CH 131

This simple sentence alone was enough for Gu Yan to know who this husband and wife pair was.

The vague idea that had emerged in his head earlier also fell into place. 

Before this, he’d actually imagined how he would meet Yan Suizhi’s parents…

They should have travelled by space shuttle to Helan. It might have been a calm, uneventful morning or afternoon; maybe the sunshine would be bright and beautiful, or maybe the drizzle would drum down unrelentingly. They would walk through the verdant holly trees and golden pines of the cemetery, stopping in front of a double headstone. He would lay down a bouquet of white flowers that he had prepared, and under Yan Suizhi’s introduction, greet the family elders resting in the grave. Maybe he’d thank them, maybe he’d make a promise. But it wouldn’t take up too much time, for Yan Suizhi would likely have many things he wanted to tell his parents, and he’d stay by his side through it all.

He didn’t expect that his first meeting with Yan Suizhi’s parents would be in such a manner.

They stood in front of him and Yan Suizhi—the smile in the lady’s eyes was mirrored in Yan Suizhi, and in the gentleman’s every action was the same subtle grace. 

This fleeting impression was enough for him to tell that they should have been kind people, as warm and interesting as he had expected.

It was just that they were much younger than he imagined them to be.

However, once this thought appeared, Gu Yan then suddenly realised again that this close proximity was only seemingly so, and that this single step was a chasm of many, many years.

But before, this married couple should have been in their prime.

If they really stood here in the present, gazing upon Yan Suizhi like this, would they be pleased with how that indolent fifteen-year-old youth had matured into an adult? Would their hearts go out for the twenty-eight long years that he had walked alone? Or perhaps they would wonder why his appearance had changed, why the small mole at the corner of his eye that he’d inherited from his mother had disappeared, why he was wearing someone else’s name, and what trouble he had run into…

Gu Yan unconsciously looked towards Yan Suizhi. He was still reclining back in his seat, his hands clasping the glass cup, set on his knee. He didn’t lean forward. He didn’t stand up. Even the trace of surprise just now had vanished, and he looked abnormally calm.

Having lived on his own for so long and with the many happenings of this year, when he saw his parents, he ought to have a lot that he wanted to say. But this wasn’t in front of a grave, and so he didn’t speak; he simply watched them quietly.

Then… to the couple’s radiant smiles, he gently blinked, and he smiled at them as well. 

There was no unhappiness, nor any hurt.

At least, during the moment that he met their eyes, such emotions had no place in his gaze.

It was just as if… he was simply leaning against Gu Yan, sitting in the garden of his childhood home, basking in the sun as he had before on countless vacation afternoons, on those many years ago. Then, unwittingly lifting his gaze, he found his parents standing before the French windows, looking over at him. He squinted against the glare of the sunlight, returning a faint smile.

Relaxed, without sharp edges. 

Joe sat stiffly on the sofa with his hands on his knees, seemingly still stuck at a certain moment in time, yet to recover.

It wasn’t until the screen turned black again as the video ran to its end, dousing the living room in sudden darkness, that he was jerked back to the present.

“P…” C kbgv qbqqfv bea bo Abf’r bqfc wbeat. Lf rtbbx tlr tfjv jcv mbggfmafv tlwrfio, rjslcu, “Rb, tjcu bc. Gfjc Tjc, ktja vlv sbe wfjc ktfc sbe rjlv sbe kjcafv ab ifa Xe Tjc ibbx ja atfw? Cgf atfs sbeg…” 

Lf agjlifv boo revvfcis ja atf ijra ofk kbgvr, cba delaf vjglcu ab nblmf atfw.

Yan Suizhi still seemed slightly distracted, only turning his gaze to Joe after a beat.

Young Master Joe sat super straight, balking for some unknown reason. “About that… it’s fine if it isn’t convenient to tell me.”

Yan Suizhi smiled, amused by Joe’s tone, or perhaps he hadn’t yet tucked away the smile he directed at the husband and wife just now. He turned the glass in his hand, asking Joe, “Were any of those things you said earlier false?” 

Actually, Joe didn’t understand his reason for asking this, but in distinct likeness of having his name called in the law elective he took, he raised two fingers, swearing solemnly, “No. All of it is the truth.”

“Did you hide or hold anything back?” Yan Suizhi asked again.

Young Master Joe continued holding up his fingers. “I said whatever came to mind and didn’t intentionally hide anything. If you guys don’t mind me rambling, I can keep going for a whole day and night more.”

“Would you tell what you hear to people who shouldn’t?” 

“Most definitely not. My lips are extremely tight.”

Yan Suizhi’s expression didn’t change. He nodded. “I can see that.”

Joe probed, asking, “So?”

Yan Suizhi said, “So, they are my parents.” 

Joe opened his mouth and went “ah.”

In truth, this guess had sprung up in his head just now, but when it was actually said by Yan Suizhi, he was still… shocked.

“No… that’s weird…” Joe’s brain worked overtime to recall the faces of that couple, going through the details of their features again in his head, then fixing his gaze on Yan Suizhi’s face, studying the details of his features in turn…

There was not a single feature of real resemblance that could be found. 

“But you don’t look like them!” Joe said.

After saying that, he snapped back to his senses at the look of sheer stupidity that Gu Yan threw at him, smacking himself on his head. “Oh—right. The dean is wearing his intern face now. Look at my stupid pea brain. It’s just that suddenly finding out about this made me a bit unable to react.”

He rubbed his head and then froze up again. “Still weird… But they have the surname Lin, so how can they be your parents, Dean Yan?”

