CH 85

If such a thing had happened to someone else’s family, it might have caused a lot of chaos and conflict, but Shen Fangyu’s parents only said a few words and couldn’t say anything else.

They didn’t know how to handle their son at all.

Although he was their biological son, they felt uneasy and lacked confidence when it came to dealing with him.

After hesitating for a while, Mother Shen tentatively suggested to Shen Fangyu, “I remember your sister-in-law saying that there is a nice girl in her workplace who might be a good match for you. Would you like us to introduce you?”

Shen Baihan knew that it was not the right time to discuss such matters, so he casually brushed it off, “That’s not necessary.”

However, Mother Shen persisted and urged Shen Fangyu, “Look at your brother and sister-in-law. They have a great relationship and are like fairy-tale lovers. Now they have two children, who wouldn’t envy them? You are a good catch, even if you don’t like anyone from your sister-in-law’s workplace, there are plenty of good girls in A City. Why do you want to live your life like this?”

“Fangyu, this concerns your life, you have to think it through,” Father Shen added, “although marriage is not everything in life, it will have a significant impact on your life experience.”

“I have thought it through,” Shen Fangyu said, “Your son has already set his sights on his future spouse. If you force me to marry a woman, then I’ll just have to go on social media and announce that I have a same-sex partner… I’ll save you the embarrassment and not say more. Besides, I doubt any girl would be foolish enough to marry me.”

“You…” Father Shen was extremely angry, but he couldn’t find the right words to say.

“What’s his name?” Mother Shen asked, pinching her fingers, “Is he in the same department as you?”

“I’m definitely not going to tell you now. If I do, won’t you go cause trouble for him?” Shen Fangyu said, “When you have thought it through and can accept it, then we can sit down and have a meal with my partner and discuss this again.”

He looked at Shen Baihan and continued, “You take care of your filial duties and let them enjoy their grandchildren. I’ll be the rebel. If you can’t accept me, then just pretend you don’t have a son like me. It doesn’t matter, it’s been like this before…”

“Shen Fangyu!” Shen Biahan exclaimed angrily, “What’s gotten into you today? Why are you acting like you’ve been shot? Can’t you speak normally?”

Father Shen was also stung by the words and he pointed at the door, saying firmly: “Get out of here!”

Shen Fangyu nodded seriously upon hearing the words, stood up from the sofa, but Mother Shen grabbed his hand.

“Why are you two arguing? Shut up!” Mother Shen’s eyes suddenly turned red. She held Shen Fangyu’s forearm and whispered to him, “Can’t you change it? Do you have to like a man?”

The adult son Shen Fangyu was very tall. Because he spent too little time with his mother when he was young, Mother Shen can hardly remember what Shen Fangyu looked like when he was shorter than his brother.

It seems that in her memory, he has always been tall. The little child who used to hug her and cry every time they reunited after a long separation was now a distant memory.

“Mom,” Shen Fangyu looked at his anxious mother and softened his voice, “It’s not about whether I can change it or not, it’s just not necessary to change.”

He turned back and looked at his father, who was stubborn as a mule, and his brother, who was hesitant to speak, and then said to his mother, “Mom, Dad told me to leave, so I’ll go first. Take care of yourself.”

“It’s so late, where are you going?” Mother Shen’s voice was clearly a little distressed.

Shen Fangyu glanced at the time on his phone and said, “I can still catch the last high-speed train.”

HH suddenly remembered something and said, “Oh, by the way, you mentioned that Uncle wanted to come to City A for medical treatment. I inquired about his medical records and a doctor from the liver and gallbladder department said he should be able to undergo surgery. Let him consider it and then contact me. I’ll take him to see the doctor.”

After speaking, he broke free from Mother Shen’s grasp and walked out of the house without saying a word.

The sound of the door closing was very light, without any venting or dissatisfaction, unlike when he was three or four years old and would throw a tantrum every time they went to City A.

The door remained closed for a long time, and the three people in the room remained silent.

Although Shen Baihan was the elder brother in their family, their relatives preferred to talk to this younger son.

Because Shen Fangyu had more contact with their relatives when he was young, and because he was a doctor and good at socializing, people started to rely on him for handling matters related to money and social relationships. When relatives needed medical advice or medication, he was the one who helped arrange everything.

As Shen Fangyu said, if he were still in high school, they could still have a say in what he does. But now that he had grown wings and flown far away, he didn’t need money from his family to buy a house or a car, so threatening him with money is useless.

Besides, as elderly parents, they couldn’t sacrifice their relationship with their son just because they were unhappy with his choice of spouse.

Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. Even if they have grandchildren, they are a generation apart. Only their son is the flesh that fell from their own bodies.

After a while, Mother Shen finally accused Father Shen with a crying tone: “He finally came back once, why did you say those words to drive him away?”

Father Shen was obviously regretful for his slip of tongue, but stubbornly refused to apologize.

Shen Baihan rubbed his forehead and said to the two of them, “Fangyu is already a doctoral student from a prestigious university. Since he has made his decision, just let him be.”

After speaking, he stood up and said to his parents, “I have to go back now. The two children are still waiting for me to tutor them.”

On the other side, Shen Fangyu, who had gotten off the high-speed train, stood in the train station for City A and received a call from his brother.

This time, Shen Baihan did not have a strong attitude. He just comforted him and asked him not to worry, saying that he would talk to his sister-in-law and parents about this matter later, and they would eventually accept it.

After his brother finished speaking, Shen Fangyu replied “thanks” without much feeling.

His brother continued, “Anyway, we are a family. I will always be your brother and will always help you.”

Shen Fangyu was silent for a while. He didn’t say anything, and hung up the phone directly.

