Chapter 88 – Zhou Jinchen opened the door and came in
Warning: This chapter may trigger adverse reactions. If it’s beginning to upset or affect you, we advise that you immediately stop reading.
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An He was bathed in tears all day long and for a time, her mental state was difficult to recover. The Zhou family disliked her for always weeping endlessly yet they couldn’t ask why. However, Zhou Yunshan didn’t want to break off the marriage so the Zhou family had to lock up An He, not letting her show her face to upset people, and the child was also handed over to the babysitter.
However, the paper could not wrap up a fire,1it will burn itself out, as truth will eventually reveal itself despite cover-ups. two years after the birth of An Xumo, Zhou Yunshan was diagnosed with a serious illness. In addition, the hospital also gave another report —— Zhou Yunshan’s sperm lacked vitality, basically, incapable of bearing children.
…… Then whose seed is his child?
The Zhou family exploded at once; they had never experienced such an absurd event before. The identity of He Wenbin was quickly found out; the He family is also a dignified figure in S City. Although they’re not as good as the Zhou family, they’re not as easy to handle as An He’s parents. The Zhou family is treating Zhou Yunshan while pressuring the He family to hand over the person, thus, the two families are at a standstill, and Zhou Yunshan’s health is getting worse day by day in this situation.
In less than half a month in the sickbed, Zhou Yunshan passed away. However, the stalemate between the Zhou family and He family did not end. What the Zhou family did not expect was that Zhou Yunshan had prepared a will behind his family’s back before he died; transferring all his shared and funds to An Xumo’s name, and also notarized them without authorization. The reason why he did this is naturally not how much he loves An Xumo. Zhou Yunshan’s purpose is to leave his assets to He Wenbin so that the other party can escape the responsibility of the Zhou family.
Zhou Yunshan is indeed an infatuated person as the Zhou family said to the public. But his infatuation is only for He Wenbin, one that is blind and absurd. As for the life, death, and attitude of others, he did not consider it at all.
Although they were very annoyed with Zhou Yunshan’s decision, he is after all their own bloodline, and the Zhou family can only turn the accumulated anger to another person. After dealing with the aftermath of Zhou Yunshan, the Zhou family did not follow his words to spare He Wenbin but instead, pressed forward step by step, and ultimately planned. He Wenbin jumped from the scaffolding of the He family’s construction site and was killed on the spot.
The two families, Zhou and He are like water and fire, and they have engaged in a lot of bruising and bone-breaking fights. But the Zhou family did not drive out An Xumo who has the He family’s bloodline. After all, An Xumo still has the shares of Zhou Yunshan which must be waited and can only be signed and transferred until he comes of age.
Another reason is that the He family has only one son of their generation, He Wenbin. After the death of He Wenbin, An Xumo became the only heir. The Zhou family and the He family are incompatible, they will naturally not push out An Xumo for nothing to the He family.
That’s why An Xumo was fostered in Zhou Yunlin’s home, which had only one child.
The Zhou family had to keep An Xumo but they were not so polite to An He. Big families have the best reputation and it’s naturally impossible for them to allow the news of Zhou Yunshan and He Wenbin to come out. As a result, An He was made up as a dissolute woman who trampled on her lover’s infatuation and wanted to have an affair. When the false news spread for a long time, everyone was convinced, and An He who had been used was driven out from the house where her freedom had been restricted before.
The two scums who caused her such a miserable end have died one after another but An He herself hasn’t been able to relax much. She has long been cut off from her previous social circle, has no financial resources, and has no skills. After great difficulty and wandering about, An He finally returned to her hometown. She wanted to slowly recuperate in this remote but simple place where she grew up but in despair, she found that the rumors about her had already spread here.
Her parents thought she didn’t know how to be restrained, making their family lose face, and they didn’t even let her in. The younger brother also shouted at An He through the door, telling her not to come back, less step on the dirty ground at home.
An He couldn’t so she could only wander around again. She sold the only remaining bit of trivial jewelry, supported herself with this money, and went south to work temporarily on the set of the film and television base.
