Chapter 26

After calming down for a while, Gu Chen took out his phone and called Father Gu.

Chapter 26

The ringtone sounded only once before the call was answered eagerly. "Hello? Is that Chenchen?"

Gu Chen was caught off guard. After a moment of silence, he finally spoke with difficulty. "Dad!"

After a pause, Gu Chen asked, "How did you know it was me?"

"The caller ID said it was from City A! Your dad isn't stupid. We don't have any relatives in City A. Other than you two brats, who else would be calling home?" Father Gu's booming voice came through the receiver. "You little brat, did you go crazy having fun in the big city? It's been over half a month, and you didn't even call home to let us know you were safe. Do you know how worried your mother and I have been?"

Before Gu Chen could reply, Father Gu asked again, "Is this phone number your classmate's? Why didn't you call from the dorm landline? Were you worried your mother and I would check up on you?"

"No." Gu Chen pressed his lips together. The moment he spoke that first word, he seemed to hear the sound of memories shattering beside his ear. His thoughtless, immature words and the remorse that had been cut off by life and death came rushing in like a surging tide, swallowing Gu Chen whole in an instant.

The chaotic noise in his ears seemed to remind Gu Chen what kind of rotten person he had once been—someone blamed and cursed by countless people, who had ultimately lost everything.

"...I was just joking. Don't be nervous!" Father Gu laughed heartily. "Your mother and I aren't the kind of old-fashioned parents who check up on you every day and make things difficult for you. At most, we'll call once a week to ask how things are going. So be good and give me the dorm phone number!"

Gu Chen came back to himself. "This number is mine. I found a part-time job here. I can make a lot of money. From now on, you and Mom won't have to send me living expenses anymore."

"You just started university. What kind of good part-time job could you possibly find?" Father Gu said dismissively. "Your mother and I worked so hard to send you two brothers to A University, not so you could work in a big city. Don't worry about living expenses. Your job is to study hard."

After a pause, Father Gu asked, "Isn't the money enough?"

Worried that the cost of living in City A would be high, Father Gu and Mother Gu had originally set the boys' monthly living expenses at fifteen hundred yuan each. Later, they worried that the boys had just started university and would have many things to spend money on, so less than a week later, they transferred another thousand yuan. They simply didn't want their children to be tight-fisted with money or looked down upon by their classmates.

Two thousand yuan for each child meant four thousand yuan a month. Add tuition and accommodation fees, and it came to more than sixty thousand yuan a year. The Gu Family was an ordinary working-class family. Father Gu earned twenty to thirty thousand yuan a month as a carpenter, while Mother Gu was an elementary school teacher whose fixed annual salary amounted to only a few tens of thousands. Supporting two children through university while saving up to buy them marital homes was indeed a strain. But no matter how difficult it was, they could not let their children suffer.

Father Gu figured that, at worst, he could take on a few more jobs and work a few extra hours into the night. It was cool at night anyway, so the work would not be too grueling. It would just mean less time at home with his wife.

"But it's all right. Your mom said she wants to secretly tutor a few students at home too, to earn some extra tutoring fees."

Hearing Father Gu's words, Gu Chen could not help thinking of his previous life. Mother Gu had secretly tutored children to help support the family, only to be reported to the Education Bureau. Not only was she publicly criticized, she even lost her job. Mother Gu fell seriously ill because of it. But at the time, Gu Chen had nearly gone mad from his company's bankruptcy. Instead of understanding Mother Gu's grievance, he had blamed his parents for being useless, for throwing away the watermelon to pick up sesame seeds over a little money, for only causing him trouble and making him lose face.

Once again, Father Gu and Mother Gu's disbelieving faces appeared before him. He seemed to hear Father Gu, tears streaming down his face, frantically slapping himself while cursing, "It's because I'm useless. I can't make big money, so you mother and son have to suffer and be looked down on. It's all my fault!"

Yet in the end, the old couple who never stopped blaming themselves for their incompetence still sold their hometown house and took the 1.2 million yuan they had saved over a lifetime north to City A, hoping to help their son solve his broken cash flow.

But they were caught in a car accident on the way, separated from him forever. Gu Chen's apology remained stuck in his throat, never to be spoken again.

Gu Chen took a deep breath, wishing he could go back to that time and slap himself hard twice. "Dad, I'm sorry."

"Why are you suddenly apologizing?" Father Gu was baffled. "Did you get into trouble at school, kid?"

"No." Gu Chen shook his head. "Anyway, you and Mom must not work overtime. Don't work so hard. I have enough money."

Gu Chen's Adam's apple bobbed. He steadied his choked-up emotions before continuing, "And this part-time job pays really well. I'm selling houses at a sales office. I can earn tens of thousands from selling one unit. Last weekend, I sold two houses. The commissions alone came to nearly 140,000 yuan."

Father Gu was startled. "What kind of houses pay that much? You haven't been scammed, have you?"

"A new Great Zhou World development in City A." To put Father Gu at ease, Gu Chen patiently explained, "You know Great Zhou World, right? It's a Fortune Global 500 company, very impressive. This development is a luxury residential complex their group only launched this year. A single unit costs thirty to forty million yuan paid in full. I get a three-thousandths commission."

Father Gu clicked his tongue in amazement. "As expected of City A. There really are a lot of rich people."

He had not managed to save even a million yuan in his entire life, while others spent thirty or forty million yuan on a single home.

Father Gu said, "But don't just think about making money. Study hard. Selling houses only earns you a few tens of thousands right now. If you study well and find a good job in the future, you'll be able to buy a house worth thirty or forty million too. Understand?"

Father Gu believed firmly in one principle: "Study hard, become an educated person, and work for a big company in the future."

"Mm, I understand." Gu Chen was a little choked up.

Father Gu sensed that something was off. "What's wrong with your throat? Your voice doesn't sound right. Did some classmates bully you two?"