Chapter 4

The youth, so beautiful it was impossible to tell male from female, sat high atop the wall, looking down at the gang of jeering punks below and sneering, "...You want to teach me a lesson? You think you're worthy?"

When Pei Yan saw that scene, it felt as though someone had struck his heart hard. Even now, Pei Yan still remembered Cheng Yu twirling a knife as he mocked them, looking arrogant beyond all measure.

Oddly enough, Cheng Yu had inherited Chen Lingyun's looks. His features were soft, his face exquisitely handsome. At Cheng Yu's age especially, such looks would normally carry a hint of feminine delicacy.

But no one who knew Cheng Yu would ever associate him with anything like "effeminacy." His temper was simply too explosive, his presence too overwhelming. He was domineering in every aspect of life. After watching him for so many years, Pei Yan had only ever seen Chen Lingyun, the formidable businesswoman even his father admired, keep Cheng Yu in check. Yet as Cheng Yu gradually grew older, even Chen Lingyun often found herself outmatched by him.

Pei Yan had often been curious too. He could not understand why this mother and son were always at each other's throats, like enemies. He only knew that Cheng Yu had grown up with his maternal grandparents and had not been brought back to Yanjing by Chen Lingyun and Cheng Kaiyun until he was six. They had originally wanted him to attend elementary school in Yanjing, but Cheng Yu took advantage of their inattention, secretly bought a train ticket, and ran back to his hometown. Chen Lingyun and her husband had been terrified, thinking he had been abducted by traffickers. Cheng Shao had come home from school, failed to find his younger brother, and burst into tears, running to Pei Yan's house to beg Pei Zhennan for help finding him.

The adults from both families called the police and pulled every string they could. It was not until two days later that they received a call from Cheng Yu's hometown, saying he had secretly gone back. Chen Lingyun was so furious that she abandoned her business affairs and flew all the way there just to grab Cheng Yu and give him a beating. After that, Cheng Yu stayed in his hometown for elementary school. He was only brought back to Yanjing for middle school, along with his maternal grandparents.

Pei Yan could understand Cheng Yu's dependence on his grandparents, but he could not understand why Cheng Yu hated his mother so much. Like their fight this time—it had started because Pei Yan had casually said, "You're only always making Auntie angry because you're too stubborn. If you held yourself back even a little, Auntie wouldn't scold you every day."

Pei Yan did not know exactly which nerve those words had struck, either. But he felt that, having nearly lost his life over that remark, he had the right to get to the bottom of it. He could not have fallen into the water for nothing. At the very least, he ought to understand Cheng Yu's past.

Cheng Yu lifted his eyes and glanced at Pei Yan. His eyes resembled Chen Lingyun's: classic phoenix eyes, hooked at the inner corners and lifted at the outer ones, with long, narrow tails. Whenever he looked at someone with a straight face, he appeared rather fierce. Yet beneath that fierceness was a vivid, captivating gleam in his eyes. Every time, it left Pei Yan's heart pounding and his mouth dry, making him unable to resist moving closer to coax him.

This time was no exception.

Pei Yan put on a fawning smile and carefully tried to placate him, admitting defeat while acting cute. "Well, I'm just curious. We've known each other for so many years, but I don't know anything about your past. Your brother never talks to me about it either. He says he has to respect your privacy... Just tell me, okay?"

Cheng Yu stared fixedly at Pei Yan. His face was expressionless, his eyes cold as stars. After a long while, just as Pei Yan was beginning to consider backing down, Cheng Yu slowly said, "Do you know where my name came from?"

Pei Yan perked up at once and immediately replied, "Of course I do. Yu means literary talent, refined taste, elegant speech, good breeding, and abundance. It's a nice name. I heard your grandfather gave it to you."

"I was supposed to be called Cheng Yu. Yu as in superfluous." Cheng Yu lowered his eyes and slowly peeled an apple. "I was born ten months after Cheng Shao. She got pregnant with me by accident. Family planning was especially strict in our hometown back then, and Chen Lingyun had originally wanted to abort me. But when she went to the hospital, the doctor said her uterine wall was thin. If she insisted on an abortion, it might endanger her life."

With no other choice, Chen Lingyun gave birth to him. But because of it, she lost her original job. When it came time to register his household record, she casually named him Cheng Yu. Because in Chen Lingyun's eyes, he was superfluous—someone who should never have existed, a burden who would only drag her down. That was why, after he was born, she had tossed him aside in their hometown and ignored him for more than six years.

Cheng Yu looked at Pei Yan and said coldly, "The story is that simple and boring. Satisfied now?"

Chapter 4

Pei Yan was speechless. He looked at Cheng Yu with some heartache, but he knew that if he tried to comfort him now, Cheng Yu's prideful nature would surely make him fly into a rage from embarrassment. After thinking it over, Pei Yan simply curled up his legs and leaned against the headboard, putting on a timid, pitiful expression as he gazed at Cheng Yu. "Why are you looking at me so fiercely? You're scaring me!"

Cheng Yu: "..."

Cheng Yu's expression was beyond description. Filled with disgust and revulsion, he rubbed his arms and snorted, then rolled his eyes at Pei Yan with the proud air of someone who could not be bothered to argue with an idiot. But inwardly, he quietly let out a breath of relief. To be honest, he must have lost his mind just now to blurt out something so private. If Pei Yan had shown pity after hearing it, or mocked him like the brats back in his hometown for having a father who gave him life but no mother to raise him, or thought, like those older family friends, that he was being overly sensitive and making a fuss over Chen Lingyun's attitude, Cheng Yu felt he might not have been able to suppress the urge to hit someone.

Fortunately, Pei Yan said nothing and simply laughed it off with jokes and nonsense. Cheng Yu secretly scoffed. Though Pei Yan's way of thinking was abnormal most of the time, and though he especially loved arguing with him, his carefree, unpretentious personality did make him easier to get along with.

With that thought, Cheng Yu handed the peeled apple to Pei Yan and stood up. "I'm going out for a while."

Knowing Cheng Yu's soft-hearted yet stubborn, awkward, and extremely prideful personality, Pei Yan was especially worried that Cheng Yu was going out to hide somewhere and cry. He hurriedly asked, "Where are you going?"

Cheng Yu did not notice Pei Yan's concern and casually replied, "I'm going to get checked out."