TMISIU- chapter 44

In the end, it was Lan Zhan who settled the bill.

After sending Wei Ying back to school, he returned to the villa and saw Gu Yihan sitting alone on the sofa in a disheveled manner, holding a string of red peace knots in her hand.

After sending Jiang Cheng back, Gu Yihan wanted to have a good talk with Jiang Cheng, but not only did she fail to do so, Jiang Cheng even quarreled with her, and finally untied the peace knot he had been wearing and locked himself in his room again.

Lan Zhan poured a cup of warm water, went to sit next to Gu Yihan and handed the water to her.

Gu Yihan said “thank you”, took the water glass, and only drank a sip before she said apologetically: “Zhan, you help me say sorry to Wei Ying, I wanted to invite you to sit together to eat and chat tonight, but…”

Lan Zhan said, “It’s okay, I was going to take him to eat something too.”

Gu Yihan thought of the slightly strange atmosphere between Lan Zhan and Wei Ying tonight but she didn’t say anything, just looking at the string of peace knots in her hand, with exhaustion between her eyebrows.

She confided to her son: “A-Cheng really isn’t quite right recently. His grandfather told him to go back to Sanren’s house and he didn’t go. He took time off from home for a few days and didn’t go to school and when he recently went to school, he kept locked in his room every day after he got home. I asked him but he didn’t tell me what happened. After coming back tonight, he lost his temper. I was afraid if there’s something wrong with his body.”

Lan Zhan also tried to communicate with Jiang Cheng some time ago, but Jiang Cheng kept his mouth shut.

After thinking about it, he said to Gu Yihan: “You can ask him to see a psychiatrist.”

Gu Yihan couldn’t figure out why Jiang Cheng would have psychological problems.

Thinking of the fact that Jiang Cheng seemed to be more irritated in the western restaurant tonight, she hesitated and asked Lan Zhan tentatively.

“Is there any conflict between A-Cheng and Wei Ying at school? I feel that A-Cheng doesn’t like him very much.”

Lan Zhan looked a little unhappy at her words and said in a deep voice: “Wei Ying and him have nothing to do with each other.”

Gu Yihan heard the implication of Lan Zhan’s defense of Wei Ying, sighed and said, “I’m just asking because last time I heard you guys quarrel, you seemed to have mentioned him, I didn’t mean to blame Wei Ying.”

She originally thought that when she held a birthday party for Jiang Cheng this year, she would invite Wei Ying to come and play.

After all, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying seemed to have a good relationship and she also liked this child, but now she thought it was not quite appropriate for Wei Ying to come over.

“Did Auntie Sanren make this peace knot?”

Gu Yihan was stunned and looked down at the already old peace knot, her tone had a bit of sadness.

“Yes, from what Uncle Sanren said, it was made by A’Se herself for A-Cheng when she was pregnant with A-Cheng in Yanping County. It means peace and happiness, but it is a pity that she failed to put it on A-Cheng by herself.”

When Gu Yihan finished, she saw Lan Zhan frowning, so she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lan Zhan shook his head and continued to ask, “Do you know where Auntie Sanren lived in Yanping County at that time?”

Gu Yihan looked at Lan Zhan in surprise and asked, “Why are you asking this question too?”

She knew that Lan Zhan never took the initiative to mention Cangse Sanren, and even was a bit evasive.

Lan Zhan seemed to be thinking and asked, “Did A-Cheng also ask?”

Gu Yihan nodded and recalled, “Last time after A-Cheng came back from school, he suddenly asked me this question, but I didn’t go to Yanping County at that time and didn’t know. I only knew that A’Se was living in a farmhouse at that time. Uncle Sanren refused to tell me where exactly it was.”

After she finished speaking, she looked at Lan Zhan, but saw Lan Zhan looking serious, and after a few seconds of silence, he asked her again:

“The oil painting of peach blossoms in the mountains hanging in the painting room, was it painted by Auntie Sanren when she was in Yanping County?”

Gu Yihan was stunned, and quickly realized which painting Lan Zhan was referring to. It was her favorite.

The peach blossoms on the banks of the clear stream in the mountain col were like brocade, and a farmhouse with black tiles and white walls was halfway up the mountain, with smoke curling. It was a kind of calm and serene paradise.

“Yes, she painted a lot of landscape paintings when she lived there. They were all brought back by Uncle Sanren later. I also have a few here.”

