It had been almost three months since the university’s start of a new term. Yan Chu was already used to the intense and enthusiastic learning atmosphere of this year’s college students. The weather was getting warmer now. He wore his wife’s hand-woven dark blue thin sweater and a pair of loose jeans. He was carrying a bag of buns and ready to go home.
Although Lin Dingding was a southerner, she liked to eat the northern noodles. As her stomach gradually began to show, whether Yan Chu or Yan Xun was too afraid to let her go to the kitchen to prepare the meal, and now for three meals a day, Yan Chu basically was taken home all of them from school.
Yenching University’s canteen was very famous, especially the chef who made the steamed bread. It was both fragrant and had tenacity, and the weight was also sufficient. Both Yan Chu and Yan Xun were two big men, so they would be full after eating two people’s portions. Lin Dingding’s appetite became bigger after pregnancy. For one meal, she ate one and a half at most.
He thought about passing through the free market and conveniently took a look if there were any nearby suburb’s vegetable farmers who carried their dish on the shoulder pole. If there were, he had to buy some back stir-fried vegetable dish and then together with yesterday bought tofu to make a bowl of soup. On top of that, they still had a half-not-eaten chicken at home. Today’s meal was almost ready.
Yan Chu looked at the wrapped-up steamed bread in his hands and could not help to smile. He felt that he had the innate skill to become a househusband.
“Yan Chu? Are you Yan Chu?”
When he was walking on the avenue of the campus, suddenly a young man with a tall, handsome, and forthright appearance called out, with seven or eight unfamiliar male and female behind him.
Yan Chu narrowed his eyes to look at people. He did not expect the capital to be so small. He had not looked them up, but those people themselves came over first.
“Why don’t you tell the family when you come back to the capital? Do you know how worried Auntie Gao is these days?”
Jiang Donglin looked at Yan Chu with a pretty discontent expression showing in his eyes. He had never liked this younger brother brought by his stepmother. He was gloomy and depressing and made people feel agitated just from looking at him. The most important thing was this little brother was good at studying. They were only one year of age difference and often compared together by people. In Jiang Donglin’s eyes, he was nothing more than a child from a previous marriage brought by his stepmother. He ate and drank from their home, why was everything still pressured on him?
At this time, Jiang Donglin looked at Yan Chu’s dress and remembered that they were currently standing on the campus of Yenching University, his heart had a faint guess.
Impossible, Yan Chu’s previous grades were good, but he had been in the countryside to live in a rural community for 2-3 years. That knowledge he had learned should almost be forgotten. He was thrilled when he got admitted to the University of Political Science and Law. For this purpose, a few tables of the banquet held by his family. Jiang Donglin did not believe that this younger brother, who had been exiled to the countryside, could be admitted to Yenching University.
“Donglin, who is this? You don’t introduce either?”
Jiang Donglin’s friend stood behind him, asking with a giggle and pointing at Yan Chu, who was not far away.
One of the female students looked at Yan Chu’s appearance and style of dress, there were some differences. Most of the students who could appear in the school were students from Yenching University. She saw the Citizen wristwatch on Yan Chu’s wrist. Her father also had one, which he bought to show off. He had spent more than 300 Yuan, nearly four or five months of his salary, which made her mother harping on for a long time.
That boy was still a student, yet wearing such a good watch. It seemed that the conditions at his family must be pretty good.
“This is the younger brother that my stepmother brought, Yan Chu.”
Jiang Donglin saw the interest of a few girls behind him toward Yan Chu. Another thing he loathed from Yan Chu was that he was too bright. Especially when he was a child, he was lovely like jade snow, and the elders around him would praise him.
He knew that Yan Chu most cared for people were his biological mother and a pair of younger siblings, who were born later. Therefore, he liked to approach that woman, whose he did not particularly like, and those two little hybrids, who snatched his father. He knew that Gao Yaqin wanted to please him, so he made Yan Chu increasingly aggrieved by this.
He watched him from a lively and cheerful little boy in the beginning, turned into a gloomy and quiet youth afterward. What was the use of having a good appearance? All the elders would only like a sweet-talking and lively child, who looked healthy and cheerful like him, to get along with.
Jiang Donglin looked at this combed neatly short hair, handsome, and fair-skinned youth. The other’s eyes were crystal clear, watching him as if his inner ugliness were visible, which made Jiang Dong was surprised, at the same time, there was also some fear. He felt that everything was starting to break away from his control.
“Yan Chu, Auntie Gao is anxious about you. You came to the capital, yet you didn’t go to see her at home. She had been sent letters and stuff to the small village where you lived these days. She never received your reply and thought that something happened to you. She is ready to ask for leave to see you.”
Jiang Donglin’s appearance was similar to his father, with thick eyebrows, sharp edges, and corners. He looked very dignified. He quietly looked at Yan Chu’s current expression, while not forgetting to discredit him secretly to the people around him.
“I know you blame Auntie Gao for sending you to the countryside, but that is also because of the policy at that time. All these years, she was crying on your birthday every year. You had to remember that your father was a labor reformer at that time, and Auntie Gao painstakingly brought you up by herself. Don’t tell me you do not care about this life and nurturing?”
