DLRAS Chapter 121

Chapter 121: Some of Huo Niansheng’s perspectives.

When the door to the private room was pushed open, Yu Shanding had just opened a bottle of red wine.

He looked up to see Huo Niansheng striding inside, planting himself in the opposite sofa with a grand, imposing air.

“Renovating?” Huo Niansheng asked.

The boss flashed a modest smile. “The original style hasn’t been popular for years. I figured I’d just tear it down and redo it.”

“You’re willing to go through with that, former boss? Think of how much revenue you’ll lose while you’re closed.”

“Eh, it’s just following what the big bosses like. I’m just tossing money around and messing about.”

The several floors of the Medusa Nightclub were under construction—empty and devoid of customers. Huo Niansheng didn’t pay much mind to it. A famous player like him hadn’t set foot in any nightclub or bar for a long time; if it weren’t for discussing business, even Yu Shanding wouldn’t have been able to call him out.

Yu Shanding poured the wine into two stemmed glasses and pushed one toward Huo Niansheng.

Huo Niansheng picked it up and, lacking the patience for delicate sipping, finished it in one gulp.

Under the lights, Yu Shanding studied this “noble person.” Years ago, when his capital chain broke and he was on the verge of bankruptcy, he had lowered his status, flattering second-generation rich kids even younger than himself, hoping to get lucky. That was when he had first latched onto Huo Niansheng.

He was lucky; it later proved he had backed the right person. Huo Niansheng wasn’t just some hollow shell; he possessed both ability and depth. With Huo Niansheng’s capital injection, Yu Shanding’s company was brought back from the brink of death. Thus, the title “President Huo” became something he could shamelessly call out, yet with genuine sincerity.

They had known each other for countless years. Compared to back then, Huo Niansheng didn’t look much different—good genes, innate physical advantages from birth, and a life of pampered luxury. No matter when you looked at him, his every gesture still carried that air of a young master.

However, over the past few years, Yu Shanding had clearly sensed an accumulation of a certain kind of weariness between his brows. It was ironic; most people’s weariness stemmed from worrying about food and clothing, or from business failures like Yu Shanding’s in the past.

Huo Niansheng, meanwhile, was clearly lacking for nothing.

To put it bluntly, even if he spent his life eating, drinking, and womanizing, he had enough money to squander until he was eighty. It wasn’t that Huo Niansheng had actually picked up these vices; on the contrary, in some ways, he could be called clean. He didn’t touch men or women; all his stumbles happened over one person who couldn’t be mentioned casually—that person was quite simply his Waterloo.

Yu Shanding poured him a bit more wine and asked, “How is the one at home?”

Huo Niansheng rested his fingers against the rim of the glass and leaned back. “His mood has been a bit better lately. At any rate, the medication has been stopped.”

Yu Shanding asked, “Still cooped up at home all the time? People will get sick being stuck inside. You should bring him out for a stroll occasionally.”

Huo Niansheng said, “I coax him every day, but he’s not willing.” He even asked Yu Shanding for advice: “How do you usually take your child out?”

Yu Shanding thought to himself that Huo must be truly desperate to be seeking advice from him. Just then, his daughter called. The father’s expression instantly softened, and his voice became doting. Yu Shanding had originally been a man who passed through many flowers, but later, a young girlfriend he was dating became pregnant. Both of them had been “players,” looking for a bit of irresponsible fun together, but for some reason, his heart had moved, and he asked if they should get married.

And so, he settled down and had the child.

Perhaps when people reach middle age, thoughts of settling down arise naturally. Perhaps it happens in a flash, or perhaps it lingers and grows in the heart. Yu Shanding didn’t know if Huo Niansheng had ever had such a thought.

To onlookers, it only seemed like he was hanging from one tree, yet never succeeding, the two of them fruitlessly tormenting each other. Huo Niansheng watched him hang up the phone. “Your daughter?”

Yu Shanding rubbed the back of his head. “Wow, her energy is terrifying. A little girl, yet every day she wants to play ‘horse and soldier’.”

“Isn’t it a good thing she’s lively? Why aren’t you happy?”

“You have to see how she plays ‘horse and soldier’. She’s riding her old man, me.”

Huo Niansheng took his phone and swiped left and right to look at a couple of photos. The chubby little girl was carved from the same mold as her father, laughing until her eyes disappeared. He handed the phone back to Yu Shanding. “Quite cute. Since you’re a father, take more responsibility.”

Yu Shanding ventured to advise him: “And you? Have you never considered settling down or something?”

Huo Niansheng didn’t take it in. “If you ask me to settle down, what happens to him?”

They kept circling back to the same topic. Yu Shanding sighed inwardly, even wondering if this man had been put under a spell.

“I’ll say something unpleasant—you know I have no ill intent—I just genuinely feel that dragging things on like this isn’t a solution. You’ve taken care of him for so long; you’ve done everything that could be expected. Three years, five years—even a stone should have warmed up by now. But when does this ever end?”

“Has time passed that quickly?” Huo Niansheng didn’t get angry; he made a horizontal gesture in the air. “Do you know? When I first met him, he was only this tall. Not even ten years old—probably nine—still wearing his primary school uniform.”

He didn’t say the name, but Yu Shanding suddenly realized that this was likely the first time Huo Niansheng had opened up about the past. At the very least, he would probably never speak of these things to anyone else again.

“I saw him at the Zheng household. My aunt invited me over, but like everyone else, I was harboring a bit of a desire to watch the commotion. Well, I saw the show. I wasn’t originally into kids—I found them annoying, whether they were screaming or crying, wanting this or that. Then I suddenly met one who was actually obedient and well-behaved, and it seemed quite fun. I still remember him following behind the adults, never leaving their side, but when he was told to stay by the wall, he stayed there obediently. It was a bit like the feeling of watching Harley when he was a puppy; very cute.”

