Most fathers were all great and mighty, but their expressions of fatherly love might be different. Qin Changan and Qin Sheng had a special father-son relationship. Besides, Qin Changan’s identity was even more special. When considering the different factors for Qin Sheng and the Qin Family, he had to not just look forward, but also look far.
If he suddenly came in front of Qin Sheng and reconciled with him, Qin Sheng might not be willing to accept it. Also, based on Qin Sheng’s temper, he might not even go back to the Qin Family with him. Every man in the Qin Family was very stubborn. They only think a certain way and would stick to the path they have chosen for themselves. Lastly, but also most importantly, he needed to figure out Qin Sheng’s character in a short amount of time in order to make plans for his future when he returned home. After all, the Qin Family’s family and business are both very big. If Qin Sheng did not have the potential to carry on this burden, then Qin Changan would rather he live the rest of his life peacefully. If Qin Sheng took over the business blindly, it was okay for him to fail, but Qin Changan was not willing to see Qin Sheng lead a torturous life.
But unfortunately, Qin Sheng was just like any other man in the Qin Family. There was a ferocious tiger living in his heart; in all things that he did, he never lowered his head, admitted defeat, or gave up.
After staying by the seaside for a while, Qin Changan finally walked back slowly. Gongsun was waiting for him at the side of Huandao South Road, in an Audi A8L that hung a Xiamen car plate. Qin Changan opened the door and got in. He was in a good mood. After driving far away, Gongsun finally asked, “You saw Young Master?”
“Yes. Seems like this period of time spent recovering was effective. He was no longer as short-tempered and frivolous as when I first saw him,” said Qin Changan thoughtfully. Fortune and misfortune are two buckets in the same well. The men in the Qin Family were all very ambitious, and so was Qin Sheng. This was why he had gone astray in Shanghai and ended up being played so badly. But it was also understandable, anyone would have done the same.
Gongsun asked in a meaning-full tone, “I heard Zhuang Zhou said that Qin Sheng’s body was recovering well. He can start on recovery training this month. But it would be another two months before he can fully recover. When are you planning to reconcile with him, Master?”
“We’ll talk about it in the future,” Qin Changan answered casually. He was also being very careful about this matter. He did not want to rush it. It would be best to like nature take its course, there was no need to be so deliberate.
Gongsun nodded. He was more anxious than anyone else because Young Master could only take revenge after reconciling with his father. Then, those families would start to see their doomsday. However, they had not been living a good life recently too. Although the Qin Family did not declare war with them, they did play some tricks secretly. The Lin family’s property project in Zhedong was suspended due to violations. Today, they were tight on their financial chain. In the past, based on the Lin family’s power, the regulatory authorities would close one eye and never cared. But this time around, Qin Changan directly spoke to the Deputy Head of the district, which was why they especially picked on Lin family. The Yan family was having a bad time in Shanghai as well. An Internet finance project was seized and their trade products were heavily investigated by the customs. A related personnel was supposed to be raised to Deputy District Mayor but it did not happen. As for Boss Ye, a resource integration project of his in Jiangsu was just about to pass through the approval of the ministries, but it was rejected directly. He tried all kinds of methods to buy his way in but no one took notice of him. He definitely did not know that this was a big gift from his son.
These all showed how powerful Qin Changan was, but they did not know who was playing tricks on them…
In order to get closer to Qin Sheng, Qin Changan decided to stay in Xiamen this weekend. Furthermore, he directly bought a vacant house in Qin Sheng’s neighborhood just to not arouse his suspicion. This showed how detailed his thoughts were.
All of the spring breeze could not be compared to you, all of the wine also could not be compared to you. This was a sentence written on a wall in the cafe. Qin Sheng first did a sketch and found someone to carve it onto wood and nailed onto the wall. The words were very pretty. During this period of time, Qin Sheng would practice calligraphy when he was bored. Lin Su then realized that he had very good penmanship. She did not know that in the past. Qin Sheng said, “What did you think? Your husband was thrown into the Beilin Museum every summer of his childhood by his grandfather. If he could not write a word or two, that would be too embarrassing.”
Qin Sheng liked to be in a daze. He liked to read books and observe every customer in the cafe. Looking at their different emotions, he would then guess what was going on in their hearts. Every now and then, he would tease some of the part-timers cum students. In just a short period of half a month, Qin Sheng had already established a good relationship with them.
Other than the third full-time staff, the other six waiters were all part-timer cum students. There were four girls and two boys. Most of the time they worked separately. After all, they had different class schedules. They were basically all here during the peak period, which was at night, unless someone had something on. They would also come help out when they had nothing on.
An An and Le Le were the prettiest. Qin Sheng felt that their family financial conditions should be quite well-off, but they just wanted to experience the part-timer life. The other few kids probably came from ordinary families. They were working to earn some pocket money.
Le Le walked over and saw that Qin Sheng had run out of tea. She then helped him to add more water. She then sighed for no reason. Le Le wore the cafe’s grey work outfit and was very pretty. She had a pair of sweet dimples and was the most popular waitress in the cafe.
“Why did you sigh suddenly?” Qin Sheng laughed and asked.
Le Le tilted her body and glanced at the table of customers not far from them. They were two boys and a girl. The girl dressed up very nicely and the boy also looked glamorous. He looked like he came from a wealthy family. The boy sitting opposite her looked very ordinary. His hair was ruffled and his eyes were slightly swollen. He seemed to not be in a good mental state.