After being asked so much about Cangse Sanren by Lan Zhan, Gu Yihan naturally noticed that something was wrong, but he saw Lan Zhan’s brow was furrowed, his expression became heavier, and there were a few moments of panic between his brows.

Gu Yihan asked suspiciously: “Why do you suddenly ask about A’Se?”

“Just remembered something.” Lan Zhan stood up from the sofa, looked down at Gu Yihan, and asked.

“Can I go to your painting studio to take a look?”

Gu Yihan also stood up and nodded: “Of course you can.”

“Thank you.” Lan Zhan said to her, turning around and walking towards the stairway.

A wry smile appeared on Gu Yihan’s face.

It was clearly Lan Zhan’s home here, but Lan Zhan was always so polite. Looking at Lan Zhan’s back, she suddenly thought of something and said:

“Zhan, what you said to me last time, I thought about it for a long time, but I still can’t agree.”

Lan Zhan paused in his steps and turned to look at her, not saying a word.

Gu Yihan took a few steps closer, slightly tilted her head to look at her son, who had long been much taller than herself, and said in a persuasive and pleading tone.

“Zhan, have you ever thought that if you do this, A-Cheng will be very sad. He is in a bad mood now, we should spend more time with him.”

Lan Zhan looked at her in silence.

Gu Yihan thought for a moment and asked, “Did your grandfather say something to you?”

Lan Zhan said with a calm expression: “Grandpa did say many times before that he wanted me to move to the old house, but I never agreed and told him that I wanted to continue living here.”

Gu Yihan frowned. Lan Zhan was sent to her by Lan Xichen from his brother’s house only after he was five years old.

The old man of the Lan family initially opposed leaving his grandson with her, but she reluctantly persuaded him on the grounds that two children of the same age would grow up together and have a companion.

Lan Zhan looked at his mother, held the corner of his mouth and smiled, his voice was calm:

“You may not know that the reason why I stay in this home is never A-Cheng, but you.”

Gu Yihan’s gaze suddenly trembled, she opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but saw that Lan Zhan had already turned to leave.

---

Wei Ying returned to the empty dormitory on the weekend and sat on the easel to paint after showering.

He followed Zhou Wanghan’s advice to participate in an art competition called CAC, which had high influence and international influence.

If he could get an award, it would be very beneficial to his school application.

The deadline for submission was very close, and Wei Ying had almost finished the painting, but he stared at the painting and thought about it for a while, then suddenly took it off the easel and replaced it with a new blank drawing paper.

After painting the first draft for nearly half an hour, Wei Ying put down the brush, covered the easel with a white cloth before he went to wash his hands and then turned off the light.

He climbed onto the bed and got under the quilt, staring at the ceiling in a daze.

He knew he was on the edge.

He had already made the decision to tell the truth after Lan Zhan’s competition, but he couldn’t help but feel timid about the unknown afterwards.

Perhaps this was called being afraid of being close to home. There were seventeen years between him and his relatives.

Even if there was blood tie, he couldn’t believe that those relatives would accept him.

Even if he was accepted, how could he stand in this completely strange family?

Jiang Cheng would not be willing to return to his original family, and those who raised him for more than ten years would not easily abandon him.

In the end, he and Jiang Cheng might end up having to play the role of brothers under one roof.

This was the most likely ending, but could he fit into such a family?

Wei Ying took a deep breath, turned on the phone screen in the dark and clicked on the WeChat box with Lan Zhan.

He wanted to send a message to Lan Zhan, but found that the time had passed twelve.

Wei Ying finally locked the phone screen, covered and wrapped himself tightly with the quilt and closed his eyes to sleep in the dark.

He said to himself, if he couldn’t fit in, then just don’t fit in. Hadn’t he been here for more than ten years?

Even without relatives, he could still live well alone.

Besides, he still had Lan Zhan.

Wei Ying convinced himself, and finally settled down to sleep, but dreamed all night.

He dreamed that when he was ten years old, he was at his grandmother’s house.

Wei Yanli forgot to turn off the tap of the water pipe and flooded his grandmother’s cellar filled with sweet potatoes.

When Yu Ziyuan knew it, she chased and beat him with a bamboo cane without asking anything.

He was in so much pain that he cried out to his mother, not me, not me.

He ran to his grandma and begged her to testify for him, but grandma only held Wei Yanli silent.

He dreamed of that night in the hospital again.

