The Scorching Sun - 84
Fang Zhuo didn't know whether Yan Chengli had realized his mistake. Probably not. Because the next day, Ye Yuncheng stopped playing games too.
When Fang Zhuo asked him why, Ye Yuncheng was being vague. "Yan Lie's pretty busy today, his gaming schedule isn't exactly fixed... Besides, I don't want to play with Mr. Yan."
He might as well have slapped the word "that noob" across the man's face.
If even Ye Yuncheng couldn't stand it, then that father-son bond was probably already hanging by a thread.
With genuine concern, Fang Zhuo sent her boyfriend a message to ask how things were going.
Yan Lie was deeply troubled.
They Call Me Lie: I've never wanted to study this badly in my life. [Haggard]
Little Sun: ...
They Call Me Lie: [Image] My dad's scores from the first few rounds.
Staring at the spectacular death count, Fang Zhuo could come up with only one assessment:
A father's loving care, a son's filial devotion.
They were both rather pitiful.
Unable to bear it, Fang Zhuo searched online for a while, found a suitable article, and sent it to Yan Chengli, hoping he might yet see the light.
Little Sun: [Link: Ten Major Dangers of Becoming Addicted to Online Games]
Yan Chengli was probably idle too. Five minutes later, he sent her one in return.
Yan Li: [Link: Can Online Games Really Ruin Children? Parents Are the Ones Who Should Reflect!]
Fang Zhuo: "..." Basically, barring a miracle, this man was beyond saving.
He'd be better off studying.
That afternoon, Mother Yan called Yan Lie as usual.
Yan Lie answered distractedly for a couple of exchanges, but when they got to what he planned to eat that evening, he suddenly perked up and said brightly, "I'm going to play games with Dad this afternoon!"
Mother Yan was caught off guard by the abrupt change of subject. "Why are you playing games with your dad? Since when did he start playing?"
"He asked me to teach him." Yan Lie chose his words carefully. "Has Dad been under too much pressure lately? Does he need games to unwind?"
Yan Lie had blocked his dad from seeing his QQ updates, but he hadn't blocked his mom.
She hadn't understood what Yan Lie's earlier complaint was about. Now, with this new information, she put two and two together immediately.
She hurriedly hung up and went looking for Yan Chengli.
Yan Chengli wasn't working at the moment. He was sitting on a little stool on the balcony, watering the flowers. As Mother Yan's sharp footsteps drew closer, he glanced over his shoulder. He could hear the unmistakably hostile rhythm of them. Sure enough, the moment she shoved open the glass door, her signature tone rang out.
"Yan Chengli, what are you doing? Looking for your son to play games with you?"
Yan Chengli said innocently, "What's wrong with playing a few games? I was just worried he'd be bored."
"You think he's bored, so you decided to give him something else to deal with? What's wrong with you?" Mother Yan didn't spare his feelings. "Who wants to carry you through a game? Do you enjoy training new hires at the company? With your skill level, can you even hold your own against those top graduates who've just joined?"
Yan Chengli was rendered speechless. All he could do was glare at her furiously.
The two of them had fought often when they were younger. When things got heated, they'd lose their tempers, throw things, and carry on until the whole house was in an uproar. Now that they were older, they both found it pointless.
Neither of them could ever win an argument, all they accomplished was driving their blood pressure through the roof. At their age, getting sick and ending up in the hospital wasn't nearly as convenient as it used to be.
Mother Yan stood beside him, looking down at him with narrowed eyes. Seeing his stubbornly unresponsive expression, she laughed in exasperation. "Can't you find a game that's suitable for both young and old and not ridiculously difficult? Fight the Landlord. Mahjong. Anything. You know you're making your son hate you, right?"
Yan Chengli looked up, finally enlightened.
"Hm? Fight the Landlord would work!" He set the watering can on the ground, clapped his hands, and sprang to his feet. "We'll get on voice chat and invite Ye Yuncheng too. Let's see what kind of card player he is."
Mother Yan frowned and scrutinized him. Then, with complete sincerity, she said, "Are you sick?"
Yan Chengli waved a hand. "You don't understand. I get it now. When you can't refuse something, you have to learn to convince yourself to accept it."
