Xi Chen accompanied his grandfather going to his room even though he has some suspicions about the whole thing. When they entered his room he looked at his grandfather questioningly.
"Grandfather, you don't look sleepy at all. Just what is it that you're plotting?"
"Oh is it very obvious?"
"Grandfather it is very obvious indeed. Your acting is really bad so I know that those two found out immediately. Why did you deliberately left them alone, grandfather?"
He is very curious about his grandfather's reasons, he already know that he might do something like this but he didn't expect it to be with his brother-in-law, he thought it would be with his sister instead.
In this household, no one doesn't know the cold relationship between his father and sister. At first he thought that his grandfather's purpose was to let the two of them talk but it seems like its not.
Xi Shendong went to sit on the couch and motioned for his grandson to follow which the latter did.
"What I did was for your father."
"Father? Why? Are you planning to use Older Brother Sheng to reconcile father and Ana Jie?"
"No, it's not like that. I told you that it's for your father, right? Xi Ana and Shen Feng has a hard time reconciling because when it comes to personalities they are too alike. When the other does not speak, the other also won't."
Xi Chen could understand what his grandfather is trying to say.
Furthermore, ever since he was a kid he would always hear that he has his father's face but his mother's personality and his sister looks like their mother but has the same personality as their father.
"I often visit your father whenever I have time, that is also the reason why I always go out to visit some of our foreign branches and I can say that he has a lot of things bottled up inside and because he's alone, there is no one he could talk to."
It's true that his grandfather always go to their overseas branches but this is the first time he heard that it was also his way of visiting his father. Maybe it's even more often than the times he had visited.
"Your father felt that not saying anything about his problems is his way of protecting the people around him, he felt that saying it to others will just be a burden for them. Countless times I've tried to coerce him to speaking but it's no use."
Somehow, Xi Chen felt guilty for not being thing on those lines before. In his family, there are only four them it was only recently that it became five because of the addition of Lim Yi sheng in it.
Ever since he was young people would praise him for his good observation skill but when it comes to things about his family he was not able to observe carefully, maybe it was because whenever he's with them he is overflowing with different emotions that it ends up clouding his vision.
"I wanted your father to talk to Lim Yi Sheng because I felt that letting him speak to him would help him speak a little, he may not say a lot but saying only a few words is enough. I already treat him as my son ever since he married your mother and I don't want to see him suffering."
Xi Shendong looked at the picture of his wife and daughter on the frame on the side and his heart felt sour. "Your father may have a lot of things he lack and he may not have been by your side always like other fathers don't that his love for you. You should treat him to meal sometimes, Chen. That may not be a big deal but that is enough to make him happy."
He looked at his grandfather and saw him looking at his grandmother and mother's pictures and he can't help but feel sad on behalf of him. His grandfather's life is a proof that money isn't enough to make someone happy.
Even if someone has everything in this world but they don't have the person they love the most to share it with it would all become meaningless.
---
Shen Feng didn't plan to say anything but seeing his father-in-law trying his bet for someone like him, he just felt like he didn't want to waste the old man's sentiments.
"Ana used to be a daddy's girl, he would always follow me around. I would even go home during her bedtime because she would insist that she wanted me to be the last person she would see before she closed her eyes."
Those days were the happiest days of his life, he could go home to coax Xi Ana to sleep while his wife would stand smiling warmly after tucking their son to sleep who is tired from playing all day.
After their children have fallen asleep, Xi Wei would send her to the door so he could go back to his work which he left just to make Xi Ana sleep. He missed those days but he no matter what he has now, he would never be able to relive that day.
"If I could, I would like to go back to those days when everything is just the way they are. I don't know how many times I've wanted to come back all these years but still I was not able to. I'm an awful father, right?" Shen Feng turned to look at his son-in-law who's intently listening to whatever he is saying.
What he knew about this son-in-law of his would only be the generic facts that everyone knew, but whenever his father-in-law would visit he would only speak good things about him so he only developed good impression of this man.
"In my opinion, Father saying that you're awful is you being unfair to yourself."
"Why would you think so?" he filled his glass with wine again, he just realized that he'd already lost count of the times he had refilled his glass.
"Aren't you trying hard enough on your own? As for the things you have done and decided I believe Father has his own reasons for doing so."
This is something he never expected to hear from his son-in-law.
"You're that confident? What if I only did it because that's convenient and I just want to escape the responsibility of being the only one to raise to children who has yet to reach ten years old?"
"It's not that I'm confident it's just that I believe in Xi Ana. In this short while, I could say that you two are alike. Maybe I'm not entirely correct but it when it comes to saying what's on your mind I believe I'm right and just like her, you also do things after considering who it is for. If I agreed that you are an awful father on that basis won't that be the same as me agreeing that your reasons are not correct?"
He said those words with his all seriousness, no wonder he was able to melt some barrier on his daughter's heart. Unknowingly, his lips curved into a smile. Knowing the fact that a person like him is staying with his daughter, he felt at ease.
There is a reason why he left, why he decided to leave his two young children alone to fend for themselves. A lot of people thought hat he left because he was too sad at the death of his wife, yes he was too sad that he felt his heart had died at that moment.
But, that is not the reason why, because more than anyone else it was him who wanted to stay with his children the most because him they are the only source of strength he has left.
Seeing the person he loved the most, who he had promised to spend his lifetime with, who he had vowed to love forever lying on her own blood and was murdered ruthlessly it's a lie if he didn't feel like he waned to die with her at that moment.
Remembering that scene made his heart constrict, it's too painful that he didn't know what to do with the main anymore. No matter how much he tries to never relive that feeling again it just happens again and again.
Unable to stop himself from remembering the past, his tears started to flow continuously. He moved his covered his eyes with his hand in the hopes that it would stop but he knows it's not gonna work like that.
All these years will not be enough to erase the pain of losing the person you love, maybe until death he will never forget and he knew from that moment on that his heart will never be whole again because a part of it has already been with Xi Wei.