Chapter 17

◎The Restart Button◎

In short, life is wonderful and unexpected.

——Zhu Yao, who used to shout about being gay every day, became the first mother. Xu Zhaolin, who loved every girl he met, was ruined for life when he saw the photographer. Wen Xu, who thought he would never see him again, now helps Du Ningyang pack beef noodles.

"Don't ask about me every day," Du Ningyang stood up and began to clean up the boxes on the table. "It's unfair. Compared with you, I know too little about you. It can be said that... a drop in the ocean."

Is this how the idiom is used? Before she said it, her tone weakened, not very confident.

"Understand my life? There's nothing to understand. You will find how bland my life is. Well, bland," Wen Xu also stood up and opened the plastic bag to make it easier for Du Ningyang to put the dishes in.

"I think it's delicacies from the mountains and the sea."

When she was a child, she looked down on the lives of rich people, always holding on to the lofty ambition of "What's wrong with being rich? I'll get rich sooner or later." Now she is not like that anymore. She is extremely yearning for a life of food and clothing, and she is envious to the point of drooling.

So she is still like this - she doesn't understand why Wen Xu has to come out to suffer. Every day when she sees him hanging around in front of her, she can't help but think about this question.

She asked the curiosity she had when she was a teenager, "So, what school and major did you want to study at that time?"

"I haven't thought about it," the topic evoked his painful memories, "I dare not think about it, thinking about it will give me hope, but the actual situation is that I have no choice. My mother has chosen for me to study nutrition."

In fact, he thought about it. When he saw the few poor students chattering in the corridor, innocent and stupid and cute, the thought of "what will I do in the future" flashed through his mind.

Then there was the imagination of the whole class.

He happened to watch a foreign program on TV, called "Special Effects Makeup Master", which can use various materials and pigments to turn people into aliens and monsters, and can also make a lot of high-tech props, which are so handsome.

Well, his forehead was hot from thinking about it, and he immediately made a decision to do this when he grows up. He was so determined that his parents could really stop him?

So where can he learn it?

Just when he was about to look up and borrow someone's mobile phone to check, he found that Du Ningyang was secretly watching him, hiding under the drawing board, like a hamster hiding nuts in his cheeks.

He also glanced at her quickly, looked at her mischievously, and stuck out his tongue at her.

Du Ningyang, who was caught, was scared to death and looked weirdly cute.

"If you want to inherit the family business, you have to study nutrition and make painting your hobby," she always felt that his pain was just a complaint without reason. "You are just like in the TV series, hiring a professional management team, and then you play around, set up a 'constitutional monarchy' in the company, get paid for doing nothing, and then go do your hobbies with the money."

He was too lazy to pay attention to her. They didn't agree on this topic, so he suddenly asked, "Why did you peek at me that day?"

"When did I peek at you," Du Ningyang didn't keep up with his jumping thoughts, "Which day? Yesterday or the day before yesterday?"

"The day you were crazy in the corridor, you came back to the classroom to peek at me, and I found you," Wen Xu said confidently, "Did you actually like me a little at that time?"

"Hiss," what does this have to do with it? Du Ningyang shook his head fiercely and denied it, "You think too much, I didn't peek at you."

His face turned red, and even his ears.

She remembered that in that afternoon, she was thinking that he would go to a very far place and probably would never meet again. Thinking about it, she actually felt lost.

She also remembered that, as if by telepathy, he raised his head and his eyes met hers, which frightened her so much that she quickly raised her head and pretended to look at the electric fan.

Wen Xu had a good attitude, "It doesn't matter if you don't admit it, you will like me when you grow up anyway."

"Do you still have any shame? How come I don't know that I like you?"

Du Ningyang frowned, snatched the plastic bag from his hand, and planned to go out to the trash can at the corner of the street to throw it away, "Get out, get out, get out."

"You are shy," Wen Xu said in a very sure tone, standing up, "I will go with you to throw away the trash."

The three good friends used to do everything together, even to go to the trash can to throw away a pile of tissues.

