TMISIU-chapter 50

Lan Zhan glanced at Wei Ying  who was still asleep on the bed, and gently walked outside the bedroom and closed the door behind him before picking up the phone.

“Zhan, one of Wei Zhuliu’s colleagues told me that he saw Wei Zhuliu at Hope Hospital yesterday afternoon.” Wang Zixuan said over the phone.

Lan Zhan walked to the living room and asked: “Is he alone?”

Wang Zixuan said: “The employee only saw Wei Zhuliu, originally planned to ask Wei Zhuliu a few words, but Wei Zhuliu didn’t look very good so he left without saying anything.”

Lan Zhan thanked Wang Zixuan.

After hanging up the phone, he planned to call Wei Ying to get up, but Wei Ying had already come out of the bedroom, standing with his hair sticking up, looking blankly at him with a pair of swollen eyes.

Lan Zhan couldn’t hold back a laugh, walked over and raised his hand to rub Wei Ying’s hair, saying, “Go wash up, breakfast is ready.”

Wei Ying nodded dully and went to the bathroom.

When he saw the mirror, his face collapsed instantly. He leaned in front of the mirror and saw his double eyelids become swollen and wide. No wonder Lan Zhan laughed just now.

It’s over, how to meet him in the afternoon.

He washed up quickly, ate a sumptuous breakfast with Lan Zhan in the dining room, and used an ice pack on his eyes for half a day until Lan Zhan said they were no longer swollen, and then he and Lan Zhan spent time together on the sofa.

Wei Ying found the TV remote and planned to turn on the TV when he heard Lan Zhan ask him: “What time do you go to Grandpa Zhou’s place this afternoon?”

He put the remote control aside and said to Lan Zhan, “Usually it’s two o’clock, but today Grandpa Zhou is taking me to meet a senior painter, so I have to go there before one o’clock.”

Ever since Zhou Wanghan knew he wanted to apply to a school abroad, he had been looking for an opportunity to take him to meet some famous painters.

Lan Zhan said, “Then I will take you there this afternoon.”

Wei Ying agreed.

After hesitating, he still asked Lan Zhan: “Don’t you have to go home for the birthday party in the afternoon?”

“Not going.” Lan Zhan frowned, and then quickly loosened, giving a brief and concise answer.

Wei Ying pretended to make an “Oh” indifferently, but was a little happy in his heart.

He took a sip of water from the coffee table and covered the corners of his mouth.

“Let’s go to your grandparents’ house with me next Saturday.”

Wei Ying’s heart jumped, and the hand holding the cup paused, listening to Lan Zhan continue:

“This week, Grandpa Sanren will return to his hometown to worship his ancestors. He will probably not be back until the 30th. They will get together on the night of the 31st for the New Year.”

Lan Zhan’s tone was very calm.

This was his intention after thinking again and again, he did not want to delay this matter for too long, so as not to cause complications.

It just happened that his competition would end on Friday the 30th. He could also take advantage of this week to make some preparations.

Wei Ying lowered his eyes slightly, holding the cup with both hands and rubbing the wall of the cup unconsciously with his fingers.

Instead of answering quickly, he asked Lan Zhan, “Can you tell me about my grandparents?”

He had only seen the two old people from a distance through the ward door.

In that brief impression, the grandpa’s hair was mostly white, and a pair of silver-rimmed glasses hung around his neck. He looked serious.

The grandma wore a bun and dressed in an elegantly clothed a cheongsam with exquisite fabrics, looking intellectual and elegant and was full of artist temperament.

“Okay.” Lan Zhan began to give him a detailed introduction.

His grandfather, Baoshan Sanren, was a professor at the Academy of Life Sciences of Gusu University, and was also the dean before he retired, bringing up many outstanding students and being the leading scholar in the field of Life Sciences in China.

His grandmother, Hong Shu, was a famous ballet dancer who had won many awards in dance competitions when she was young, and she also had many students.

The two old people were considered to be full of peaches and plums.

Wei Ying listened in silence, suddenly feeling very close to his grandparents, yet very far away.

