Chapter 16#

“Hey, you’re here this early too?” Jin Yan saw Jiang Qin and was quite surprised. “I was planning to wait for you to come at noon and go eat first. But this is good too; the little demon Li Xiaomeng has been crying, screaming, and rolling around wanting to find you since morning.”

Li Xiaomeng reservedly stuck out his tail and wagged it.

“Since you’re here, let’s go in. Let’s go ride that pirate ship first.” Jin Yan took the baseball cap off Li Meng’s head and casually put it on Jiang Qin.

He did it so naturally that Jiang Qin felt a bit stuck, hesitating for a few seconds before silently following behind him.

People with high IQs often have a common fault: they like to overthink everything. However, many things in this world cannot be overthought. If you think too deeply, various problems tend to arise, and it’s easy to make various mistakes.

A person’s first instinct is often correct. Jin Yan often makes decisions based on his keen intuition, while Jiang Qin and Li Meng, with IQs over 160, have to turn things over in their minds for a long time. A similar example is when Jin Yan and Jiang Qin once went to Macau to bet on horses. Jin Yan picked a horse number in two seconds, while Jiang Qin took paper and pen and calculated for ten minutes, only to buy the same bet…

The family of three first went to line up to buy tickets for the pirate ship. There were very many people queuing before lunch, as everyone didn’t want to come ride it after eating and then vomit their entire lunch out on the ship. Li Meng was a foodie who couldn’t stay idle; after finishing his ice cream, he went to buy a few skewers of fruit, giving one to each of his dads. Jin Yan, just as he used to do often, picked out all the strawberries from Jiang Qin’s skewer and shared his watermelon with him.

“Have you contacted your parents recently?”

Jiang Qin had one hand in his trouser pocket, concentrating on biting into the watermelon. Hearing this, he paused, and said defensively, “I sent some things back.”

Jin Yan looked natural and asked, “Are the two elders in good health?”

“…Passable.”

“Don’t overthink it, I was just asking casually. Li Xiaomeng is getting older year by year; only by raising a child do you know how difficult it is for parents.”

Jiang Qin looked at Jin Yan suspiciously.

“I grew up wild. I never felt it before, but having a child makes me realize these things. Sigh, men getting on in years really become sentimental. I almost don’t recognize myself anymore.”

Jiang Qin felt that these words coming from Jin Yan’s mouth felt very strange, but what he said was very reasonable, so he couldn’t help but pause.

At this moment, the line reached them. Jin Yan bought three tickets, turned back to pull him and asked, “What’s wrong with you? Let’s go.”

Jiang Qin had to temporarily suppress his thoughts, and the three of them walked towards the huge pirate ship together.

Li Meng was a hopeless case. He was the one crying and shouting to come to the amusement park, and he was also the one who came down from the pirate ship vomiting his guts out. Jin Yan held his son by the scruff of his neck, lifting him away from the trash can with one hand, while pinching his own nose with the other, suffering unspeakably from the smell. “What did you eat, Li Xiaomeng! Is your digestion working or not? Disgusting!”

Li Meng immediately retorted upon hearing this, “Who is the one who doesn’t cook at home! I want to eat a loving lunch, can I get it! Ugh… Mom, quickly pass me that bottle of water…”

“Student Li Meng,” Jiang Qin said, “Your mom is now lost in the vast sea of people. Her traces can only be found in the egg bank. Do you want me to make a phone call and ask her to send you a bottle of water?”

Li Meng opened his mouth just about to refute, but was choked by the mineral water bottle Jiang Qin shoved into his mouth, rolling his eyes—the little prince had a developed brain but weak limbs. The most useful way to deal with him was to say nothing and just act.

As a result, after suppressing the little prince, his appetite (miraculously) opened up again. He wanted to eat shrimp dumplings, shumai, and soup dumplings. Two men with a combined age of over seventy were dragged by him like a tug-of-war to a tea restaurant, attracting countless eyes along the way, and finally had to sit down to eat Cantonese morning tea.

Jin Yan complained, “This stuff isn’t filling at all. Look at this dumpling, just one bite. Even feeding a cat takes more than this… Let me tell you, little student Li Xiaomeng, most things in this world that look good are useless. Only immature little brats like you get confused by superficial things…”

Li Meng said angrily, “If you want to eat roujiamo, just say so!”

Jin Yan immediately got up to leave, and Li Meng coolly added, “My mom is the best looking. Are you trying to say my mom is very superficial?”

Jin Yan was immediately terrified and came back to sit down obediently and order food.

After ordering five portions of shrimp dumplings to make up a pot of dumpling soup, he felt that admitting defeat like this was too spineless. “That’s not right, Li Xiaomeng. I was talking about good-looking things just now. Is your mom a thing? He clearly…”

Li Meng said, “Oh! You want to say my mom isn’t a thing again! A man who scolds his wife to his face really has guts! I’m really proud of you, Student Jin Yan!”

