Chapter 136

Chapter 136

Qin Song went crazy.

Hu Heng brought him back to City A and arranged for him to stay in the city’s best mental hospital.

Seeing Qin Song’s deranged state, Hu Heng stepped out of the ward and slapped himself hard twice across the face.

Of course, Hu Heng didn’t die at age fourteen; that was just the story Huahua told Qin Song. As for her motives in telling him that, we’ll get to that later.

So… what role did Hu Heng play in Qin Song’s life?

This goes back to his mother, Hu Yonglan.

Earlier, I mentioned Hu Heng’s assessment of his own mother-

“My mom is a very proud person. She always holds herself aloof, even with me.”

“She’s also a very conflicted person. What she thinks, what she says, and what she does are always three different things.”

Indeed, Hu Heng knew his mother well.

In her youth, Hu Yonglan could have been considered a beauty with striking, elegant features.

Her eyes were big and bright, and when she blinked, her thick, dense lashes fluttered like butterfly wings. She also had a tall, proud nose bridge that gave her face a distinctive aura no matter what angle you looked at it from.

She was extremely taciturn and didn’t like making friends. She had no social circle whether in school or at work.

Over time, most people around her thought she was unsociable, privately labeling her as “eccentric,” “aloof,” and “abnormal.”

Many men were initially attracted to Hu Yonglan’s uncommon looks, but after a few interactions they all felt she was like a introverted mute, and their interest gradually waned.

By the time Hu Yonglan was twenty-four, she had never been in a relationship. By then, many of her peers already had children who were babbling their first words.

However, Hu Yonglan did have one male friend.

He was her only friend, her only childhood companion she had grown up with since she was little, the only person with whom she could chatter away like a normal person. His name was Qin Zhiyuan.

Because their mothers were close, Qin Zhiyuan and Hu Yonglan had known each other since they were very young. Over the years, he had taken on multiple roles in Hu Yonglan’s life and was a very important person to her.

They had been together since childhood, growing into teenagers together. Once they became aware of “love,” they developed feelings for each other.

At twenty-five, Hu Yonglan officially started dating Qin Zhiyuan.

But they didn’t come together naturally with a mutual, unspoken understanding. Hu Yonglan was too shy and passive. Like a bashful nut, she wrapped herself in a hard shell. It took Qin Zhiyuan over two full months of persistent coaxing before Hu Yonglan reluctantly nodded and agreed to be his girlfriend.

This planted a seed of dissatisfaction in Qin Zhiyuan’s heart. He had assumed they were both willing and eager, that all it would take was one sentence to tear down the veil between them, with no need for either side to be overly passionate.

But in the end, it took him over sixty days to go from confessing his feelings to confirming the relationship. Clearly in their emotions it was mutual, but in actions it felt as if he was the only one pursuing her.

Qin Zhiyuan’s friends repeatedly teased him about it, saying that he and Hu Yonglan were like a thirsty dog chasing a shy rabbit. They all thought that with a childhood friendship like theirs, all it would take was a love letter to get together.

Facing these jibes, Qin Zhiyuan said nothing and continued treating Hu Yonglan with all his heart.

When their relationship had lasted over a year, by all accounts it should have been time to talk about marriage, but the two still showed no signs of moving forward.

Why was that?

Qin Zhiyuan asked himself the same question.

He could sense that although Hu Yonglan never spoke of love or sweet nothings, she truly loved him. It was no exaggeration to say that he treated her very well, meticulously even. Hu Yonglan deeply desired marriage, so it wasn’t her holding things back.

If not her, then it had to be him.

Qin Zhiyuan began to ponder what was wrong with their relationship.

He felt that being with Hu Yonglan was exhausting.

When she was calm, she would talk to him more, and they could chat and laugh normally like any other couple.

But once he upset her and made her angry, big trouble followed – she would clamp her mouth shut, wrench her head to the side stubbornly like a calf, and not even give Qin Zhiyuan a glance.
At times like this, Qin Zhiyuan became an ant on a hot pan, circling around her as he coaxed, persuaded, explained, apologized, admitted fault, made promises…

He would repeat the whole routine several times, until he was sweating buckets and his mouth had gone dry. Only then would Hu Yonglan finally cast him a wounded look of forgiveness.

