Chapter 41

Edited by Erin & genesis

Lin Yanchen found Chu Xun’s residence and questioned the property management, security and Chu Xun’s neighbors, seeking news of him.

The property manager thought that the owner of that house truly had many matters; why was someone always looking for him? In view of the fact that there had been a crazy person who tricked them into entering, this time he was a lot more vigilant. At first, he sealed his mouth and refused to say anything.

This matter was easy to resolve – Lin Yanchen stuffed a red envelope to him and the other side slowly relented, willing to say a few words: “He came back once before.”

Lin Yanchen asked, “What date?”

He answered, “The second or third day of the New Year; he came back, stayed a day, then left again.”

The time matched up. Lin Yanchen then asked, “Then what about after? Where did he go?”

“I don’t know ah.” The other replied, and suddenly another thing occurred to him, “Mr. Chu came back this time to go through some formalities, saying that he was preparing to sell the house or something. I’m not clear about the details at the moment…”

Lin Yanchen’s heart became cold. Selling the house… why would he want to sell a perfectly fine house? Was this what he needed to do for funeral arrangements?

He had chased him all the way here, but he had only slowly confirmed further that Chu Xun was seriously ill.

Lin Yanchen thought about it. With Chu Xun’s disposition, he would likely even buy his own cemetery plot in advance.

He was not sure whether Chu Xun would go back to find his parents. Chu Xun said that he had broken off the relationship with his parents for five years. Would he still return? But if he didn’t look for his parents, he still had to find someone to help him deal with the aftermath, right? Generally, if it wasn’t his parents, it would be his friends helping out; would Chu Xun ask his apprentice for help? But he had heard there were now strangers specializing in this job who could be hired.

In short, he should still check.

Lin Yanchen found several assistants to check together, but he really couldn’t sit around comfortably and wait for others to report any news. Every day, he would run around searching for Chu Xun, becoming exhausted after expending all his energy. Once he laid down, he would immediately fall asleep. This was the only way he could fall asleep recently.

When he went to see Chu Xun’s high school and university teachers, Lin Yanchen saw class photos from when Chu Xun was still studying.

Chu Xun always stood quietly in the corner. Once Lin Yanchen saw him, he liked it, but he found that in both pictures, there was another guy always standing near Chu Xun. Even in the highschool graduation photo, the boy’s hand was resting on Chu Xun’s shoulder, fingers making the “V” letter. Chu Xun had a smile on his face and light in his eyes.

Lin Yanchen asked, “Who is this?”

Chu Xun’s high school teacher told him: “Oh, he is Chu Xun’s good friend called…let me see. There are names on the back of the picture. Ji Tianze, right. He’s called Ji Tianze. When they went to school, they were quite close. If I remember correctly, they went to the same university later.”

Lin Yanchen thought, right, this man should be the one that Chu Xun liked before.

He… He was still a little jealous.

But right now there was no time for him to bother with that man surnamed Ji. Lin Yanchen only wrote down his name in silence.

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“A few days just after the new year, old Chu’s son came back.”

“Yes, yes, I saw. He drives a BMW. His son studied well in school, and also obtained a good job. He is not like my family’s disappointing one…”

“What is there to envy? Haven’t you not seen him come home for years? He fell out with his family a few years ago… I heard he is a gay.”

“Ah? I didn’t even know…”

“I live next door to them. I only found out when I heard them quarrel. Old Chu is such a proud person, so I didn’t tell anyone.”

“Then why did you tell us now?”

“Old Chu quit his job at the school and is about to put his house on the market.”

“Huh? Why does he want to sell his house now?”

“I’ll tell you ah… I heard that his son is ill and will not live long. The old couple are going to sell the house in order to treat him. They took him to see a doctor. I think he was directly hospitalized for treatment, so they didn’t come back.”

“Aiyo, such hardship. What disease did he get ah? It’s going to cost that much?”

“I’m not too clear about this, but… isn’t it easy for gay people to get that disease?”

“Which one?”

“That is…” She lowered her voice and said mysteriously, “AIDS.”

There was a low uproar. That was truly dirty.

“That disease can’t be cured.”

Lin Yanchen couldn’t listen to this any more: “Chu Xun didn’t get AIDS! He is a clean and honest man. Just because he likes men why do you think…”

The aunts finally noticed him. “Young man, I remember that you came just then in order to ask about Chu Xun? What is your relationship with him?”

Everyone quietly moved away from him, as if he had some infectious disease.

