Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Shen Yan listened to Xie Shiyu's story, lost in thought, eager to know what happened next.

"Was it because Uncle Fang was good to you and your mother that Fang Cheng hated you?"

Xie Shiyu looked at the photo, paused for a moment, and said, "No, Fang Cheng..."

He hesitated and said, "Fang Cheng was a fool."

"Just like his father, he was clueless."

Fang Cheng's parents were matched by their families. Uncle Fang was honest and kind, while Aunt Fang was sharp and efficient, quite disdainful of Uncle Fang.

But people of that era believed that once you were married, you stuck it out no matter how tough things got.

Aunt Fang often found reasons to work outside and rarely stayed home.

Fang Cheng had a mother, but it felt like he didn’t. He and Uncle Fang relied on each other.

Fang Cheng heard a lot of gossip, but when he found out that his father was kind to Xie Shiyu and his mother, he didn’t blame his father. Instead, he started protecting Xie Shiyu.

Xie Shiyu: "When I was very young, if someone bullied me, I’d fight back. If they hit me, I’d hit them back."

"But when the parents of those children came to our door and bullied my mother, I realized I was a burden, only bringing trouble to her."

Shen Yan frowned, wanting to say it wasn’t true.

Xie Shiyu glanced at Shen Yan's face, his mood lightening for a moment.

He later became smarter and stopped fighting those bullies directly, instead teaching them lessons in secret.

He didn’t want to tell Shen Yan, hoping to keep up the image of being warm and cheerful in his eyes.

Shen Yan: "And then?"

"Later," Xie Shiyu continued, "after I stopped fighting back, they naturally became more arrogant, relentlessly bullying me."

"Fang Cheng saw it and chased those people away. After that, whenever someone bullied me, he would stand up for me."

Shen Yan was stunned. "Ah? Then, how did it...?" become like this now?

"His thoughts were naive to the point of being ridiculous," Xie Shiyu leaned back on the sofa, looking at the ceiling, "he thought that because his father was good to my mother, one day my mother would be moved by Uncle Fang."

"I was born to my mother, yet she was also cold, and I even suspected her heart was made of stone."

Xie Shiyu: "My mother somehow found out that the man's wife had died, and she wanted to go find him."

"I don’t know what that man said to her, but when she came back, she looked listless, until one day when I came back from school..."

From the sympathetic words of the adults, he learned that she had taken her own life.

Shen Yan felt a tinge of bitterness in his heart. In his previous life, Shu Qianfei was captured, Shen Shubai passed away, and Shen Lin became paralyzed. He had also thought about ending his life.

But thinking of how Shu Qianfei had accompanied him through countless nights in the hospital, how could he leave her with half her life's efforts for nothing?

Moreover, if he died, what would happen to Xiaolin?

Shen Yan thought that Xie's mother had given her all to that man.

However, according to the typical protagonist setup, Xie Shiyu's father shouldn't be an ordinary person.

Shen Yan thought of someone in his thoughts, the head of the Meng family, who was considered Meng Yiyi's grandfather.

However, upon further thought, the age difference didn’t add up.

Back in the past, the Meng family in Jing City was on par with the Hu family, and it had a lot to do with that old Master Meng.

Xie Shiyu continued, "After my mother died, I was sent to an orphanage."

"When I saw Wang Cheng again, he was like a little ferocious beast, throwing punches at me."

Shen Yan said, "Ah?"

Shen Yan didn't understand the connection at that moment.

Xie Shiyu said, "Later, I found out from Xiao Mei, the girl in the short skirt from earlier, that after my mother died, Uncle Wang started drinking heavily. One night he drank too much, didn't see the road, and was hit by a car. He was gone on the spot."

"Every time I saw Wang Cheng after that, we would fight."

Shen Yan understood that Wang Cheng blamed her mother for his father's death.

Without her mother around, Wang Cheng took out his grief on Xie Shiyu.

Shen Yan studied the bruises on Xie Shiyu's face, guessing that he must have felt guilty about Uncle Wang's death.

Xie Shiyu hadn’t realized he’d had too much to drink, but if he hadn’t drunk too much, why would he tell Shen Yan all this?

Strangely enough, after unburdening himself, it felt like a weight had been lifted, as if he could now float away like a leaf in the wind.

Shen Yan said, "I'm not very good at comforting people, but if you're sad, I can stay with you..."

Shen Yan spoke sincerely, but when Xie Shiyu didn’t respond, he felt a pang of concern. Looking at Xie Shiyu's face, he realized that Xie Shiyu had fallen asleep at some point.

The dim, yellow light from the old lamp cast a soft glow on Xie Shiyu's face.

It wasn’t until he looked closely that Shen Yan noticed the sharpness of Xie Shiyu’s features. But under the light, there was a touch of gentleness.

He carefully laid Xie Shiyu down, making sure he was comfortable.

Shen Yan curled up on a single sofa and slept through the night.

Luckily, the weather in Zhu City was warm, so even without a blanket, the night was only mildly cool.

Hu Chengyu was a light sleeper, and because Shen Yan was in an unfamiliar city, he hadn’t turned off his phone, worried that something unexpected might happen.

*

So, when his phone vibrated, he immediately woke up. Seeing that it was a new email notification, he didn’t pay much attention to it.

It was only when he woke up around 4 or 5 in the morning, unable to fall back asleep, that he remembered the email.

Upon opening it, there was no subject.

A wave of unease washed over Hu Chengyu, especially as he watched the photo begin to load. The first photo was of Xie Shiyu smiling at Shen Yan inside a bar.

