“So you still decided to pay for him to study abroad and help take care of his family?”
“Yes…”
“Do you know that if this were the old days, your fate would’ve been the same as those village girls who secretly promise marriage to a scholar—then he becomes top of the exams, marries some official’s daughter, and leaves you behind like a fool? Are you out of your mind?”
“But he wouldn’t do that… I’m willing…”
Lin Shen nearly flipped the table. If the person in front of him hadn’t been crying, he probably would’ve kicked him across the room.
“Then why are you crying to me? Get lost!”
“Waa—”
Lin Wangye threw his head back and wailed, all sniffles and tears, not caring about anything. He rushed at Lin Shen and grabbed his arm, crying his heart out.
“…I’m just upset! Comfort me, please, wah—”
“Don’t you dare—”
Lin Shen felt sorry for him and angry at his stubbornness at the same time. He kicked to push him away without mercy.
“Dad!” Lin Wangye clung to his leg and cried like his heart was breaking.
By now it had been three days since Shi Yuan officially accepted the offer and started applying for his visa to study abroad.
When Lin Shen first heard, his immediate reaction was to go and confront Shi Yuan.
Later he found out that Shi Yuan hadn’t planned to leave at first.
It had been Lin Wangye who asked for it and kept pleading for days until he finally made it happen.
In truth, Lin Shen already knew that in his heart.
For Shi Yuan, this was a turning point in life. Even if he chose to go after getting the offer, no one could blame him.
Opportunities are earned. Not everyone gets them.
But Lin Shen knew better than anyone what this meant to Lin Wangye.
If Shi Yuan’s family hadn’t been carrying so much, if they’d been a little less complicated, maybe the two of them wouldn’t have had to go through so many setbacks. But fate makes an individual feel small and powerless.
Though Lin Shen said out loud that Lin Wangye was stupid, he respected the choice Lin Wangye made.
Love is betting on a person; if you place that bet, you have to accept the loss if it comes.
He was the coward who wouldn’t risk everything, so he couldn’t really blame Lin Wangye for having the kind of courage to go all in—put everything of himself on the line and wait for the big win.
He just felt sick about it and couldn’t help scolding him a little.
Three days had passed since Shi Yuan’s departure was basically decided, and Lin Shen had been persuading Lin Wangye for those three days straight. He was mentally wiped out—he’d started out patient and pleading, and now he was numb, even half ready to throttle someone.
Most of the time Lin Wangye could keep calm.
He understood the reasons; he’d thought it through and made this choice. There was nothing to regret.
But the companionship he’d waited for, the everyday closeness he’d counted on, had suddenly been pushed back by years. That felt like falling off a cliff, and he couldn’t help being sad.
For days he’d purposely stayed away from Shi Yuan, worried he’d break down in front of him.
Yet in front of Lin Shen he couldn’t hold back the full weight of his hurt.
Even when he tried to keep himself busy to push the feelings away, the second he slowed down, his mind would start spinning again. One slip, and the emotions came crashing in, and he just couldn’t stop the tears.
Lin Shen, who had always hated seeing him cry, felt like restarting life altogether—maybe even jumping headfirst off the building to reset.
That heart-wrenching ‘Dad’ finally tugged at the buried fatherly side of him. He sighed, surrendered in his game, yanked him up, dragged him into the bathroom, and shoved his head under the tap to wash his face with cold water.
No matter how worked up he’d been, the icy splash fried Lin Wangye’s brain into a blank buzz.
He bent over, eyes shut tight like a three-year-old, letting Lin Shen smear water all over his face, blew his nose into a tissue, then had his face dunked again. It wasn’t until Lin Shen shut the faucet, slapped a towel into his hands, and roughly wiped him dry before dragging him back to the room and shoving him onto the bed that his mind finally caught up.
“Done crying yet?” Lin Shen flicked his forehead mercilessly. “What do you wanna eat?”
The push almost toppled him over. After steadying himself, he rubbed his forehead and rasped out in a hoarse voice, “…Crayfish.”
“With that busted throat? Forget spicy. Garlic flavor it is.”
Without waiting for a reply, Lin Shen grabbed his phone, called someone to bring over crayfish, then glanced back at the game still frozen on the surrender screen with unanimous votes. He wiped his wet hands on his pants, sat back down, checked the stats, and—after seeing his damage was the lowest—instantly quit the game in shame.