There were not many people at the train station, and most of them were people sleeping on the ground to catch their train. It was unclear where they were rushing to in the morning, and they looked tired and pitiful.

Shen Fangyu came out of the train station, and the winter night wind blew on his face, cold as a knife.

He opened his phone and browsed randomly for a while. He wanted to call Jiang Xu, but when he saw the “goodnight” message that Jiang Xu had sent him two hours ago, he exited the call interface.

After a while, he rubbed his forehead, opened his friend circle, and casually flipped through it.

He forwarded a popular science post about the harm of staying up late and one second later, he received the first like from Tang Ke.

So Dr. Shen directly took a taxi and went all the way to Tang Ke’s home.

Tang Ke, who was wearing pajamas, was stunned when he opened the door. “What the hell, you don’t have to come find me in the middle of the night just because I cursed you a few times, right?”

“Huh?”

Shen Fangyu, who was wronged, was quite confused. “You cursed me? When?”

Tang Ke: “…”

Shen Fangyu, who realized something was wrong, quickly blocked Tang Ke’s hand that was about to close the door and squeezed in. “Why did you curse at me?”

Tang Ke had been feeling a little guilty after inadvertently blurting something out, but on seeing Shen Fangyu completely unaware of his mistake, he couldn’t help getting angry.

“Damn it, shouldn’t I curse at you? Don’t know that Jiang Xu is pregnant! Can you please pay attention and stop being so uncontrollable!”

This morning, he called Jiang Xu about a checkup, but accidentally pressed the video call button. To his surprise, Jiang Xu didn’t seem to notice and they just stared at each other for a while until Jiang Xu suddenly realized the mistake and hung up with his ears red.

Hmm… he wasn’t wearing a shirt and his shoulder and neck were covered in bruises in the video frame.

Tang Ke immediately wrote a passionate eight hundred word essay to curse Shen Fangyu, but Jiang Xu replied with a short, cold and guilt filled sentence.

This time, Shen Fangyu was speechless. “I…”

“What ‘I’? Don’t tell me that it’s okay during the second trimester,” Tang Ke accused with hands on hips. “The textbooks might say it’s okay, but we, moral citizens, know it’s not, okay?”

Shen Fangyu sincerely said, “It’s my fault.”

Tang Ke punched the sofa, and the rest of his words were stuck in his heart. Seeing that Shen Fangyu had apologized, he reluctantly let him in and politely poured him a cup of tea with almost no tea leaves. “You didn’t come here because I cursed at you, so why did you come?”

“I just came back from my hometown and originally told Jiang Xu that I wouldn’t be going back tonight,” Shen Fangyu warmed his hands with the tea cup. “He’s probably asleep now, and if I go home and wake him up, he’ll definitely think too much.”

“So you came to trouble me? You and your partner treat my place like a hotel, huh?” Tang Ke said angrily. “Do single people have no rights?”

“This isn’t the first time you’ve liked one of my posts,” Shen Fangyu raised his phone. “I knew that you wouldn’t be asleep for the next half hour.”

Tang Ke: “…”

Sooner or later, he would fix his bad habit of liking posts.

“Why don’t you go stay at a hotel?” Tang Ke asked. “You’re not so poor that you can’t afford one, are you?”

“My salary card is linked to my Jiang Xu’s mobile phone, and there’s a consumption notification,” Shen Fangyu explained. “I’m afraid he’ll misunderstand if I go out to stay at a hotel.”

Great.

Tang Ke thought, he shouldn’t have asked.

He was fed with dog food again.

“Let me crash on your couch for one night, and don’t worry about anything else,” Shen Fangyu said. “I’ll take you out to dinner another day.”

Maybe it was because of Jiang Xu, or maybe it was because of the weight of the big red envelope, but now the two of them had developed a revolutionary friendship. Tang Ke hummed twice and still worried, “Why did you come back so late after going to your hometown? You have to work tomorrow?”

“Don’t you want to go to bed?” Shen Fangyu asked him.

Tang Ke found a very reasonable excuse for his gossipy heart: “I wasn’t sleepy to begin with. Otherwise, who would like your posts? I just can’t stand your habit of staying at single people’s houses and showing off your love even when you have a home to go to.”

Shen Fangyu smiled and confessed to him, “I had an argument with my family, my dad got angry and kicked me out, so I left.”

Tang Ke’s expression changed as he listened to this sad news while eating popcorn. He remained quiet for a while and then comforted Shen Fangyu cautiously, “It’s normal for the older generation to not accept things like this. Don’t take it to heart.”

“I’m fine,” Shen Fangyu said. “I just didn’t want to worry Jiang Xu so I came to bother you.”

“It’s not a bother,” Tang Ke said. “I was just joking earlier,” he turned his face away, “and I didn’t say you couldn’t come.”

“Okay,” Shen Fangyu curved his mouth into a smile. “I know.”

“Speaking of which…” Tang Ke suggested, “Most parents with old-fashioned beliefs can’t accept this kind of thing. They think that being filial means having children, so why not try mentioning Jiang Xu’s situation to them in a tactful way. Mention that he is pregnant and maybe they’ll be more willing to agree and you’ll have less trouble and obstacles.”

Shen Fangyu shook his head. “I know you mean well, Tang Ke,” he rubbed the bottom of the disposable cup. “But I want them to accept Jiang Xu, not Jiang Xu with a child.”

His words were implicit, but Tang Ke understood his meaning.

He looked at the young man leaning against the sofa with one hand on his knee, looking calm and composed.

After a while, he suddenly said, “Shen Fangyu.”

“Hmm?”

“I think… I might know why Jiang Xu likes you.”