Chen Tianxu didn’t know about these things, and when Jiangli abruptly brought it up, he froze for a moment before nodding, "Yes, my dad has always been working out of town, rarely coming home, only returning once a year during the New Year..."
"You don’t have a good relationship with your father?" Jiangli asked directly, without mincing words.
Chen Tianxu’s face turned red, and he lowered his head, his voice becoming very soft, "My dad... he doesn’t really look after me, always saying he’s busy, busy, busy. My mom tells me to study hard and not to disturb my dad’s work..."
With hardly any interaction, naturally, there’s not much to say about whether the relationship is good or not.
But Jiangli saw something unusual in Chen Tianxu’s eyes: "It’s not just that, right? Your dad had an affair."
The people listening intently to their conversation: "..."
Yao Xuanhang and the others’ eyes widened.
How could such a big piece of gossip be dropped so suddenly?
Chen Tianxu looked at Jiangli with a shock, but soon the emotions in his eyes became complicated, as if he had something difficult to say, he hesitantly muttered, "How, how do you know..."
Jiangli spoke calmly: "Being away from home all year round, it’s natural for the marital relationship to be strained, and moreover, the influence between your parents’ palaces is too little, which is also quite abnormal. Normally, if the couple’s relationship is good, the influence would show more significantly on their child’s parents’ palace, making the connection between the two very apparent. But with your parents’ palace, that’s not the case—the two have no effect on each other, indicating there’s no emotional connection left."
Chen Tianxu’s face turned pale and he clasped his hands tightly, his shoulders and neck tensing up, and his eyes slowly reddened.
He took a deep breath and nodded.
"Yes... my dad had an affair, and I knew about it..."
Another jaw-dropping bombshell.
Jiangli was not surprised, "You discovered it a long time ago."
"Yes... I found out a long time ago, but I didn’t have the courage to tell my mom..." Chen Tianxu’s body trembled slightly, his back hunched, as he looked down.
In fact, he had known about his father’s affair three years ago.
Back then, he was still in middle school, and during summer vacation, he sneaked off without his dad knowing to spend the summer with his dad in the city where he worked.
But when he arrived at his father’s residence, he saw his dad and an aunt embracing and walking out of the building together.
Their demeanor was intimate, they caressed each other tenderly, and before getting into the car, the two whispered sweet nothings and lingered for a long time before leaving.
At that time, Chen Tianxu had secretly hidden behind another car, watching his father’s every move.
Chen Tianxu’s father, Chen Yeming, could never have imagined that his son would witness all this.
Chen Tianxu himself was stunned; he was naturally shy and not someone prone to impulsive actions.
He didn’t confront them right away, but instead, still in a daze, bought a high-speed train ticket for the return trip home.
When his mother saw him back, she was quite surprised and asked why he came back so suddenly.
At that time, Chen Tianxu wanted to reveal the truth to his mother, but he backed out.
"Why didn’t you tell your mom?" Yao Xuanhang didn’t understand when he heard Chen Tianxu’s story, "Your mom is the victim, can you bear to let her be kept in the dark?"
Chen Tianxu sat down, hugging his arms, his head buried low, his voice muffled and slow, "I, I didn’t dare... My mom has always been very assertive, if I told her, she would definitely divorce... Then I wouldn’t have a dad anymore, I wouldn’t have a home..."
Yao Xuanhang was speechless, the words he wanted to say just stopped in his throat.
Xia Xin looked around at the people in the room, unsure of what else to say.