"Go home early." Su Jinning reminded him again, worried he might get cold, and then angrily pointed upstairs and said, "And one more thing! You absolutely mustn't sleep with him!"
Su Jinning's eyes were practically overflowing with jealousy. She never imagined in her life that she could be completely manipulated by a fifteen-year-old boy, and even dare to sleep in the same bed with her boyfriend?
Putting aside the urge to strangle him, how could he let someone else beat him to his wife, whom he hadn't even slept with yet?
Shen Moyu couldn't help but laugh, raising her hand to pat his head as if comforting a large dog: "Okay. Come to my house tomorrow to do your homework; there's still some left to finish."
It would have been better if homework hadn't been mentioned, because the moment it was brought up, Su Jinning's blood pressure, which had just calmed down, spiked again.
His reluctance was written all over his face. Shen Moyu chuckled and winked at him, "If you finish cooking obediently, I'll take you to eat fish balls."
"good!"
——
When I came back downstairs, Xia Wei was already asleep. The living room light was still on, and I could hear water running in the bathroom; Shen Xingqi was probably taking a shower.
Shen Moyu was exhausted after a long day, and he was also overwhelmed with work. He turned around and collapsed onto the bed.
"Brother, why are you dressed so lightly?" Zhou Xingqi asked with a frown as he emerged from the bathroom. A damp scent of shower gel wafted over with his footsteps. He was only wearing a towel around his waist. Although his physique was still somewhat immature and slender, the outline of his abs was already faintly visible—a true bathroom heartthrob. Even Shen Moyu sometimes thought, "This kid is already so handsome at fifteen or sixteen; how many girls will he charm in the future?"
Shen Moyu rolled her eyes at him, grabbed a nightgown, and tossed it at him: "Put this on, you're embarrassing yourself."
Although it looks good, it's not right for someone so young to act like a hooligan.
"Tch." Zhou Xingqi picked up the clothes with a defiant look. "You talk like you never saw this when I lived at your house before."
His words, though vague and unambiguous, were indeed reasonable, but Shen Moyu found them awkward and felt a sense of...guilt.
It seemed like Su Jinning might pop up at any moment to question him about what was going on.
Shen Moyu rolled his eyes at himself, then turned around and said casually, "Make the bed and go to sleep, it's getting late." He then stood up.
"Oh right, bro." Zhou Xingqi seemed to remember something and called out to him while putting on his clothes, "Did you receive the money Uncle wired?"
Shen Moyu paused, a strange feeling welling up inside him, a sense of unease he couldn't quite describe. He swallowed hard. "Yeah, I received it."
My father's face flashed through my mind, along with the message on the remittance note: Take care of yourself, Dad loves you.
How ironic.
After ten years apart, the word "love" is spoken so easily.
Zhou Xingqi hesitated for a moment, afraid of touching his sore spot: "Uncle... let me ask you, when are you planning to meet him?"
His question struck a chord with him. He suddenly recalled the messages his father left for him every time he sent money, almost all of which said he wanted to see him, waiting for him to have time and when he was willing.
But is it necessary?
For the father, their relationship was nothing more than a responsibility to pay child support every year.
"There's no need." Shen Moyu only said these three words, then took a slight breath: "Tell him to take care of himself. I'm fine."
He didn't want to say another word, just as he didn't want to remember his own father at all.
"Brother!" Zhou Xingqi grabbed his wrist: "Do you hate him that much?"
His question was very serious. Shen Moyu paused, then closed her eyes tightly: "Hate."
No one had ever asked him that question, and he didn't seem to have a clear answer, but the word that came to his lips naturally was "hate."
"I'm not a magnanimous person," Shen Moyu said, pulling her hand away, her clear eyes now filled with darkness. "He abandoned my mother and me to go find another woman, and even lied to us for seven years." Shen Moyu's voice was broken, the fragmented pieces of her heart piecing together the most painful memory: "That's why I hate him."
"But he never thought of giving up on you! He would even ask me to come see you when I returned to China; he cares about you!"
Zhou Xingqi seemed to be overreacting, and his words sounded like he was defending himself, which left Shen Moyu stunned for a long time.
"There are some things you don't understand, and you don't need to understand." Shen Moyu rarely spoke to him in an adult tone, because in his memory Zhou Xingqi had always been more mature than his peers, but this time was different; he had touched his soft spot.
Shen Moyu turned to face the stark white wall: "If I truly held any importance in his heart, he wouldn't have only asked you to come back and see me all these years."
Zhou Xingqi's fingers trembled slightly, and his bright, sparkling eyes, hidden by his long eyelashes, dimmed for a moment.
"Sorry, bro."
Although it was meant to be an apology for something that touched a nerve, Shen Moyu sensed a sense of helplessness.
"Never mind, it's nothing serious." Shen Moyu shrugged slightly, as if ending a story that wasn't really his. Turning around, Shen Moyu gently patted his head: "You don't need to come back to see me all the time. Although your father and my dad are friends, it doesn't mean you have to do things for him."
Zhou Xingqi kept his head down and didn't speak, seemingly very downcast. Shen Moyu, not understanding why, assumed he was blaming himself for his words, so she patted him on the shoulder and changed the subject: "Go to sleep early, you have to go out tomorrow."
Zhou Xingqi then looked up, his slightly damp hair brushed back as he said, "Goodnight, brother."
Shen Moyu nodded, opened the door, and left the bedroom.
When the only light in the house was extinguished by the sound of the door closing, the world seemed to darken.
Shen Moyu slumped onto the sofa, a wave of emotion washing over her.
He has kept the family photo, subconsciously wanting to remember his father who once loved him so much. Even though there is resentment in his heart, what he feels most is still reluctance to let go.
But he had long since given up hope. When he was fourteen, his mother fell from the construction site, bringing him not only enormous medical bills but also a period of emotional devastation. During those dark days, he desperately hoped that the strong and upright man would return, but he never did; all he received was a thick stack of paper money.
He hated this man as much as he could endure those days.
But now that he's grown up, he's long since gotten through those painful days, and he doesn't seem to hate him as much anymore.
After all, he had long accepted the fact that he was not important in his father's eyes.
After ten years apart, his longing was nothing more than a stack of child support payments, a simple "take care of yourself," and the most direct yet most hypocritical "I miss you."
If things were really as good as he said, he wouldn't have made Zhou Xingqi come back time and time again to inquire about his recent situation.
In fact, he had long known that his smooth entry into Zhengde No. 1 Middle School was not due to Zhou Xingqi's help behind the scenes, but rather to his own father.
Zhou Xingqi was merely the only contact between himself and his father.
He didn't tell Su Jinning about their relationship, after all, it was such an absurd and trivial matter that Su Jinning didn't need to know.
————
The next morning, Shen Moyu got up and sat at her desk to organize her collection of wrong questions.
As far as I can remember, he seemed to have gotten into the habit of copying classic question types into a notebook, filling it up completely, and then handing it to Su Jinning.
Xia Wei was cooking in the kitchen, and she was probably making a bit too much noise. Zhou Xingqi was woken up and groggily watched his brother sitting at his desk studying diligently.
"Brother?" Zhou Xingqi rubbed his eyes, a little puzzled. "Why are you up so early to do your homework...?"
A childish voice came from behind. Shen Moyu turned around and his tone softened: "Hmm, I was feeling clear-headed this morning, so I was tidying up some things."
I could have finished it last night, but I didn't have time to write it, so I had to get up this morning to organize it.
"Oh." Zhou Xingqi responded, seemingly still half asleep, sitting blankly for a while before finally getting up to wash up. By the time he finished getting ready, Shen Moyu had almost finished writing and was resting in her chair.