Chapter 12

Zhuo Xiang Ming didn’t stay in the studyroom for long, he soon came downstairs to find Tong Yan.

While the two were preparing to return home, Lin Yue Hua still tried to persuadethem to stay, and her main target of attack was Tong Yan.

But, without waiting for Tong Yan to reply, Zhuo Xiang Ming immediatelyrefused: “Nothing has been prepared for today, I also have to get up earlyfor work tomorrow. Forget it, next time we come over, we’ll spend the night.”

He smiled good-naturedly and spoke reasonably, Lin Yue Hua had no choicebut to agree, but she still complained: “Don’t manipulate your mother. Youonly come back for two days at a time. I obviously have such a big son, but I neverget to see him.”

Followingbehind them, Zhuo Jia Shuo sincerely helped Zhuo Xiang Ming explain: “Mybrother is very busy, don’t you know that? Haven’t you seen it?”

But the helpful words didn’t exceed that one sentence, and he immediatelyadded, “Okay, my sister-in-law needs to do his homework, let’s just letthe young couple go home.”

TongYan’s eyes widened, and he glared at him.

At the dining table, Zhuo ZhengDe had brought out wine, and Zhuo XiangMing drank a little. Although it was just a small glass, he couldn’t drive afterdrinking, so Lin Yue Hua dispatched a driver to take them home.

TongYan hugged his schoolbag and sat in the back seat with Zhuo Xiang Ming. WhenZhuo Xiang Ming picked him up this afternoon, he’d driven a business car, so itwas very spacious, there was a gap between the two.

Zhuo Xiang Ming was usually taciturn, and at this time, Tong Yan also hadnothing to talk about, so the car was very quiet. After watching thestreetlights for a while, Tong Yan completely relaxed into the backseat. Inthis brief moment of peace, he thought about nothing.

“Sleepy?” Zhuo Xiang Ming asked.

TongYan hurriedly said “No, it’s so early.”

ZhuoXiang Ming raised his hand and glanced at his watch, nevertheless, he said: “Youcan lean on me if you don’t mind. We’re still a long way from home.”

Sayingit like that, it made it seem that if Tong Yan didn’t lean on him, he was admittingthat he did minded it—and Tong Yan truly did mind it. His sudden blushing diseasewhen he got near Zhuo Xiang Ming still hadn’t been cured, and it might never becured, but could he really say that he minded it? Tong Yan had no choice but toshift the schoolbag and move closer.

The distance from the school to the Zhuofamily house and Zhuo Xiang Ming’s house wasn’t very different, but traveling fromone house to the next, the journey was doubled, and so was the time.

Inthe beginning, Tong Yan really wasn’t sleepy. Except for Zhuo Xiang Ming’sshoulder, which was being used as a headrest, the rest of their bodies werekept to themselves, nothing touching.

Butwhen a car was in motion, bumps were inevitable. Zhuo Xiang Ming’s shoulder wasvery comfortable, and the already familiar pheromones made Tong Yan feel anunspeakable reassurance. At some unknown point in time, Tong Yan was rocked to sleep.

When he woke up, he was in Zhuo Xiang Ming’s arms. They were alreadyhome, and Zhuo Xiang Ming was carrying him, about to walk up the stairs.

TongYan, who hadn’t been held in a princess carry since he was a small child,flushed bright red, his eyes widening, completely confused. Zhuo Xiang Ming casuallyput him down and took a step back, a smile tugging the corners of his lips:“Awake? You can go up on your own.”

The two were standing at the corner of thestaircase, when Tong Yan was set down, his back was facing the handrail. Leavingbehind a “Thank you brother”, he immediately fled, stumbling on thelast step, resulting in a, “Be careful!”, being called out behindhim.

Zhuo Xiang Ming also told him to slow down, and Tong Yan answered okay.He ran back to his bedroom and put down his schoolbag, then he tidied up andprepared to take a bath. After changing into his pajamas, his heartbeat wasstill a little quick, but it wasn’t as shameful as before.

He thought, Zhuo Xiang Ming had always taken good care of him, and hewas very nice. Just now, he probably saw that he’d fallen asleep and couldn’tbear to wake him up, that’s all.

The bath drove away a lot of his drowsiness.Seeing that it was almost nine o’clock, Tong Yan sat down to write his homework.

International high school students faced less pressure for the collegeentrance examinations than ordinary high schools, because the proportion of studentschoosing to go abroad was higher. But that didn’t mean that no effort was required.

