Growing Fond of You, Mr Nian

“Don’t say these things to my dad in the future when he gets released,” Luosang reminded him.

 “Of course,” Nian Junting nodded his head.

 …

 Luosang noticed Mo Liuxi standing outside the police station when they walked out. He had a cigarette in his hands. He looked handsome even when he was smoking.

 “Junting, you go ahead back to the car. I want to talk to Liuxi about something,” Luosang said to Nian Junting.

 Nian Junting frowned a little but went ahead anyway.

 “Don’t smoke,” Luosang walked over and plucked the cigarette from his hand. “Look at Junting, he never smokes, it’s bad for your health.”

 “I’m just annoyed,” Mo Liuxi said casually.

 “You’re annoyed because you care about that man,” Luosang smiled gently. “If not, you would have treated this matter a lot more indifferently.”

 Mo Liuxi was silent.

 She was right, he had thought that he could maintain his indifference when he met Xu Zhengxuan but in the end, he found it hard to control his emotions.

 “Liuxi, when I found out that Mother wasn’t dead, I was thrilled. But I can’t deny that I was resentful too. How could she give birth to me but choose to walk away from me?”

 Luosang said dejectedly, “I understand now that she didn’t have it easy overseas. It must have been hard to bring up a child alone in a foreign land. Even if she did want to come back for me, Father would have denied her. I know all this but it’s still difficult to let go of all my resentment. I would have been content to know if she came back to look at me from afar. Although I can understand her difficulties, the truth is that she missed out on a huge part of my growing up. It’s regrettable but I’d rather keep the hurt to myself and spend the rest of my life treasuring the time I have with her now. She is twenty years older than me so she will have to depart from this world earlier. Time is precious and I don’t want to waste any more time dwelling on the past.”

 Mo Liuxi shook his head. “I’m different from you. You led a comfortable life and Xu Zhengxuan dedicated most of his resources to care for you and bring you up. Since I could remember, life hasn’t been easy for me. When I was in kindergarten, my mother had to pick me up every day because we didn’t have enough money. Some days, she came so late after work that I was always left waiting alone in the cold. It would be snowing in winter and my hands and feet would be frozen, my bones ached when I walked. I started doing chores when I was four years old, reheating food from the day before on a little stove. There was one time when I almost burnt the kitchen down, I nearly died back then. The landlord chased us out afterwards and the two of us roamed the streets in the cold. Mother gave me all the clothes on her and she nearly froze to death. We had so many encounters like that and met far too few good Samaritans. She thought about sending me back; I was a Xu family’s son after all. I could lead a comfortable life back here. She even booked me a flight but if I had come back, she would have been left all alone back there.”

 1Luosang was stunned.

 Mo Jin only told her that they were extremely poor then, she had spared her the details.

 “Liuxi…” she leaned on his shoulder gently, “I’m sorry.”

 “It’s not your fault, Lady Mo had a difficult time raising me. She would rather she starved herself than let me go without a meal. She would rather she froze herself than let me catch a cold. Although she had no power or authority, she never let anyone bully me. She was the one who spent nights with me when I fell ill.”

 “What about that man in jail? What has he done for me, has he fed me one meal, bought me one piece of clothing? Although he wasn’t absent from my life intentionally, although he didn’t even know that I existed, he is a stranger to me. Not just that, he ruined a woman’s life. Why do you think Mother didn’t marry again after so many years? She had poured out all her love in her first marriage and she was traumatized about how it had ended. She couldn’t trust love again so she never found another man. Because she was locked up in the room in the past, she developed claustrophobia. She can’t be in a closed space by herself now.”

 “Xu Zhengxuan might have been a good father to you, but to me he is just a loser who let my mother down.”

 Luosang was quiet. She had wondered why Mo Jin never remarried. She thought that Mo Jin couldn’t forget Xu Zhengxuan. She had thought wrongly.

 Mo Liuxi inhaled slowly, “I’m going back to Xia City. I’ve seen him now, I think he will be released in a couple of days. Although he is my father, I’m not keen on having much interaction with him.”

 “…Ok.”

 …

 When they were back at the villa, Mo Liuxi packed his bags and left promptly. He didn’t ask Nian Junting to arrange anyone to drive him.

 Luosang sat by herself on the balcony after he left.

 “Luo, what did you guys talk about? I thought you wanted to build your relationship with him?” Nian Junting pressed his palms onto her shoulder.

 “I can’t go back and talk to him, there’s no point in forcing him to stay if he doesn’t want to.” Luosang was still looking at the dusky skies outside. “I’ve realized that I was much more privileged compared to Liuxi. I should treat him nicer in the future.”

 “Ok.”

 They spent three days in An City. An Lan brought them good news from the police station; the trial of Yi Jingxi and Xu Zhengxuan would be brought forward to the supreme court. The trial would start on Friday. No matter how heavily Yi Jingxi and Principal Cheng would be sentenced this time, Xu Zhengxuan would be let out for sure.

 On Thursday afternoon, Nian Junting was in a video conference in the study when there was a ring on the doorbell. Luosang opened the door expecting An Lan, but instead she saw Chu Lei through the screen. On the surveillance camera, she was looking around the porch.

 Luosang had only seen Chu Lei once and she had been dressed cleanly but she looked frazzled and disheveled today. Luosang hesitated about whether she should let her in.

 The doorbell kept ringing until Nian Junting came down from the staircase. “Why aren’t you opening the door?’

 “It’s Chu Lei,” Luosang said hesitantly, “She’s probably here about Yi Jingxi.”

 Nian Junting could sense her hesitance but he opened the gates. “Let her in. She ruined your family after all so let’s take a closer look at her.”

 They walked out together and Chu Lei approached them timidly. When she caught sight of Luosang, she suddenly fell to the ground and started bowing to her. Luosang was pregnant and didn’t dare to go any closer to her. Nian Junting watched her coldly.

 After a while, she shuffled to Luosang still on her knees and grabbed her pants. “Miss Xu, I beg you, please let Yi Jingxi off. He is innocent, I ruined his life. It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have lied to him, blame me for everything. If you want revenge, take it out on me, I don’t care if you send me to prison.”

 Luosang was angry. She thought that Chu Lei was even more incorrigible than Jiang Qifei.

 “You’re pleading for mercy now. Have you forgotten the time when Yi Jingxi sent my dad to prison and stole everything from me? Did you grant me mercy then?”