Chapter 59 (1/2)

When Lin Wenxi returned home, his father Lin Ziwei did not welcome him. Instead, he scolded him for pushing himself forward during the Freshmen Contests.

“I won the first prize with my own ability! Every parent wants his or her child to excel at something, but why do you always get upset when I win a prize?” Lin Wenxi retorted angrily. He went into his room and shut the door.

Shortly afterwards, his mother Huang Xiya went into his room and grabbed his hand, trying to have a heart-to-heart talk with him. “Most judges of the poem writing contest know your father. He’s worried that they showed partiality to you and deliberately gave you a high score. I’ve read all the poems. I have to say that you deserve your prize. Your father is just worried that you get too proud and…”

“And so-and-so will accuse him of letting his son enjoy some privileges. Is that what you want to say? Why don’t you just send me to a university in another city, in another province or even abroad. By doing so, you don’t need to worry about these things anymore.” Lin Wenxi interjected impatiently.

“My dear, you’re still a child. You don’t understand,” Huang Xiya said sadly.

“Yes, I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything. If you always treated me as a child, I wouldn’t know anything. But you never treat me as a child. You’ve disciplined me strictly since I went to the elementary school. Am I really your child?” Lin Wenxi said bitterly.

“Wenxi!” Huang Xiya anxiously rubbed her forehead. After a moment of silence, two lines of tears rolled down her face.

Lin Wenxi was well aware that his mother was not a mentally vulnerable person. He really had no idea what made her cry. He thought about it over and over but still failed to think of an explanation. He had no choice but to remain silent. He always felt suffocated at home.

He did not know when his mother left his room or when he fell asleep. He dreamed about that person. In his dream, that person shouted from a distance, “Attention. At ease.” He felt as if he was covered with mud again and carried a backpack.

A few days later, Lin Wenxi’s parents discussed returning to their village for the Chinese New Year.

As most of his relatives in the village still remembered Lin Wenxi as a very naughty boy, they did not like him very much. Because of his parents, they would usually pretend to like him, but Lin Wenxi did not like such false display of affection at all. He had not come back to his village for the festival for six years on the excuse of being busy with his studies. When he stayed in the county alone, his parents would invite Hong Xuan and his family to accompany him or to send him to Hong Xuan’s home.

Upon receiving his transcript from this university, he was dejected since he failed two exams. In the meantime, he felt pleased since now he had a reason to stay in the county during the festival.

He told his parents, “I failed two exams, so I have to stay at home to study and can’t accompany you to the village during the next week.” Lin Ziwei was irritated upon hearing that and wanted to beat his son up. The next moment he remembered that his wife kept crying for no reason at night recently. To avoid upsetting his wife, he just reproached his son and asked Hong Xuan to take care of Lin Wenxi before his departure. Despite that, Lin Ziwei and Huang Xiya still felt worried.

Lin Wenxi quickly realized how worried his parents were.

His mother had filled the refrigerator with all kinds of milk, bread and other nutritional supplements. They were all inexpensive high-quality products that she had carefully picked out and bought from the supermarket. His father had put up a poster in his room. There was a slogan on it— “You’ll Be Given an Important Task.” Lin Wenxi looked up at the slogan and felt that this was really unnecessary. When he was about to take it off, he somehow thought of what Zhao Yuan had said about himself back in the psychology class. He smiled and looked at the slogan in a daze.

Hong Xuan was Lin Ziwei’s bodyguard and driver now. He had once been a subordinate under Lin Ziwei back in the army. He had a wide forehead, thick eyebrows and a big nose. He always looked solemn and authoritive. Unlike Lin Ziwei, who seldom did exercises after leaving the army and looked somewhat fat now, Hong Xuan practiced kung fu every day after work and looked slim and muscular. He was a hard-working man and had managed to suppress many street thugs for Lin Ziwei. When Lin Ziwei and his wife did not have time to take care of their son, they would send Lin Wenxi to Hong Xuan’s home. Over the past decade, Hong Xuan had often taken Lin Wenxi to do exercise, and Lin Wenxi had considered him as a relative and someone like his father. Lin Wenxi respected and feared Hong Xuan.

Compared to Lin Ziwei, Hong Xuan did not discipline Lin Wenxi very strictly. As such, when staying together with Hong Xuan, Lin Wenxi dared to do something that he did not dare to do in front of his father. Nevetheless, once he went too far, Hong Xuan would punish him by forcing him to do more exercises. Because of Homg Xuan’s help, Lin Wenxi was basically in good health albeit not exceptionally strong.

When Hong Xuan came to take care of Lin Wenxi, he just cooked for him and urged him to study. Sometimes he would watch TV, but most of the time, he would practice kung wu in the yard. Hong Xuan was not good at studying at all, and he often asked Lin Wenxi to help his own daughter Hong Yan doing her homework.

One day, his wife was sick, and her daughter was in grade 12 and busy with her studies. Given this, he asked a leave and told Lin Wenxi to take care of himself for one day.

After Hong Xuan’s departure, Lin Wenxi excitedly rolled in his bed as he was free now. After a while, he felt a little lost as he did not know what to do. He did not have any friends here except Hong Yan. What he did not know was that his parents liked Hong Yan very much and even planned to ask him to marry this pretty and nice girl when he grew up.