Mother Yan followed him into the living room, utterly baffled. "There's really nothing wrong with your brain?"
Yan Chengli changed the game he'd arranged with Yan Lie for that afternoon to Fight the Landlord, then contacted Ye Yuncheng and invited him to join them.
This was the worst thing about being under quarantine at home. It was almost impossible to come up with an excuse to get out of anything.
Toward evening, Ye Yuncheng set his phone on the table in the middle of the living room and entered the game room at Yan Lie's invitation.
Yan Chengli made small talk, probing here and there about how things were going in their household, all while losing hand after hand.
Mother Yan watched from the side. His atrocious play was slowly driving her out of her mind. Her expression went from amused interest to speechless disbelief, until she finally couldn't take it anymore and broke the rules of good manners, cutting off his endless chatter with a scornful remark. "How are you this bad? You managed to play the only possible losing hand. Do you even know how to play Fight the Landlord?"
The atmosphere Yan Chengli had painstakingly cultivated was completely destroyed. He snapped, "Can you leave me alone? I could've won!"
Mother Yan tapped her fingers against the screen, outraged as though her dignity itself had been insulted. "You think everyone on the other side is as stupid as you? With that hand, you think you can win? How exactly were you planning to get rid of that pair of sixes?"
"Am I even playing cards?" Yan Chengli screamed inwardly. He was socializing! She'd dragged the whole point of his strategy straight into the gutter!
Mother Yan's voice rose sharply. "If you're not playing cards, are you astral projecting? Don't make excuses just because you lost!"
The two of them started arguing, while Ye Yuncheng awkwardly tried to smooth things over.
After only a few exchanges, the two suddenly fell silent without warning.
The way this married couple interacted was so bizarre, there was simply no way to know how to respond.
Ye Yuncheng sat there in helpless embarrassment. Then, taking a closer look, he realized they hadn't actually called a truce. The voice chat had been turned off.
Yan Lie quietly sent him a message, telling him not to worry about it.
Fang Zhuo pricked up her ears and listened. After a while, through the crack of the open door, she heard Yan Lie's slightly distorted voice message. "Mom, I'm going to look up some materials. You play with Dad for a while. I want to finish the upcoming lessons ahead of time so I can follow along with my advisor's project. I've been a little busy lately."
Mother Yan immediately replied, "Okay, okay. Go on, hurry up. Don't worry about your dad."
Yan Chengli let out a mournful sigh. "Forget it. I won't invite you next time."
"Whatever. As if I care!" Mother Yan's tone shifted, turning gentle. "Xiao Ye, you're really good at cards. Do you know how to play mahjong?"
Ye Yuncheng struggled. "No..."
It wasn't long before Fang Zhuo received a [Confetti] emoji from Yan Lie.
They Call Me Lie: That's my mom!
Little Sun: [Sheepish Grin]
They Call Me Lie: Finally free. I'll read with you for a while.
Little Sun: Okay.
Fang Zhuo wanted to say that this liberation had come at the cost of sacrificing Ye Yuncheng. Mother Yan was already making plans to take him along for mahjong with her girlfriends.
...Hopefully, he'd enjoy it.
?
Some time later, Ye Yuncheng's delivery business resumed.
The two employees he'd hired earlier were still in A City. They felt awkward about continuing to collect a salary without doing anything, the moment he notified them, they said they were ready to get back to work.
And so Ye Yuncheng's shop reopened, this time focusing primarily on delivery.
To ensure food safety, and also because people in the city had become somewhat jumpy about everything lately, Ye Yuncheng stopped using all ingredients that hadn't undergone high-temperature processing. He expanded the variety of braised dishes and added rice bowls, then filmed the entire preparation process and uploaded it to a short-video platform.
At the request of his viewers, he also added drinks such as longan and red-date soup and chrysanthemum tea.
During the time he spent at home over the holiday, Ye Yuncheng had been teaching himself video editing. After systematically studying the editing styles of several popular food bloggers with Fang Zhuo, he decided to give his videos a stronger sense of rhythm. The quality of his short clips improved dramatically, and both his likes and exposure began to stabilize.