Probably truly shaken by this abrupt development, he couldn’t quite find how to put it. After that, feeling that his wording was a bit jarring, he corrected, “What I mean is, your family name is Yan, but I was under the impression that Old Fox called him Mr Lin. Did I remember it wrongly?” 

Joe’s brain churned again. Not only was the gentleman not surnamed Yan, but his wife also wasn’t surnamed Yan.

“You didn’t,” said Yan Suizhi.

His expression when speaking of this turned very tender, tinted with slight helplessness. He didn’t plan to elaborate at first, but when he turned his head and saw Gu Yan, he couldn’t help but add, “My father is surnamed Lin and my mother is surnamed Lu. The initials are the same, so they liked to use the letter L when signing outside, which could stand for either one of them. Maybe it’s that like attracts like; both sides weren’t particular about things like passing on the family name or inheritance. As such, they had no qualms giving my surname to whoever wanted it. In other words, they never decided what my surname would be. My mother had a more…”

He smiled, considering his diction, “Vivacious personality, I guess, the type that likes to rebel against convention. Later, she came up with an idea that I would take the surname of whoever’s hand I held first after I was born.” 

“Quite absurd, isn’t it?” Yan Suizhi said.

Gu Yan shook his head. Truth be told, considering Yan Suizhi’s personality now, his family thinking of such a stunt… didn’t really come as much of a surprise.

Even though the discussion of Yan Suizhi’s surname happened before he was born, he didn’t miss these details as the elders in his family had a habit of keeping family albums. By chance, this was recorded as well.

Yan Suizhi had watched the video more than once. 

The video was shot on a winter evening a year before his birth, not at his childhood home but Yan Suizhi’s grandparents’ place, on a beautiful island on Eastern Helan.

Yan Suizhi remembered that the video began with his mother sitting on a clean and plush carpet in the living room, watching a movie with a cat in her arms. She used her husband’s legs as a backrest, her long curls draped down loosely, looking relaxed and at home.

Yan Suizhi’s father patted the crown of her head, filing a half-serious complaint, “Miss Lu, my legs have gone numb.” 

She swatted her hand backwards, smiling, then as if something had suddenly occurred to her, she turned to perch her head on his knees and asked, “I can’t stop myself from considering something lately.”

“What is it?”

“We’ve talked about it before, what we should name our child when we have one,”  Miss Lu stroked the cat, saying earnestly, “I think I’m going to be pregnant soon.”

Mr Lin’s expression turned blank for a split second. “What do you mean by ‘you think’?” 

“Intuition.”

His expression tickled Miss Lu, who bent over laughing against his knees for a long time before catching her breath. She raised her head to say, “I just had a great idea. Whether they’re a boy or a girl, when the baby is born, they can just take the surname of whoever they cry at.”

Mr Lin, “Then we might have to pick an obstetrician with a nice surname first.”

Miss Lu, “…” 

At the sight of his wife’s expression, Mr Lin chuckled as well.

“Then how about, after we get home… he’ll take the surname of the first hand he grabs?”

“That’s feasible,” Mr Lin praised, “it’s quite a good idea.”

At this, Miss Lu was unable to stay seated. With the cat in her arms, she shuffled off in her indoor slippers to share the idea with her father, who was warming milk in the kitchen, and got praised again. Then, she went to tell her mother, who was recuperating from illness upstairs. 

Not long after that, this idea also received her father-in-law’s approval.

And so, when Yan Suizhi was born, it wasn’t just his parents; his grandparents wanted in on the fun as well.

Around the crib was his mother, playing with him, getting him to laugh; his father, taking a video of him; his maternal grandmother, sitting in a wheelchair for health reasons; his maternal grandfather, pushing the wheelchair; as well as his paternal grandfather, who was feigning calm but unable to restrain his chuckles.

“So whose hand did you grab?” Gu Yan said. 

“My grandmother, on my mother’s side.” Yan Suizhi smiled. “She didn’t actually reach her hand in front of me at that time. She was only helping me tuck in my blanket, so even she was stunned when it happened.”

His maternal grandmother was impacted by warfare during the late term of her pregnancy. She suffered torment far beyond what anyone could imagine before successfully giving birth. However, the effects of war didn’t completely disappear. This resulted in a problem with both Yan Suizhi’s mother’s and his genes, which she continued to feel deeply remorseful for even many years after.

Yan Suizhi’s parents always hoped that she would find release, that she wouldn’t be weighed down by this.

After all, without his grandmother’s tenacity, Yan Suizhi’s mother wouldn’t have existed. And naturally, without Yan Suizhi’s father meeting his beloved wife, Yan Suizhi wouldn’t have come to be. 

“The year after I was born, my maternal grandmother, the only one who objected, passed on. The remaining family elders unanimously decided that I would take her surname.” Yan Suizhi paused, before adding, “Moreover, my parents didn’t want to restrict my life too much. At least, before I came of age, they wanted to give me the freedom to decide what I wanted to do and what life I wanted to lead, uninhibited by the influence of their work, their business partners, or otherwise; to decide my own road purely based on my own interests. Having different surnames from them, in a sense, incidentally allowed them to achieve this.”

Joe felt emotional listening to this story.

In their social sphere at least, Yan Suizhi’s parents did bring their words to fruition. They had protected their child so well that Joe remained oblivious to the fact that the mysterious person they were curious about all those years ago was actually Yan Suizhi.

He envied it, truly. He envied the warmth of this family. 

But it was also because he had witnessed such warmth that he would, amidst the deceit and politics of high society, strive to stay true to his heart.