"Damn, it's just throwing away the trash, you don't need to accompany me--"

She ran out in a cotton slipper as if she was running for her life. Damn, maybe there is something wrong with my heartbeat, the old deer is about to hit my throat.

-When

you are daydreaming, the brain will secrete dopamine, which makes people in an extremely excited state. Wen Xu was restless for most of the next half day, making a draft in his mind, and making a request to his parents.

- He wanted to pursue his dream, even if it was a strange dream made on impulse, or an unrealistic dream, even if he suddenly changed his dream tomorrow.

But he needed their unconditional understanding and support. They kept saying that they loved him and claimed that they made any decision for his own good. So, how could they not support what he really liked and wanted to do?

At that moment, he really wanted to get a moment of support, sincere support, not fake and deceiving.

Yes, their family returned to its usual calm in just half a day, like the calm surface of an artificial lake, and the noisy young woman was not even as good as a stone, and did not stir up a ripple.

Wen Pinyan and Han Ling wore expensive clothes, walked around the room with their heads held high, politely said good morning and afternoon to each other, ate the exquisite meals on time, and still used chopsticks with each person's name engraved on them, as if nothing had happened.

The living room has been replaced with a hand-woven Indian carpet, inlaid with circles of golden silk thread, which is more expensive and more impressive than the original white fox fur carpet.

After school, he returned home with an excited mind, longing for a moment of support.

But they didn't even give him a moment of support.

"No," Han Ling interrupted him before he could finish two sentences, and before he even said what "special effects makeup" was, "I daydream all day long."

"This is not daydreaming... I really want to do this," Wen Xu rarely retorted, "At least listen to me and understand what "special effects makeup" means."

"There is no need to understand, just hearing these words is unreliable," her tone was full of disdain, "Makeup? No matter what kind of makeup, my son Han Ling goes to make up for others, isn't this a joke."

Wen Xu turned to Wen Pinyan, trying to get his support... Somehow, he suddenly asked him to show mercy and help him say a few words, such as "My son can do whatever he wants."

But he didn't.

Wen Pinyan just sat on the sofa indifferently, holding the newspaper with both hands and hiding his face behind his head. From Wen Xu's perspective, he could see his well-maintained black and thick short hair with smooth hairspray, but he couldn't see his expression.

Why is it like this?

Wen Xu's face was filled with uncontrollable disappointment, and a little bit of anger that gradually gathered and became more and more. He didn't really want to learn it in the first place, because he knew it was impossible. They have a family business and a decent reputation to maintain and pass on.

He just wanted an illusory attitude.

When Wen Xu was born, he was called Wen Xu, which means "continue" because he was born to continue Wen Xian's life. His overly outstanding brother got leukemia before he was born, but he didn't wait for his birth, leaving only endless memories.

It is said that he is handsome and cheerful, and he can go out alone to negotiate business and collect debts when he was ten years old. He left, leaving the pressure and burden to Wen Xu, who he had never met.

"Wen Xian didn't have such good conditions as you when he was a child, and he wouldn't make these unreasonable demands," Han Ling suddenly mentioned him, "He knows how much his parents have paid for the family, how hard they work outside, and never make trouble for us."

When Wen Xian was alive, did Wen Pinyan not cheat, and Han Ling not be domineering, and they were an extremely harmonious family, harmonious from the inside out?

Born in such a family, does he have no right to cry and express himself, and live in fear every day, with the purpose of not making trouble.

Wen Xu was somewhat stunned and asked, "Did I bring all this upon myself? ... Did I bring upon all our misfortunes and false happiness? Because I am Wen Xu and you are Han Ling, do I not deserve to have the things I like?"

Is that so?

Han Ling's face suddenly twisted, and terrible curse words gushed out like a tidal wave, like a volcanic eruption, with molten lava bursting across the sky.

But even Wen Pinyan's light newspaper could not be ignited. He hid behind, perhaps with a slight sneer on his face, enjoying her rage as if she were watching a clown.

"Why did I give birth to an ungrateful person like you?"

"What qualifications do you have to talk to me about love?"

