TMISIU-chapter 43

Being interrupted by Lan Zhan, Wei Ying felt that the irritability in his heart seemed to have disappeared.

When Lan Zhan’s phone vibrated, Wei Ying reached into Lan Zhan’s coat pocket and took out the phone for Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan glanced at the phone screen, it was Gu Yihan’s call, so he answered.

“Zhan, I’m on the way to pick up A-Cheng. I’ll be there soon. You should be back from grandpa’s house. I want to take you and A-Cheng to eat out. Is it convenient for you to come here now?”

Lan Zhan didn’t hesitate much, and said bluntly: “Wei Ying and I are outside. I will send him back to school later.”

The private room was so quiet that even if the speaker was not turned on, Wei Ying could hear Gu Yihan’s voice.

Gu Yihan seemed to hesitate for a while before saying: “Is Wei Ying there? Then I will invite you to eat together. It’s rare that you have a friend you like. I have always wanted to meet this kid.”

When Wei Ying heard the word like, he raised his eyes to Lan Zhan, the corners of his mouth curled.

Lan Zhan frowned. He knew what Gu Yihan’s intention was.

During this period of time Jiang Cheng was in a bad mood, making the family restless. He had run out of patience in coaxing Jiang Cheng and the two were much more distant than before.

Gu Yihan had been trying to find an opportunity for the two to ease their relationship.

Lan Zhan knew that Wei Ying minded Jiang Cheng and was ready to find a reason to reject Gu Yihan when he heard Gu Yihan say with a pleading tone.

“Zhan, can you help mom ask Wei Ying?”

Lan Zhan looked at Wei Ying, thinking that Wei Ying would shake his head and refuse, but he saw Wei Ying calmly say, “You tell auntie that I can.”

Lan Zhan looked at Wei Ying’s eyes for two seconds, and after confirming that his expression was not reluctant, he agreed with Gu Yihan and asked her about the restaurant.

After answering the phone, Lan Zhan asked Wei Ying, “You really don’t mind?”

He couldn’t know how much Wei Ying didn’t want to see Jiang Cheng, but he had already noticed it from the first time they met at the beginning of the school year.

Wei Ying put his hand in his pocket and said in a relaxed tone:

“I don’t mind.”

But Jiang Cheng, how would he react when he saw him?

Gu Yihan parked the car in the parking lot of the grand club and called Jiang Cheng.

Perhaps because he had a good time at his classmate’s birthday party, Jiang Cheng seemed to be in a much better mood tonight.

Soon Jiang Cheng got into the car and called out “Mother Gu”.

Although he still didn’t talk much, he would answer a few questions whenever Gu Yihan asked.

Gu Yihan casually asked a few things about the party, and then drove the car to a nearby western restaurant she had ordered.

Jiang Cheng liked the desserts there.

On the way, she was hesitant to say that Lan Zhan and Wei Ying were also coming over.

Adults always thought that children’s contradictions could be resolved by talking to them.

Gu Yihan originally wanted Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng to ease the relationship, but it happened that Wei Ying was there.

She guessed that her two children had conflicts because of Wei Ying, and she thought that she could take this rare opportunity to let them sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk.

At a table for four in a western restaurant, Jiang Cheng lowered his head and ate expensive desserts with a fork.

Gu Yihan, who was sitting opposite, sent a WeChat message to Lan Zhan to ask where he was and then asked Jiang Cheng:

“A-Cheng, shall we go to sweep your mother’s grave together this weekend?”

In the past, Gu Yihan would take Jiang Cheng to visit Cangse Sanren’s grave every once in a while.

Jiang Cheng would carefully pick a handful of his mother’s favorite white roses at the flower store, then give them to his mother at the grave and talk to her for a while.

But now Gu Yihan saw that Jiang Cheng stopped the fork in his hand and pressed his lips tightly without speaking.

Obviously he was unwilling to agree to visit Cangse Sanren’s grave.