Jin Yan: “…”

Jin Yan slammed his chopsticks down. “Do you want to be beaten, Li Xiaomeng!”

The father and son immediately started fighting in the tea restaurant. Jiang Qin ignored them and ordered drinks, handing the menu back to the waiter. The little girl asked timidly, “Um… is this okay? Should I call security?”

“It’s fine,” Jiang Qin said. “They are just debating whether an unknown woman from over ten years ago is a human or not.”

The little girl was simply horrified. “Then… is she… actually?”

Jiang Qin glanced at Li Xiaomeng, who was rolling around on the ground with his tail sweeping wildly. “That’s really hard to say.”

They finished eating at the tea restaurant. Jin Yan called to have the pre-ordered cake delivered. Jiang Qin personally lit sixteen candles for Li Xiaomeng (Jin Yan commented, “Actually, six is enough, three would also do.”), and then the family cut the cake together.

Then Li Xiaomeng ate two-thirds of this double-layer cake by himself.

“…” Jiang Qin asked, “Are you okay?”

Li Meng ate until his belly was round and said deeply, “This is my life.”

Jin Yan didn’t like sweets and sat on the chair smoking with a complete lack of public morality. Jiang Qin suddenly felt something was wrong. He looked back and saw that Jin Yan had put his hand on the back of his chair at some point.

The corners of Jiang Qin’s eyes behind his glasses raised subtly.

“Shoulders are sore, changing posture,” Jin Yan explained calmly.

“…” Jiang Qin turned his head back silently. Just at this moment, he suddenly felt something flash outside the window.

He immediately looked over there, but only saw a man dressed as a photographer taking pictures of pigeons on the grass. The flash went off a few more times, and the man walked away slowly.

“Waiter! Check please!” Jin Yan stood up abruptly and snatched the small spoon full of cake from Li Meng’s hand. “Eat more and you’ll be hospitalized! Is there no other organ in your stomach besides a stomach! Come here, Dad will educate you. The consequence of eating indiscriminately plus not exercising is getting fat after thirty and becoming a middle-aged uncle no one wants…”

Li Meng immediately counterattacked ruthlessly, “Do you know how much sugar brain activity consumes, Dad! You’ve never engaged in brain activity, have you? Oh right, Jiang Qin told me that back then you purely relied on your face and body to attract him. According to Jiang Qin’s IQ, this counts as a kind of submission and degeneration of higher intelligence to lower carnal desire…”

Jin Yan instantly almost choked to death on his own saliva. “When did your mom say that?!”

“Eight years ago on a summer night when telling me a bedtime story, I think it was July. That night I ate a big bowl of strawberry yogurt with roast chicken…”

Jiang Qin said calmly, “I forgot.”

This was the point Jin Yan hated the most: Jiang Qin and Li Meng both possessed a natural logical memory. As long as they remembered a fragment, they could pull up the radish and bring out the mud, remembering a series of related details, including what they wore, ate, said, and saw that day; if you made a mistake that day, oh my, that would be terrible. They could recite every detail of all your mistakes completely. Don’t expect them to forget for many years…

However, if they made a mistake themselves, they would absolutely forget it cleanly within five minutes, not even a crumb left.

Jiang Qin drank tea calmly under the burning gaze of the father and son. “I really forgot.”

“…” Jin Yan said angrily, “At least I still have a face and body to be proud of!”

Li Meng looked at him with a “you are so pitiful” look, and walked out of the tea restaurant swaying and holding the wall; because he was too full, he tripped over a table leg when he reached the door and almost rolled out of the restaurant door sideways.

In the afternoon, Li Meng firmly requested to ride the pirate ship again. Jiang Qin suspected he just wanted to use this opportunity to empty his stomach, so Jin Yan vetoed the pirate ship proposal with one vote.

As compensation, the two had to queue up with Li Meng to see the sheep.

Sheep, oh sheep, Li Xiaomeng’s heart, Li Xiaomeng’s favorite!

Why did the amusement park make Li Xiaomeng dream about it? It was because there were sheep in the park! Those three sheep wearing blue, green, and red hats respectively, wrapped in thick wool all over, expressionless with their butts sticking out, slowly wagging their tails in the shop window accompanied by music, simply broke Li Xiaomeng’s little heart!

“Now you know why I wanted to buy two baseball caps,” Jin Yan said coldly.

The couple stood silently among hundreds of happily queuing children. Jiang Qin was speechless for a while and pulled the brim of his hat lower.

