Volume 1 Chapter 6: Unrequited Filial Affection
He opened the door and walked in, the room was dark with only a lingering gloom, Shen Fang didn't turn on the light, he closed the door behind him and walked to the worn-out sofa with patches here and there, and collapsed onto it. Today's Huangzhou Evening News slipped from his hand and fell to the ground, the night wind blowing through the window rustled the newspaper, making a soft but annoying sound.
Something is crawling on the ceiling, suddenly left and right, suddenly forward and backward, just like Shen Fang's state of mind at this time, completely unable to find direction and goal. He even hopes that rebirth is just a hateful nightmare, after seeing the tragicomedy clearly, he will wake up as soon as he opens his eyes.
The two iron-blooded men I have always admired, for whom I once wove countless stories that could be sung and cried about. In the blink of an eye, they both became clowns, and it's hard not to feel some resentment no matter who it is.
After venting his frustrations in his heart, he regained his energy, straightened up and walked to the door, pulled the lamp cord, and under the soft yellow light, picked up the newspaper and spread it out on the wooden tea table.
Su Sanshan, this stock had been suspended from trading since 1998 due to four consecutive years of losses. At that time, the stock price was sluggish and falling, despite Qiu Qinghe buying a total of 360,000 shares in five installments. The loss still exceeded 15%, which is nearly 400,000 yuan. This amount of money is not small, but for Shen Fang, it's not difficult to make up for this hole. However, he always felt that there was something fishy about this, and he couldn't believe that his father and Yao Qili would be so foolish! To make a profit, the large trucks waiting outside the Donggang factory could easily bring in 170,000 to 180,000 yuan without taking such a big risk.
As for Qiu Qinghe's claim that he can gain more than 20% in half a year, even if it's just because of her stunning looks, Shen Fang is willing to generously believe it. The problem is where to find so much time; at most two months, the embezzlement case will spread like wildfire throughout the city.
The sound of the key opening the door came from outside, Shen Fang covered the newspaper and ran to open the door. As soon as the door opened, he saw his mother in her thirties who still looked young and beautiful. At this moment, there was no sign of hardship and fatigue on her face, only a hint of tension and reproach due to concern and overindulgence.
A slightly cool hand touched his forehead, and Shen Fang heard his mother let out a sigh of relief, laughing and saying: "It's been fine for a long time, this afternoon I even went out for a big stroll, just came back now, look, got a whole body of stinky sweat, hehe..."
"Hurry up and take a shower, change your clothes. You've been sweating and if you're not careful, you'll catch a cold easily. I've told you so many times but you never listen." Mom leaned in to sniff Shen's neck, exaggeratedly fanning her nose with her hand, and took off the synthetic leather shoulder bag, tossing it onto the shoe rack by the door. "You haven't eaten yet, have you? Let me scramble some eggs for you to eat with your leftover rice?"
Shen Fang had just thought of saying he'd eaten outside, but seeing his mother roll up her sleeves with a radiant expression made him feel especially warm and fuzzy. He patted his still slightly bloated belly, "I'm really starving, I was waiting for mom to come back and cook something for me."
"I knew you were lazy, don't expect Yu'er to spoil you like mom did in the future—" Mom had always treated Yao Yu as half a son, so when Dad and Yao Qi Li arranged for him to marry a doll when he was ten years old, Mom was really angry for a while. Later, after Yao Qi Li's embezzlement case came to light and she committed suicide, and Fu Ayi went to a mental hospital, Mom repeatedly applied to the court for custody of Yao Yu, even using the doll marriage as evidence, just to give Yao Yu a slightly better environment. However, things didn't go as planned, until a few weeks before Mom's death, when Yao Yu, who had long lost his freedom in Beijing, rushed back to Huangzhou without regard for anything else, wearing a wedding dress and holding a wedding ceremony with himself in front of Mom, finally fulfilling her wish.
"What's wrong with you, standing at the door? The screen door isn't even closed, and mosquitoes are getting in..." Dad Shen Yun took off his leather shoes and put on a pair of yellow slippers, only to see Shen Fang staring at a long crack at the bottom of the screen door that had been taped up with adhesive tape. He scolded, "You still have the nerve to smile? I really don't know who you inherited your laziness from. You go out and kick the door directly, even an iron screen door will be kicked broken by you."
Shen Fang smiled foolishly and scratched his head, pushing his dad to sit down on the sofa. "Dad, what were you and Grandpa talking about in the courtyard today? You guys were being so mysterious, even throwing cigarette butts all over the place."
"What's it to you what happens in the factory?" Shen Yun picked up the newspaper on the tea table and flipped through it, remembering something, and asked casually, "Yuer said she's going to the provincial city to participate in the Olympic competition the day after tomorrow, why haven't I heard you mention it?"
"Oh, it's not a big deal anyway, I was thinking of telling you guys tomorrow." Shen thought that even if he hadn't forgotten everything he learned before, it would be completely useless now. And as for the Olympics, being able to get into an ordinary university would be enough to thank the gods.
"Let your mom give you next month's pocket money in advance, we can't pretend to be rich when we're out, but we also can't be too stingy and let people look down on us." Shen Yun said absent-mindedly, her eyes scanning the newspaper for information about Su Sanshan's stocks.
Only thirty bucks for pocket money a month, I thought it was the 80s. Nowadays, which student doesn't have five or ten hundred in their pocket? Shen Fang muttered to himself for a while, not responding, and suddenly came out with a sentence after a long time, "Dad, do you know Qiu Qinghe?"
"Oh, it's the Five Golden Flowers of Er Ma Alley, right? I've heard others mention them..." Shen Yun said calmly.
"Five Golden Flowers? Is there another woman as beautiful as her in Erma Alley?"
"Everything else is just making up numbers." Shen Yun suddenly raised her head and stared at Shen Fang, "Why are you asking this out of the blue? Let me tell you, don't learn from your useless older brother, who brought girls home when he was 17 or 18 years old, not only did it affect his studies, but also gave me endless trouble!"
"What's wrong with Linzi? Are they not all your responsibility?" Mom brought out two bowls of steaming hot egg fried rice, glared at Shen Yun and scolded with a smile, "You think you were great when you were young, how many times did you climb over our courtyard wall in the middle of the night, and look at Erhei who guards the yard, originally skinny, since I knew you, he's almost been fed to become a Tibetan Mastiff."
"Haha——" Shen Fang looked at his dad's silly expression and burst out laughing, giving a thumbs up to his mom.
"Cough, cough, what's the point of dwelling on past things?" Shen Yun tapped the tea table and shouted at Shen Fang, "Eat, eat, you're always idle all day long, it's your mother who spoiled you."
The father and son picked up their bowls, walked into the courtyard together, squatted down, and wolfed down their food. Their mother stood at the door, munching on melon seeds, with a happy expression on her face as she watched them.
The moonlight pours down like water in this small space, the thick affection is like indissolvable honey on this ordinary and quiet night. A fierce storm is about to strike, back to this day's Shen Fang, start tightly grasping the pulse of fate, holding the right to change everything.