Being an actress was An He’s dream since childhood. If it wasn’t for going astray, perhaps there would have been a small success at this time. But An He was filled with tears all day previously, her looks and charm were not as good as before. She didn’t make it as an actress so she has been running odd jobs on the set.
Later, by chance, An He went to Hollywood with the crew. After filming, she found a way to stay there. Even on the other side of the ocean, she didn’t want to go back to the sad place on that side of the sea.
At this point, An He has already cried and wet two packs of tissues but the makeup on her face hasn’t been wiped off much, her appearance still looks beautiful.
There is always another hand in the camera to help her pass the tissues again. An Xumo listened drowsily but could not even ignore the tone of every word when An He spoke.
For the first time, he despaired so much of his good memory.
“After that, I went with Statham to Hollywood. He’s a producer here, we got married……and had two children.”
An Xumo realized with hindsight, no wonder……there are children’s voices coming over there from time to time.
An He continued, “About six months ago, Zhiwei came to the United States to talk about cooperation. He and Statham have a working relationship and we just happened to meet.”
Since An He graduated from the university, the two had broken off contact. Zhang Zhiwei was unaware of the twists and turns that had happened to An He and was only too excited to catch up with her, and mentioned An Xumo whom he had met in China.
For An He, this child has cast a shadow on her no less than the Zhou family. She didn’t want to tell the dirty truth nor did she want An Xumo to know her news. Therefore, she made up a reason that the child ran back to China in anger to make his debut, saying that An Xumo was most bothered by her interference in his affairs so that Zhang Zhiwei would never mention herself in front of An Xumo.
If it wasn’t for the fact that An Xumo had such an important eighteenth birthday this time, Zhang Zhiwei once again enthusiastically proposed to help resolve the conflict between his senior sister and the child. An He wasn’t able to find a reason to continue to stall but could only contact An Xumo under Zhang Zhiwei’s lead.
“It’s pretty good that you can live independently on your own.” An He reluctantly smiled, “Being an artist, it must be a wonderful life……”
An Xumo stiffened there, not even knowing how to react.
Being angry with the family, said he was annoyed with his parent’s interference……these words, An Xumo has only seen in books and scripts. He did not even dare to look at the narration of the text and had to skim hastily each time.
Moreover, his mother, An Xumo’s mother whom he had not seen in eighteen years, actually made up this reason and placed it on him.
“But I also have something to say to you.” An He’s emotions have slowly calmed down and the tears on her face have been wiped clean. The only thing left on her face is a touch of hesitation, “In the future, on Zhiwei’s side, I will explain it to him. You’d better not get in touch with him anymore.”
An He stiffly pulled out a smile, “Zhiwei was enthusiastic at that time but he did not expect to be able to maintain it when he entered the entertainment industry. But……you’re also an adult and you should understand that. After all, it’s not good to return the favor if you’re helped too many times. Although I helped him at that time, it was all a meal, and now, there is nothing to reciprocate. Over a long period of time, it may not look very good……”
With such sluggish and confused thoughts, nevertheless, An Xumo found that he could still be so clearly aware of the deeper pain stabbed into his heart.
His voice was hoarse as he opened his mouth and said his first words after hearing the truth.
“You think that… I am asking for resources from Teacher Zhang Zhiwei under your banner?”
The thoughts could not run smoothly and it’s difficult for An Xumo to speak as thoughtfully as he always does. But he lost all his strength and he was by no means in a very aggressive tone at this time.
However, on the other side, the screen suddenly flashed. Then, a foreign man with a carefully trimmed ash gray beard appeared on the screen.
He had a cigar in his hand and his face was much harsher than An He’s.
“Watch your language, Mr. Zhou. Is this the tone you should use to talk to your elders?” He understood An Xumo’s Chinese but spoke in English, “An is too embarrassed to speak with you so let me make it clear. We exactly know what your intentions are but I can tell you plainly that I will not help you come to Hollywood and I won’t leave any role for you.”
