Chapter 7.1

Fun fact: Mo Chuan Ya has her own story 😮

+ An even funner fact at the end of this chapter~

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“He wants you to be his rose?” From the other end of the phone came a sound that seemed like a laugh yet not a laugh that contained a little something weird.

“I know.” Yi An rolled her eyes, completely understanding the meaning beyond her friend’s words. “I also think it’s very strange, who says this? I don’t even know just what he means!”

“He really said to make it real with you?” After saying this, Mo Chuan Ya couldn’t help laughing softly. She seemed like she was saying a tongue twister.

“Who knows if it’s real or fake?” Jian Yi An’s reply was also wonderful. “This person, it’s hard to tell if it’s true or false when he speaks. He might be teasing me again.”

“Do you really think he’s teasing you?”

“This…” Jian Yi An trailed off. “Do you know how he treats me recently?”

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“Tso?”

“Kwpv zkjl y zkvvzl jke vbyv tsv y rlv zkjl y pxyzz est sa y pxyzz nyv.”

“Vlv?” Ys Ubwyd Zy eked’v wdelapvyde. “Ebyv’p tskdt sd?”

Tso pbswze pbl rwv kv? Kkyd Zk Gd psqvzu pktble. Mbl pktb oypd’v alyzzu yttaklhle, cwv blze y pollvdlpp yde clokzelaxldv vbyv oyp byae vs elpnakcl. Slnldvzu, vbyv bwpcyde sq blap valyvle bla fwpv zkjl bl oyp valyvkdt y rlv vbyv bl’e fwpv tsv. Alau byrrkzu, lhlau eyu bl oswze lmrlakxldv okvb yzz psavp sq oyup vs zshl bla sd bla cseu, bwttkdt bla, vlypkdt bla, rzyukdt okvb bla byka, lhld pbyxlzlppzu pwttlpvkdt vs blzr bla cyvbl.

Fbl, sq nswapl, pvasdtzu alqwple. Zlv bl alqwple vs pbso psxl alpvaykdv, ralryakdt y vyczl qwzz sq yzz psavp sq xknasoyhle ekpblp yde qllekdt bla sdl xswvbqwz yv y vkxl.

Rd yeekvksd, bl kdpkpvle sd rwvvkdt yd lde vs pzllrkdt kd plryayvl assxp. Ohlau dktbv, bl bwttle bla vs pzllr…

“Ebu yald’v usw pyukdt yduvbkdt?” Ys Ubwyd Zy prsjl kd nsdqwpksd.

Kkyd Zk Gd nyxl cynj vs bla pldplp yde vbl oknjle yde xshkdt pnldl kd bla xkde oyp kxxlekyvlzu lmvkdtwkpble. Oxcyaaypple, pbl nswtble voknl. “Lsvbkdt, R oyp fwpv vbkdjkdt…” Fbl pweeldzu pvsrrle, qkdekdt kv byae vs pbyal kdvkxyvl elvykzp okvb bla qaklde shla vbl rbsdl. “R oyp vbkdjkdt, obyv es usw vbkdj R pbswze es?”

“What do you mean what should you do?”

“What should I do with Mu Yu?”

“Do you still need to ask me about this?” Mo Chuan Yu teased seemingly meaningfully. “Haven’t you already decided?”

“That’s… true.” Jian Yi An was a little embarrassed, she had to admit that she had actually long understood. Whether her husband was sincere or insincere to her, even if there was a cliff ahead, she could only fall off without turning back. After ending the phone call, she stood on the balcony for a long time, looking into the distance at the rose-tinted misty sunset. The great Ke family residence located in Yangmingshan District had an exceptionally good view. It was a pity that Mu Yu was unwilling to move back home and when he occasionally came back, he was also unwilling to stay a little longer.

She knew very clearly the reason, and was also regretful, why couldn’t this pair of father and son interact peacefully?

“Yi An, you’ve come!” A deep voice suddenly sounded behind her.

She blithely turned around, meeting the staggering elder and supporting him. “Dad, did you sleep well?”

“Still okay.” Ke Cheng En sat down on the sofa, rubbing the exhaustion between his brows. “I don’t know what’s going on, these few days, my head always hurts.”

“Is it?” Jian Yi An couldn’t help but worry. “Do you need me to take you to the hospital to take a look?”

“Only a minor ailment, no need to make a fuss over nothing.” Ke Cheng En impatiently waved his hand. “Sit, chat with Dad.”

“Yes.” Jian Yi An sat down, pouring a cup of herbal tea for the two of them. “Oh, by the way, dad, I have something to ask you.”

Ke Cheng En took the teacup. “What is it?”

“I want to ask about Mu Yu’s childhood.”

“When Mu Yu was small?” Ke Cheng En was surprised. “Why do you suddenly want to ask about this?”

“No reason, I just want to understand him a little more. Unfortunately, he’s always unwilling to talk about it. Jian Yi An unhurriedly sipped her tea. “Dad, can you tell me?”

“Hmm… where should I start?” Ke Cheng En was at a loss. “Just, he wasn’t much different from a normal boy, very mischievous. He didn’t like studying very much when he was little either, his grades weren’t good.”

“Really? He always thinks he’s so smart, I even thought he was an excellent student ever since he was little.” Jian Yi An pursed her lips and smiled. “Has he liked exercising since he was little? Did he participate in any teams at school?”

“This…” Ke Cheng En was a little embarrassed. “Honestly, I don’t really know either, I was very busy with work at that time. I left all his matters to the nanny and the housekeeper to attend to.”