She was puzzled, but when she was about to ask, she saw Lan Zhan walking in with a boy not far away. She naturally knew that boy was Wei Ying.

Wei Ying pointed his finger at the vacant black grand piano in the middle of the restaurant and tilted his head to say something to Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan glanced at the piano and gave Wei Ying a very light smile.

Gu Yihan was stunned, a strange feeling bubbled up in her heart.

She stood up from her seat and said with a smile to the two people who were walking towards her, “Zhan, Wei Ying.”

“Hello, Auntie.” Wei Ying greeted Gu Yihan politely, and then glanced at Jiang Cheng, who was sitting and eating with his back turned to him.

There was a ‘pang’, a sound of metal falling to the ground.

Gu Yihan looked down and found that the fork in Jiang Cheng’s hand fell to the ground.

The waiter on the side quickly walked over and replaced Jiang Cheng with new cutlery.

Jiang Cheng’s back stiffened and kept his head hanging down. He firmly grasped the new fork in his hand, shaking slightly.

Gu Yihan, who didn’t see Jiang Cheng’s expression, said to him, “A-Cheng, I didn’t tell you earlier, Zhan and Wei Ying also came over. You are both classmates, so it’s good to sit together and chat.”

Lan Zhan looked at Jiang Cheng’s hand holding the fork and pulled out a chair for Wei Ying to sit next to Gu Yihan, while he himself sat opposite of Wei Ying.

Gu Yihan also sat down, and finally noticed the abnormality of Jiang Cheng on the opposite side.

Cold sweat appeared on his forehead and his lips turned white, clutching his fork and staring at the unfinished berry pudding in front of him.

She worried that Jiang Cheng was not feeling well and hurriedly asked, “A-Cheng, what’s wrong?”

Wei Ying took the menu from Lan Zhan, looked at Jiang Cheng who was diagonally opposite, and looked down at the menu.

Jiang Cheng glanced at Wei Ying who was looking at the menu, shook his head at Gu Yihan and said with a voice like gnats: “I’m fine.”

Then he continued to eat the dessert with his fork without looking up at anyone.

Gu Yihan wondered if she had done something wrong without permission. Jiang Cheng seemed to be very resistant to Wei Ying, but he didn’t ask to leave and only ate in silence.

She suppressed the doubts in her heart, turned to Wei Ying and said in a kind tone, “Wei Ying, you can order whatever you want, auntie is treating you today.”

Wei Ying replied obediently: “Okay, thank you auntie.”

He lowered his head and continued to look at the menu, the prices on it were so expensive that he was speechless.

After struggling for a while, he didn’t know how to choose, so he pushed the menu to Lan Zhan and poked the back of Lan Zhan’s hand when Gu Yihan wasn’t looking.

Lan Zhan took the menu with a clear understanding and ordered a few desserts and drinks from the waiter.

The meal came up quickly.

Gu Yihan saw Lan Zhan cut a piece of the peach dessert tower, and naturally placed it on Wei Ying’s dinner plate.

Wei Ying smiled at Lan Zhan, seemingly used to Lan Zhan’s actions.

Gu Yihan was slightly surprised and glanced at his son again.

The music in the western restaurant was soothing, but the atmosphere at this side of the table was a bit stagnant.

Gu Yihan took the initiative several times to get the children to talk, but only Wei Ying responded to her seriously.

Lan Zhan occasionally answered a few words, and Jiang Cheng did not speak at all.

What Gu Yihan could talk about as a parent was nothing more than the children’s learning and hobbies and when she heard Wei Ying say he liked to paint, she looked at the boy with a few surprises and asked again:

“You like to draw too?”

She didn’t realize that the word “too” was a bit strange.

Lan Zhan sat next to Jiang Cheng and looked down at Jiang Cheng’s left hand clutching the tablecloth under the table, the bones of that hand were white, as if he was extremely nervous about something.

Wei Ying nodded and said, “Yes, I now learn oil painting from Grandpa Zhou Wanghan.”

