"Shall I wash these?"
Su Xiaomeng stood beside him, staring at the dishes in the sink, and offered.
Yin Shixiu glanced at her and handed her a dry cloth, "You just need to dry them."
"Okay."
She stood beside him, watching him wash the dishes, feeling that something was off. His dishwashing motions seemed inexplicably... clumsy.
It suddenly dawned on her, he... wasn’t someone used to doing household chores.
"Uncle..."
"Hmm?"
Instinctively responding to her, Yin Shixiu immediately felt it was not quite right, as he seemed to naturally accept the title "Uncle."
Su Xiaomeng looked up and smiled at him, "Thank you."
Yin Shixiu simply glanced at her, then withdrew his gaze, handing her the clean dishes, "Dry them."
If you listen carefully, you could actually detect a hint of urgency and panic in the tone of this self-assured thirty-year-old man.
Ever since she found out she was pregnant, she hadn’t slept soundly a single night, even when deeply asleep, nightmares would always disturb her.
But that night, she slept incredibly peacefully and comfortably.
Simply because she realized... Yin Shixiu wasn’t so bad, nor was he so detestable.
That night was an accident, perhaps both were at fault, or maybe neither was at fault...
Yin Shixiu stood outside Su Xiaomeng’s room for a long time, until he heard no more sounds of her turning in bed, then he walked away with his phone.
He stood on the balcony, turned on his phone again... without glancing at the dozens of missed calls, he directly dialed a number using the shortcut key.
"Dad."
The night, neon lights flickered back and forth, illuminating every corner of the noisy bar.
"Stop drinking! Ren Yixuan, stop drinking!"
Xiao Ling was struggling with Ren Yixuan over what seemed like his umpteenth can of beer, both their eyes reddened from the effort.
"Let go!"
With a low roar from Ren Yixuan, Xiao Ling was pushed onto the sofa.
The rock music mixed with the noisy chatter of people swapping drinks, creating a deafening cacophony. Ren Yixuan drank in silence, wanting to be drowned in this noise so that he wouldn’t think about that troublesome girl!
Yet the louder it was outside, the more silent his heart, and the clearer that girl’s face became.
He just couldn’t understand, the girl he watched grow up, why did she become so unfamiliar in the end?
Was it wrong to bring her to Beijing...?
Was it wrong to want to take care of her...?
Was it wrong to stay by her side, to have eyes only for her, with a heart only for her...?
"Do you want to drink yourself to death?! Is the sky falling, or what? Ren Yixuan, do you have any guts?! Just because you don’t deserve your woman?"
Ren Yixuan missed that class in the afternoon. Worried about him, she didn’t go either and followed him into this bar...
The man in front of her, with a disheveled shirt, flushed cheeks, furrowed brows, lifeless eyes, and reeking of alcohol... seemed so unfamiliar.
Xiao Ling couldn’t associate him with the once confident and radiant Ren Yixuan.
"Xiao Ling, you don’t understand..."
No shouting, no screaming, just a faint and repressively helpless sentence.
Xiao Ling’s heart was gripped, pained, and angry.
"Isn’t it just Su Xiaomeng? She never deserved you! For a girl like that—"
"Shh—"
Ren Yixuan raised his eyes, placing a finger to his lips.
Xiao Ling felt powerless, she couldn’t even manage to take a single bottle of beer from Ren Yixuan’s hand...