Chapter 60: The Dust-Covered Treasured Boy
Chapter 60: The Dust-Covered Treasured Boy
He opened the door and entered the house. Li Zian walked on tiptoe, afraid of making any noise that might wake Lin Shengnan.
Elderly people woke up easily at night; even a small sound could rouse them.
Li Zian headed toward his room but stopped when he passed the staircase.
He had gone out for a walk, but the thorn in his heart was still there. Earlier, when he met Kang Haichuan, went to the bar to find Kang Xin, and later broke down the door to rescue Kang Xin, he hadn’t thought about that matter. But now, he suddenly remembered it again.
Who was the person in Yu Meilin’s heart?
Li Zian lifted his foot to step onto the staircase, but his back foot did not follow; he lowered it again.
He did not have a key. Going up would be useless.
“Yu Meilin either carries the key with her or hides it somewhere in the house. I’ll try to find it. If I can’t find it, I’ll think of another way,” Li Zian decided in his heart. Then he started searching for the key in the living room.
He carefully opened every drawer he could pull open. Nothing.
He looked in every place where a key could be hidden. Still nothing.
Li Zian sat down on the sofa in frustration and couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.
This was his home, yet he was rummaging around like a thief looking for a key his wife had hidden. And his wife didn’t just have one lock. The door to her bedroom could be opened with a key, but what could unlock the lock on her heart?
After sitting idly for a few minutes, Li Zian got up and went to the balcony. He looked up at the sky.
Through Star Observation, he had helped Yu Meilin find a mineral vein. He probably could find a key too.
That’s what he thought, but the weather was bad tonight. The night sky was pitch black; not a single star was visible.
He returned to the coffee table, picked up a drawing book and a pencil that Li Xiaomei had left there, closed his eyes, and scribbled on the drawing book randomly.
Whether it was Star Observation or reading fortunes for people, there was actually a rule: when his thoughts focused on a certain direction or a certain matter, the result he got would also head in that direction or pertain to that matter.
This was related to the Great Sluggish Cauldron, and the Great Sluggish Cauldron was part of his body.
For now, he only knew this much. The Great Sluggish Cauldron was still a mysterious presence to him. He had no idea how it existed inside his body or what it would ultimately bring him. Everything was unknown.
One minute later, Li Zian stopped the pencil in his fingers.
A pattern resembling a ball of yarn appeared on the drawing book. It was round after round, drawn in one continuous line, with many overlapping lines. There seemed to be no hints. But the image that appeared in his mind was not this; hidden among those chaotic, disordered lines was the pattern of a vase.
The Great Sluggish Cauldron emitted a wisp of green smoke, and a Hexagram Interpretation appeared.
The past is sealed in a porcelain vase, childhood sweethearts never meet again. If you ask what love is, the innocence of two children is the most bitter.
The Hexagram Interpretation was almost instantly solved.
The key is in the porcelain vase.
Li Zian stood up and quickly scanned the living room with his eyes. He soon locked onto his target.
It was a vase placed in the foyer, white with dried flowers stuck in it. There were two larger ones in the living room, nearly one and a half meters tall. But Yu Meilin definitely wouldn’t hide the key in such a large vase. She needed to open the door when she returned, and retrieving a key from such a big vase would be very troublesome.
Li Zian approached the foyer, removed the dried flowers from the vase, picked up the vase, and turned it upside down. A key fell out.
Master’s Divination was all practical.
Li Zian put the vase back on the table, inserted the dried flowers into it, then took the key and went upstairs.
Again, he walked on tiptoe.
In his heart, Li Zian was also mulling over one line of the Hexagram Interpretation: “Childhood sweethearts never meet again.” Could it be that the person in Yu Meilin’s heart was someone she knew since childhood? Then what am I? A substitute?
The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt.
Li Zian stopped in front of Yu Meilin’s bedroom door. He inserted the key and gently turned it.
Click.
The door opened.
Li Zian pushed the door open and walked in.
A faint fragrance wafted into his nose; it was Yu Meilin’s scent.
The bed was a double bed, but Li Zian had never slept in it. There was only one pillow on the bed; no pillow had been prepared for him.
They really were a plastic couple.
This bedroom was the master bedroom. It was very spacious, about forty to fifty square meters. It had a bathroom, a walk-in closet, a separate balcony, and under one window stood a dressing table with many cosmetics on it.
Li Zian quickly chose his target. He went to the dressing table and searched drawer by drawer.
Pulling open the middle drawer of the dressing table, Li Zian saw a small photo album that looked old. He took out the photo album and opened it to look.
He saw a photo of a young couple and a little girl. The young man was Yu Taishan in his youth. Although he hadn’t met the young woman before, he could tell at a glance from her appearance that she was Yu Meilin’s deceased mother. She was very beautiful, looking like Lin Daiyu from the 1987 version. She had both beauty and grace; no wonder she could give birth to a daughter like Yu Meilin.
Yu Taishan was also very handsome in his youth, but perhaps due to preconceived notions, after seeing this Family Portrait, Li Zian actually felt like a fine cabbage had been eaten by a pig.
He continued flipping through.
The photo album contained pictures of Yu Meilin growing up from a little girl. A small girl gradually grew into a graceful young woman.
He had flipped through almost half the album. Among so many people from the Yu Family, Li Zian only saw photos of Yu Taishan and Lin Shengnan, and they were few. Yu Taishan only appeared in that Family Portrait of the family of three, and there were only two photos of Lin Shengnan.
It wasn’t hard to see that Yu Meilin also had unresolved issues with the Yu Family.