Gu Yihan was stunned when she heard the word “Zhou Wanghan”.

She could not help recalling that many years ago, when Cangse Sanren was also a student of Zhou Wanghan at the age of sixteen or seventeen, after she finished her weekend piano lessons, she would ride her bicycle to the old house of the Zhou family to pick up Cangse Sanren who had finished her painting lessons.

Cangse Sanren would occasionally pick up a Paulownia leaf from the ground and give it to her, sitting on the back seat of the bicycle and talking to her with a smile.

Wei Ying felt that Gu Yihan was looking at himself in a strange way.

He felt an unexplainable sadness and despair in her eyes, as if she was looking at another person through himself. He hesitantly asked:

“Do you also know Grandpa Zhou?”

Gu Yihan recovered. Perhaps it was because this child looks too much like Cangse Sanren so she always thought of Cangse Sanren every time she faced Wei Ying, and she also felt uneasy.

She smiled and said, “Yes, Uncle Zhou watched me grow up, you can definitely learn a lot by following Uncle Zhou, he is a very good painter and a very good teacher.”

Wei Ying nodded and said, “Grandpa Zhou has indeed taught me a lot.”

Gu Yihan recalled another past event, “Zhan often went to play at Uncle Zhou’s house when he was young, but he went less these years.”

She looked at Lan Zhan and smiled, “Zhan, visit Uncle Zhou next time on holiday. Old man complained to me before, saying you never go to his house after you grow up.”

Wei Ying looked at Lan Zhan and gently touched the tip of Lan Zhan’s shoe with his foot under the table.

Lan Zhan said without changing his face, “I’ll visit next Sunday.”

It was as if he had never been there before.

Gu Yihan looked at Jiang Cheng, whom she had been paying close attention to, but Jiang Cheng still had his head down and ate without saying anything, so she sighed inwardly and had to continue talking to Wei Ying.

“Do you plan to continue learning painting in the future? Have you thought about which school to go to?”

Wei Ying smiled slightly and said, “I plan to apply to art schools in the United States.”

He glanced at Jiang Cheng calmly and continued, “So now I’m preparing my portfolio and participating in some painting exhibitions and competitions.”

Gu Yihan was a little surprised.

After thinking about it, she suggested, “If you want to apply to foreign schools, you really need to prepare early. I know more about painting exhibitions, so I can introduce you to some. As for competitions, I don’t know much about it, you can ask Uncle Zhou.”

She really wanted to help this child. In recent years, because she often held painting exhibitions for Cangse Sanren, she knew better.

Wei Ying smiled at Gu Yihan and said sincerely, “Thank you, Auntie.”

When Gu Yihan saw Wei Ying’s smile, she was in a trance for a moment.

Something flashed in her mind and she asked abruptly, “I heard A-Cheng and Zhan say that you are from Yanping County, where is your hometown in Yanping County? I have never been to Yanping County, but I have seen some landscape paintings there. It is a very beautiful place.”

Wei Ying saw Jiang Cheng stop the cutlery from the corner of his eyes.

Before he could answer, Jiang Cheng stood up with pursed lips, threw down the cutlery and walked towards the outside of the restaurant without saying anything.

Gu Yihan hurriedly stood up and shouted “A-Cheng” a few times, but Jiang Cheng did not stop, so she had to chase after him without even having the time to say anything to the other two.

Wei Ying naturally knew why Jiang Cheng fled. He lowered his eyelashes to hide the ridicule in his eyes.

There were only two of them left on the dining table.

Wei Ying found that Lan Zhan had been looking at him and asked, “Aren’t you going back with your mother?”

During the meal and conversation, he discovered that Gu Yihan’s attention and concern for Jiang Cheng seemed to be even stronger than for his own son Lan Zhan, which made him somewhat incomprehensible.

More than that, he felt it ironic that he tried so hard to please his elders, but Jiang Cheng could play his temper and just leave.