Jiang Donglin’s voice was quite loud. When he spoke, many students who passed by could not help but stop to look around at the group of people, especially when they heard Jiang Donglin’s righteousness rhetoric accusations. They could not help to look at the unfilial son Yan Chu with eyes full of contempt.
“Is he in our school? There are still such kinds of people in our school. In the beginning, there are quite a lot of students who went to the countryside to live in a rural community. Because of this, he won’t even recognize his biological mother. Just a moment ago, he said that his father is a criminal labor reformer, he must be following his biological dad.”
“It’s a pity, that handsome and talented person unexpectedly is a thankless wretch.”
Jiang Donglin listened to the whispering of the passing students, and his eyes flashed a hint of self-satisfaction. Whether or not Yan Chu was a student at Yenching University, as long as he was even for one day, Yan Chu must be crushed down by him.
“Isn’t that Yan Chu, a freshman in the Department of Finance and Economics? My roommate often talks about things to others in the dormitory. He said that some of his opinions even made the professor who listened ashamed of being inferior. I didn’t expect that he unexpectedly has that kind of moral standing. My roommate is clearly blind to think highly of him.”
“Is there anything else? I think our school shouldn’t only attach importance to subject education, but also improve students’ ideological education. It should be a good critique. There is this kind of classmate who doesn’t care for his biological mother that raised him.”
With more and more people watching, Yan Chu’s identity had also come out. The people on the side would relay the words they just heard to them to the latecomers who did not know the truth. Yan Chu suddenly became the object of public condemnation.
“This classmate, there’s one thing I’ve to refute.”
Yan Chu did not pay attention to Jiang Donglin but came to the front of a young man who had just accused him in a low voice.
“What do you want to do? Want to hit me?” The young man did not think that Yan Chu would directly seek him. He stepped back a small half step and looked at the eyes of the people on his side. He mustered his confidence, stuck out his chest, stretching his neck and talking toward Yan Chu.
“You just said that my dad is a labor reformer. I want to tell you that my dad was rehabilitated. If you’re a student at Yenching University, you should have heard his name. His name is Yan Xun, a professor of History & Literature. Compulsory, you’re probably still his student.”
Yan Xun was a well-known professor of Yenching University before the incident, the lecturer on History & Literature. This course was not only the main field of the study course in History, Literature, and Philosophy but also a compulsory subject for other majors. Because the college entrance examination had just been reinstated, and some professors had not returned, Yenching University lecturers currently were not sufficient. Three lecturers of history and literature were responsible for all majors in History & Literature in the freshman year. Therefore, Yan Chu said that the students of Yenching University were not unfamiliar with him, which was not a big story.
The young man, who had just been confident, was like a balloon that had punctured. His lecturer of History & Literature was Yan Xun. At this time, he could only glad the young man opposite him for not knowing his name. He estimated that if he made a small report to Professor Yan, and also did not know who he was.
“Yan Chu actually is Professor Yan’s son, truly unexpected.” The whispers on the side grew louder. The ones who said malicious words toward Yan Chu just a moment ago were quietly moved to the outer circle, fearing that their face would be written down by him.
“In fact, looking at him now, Yan Chu and Professor Yan are indeed alike. It’s merely Professor Yan who is old, and Yan Chu is young. Looking at his face, I finally believe what our professor said before. He said that Professor Yan is known as the Light of Yenching, apart from his professional achievements, he was also praised for his face. It said that there were many young female lecturers and female students who liked Professor Yan back then. But it’s a pity that Professor Yan is a good man with only his wife and child in his eyes. When he had wronged for the crime of treason, many female students cried for many days.”
“There’s also something like that?”
The people on the side looked at Yan Chu and Jiang Donglin. Suddenly they remembered the meaning of Jiang Donglin’s words.
The Auntie Gao in Jiang Donglin’s mouth was estimated to be Professor Yan’s ex-wife, which was Yan Chu’s biological mother. It was only after Professor Yan’s incident that she remarried to Jiang Donglin’s family and then took Yan Chu to the Jiang family. The circumstance should be like this, right?
In this way, everyone thought about the woman who did not hesitate to leave her marriage with a very loyal husband after her husband’s accident. The feelings in their heart were momentary a bit in discrepancy, and Jiang Donglin’s accusations just recently had brought up some doubt.
“Donglin, what’s going on?”
Jiang Donglin’s good friend looked at the people on the side who were pointing at them, some could not stand it, and questioned discontentedly close to Jiang Donglin’s ears.
This one point Jiang Donglin overlooked was truly embarrassing him. He did not know anything about the matter of Yan Chu’s father. In his view, Yan Chu’s father should still be reformed in the northwest farm, and Yan Chu still burdened with the stain of social status.
If he had known that Yan Chu’s biological father had returned and had become a professor at Yenching University, he would not have said those words just now. If he was not such a stupid person, he would not have coaxed Gao Yaqin, that astute woman, to send Yan Chu to the countryside and lived in a rural community.
Jiang Donglin clenched his fists and looked across that man who had shown a world after suffering and showed a free and helpless attitude towards world affairs. It was only two or three years away, what had made him change so much in the end?
