HSS CH45

Chapter 45: Don’t Get Married

Lin Miao didn’t mean to eavesdrop. He had only realized after walking for a while that he had left his school bag at Huoyuchuan’s house and had to come back for it. He was about to leave with his bag when he heard noises upstairs, like an argument. Worried that Huoyuchuan, who hadn’t fully recovered from his illness, might get angry and fall ill again, he decided to go upstairs and check.

As he approached the door, he heard Lv Hanxiu mention that Huoyuchuan was supposed to get engaged to Miss Zhao. Lin Miao’s mind went blank with a loud “boom.” He collapsed to the ground, holding his school bag, feeling too weak to stand.

“Lin Miao…” Huoyuchuan frowned and was about to get out of bed when Lv Hanxiu accused Lin Miao, “Did you seduce my son?! It’s all your fault!”

“Mom!” Huoyuchuan’s face darkened as he interrupted her. “It was me who kept bothering him.”

Lin Miao slowly stood up, touching the door frame, and said in a low voice, “I… I should go back to school…”

Huoyuchuan strode over and grabbed his hand to stop him from leaving. He then turned to Lv Hanxiu and said, “I’ll have Little Zheng take you home first.”

Lv Hanxiu stared at their tightly clasped hands, still unable to believe it. She urgently and chaotically tried to persuade him, “Listen to your mother, think carefully about what’s truly important.”

“Your father values you now and says you should come home more often. He thinks you’re very capable…”

“Your company, your house—everything we have is hard-earned, right?”

“You’re still young. Don’t ruin yourself on a whim. You’ll regret it later.”

“Mom won’t harm you. Just listen…”

Without responding, Huoyuchuan called Little Zheng, “Take my mom home.”

In a short while, Little Zheng came upstairs and “politely” escorted Lv Hanxiu away.

Huoyuchuan led the dazed Lin Miao into the room and closed the door. As Lin Miao’s thoughts gradually returned, he tried to pull his hand free and said sullenly, “I need to get back to school…”

Huoyuchuan looked down at him and asked, “Don’t you have anything you want to ask?”

What to ask? Lin Miao clutched his school bag tighter, thinking in confusion. Should he ask if Huoyuchuan was really getting engaged to Miss Zhao?

Why hadn’t he told him?

Why wouldn’t he let him leave?

Does getting engaged mean getting married?

When would the wedding be?

Would Miss Zhao live here after marriage?

Then he would never come again…

But why should Huoyuchuan’s marriage concern him?

Wouldn’t he stop bothering him after getting married?

Warm fingertips brushed against his cheek, and he heard Huoyuchuan softly ask, “Why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying…” He raised his hand to his face and found it wet with tears.

Why was he crying? He stared at his damp palm, feeling a strange pain in his heart at the thought of Huoyuchuan getting married, as if someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed it tightly.

He remembered his sophomore year in high school when his mother fell ill. They spent so much money on medicine, but it was all in vain. His father wanted to sell their house, but his mother refused.

“It’s incurable,” she lay on the hospital bed, weakly smiling at them, her once thick hair now sparse, her face haggard. “Don’t waste any more money. It’s enough.”

She knew that continuing treatment would only lead to financial ruin without saving her life, and the living needed to move on.

The day his mother passed away, his father, after handling the hospital affairs, brought him home in a daze.

Halfway there, his father suddenly burst into tears, crying his heart out, saying how much it hurt. He regretted not selling the house sooner. If they had more money, his mother could have gone to the best hospital, seen the best doctors, and used the best medicine. Maybe she would have been fine…

He squatted by the roadside, in so much pain that he couldn’t straighten his back, crying for a long time.

Lin Miao cried with him, not knowing where his father’s pain came from, squatting beside him and crying until his eyes were swollen shut.

He didn’t know what to do. The smell of disinfectant from the hospital seemed to linger in his nostrils, impossible to forget.

He felt lost and helpless, and at that moment, he suddenly longed for Huoyuchuan, wanting him to hold him.

His voice was drowned in his sobs as he cried out, “Huoyuchuan, I don’t have a mom anymore.”

But by then, Huoyuchuan had already disappeared.

After that, his father became obsessed with making a fortune, even dreaming of getting rich overnight. He sold their house and followed others into investments and businesses, which seemed promising at first but ended in total loss.

Lin Miao knew this was a hurdle his father couldn’t get over. After his mother passed away, his father seemed to lose a part of himself, often waking up in the middle of the night in pain.

Lin Miao didn’t quite understand what it meant to like someone, but he understood that his father had loved his mother dearly, the kind of love that made him smile when he thought of her and cry when he remembered her.

His mother had told him that before they got married, his father was so happy he couldn’t sleep for three days, running around in the middle of the night and being chased by dogs, making him yelp in fear.

So, shouldn’t marriage be with someone you like?

Why did Huoyuchuan say he liked him but was going to marry someone else?

Did he not like him anymore?

Lin Miao wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and asked Huoyuchuan, “Do you like Miss Zhao?”

Huoyuchuan replied, “No.”

Lin Miao further inquired, “Then why are you marrying her?”

Huoyuchuan gently touched the corner of his red eyes and asked, “Do you care that much?”

Lin Miao’s nose turned sour, and tears flowed uncontrollably again. “You said you liked me…”

He bit his lip and mumbled, “How can you marry someone else then?”

Huoyuchuan took the school bag from his arms, placed it beside the bed, and looked at him, asking in a low voice, “Do you like me?”

Lin Miao tried hard to open his eyes wider to hold back the tears, but it was futile. Memories of the past flashed through his mind like a movie: Huoyuchuan sleeping on his shoulder, quiet and exhausted; bargaining over twenty years to two years; waking up in the morning to a warm embrace and sleeping together at night…

It was Huoyuchuan’s lie about not being able to sleep, his words, “I just want you… to stay by my side.”

He was the one who said he liked him first…

Unable to hold back any longer, Lin Miao shouted through his tears, “I don’t want you to get married!”

Huoyuchuan seemed to grasp something and pressed closer, asking urgently, “Why?”

Lin Miao’s tears flowed even more fiercely. Trapped against the wall by Huoyuchuan, he was pressed for an answer, as if Huoyuchuan would not let go until he got one, “Why don’t you want me to get married?”

“Tell me, why?”

Lin Miao, gasping for breath through his sobs, shouted, “Huoyuchuan, you’re so annoying!”

He raised his hands, wrapped them around Huoyuchuan’s neck, tilted his face up, and kissed him.