Contractual Marriage: We’re Meant to Be Together

199. He’s Not My Dad

Translator: Bryan

When Yan Chuyang was sick, his parents used to sit on either side of his bed, offering him words of comfort and care. His mother would peel fruits for him, and his father would tell him about funny things at work.

However, those happy memories seemed to have become dim. So many years had passed. Yan Chuyang could no longer recall those things clearly.

All he could remember was that when his grandmother was sick in bed, he had despairingly watched alone as the person closest to him slowly lost consciousness and left him.

At that time, he had no one by his side.

Yan Chuyang stood stiffly outside the door, watching them chatting and laughing. He didn’t know how to walk up to them, for he felt that he was an outsider. In fact… he was indeed an outsider.

He had stood there for a long while when Fang Jingshu’s husband suddenly spotted Yan Chuyang standing at the door. The man’s face changed and he hurriedly nudged Fang Jingshu.

Fang Jingshu turned her head and saw that it was Yan Chuyang. Her face hardened as she put down her fruit knife and, walking over to Yan Chuyang, said in a tearful voice, “What took you so long? Do you know how much your brother suffered just now?”

His brother had suffered? Yan Chuyang looked at the ruddy-faced youngster sitting on the bed, unable to think of what kind of pain he had just experienced.

Fang Jingshu stepped closer to Yan Chuyang and reached out her hand to touch him, but Wei Qing pulled Yan Chuyang backwards behind him and, looking at Fang Jingshu, asked, “Are you Yan Chuyang’s mother?”

The look in Fang Jingshu’s eyes flickered. After staring at Wei Qing for a while, she suddenly said in a loud voice, “Oh, you’re Yan Chuyang’s rich friend, right?”

Wei Qing frowned and looked at Yan Chuyang.

“It wasn’t me who said that. I never told anyone I knew you.” Yan Chuyang explained.

“It wasn’t him,” Fang Jingshu said with a smile. “A few days ago, when I went back to our old house to retrieve something, I saw Wei Yuan. It was him who told me about you. He said you’re doing very well, that you made friends with a very wealthy man, and that you’d never have to worry about money anymore.”

A piercing look appeared in Yan Chuyang’s eyes. “Why did you go back there?”

Fang Jingshu let out an “oh”, tucked her stray hair behind her ear and sighed in a faintly resigned tone of voice, “At that time your brother had a relapse and had to be hospitalized. The medical expenses were so high that I had no choice but to go back to our hometown, thinking of vacanting your grandmother’s house and selling it to scrape up the money…”

“Fang Jingshu!” Yan Chuyang abruptly raised his voice and interrupted her in disbelief, “That’s the only thing Grandmother left me. It’s not your house. How dare you think of selling it?”

Fang Jingshu’s complexion changed and she muttered, “But I didn’t sell it, did I? I knew you’re a nostalgic boy and wouldn’t agree, so I didn’t do that.”

Yan Chuyang shook his head in disbelief, “When Grandmother was sick, you never once went back to check on her. You didn’t even attend her funeral. You did such nasty things and yet you still have the nerve to think of selling her house? Are you really my mother?”

Fang Jingshu’s face darkened. She curled her lips and said, “Your grandmother has passed away, and the house has stood empty for quite some time. I think…”

“Don’t even think about it,” Yan Chuyang said coldly. “That house is mine. No one can sell it without my permission.”

Face sullen, Fang Jingshu said, “Then what do you want me to do? Your brother is sick. It’s a chronic skin disease. He’s been having frequent relapses. The medical expenses are very high. I don’t have that much money. You’re my son, and you’ve grown up and gotten rich now. Who else am I supposed to seek help from when in trouble, if not you?”

Yan Chuyang snorted, “You never thought of coming to me until I grew up. Where were you when I was a teenager and needed you the most?”

Fang Jingshu’s face blanched at his words. It was a long moment before she stammered, “What would you have me do? At that time I had just given birth to your brother. He was so young and so vulnerable. I had to look after him. I…I couldn’t spare any thought for you.”

Yan Chuyang felt a sting in his nose. “No, you couldn’t. When I was 13, I was at the end of my rope and went to your house to borrow money, but you didn’t even dare show your face. Instead, you had your neighbor chuck me away.”

Fang Jingshu suddenly jerked her head up. “That’s not true. I really didn’t know you were there. Your brother kept crying and the house was so loud. I didn’t hear you call out to me at all!”

Yan Chuyang shook his head with a mirthless smile, pulled a bank card from his pocket and handed it to her. “There’s 100,000 yuan on this card. I don’t know how much you need, but this is all I got. There’s nothing else I can do.”

Fang Jingshu’s eyes lit up and she hastily took the card, pocketed it and said to Yan Chuyang, “Chuyang, where did you get so much money? Have you graduated? Have you started working?”

Yan Chuyang snorted, “I’m in my junior year. You didn’t even know which grade I was in!”

“Uh…” Fang Jingshu looked embarrassed and explained hurriedly, “I know which university you are in. It’s the best art academy in Song City, right? I told your brother to see you as an example so that he’d become somebody as you were.”

Yan Chuyang looked at the teenager who had been sitting quietly on the bed all along.

The boy was about eleven or twelve years old and bore some similarity to him. He was bespectacled and looked feeble. Yan Chuyang could tell at a glance that the boy had been doted on all his life.

Yan Chuyang had been about this old at that time.

However, when he had been a teenager, he had been faced with loneliness and fear alone, whereas this teenager was the darling of the whole family.

Fortunately for him, he had not been completely unwanted. At least his grandmother had loved him.

Having no parents was no big deal. He had survived.

“Son.” Fang Jingshu stepped over again to hold Yan Chuyang’s arm.

Wei Qing interposed himself between them.

Fang Jingshu’s hands paused in mid-air awkwardly. Eventually, she forced a smile and continued, “Chuyang, what do you do for a living exactly? How did you make so much money? If you know any good ways to make a living, give your father some tips.” With that, she pointed at the guileless-looking man who had been sitting on the side watching them talking. “Your father is still working in a factory, earning a meager salary…”

“He’s not my father,” Yan Chuyang interrupted her calmly.

He had turned five when his father died. He remembered it.

He still remembered his biological father.