Lin Wangye sat staring at him blankly for a bit, then pouted.
“Aren’t you gonna comfort me?”
“Go cool off somewhere.” Lin Shen couldn’t even be bothered to look at him. “Every time I try to comfort you, you just cry harder. You wanna cry, then cry—I can’t stop you.”
His eyes and nose were still red, and hearing that only made him pout harder. He lowered his head and twisted the hem of his shirt in silence.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lin Shen caught sight of that pitiful look and finally softened. He got up, grabbed a room-temperature bottle of water, twisted it open, and handed it over.
“At most four, five years and he’ll be back. It’s nothing.”
Lin Wangye sighed. “But I don’t wanna be apart from him.”
In his last life, Uncle Shi had gone to Sigwell for further study. After graduating, he even stayed to work a few years. He’d been gone nearly ten years before finally coming back when Lin Wangye was in middle school.
This time wouldn’t take that long, but still—it’d be until graduation at least.
He knew that feeling of wanting to see someone and not being able to. It hurt, bad.
Lin Shen pressed his palm gently against his head, his voice calm.
“He’s got his life, you’ve got yours. If you both care, you’ll end up together eventually. Good things just take time.”
Wangye lifted his eyes, tilted his head, and leaned against Lin Shen’s back. “Guess it’s just the two of us now.”
“What, you got a problem with that?” Lin Shen smirked, tugging his hair upward. “Sick of me already?”
Lin Wangye craned his neck, protesting, “Of course not! But Brother Lu’s going abroad too. Soon it’ll really just be you and me!”
At that, Lin Shen’s fingers froze for a beat.
He let go of Lin Wangye’s hair, pulled his hand back, dropped his gaze to hide the flicker of emotion in his eyes, then turned to the fridge, grabbed a sports drink, cracked it open, and downed a long gulp. He shrugged, his face looking casual again.
“Perfect. Peace and quiet.”
“Will Brother Lu come back after he leaves?” Sitting on the bed, Lin Wangye tilted his head, completely missing the flash of loss in the eyes of the person beside him. Hugging the water bottle, he thought out loud: “His grandpa’s in Northern Europe, and he’s really powerful too.”
Lin Shen didn’t answer. He pulled out his gaming chair and sat down sideways.
“Log in. Let’s play.”
“Oh, okay.”
Lin Wangye’s head was still fuzzy from all that crying, so he didn’t think much and sat down next to him. But when he started typing in his username and password, he suddenly froze, then pushed the keyboard away.
“No can do. He told me not to play games for at least half a year.”
Some games needed fine motor control, and if he got too into it, he might overstrain the nerves in his hand that hadn’t fully healed yet.
Lin Shen glanced at the scar on his left hand and remembered. He shut the game without another word.
“Then watch a movie or find something else to keep busy.”
Saying that, he turned back, opened his laptop on the desk, and started working. Curious, Wangye leaned closer, only to see the screen full of endless spreadsheets.
“What’re you working on?” he asked.
“Several of our malls’ profit margins have been dropping.” Lin Shen unwrapped a lollipop, stuck it in his mouth, his face clouded. “I’m trying to figure out how to fix it.”
Lin Wangye knew that was basically a tide no one could fight.
With internet usage exploding and shipping speeds getting faster, e-commerce was already showing its teeth. When shopping could be done anywhere, anytime, physical stores losing money was just inevitable.
And these years, the internet was growing like crazy—changing by the day.
“Didn’t you already say e-commerce platforms would become the mainstream? Why’re you still worrying about this?” Lin Wangye asked, puzzled.
“The website’s already in the works,” Lin Shen said. “But I’m not planning to ditch offline stores. The problem is my dad was too eager back then—he expanded too fast. With so many malls, once online shopping takes over, the total losses will be terrifying.”
This was way beyond Lin Wangye’s depth. He couldn’t really help.
He sat quietly, watching Lin Shen frown at the screen. His dad’s desktop was crammed with folders named after different malls, each filled with all kinds of data. A lot of it, Lin Wangye couldn’t even understand.
But Lin Shen seemed to get it all.
