Chapter 5 - 1#
Little classmate Li Xiaomeng’s running away from home was quite unique. He left a letter on Jiang Qin’s bedside table:
“Dad, Mom, I’ve decided to run away from home. This home has no warmth or love anymore! I won’t go to school, I won’t go to the Go club, I won’t go to the tennis team, I won’t go to the cake shop, I won’t go for ice cream, I won’t go to the park downstairs, I won’t go to the internet cafe by the school, I won’t go to the amusement park we went to last time… Don’t come looking for me, just let me fend for myself! From your heartbroken son, Li Meng.”
Jin Yan offered his pertinent evaluation: “—This kid needs a beating.”
Jiang Qin saw Jin Yan at the bar last night and figured he wouldn’t be coming home. Although Li Meng was precocious, he was prone to getting into trouble. Jiang Qin didn’t feel at ease leaving him home alone, so he drove back to sleep for the night.
Who knew that Li Meng would feel even more emboldened: Dad doesn’t want me, but Mom still does. Someone will always want me, so I might as well stir up some trouble.
Looking back now, Jiang Qin felt he shouldn’t have gone home last night. In this respect, Li Meng was just like Jin Yan; he acted up more when he had an audience, but would behave if ignored. If he had been left home alone all night, he might have just obediently washed up and gone to bed.
The car was silent. Jin Yan drove with a splitting headache while Jiang Qin continuously called friends to ask about the situation. Wei Hong had been filming all night and hadn’t gone home, Duan Hanzhi had taken his dog to the vet; all their friends were busy with their own things. A familiar actor answered the phone still half-asleep: “I don’t know, Brother Jiang. I was with a friend last night, it got too late so I slept at… slept at… huh, where is this? Huh, who are you?”
Jiang Qin silently hung up the phone.
Jin Yan pulled the car over to the side of the road. “Let’s call the police.”
Jiang Qin swiped his finger on his phone and started dialing 110. But Jin Yan suddenly grabbed his hand and said out of the blue, “I drank too much last night. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
Jiang Qin stared at him without a word.
How many years had they been partners? If he couldn’t even understand this, Jiang Qin’s IQ of 160 would be a complete waste.
That was just how Jin Yan was. If he felt guilty and wanted to clarify something, he would never do it directly, word for word. Instead, he would take a roundabout way to admit to other mistakes. For example, saying he drank too much meant he was black-out drunk and didn’t touch that young man; it could also be extended to mean he went out with friends and didn’t come home to see his child, and it could further be extended to mean he felt very guilty about his son running away from home now…
“What’s it to me,” Jiang Qin said, looking down. “It’s your body, not mine.”
He pulled his hand away from Jin Yan’s. He had just dialed 110 and it hadn’t connected when Jin Yan suddenly snatched the phone away.
“You…”
“Jiang Qin,” Jin Yan asked, “tell me the truth, are you seeing someone else?”
Jiang Qin froze for a moment, then without another word, threw a punch at his face!
The punch was incredibly fast and heavy. Normally, Jin Yan would have likely been hit. But this time, Jin Yan was prepared. He blocked it with one hand, and in a smooth motion, twisted and pulled Jiang Qin’s arm, instantly pulling most of his body over from the passenger seat!
Jin Yan came from a background of street fighting; brawling with knives was an innate skill for him. How could a top student like Jiang Qin, who was a latecomer to this, possibly compare? He tried to pull his hand back forcefully, but Jin Yan’s grip was as strong and unyielding as iron tongs. Holding him in this close position, he looked down at him and said, “Just tell me the truth. Even if you are, it doesn’t matter. I won’t blame you. We can start over…”
Jiang Qin’s face changed, and he said angrily, “Let go!”
Jin Yan looked at him coldly, his gaze deep and reserved, but the muscles in his cheeks were tense.
He actually looked terrifying like this, like a wild beast facing its prey but restraining itself from attacking.
Jiang Qin opened his mouth, only to find his voice was hoarse when he spoke: “Jin Yan, let go… We haven’t found our son yet, do you want to start a fight in the car?”
“Every time we get into a heated argument and start fighting, you never hold back. But every time, they say I’m the one abusing you—Jiang Qin, you have this talent for making everyone think you’re gentle, harmless, and submissive. In reality, no one knows you’ve been tormenting me for a full nine months, tormenting me to the point where I’d rather be dead.”
Jin Yan paused, a chilling glint in the depths of his eyes.
“I have a lot of flaws, but they were all enabled by you, Jiang Qin. You can’t spend more than a decade indulging me bit by bit into this kind of person, and then suddenly at the end say you’re tired of me, you don’t want me anymore, and turn around to find some other pretty boy.”
“If you push me too far, be careful, I might really lay a hand on you too.”
Jin Yan narrowed his eyes, lowered his head slightly, his lips almost touching Jiang Qin’s forehead as he spoke:
“Wife, I want to live a happy life with you. I don’t want it to end with me being happy, only to have you hate me for the rest of your life.”
Little classmate Li Meng said: “Damn it, even God hates me—!”
It was chilly when he left in the morning, but it became surprisingly hot in the afternoon. The little classmate took off his coat and put it on a park bench, and in a moment of carelessness, it was gone.
Li Meng pounded the ground and wailed, “My wallet was in there ahhhhhhh—!”
As the sayings go, a dragon in shallow water gets teased by shrimp, a tiger in the open plains gets bullied by dogs, and a phoenix that has lost its feathers is worse than a chicken… The rich second-generation kid without a wallet was immediately in trouble, standing in an unfamiliar park with no idea where to go. Should he pick up a small broken bowl, sit on the side of the street, stick out his tail and wag it at passersby to beg for some money to go home?
Little classmate Li Xiaomeng sobbed, feeling that his tail was very precious. Besides Jiang Qin, not even Jin Yan was allowed to touch it, let alone show it to strangers—it would be too damaging to the dignity of a proper rich second-generation kid!
Li Meng walked along the main street for a long time. The sky gradually darkened, and elderly people walking their cats and dogs passed by. The food stalls emitted the hot, spicy aroma of grilled lobster. The little classmate was tired and hungry, squatting on the curb with his chin in his hands, when he suddenly saw a Go club across the street, with several people carrying Go cases walking inside.
When Li Meng was little, it was during the rise of Shi Xing Entertainment. Jin Yan was busy with company business, so only Jiang Qin was there to teach him his first lessons. For this reason, Jiang Qin quit his job to stay at home. He had no other hobbies, only an addiction to playing Go. Unfortunately, with a baby in the house, he couldn’t go out to find Go partners, so he dedicated himself to cultivating his own family members into Go partners.
Jin Yan did try very hard to learn. After learning, six of his seven apertures were opened—only one remained blocked. Jiang Qin felt he was “rotten wood that cannot be carved” and, in a fit of exasperation, turned his attention to the babbling, innocent, and naive Li Xiaomeng. It turned out that Li Meng was actually more reliable.