Chapter 34 - The Romance Drama Has Co Back and Won’t Leave Again
Sun Zinan drove out of the villa garden and along the empty road at night before entering the Fourth Ring road.
He hadn’t even driven ten ters along the road when a car followed up behind him, honking. At first, Sun Zinan thought soone was trying to overtake him, but when the other party pulled down their window, he saw that the person sitting inside was Tang Kai.
He gestured to call him on his phone, then slowed down. Sun Zinan put on a Bluetooth headset and picked up Tang Kai’s call.
“When did you co?”
“I ca after work.” Tang Kai’s tone was slightly complaining as he said, “I waited outside for you a long ti and you didn’t see .”
Sun Zinan, “I didn’t expect you to co over here.”
“You just unmasked sothing. Your father definitely didn’t call you over for sothing good.” Tang Kai asked uneasily, “They didn’t bully you, right?”
Sun Zinan smiled. “They didn’t. I rember there’s a parking lot after going down the intersection in front. I’ll go park the car, you wait for .”
Ten minutes later, Sun Zinan opened the door empty-handed and sat in the passenger seat.
Tang Kai leaned over to fasten his seat belt and patted him on the face. “Your place or back to my apartnt?”
“Your apartnt.” Sun Zinan lowered his seat a little and sighed a little tiredly. “I’m not going back to my place for a few days.”
“Why?”
“I spoke so harsh words to them this evening. They definitely won’t stop. They’ll probably co find , but I don’t want to bother with them.” Sun Zinan looked back, then closed his eyes. “I’ll tell you the details when we get back. You should focus on driving first.”
The street lamps at night beca a bright river of lights. Occasionally, one or two beams of headlights from cars going the opposite direction would shine into the dim window, leaving shadows falling onto Sun Zinan’s face. Within the shadows, a tired and deep-rooted sense of loss was illuminated.
It was a sadness he had opened up by himself.
Although Tang Kai rarely cooked at ho, he did hide a few bottles of quality red wine. It was suitable to pour out in the sorrow of tonight.
Normally, Tang Kai would have stopped him, but after hearing that Sun Zinan had left his family, he knew he needed to vent. He simply poured him a cup of red wine, sat on the sofa, and listened to his mories of the past. This also served to clarify his long-standing doubts.
“My father doesn’t really think like normal people.” Sun Zinan said faintly, “He developed and grew Hongsen, and saving this family business was not easy. He often feels like this is a throne that needs a perfect heir, worthy of his life’s efforts.”
“My eldest brother and second brother were born with another woman when he was young. He brought his sons back to raise and sent the mother away with so money. He wouldn’t let mother and sons et; he had to personally train the children. It sounds like the ancient tis, when a ntally ill emperor would specifically look for an heir. My dad never married a wife; the only ti he was tempted was probably with Sun Ziyan and Sun Ziyi’s mother. But the woman committed suicide shortly after giving birth, and we don’t know why.”
“Perhaps because of that, he particularly spoils my third brother and fourth sister. That’s why they’re useless. But in the line of the Sun family, doing sothing strange isn’t a big deal. As long as it’s not out of line, a family of five can live very well. But the old man had to toss into it without clarifying anything. Since then, the family hasn’t lived in peace.”
“It’s not your choice, they shouldn’t bla you.”
Tang Kai gently stroked his shoulder a few tis and comforted him. “But why did he have another child?”
“The reason is quite ridiculous. It’s absurd to say it.” Sun Zinan shook his glass of wine around and asked him, “Have you ever heard of the ’catfish effect’?”
It was said that when Norwegian fishern caught sardines, they worried that sardines would suffocate from a lack of oxygen. Because of that, they usually put a catfish into the pack of sardines.
Catfish fed on other fish. After entering the container, they would begin to swim around to find their prey. The sardines would begin to move around due to the shock and avoidance of the catfish; this would solve the problem of sardines not getting enough oxygen from not moving. This so-called ‘catfish effect’ was often used in enterprise managent. The general practice was to exert a sense of crisis in order to stimulate employees to start working.
Tang Kai, “You an...”
Sun Zinan said, “The old man follows this principle. I heard when he was forty-five years old, he was diagnosed with a serious illness. The condition was very dangerous. My brothers thought he would not make it, so they collectively proposed to have him make a will. They were trying to seize the inheritance while he was still alive. My dad might have been stimulated by this and it didn’t take long for him to miraculously recover. He’s probably been aware of this crisis since then. All his children chase after the property, and no one really treats him as a father.”
“But you know what type of person my father is. It’s not too much to say that as long as he’s still alive for another day, he’ll never relinquish power. In order to suppress his four adult children, he went abroad to find a surrogate and asked for a fifth child—I am the ‘catfish’ in his plan.”
“My eldest brother doesn’t recognize the consequences, my second brother is too slick. Sun Ziyan and Sun Ziyi can’t even be ntioned; they’re just a pile of waste bags. He flattered and reused so that others could keep themselves driven by a sense of crisis. But Sun Ziyan really had to cross , so I crossed the old man in order to deal with him. That’s why my dad is so angry.”
Not only did Sun Ying want him to be a catfish, he wanted him to be a catfish who could not disobey its orders.
He used Sun Zinan to counterbalance his other children, but did not allow Sun Zinan to break away from his control and counterattack without authorization. Tonight he had severely scolded Sun Zinan. But the catfish had rebelled and the sardines had also been torn into pieces. His chessboard had been directly overturned by Sun Zinan. It was unclear how Sun Ying was feeling at the current mont.