“The wound you’ve caused to An has still made her difficult to heal and she doesn’t want to see anyone in your family. Even if you’re unwilling to redeem yourselves, don’t keep coming back to hurt her.”
As Statham spoke, An He was already covering her face, crying. The two curly-haired boys ran over, their limbs soft, with round dimples on the back of their exposed hands on the screen. The two small children hugged An He on each side.
“Mom, don’t cry!”
An He wiped her eyes and hugged each of them, “Thank you, my dear boys.”
Their movements came one after another and though most of them were muffled by Statham’s voice, but like the shrill sound of cutting glass, it pierced through An Xumo’s eardrums.
An Xumo’s eyes, ears, and heart flowed with bright red blood and tears, woodenly listening to Statham’s stern proclamations.
“That’s everything. You’re an adult now; you don’t have to play those childish tricks. You owe Zhang a favor and we will pay it back. But in the future, don’t contact Zhang again, and don’t bother An again.”
The screen suddenly darkened and the signal was cut off unilaterally. From beginning to end, An He did not call An Xumo’s name once.
She didn’t show any bit of happiness about this reunion throughout nor did she say sorry for the past ten years or so.
The hot screen reflected An Xumo’s face, the room was brightly lit, yet invisible to the eye.
An Xumo sat on the chair for a long time, as if finally remembering how to move, he stretched out his trembling right hand to his chest.
He pulled the pocket watch down with all his strength, his arm was numb, and his fingertips were sore. The thin chain was forced to tighten but it wasn’t pulled off until the second force, it finally broke feebly in the air.
The broken long-chain scattered down, stained with some blood.
The arm’s movement was so large that it knocked off the penholder next to the table, five or six pens were scattered on the ground, brightly reflecting the light.
An Xumo took off the pocket watch with a mini-photo and dropped it from the palm of his hand as if he had been scalded. He just didn’t hear the sound, but now, when he looked down, he found that several pens had fallen on the ground.
He stared blankly at it for a long time, he supported himself on the table with his palm, squatted down slowly, and picked up the pens scattered everywhere, one by one.
One, two, three……
An Xumo put all the pens in the penholder but could not count the last number.
One, two, three……
It suddenly occurred to him that this was the third time.
When he was first used by his brother for the publicity program, An Xumo had made a promise to himself not to be delusional and not make the same mistake again.
It’s only been a few days?
It’s only been a few days?!!
Why, why does he still dare to dream?!
Mom, mom, mom! An Xumo shouldn’t have had illusions about that word long ago but what did he do? He bit the title in his mouth, his heart hung on this picture, he dreamed of this person, and then he deserved it, having every bone broken by these two words.
An Xumo stood by the table, stepping on the pocket watch under his feet. His insides twisted into a knot, his vision turned blood-red.
Why does he still dare to dream? Why is he still alive?
If a person’s birth brings endless suffering to others.
If a person’s birth suffers from endless white eyes2indicates looking down on people or not being satisfied with them.of the people around him.
The blood flow spread around his feet, flowed out at his fingertips, wet his chest, and poured into his twitching throat ——
“Knock, knock, knock.”
A dull knock on the door suddenly interrupted the deathly silence in the room.
The office light was on, and soon the door was pushed open by a hand.
A slender, familiar figure walked in.
After asking Tang Tang, Zhou Jinchen learned where An Xumo was, and only then did he make a special trip to Jin Dian.
They would see each other at intervals like this before but this time, Zhou Jinchen had a very different feeling.
He looked at An Xumo standing at the table, his voice was still low and melodious but there was some imperceptible tension in his tone.
“Xiao Mo.”
Zhou Jinchen said, “I have something I want to talk to you about.”
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The author has something to say:
The four sons of the previous generation of the Zhou family are named after the sound of “Feng Lin Volcano”.
The eldest: Zhou Yunfeng;
The second: Zhou Jinchen’s father — Zhou Yunlin;
The third: Zhou Yunhua;
The fourth: An Xumo’s nominal father — Zhou Yunshan
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Jie Jie: I—
Wow, not even caring to say a word to the child that had nothing to do with anything other than being born. Just wow.