He kept comparing numbers, jotting down differences, then creating new spreadsheets and filing them into new folders.
The Lin family had sunk too much into brick-and-mortar malls, and the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Lin Wangye honestly had no idea how they’d solved this in his last life. Just seeing Lin Shen’s brows knotted tight told him it wasn’t an easy fix.
Aside from offering a few ‘future vision’ tips, Lin Wangye didn’t know what else he could do.
But he really wanted to help.
So he sat next to Lin Shen in silence, munching on crayfish. Every now and then, he’d peel one and hold it up to his dad’s mouth, asking in a small voice: “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“There is.”
Lin Shen opened his mouth to eat, not even sparing him a glance.
“Don’t you dare start crying again.”
*
Even though he had the hotel to crash at, Lin Wangye couldn’t just stay away from home all the time. Sometimes Aunt Lu Wei had things to do, though she wasn’t all that busy. On quieter days, she still wanted someone around to talk to.
As for Lu Chenghan, even after returning to the country, he was constantly tied up with work and rarely home.
And ever since the college entrance exams, even Lu Chengxuan was showing signs of going down the same road.
Before long, Lin Wangye realized he hadn’t seen him in ages.
Then he got a message from Lu Wei saying a fresh batch of sea urchins had just been flown in. Not wanting to hang around the hotel and disturb Lin Shen with his work, Lin Wangye went to sleep after finishing his crayfish, then caught a ride back to the Lu household.
Familiar places are the quickest to stir up old memories.
The moment he reached the big front gate, he couldn’t help remembering all the times Shi Yuan had walked him home.
They always slowed their steps the closer they got, like some silent agreement. Neither of them wanted to part ways at the gate. They’d linger, stick together, reluctant to say goodbye until they finally tore themselves apart.
Lin Wangye knew every blind spot in the cameras out front.
Because those were the places where he’d hugged and kissed the person he loved.
Those memories reeled through his mind like a movie. By the time he came back to himself, his vision had gone blurry again.
He lowered his head, wiped his eyes on his sleeve, and quickened his pace through the gate.
It had rained yesterday, and workers were busy sweeping the villa’s path. Lin Wangye greeted them one by one, detoured to feed the rabbits, then pulled himself together before stepping inside.
Sure enough, the Lu men weren’t home.
Lu Wei had a face mask on, lounging on the living room sofa. When Lin Wangye came in, he caught her chuckling at some variety show on TV.
“Ah, Xiao Lin, you’re back.” Lu Wei waved him over right away. “I just had the sea urchins steamed, they’ll be ready soon. Come sit with me, these girls on the show are just too cute.”
Lin Wangye went over and realized she was watching a girl group audition program.
It had only just started—the very first episode. To keep viewers hooked and stir up some hype, the trainees were all doing their best to show off their personalities and talents on camera, hoping to stand out.
Lin Wangye wasn’t really interested, but he sat down anyway, chatting with Lu Wei while pretending to watch.
Soon, the housekeeper brought out the sea urchins, fresh and steaming.
“College applications must be coming up soon,” Lu Wei asked casually, bored. “Where’s Xiao Lin planning to go?”
Wangye had been dodging that question these past few days.
The moment it came up, the dull ache in his chest returned. He lowered his gaze, scooping into the sea urchin with his spoon.
“Ningchang University.”
Even though he tried to sound normal, Lu Wei noticed right away. She raised her head, took a closer look at him, and spotted the faint redness around his eyes.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked softly. “Something bothering you?”
When you’re upset, sometimes comfort only makes it worse—especially when your defenses are already paper-thin.
Lin Wangye bit his lip, kept his head down, and whispered—
“The person I like got accepted into Sigwell Academy of Art and Design.”
“Sigwell?”
Lu Wei blinked, surprised. “Wow… he must be amazing.”
Lin Wangye felt a spark of pride at Shi Yuan being praised, but his chest tightened all the same. He drooped, murmuring, “In about a month, he’ll be leaving the country, and I…”
He didn’t finish, afraid that if he said any more, he’d break down.
But Lu Wei quickly understood. Her gaze softened. “Oh, darling… you don’t want to let him go, do you?”
Lin Wangye nodded, absently stirring his sea urchin until it was a mess, though his hand never stopped moving.
