"What are you doing carrying that heavy box all by yourself?"
Cai unceremoniously snatched it from You Fa’s hands with an expression that neither hinted at annoyance nor pleasantness. But Hou Fa swore he sensed an unsaid frustration in his voice.
"I can at least carry this much..." he didn’t look so particularly thrilled with being treated as an helpless elderly man.
"Your background had protested the last ti you tried to do this stunt. Forget about it."
He didn’t entertain him any further and left while Hou Fa stood in the middle of the ss with empty hands. Despite Cai’s warning, he reached out to pick another box when Lin already dragged it to his side.
"I will do it."
Hou Fa couldn’t argue much with him and a second later, he let him leave. When the brothers returned to take away another set of boxes, he finally erged with a question.
"Do you think we should..paint the house?"
Lin took a look at the walls and furniture and indeed felt there was rit to his question.
"Yeah, we should," Cai casually comnted, not paying any particular attention to him, "Nobody is going to buy this haunted house if we leave it like this."
His brow faintly twitched, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
Lin stared at him and took this mont to ask, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Hou Fa stayed silent for several long seconds before giving a slow nod. "Yes. That’s what...I have been thinking for the past two months," He rubbed his palms together, his gaze darting left to right and back. "I lived here all this ti because I thought...that perhaps one day..."
He couldn’t complete his thought but the light flickering in his eyes and his body language clearly expressed the hope of their family reuniting in the distant future. But that future never knocked on his door.
"I was happy when Luli returned but she to-too..." the ache in his cheeks made his voice stutter and quiver, but he didn’t allow himself to shed tears. He closed his eyes, thinking about her, her eyes, her smile.
Though it had been over two months since Hou Luli was buried, her mories still remained fresh and painful for them, especially when very few happy mories existed.
"I will never forget her," he whispered. "But I think it’s ti I move out now..."
In his own way, Hou Fa had held onto the fort. Despite their circumstances, despite their resentnt, he believed their ho would be filled with laughter again. The two months made him realize that this grim reality and failed hopes as he would constantly surround himself with the sa walls would only make him more miserable.
As he had first proposed this to Lin and Cai, his decision was to move out of the city and settle away from his sons. But Lin applied brakes to that thought process.
’I will arrange a flat for you near our cafe. There are so good residential complexes,’ was what Lin said after a long discussion with Cai.
Though not completely in favor, he wasn’t completely against his brother’s suggestion either. eting Hou Luli on her deathbed had changed sothing within him, even if he didn’t want to admit it or pinpoint what exactly he had felt.
But Lin thought he knew what it was. They both didn’t wish to see Hou Fa ending up like her. Living all alone with nobody to look after him. If Hou Luli hadn’t returned by herself, the three would have never co to realize her sickness or death. She would have died in silence with years passing by till they would have eventually learned about it one day only for it to be too late.
Besides, there was a high probability that moving away and living with loneliness would urge Hou Fa to slip into his drinking habits and abuse alcohol once again. Lin didn’t want to see him ruin his body and wither away like a depressed alcoholic.
It was a long back and forth discussion with Hou Fa too, who knew that Lin was only visiting them because of Hou Luli. But now that that reason was gone, the brothers wouldn’t see a point in continuing with their visits or bothering to look after Hou Fa.
At present, Lin nodded. He wanted him to be absolutely sure. He was wholeheartedly in agreent with his decision about moving out. It was sothing that had crossed his mind as well after Hou Luli’s passing away. If not for Hou Fa, Lin himself would have broached the subject one day.
Cai left with the third box of the day while Lin packed so other stuff in a new box. Hou Fa was made to sit on the couch and only allowed to deal with the smaller and lighter things.
He ca across an old photo album and flipping onto one photo, he saw it was of the ti of Lin’s birth - their firstborn son. Hou Luli was holding baby Lin in her arms with Hou Fa leaning over with a flurry of excitent. The smiles had lit bright on their lips as did their eyes. The pictures had gotten old and dusty over ti, yet he felt as if it was just yesterday when he was standing in the hospital, waiting for Lin’s first cry. His fingers brushed over the photo very slowly, his lashes trembling.
I rember we were smiling and then...we were fighting one day...then the next day and the day after.
I wonder...when did everything change?
Hou Fa had asked himself the sa question over and over the last years, yet he failed to reach the answer just like always.
"Do you want to get them newly made?"
Hou Fa slightly jolted and looked up dazedly. "What?"
Lin pointed at the album. "The photos. They have beco old and gotten torn off at the edges. I can get them newly made. Sa photos, just clearer and cleaner."
"Oh...y-you can do that? They are very old."
"Technology is a wonderful thing," Lin plainly said.
"I see..."
Hou Fa hesitated for soti, unable to decide. Eventually, he handed over the album to him.
"If you could please..."
Lin nodded and carefully placed the old album in his bag. Hou Fa observed him continuing with his work. After much contemplation, he asked,
"You would have..."
Lin paused and glanced at him, raising a brow.
Hou Fa swallowed a light gulp and clasped his hands together, almost feeling as if he was hyperventilating. Eventually, he cald his nervous self.
"You have decided to beco Zhong Sihan’s adopted son, haven’t you?"
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