January 3, 2022

Chapter 32: Those Times

Huan’s nephew was Yansheng’s cousin, but the message was obviously about his wife’s nephew, Liang Zheng.

He stared at the message for a while and thought that something might have happened at home while he was away. Then, he turned off the screen of his cell phone and continued to smile and listen to others.

He just remembered that after arriving at the company at noon that day, the Human Resources Supervisor implicitly told him, “After learning that Mr. Liang is your nephew, everyone takes good care of him.” He couldn’t help thinking about it after receiving Yansheng’s message.

In the evening, he and Zheng got home one after the other. Of course, he was in his Bentley and Zheng took a taxi.

“Uncle,” Zheng asked when he got out of the taxi, “where did you come back from?”

Huan smiled slightly and replied, “Outside.”

Zheng choked up.

He actually saw Huan’s car overtake the taxi he rode in not long after he got inside. However, there was a traffic jam during rush hour after getting off work. No matter how awesome the Bentley was, it couldn’t be better than the rumbling traffic. So in the end, the two of them arrived home almost at the same time.

However, he looked at the direction in which Huan’s car came out and it was clear that it came out of the company. Huan was in the company but didn’t ask him to go home together, which made him very dissatisfied.

Coupled with the fact that Yansheng robbed his car in the morning, he was a little annoyed and wanted to ask Huan if he was not welcome there.

Fortunately, before he spoke again, Yingying had already heard the sound of a car and came out to welcome her husband.

She came out quickly because she was afraid that her nephew would not know the severity of talking nonsense. Every time she went back at her natal home, she always bragged about how fascinated Huan was to her and that he always followed her words. In reality, only she knew what was really going on.

The bragging was just to have more face and status in her natal family. After all, since she married Huan, her sister-in-law has flattered her hard, making her particularly comfortable.

At any rate, she had seen the world somehow. And when she looked at Zheng’s expression, she knew that he might be unhappy. She could see it all and Huan could definitely see it even more.

However, Huan’s disposition was still like that, which seemed to be not interested and didn’t seem to care much about anything. He had always been like that. Even if she quarreled with Yansheng, he would still look like a good old man, who would just try to smooth things out between them.

She hurriedly greeted him while smiling charmingly, “You’re back! Change your clothes and get ready for dinner. The children are all at home. Shuoshuo is very good today…”

Huan enjoyed this kind of greeting very much, so he stretched out his arm to her.

Yingying took Huan’s arm and they both walked inside. She told him some short stories, while turning her head to give Zheng a wink.

Seeing his aunt’s wink, Zheng endured his anger and followed behind them.

While Huan went upstairs to change clothes, Yingying dragged Zheng aside and spoke to him in a low voice, “What’s that look on your face?! What kind of stinky face are you putting on in front of your uncle?!”

Zheng was upset and complained, “Uncle was at the company this afternoon but he didn’t even call me to go home together with him, so I had to take a taxi. I wasted dozens of yuan!”

“D*mn! For just a little money?! Look at you, you’re so worthless! I have given you a lot of money for the Chinese New Year and other holidays, where did it all go? Is it still not enough for you to spend?”

“How can that be the same?!”

“Okay, okay.” Yingying was used to her rich life and she didn’t like her nephew’s petty style, so she said, “I will reimburse you for the money you spent.”

Only then did Zheng feel more comfortable, but he still complained, “But auntie, uncle really doesn’t want me here.”

Yingying was afraid that he would have an opinion on Huan. He was still young. Although he thought that he was mature and sophisticated, he would actually show all his thoughts and emotions on his face, which could be seen clearly. She was afraid that her husband would see his little thoughts and that would make Huan unhappy.

She hurriedly said, “Your uncle is a big boss who is so good at everything, so how can he take care of you? Don’t keep thinking about taking your uncle’s car. How can your uncle have so much time to give you a ride? He has millions of yuan that go in and out every minute, and if you delay him for a minute, you will delay him making money!”

“Then how will I get to and from work in the future?” Zheng asked unhappily. “It’s quite far from the company.”

In fact, it was normal to spend an hour commuting in a big city. However, Zheng came from a small place where he could just walk to get to other places. When he was in college, he lived in the dormitory and had never commuted. Therefore, for newcomers to society like him, commuting was a tiresome and tiring thing.

Of course, there was nothing in the adult world that was not tiring and comfortable as being a student.

Zheng also wanted to complain about Yansheng, “And that Yansheng, she is too much! This morning—”

But Yingying immediately interrupted him. “Okay, okay! I know everything about this morning. Your father’s call woke me up early in the morning and I still have a headache until now. I’m telling you…

“I know all about it. That dead girl has such a temper and no one can control her. But you are not allowed to quarrel with her, do you hear me?!” She grabbed Zheng’s arm for fear that he would not know the seriousness of this issue, and she pressed his arm hard. “At any rate, she is your uncle’s biological child and the eldest daughter. You have to give your uncle some face.”

In fact, if Zheng really quarreled with Yansheng in public, her nephew would find that she couldn’t manage Yansheng at all, and her true status in this family and Huan’s mind would be exposed. This was what she didn’t want him to see.

For her, it was a great feeling to return to her hometown gloriously.

