Chapter 2: When we met, the past was reset 03
Fortunately, Fang Xuyu didn't say anything else. He looked at the sea for a while and said expressionlessly, "It sounds nice, but it's time to eat."
I followed him to the restaurant and noticed a few more people inside, who looked like hired workers. The auntie serving the dishes smiled and greeted me, "Hello, Miss Fang."
"No, no need, just call me Wei Yang." I was busy explaining.
There were two people watching me and Fang Chongyan sitting at the dining table, whispering with the people around us, and I looked embarrassed. Fang Chongyan coughed, very majestically, and those gossipers immediately shut up and pushed their way to the kitchen.
Fang Xuyu called out "Dad" and Fang Chongyan nodded.
"Weiwei, those are newly hired female workers. They don't know the rules. Don't take it to heart." Fang Chongyan motioned for me to sit down.
I responded with a slight smile, and Fang Xuyu and I sat down on his left and right respectively.
The table was filled with delicious dishes. Fang Chongyan leaned over and kept picking food for me. Our shadows on the floor were stretched out .
Fang Chongyan hadn't eaten with me for nearly ten years, but he still treated me as I remembered, putting all the food into my bowl. Maybe it was out of guilt, or maybe it was compensation, but I was no longer the little girl who used to fight with Fang Xuyu for meat.
I looked at the pile of chicken legs, beef and ham in the bowl, lowered my head and started eating in silence.
"It's getting late. You'll sleep here today. I've asked someone to clean up your bedroom." Fang Chongyan said to me in a low voice while eating.
"No, I'm going home to sleep." I answered in a muffled voice.
"It's not safe for girls to come home late." Fang Chongyan poured milk into my cup. "But if you insist on going back to school, I'll let Ah Hai take you there later."
"Yeah." I answered casually.
"Are you short of money?" Fang Chongyan put down his bowl and chopsticks and looked at me, "If you are short of money, just tell me, don't be stingy, Dad..."
"I'm fine, I don't need anything." I felt a little disgusted when I heard him call himself that.
I can't act as if nothing happened.
Many times I don't understand why adults can just ignore the past and pretend it never happened. In this world, not every debt can be compensated. I am such a petty person, I don't want the compensation from Fang Chongyan.
"It's good that you don't need it, that's good." Fang Chongyan didn't get angry at my rudeness and willfulness. He smiled awkwardly, paused for a few seconds, and asked carefully, "Weiwei , your mother...how is she?"
"What's it got to do with you?" I put down my chopsticks in annoyance, and said in an aggressive tone, "Is it important? Is it important for you to ask me such a question? In your eyes, is mom an important person? You made the choice from the beginning. Since you chose to give up me and mom, why do you have to pretend to be nice and ask us if we are okay now? Whether we are okay or not, it is none of your business anymore."
"Fang Weiyang." Fang Xuyu's tone contained a strong warning.
"And you." I pointed at Fang Xuyu, feeling aggrieved like a tide.
"Watch your wording." Fang Xuyu stared at me and continued to warn me.
"What's wrong? Can't you tell me? I'm going to tell you!" I said in hatred, "Don't you know how much I hated you before? Why did you come back when I almost forgot about you? You leave when you want to, come back when you want to, and you are irresponsible in entering and leaving other people's lives at will. Have you ever thought about my feelings over the years? Fang Xuyu, whose Fang Xuyu are you? What qualifications do you have to point fingers at me? If you can't be your Lu Qiuhai, why do you come to mess with our family? Ridiculous!"
"Why do you do this? Why do you do this?" I couldn't say any more. My throat and mouth felt dry and tears started to fall. I covered my face and cried uncontrollably.
I don’t know why I started crying all of a sudden, and I couldn’t stop crying.
Maybe I've been strong for too long and don't want to endure it anymore, maybe Fang Chongyan's unintentional greeting triggered my resentment and vulnerability, or maybe it's because seeing how harmoniously they are getting along now, I really care and feel jealous.