Nanny and housekeeper? So this meant, since he was young, he not only suffered from his mother’s neglect, but didn’t ever receive much warmth from his father either. Jian Yi An sadly thought.

“If you want to know about his childhood, you can ask the housekeeper that used to work here. He has already retired, but I remember I still have his phone number.” After saying this, Ke Cheng En called the current housekeeper, ordered him to find the former housekeeper’s contact details and had him bring over a photo album.

“Are these Mu Yu’s photos?” Jian Yi An took the photo album, pleasantly surprised.

“En, he doesn’t seem to like taking photos very much, there’s only this one.”

She flipped through the photo album, unable to wait. On the first page, there were a few baby photos. He half laid on the bed, his clear and lively eyes wide open, clenching his little tender white fist, smiling happily at the camera.

“So adorable!” She exclaimed, her heart seized tightly.

It turns out that man also had a time when he was so innocent and naive! She continued to look at the photos. In the beginning, she always had a harmonious smile, but gradually, her smiling expression slipped away and her watery eyes became misty.

Because she discovered that her husband’s childhood photos were all of him by himself, he had never taken a photo with his parents or any other family members. He was always alone. Whether he was dejected or cheerful, he bore it all on his own.

“Didn’t he have a nanny when he was little?” She asked bitterly. Could it be that even the nanny that personally took care of him never took a picture with him either?

“The nanny?” Ke Cheng En frowned and thought. “I remember now that you brought it up, the nanny was changed several times when he was little, nearly all of them were annoyed by him and left within a few months.”

“Why?” She was astonished.

“Wasn’t it also because he was too mischievous?” Ke Cheng En was displeased. “At that time, his mom and I were simply about to be angered to death by him. Afterward, he only became a little more restrained after I threatened to send him to boarding school abroad.”

In other words, he didn’t want to be sent away from his parents’ side. Jian Yi An gazed at the elder wearing a rather disapproving expression in front of her in disappointment. Could it be that he doesn’t understand? A child at such a young age was afraid of being separated from their parents, even if the parents didn’t care much about them. Children still long for love… No, even if they’re grown, it was the same.

She remembered that open and unrestrained smile when her husband and her father were drinking and playing chess. Her heartstrings suddenly tugged, faintly aching.

And when she reached the end of the photo album, she found a few photos of the successive nannies neatly and tidily organized into two rows. Her heartstrings suddenly snapped, tears filled her eyes.

He actually didn’t dislike those nannies and in fact, still recall them fondly. Otherwise, he wouldn’t carefully keep a pretty photo of each and every one of them in the memories that belonged to him.

He might secretly like them…

“Dad, have you ever thought?” She hoarsely spoke.

“Thought about?”

“Actually, Mu Yu, at that time… really needed your care.”

Hearing this, Ke Cheng En was startled and suddenly felt a little sorry. “You’re saying that I haven’t fulfilled my duty as a father?”

“I’m saying that he was only a child after all, sometimes acting up is only because he wanted to get the attention of the adults.”

“If he wanted to get our attention, why didn’t he behave properly? Ke Cheng En scoffed. “Study hard and get first place, be elected as the model student, and things like that. All of these will make us proud of him!” Must one be that outstanding and excellent to be worthy of their parents’ love? Could it be that being just a normal child wasn’t enough?

Jian Yi An felt injustice for her husband, practically wanted to shout out loud, but she resisted the urge, tactfully persuaded. “But Dad, familial love should be unconditional, just like how I was once rebellious before, but my mom and dad—“

“What about your mom and dad?” His strict eyes sharply shot toward her.

She gathered her courage and carried on. “My mom and dad still love me, never have they given up on me because I made trouble, drank, and drag-raced outside!”

“What?!” Ke Cheng En interrupted her, shocked. “You drank and drag-raced in the past?”

Jian Yi An smiled bitterly as she nodded, knowing very well that this confession would cause her father-in-law’s impression of her to drop immensely, but she still needed to say it. “Sometimes, children only need a warm hug from their parents to let them know they’re loved, I think Mu Yu is also like this!”

If he knew she did something, he would definitely dislike her for being too meddlesome. Jian Yi An stood in front of a door in the hospital, letting out a long sigh.

After having a sincere talk with her father-in-law that day, she contacted the Ke family’s former housekeeper on her own, making inquiries about everything about her husband’s childhood. The two people came to speak of the nannies that came and went one after another and the old housekeeper couldn’t help sighing. “Young master was also really strange. Obviously those nannies were quite good, some of them even especially cared for him, yet he irritated each and every one of them. Contrarily, it was the last one that I found the most careless, cold, and negligent, that precisely worked the longest. She stayed for over two years!”

“Why?” She was confused. “Could it be that Mu Yu didn’t rebel during that time?”

“It wasn’t that he didn’t rebel, just that he wouldn’t purposely play pranks. Actually, he wasn’t originally a very bad child, still inherently good… Oh, right, I remember the young master even seemed to have said afterwards, he felt that the nanny that did the best was precisely her, isn’t it very strange?”

Indeed, so strange.

The old housekeeper’s words thoroughly evoked her curiosity. “Can you help me contact that nanny?”

“Her? Oh right, I coincidentally ran into her before when I was getting an examination at the hospital. It seems like she has cancer of some sort, she’s not in a very good state.”

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Even funner fact: Fellow SLT translator Mily will be translating Mo Chuan Ya’s story, Undesirable Marriage! Go check it out!