Yan Shenyu: "..."
It's not wrong, but it's really outrageous.
Yan Sheng glanced at Yan Shenyu lying on the ground and hesitated, "Wouldn't this... be bad?"
"Never mind, you guys eat first," Yan Shenyu sighed and said quietly, "Remember to save half of the Lantern Shadow Beef for me, I'm counting on it today."
Twenty minutes later, Dr. Lou arrived at the scene with his assistant. Xu Jingshu was applying ice wrapped in a cloth to Yan Shenyu to reduce pain and subcutaneous bleeding.
Seeing the doctor approach, Xu Jingshu put down the ice and stood up: "Dr. Lou, thank you for coming tonight."
"You're welcome, it's my pleasure." Dr. Lou rolled up his sleeves and squatted down, carefully inquiring about the cause of the injury and examining the extent of Yan Shenyu's injuries.
"How are you? Is it serious?" The others gathered around. "Should we take you to the hospital?"
“The pain isn’t too severe, so there’s no need to go to the hospital right now,” Dr. Lou replied. “I’ll give him a massage and acupuncture first, and then we’ll see how things go after tonight.”
Since there was no massage bed at home, they laid out two yoga mats on the floor for the treatment, and the whole room was filled with Yan Shenyu's screams.
The treatment was finally completed, but Yan Shenyu was almost half dead.
"You need to rest in bed for the next few days, try not to exercise, sleep on a hard bed, and try not to sleep on a mattress," Dr. Lou instructed. "I will prescribe a few more doses of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs for you, and you will also have 3 courses of massage treatment. You should be fine in 3-7 days."
"Waaah, I know..." Yan Shenyu lay on the yoga mat, nodding with tears in her eyes.
Dr. Lou handed the prescription to his assistant and put his pen back in his breast pocket: "These are the precautions for now. Call me if you have any questions."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work, doctor, take care." Xu Jingshu escorted the doctor all the way to the door.
Seeing that Yan Shenyu was unharmed, the rest of the group turned to leave.
Aunt Chen was setting up a hardboard bed for Yan Shenyu, while Xu Jingshu was preparing dinner for Yan Shenyu in the dining room.
Yan Sheng glanced at Yan Shenyu lying on the yoga mat, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end he silently slung his backpack over his shoulder and turned to go upstairs.
No one noticed his departure except Yan Shenyu.
"Wait! There's another gift!" The elevator doors opened, but Yan Shenyu suddenly shouted, "Yan Sheng, don't go! I'll die with regrets if I don't see you unwrap this gift!"
A gift? Yan Sheng was stunned for a moment, then looked at Yan Shenyu with some confusion.
"Oh right, I forgot to prepare a birthday present for you." Yan Zhengang walked over again, followed by Yan Yu and Yan Weiwei, the siblings.
Xu Jingshu also put down her chopsticks and came over: "Sorry, because of Yan Shenyu's commotion, I forgot that you are the main character tonight."
Yan Shen retorted in a strong voice, "If you hadn't been pressing me down, how could I have fallen?"
No one paid him any attention. The family of four went around to the storage room behind the living room and pushed out a trolley. It was filled with exquisite gift boxes of different sizes, like a small mountain piled up, with an estimated 100 boxes.
Yan Sheng stood there, a deep sense of bewilderment in her eyes.
He knew they were gifts, but why were there so many?
“This is a gift we couldn’t give before,” Yan Shenyu’s voice came from behind, without the previous teasing. “The past cannot be changed, but we want to make up for it as much as possible. We are glad that you can give us this opportunity.”
Yan Sheng stared blankly at the scene. He took a deep breath and pursed his pale lips tightly.
"Yan Shenyu's rules are so strict," Yan Weiwei complained, "and you have to give yourself a birthday gift that matches your age."
“These are your gifts from age 3 to 24,” Xu Jingshu said, standing next to a pile of gift boxes. “As for your birthdays from age 1 to 2, I didn’t know you then, so I didn’t give you any gifts.”
“I was born when you were 7 years old,” Yan Weiwei’s voice followed, “so the gifts I’ve been giving you started when you were 7.”
Yan Yu: "You know my style. I also gave you gold when you were 2 years old."
"I'm sorry," Yan Zhengang had so much to say, but in the end it all turned into a deep sigh. He raised his hand and patted Yan Sheng's shoulder, saying, "I've wronged you all these years."
A pair of kind eyes looked over, but Yan Sheng seemed to see some kind of monstrous beast and abruptly took a step back. However, he quickly realized that his reaction was abnormal, so he clenched his fists and forced himself to stay in place.
"Thank you," he forced himself to look up and said in a grateful tone, "Thank you so much for the gifts, thank you all!"
"If you like it, that's fine, I..." Yan Zhengang took a step forward, wanting to say something, but Yan Sheng left without waiting for his reaction, leaving Yan Zhengang and the others looking at each other in bewilderment.
What kind of reaction is that?
"We should have succeeded, right?"
"I think so?"
"But why doesn't he seem happy at all?"
Yan Zhengang was still a little worried: "I'll go out and take a look."
“Don’t go,” Yan Shenyu said from the ground. “He’s a grown man, he won’t get lost. Let him stay by himself for a while.”
Yan Zhengang hesitated, but ultimately did not follow.
Behind the monitor, Jiang Xulin reminded the cameraman, "Don't lose him. His current reaction is the key."
Cameraman: "But he had already run out."