These three electronic simulation sheep had once caused Jin Yan to make a big fool of himself: In the early years when they were just moved to the amusement park, Li Meng simply went crazy, crying, screaming, rolling around, and using every means possible to stay in front of the shop window and refuse to leave, crying loudly that he must take the sheep home, saying otherwise his heart would break. Jin Yan couldn’t stand seeing the child cry the most; once he cried, his heart would also break, so he could only discuss with the amusement park person in charge to see if he could buy these three sheep.

The result was not that simple. This set of electronic amusement equipment in the shop window was a whole, connected to a screen projector, computer terminal control, and several large background devices. The balcony at home couldn’t fit it at all, so it could only be installed in a villa of the Jin family in the suburbs. Although what melted Li Xiaomeng’s heart were those three expressionless sheep, there were a total of seven sheep in the entire background. If you wanted to buy, you had to buy them all, which was a huge expense.

Jin Yan slapped the table and said buy! Damn it! Didn’t you see Li Xiaomeng is about to faint from crying! Name a price, I’ll pay!

But the amusement park refused to sell.

They said this was one of the amusement park’s signature sets, advanced facilities introduced at huge cost, for all the little friends to see—Jin Yan said damn it, you just want to earn ticket money.

As a result, the price was raised by nearly double, but the deal still couldn’t be settled with the amusement park. During this period, Li Xiaomeng made all kinds of trouble at home, hunger strikes, suicide, sitting silently at the head of his parents’ bed in pajamas like a ghost in the middle of the night… When Jiang Qin caught him, he got a sound beating.

Jin Yan couldn’t bear to see Li Meng sad. To him, Li Meng was the Jiang Qin of his teenage years whom he owed so much. What he couldn’t provide to Jiang Qin back then, he wanted to compensate to Li Meng now. Strong guilt made him respond to every request of Li Xiaomeng, almost never saying no.

Jin Yan then instructed his subordinate to find the relevant person in charge to “talk privately”, and not to be too tough in attitude. It would be best to solve the problem peacefully, and if it really couldn’t be solved, then talk about other things. Unexpectedly, this subordinate was given by his second brother who opened a nightclub, and was used to engaging in black terror. He actually went to threaten people in broad daylight.

Jin Yan was a well-known figure in the entertainment industry after all, but with one foot in the underworld, his family privacy was strictly protected—gossip tabloids were worrying about not finding his romantic scandals. Now catching the handle of forced buying of public facilities in the amusement park, they immediately hyped it up to the sky.

It was simply a once-in-a-lifetime gossip that hit the door. For a time, everyone knew that Jin Yan spent countless money and made a big fuss, not hesitating to use his underworld power, just for three sheep in the amusement park!

Usually, the better a person’s privacy is protected, the easier it is to spark public interest once news breaks out. Moreover, Jin Yan’s family situation was secretive in the entertainment industry. Even those artists who created news all day were excited, stretching their necks waiting for gossip: Why does President Jin like sheep so much? Does he have any weird fetishes? Who is his son’s birth mother? Is he married?

The gossip got bigger and bigger, and finally, Jin Yan couldn’t suppress it anymore and just wanted to go to the newspaper office to kill and set fire. Just when he was ready to roll up his sleeves and jump into the abyss of sin, Jiang Qin finally came forward, beat Li Meng up, and stuffed him with a quilt covered with sheep to sleep with; beat Jin Yan up, and took a few of the Jin family’s subordinates to sit in the newspaper office for half an hour; when he came back, the problem was solved.

Although the source of the fire was cut off, it took a long time for the flame to go out. It took Jin Yan a full half a year to get out of the rumors of “fetishist, pervert”. Since then, he hated these three head-shaking and tail-wagging sheep deeply, wishing to detour every time he saw them.

Li Meng spent the whole afternoon lying on the shop window glass until the sky turned cloudy and windy, then reluctantly said goodbye to his three pets—confirming with the staff again and again before leaving that the sheep were not for sale.

It was already dinner time. The weather, which was still very sunny in the morning, had unknowingly become overcast with dark clouds. The air carried a damp smell; it was probably going to rain.

Pedestrians in the amusement park scattered one after another, and the family of three walked slowly towards the parking lot. The early summer rain came quickly. Halfway there, bean-sized raindrops fell, and they could only hide under the rain shelter on the street side.

Jiang Qin wore cloth casual shoes when he came out in the morning, which were least water-resistant. At this time, the socks inside were already wet. There was a depression between the sidewalk and the parking lot. Just as he was about to lower his head and walk down, Jin Yan suddenly said to Li Meng, “Stay on the side.” Then he bent down and picked up Jiang Qin, striding into the accumulated water.

Jiang Qin was stunned for that moment, and struggled when he came back to his senses. “Jin Yan! What are you doing!”

“Don’t move! Or I’ll drop you!”