Lu Wei studied him for a moment, the blue of her eyes flickering gently.
“Sweetheart, do you want to go abroad too?”
Lin Wangye froze, then lifted his head, eyes rimmed red. “Me?”
“Yes.” She smiled warmly at him. “If you don’t want to be apart from him, then go with him. I can arrange things for you over there.”
“Really? You mean it?!”
His heartbeat kicked up, a flare of hope bursting back to life. His eyes lit up like stars.
Lu Wei nodded, her smile graceful and tender. “Of course. But I can only place you in the same city. His school has strict requirements for majors—you don’t have the qualifications for that.”
Lin Wangye was over the moon, too happy to even know what to say.
Just being in the same city was enough!
Even just being in the same country would’ve been fine—at least they wouldn’t be separated by oceans. They could still see each other often, instead of being kept apart by distance.
Seeing him brighten up again, Lu Wei’s gaze grew even gentler. “You can talk it over with him first, then tell me what field you want to study. I’ll take care of the school for you.”
“Okay!” Lin Wangye nodded hard, his heart pounding with excitement.
After that, he didn’t rush to leave. He stayed, had dinner with Lu Wei, and kept watching TV until she went upstairs to rest before heading out of the Lu house.
His first impulse was to call Shi Yuan right away and tell him the good news, but he realized something this big couldn’t be explained over the phone. Better to tell him in person, give him a real surprise.
So instead of going to the hospital, the cab turned toward the esports hotel.
It was holiday season, and the place was practically full every day. When Lin Wangye got to the twenty-first floor, he saw an argument at the front desk. Curious, he went closer and found out a guest was complaining about a broken keyboard.
Turns out when Wang Xiaoshuai checked, he discovered soda had been spilled into the mechanical keyboard.
At Shenlin Esports Hotel, every piece of equipment had to be inspected after checkout—that was Lin Wangye’s rule.
This time it was clear the guest had accidentally spilled their drink.
The damage policy was written clearly: guests had to compensate for broken gear. But Xiaoshuai had been too busy. He swapped out the keyboard without explaining, and when the guest checked out, they realized the deposit had been docked—so they started making a fuss.
After getting the full story, Lin Wangye went straight up to the guest, apologized, admitted it was their mistake, refunded the deposit, and even threw in a 100-yuan voucher with an expiry date. Smiling the whole way, he saw the guest off politely.
Wang Xiaoshuai was baffled. He didn’t blow up in front of the guest, but the second they left, he burst out, furious: “Why? That keyboard was full of Coke! He was literally drinking Coke at the time—it’s obvious he broke it himself!”
“Next time something like this happens, you’ve gotta explain it to him before you swap out the keyboard,” Wangye said patiently. “If you don’t say anything in the moment, you can’t blame him for denying it later and arguing with you. It’s just a keyboard—not worth much. It’s not like he fried the motherboard or the graphics card. If he wants to play dumb, let him. Think of it as giving him a free night. If he comes back again, we’ll still make money off him.”
Wang Xiaoshuai scratched his head, finally getting it.
“Yeah… makes sense. I’ll pay attention next time.”
“People like that aren’t common. Better to take a small loss than get into a fight. Less trouble that way.” Wangye shrugged.
Wang Xiaoshuai grinned, giving a half-joking salute.
“Got it, Boss Lin. Whatever you say.”
Lin Wangye had been in a good mood anyway. He laughed, chatted with him for a bit, then turned and walked back to the room at the end of the hall.
It had been four or five hours since he left that afternoon, but Lin Shen was still sitting exactly the same way, buried in work.
Wangye washed up, changed clothes, then yawned and flopped onto the bed. “Still not sleeping?”
“In a bit.” Lin Shen didn’t even glance back, eyes fixed on the spreadsheets on his screen. “If you’re tired, just go to sleep. Don’t mind me. If the light’s too bright, turn it off.”
Lin Wangye slowly sat back up, crossed his legs on the bed, and stared at him.
In his past life, everything had been so carefree.
He had never even seen this kind of busy, focused side of his dad.
Thinking about his plan to go abroad, Lin Wangye suddenly hesitated.
After a long silence, he blurted out—
“Dad… is there anything I can do to help?”
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