Tong Yan’s results have always been in themiddle to upper levels, sometimes he could even make it into the top ten of thegrade, but most of the time, he was steadily in the top thirty.

He wanted to study design, but he couldn’t say whether there were any particularlydesirable schools at home or abroad. Tong Yang planned it out for him a longtime ago, he wanted him to go to his own undergraduate school. Somepreparations were already complete, so Tong Yan also tacitly agreed to goabroad after the college entrance examinations.

The desk in the room had been there since the day he moved in, but it wasonly truly useful today.

Afew minutes later, Xuan Gui came in. Aware that he was studying, it moved quietly,and just stayed to the side, waiting for Tong Yan to take a break before talkingto him: “Did you go to your mother-in-law’s house today?”

TongYan corrected: “She’s Zhuo Xiang Ming’s mother, I call her Auntie.”

XuanGui: “You left this robot home alone, puny, pitiful, and helpless.”

TongYan smiled and said, “You’re just as dramatic as Zhuo Jia Shuo.”

Xuan Gui naturally knew who Zhuo Jia Shuo was, asking vigilantly:“Do you think he’s as good as me?”

TongYan: “Why do you think that I was complimenting you?”

XuanGui: “You said that we’re the same.”

Tong Yan bowed his head and started up his homeworkagain: “They call this artificial intelligence …”

Tong Yan spent 40 minutes to answer thequestions online. After inspecting it, Zhuo Xiang Ming’s signature was requiredto submit it.

In fact, there was still an English essay left to do, but looking at thetime, he was afraid of disturbing Zhuo Xiang Ming for the signature at an evenlater time, so he took the tablet to Zhuo Xiang Ming for review in advance.

Zhuo Xiang Ming wasn’t in his room, so Tong Yan went to the study. The studyroom’s door wasn’t closed, when Tong Yan approached and raised his hand to knockthe door, he heard Zhuo Xiang Ming say on the phone: “I’ve told you already.”

“I’ve always been clear about mydecision.”

“This is your problem.” Finally, Zhuo Xiang Ming said, “That hasnothing to do with me.”

ZhuoXiang Ming’s voice wasn’t loud, and his tone wasn’t aggressive, it even had thegentle intonation that Tong Yan was used to, but Tong Yan could still hear someanger.

The two had lived together for so long, Tong Yan roughly knew how difficultit was to make Zhuo Xiang Ming angry. Although he shouldn’t be extremely furious,he obviously wasn’t matching well with the other person. Tong Yan could imagine,what kind of business partner could let Zhuo Xiang Ming show such emotions? Thingsmust’ve really crossed the line.

It must be a business matter, Tong Yanguessed. The homework could also be signed tomorrow morning. He withdrew thehand that was about to knock the door, feeling that Zhuo Xiang Ming might notwant to be disturbed at this time.

But before he fell asleep, Zhuo Xiang Ming came to him, gently knockingon his door: “Tong Yan, are you asleep?”

His voice was also very soft, if Tong Yan was asleep, he wouldn’t bewoken up.

“Not yet.” Tong Yan quickly sat up, and Xuan Gui went to openthe door. The lights in the room also turned on automatically.

“I was dealing with something, and it got so late.” Zhuo XiangMing hadn’t had time to change his clothes yet, he was still wearing a suit. Hestood in front of Tong Yan’s door, his expression a little apologetic. “I just cameover to take a look. It’s very late now, so go to sleep first. Can I help you checkyour homework tomorrow morning?”

He remembered … Tong Yan thought, he actually remembered.

Tong Yang frequently forgot about it. Sometimeshe returned home late because he was very busy, sometimes he returned home latebecause he was fooling around. He thought that it was a trivial matter, andoccasionally Tong Yan complained to him, but he didn’t care, and never took itseriously.

Indeed,it was just checking homework, if Tong Yan had to give his opinion, he also couldn’tgive a reason for why it was important.

But students had to go to school, and at school, they had to face theteacher. The teacher obviously said that a guardian should sign, all of his classmateshad theirs signed, only he came in with unsigned homework every few days, he reallydisliked it.

TongYan didn’t think that Tong Yang was no good, or that Zhuo Xiang Ming was superiorto Tong Yang. They were two people with different characters. Tong Yan knewthat Tong Yang was born with a carefree personality, and that Zhuo Xiang Ming wasprobably born with an attentive personality, very thoughtful.

TongYan agreed to the request, then pulled up the quilt and wrapped it around hisbody while calling out, “Brother.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming was about to close the door, and Xuan Gui had also alreadyturned off the bedroom’s ceiling light. Hearing the shout, he stopped pullingthe door handle and asked: “Yes?”