After flipping a few more pages, a photo came into Li Zian’s view.
It was a photo of Yu Meilin wearing a middle school uniform, together with a male classmate. The smile on Yu Meilin’s face was like a flower blooming under the sunlight. The male classmate had delicate features, a face with strong dimensions, and eyes with a slight blue tint. He looked like a mixed-race boy.
The background of the photo was a school.
“Childhood sweethearts never meet again. Could it be referring to this kid?” Li Zian stared at the mixed-race youth in the photo, feeling an inexplicable pang of jealousy, but soon laughed again.
The two people in the photo weren’t even holding hands; they both stood properly for the photo. Moreover, judging by the school uniforms and ages of Yu Meilin and the mixed-race boy, it was probably taken during middle school. At that stage, both were just kids, merely innocent and unaware. When he was in middle school, he also liked a girl and even passed her notes. Could he be said to have cheated?
Maybe it wasn’t this mixed-race boy.
Li Zian continued flipping through, and several more photos of that mixed-race boy appeared.
It really was him.
If it wasn’t, why would Yu Meilin keep so many photos of that guy?
More importantly, as he grew older, the mixed-race boy became more and more handsome. Eventually, he even had a bit of the looks and charm of Leonardo from his Titanic era.
“Wow, so handsome?” Li Zian felt threatened for the first time.
Girls all liked handsome boys.
An ugly guy who wanted to chase the girl he liked didn’t know how much effort he had to put in, and most of the time, he would still fail. But a handsome guy only needed his face.
Back then, when Yu Meilin recruited him to marry into her family, wasn’t it also because he was handsome?
That mixed-race boy was so handsome at a young age. And from the shooting times of the photos, Yu Meilin had been his classmate for at least five or six years. Dripping water can wear through stone, let alone having a young girl in her blooming years face a mixed-race version of Leonardo every day?
Yu Meilin and that mixed-race boy had been together for such a long time. Although he had been married to Yu Meilin for four years, the total time they spent together probably wasn’t even as much as what those two had in a week. Looking at it this way, no wonder Yu Meilin couldn’t forget this person in her heart, couldn’t let go of this person.
Li Zian flipped one more page.
A graduation photo came into Li Zian’s view. It was Yu Meilin’s high school graduation photo. Because of her height, she stood in the back row, and that mixed-race kid stood right beside her. Their looks were both so high, matching in every aspect. They were simply a perfect golden couple.
He flipped a few more pages.
The photos in the album changed to those from Yu Meilin’s university days. She attended Tsinghua University, the most prestigious university in Huaguo. Her appearance in photos from this period was almost no different from her current self, just slightly more youthful.
Li Zian flipped to the last page. There were no more photos.
However, something seemed to be hidden inside the album’s cover. The plastic covering was slightly bulged.
Li Zian reached out and smoothed open the plastic covering, taking out another photo.
It was still that mixed-race guy. He was no longer the immature boy. He wore a military uniform, stood straight and tall, full of vigor and spirit. His blue eyes held a deep gaze, as tempting as a beach under the sunlight.
The background of the photo was a university.
Li Zian spelled out the school name on the gate: The United States Military Academy. That was the West Point Military Academy, the top military academy in the world.
Even in the United States, only children from elite families had the chance to enter West Point Military Academy. That school trained many political and military leaders and scientists for the United States. That mixed-race boy could study at this school; his family must be extraordinary, and he himself was quite outstanding.
“Is my love rival an American General?” Li Zian laughed mockingly.
The previous photos of the mixed-race boy didn’t make him feel too uncomfortable, but this one did. It wasn’t because of the guy’s unusual family background, nor because he was handsome enough, but because Yu Meilin not only hid this guy’s photos but also kept this guy in her heart.
Most importantly, the shooting date of this photo was February 14, 2018. That day was Valentine’s Day in the West. When this guy took this photo, Li Zian had already been married to Yu Meilin for two years. At that time, he was probably picking vegetables in the private plot, preparing to take them home to cook for Lin Shengnan, right?
No wonder Yu Meilin was so cold to him. With a handsome childhood sweetheart from West Point Military Academy hidden in her heart, who would still look favorably upon a rustic mountain boy?
True love?
Don’t talk nonsense.
His marriage with Yu Meilin was originally a transaction under special circumstances.
Li Zian turned the photo over and saw a sentence.
I will never forget the wonderful times we spent together. Meilin, how have you been?
Signed, Hank Baynes.
Li Zian frowned. “Sending a photo on Valentine’s Day? This is openly trying to seduce my wife. Two years ago, I couldn’t do anything to you. If you dare come again now, I’ll beat the hell out of you.”
This thought didn’t make him feel any better.
Thinking again about his marriage with Yu Meilin, a layer of dust had settled over the plastic.
He took out his mobile phone and took a picture of the photo. Then he placed the photo back inside the plastic covering of the album, put the album back into the drawer, and finally closed the drawer.
The drawer was closed, but the knot in his heart was opened.
Four years ago, you saw me as a substitute and recruited me to marry into your family.
Four years later, I followed you out of the mountains. Our child is already three years old. Yet, you still hide someone in your heart and won’t share a room with me.
And what I want to tell you is: four years ago, you looked down on me. Today, you are not worthy of me!
Would Li Zian lack women?
I won’t play this self-torturing game with you anymore.
Do whatever you want!
Li Zian turned and left Yu Meilin’s bedroom.
He returned the key, went back to his room, lit incense, and went to sleep.
Great Slumber Qi Refining Art. Sleeping was also Cultivation.