Chapter 16: Shining bright
In Chen An’s opinion, dealing with these small fries personally would only dirty his hands. He had a fair idea of how ‘Chen An’ got conned in the first place: with a low-end yet very effective scam - private fundraising.
Although Chen An was a honest man by nature, he had kept his sexual orientation a secret since an early age and in his private life, he had always been repressive about his needs. Plus on top of that, he was once traumatised in his youth when he was viciously rejected by a crush who had reviled Chen An as a pervert. With all these factors combined, Chen An became a man with low self-esteem.
Thus, when the handsome Liu Xiao Jie who seemed smart and cute appeared, Chen An lost all his clear-headedness and went completely weak at the knees. He treasured this hard-won relationship beyond measure so much so that he trusted Liu Xiao Jie blindly and took out all his life savings to raise funds. Yet in the end, his lover ran away and all his money vanished.
Receiving only deception for his wholehearted love and losing all the money he accumulated with over a decade of hard work in a single day; no ordinary person could withstand such a setback.
Since he had inherited both Chen An’s identity and body, he didn’t mind taking revenge for the Chen An of the past. But before that, he must complete his first deal. When he return from his trip overseas, he will find the right opportunity to even the score with Wang Hao and Liu Xiao Jie.
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'You are going to Vietnam?!’ Chen Yang who was pouring soybean milk for Chen An was so startled when he heard this sudden announcement that he almost split the milk from his shaken hands.
As he handed over the cup of hot soybean milk, he asked curiously, 'Uncle, why are you going to Vietnam?’
'To relax,’ Chen An drawled as he took the offered cup and started sipping it slowly. 'I’ll be back within half a month.’
'Ok.’ Chen Yang replied. He ducked his head, heavy with thought. Occasionally he would lift his head to train his eyes on Chen An. He had the sudden startling realisation that the uncle before him felt a little like a stranger.
From the window, the sun shone in with warm pale golden sunshine that dappled on to Chen An's cheek, rendering the man’s face into warm jade, so pale it was almost translucent.
Compared to a few months prior when he was just discharged the hospital, Chen An had lost a lot of weight. The contours on his face had deepened slowly and now his facial features had became more prominent. And after several treatments, teeth that was once quite unsightly had gradually resumed their rightful places.
Two pale pieces of lip moved rhythmically from chewing. Chen Yang had the startling thought that his uncle have a really pretty lip shape; he just didn’t noticed before.
No, other than the shape of his lips, his eyes are very attractive to look at too.
'Why are you staring at me for?’ Just because Chen An’s head was lowered and he wasn’t paying attention to Chen Yang, didn’t mean that he couldn’t sense the stare the silly kid was giving him.
'Uncle, now that you have slimmed down, I realise that you are actually quite handsome.’ Chen Yang gave a shy laugh, revealing a mouthful of neat pearly teeth. With both hands on the table, he added with a somewhat dull-witted look at Chen An, 'And I don’t know if it’s just in my head, but Uncle, I feel that after you have lost your memory, your entire demeanor had changed.’
'Oh? And what did it become?’ Chen An lifted his head to give Chen Yang a look. The darting flash of light amusement in his phoenix eyes rendering Chen Yang unable to think or move.
'Like the people in paintings. You have a presence, even more than the literature professor in my university.’ Chen Yang answered in shy embarrassment. To him, Chen An had an indescribable elegance, so piercingly cold that it made it difficult for people to get close to him.
But regardless, he like Chen An the way he is now. This man that now sat before him, emitted a radiance that he feel is far brighter than the rare sun outside.