So no one should find out that there was such an undignified thing underneath.

“All right, I got it. I’m just going to consider you and uncle’s faces,” Zheng muttered.

But he asked again, “What should I do when I go to work in the future? Do I really have to take the bus?”

This was what he was most unhappy with. Taking a bus was really a shame but he also couldn’t afford to take a taxi every day. He squinted his eyes to look at Yingying and he actually hoped that his aunt would be more generous and cover the taxi fare for his daily commute.

The result was better than he expected. His aunt said angrily, “What bus are you talking about?! You can afford to lose to that person, but I can’t! Did you bring your driver’s license? Bring it here, I’ll give you a car to drive.”

Zheng was overjoyed and immediately replied, “I’ll bring it! Auntie, I want to drive your Ferrari!”

Yingying almost staggered because of his words. How dare you say that?

She sneered angrily and poked her nephew’s head. “What are you thinking? I just got the car for two days, okay?! You just wait! When I buy a new car in the future, I will give this old Ferrari to you!”

She spoke in a boastful manner.

But as for when there would be a new car in the future, well… we would talk about it later.

If Yansheng heard Yingying’s words, she would have sneered already.

The problem was that Zheng believed in his aunt.

“Okay! We have a deal!” He couldn’t wait to make a pinky swear with his aunt and make sure that she would not turn back on her words.

He thought that although it was going to be an old car by then, it was still a Ferrari.

When he drove the Ferrari back to his hometown in the future, he could already imagine how those fellow countrymen and classmates would look at him with envy, and how they would surround him with flattery.

As for the girl he had been struggling to catch up with, he would just let her wear high heels and chase his Ferrari’s exhaust smoke.

Hmph!

At the dining table, Yansheng found that Zheng was not only in a very good mood, but he seemed to have no grudges about what happened that morning and there was even a faint trace of pride in his eyes.

She felt strange at first and then she understood what was going on after pondering about it.

In this life, since Huan stopped taking Zheng the next day, it went without saying that Yingying might have given a family car for Zheng just like what happened in her previous life.

Her lips curled into a slight smile, then she lowered her head to continue eating and just ignored him.

Although Huan usually loved to be at home in peace—after all, because of his age, experience, and shrewdness—the various looks of his wife and children at the dinning table fell into his eyes, including Zheng’s as well.

As he compared Zheng and Yansheng, he was secretly surprised. His eldest daughter, in just these fast few days, seemed to be completely reborn.

She was still cold to people, but it was not the kind of blunt indifference thinking that the whole world owed her, just like in the past. There was alienation in her coldness. If it wasn’t for her young age, she would be a bit noble and glamorous.

After dinner, Zheng couldn’t wait to give Yingying a wink. He really wanted to go and see ‘his car’ as soon as possible.

Yingying smiled and said to Huan, “Husband, it’s really not convenient for Zheng to go to work from here, and it’s not good for him to take your car every day as it will delay your time. So I thought that we should let him drive the BMW car for now. What do you think?”

The cheapest car in the family was this BMW car and it was used by the servants to go to the supermarket to buy groceries. Huan didn’t care about this kind of small money and trivial matters. “Okay.”

Yingying smiled and took Zheng to see the car with a reserved expression.

The two little ones were in a hurry to play games and watch cartoons after eating, so they both ran away.

On the other hand, Yansheng chewed slowly and finally finished eating after a while. She pushed away the dishes and chopsticks, and said, “I’m done.” She stood up and was ready to go upstairs.

“Yanyan! Yanyan!” Huan stopped her.

Yansheng turned her head and saw Huan smiling as he hooked his finger at her.

She was rendered speechless.

Seriously, she was not really the fifteen-year-old Zhang Yansheng. Therefore, in her memory, Huan hadn’t made such a relaxed and intimate expression and gesture to her for many, many years.

At that moment, what she reflexively recalled was the few tears he had shed after she died.

Yes, just a few drops. At that time, they had become very distant. The family affection in her childhood had been almost wiped out and all that was left was resentment.

He later gave her an expensive funeral. The cemetery, tombstone, and urn were all expensive, and she was buried next to her mother.

In the end, he only took some money to send her away.

She had a complicated feeling in her heart, so she asked indifferently, “What are you doing?”

Although she was still cold these days, Huan felt that she was much better now compared to how noisy she used to be and would always cause ruckus at every turn. He was not angry at all, then he replied with a smile, “Come here and tell me what happened today. Let’s have a chat between father and daughter.”

Next to the small living room, there was a room with a wine rack on the entire wall and a bar. Huan sometimes liked to have some drinks there. As a little taste of life, he could also mix drinks.

He made Yansheng a non-alcoholic soft drink and brought it to her. “It’s been a long time since you saw Dad mix a drink, right? This is your favorite drink, go ahead and try it.”

Yansheng was silent for a moment, then she took a sip and found that the taste was still the same, just like it did when she was a child.

When she was young, she liked to watch her father mix colorful wine or drinks at this bar, like he was doing some magic tricks.

Then she would applaud vigorously afterward.

Her mother would sit on the side and smile gently.

Later on, when her mother left this world, he brought Yingying in, so those good times were gone.