Wen Xu's face turned pale, and he turned around to go upstairs. Han Ling grabbed his school uniform sleeve and said coldly, "Kneel down and reflect on yourself."

"Aunt He," Han Ling glanced coldly at the servant standing by, "Move a chair for him to sit on, and you kneel for him for one night."

Aunt He really knelt like this all night, and no matter how anxiously Wen Xu stood by and asked her to get up or leave, she did not move an inch.

"The madam's words are death orders," Aunt He seemed to be used to it, "We have been through this for so many years."

"When Wen Xian was alive, they also forced him to obey, right?" Wen Xu asked, "Is he happy?"

Aunt He didn't say anything, just closed her eyes. The answer was clear in her mind.

He was kind by nature, and in front of his parents who were good at playing with people's hearts, he had no chance to fight. But that night, the cold relationship between Wen Pinyan and Han Ling eased. After being apart for too long, they suddenly had someone to deal with together and united their front.

"Send him out as soon as possible," Wen Pinyan appeared in the master bedroom after a long absence, leaning against the soft leather headboard, and said to Han Ling.

"He is only in the first year of high school, it's too early to go out now," Han Ling sat in front of the dressing table, applying expensive skin care products on her face and neck, "You can prepare first, and send him out as soon as the language score meets the standard." "

He is not as obedient as he was when he was a child," Wen Pinyan's tone was still cold, without any care and love, as if he was talking about a strange child.

Han Ling was the same, "Little boys are easily impulsive. Sending them out will also make things go wrong. Have you seen foreign movies? Aliens and the like, that's 'special effects makeup', something foreigners play with."

"Sending them out is even harder to manage," Wen Pinyan said, "What were your original plans? Did you go to school with him?"

"How dare I go," Han Ling laughed sharply and teasingly, "Leave you alone to have fun?"

Han Ling and Wen Pinyan are both result-oriented profit-seekers. They are very consistent on this point. As long as the result is achieved, it doesn't matter what means are used, even if the target is their own son.

When Wen Xu returned home from school the next day, he found that there was an extra camera in his room. It was not a pinhole camera, but a large round camera facing his bedside. They told him without hesitation and warned him that he could not escape from their palms, so he should not be wishful thinking and should not think about stirring up trouble.

The camera later appeared in his single dormitory in the United States, with a 360-degree rotation of vision, surrounding his life like a nightmare all the time.

Wen Xu had thought about escaping countless times, but they had the perfect hostage, themselves.

"Mom is really doing this for your own good," Han Ling sometimes revealed her soft and vulnerable side, "You must be strong enough, and Mom must see you become strong enough in person to stand firm in this family. I must fight, because you are my son."

For the young him, this was the blood-related love between his parents that could not be severed. Perhaps this was the only thing he had in this world.

Or perhaps he had never had it.

Thinking like this, time passed, and he just kept being obedient and listening until he was twenty-eight years old.

-The

store was quiet in the afternoon, and Wen Xu sat in front of the window in a daze.

The spring after the beginning of spring became more and more lively, with new buds on the green trees, and the places where the dead branches were connected actually turned green.

Du Ningyang had taken a nap and walked down the stairs slowly in her big bear slippers. She was obviously sleepy, staggering, and the drawstring on her hoodie was swinging randomly.

Hearing the noise, he turned around and asked, "How much do you charge for tattoos?"

"By the hour, eight hundred an hour," Du Ningyang rubbed her eyes, sat down naturally on the stool next to him, and looked out the window with him.

The breeze floated, carrying the scent of grass through the hall. She got up to close the window and asked, "Why, do you want to introduce business to me?"

"I want a tattoo," he said, "It's small, it shouldn't take much time."

"What kind?"

"A small restart button."

"Interesting," Du Ningyang opened the drawing software and quickly sketched a shape, "Is it like this?"

"Yes," their aesthetics are very consistent.

"Then I'll refine it."

The confused look suddenly disappeared without a trace, and she began to look for reference pictures very seriously, and drew them stroke by stroke.

He seemed to see himself who was obsessed with special effects makeup at that time.