He kept his head down until Lan Zhan reached out and gently held his chin, making him lift his head. He pinched his cheek and said to him, “They will love you.”

Wei Ying rested his chin on Lan Zhan’s palm, lifted his eyes and asked, “Really?”

Lan Zhan said with certainty, “Of course, no one will dislike you.”

Wei Ying knew that Lan Zhan was reassuring him.

He took away the uneasiness on his face, rubbed his chin in the palm of Lan Zhan’s hand, smiled and said, “I am not RMB.”

He finally promised Lan Zhan that he would go to his grandparents’ house with him next Saturday.

This was something he had to face, and only he could face it alone.

Today, the snow finally stopped.

After lunch, Wei Ying followed Lan Zhan out the door and saw that the garden in the community was covered with silver.

Seeing that many children were making snowmen on the snow in the garden of the community, he had itchy hands and wanted to play, but there wasn’t enough time, so he had to withdraw his gaze and follow Lan Zhan to the outside.

Lan Zhan glanced at the child who was making a snowman and said to Wei Ying: “You can go skiing during the New Year’s holiday.”

Wei Ying’s face was half wrapped in a scarf, revealing a pair of bright eyes looking at Lan Zhan.

Just as he wanted to say “Okay”, the light in his eyes suddenly dimmed.

The thought of meeting grandparents on the 31st made his stomach cramp with nervousness.

Lan Zhan put Wei Ying’s hand into his pocket and said, “Don’t always think about it during this time, everything will pass naturally.”

Wei Ying let out a breath and gave an “en”.

The two rode a car to the entrance of the Zhou family house.

After getting off, Wei Ying couldn’t help but jump on the edge of the flower bed, stepping on the fluffy snow to make two deep footprints, and asked Lan Zhan, “Where are you going this afternoon?”

Lan Zhan reached out to hold Wei Ying’s arm and led him down from the edge of the flower bed, saying, “I’m going back to my uncle’s house, come pick you up when you’re done.”

Wei Ying nodded, stepped on the snow and walked into the Zhou family house, turning around and waving at Lan Zhan before entering the door.

Lan Zhan watched Wei Ying close the door before he turned around and stopped a cab, even Christmas songs were playing in the cab on Christmas Day.

The driver casually asked, “Where to?”

“Hope Hospital.”

“The road may be a bit congested today, plus it just snowed, I won’t drive too fast.”

“It’s okay.”

After Lan Zhan finished, he took out his phone with the intention of making a call to Wang Zixuan, but he received a call from Gu Yihan first.

There was a faint sound of people on the other side of the phone, signaling that the villa was bustling with activity. Gu Yihan seemed to be walking a little farther away and said after getting through.

“Zhan, aren’t you coming back this afternoon? The birthday party has already started. Many of your classmates and friends are here, A-Cheng’s grandparents also came over, they asked me why you are not here.”

Lan Zhan looked out the window, his gaze was calm: “I have something to do this afternoon, please say hello to Grandpa Sanren and Grandma Shu for me.”

The sound of a door closing came from the other end of the phone. Gu Yihan seemed to close a door,  and the noisy voices were immediately isolated. She hesitated for a while, and said softly:

“Zhan, although I know you’ll be upset if I say this, but today is after all A-Cheng’s birthday. From zero o’clock until now, you haven’t made a single phone call to him, not even a happy birthday. He asked me where you’ve been, I don’t know how to tell him.”

Lan Zhan held the phone in silence, his heart suddenly caged with a layer of deep sadness.

His mother felt it was unacceptable that he didn’t wish Jiang Cheng happy birthday.

What would she think if she knew that Cangse Sanren’s real child had lived very hard in a remote mountain village for so many years, and no one had ever said a happy birthday to him today?

At that moment he even wanted to question Gu Yihan, but he knew that this poor woman had actually never really gotten out of depression at all.

A life lived in obsession, only to transfer the obsession from a dead person, to another wrong person.

In the end, Lan Zhan just said, “The gift for Cheng is on the desk in my room, you can give it to him for me.”