He quietly hid outside the door of the ward and saw his grandparents sitting in front of the hospital bed, holding Jiang Cheng’s hand, heartily dropping tears and calling softly “good grandson” over and over again.

He wanted to run into the ward, but couldn’t get in, so he could only shout to them outside the door.

It’s me, look at me, look at me.

But grandparents could not see him or hear him.

Wei Ying woke up to find that the quilt had been kicked around by himself somehow.

His throat was sore and he didn’t seem to have much strength in his body.

He struggled in bed for a while, but got up before the bell rang, washing and dressing quickly, and then went out to practice English.

After a night of partying, many students in the class the next Monday were a bit depressed and a large number of students fell down after class.

Wei Ying was also very sleepy and had some headaches, but held on to stay awake.

After spending the whole morning and noon, Wei Ying felt his head hurt more.

He lowered his head to organize the notes of the previous class in the notebook, and suddenly felt a hand on his forehead, and he felt a little cold to the touch.

Wei Ying looked aside.

Lan Zhan retracted his hand and said to him with a frown, “You have a fever.”

Wei Ying stretched out his hand to touch his forehead, feeling that it was not burning, and then joked to Lan Zhan: “Maybe your hand is too cold. Why don’t I hold it for you?”

Lan Zhan, however, still looked serious.

He got up and walked to the podium, said something to Shen Xiao Hai who had just come in to prepare for class, and then walked over to Wei Ying, holding his wrist and pulling him up from his seat.

“?”

Wei Ying opened his eyes and looked at Lan Zhan. He didn’t want to skip math class.

“Go to the infirmary.” Lan Zhan’s tone was not to be disobeyed.

Wei Ying was dragged to the infirmary by Lan Zhan.

Recently, the cold wave had been violent. There were many sick people in the infirmary and the sound of sneezing and coughing was endless.

“Are you not covered with a quilt properly at night?” The female school doctor asked with no surprise.

She had treated Wei Ying’s wounds and she knew Lan Zhan well.

Wei Ying nodded listlessly while sitting on a stool with a thermometer in his hand.

“How old are you, still kicking the blanket.” The school nurse kindly joked.

Wei Ying’s face was a little embarrassed.

He looked at Lan Zhan, but heard Lan Zhan ask him seriously, “Didn’t turn on the air conditioning in the dormitory?”

He shook his head and said, “I don’t like to turn on the air conditioner, it’s too dry.”

In fact, he thought that turning on the air conditioner by himself was too expensive.

After a while, the school doctor looked at the thermometer and said to Lan Zhan, who was standing aside, “37.8 degrees. Okay, the fever is not too high, I’ll give him some medicine.”

“Does he need to take time off to go back and rest?” Lan Zhan lifted his hand to touch Wei Ying’s forehead and asked the school doctor.

“No need, no need!” Wei Ying hurriedly answered, he didn’t want to be absent from class.

The school doctor felt that the two boys had a good relationship, but Lan Zhan was a little too nervous.

She said with amusement: “Take time off to go home? That’s not necessary, take the medicine.Take a good rest and keep warm, you should be fine soon.”

Wei Ying raised his jaw towards Lan Zhan and agreed: “Right, I’m in good health, I’ve never taken medicine when I had a cold before, I’ll be fine soon.”

The children in his place were all raised rough and a little headache and fever were not taken seriously at home.

At most they went to the old Chinese medicine doctor in the village to buy some herbs to drink.

But he neglected to mention that when he was twelve years old, he had a fever and didn’t get better even after three days.

There was blood in his nose and he passed out in class and was taken to the county hospital by the teacher to get his life back.

The school doctor reprimanded Wei Ying: “This is not right. If you are sick, you still need to take medicine. Don’t underestimate the flu and fever. After a long time, it may become a serious illness.”

Wei Ying was stabbed by the facts, gave a guilty “en”, and quietly looked at Lan Zhan on the side, only to see Lan Zhan staring at him with an unclear look.

He lowered his head in surprise and continued to listen to Lan Zhan and the school doctor, without interrupting anymore.

Finally, Lan Zhan took the medicine from the school doctor.

Wei Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief and quickly stood up and said, “Go back to class, right.”

Lan Zhan did not say anything. He raised his hand to wrap his scarf, only letting him reveal half of his face, and then led him outside, silent all the way.

Wei Ying felt that there was something wrong with Lan Zhan, as if he was not angry, but there was a somewhat heavy emotion.