Qin Zhiyuan knew that girls needed to be coaxed. But he had come to feel, with absolute certainty, that Hu Yonglan was harder to coax than ninety-nine percent of the girls in the world.

When someone was that hard to coax, the balance between two people became that of queen and servant.

Qin Zhiyuan often felt that the moment she got angry, he became that servant. Even worse, she got angry often.

He was not afraid of her anger. What he feared was her getting angry without giving him any explanation.

She could hide. She could run away from his world. All Qin Zhiyuan asked was that when she hid, she leave him some clue to find her, some step he could take to make things right.

People said children liked playing hide-and-seek because they longed to be found by adults. But when Hu Yonglan played “hide-and-seek” while angry, it was as if she never wanted Qin Zhiyuan to find her again.

Later, Qin Zhiyuan grew tired of coaxing her. Once, he simply left Hu Yonglan sulking on the street and stormed back to the work-unit dormitory alone.

In the middle of the night, Qin Zhiyuan was jolted awake by pounding on the door. He threw on a jacket and opened the dorm room door, only to see Hu Yonglan standing there, her face full of fury, staring into his eyes with resentment.

Under the moonlight, Qin Zhiyuan saw tear tracks all over her face. Because she had been frowning for so long, two fine lines had appeared between her brows.

He closed the dorm room door behind him and stepped outside. Just as he was about to take Hu Yonglan’s hand, she gave another snort through her nose, turned on her heel, and swept away.

Well, great. Coaxing her was exhausting, but not coaxing her seemed to come with even worse consequences.

This kind of draining relationship made Qin Zhiyuan afraid to even imagine how stifling married life with her would be.

Qin Zhiyuan did not have much education. He did not know what words he ought to use to describe Hu Yonglan’s personality. He only knew that he felt truly oppressed, truly miserable. If he had to describe Hu Yonglan, the only word he could come up with was “stubborn.”

But he did not want to break up with Hu Yonglan. They had grown up together, childhood sweethearts – the sort of relationship that seemed best suited for walking into marriage hand in hand. Everyone around them thought so.

Qin Zhiyuan was almost twenty-eight, which at the time already counted as an older unmarried young man. He really did not want to spend any more time and energy getting to know some unfamiliar girl from scratch.

If dating any girl meant constantly coaxing, apologizing, explaining, admitting fault… then he would rather that girl be Hu Yonglan. At the very least, he already knew how to make her happy.

When they were deep in affection, the two of them would also lean against each other and talk a little about the future. Hu Yonglan’s favorite topic was-

“Let’s discuss what names we’ll give our children in the future.”

Qin Zhiyuan did not think there was much to discuss about that. People back home all said the more ordinary a name was, the easier the child was to raise. He figured that when the time came, they could just pick a few common characters one saw everywhere and use them as names.

But Hu Yonglan happened to love thinking about it, so Qin Zhiyuan thought about it with her.

The last time they discussed the topic, Qin Zhiyuan said seriously, “I like looking at mountains, and I like climbing them too. How about we use the Five Sacred Mountains to name our future children? Grand, isn’t it?”

Counting on her fingers, Hu Yonglan asked, “Which five are the Five Sacred Mountains?”

Qin Zhiyuan thought for a moment, then answered, “Taishan, Hengshan, Songshan, Huashan, and Hengshan.”

Hu Yonglan repeated them softly, then asked in confusion, “Isn’t that only four?”

Qin Zhiyuan said, “Huh? I clearly said five.”

Hu Yonglan reminded him, “You said Hengshan twice.”

Qin Zhiyuan laughed. “They’re two different Hengshans!”

Hu Yonglan blinked blankly.

Qin Zhiyuan found a twig and scratched at the ground. “Look, they’re written with these two different characters…”

Hu Yonglan glanced at it perfunctorily, then turned her head away. “I get it. You think I’m uneducated.”

Qin Zhiyuan hurriedly threw away the twig, grabbed her by the shoulders, and explained, “That isn’t what I meant!”

If Qin Zhiyuan had kept making do with Hu Yonglan, what happened later would never have occurred.

Unfortunately, fate was far too mischievous. It arranged an interlude for Qin Zhiyuan.