“I feel that it is not worth it for the boy,” Le Le said unhappily.
Qin Sheng looked towards that direction. He then listened to their conversation and understood what was going on. It turned out that the pretty girl and the boy opposite were a couple. They dated from high school all the way until Junior year. The boy studied in Beijing while the girl was a student at Xiamen University. They had a long-distance relationship. The boy would come to see her every month. He had to sit through more than 10 hours of train. He had no money and could only sit when there were empty seats. After three years, the number of train tickets he had collected could be gathered into a bundle.
It was the girl’s birthday today. The boy did not tell her beforehand and secretly took the train to Xiamen. He wanted to give her a surprise, but did not expect to be greeted by such a blow. The girl showed up in front of him with her arm wrapped around the arm of the boy next to her. At that moment, the boy felt that his world had collapsed instantly.
“I’m sorry, we’re really not suitable.” This was the kind of reason she gave him.
Not suitable. It had already been five years. If they were really not suitable, they would have broken up a long time ago, how could they have made it to Junior year? If they were not suitable, why didn’t she take the initiative to break up? Instead, she dated another boy behind his back and only opened up now.
The boy was not angry. His gaze was filled with determination. He smiled and said, “You haven’t had it easy these past few years as well. I couldn’t shop with you, study with you in the library or eat with you. I also couldn’t take care of you when you were sick. When you needed me, I couldn’t appear in front of you right away. That being said, it’s all my fault. But it’s better now. At least you’ll have someone by your side to take care of you. I can rest assured.”
“Don’t be like this.” Hearing the boy say those words, the girl felt very bad. She bit into her lip and said, “You will find a better girl.”
The boy smiled brightly and said, “I know, I believe in that too. It’s getting late, you guys should go back soon.”
The girl’s current boyfriend kept on playing his phone and did not care at all. Every now and then, he would look up and glance at the boy, as if he did not treat him seriously at all. He had an arrogant attitude of a winner. Perhaps, he felt that the boy was not worthy to be his opponent.
“Where do you live? Let’s give you a ride?” The girl was worried that the boy would do anything silly.
The boy shook his head and said, “It’s alright, I’ll go back after a while. Don’t worry, I’m not that silly.”
“Then I’ll treat you to dinner tomorrow, isn’t seafood your favorite?” The girl wanted to compensate the boy. Every time he came to Xiamen, they would always go to the roadside seafood stall.
The boy smiled and rejected. “I booked a train ticket back to Beijing at night. The student council has a lot to do the day after tomorrow.”
The boy rejected her again and again. The girl knew that he was heartbroken. But things have already become like this, she had no idea what to do. Breakups always come accompanied with heartbreaks.
“Okay then, we’ll go back first. Keep in touch via phone,” the girl said as the stood up with her current boyfriend.
The boy wanted to say something but stopped himself. Eventually, he still looked at her current boyfriend and said between gritted teeth, “Help me to take good care of her. She doesn’t like to eat sour and spicy food, as well as parsley. She can’t get wet in the rain and is allergic to flower pollen, smoke…”
“You don’ have to worry about these,” said the current boyfriend very unpleasantly.
The boy laughed at himself and nodded. “Okay.”
“Let’s go,” said the girl as she was pulled by her current boyfriend along.
The boy stood up and watched them go with a smile on his face. He waited for the girl to look back, but she did not. Eventually, he could not hold it back any longer and shouted, “Gu Man!”
The girl stopped in her tracks subconsciously and turned around.
The boy fought to hold back his tears and said, “Thank you for liking me before. Thank you for the journey you’ve walked with me. Thank you for entering my world. Thank you. Then, goodbye, and hope that we do not meet again…”
Eventually, the boy used all his energy to wave both of his hands to bid goodbye. The girl could not hold it in anymore and burst into tears. However, she was dragged away by her boyfriend forcedly.
When the girl disappeared completely, the boy could not hold it in any more and squat on the ground as he buried his head in his arms and bawled. There was no sound, but his whole body was visibly shaking. Anyone could feel his heart-wrenching pain. That kind of pain hit the deepest part of his heart.
Coincidentally, or not, the cafe was playing Zhao Lei’s “Chengdu”. He was singing the line, “Partings are always done in September, memories are filled with the pain of longing…”
Qin Sheng and many others witnessed the entire scene. Yet, he did not know what to say. He could tell that the boy was internally strong and carried great responsibilities. He did not ask a single ‘why’ from start to end, nor did he ask her to turn back. He only accepted the reality silently. No matter how horrible he felt, he must hold it in.
In this world, the sorrows and joys of partings and meetings happen every day. Having gone through life-and-death situations, Qin Sheng was not shocked by this. But to the majority of the ordinary people, every incident like this was part of the learning process. Perhaps, it had changed their lives unknowingly.
The girl was not wrong, there was no need for her to be kidnapped morally. If she liked, she liked. If she did not, she did not. There was no need to bother about any additional conditions.
The boy was even more not in the wrong. To him, the girl was no longer who he used to like. Even if they were to start anew, they could not return to what once was.
After an unknown period of time, the boy stood up again. No one knew if he was exhausted from crying or did not feel sad anymore. He wiped away his tears and smiled embarrassedly at the crowd. He then took out his phone and deleted all kinds of contact with the girl.
Qin Sheng whispered a few sentences to Le Le. There was some wine hidden in the bar. He drank a bit every now and then, with Lin Su’s permission. He got Le Le to gift two bottles of beers to the boy. He needed this stuff at this moment.