While we are suffering, they are enjoying themselves. You are an outsider, so why should you dominate my life?
I feel so hateful.
In the quiet restaurant, there was only the sound of the clock on the wall and my crying. Fang Chongyan and Fang Xuyu were both silent. I could feel two pairs of eyes on me.
No one came to comfort me, and no one said a word.
The time seemed as long as a century. They waited until I calmed down before speaking.
"Weiwei, I'm sorry for you." Fang Chongyan looked at me with pity.
"Why are you sorry? Tell me." I sat up straight, looked at his equally red eyes, and asked him mercilessly.
"I'm sorry for you and your mother..." Fang Chongyan said in a hoarse voice.
"What's the use of saying sorry? I hate you!" I was like an angry wasp. In self-defense, I stabbed my poisonous tail into his heart.
There was a shocking . He was about to say something, but his lips moved and no words came out.
"I'm tired, you guys eat." He slowly stood up, dragged the chair back, looked at me, and said softly.
I watched him walk out of the restaurant with heavy steps, walk into the bedroom and close the door. The words he murmured before he disappeared carried a sense of hurt and powerlessness: "Weiwei, don't hate me, Daddy is in trouble..."
He was like an old clock that had been hit, and he sighed sadly. My heart ached, and I looked at his bedroom door with tears in my eyes again.
I just wanted to come and see him and have a good meal. I didn't want things to come to this. I don't want to hurt his feelings.
Fang Xuyu looked at me steadily, neither sad nor happy. I pursed my lips, pulled a few tissues from the table, wiped them carelessly, and prepared to leave.
"Fang Weiyang." He called me.
I stopped and didn't look back.
"I'll pay you back," he said.
His voice was sonorous and powerful.
I sneered, opened the door and walked out.
At that time, I did not understand the weight of that sentence. It was not until many years later, when he was determined to do so, that I realized that it was a promise made with his life.
After returning from Fang Chongyan's house, I would still run into Fang Xuyu on campus. The difference was that we would pretend not to know each other. However, I always wondered why others didn't know the name Fang Xuyu. Later, I learned that Fang Xuyu was the name Fang Chongyan gave him, and his student record and ID card had always used his real name.
The Christmas atmosphere was getting stronger and stronger, and the campus was full of festive atmosphere. My mother and Shen Huai called me several times and said that they planned to spend the New Year in the old house in City C this year and would come here before the New Year. I was surprised by their idea, but I didn't raise any objections.
I went to the library every day to review for the final exam. Yang Liu hated the cold weather and stayed in the dormitory and refused to come out. On Christmas Eve, I received an apple and a card at my usual seat in the library. The pure white card had a champagne rose printed on the cover. I opened it and wrote "Merry Christmas Eve" in pen.
I thought it was from Lin Jiaxuan, so I sent him a text message to say thank you and mentioned that I couldn't spend his birthday with him. Lin Jiaxuan said he had never sent anything and apologized to me. I thought it was a mistake by a classmate, and after waiting for a long time but no one came to claim it, I had no choice but to put it in my bag.
Maybe it’s someone who is silently paying attention to me, I thought narcissistically.
Lin Jiaxuan's birthday was unlucky this year, as it happened to coincide with an important exam for me. He came to get his down jacket, and I asked him to put his scarf back on.
On his birthday, Lin Jiaxuan invited several of his classmates and some friends to sing and drink, and took a lot of photos for me. Looking at the photos of him wearing that scarf and doing all kinds of funny things, I couldn't help laughing out loud.
There was a girl's profile in the photo that caught my attention. I felt like I had seen her somewhere before. When I asked Lin Jiaxuan, he said her name was Zhong Man'er, and she was a friend brought by someone else. He didn't know her well, but he knew she was the daughter of a large company.
Seeing that I was curious, Lin Jiaxuan asked others for a few more front-facing photos of the girl for me. I thought about it for a long time before I remembered that she was the girl who confessed to Fang Xuyu.
I never expected that this girl, whom I only met once, would become the number one executioner of my painful years in the future.
