Chapter 35
Su Yunzhe regretted it. He had overestimated his self-control, forgetting that in front of Shen Yan, his composure was always easily lost and tossed to the dogs.
Seeing Shen Yan’s dazed, delicate appearance at that moment, he felt his mouth dry, and suddenly he didn’t want to go to the company anymore. He wanted to do something else.
Fortunately, reason finally prevailed. He cleared his throat and spoke in a serious tone, “Who said you don’t need to work? Have you forgotten your identity?”
Shen Yan just wanted to sleep and muttered back, “Did I forget to tell you? I inherited a large sum of inheritance. You can fire me, I want to sleep.” After speaking, he flopped back onto the bed.
He wasn’t good at getting up early, and after lying awake all night, he had only fallen asleep when the sky was getting light. Now, it felt like he had just closed his eyes when he was woken up, and his whole body felt uncomfortable.
Su Yunzhe froze for a moment before bending down and gently patting his cheek. “You can’t stay home alone like this. You can sleep in my office. Get up.”
Shen Yan’s mind finally cleared after Su Yunzhe’s relentless efforts. He opened his eyes again, “Why…”
The question never left his lips. He froze, suddenly understanding the meaning in Su Yunzhe’s eyes.
Su Yunzhe was worried about him being alone at home because of what happened last night.
Shen Yan’s heart skipped a beat, and for no reason, he felt a pang of sadness. The drowsiness disappeared in an instant.
He turned over, sat up, curled his legs, and hugged the blanket, looking up at Su Yunzhe with a bright, sunny smile. “Mr. Su, thank you. But I’m fine, really. It was just a sudden incident yesterday. I’ve never encountered something like this, and it took me a while to process it. Now, it’s okay. How about this, if I feel uncomfortable alone, I’ll call you?”
Su Yunzhe didn’t answer.
He wasn’t sure whether Shen Yan was really okay. After all, even he, an outsider, was shocked after hearing the news from last night. How could Shen Yan be unaffected?
As for Shen Yan’s promise to call him if he felt uncomfortable alone, Su Yunzhe didn’t believe it at all.
In fact, Shen Yan rarely contacted him on his own, let alone reach out for help.
Shen Yan, however, was absolutely unwilling to go to the company. He pressed on, “Besides, I don’t want to go. You know how your company people talk about me. I’m in a good mood right now, but who knows if I’ll still feel good after hearing their gossip behind my back? Let me just sleep at home. How about we have lunch together later?”
Shen Yan tilted his head and winked at him, trying to appear cute and charming.
Su Yunzhe looked at the time; lunch wasn’t far off. He compromised, “Fine, sleep some more, don’t overthink things.” He turned to leave, but as he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something and turned back. “About your mother’s situation, should I have someone investigate it?”
Shen Yan, who was about to lie down again, froze, quickly shaking his head. “No need! A friend of my mom knows more about what happened back then than I do. He’s been investigating it all along and hasn’t let me get involved, so Mr. Su, please don’t trouble yourself.”
What a joke. If you investigate, you’ll discover my identity, won’t you?
Last night, lying in bed, Shen Yan regretted every word he had said to Su Yunzhe.
If Su Yunzhe got interested and started investigating, he’d be doomed!
Luckily, Su Yunzhe didn’t insist. He just nodded, “Alright, I’m leaving then.”
“Su Yunzhe!” Shen Yan, relieved, couldn’t help but call him back.
Su Yunzhe raised an eyebrow, looking at him.
Shen Yan smiled, “Drive safely.”
Su Yunzhe froze for a moment, then smiled down at him, “Alright.”
This time, he really left. He didn’t even eat breakfast, as he was running late. He hadn’t expected that waking Shen Yan up would take so long.
There was an important meeting that morning, and he couldn’t afford to miss it.
Fortunately, Shen Yan’s place was not far from the company, only about a twenty-minute drive.