Tang Kai’s jaw dropped as he listened.
“But you are also his own son,” he asked carefully. “Why would he do this to you?”
Sun Zinan smiled wordlessly.
“Because I’m a ‘catfish,’” he said. “In his eyes, I’m just an employee, not his child.”
No matter how outstanding he was, for Sun Ying, Sun Zinan had never been among his heirs.
Because there was no upbringing to produce any feelings. Just like the quarrel that had occurred tonight, family was just an excuse to push bla onto others. In fact, everyone’s heart was clear that Sun Zinan was just an outsider. Only insiders could receive the inheritance.
“So when I was a child, he was actually very good to . He gave the best to eat and wear, gave the best education. I once thought he really loved , but then I learned that it wasn’t ‘fatherly love,’ it was employee motivation.” Sun Zinan downed his glass of wine and said tipsily, “I was really dumb before. I even beca upset for a long ti because of this.”
Even though he was already tipsy, his words were still restrained.
In fact, it was more than being upset. His depression while abroad was because of this.
The sumr of the year before Sun Zinan went abroad, Sun Ying transferred five percent of his shares to his na. The decision caused an uproar at ho. Sun Zinan did not want to be targeted by his brothers, so he hid all day in the small backyard garden to read books. He hid too well. One day, he accidentally overheard a conversation between Sun Ying and his forr secretary.
The other side had seed puzzled by this decision and couldn’t help but ask, “Chairman, by doing this, the little master’s shares are far more than the young master’s. Is this not...wrong?”
Sun Ying had walked slowly in front of him on crutches before suddenly stopping to ask “Do you know what the ‘catfish effect’ is?”
Along with the sumr breeze that brought those words to him, the ten plus years of his life had shattered to pieces.
He had been neglected, but still stubbornly believed that he was loved. Suddenly one day, he was forced to face the cruel world. After knowing that he had long ago been abandoned, his life felt like a joke. Other than living in this body like a wandering soul, what else could he do?
If a person lost his foothold from birth, lost his sense of self, what was the aning of life?
Tang Kai did not say a word as he reached out and embraced him in his arms.
The glass in Sun Zinan’s hand shook a bit and he hurriedly steadied it. “Ai, be careful, don’t spill it on your clothes.”
“I’ll be good to you,” Tang Kai murmured. “If they don’t care about you, I’ll care about you....You have to rember the good things about this world. You can’t just float away without telling .”
“Float what, I’m not floating.” Sun Zinan buried his head in Tang Kai’s shoulder, hiding his entire face. His tears were absorbed into his clothes.
He said hoarsely, “You’re here. Where else would I go?”
He had not cried in many years; even the feeling of involuntary tears had beco strange.
“Don’t cry...be good, we don’t have to be sad over scum like this, dear.”
Although Tang Kai could not see it, he could feel the wet marks forming on his shoulder. His heart imdiately was set on fire with rage towards Sun Ying’s entire family. He kissed Sun Zinan’s hair as he hugged him with open arms and said solemnly, “You know, catfish are freshwater fish, sardines are saltwater fish. If you put a catfish into a tank with sardines, it will die.”
Sun Zinan, “...”
“The ‘catfish effect’ theory is simply not in line with the laws of nature. It’s just so pseudoscience.” Tang Kai said, ” Your father was very half-assed when doing this. I am a professional. In the future, please follow Teacher Tang so you won’t get lost.”
“Besides, how can you be a catfish?” He added very bluntly, “Catfish are so ugly.”
This way of comforting people was too unconventional. Sun Zinan’s tears were choked back.
He sotis actually admired Tang Kai’s brain circuits. He approached things at a unique angle and went straight to the point. Although he wasn’t too susceptible to emotional factors, which made him seem a little impersonal, and his words were usually so sand sculpture expressions, the mont he stopped talking nonsense, it was like the clouds had parted to show the sun.
To be honest, he already felt like it was a lot more bearable because there was soone to accompany him at this ti.
“That’s enough, I’m okay now.” Sun Zinan got up from Tang Kai’s arms. The corners of his eyes were still slightly red, but the tears had disappeared. “The confession has finished. Thank you Professor Tang for flying with .”
Tang Kai leaned up and gently kissed the corner of his eyes, then said, “I’ve suddenly realized that you look very nice when you cry.”
Sun Zinan, “...”
He really wanted to split open this old uncle’s head and see what nonsense was brewing inside his brain.
”I’m not going to bully you.” Tang Kai saw his speechless expression and laughed. “But in the future, please give a chance to practice, okay?”
“...” Sun Zinan was expressionless. “No thanks. Get up, I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”
“Taking a shower as soon as you’re done drinking? You can’t, it’s too easy to faint.” Tang Kai grabbed at his waist, not letting him go “Either you sit here and sober up, or I will accompany you to wash. You choose one.”
Sun Zinan raised an eyebrow. “No way, Professor Tang, do you get drunk from just the bottom of a cup of wine? You really can’t handle...your alcohol, ah?”
After saying that, he quipped, “Oh right, I can’t tell n that they can’t handle it.”
“...”
Professor Tang took advantage to turn Sun Zinan around and throw him against the sofa. He firmly pressed him under his body, one hand clamping his wrists above his head while the other hand slid dishonestly down along his waist. He gritted his teeth and said, “You don’t recognize ? Then today I’ll have to make you cry as you say ‘can’t handle it.’”
Reviews
All reviews (0)