Jiang Xulin then asked, "Where are the people filming?"
A moment later, the cameraman's apologetic voice came through the earpiece: "It was too dark in the garden at night, I lost him."
Jiang Xulin: "..."
Twenty minutes passed before Yan Sheng reappeared on camera. The fixed camera couldn't capture a close-up, so it wasn't possible to see anything unusual about him. If the person filming had caught up, they would have noticed that Yan Sheng's eyes were red, and he seemed about to cry.
At this time, the rest of the Yan family had returned to their rooms, and Yan Shenyu also returned to his room, where he changed to a hard bed and lay down.
Yan Sheng tiptoed into the living room and took the trolley to his room via the elevator. He quietly looked at the mountain of gifts for a long time, then sat down and began to unpack them.
The gifts range from age 2 to 24, and each gift box has a detailed handwritten card on the cover.
"A gift for my 3-year-old son" (Yan Zhengang)
"A gift for 4-year-old Sheng Sheng" (by Hsu Ching-shu)
"A gift for my 5-year-old brother" (Yan Yu)
"A gift for my 6-year-old second brother" (Yan Shenyu)
"A gift for my 7-year-old brother" (Yan Weiwei)
...
Comforting dolls, fairy tale picture books, Lego toys, gold bars (Yan Yu gave all gold bars), sneakers, company shares...
What he once thought he would never have been missing has now come to him in a different way.
Yan Sheng spent a whole hour unwrapping the gifts, then he neatly arranged them against the wall, turned off the lights, and went to sleep.
"Is it over?" Behind the monitor, Shan Li stretched and stood up, preparing to switch to another computer to edit the video.
“Wait,” Jiang Xulin shook his head and said, “Not yet.”
"No?" Shan Li glanced at the screen curiously.
In the scene, Yan Sheng lies quietly on the bed, the blanket covering her head and completely obscuring her body. Moonlight pours down, outlining only a blurry figure.
"Wasn't he asleep?" Shan Li asked blankly.
"Shh..." Jiang Xulin put his index finger to his lips.
Immediately afterwards, a rapid breathing sound suddenly came through the earphones.
—Low-pitched, suppressed sobs, not like someone who was tired from running, but more like someone trying to hold back tears.
Dan Li turned his gaze to the screen and noticed that Yan Sheng on the bed had arched his back at some point, adopting the posture of an infant lying in its mother's womb. The summer air-conditioning blanket was very thin, and he could see Yan Sheng reaching out to grab the sheet beneath him, his shoulders heaving violently.
"This..." The staff members around him exchanged bewildered glances. "Is he crying?"
Jiang Xulin nodded, his voice a little hoarse: "I didn't expect him to be able to endure it for so long."
At first, it was just sobbing, but gradually, the crying grew louder and louder, and finally it turned into a wail.
No one could see his face, but just hearing his suppressed sobs, many people's eyes began to well up with tears.
They originally thought the climax of the story would be when Yan Sheng, feeling down, returned home to find his family celebrating his birthday and preparing birthday gifts, and he was so moved that he hugged everyone and cried.
Ignoring Yan Shenyu lying on the ground with a twisted waist, this is a typical family-friendly script.
But Yan Sheng was different. He remained calm throughout, even when unwrapping the gifts, as if he were indifferent to them.
Only after he returned to his room and hid himself in the darkness did he dare to reveal some of his true emotions.
He only dared to cry in bed.
Yan Sheng was crying her heart out, while Yan Shenyu, just a wall away, was lying on the bed, groaning incessantly, like a comedian.
Seeing the starkly different reactions in the two rooms, Jiang Xulin slapped his thigh and exclaimed excitedly, "This episode is a sure thing!"
...
Yan Sheng had a dream.
He dreamed of the summer when he was in first grade.
At that time, the richest classmate was having a birthday party and invited all the classmates to attend. Yan Sheng was naturally among those invited.
He didn't have money to buy him a gift, so he spent a week making a handmade collage to give to the birthday boy.
Among a host of expensive and exquisite gifts, his collages looked so shabby.
But it's okay, it took me a week to finish, and all the designs inside are my favorites, so it'll definitely be fine. Xiao Yansheng took a deep breath and silently comforted herself. The teacher said that it's the thought that counts in a gift, not its price.
With that thought in mind, he mustered his courage and handed over the gift, saying in a clear voice, "Happy birthday, Zhou!"
On the noisy lawn of the villa, Zhou took the collage from his friend with one hand. The birthday boy had just drunk cola, and his hands were still wet, instantly wetting a corner of the collage.
Xiao Yansheng opened her mouth, wanting him not to take it with wet hands. But remembering that the other person was the recipient of the gift, she nervously closed her mouth.
Then Zhou glanced down at it, casually handed the collage back to him, and chuckled lightly, "Sorry, I don't want it."
Xiao Yansheng froze for a moment, almost forgetting to think for a second.
All the students around him looked over, their eyes filled with curiosity.
After a long while, Xiao Yansheng finally heard her own stammering voice: "This, this is something I made myself. It's not worth much, but I... I..."
He explained awkwardly and embarrassedly, his eyes almost red with anxiety.
However, the classmate still shook his head, saying disdainfully, "I don't want it."
“But…” Xiao Yansheng’s nose suddenly stung with tears. He tried to open his eyes wide to keep them from falling.
But this is a gift I made for you. If you don't want it, then it has no value whatsoever.