He didn’t know what was wrong with Lan Zhan. He entangled a few words and walked for a while, only to find that Lan Zhan was not walking in the direction of the classroom, but led him to the downstairs of the dormitory.

Wei Ying looked at Lan Zhan in a daze: “What are we doing in the dormitory?”

“You need a good sleep.” Lan Zhan said.

Wei Ying didn’t really want to, but he didn’t dare to refute Lan Zhan, so he took Lan Zhan upstairs and thought for a while with his dizzy head whether he had cleaned up the dormitory in the morning.

After opening the door of the dormitory, Wei Ying turned on the light and hurriedly moved the easel to the side.

He was going to pour water for Lan Zhan, but Lan Zhan took his arm and led him to the chair, pressing his shoulder to let him sit down.

“Sit here and don’t move.”

Wei Ying obediently sat still, only one pair of eyes followed Lan Zhan, not turning his head.

Lan Zhan glanced at the dormitory, which was very clean. He recognized Wei Ying’s bed at a glance, because there was a pink bear on the head of the bed, the one they grabbed from the claw machine together.

He suddenly thought, at the crab restaurant that night, why did he take Wei Ying to catch the doll?

Lan Zhan picked up the air conditioner remote control from the table, turned the air conditioner on and adjusted the temperature, then he picked up Wei Ying’s water cup and went to the water dispenser outside to get a cup of hot water.

After adding some boiled water, he found that Wei Ying was lying on the table, his eyes closed and he had already fallen asleep.

Lan Zhan gently pinched Wei Ying’s cheek and said in a warm voice, “Take the medicine before you sleep.”

Wei Ying struggled to open his eyes, lowered his eyelids, and hugged Lan Zhan’s waist, resting his forehead against his body to continue squinting sleep.

Lan Zhan rubbed the back of Wei Ying’s head with care, and looked around the dormitory, thinking that the dormitory was too small and the bed was too small.

Wei Ying leaned on Lan Zhan and fell asleep again, but finally was woken up by Lan Zhan.

He took the glass of water from Lan Zhan’s hand and drank it sip by sip, feeling that his dry throat was getting better.

Lan Zhan opened the medicine he had just bought, took out a few pills according to the instructions of the school doctor, and put them in Wei Ying’s palm.

Wei Ying’s face was bitter. He didn’t like taking medicine at all, but Lan Zhan was staring at him so he drank the medicine obediently.

Lan Zhan stared at Wei Ying after taking the medicine, closed the balcony door, and said to Wei Ying, “Go to bed and sleep.”

Wei Ying sat still, his white cheeks were stained with rosy red and his eyes were covered with a layer of mist. He raised his head and looked straight at Lan Zhan, as if he was burning silly.

Lan Zhan thought for a while and raised his hand to rub Wei Ying’s hair, whispering, “I’m not leaving.”

Only then did Wei Ying slowly get up from the chair, take off his outer jacket and shoes, climb onto the bed and wrap himself into a cocoon with the quilt.

But he did not immediately close his eyes and go to sleep. Instead he wriggled and moved to the edge of the bed, hooking his neck to look at Lan Zhan, a pair of dark eyes peeking out from the quilt.

Lan Zhan was a little helpless, knowing what Wei Ying was thinking, he swept his eyes over Wei Ying’s desk and asked, “Are there any books in the dormitory?”

Wei Ying said in a muffled voice: “They are in the drawer.”

Lan Zhan pulled open the drawer, took out a random book from it and lifted his hand to show it to Wei Ying, saying, “I’m reading here, you sleep at ease.”

Wei Ying let out an “en”, as if finally relieved. He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, then fell asleep after a while.

Lan Zhan did not read the book, but lowered his head and looked at the business card in the drawer that he had accidentally brought out.

He picked up the pale golden business card, which was obviously carefully preserved and still looked brand new, with only three words in the center: Jiang Fengmian.

Lan Zhan put the business card back in the drawer, then put the jacket that Wei Ying took off and put it on the quilt that covered Wei Ying.

He was tall and could see Wei Ying even by the side of the bed.

Wei Ying may be used to sleeping on his side. A reddish face faced him, breathing a little heavy, eyes closed, only the eyelashes occasionally trembling.

After Lan Zhan watched for a while, he placed the little pink bear on the head of the bed next to Wei Ying’s head.

He stretched out his hand and gently touched Wei Ying’s head, then touched the little bear’s head, letting it accompany Wei Ying to sleep on this small bed.