The person who took the sneaky shot was probably standing far away, as the photo was blurry due to the shaky camera.

The next two photos also show the interior of a bar. Shen Yan is half-supporting Xie Shiyu, who is slumped over Shen Yan like a ragdoll.

The following two photos are outdoors. Shen Yan and Xie Shiyu are sitting on a bench, with Xie Shiyu leaning on Shen Yan's shoulder.

Hu Chengyu's grip on his phone tightened, and his breathing grew heavier.

The veins on the back of his hand bulged, and his eyes burned with barely contained rage.

The last photo shows Shen Yan and Xie Shiyu walking side by side into a residential building.

The email is unsigned.

Hu Chengyu threw his phone aside and headed to the bathroom. He splashed cold water on his face, but it did nothing to quell the anger in his heart.

A few minutes later, Xie Shiyu sent the email address to a contact: "Trace the IP address of this email."

Ever since handling Shu Qianfei's company issue for Hu Chengyu, 'TopGrid' Public Relations had been in an official partnership with him.

On the surface, 'TopGrid' was a PR company, but in reality, it was a group of eccentric individuals who could get many things done for the right price.

Similar to Xie Shiyu's small four-person studio, they took on few but high-quality jobs.

The biggest commonality between them was their strong emphasis on confidentiality.

'TopGrid' had more staff. Some were early risers. Though initially excited to hear from their biggest client, they were a bit let down when they saw it was just about tracing an email address.

Even though it was a small task, they completed it diligently.

About fifteen minutes later, Hu Chengyu received a message: "The other party used a virtual address. It's certain they are in Zhu City."

This information was useless to Hu Chengyu.

He wanted a more precise location, like the exact street and number.

The programmer on the other end went silent, thinking, "You want us to pinpoint someone’s location with just an email? What kind of impossible request is this?"

By the time they gathered, Hu Chengyu still hadn't obtained the exact information about the person behind the email.

He kept wondering who it was and what their motive was.

His first instinct was that someone had a grudge against Xie Shiyu and was trying to use him to teach Xie a lesson.

But not many people knew that he liked Shen Yan.

If he considered this angle, the list of suspects narrowed down considerably.

At assembly, Lu Zhao overslept, grabbed a bun from the hotel’s breakfast buffet, and hurried to catch up with the group.

Hu Chengyu shot a glance at Lu Zhao.

Lu Zhao paused mid-bite, and when Hu Chengyu looked away, he instinctively took another bite.

Realizing he wasn’t holding the bun, it slipped from his mouth.

He dropped what he was holding and scrambled to catch the bun, narrowly missing the floor.

The coach chuckled at the scene.

Lu Zhao has thick skin and didn’t feel embarrassed at all. After all, not wasting food is what matters.

The others helped him pick up the things that fell, which were just some papers and wouldn’t get damaged.

The coach said, "Alright, let’s head to the science museum quickly. We can’t be late."

Hu Chengyu said, "Coach, Xie Shiyu isn’t here."

"Oh right," the coach realized belatedly, "Xie Shiyu had some family matters to attend to and went back home. He’ll head directly to the science museum."

Lu Zhao looked at Hu Chengyu in surprise. If it had been someone else asking about Xie Shiyu’s whereabouts, he wouldn’t have found it strange.

But when did Hu Chengyu start caring about anyone? Especially Xie Shiyu, who was always eyeing Shen Yan? That was weird.

Sitting in the car, Lu Zhao asked quietly, "Bro, tell me, is something wrong with Xie Shiyu?"

Hu Chengyu closed his eyes to rest, and Lu Zhao got bored.

The car stopped in the science museum’s parking lot, and as they approached the entrance, they saw Xie Shiyu standing there, looking annoyed.

Hu Chengyu’s gaze fell on his mask.

There was a small strawberry on the mask, which was from a custom mask Shen Yan had recently bought.

His eyes scanned around but didn’t see the familiar figure he was looking for, before finally returning to Xie Shiyu’s face.

The coach was talking to Xie Shiyu, "Is everything sorted out at home?"

Xie Shiyu replied, "Yes, thank you for your concern, coach."

"Why are you still wearing a mask?"

Xie Shiyu said, "I have a bit of a cold and was worried about passing it to everyone, so it’s better to keep the mask on."

Lu Zhao leaned toward Hu Chengyu and whispered, "Is our coach a little too easy to fool?"

Hu Chengyu’s eyes remained fixed on Xie Shiyu.

Lu Zhao continued to babble, "What kind of family does Xie Shiyu even have? He’s an orphan, after all."

Xie Shiyu’s gaze shifted over, and Lu Zhao suddenly straightened his back, looking a bit guilty.

He soon realized that Xie Shiyu wasn’t looking at him, but at Hu Chengyu.

Their gazes locked.

Lu Zhao thought that if there were special effects, it would be like two magnets pushing against each other, one moment Hu Chengyu seemed to have the upper hand, and the next, Xie Shiyu took control.

In the end, neither won, and the coach, walking ahead, told them to hurry up.

Lu Zhao glanced back over his shoulder and caught Xie Shiyu’s icy stare.

Hu Chengyu shifted his gaze and started walking toward the second floor.

Xie Shiyu followed behind them.

Hu Chengyu froze, sensing something was wrong, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Lu Zhao glanced at Xie Shiyu again, and his expression had returned to its usual calmness.

It felt like it had all been in his head.

Lu Zhao shook his head, "Nothing."

But inside, he couldn't shake the feeling that Xie Shiyu's look just now gave him the same vibe as Hu Chengyu.