“Here.” After the driver parked the car near Hope Hospital, he handed the printed QR code to Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan said “No”, then took out his wallet, took out the money from it and handed it to the driver.

The driver was surprised to receive the money and jokingly said, “Nowadays, young people are all paying by phone, there are almost no more people who give cash like you.”

Lan Zhan didn’t answer, but only said “thank you”.

He looked down at the photo in the transparent compartment of the wallet, closed the wallet before he opened the car’s door and walked out.

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Wei Ying followed Zhou Wanghan in his classic car.

Zhou Wanghan carried the parrot cage, teased the parrot for a while, and after finding nothing good coming out of the parrot’s mouth, he threw the cage to Wei Ying and asked, “Have you handed in the painting of the contest?”

Wei Ying took the cage in a hurry and was scolded by the parrot for being a “little brat”.

He quickly replied: “It was submitted a long time ago, and it seems that the works selected in the first round will be publicly displayed online soon.”

Zhou Wanghan turned on the radio and played an old tune, hummed along a few times and then said indifferently: “You’ll be fine in the first round, Old Li said so last time, he was a judge in the last session.”

Wei Ying finally calmed down the cursing parrot and jokingly said, “Thank you grandpa for taking me to see senior Li. If I win the prize, I will use the prize money to buy grandpa a parrot that can compliment people.”

Li Fanxuan was an old friend of Zhou Wanghan for many years, an old man with deep seniority in the Calligraphy and Painting Association.

He came to Zhou’s house as a guest one Sunday before, and Zhou Wanghan brought Wei Ying to meet with him.

Zhou Wanghan laughed and scolded: “This brat is not learned from me, but if that little girl is obedient, my parrot can also win the community civilization award.”

The car drove to a private courtyard on the outskirts of the city.

Zhou Wanghan took Wei Ying to meet with his old friend Li Fanxuan, who had met Wei Ying last time and had a good impression of the child.

He smiled and patted Wei Ying’s shoulder, saying, “My incompetent grandson is here today, named Li Yang, about the same age as you, go play with him.“

Wei Ying looked through the floor-to-ceiling glass outside the courtyard, a boy in a thick down jacket was cowering in the snow, building a snowman.

He answered “okay”, knowing that the two old men would be drinking tea and chatting in the tea room, so he consciously put on his shoes and went out.

Zhou Wanghan and Li Fanxuan sat down in the tea room. Li Fanxuan could be regarded as half a tea master.

This tea room was elegantly furnished and all the utensils were of great value. He brewed the tea slowly, poured a cup and handed it to Zhou Wanghan, saying:

“This student of yours is indeed very similar to your previous female student named Sanren, I was a bit surprised last time I saw it.”

Zhou Wanghan was not accustomed to the tea ceremony. He smothered the tea in one gulp, sighed in Li Fanxuan’s glare, and said:

“Unfortunately, my female student left early. I have also met her son. Professor Sanren once tried every means to send him to me to learn to draw. I asked the child to paint a few times casually, and it was obvious that the child didn’t inherit any of his mother’s talent and refused to accept it anyway.”

He had always been impartial. Many of his friends’ children wanted to learn art, so they would put their children in his care, but as long as he felt that they couldn’t do it, he wouldn’t accept it, so as not to ruin his reputation.

“That is quite a pity, the mother’s talent is not inherited.” Li Fanxuan no longer poured tea to Zhou Wanghan, and sipped the tea slowly by himself, “But there’s no telling about heredity, my grandson didn’t inherit anything from me. “

Zhou Wanghan was angry when he talked about grandchildren.

After scolding his granddaughter with an old friend, he suddenly remembered his business, and hurriedly said with some kindness: “You haven’t forgotten what I told you last time? Just the recommendation letter.”

Li Fanxuan hummed and laughed: “You really worry too much about the student. It’s certainly enough with your recommendation, and you still have to drag me.”

He said so, and put a letter that had been prepared a long time ago on the table.

Zhou Wanghan took the letter, read it from start to finish, and nodded in satisfaction.

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Wei Ying picked up a big snowball on the ground and put it on the snowman’s body.