“That’s early. How many years ago was that?” Yu Shanding was secretly amazed. “And then?”

“And then nothing much. He was someone else’s child, and I couldn’t very well live at the Zheng house all day watching him. But two years later, I ran into him on the street. Guess what he was doing? He was waiting for the bus by himself under the scorching sun. Did the Zheng family not give him a car? I realized then that when this child suffered, he wouldn’t speak of it; he would only bottle it up inside. His personality is like dough—anyone can knead it however they like. I didn’t know if living in such a large family was fortunate or unfortunate.”

“Of course, I was being arrogant to think that. As it turned out, I messed up even sooner than he did. Actually, regarding Huo Yingfei’s incident—if I had stubbornly refused to admit it in front of my grandfather, I didn’t necessarily have to go abroad. At the time, I just felt it was meaningless and was too lazy to argue, so I just walked away. Staying in the country meant having to calculate against the whole family and exchange eye-rolls; it was better to go live by myself and be free.”

“But everything has its pros and cons. Once I left, my connection to this side was severed. When I returned to the country, I saw him at the Zheng house again. He was already going through puberty and had become sensible. The cold look he gave me was like he was treating me as a villain. It wasn’t strange; he was with Zheng Yucheng every day. The two of them were childhood sweethearts—if he didn’t listen to Zheng Yucheng, who else would he listen to?”

“Wait, now that you put it that way, I’m slowly putting it together,” Yu Shanding said. “I remember those two even had a thing for a while.”

“They did. Actually, I heard they were together after I returned to the country. We already knew each other then, during the time we were negotiating business in Zhangcheng. I couldn’t understand it—that child who was so obedient when he was little, where did he get the guts to be so rebellious? That young master Zheng Yucheng doesn’t know the sufferings of the world. He hadn’t grasped any power or money; what kind of responsibility could he have? What kind of good ending could come from getting entangled with him?”

“Oh, oh, that time,” Yu Shanding recalled. “I truly couldn’t tell you had such complex thoughts.”

“I have plenty of thoughts. I even thought I could break them up,” Huo Niansheng scoffed. “He really took me for a villain, hiding wherever I went, avoiding me at all costs. Thinking back, for young couples like that, the more opposition they get from outsiders, the more they feel their love is rock-solid. Once nobody was left to stand in their way, they would start arguing and breaking up on their own.”

“So I just stopped caring. Let them talk. Didn’t they think I was a villain? If I don’t interfere, that should be fine. Some crossroads must be walked so you can stumble; only when you know the pain do you realize the path is impassable. I thought if he suffered a few bumps and bruises, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing—at worst, he’d suffer a little heartbreak, see things clearly for himself early on, and once he cried it out, he’d move on.”

The smile on his lips gradually faded.

Yu Shanding lowered his voice with regret. “Sigh…”

Huo Niansheng continued, “So, you can’t imagine what it felt like when I saw him covered in wounds.”

He paused, his knuckles tapping lightly against the rim of the glass. “I had spent such a short time with him, and I knew what he was like before—diligent, ambitious, smart, and exceptionally gentle when he smiled at people… That such a person could be destroyed like that is heart-wrenching. I couldn’t imagine Zheng Yucheng being so useless, but it was already too late to say anything. As for myself, it would be a lie to say I don’t regret it. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the chance to stop all of this, but I was negligent. These are debts I owe him.”

Yu Shanding tried to console him. “In these matters, no one has the gift of foresight. You had already asked your lawyer to help him out at the time.”

Huo Niansheng, for once, didn’t look mocking and didn’t argue. “Forget it, no need to say any more about that. Then came these past years—seeing doctors, treating illnesses. Not a part was broken, then another part was broken. I only had one thought: just let him get better. As long as he’s healthy, anything else is fine. At first, I thought he needed me and couldn’t live without me. But the longer time went on, the more I discovered that I was the one who needed him and couldn’t live without him. And the longer it went on, the more I lamented—how could I have failed to protect him when I should have? This has become a demon in my heart. So, I don’t know if there’s any way to resolve things between us in this lifetime.”

Yu Shanding stared at him in shock. “Ah, so you are…”

Huo Niansheng scoffed at his stubbornness. “Can’t you tell? I love him.” He said, “The magazines mock me, saying my feelings for him are ‘true love.’ Mocking is mocking, but haven’t you ever thought that what they’re saying might be the truth?”

Yu Shanding couldn’t speak.

For a moment, he even felt a sense of life’s vicissitudes. Perhaps he really was getting old, and Huo Niansheng was aging too—both of them were nearing forty, after all. He had taken care of the other person for seven years, yet still hadn’t received a response. Despite all the twists and turns, he remained trapped in the same spot, spinning in circles.

How many seven years does a person have in their life? When would he finally get his wish?

The signal of aging isn’t necessarily wrinkles or gray hair. Perhaps, like them, when one starts to ramble about the past, the ruthlessness of time is already revealed.

Huo Niansheng put the stemmed glass back on the table. “Book a guest room for me. I’ll stay here for the night. Your place is closer to the hillside villa, and tomorrow I’ll have my driver come pick me up.”

Yu Shanding readily agreed. “No problem.”

He thought for a moment, then asked, “By the way, are you all going out to sea next month?”

Huo Niansheng said, “Yes, but it won’t be for many days. I should be back very soon. If he needs anything in the meantime, I’ll have the nanny call you. Sorry to trouble you, Boss Yu, to keep an eye on things.”

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