Wang Xiaochuan was slightly nervous as he spoke, stealing glances at Su Li, fearing that his mother would get angry.
After all, everything he had was from his mother.
He couldn’t bring himself to use his mother’s belongings to help his father and the other seven aunts and uncles.
Su Li: "You need to get used to it. Since I said all this is for you, then it all belongs to you."
"You can do whatever you want with it. Even if you it all, it’s okay."
"But one piece of advice I’d like to give you is, save for an emergency, not for poverty... Think it over yourself."
Zihan joined in the conversation, "I told you Aunt wouldn’t mind."
She bumped Wang Xiaochuan’s shoulder, "See, I was right, wasn’t I?"
Zihan then took Su Li’s arm, "Aunt, you don’t know, but because of yesterday’s sudden visit by Uncle and the two aunts, I heard from the housemaid that they caused a scene all day long. Although Xiaochuan managed to send them away overnight, he didn’t get any sleep throughout the night..."
Su Li laughed and emphasized, "Xiaochuan, we are mother and son."
So you don’t have to be so overly cautious.
But Su Li could understand that the estrangement caused over more than a decade could not be eased in an instant.
"I’ve been abroad all along, haven’t even seen much of the local scenery, and am planning a trip. I’m leaving tomorrow."
Wang Xiaochuan spoke anxiously, "Mom, I..."
Su Li: "Don’t worry about your studies. I’ll bring you gifts."
Su Li left early the next day before dawn, and by the time Wang Xiaochuan woke up, his mother was already gone.
However, Su Li’s words from the day before had given him an epiphany.
Mom said, "Even if it’s all d, it’s okay..."
Of course, he couldn’t do something so foolish as to all of his wealth, but he could part with a portion of it.
Just like he had boasted to others when he was younger,
My mother is a great philanthropist...
Three years later, Su Li, who had been travelling all over the world, estimated the time and concluded her journey.
Upon returning home, she learned of the great and earth-shattering act her son had done.
The various hope primary schools and hope high schools named after her were blossoming all over the country.
Wang Xiaochuan had also become the nation’s ideal husband on the internet; handsome, wealthy, and endlessly devoted to his fiancée.
What was even more admirable was that he had started his own company during his school days, and all its profits were used for charity.
The number of children he had supported with his aid had already reached over a hundred.
Su Li was back this time to attend Wang Xiaochuan and Zihan’s wedding.
These two were aggressively pressured into marriage by Mr. and Mrs. Yue Bing as soon as they graduated.
The young couple stood firm for not even a year before they could no longer endure and granted the wishes of the elders.
Wang Xiaochuan woke up from a nightmare, sweating profusely, sitting straight up against the bed’s headboard, dazed for a long time.
Beside him, Zihan propped herself up, still groggy, and asked, "Xiaochuan, why aren’t you sleeping?"
Wang Xiaochuan stared at Zihan in a daze for several moments, "Going to sleep."
Hearing the response, Zihan turned over and drifted off again.
The cellphone screen on the nightstand showed 3:00.
Three o’clock in the morning, the window outside was still pitch-black, and Wang Xiaochuan had lost all desire to sleep.
He got up quietly and walked to the living room, lit a cigarette, and placed it between two trembling fingers.
Everything in the dream was so clear, as if it had truly existed.
When the execution took place and the bullet struck his skull, the intense pain made him shudder uncontrollably.
In the dream, his mother didn’t appear, and everything that followed was different.
"What’s the matter?" Zihan pushed the door open and looked at her husband with confusion, "Did the gang of rascals at home get you drunk again?"
"I’ll talk to them tomorrow."
Wang Xiaochuan quickly snuffed out the cigarette in his hand and, with a smile, wrapped his arms around Zihan as they entered the bedroom, "Hurry back to bed, why are you up?"
"I just reached out and noticed you weren’t in bed in the middle of the night, so I came out to check."
"Okay, okay, I’m going to sleep too."
It was only in this moment, holding Zihan in his arms and listening to her breathing grow steady, that Wang Xiaochuan’s heart truly settled.
Thankfully, his current life was the reality, all those sad and awkward moments were just a nightmare.
"Ming Rui, you’re not getting any younger, not marrying and living a vagrant life, what does that make you look like?"
"Your cousin is five years younger than you and already has a second child, and you... could it be that you like men? Just give mom a heads-up; even if you’re of a different sexual orientation, mom won’t interfere. But no matter what, by any means necessary, you must leave me a descendent."
Madam An’s daily nagging had begun again.
An Mingrui rubbed his temples with a headache, "Mom, I like women..."
"If you like women, how come I’ve never seen you bring one home?"
"It’s because I like her, but she doesn’t like me."
He had lost even the housekeeper’s job, which used to be his, as he was outright driven away. Had he known, he never would have confessed.
Who could have imagined that the woman would be so heartless? After all, he had helped her handle so many things.
To turn her face away and become so cold and heartless...
An Mingrui was now furiously venting about Su Li.
She was truly without sentiment, to just send him packing without a second thought.
With time, the grievances An Mingrui harbored against Su Li were not diminishing but growing deeper and deeper.
He could still recall the palpitations he felt the day he saw her.
Strangely enough, he had worked for her for four or five years before, never once playing footsie.
But that day, after she had driven away James, whom she had been seeing for just a few days, and instructed him to quickly deal with all her assets in M country, he suddenly sensed something different about her, a feeling that even one glance could make his heart tremble, and it both fascinated and frightened him.
So, right after Su Li returned to their home country, he followed right behind.
Even though she had a son not many years younger than himself, it didn’t quench his passion.
No matter how he hinted, apart from Su Li frowning and looking at him expressionlessly, there was never any further action.
Was it because he wasn’t handsome, his physique subpar, or was there some deficiency in his abilities?
Clearly, none of the several boyfriends she’d had before were his equal, An Mingrui thought, not without self-pity.
But one thing brought him small comfort: if not him, it was no one else.
Su Li seemed to have really adopted an ascetic lifestyle.
Seeing the many others who, over time, were likewise captivated and unable to win her over, An Mingrui secretly grinned with satisfaction, at least there was no one else around her.