Lan Zhan put his plate of completely uneaten dessert in front of Wei Ying, as if he didn’t care about Gu Yihan and Jiang Cheng leaving, and calmly said.

“When you finish eating, I’ll send you back.”

Wei Ying accepted the dessert nonchalantly, lowered his head and continued eating, but still thinking about Lan Zhan’s mother in his heart.

He suddenly remembered that a long time ago, Nei Huaisang had said to him that Lan Zhan’s mother treated Jiang Cheng like her own child, and now it seemed that this statement was not exaggerated.

So if the truth came out, with more than eighteen years of affection like mother and son, Lan Zhan’s mother would definitely defend Jiang Cheng, right?

What would she think of him?

He and Lan Zhan were still in such a relationship.

Wei Ying was absentmindedly eating dessert when he suddenly heard Lan Zhan ask.

“Is Yeong Lee looking for you tonight related to Jiang Cheng?”

Wei Ying’s heart jumped suddenly, the fork in his hand stopped, and he slowly swallowed the dessert in his mouth without answering.

He found that Lan Zhan was sometimes so sharp that he felt terrible.

Lan Zhan didn’t seem to expect his answer. Looking at him quietly, he continued:

“If I hadn’t come over then, you would have followed Yeong Lee?”

This sentence had little tone and the question was like an affirmative sentence.

Wei Ying was quiet for a moment and lowered his gaze, like a student being chided by his parents, put down his fork, put his hands on the table in a disciplined manner and said.

“President Lee told me she wanted to introduce a friend to me, it will help me apply to schools abroad.”

He still couldn’t tell Lan Zhan the conversation he heard, let alone his plan to take the opportunity to retaliate.

Lan Zhan frowned slightly, not believing this statement.

He knew that Wei Ying would no longer accept the kindness of others easily, let alone Yeong Lee, a completely stranger and complicated identity.

He also always knew that Wei Ying had something to hide from him, perhaps the secret that Wei Ying was about to tell him.

Regarding this secret, he had an extremely absurd guess, so absurd that he thought he was crazy.

The restaurant’s pianist returned to the grand piano and sat down, playing a lazy jazz tune, with a number of dining guests laughing and applauding.

The two of them on this side of the table, however, suddenly fell silent.

Wei Ying had never been looked at by Lan Zhan with such a gaze, as if his gaze had weight.

He was a little flustered. He didn’t know what Lan Zhan was thinking. He thought he was still thinking about Yeong Lee, so after thinking about it, he asked directly:

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem with President Lee?”

Lan Zhan looked away and put the crazy guess in his heart temporarily on hold.

He has indeed heard about Yeong Lee and others, but he was not one to talk about others behind their backs and only said.

“Nothing. In the future if she comes to you alone, it’s best to ignore it.”

Wei Ying sighed with relief, nodded and said, “Okay, I know.”

He began to talk about Luo Qingyang’s birthday party in the evening, and vividly described how a few mic-crazy people grabbed the microphone to sing, Nei Huaisang’s singing voice was a long story, and how big and delicious Luo Qingyang’s birthday cake was…

Lan Zhan has been listening quietly, occasionally responding to Wei Ying’s words.

After the pianist finished playing the jazz, he changed to a new piece and played only a short section.

Wei Ying’s eyes lit up and said to Lan Zhan: “Listen, it’s “Wuji!”

He propped one hand on his cheek, and after listening carefully for a while, he shook his head and said, “Not as good as you play.”

Lan Zhan leaned back on the back of the chair and asked with some amusement, “You can hear it?”

Wei Ying knew that Lan Zhan was laughing at his own musical appreciation and hummed softly, “If I say you play well, then you play well.”

Lan Zhan smiled and began to listen to the piece he had played many times but he had no mind to listen to who played better.

He looked out the floor-to-ceiling window.

It was already mid-December, many stores on the street had posted Christmas decorations on their windows in advance, and a huge Christmas tree was set up at the entrance of the opposite shopping mall, flashing red and green neon lights.

It was just one snowfall away from Christmas.