He then spent the entire morning in the meeting room, and it wasn’t finished until after lunch, continuing at 2 PM.
He had already asked his assistant to reserve a restaurant, and during the break, he sent the address to Shen Yan, telling him to arrive at noon.
By the time his meeting ended, Shen Yan hadn’t responded.
So, as soon as he left the meeting room, he immediately called Shen Yan.
The phone was off!
Su Yunzhe furrowed his brows and stared at his phone. After a moment, he suddenly thought of something, heading straight to the underground parking lot and driving toward Shen Yan’s place.
Twenty minutes later, he parked outside Shen Yan’s apartment, knocking on the door repeatedly, but there was no response from inside.
He became impatient, and his knocking grew louder, disturbing the neighbors across the hall.
An elderly woman opened the door, “Young man, stop knocking. The girl left.”
“When did she leave?” Su Yunzhe asked quickly.
“She left early, around 8 AM. You can just call her.”
“Her phone’s off,” Su Yunzhe muttered absentmindedly.
“Oh, did you two argue? Don’t worry, she’s just a girl. You have to coax her. Wait until she cools down, then apologize. Don’t worry,” the old woman, having seen Su Yunzhe around before, mistakenly assumed he was the young girl’s boyfriend and kindly gave him advice.
Su Yunzhe didn’t listen and waved his hand dismissively before heading downstairs.
He cursed himself for being so slow-witted!
Earlier in the morning, when Shen Yan had told him to drive safely, he had even felt a sweetness in his heart, like a wife telling her husband to be careful on his way out after marriage.
Looking back now, Shen Yan finally realized what those words meant—it was a farewell!
Damn it!
Shen Yan, just you wait!
Once I catch you, you’re done for!
I’ve patiently played along with you for this long, and you want to leave me high and dry?
Dream on!
At this moment, Shen Yan had just gotten off the train at Heyang Station. After sneezing several times in a row, he felt a chill despite the hot weather.
He sniffed and suspected that he might have set the air conditioner too low when he went to sleep last night.
Yesterday, when Lawyer Zhou left, Shen Yan had given him the seven property deeds to take back. After all, losing those documents would be troublesome, and since he didn’t have a permanent residence at the moment, keeping them with him wasn’t safe. So, he entrusted them to Zhou and also got back the keys to the house where Wenxin had lived.
He had originally planned to leave H City, but he hadn’t decided where to go yet. After learning the truth about the past, he had decided to come here.
Heyang was a small place with no subway, so after leaving the bus station, Shen Yan took a taxi.
The driver was chatty and went from talking about Heyang’s history to predicting that in the next twenty years, Heyang would become another economic center in the country. He even kept advising Shen Yan to buy property here, claiming it would appreciate many times over in five years.
Shen Yan smiled and nodded, expressing his thanks.
Half an hour later, he arrived at the complex where he owned seven buildings and found the apartment that Wenxin had left for him to stay in.
Standing at the door, ready to enter, Shen Yan suddenly felt a little nervous.
He didn’t even know if he was doing the right thing.
But after reading the notes Wenxin had left, he really wanted to see the place and hoped to find traces of the past.
Finally, he opened the door and stepped inside.
The house, uninhabited for sixteen years, seemed incredibly cold and desolate, even though it had been cleaned recently.
Shen Yan opened all the windows for ventilation and took a look around. The apartment itself was quite nice—good layout, floor, lighting, and even the decoration still looked modern.
According to Lawyer Zhou, Wenxin had specifically left this place for him, and she had personally arranged the renovations.
Everywhere in the house were photos of the original owner from her childhood, as well as mother-and-child portraits.
Shen Yan finally saw what his biological mother looked like. Interestingly, she resembled the image he had pictured in his mind last night.
He stared at the beautiful woman in the photo in a daze, suddenly understanding her intentions.
This place had been prepared by Wenxin for her and her son, as their new home after the divorce.
That’s why she took care of every detail herself.