“You’re so good.” Tong Yan said quite boyishly.

Zhuo Xiang Ming smiled: “Good night.”

Hissmile was genuine, Tong Yan could sense it.

When he was standing in his doorway, Zhuo Xiang Ming’s bad mood had stillnot completely reset, he even looked a little exhausted. Tong Yan didn’t expecthim to still be able to let out such a smile. Although the smile was very small,that type of happiness was very difficult to fake, especially withoutpreparation.

Before Tong Yan fell asleep, he thought of how he’d made Zhuo Xiang Minghappy. Unexpectedly, he could now make Zhuo Xiang Ming’s mood better. At leasta bit.

–

ZhuoXiang Ming was lying in bed, still thinking about that phone conversation.

Lin Yue Hua had bad health, so, from the beginning of the year, Zhuo ZhengDestarted asking him to come home. By this time, it was no longer a hint, but adirect order, basically saying, if he didn’t care about the Zhuo family’s affairs,it would be reprehensible.

But he had his own business to manage, and now he owned a controllingshare in the family’s company. Additionally, there were many consortiums thatemployed managers, only a few families like Zhuo insisted on keeping thecontrol in the family. It absolutely wasn’t as grave as Zhuo ZhengDe claimed, ifZhuo Xiang Ming ignored it, the Zhuo family would not go bankrupt.

However, Zhuo ZhengDe, as always, was very stubborn. Once he set hismind on something, he never deviated. He treated Zhuo Xiang Ming as if he wasstill a new born baby, he should only listen to his willful assignments, stayingwherever he casually put him.

When Zhuo ZhengDe was young, he was fascinatedby oil paintings. After marrying Lin Yue Hua, with someone else there to managethe household, he was able to indulge in his art circle worry-free even more. Hisreal business was attending auctions, and, to relieve boredom, he bought ayacht and went out to sea to sketch.

It wasn’t uncommon for the husband and wife to not meet for one or two months. Lin Yue Hua could bear it, but sensible aged, her temper was still frank.

Thewide-spread gossip about Zhuo ZhengDe repeatedly chasing after the art studio’sfemale students made her feel too ashamed to go outside. When Zhuo Xiang Mingwas born, it was at the critical moment of the newlyweds’ noisy divorce. Hewasn’t even a month old when Lin Yue Hua sent him to be raised by her parents.

However, the Zhuo family blocked the divorce and persuaded them toreconcile, after wasting a lot of time, the divorce was followed by Zhuo JiaShuo’s birth, and Zhuo ZhengDe curbed his desires and left things alone for awhile.

However, Zhuo ZhengDe’s heart was not with thefamily, so Lin Yue Hua was once again really busy. Time passed, and new delays inevitablypopped up, after Zhuo Xiang Ming started school, he was never brought back tothe Zhuo family again.

He was raised by his grandparents. Despite his surname Zhuo, he’d onlyseen his biological parents a handful of times before going to college. Indeed,he had weak affection for the Zhuo family. He’d also declared a long time agothat he wouldn’t get involved with any business related to the Zhuo family, andeven more, he wouldn’t touch any more of their money. If they really wentbankrupt, that was also a result of survival of the fittest.

These words weren’t out of spite. Blood relationships between relatives wereconstantly cut. The contact in these recent years kept them close, however, thesurface was lukewarm, but the bones were still cold. This blood relationship wasnot enough to make him sacrifice anything very valuable.

Two months ago, he agreed to fake marry Tong Yan, mostly because Lin YueHua had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, and for the sake of her haggardface. But he wasn’t kidnapped by morality, his thoughts were very clear. In anycase, he had no plans to get married to anyone, if getting a certificate with TongYan solved Lin Yue Hua’s urgent need, that was fine.

Now,Zhuo Xiang Ming had two headaches, one was Zhuo ZhengDe’s self-righteous demands,and the other was Tong Yan.

Zhuo ZhengDe unreasonably demanded that he either choose to take overthe company, or never mention divorce, so at least the Tong family could stillbe there to help the Zhuo family.

ZhuoZhengDe was probably the only adult who could speak such words. He didn’t knowif he should be called conceited or naïve, but Zhuo Xiang Ming was still somewhatworried.

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T/N:

So, ZXM’s dad is trash, and his mom may ormay not have used her breast cancer to pressure him into getting married. Andthey both want to pull him back into their lives after ignoring him for most ofhis childhood, what a winning family.