A few short seconds were dragged infinitely long, yet seemed to end at once. When he was put down, Jiang Qin didn’t even react, staggering and almost falling to the ground.

Jin Yan supported him with a natural expression. “Be careful.”

Jiang Qin’s first thought was to look around, and then immediately looked at Li Xiaomeng; Li Xiaomeng was squatting under the rain shelter counting ants, counting with full concentration, his soul flying away.

“I can’t hold you if you move,” Jin Yan teased. “In a few more years, you will really become an old man.”

Jiang Qin didn’t know what to say. After a long while, he scolded in a low voice, “Do you want to be in the newspaper again?”

“So be it, it’s not like I haven’t been in it before.” Jin Yan shook his head carelessly, suddenly coming back to his senses and asking, “Are you caring about me?”

When one person has painstakingly paved the way for another for more than ten years, his attention to that person becomes an instinct. Just like Jiang Qin’s attention to Jin Yan was simply habitual, without reason and would not stop, but he would not say it out loud.

He didn’t know how to say it out loud either.

Jiang Qin glared at Jin Yan and turned to get the keys to drive the car.

The family of three said goodbye in the parking lot. Li Meng, with tears in his eyes, forced Jiang Qin to swear to go home early, before drooping his tail and being pulled into the car by Jin Yan.

Jiang Qin watched their car lights gradually move away from him, and for some reason, he felt a little uncomfortable. Rationally, he knew this was absurd. Li Meng should be with his biological father. Whether from the perspective of emotion, blood relationship, or future inheritance of family property, this was the best choice for him; and Jin Yan might have left him long ago, before he even realized it.

He sat in the car and lit a cigarette, listening to the heavy rain pouring outside the window, watching the firelight gradually burn out in the dim carriage, before sighing and starting the car.

Originally, this day was considered relatively calm. Fang Yuan didn’t ask where he went, and he didn’t volunteer to say; after returning home, he read a book for a while, replied to a few emails online, slept, and got up to go to work.

However, when he arrived at the accounting firm, he found Lisa looking at him strangely.

Strictly speaking, Jiang Qin’s position was higher than hers, and their offices were not together, so he rarely spoke to her. However, when he met Lisa in the corridor several times today, her face was really too complicated. Towards the evening, Jiang Qin finally couldn’t help stopping to ask, “Do you have something to say to me?”

Lisa hesitated to speak, and only asked after a few seconds, “Can you… come and look at my computer?”

Jiang Qin went to her office full of suspicion, only to see Lisa open a window on the desktop. It was shockingly the homepage of the entertainment section of a certain website, with a line of bold black headlines: Star Entertainment Owner’s Ten-Year Same-Sex Marriage Exposed!

Underneath was shockingly a picture of going to the parking lot in the rain yesterday. In the photo, Jin Yan carried Jiang Qin horizontally, striding through the puddle; Li Xiaomeng followed behind lifting his trouser legs, with a natural and relaxed expression on his face, still clutching his crystal sheep keychain in his hand.

Jiang Qin’s ears buzzed, and his mind went blank instantly.

Probably thinking the homepage picture wasn’t clear enough, a series of candid small pictures were also attached below: Jin Yan putting his hand on the back of his chair in the restaurant, while he turned back to talk to Jin Yan; the two standing side by side outside the shop window, Li Meng lying on the glass looking at the sheep with drool; the family of three buying ice cream in front of the dessert stall, Jin Yan turning back to smile at him, the details of that smile were captured extremely clearly…

The website’s entertainment section always used extremely sensational words when reporting gossip. The reporter dug to the bottom and studied Jin Yan’s history of no scandals for several years, exposing Jiang Qin’s identity as a major shareholder of Star Entertainment; also quoted relevant reports from the company’s annual meeting at that time, highlighting the detail of Jin Yan personally picking up Jiang Qin to attend the annual meeting; finally interviewed a “knowledgeable” “insider” who claimed that senior employees of Star Entertainment knew that President Jin had been married for many years, the relationship was very stable, there were no romantic scandals, and their son Li Meng was the iron-clad next young master.

Lisa asked cautiously, “Are you really with this person…”

Jiang Qin opened his mouth, but couldn’t say a word.

In a flash, he remembered the photographer taking pictures on the lawn yesterday. He should have realized it then! What photographer would run to a crowded amusement park on a holiday to take pictures of pigeons!

“Is this true?” Lisa swallowed and said, “I saw it accidentally when I came in the morning… news popped up automatically by the website…”

“It is true.”

Lisa was stunned. Jiang Qin stood up and walked out of the office without looking back. “Sorry, I’m going to make a phone call.”

Lisa quickly chased to the office door, but only saw him take out his mobile phone, and his figure disappeared at the corner of the corridor in a flash.