After discussing it with Liu Qiaohong, Ye Yuncheng tentatively accepted his first sponsored advertisement. His followers reacted fairly calmly. Some were even happy for him, saying he was finally getting food and hoping he could make it safely through the pandemic.
Ye Yuncheng specifically searched online afterward and discovered that "making money through food" was actually slang for taking advertising deals.
No wonder people in his comments had kept asking when he was going to "get some food." He'd always replied, "I've already eaten," which sent everyone into fits of laughter.
One morning, Ye Yuncheng went out to buy groceries. On his way home, he suddenly sent Fang Zhuo a picture with the message, "Spring's here."
It was a cluster of purple flowers, all bunched closely together. They were tiny things growing by the roadside, the sort you normally passed without noticing.
Fang Zhuo didn't know what they were called, but she thought they were beautiful.
When Ye Yuncheng got home, he parked the little cart by the door, unwound his scarf, and peered inside. Then he called loudly, "Zhuo Zhuo, did you see the picture I took for you?"
Fang Zhuo came out. "I did."
Ye Yuncheng smiled. "Since you can't conveniently go outside, your uncle took a picture for you."
Fang Zhuo helped him put everything away, taking several ice packs out of the little cart.
"I stopped by Lie Lie's place. His parents sent him a whole bunch of things, but his fridge couldn't hold everything, he said half of it was for us." Ye Yuncheng gave an exasperated little smile. "It's all seafood and beef, I don't really know how to cook any of it... This bag looks like dried sea cucumber. I'll look up a recipe online, stew it, and take some over to Lie Lie."
Something about that struck Fang Zhuo as faintly suspicious. Watching him put everything away in the freezer one item at a time, she narrowed her eyes. "Are you already that close with Yan Lie's parents?"
"Can't really say." Ye Yuncheng's back stiffened. His movements became awkward, and he hesitated. "His mother is very warm."
Fang Zhuo's mind was remarkably quick when it mattered. She understood at once. Apparently, this was one of the standard ways an enthusiastic middle-aged woman expressed her friendliness. Curiously, she asked, "Did she introduce you to your future wife?"
Ye Yuncheng said nothing, silently continuing to arrange the groceries.
"That's good." Fang Zhuo's opinion of Aunt Yan suddenly rose several notches. She asked cheerfully, "Did you meet anyone you liked?"
Ye Yuncheng turned around and vigorously ruffled her hair, laughing as he scolded her. "You're worrying about me now? How old are you?"
"You're not getting any younger." Fang Zhuo said it with complete seriousness. "If you had elders around, they'd be pressuring you to get married by now."
Ye Yuncheng asked, "Do you know what it means to pressure someone into marriage? Do you know what the point of it is?"
He closed the freezer door, braced both hands on his knees, and refused Fang Zhuo's offered hand, getting to his feet on his own.
"Even if you are getting older, your uncle isn't going to pressure you into marriage. Marriage is something you absolutely can't settle for. Even the most careless person can't spend decades making do with the wrong person, and doing that would only waste the other person's life too. Some people simply aren't lucky. Your mother, for instance, didn't become happier because of marriage."
"If you never meet someone you truly like, isn't living alone much better than forcing two unhappy people together?"
Ye Yuncheng had had this thought the moment he met Fang Zhuo.
He felt that Fang Zhuo resembled Ye Yaoling in many ways, except that Fang Zhuo was even more independent and withdrawn. She seemed like the sort of person who wouldn't know how to fall in love, and perhaps that meant she wouldn't easily find someone she genuinely liked, either.
He'd imagined that one day, when Fang Zhuo was lost about what to do with her future, he'd be able to play the part of an old father, offering her all the advice he could. He'd tell her all sorts of trivial, fussy things that didn't really matter, the little pieces of wisdom he'd hope she'd come to understand.
"These are the things I wanted to tell you before." Ye Yuncheng met Fang Zhuo's eyes, looking both embarrassed and wistful. "But I guess I won't get much of a chance now."
Because of Yan Lie, he'd lost the right to pressure her into marriage long before he'd ever had the chance to use it.
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