However, she hadn’t expected the divorce to be so difficult, or even that it would be so hard to take her child away. She could only stay here occasionally, and never had the chance to show her son the new home before she died.
Shen Yan sighed softly, wiped the dust from the photo, and turned to leave.
He felt that coming here might not have been a good idea; the house felt too oppressive, filled with the heartfelt efforts of a mother for her child.
So, he decided to step outside to get some fresh air.
He hadn’t had lunch yet, so he found a place to eat something light before planning to take a walk around the area to see the surroundings.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”
“Sorry, sorry, I’m in a hurry.”
“Just because you’re in a hurry, does that mean you can bump into people? Didn’t you see I was holding a child? Where did the child get hit? Can you take responsibility for that?”
…
As Shen Yan walked along the road, a commotion suddenly broke out behind him. He wasn’t in the mood to watch the scene, so he casually glanced back. It seemed like a middle-aged man had bumped into an elderly woman holding a child, and they were arguing.
Shen Yan thought it was boring and was about to continue walking when he froze. He turned around and, along with the crowd that had gathered, started to watch.
It was clear the elderly woman lived nearby, and the neighbors were helping her. The middle-aged man didn’t want to get involved any further, repeatedly apologizing and even offering to pay for any damages.
In reality, he hadn’t really bumped into the woman, but his willingness to pay showed how eager he was to get out of this situation.
Moreover, Shen Yan didn’t miss the fact that the man kept looking at him, his gaze subtle but deliberate.
As expected, it wasn’t just his imagination. This middle-aged man was following him!
He was wearing a black shirt, jeans, a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a backpack. Shen Yan had seen him at the alley this morning.
At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, assuming he was just a passerby.
But what were the chances that a passerby would come from H City to Heyang today and end up in the same place as him?
Impossible!
So, the man was clearly after him.
Damn it!
Who is this guy? Is he from the Shen family? Or… Duan Yang?
When did he start following him?
Shen Yan’s mind was in chaos. Taking advantage of the elderly woman holding the man back, he turned and squeezed out of the crowd. He flagged down a taxi, and a few blocks later, he got out and switched to another one. He instructed the driver to just drive randomly, anywhere.
The driver, seasoned and unbothered, casually took Shen Yan around all the local sights, showing him the various attractions, and then honestly told him that there was nowhere else to go.
By now, it was getting dark, and Shen Yan didn’t even know where he was. He thought to himself that the man probably didn’t know where he was either.
So, he paid the fare, got out of the taxi, and went into a restaurant for a meal.
While eating, he kept an eye on his surroundings, but he didn’t spot the middle-aged man, which gave him some peace of mind.
He thought to himself that it was probably time for him to leave Heyang. The man had followed him all the way from H City, and that meant he had probably been to Wenxin’s apartment complex as well.
If the man couldn’t find him, he would likely be waiting there at the complex, hoping to catch him.
Shen Yan sighed helplessly in his mind, feeling that life was too difficult!
All he wanted was to be a happy, reclusive homebody.
Why did it feel like everywhere he turned, life was full of schemes and traps?
After finishing his meal, he noticed the restaurant had a nice atmosphere, with few customers around. He took out his laptop to write while also checking his QQ account. To his surprise, he had received a message from a copyright editor, saying that a publisher had shown interest in his book and was willing to cooperate. They asked him to fill out a recommendation form.
Shen Yan was a little surprised. Though his new book had done well in terms of data, it was still only a few tens of thousands of words long.
But since it came from the signing website, it should be reliable. So, he filled out the form and sent it back.
At 10 p.m., he left the restaurant, intending to find a hotel.
To his surprise, in an area full of restaurants and shops, there were very few hotels. He walked a long way but didn’t find anything, and instead, he started to feel like someone was following him.
He kept looking over his shoulder but didn’t see anyone. This only made him more nervous, and he couldn’t help but quicken his pace. Suddenly, he bumped into someone.
He instinctively apologized, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to… ah…”
