and lively Jiajia, it's as if she's seeing a brother who hasn't suffered so much hardship.
Jiajia's brother and Xiang Zhuo bought her a smartwatch and saved Mu Yan's number in it. She often calls it for fun. Mu Yan answers when he has free time, and when he's at work, he sends her a message saying that he's busy, and Jiajia will obediently apologize.
"Uncle, I haven't arrived at kindergarten yet. I'm so bored. My father and dad won't let me go to kindergarten."
"Why won't you go to kindergarten?" Mu Yan asked instinctively.
Jiajia said with a wronged look, "Dad said I have a cold and will infect other children, so he told me to stay home and read picture books by myself. But I've already read all the picture books at home, and they don't play with me either."
Mu Yan smiled and said, "Then Uncle can only chat with you for a little while. Uncle has to go to work now."
Jiajia responded obediently, and Mu Yan could imagine the child smiling sweetly at the phone watch on the other end.
He was actually a little worried when he answered the phone. Lin Guojun knew his brother's address, and there was no guarantee that debt collectors wouldn't come to their house to cause trouble.
Jiajia showed him the jigsaw puzzle Lin Yi bought for her yesterday and asked Mu Yan to teach her how to put it together.
Mu Yan was very patient with Jiajia: "Jiajia, look, first pick up those pieces with flat sides... Yes, look where this piece should be put together."
Just as the subway was about to arrive at the station, Jiajia finished her jigsaw puzzle. Mu Yan said he had to go to the company. If he scrambled the puzzle, would Jiajia put it back together again?
"Yes," Jiajia said confidently. "Then Uncle, you should go ahead and get busy. Goodbye, Uncle!"
"By the way, Jiajia," Mu Yan thought of Lin Yi's tendency to only report good news and not bad, and asked Jiajia, "Have any strange people come to our house recently?"
"A strange person?" Jiajia asked, puzzled.
"Is there someone Jiajia hasn't met before?"
Jiajia thought for a moment: "I don't think so..."
She seemed to have moved her watch a little further away, which made her voice sound a bit soft, but Mu Yan could clearly hear discordant thumping sounds amidst the voices.
"Is someone knocking on your door, Jiajia?"
Jiajia seemed to run over, because the thumping sounds were getting clearer and clearer, and Mu Yan even heard a few indistinct shouts from men.
Bang. Bang.
"Jiajia!" Mu Yan called out urgently, "Don't open the door, go back to your room."
"I'm sorry, Uncle, I was wrong..." Jiajia seemed to be frightened by Mu Yan's unusually stern tone and quickly apologized, "I just wanted to check the peephole... Dad said that when you hear a knock on the door, you should check the peephole first."
The voices on the other end gradually quieted down; Jiajia should have already returned to her room. Mu Yan, however, dared not relax: "Jiajia, stay in your room now, and whatever you do, don't open the door, understand?"
Mu Yan quickly called Xiang Zhuo, who said he would be back soon and told Mu Yan not to worry about him or call Lin Yi.
"He's an omega, he can't be of much help even if he comes, Xiao Yan, you know that, right..."
“There must be a lot of people here. Brother Xiang Zhuo, you can’t handle this by yourself, so I’ll come too.”
"How can that be?" Xiang Zhuo refused without even thinking. He was a very traditional beta, and there was no reason for his wife's younger brother to come and help with his family matters.
"Don't come any closer, Xiaoyan, you need to get to work."
However, the debt wasn't incurred by Lin Yi; it was just that Lin Yi had a soft heart in the past, which led Lin Guojun to happen to know his home address.
Mu Yan exited the subway at the nearest station, took a taxi, and headed to Lin Yi's house.
"To No. 17, Tonghuatang Lane," Mu Yan said to the driver.
Xiang Zhuo sighed repeatedly on the other end of the phone. In his eyes, Mu Yan was always like a younger brother, a college graduate who had just graduated not long ago. He didn't want to involve Mu Yan, but he was alone and powerless to deal with their family's mess.