Li Yang, who was on the side, quickly inserted the carrots that had already been prepared on the snowman’s head, then handed two grapes to Wei Ying and said with a smile, “You can do it for the eyes.”

Wei Ying shook his head with a cold expression: “You can get it yourself, I’m going inside.”

Because of Li Fanxuan’s face, he greeted this man named Li Yang friendly, and ended up being entangled here and piled up three snowmen in the afternoon.

He didn’t even have time to see Li’s gallery.

Wei Ying stepped on the snow and walked to the villa while asking where Lan Zhan was on his phone.

Lan Zhan quickly replied “almost there”.

He looked down at his phone, his face could not help but smile, but suddenly he was grabbed by a hand.

Li Yang approached him and said with a smile on his face: “Friend, add a WeChat.”

Wei Ying didn’t have any expressions: “I don’t have WeChat.”

He felt that this person was a bit strange, and always looked at him with an ambiguous gaze when stacking snowmen.

“…” Li Yang glanced at the WeChat interface on Wei Ying’s phone, thinking that the refusal was him just being polite.

At this time, the sound of footsteps on the snow approached, Wei Ying turned his head to look, and saw that it was Lan Zhan.

It was almost dusk, the sky was a bit gloomy.

In the snow-filled pine forest, Wei Ying felt the whole world brighten up, he broke away from Li Yang’s hand, stepped on the snow and ran quickly to Lan Zhan.

“You’re not almost there, you’re already here.” He smiled and said to Lan Zhan. If there weren’t outsiders around, he would have jumped over and pounced Lan Zhan into the snow.

Lan Zhan glanced at Li Yang, who was following him, and then at the three shapeless snowmen not far away, and asked Wei Ying, “Can go back?”

Wei Ying nodded and said, “I’ll just go and talk to Grandpa Zhou and Grandpa Li.”

“Lan Zhan?! Why are you here?” Li Yang looked at Lan Zhan in disbelief, then glanced at Wei Ying, “Do you know each other?”

Li Yang was in the same school as Lan Zhan in junior high school, so it was impossible not to know this famous genius.

Not to mention, the elders of the two also had contacts, but he and Lan Zhan were not acquainted.

Lan Zhan took off his scarf and handed it to Wei Ying, saying in a flat tone, “I’m here to pick him up and take him home.”

Li Yang’s mouth opened wide in shock and he didn’t react for a long time, but when he did, the two boys had already walked away side by side.

Wei Ying bid farewell to the two old people before following Lan Zhan back to their home by car, but on the way Lan Zhan had not said much.

When he asked a few questions, Lan Zhan would answer, but he was not very interested.

When they returned to the community, the sky was completely dark.

On the way through the garden, Wei Ying suddenly said to Lan Zhan, “Shall we build a snowman?”

Lan Zhan paused in his steps, then continued walking, saying indifferently, “There’s not much snow.”

It didn’t snow much during the day, so there really wasn’t much snow left in the garden, and in some places, it was trampled on so often that the snow was even a little dirty.

Wei Ying ignored Lan Zhan’s words and directly held Lan Zhan’s hand, pulling him to find a quieter corner where the snow was still clean.

He squatted down, picked up a pile of snow with both hands, compacted it into a small ball with his palm, and said to Lan Zhan, who also squatted down, “This is the head, I’ve already made it.”

Lan Zhan also picked up a pile of snow, made a bigger snowball, cupped his hands on the snow, and then looked at Wei Ying.

Wei Ying put the small snowball he made on the big snowball, picked up a few twigs and a few small stones, and put his eyes and hands in the snowman.

Lifting up the little snowman from the ground, he said to Lan Zhan:

“You can give it a name.”

Lan Zhan frowned as he looked at the snowman with crooked eyes and slanted lips: “It’s ugly, forget it.”

Although it was too ugly, the snowman was taken back by Lan Zhan and carefully placed in the freezer of the refrigerator.

Wei Ying saw Lan Zhan quietly open the refrigerator every day to observe whether the snowman had melted.

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