Lin Yanchen thought, Chu Xun once lived in such an environment, no wonder he lived so unhappily.

He felt pain for Chu Xun.

Lin Yanchen got Chu Xun’s father’s phone number, summoned up courage and called.

“Hello? Hello.”

When Father Chu saw the unfamiliar number, he asked, “Who are you?”

Lin Yanchen said: “Hello, I am a friend of Chu Xun’s. I heard that he is ill. I wanted to come visit him. Can you tell me which hospital he is in now?”

Father Chu felt this matter was quite taboo. Chu Xun was thin-skinned and specifically told them that he didn’t want more people to find out about his pregnancy. No matter who asked, tell them that he was not ill. Naturally, he would keep his mouth shut, and would be even more unwilling to tell others the location of Chu Xun. Father Chu said, “Even I didn’t know that he is ill. Where did you hear that he is ill? Is Chu Xun ill?”

What Father Chu said bore a hole into him. Did they not know that Chu Xun is ill? Lin Yanchen was frightened: “But I heard that you took Chu Xun to see a doctor… Why else would you have left home and gone away?”

Father Chu replied, “It’s none of your business when my wife and I decide to travel.”

Lin Yanchen asked, “But you’re even selling the house?”

Father Chu said, “I want to move to the countryside and live out my old age. Are you crazy? All of a sudden coming to curse my son for no reason!”

Lin Yanchen said in a panic, “I’m not…”

Father Chu hung up his phone, and Lin Yanchen heard that annoying and empty beeping.

After that, he called again and found that he was likely blacklisted.

Unless those aunts weren’t telling the truth? In terms of them spreading things around and increasingly distorting the truth, that didn’t seem to be an impossibility.

Maybe Chu Xun did come back, but he didn’t tell his parents about his illness. Afterall, from Chu Xun’s description, their father-son relationship was very bad, so did Chu Xun go to the hospital by himself?

Lin Yanchen felt that he had lost his trail again.

If there were no way to find Chu Xun through his parents, how could he find him? Should he ask every department in the top three hospitals? He didn’t even concretely know what disease Chu Xun had, ah.

Lin Yanchen, although completely lacking clues, searched for another half a month.

Zhuang Hanxue told him: “I went to the No.1 Hospital of X province today, and suddenly remembered that I saw a plastic bag printed with the name of this hospital at Chu Xun’s house. He should have been diagnosed in this hospital. Maybe you can go to this hospital to look.”

Lin Yanchen hurriedly went to investigate, but the nurse and doctor would not tell him anything he wanted, as they had to guarantee the patient’s privacy.

Lin Yanchen thought of a way around this. He asked the workers in the hospital if they remembered a patient named Chu.

There wasn’t enough time for him to ask all of them himself, so several of his assistants helped him check.

One assistant sent information back to him: “Boss, I found him…but…”

Lin Yanchen suddenly became timid, repeatedly trying to mentally prepare himself for the news, before he said: “You can tell me, it’s fine to just tell the truth.”

The assistant said: “A nurse surnamed Zhang said that there was a male patient surnamed Chu in the oncology department. He was 30 years old, tall and thin, fair with clear skin, wearing glasses… he passed at the beginning of the month ”

Lin Yanchen seemed to have been listening and also seemed as if he had not heard anything. After a long time, he asked, “When he passed, was there anyone accompanying him?”

“There wasn’t… he has no father, no mother, no relatives or good friends. He found a burial business to handle the funeral arrangements himself.”

Lin Yanchen closed his eyes and took a deep, shaky breath.

Lin Yanchen felt that he should go to Chu Xun’s grave himself, but suddenly lost his courage.

He was asked many times on the way when inquiring about Chu Xun: “Who are you?”

Yes, he was not anyone to Chu Xun at all.

Why was Chu Xun so cruel? He was about to die but still would not let him see him once.

“Boss, are you okay?”

Lin Yanchen said, “Leave me alone to calm down.”

He recalled where he had first gotten to know Chu Xun. He walked forward a few steps, and suddenly felt that his chest and stomach were so painful that it seemed they were being cauterized. He wanted to vomit, but could not vomit anything out.

Lin Yanchen didn’t sleep all night.

The assistant asked him, “Boss, should we still go look for Mr. Chu’s cemetery?”

Lin Yanchen said: “No… he originally told me not to look for him. I’ll let you take a vacation. You have a good rest… I also want to be alone. ”

The assistant stealthily looked at his hair, somewhat perplexed. Did the little boss have white hair before?