Lin Guojun and Mu Juanhua were a couple who married later in life, each bringing a child with them. After their marriage, Lin Yi changed his surname to Lin and took his stepfather's surname. This was common for couples who married later in life in those days. Perhaps Mu Juanhua hoped that Lin Guojun wouldn't target the child she brought with him and someone else's flesh and blood.
Mu Yan is the child of Lin Guojun and his ex-wife. According to him, Mu Yan's mother "ran away after he was born and never breastfed him for a single day." However, Mu Yan thinks that even if his biological mother really abandoned him and ran away, he would not blame her.
Lin Guojun got into gambling when he was young. He would spend all day at the village entrance playing cards with a few hooligans until dark before going home. When his family was really struggling to make ends meet, he would drive his little stall to the city to sell pancakes for a couple of days.
My stepmother was a very virtuous woman. If it weren't for her poor health, she would have worked in the fields like the men in other families. Even so, she took care of two children while also weaving bamboo baskets in her spare time to supplement the family income.
On the first day of his adulthood, Mu Yan changed his name to the same surname as his stepmother.
The older brother is soft-hearted and always feels that Lin Guojun gave him food and raised him. He and his mother are both omegas, and if they were to end up on the streets, who knows what would happen to them.
Lin Guojun also knew that his stepmother was gentle on the outside but tough on the inside, and he had already made his stance clear that his brother was the easiest among them to manipulate.
When he owed 500,000 yuan in gambling debts, he only dared to tell Lin Yi first. In fact, he must have asked Lin Yi for a lot of small amounts of money before that, but Xiang Zhuo and Mu Yan didn't know that.
This time, he cried and told Lin Yi that if he couldn't pay back the money this time, they would cut off one of his fingers. He wept bitterly and cursed, swearing that he would never gamble again. He only asked Lin Yi for 200,000 yuan to deal with the debt collectors first, and he would slowly pay back the rest by making pancakes.
But 200,000 is too much. Lin Yi's family still has a mortgage, so how could they possibly come up with that amount? He could only desperately try to get business, hoping to get 10,000 or 20,000 off as soon as possible so that his father could pay off some of it. He couldn't help with anything more than that.
Normally, he would never accompany clients to places like Liuguang.
It was because of this incident that Mu Yan learned about Lin Guojun's massive gambling debts. That day, he ran back to his rural home, a place he never wanted to return to, and forced Lin Guojun to write a guarantee that he would never gamble again, wielding a kitchen knife. He told Lin Guojun that if he bothered him and his brother again, he would kill Lin Guojun and then turn himself in.
City A is neither too big nor too small. Mu Yan had good grades and his first year of tuition at University A was covered by the village. Over the years, many people in the village have kept in touch with Mu Yan. Mu Yan cannot guarantee that Lin Guojun will never find him again.
He wouldn't actually kill anyone, but dealing with someone like Lin Guojun, reasoning and written guarantees are useless; only making him believe he really would kill someone will work.
Mu Yan, who had never argued with anyone since childhood, looked terrifying holding a knife. Lin Guojun seemed genuinely frightened by him, and he was still trembling when Mu Yan took the knife off his neck.
"Xiaoyan, I'm your real father! Trust me, I... please help me one last time..."
"Dream on!" Mu Yan was exhausted from cursing and felt his throat was extremely dry. The man heard his hoarse voice and kindly poured him some hot water, telling him not to be angry anymore.
When Lin Guojun watched him drink water, he seemed to want to say something but hesitated. Mu Yan thought he wanted to ask him for something again, so he didn't want to waste any more words with him and just wanted to leave immediately.
But perhaps because he was too emotional just now, his head seemed a little dizzy. Mu Yan was already slightly anemic, so he didn't think much of it and just sat down in the chair to rest for a while.
But when he regained consciousness, he found himself in Shang Qiyue's bed.
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