Shen Zhifan had gone downstairs first, since Yan Shuo had asked him to pass some time with Laurent, as well as to pass on the message that Laurent might soon be sent into exile.
Although Yan Shuo had already made his stance clear, he still had to talk to his mother properly.
Lady Gu Qiu sat to the side, her posture extremely graceful and elegant; her upturned profile was much the same, but her eyes glared resentfully at the man before her. Her head was full of the desire to dice up this little bastard who could forget about his own mother, and shove him back into her belly for reconstruction—reforging a more obedient child.
Now, she was a beautiful, upper class madam, and every move of hers was extremely affectatious as she looked at Yan Shuo with pained eyes.
The other man knew her well, yet he still casually grinded a cup of coffee for himself, folding his legs as he looked at her.
“Aren’t you tired, sitting like that?”
Gu Qiu slapped the table in anger, “You’re really getting more and more outrageous!”
Yan Shuo poured a cup for her, “Milk?”
“Fine, a little, no sugar…how arrogant, you!” She’d unconsciously replied with a gentle smile, but froze, then reacted, slapping the table again, “Are you even listening to me?!”
Yan Shuo looked away, “I’m listening, but be careful. That bracelet of yours is quite pretty, it won’t be able to stand another slap.”
Gu Qiu, “…”
Gu Qiu glanced at the bracelet; naturally, like her, it was an artificial, finely crafted beauty—but she didn’t want to give Yan Shuo even the slightest leeway, so she slapped it once more even as her heart ached silently, “You think I only care about that?”
Yan Shuo didn’t speak, taking a sip of coffee and quietly looking at his mother.
Yan Shuo’s eyes were always bold, and he was handsome enough to have his own halo. Of course, it dwindled slightly in the face of his mother, but the effect was still quite good.
Looking at this, Gu Qiu was actually speechless.
She sat for a while, biting her lip, and finally began to vent, “Mother has worked hard for a long time to finally let you live so well now, why can’t you be more considerate?”
“Your engagement with Olivia cannot be so casually broken,” Gu Qiu was increasingly upset, staring at him desperately, “That is the royal family, but you want to give it away to your younger brother? Yan Jinxing? He wasn’t even born from your mother, how could he be on your side?!”
Yan Shuo took another sip, his attitude clearly conveying, “You can talk all you want, but I don’t have to listen.”
“Yan Jinxing, that little brat,” Gu Qiu’s anger gave way to a few snorts, “At home, he only knows how to put up a facade for me—if he married Princess Olivia, wouldn’t he become a tyrant towards me?”
“Tell your mother,” Gu Qiu slapped the table again, “What isn’t good enough about Olivia? She’s so young and beautiful, even if her personality isn’t considerate enough, that isn’t important ah! A little lady like that, you really don’t have an ounce of favour towards her?”
Yan Shuo finally reacted to the question, “No.”
…This angered Comrade Gu Qiu so much!
Gu Qiu beat the table yet again!
This time, it was a bit lighter. She felt that her own dignity had already been established, and couldn’t wrong the bracelet again. If her baby wanted to make a fuss and do something drastic in protest, she’d be the one to suffer.
“Y-Y-You, can you improve yourself a little?!” Gu Qiu looked at him, completely flustered, “Even if you like men, what kind of eyes do you have? That little pretty boy just then, aside from his face being decent, he doesn’t look familiar to me at all, is he even someone with any kind of status?”
As soon as she got into it, there was no room for Yan Shuo to speak.
“You have the ability to refuse Olivia, but how come you don’t have the ability to bring back a Ferdinand?!”
Yan Shuo, “…”
Indeed, she was his mother. Hearing Ferdinand being brought up, his head hurt.
“Shen Zhifan.” Yan Shuo suddenly spoke.
Gu Qiu froze, “…En?”
She suddenly reacted and realised that was the name of the little pretty boy, then also abruptly realised that the name sounded familiar.
Fuck , Lady Gu Qiu thought back, astonished.
Wasn’t this the one that had Olivia head-over-heels for him?
“T-This,” Gu Qiu was somewhat dumb, “What kind of ability does he have? Olivia…speaking of, wasn’t she missing? What was that about?”
“There is a possibility that His Highness Ferdinand wants to start a rebellion,” Yan Shuo couldn’t be bothered to hide it, “He wanted to assassinate her because she was in the know. Olivia escaped, and now she is well-guarded.”
Lady Gu Qiu’s IQ was finite, and listening to Yan Shuo’s succinct summary of the royal family’s drama, she short-circuited a little. She blinked, completely at a loss.
“…Forget it,” Yan Shuo conceded, “You wouldn’t understand.”
Lady Gu Qiu was furious…so much so that she didn’t even slap the table, “Just tell me, are you going to go back to that pretty boy?”
Yan Shuo looked at her, his head aching, and his expression became severe, “You don’t need to think about it.”
“Why can’t you understand?” Lady Gu Qiu tilted her head, “Since you and Olivia both like that kid, then that’s enough – there’s no conflict with your marriage ah. After getting married, can’t the both of you just keep him?”
So shaken by his own mother’s extremely clean and outstanding thoughts, Yan Shuo couldn’t speak for three seconds. He rubbed his temples in silence for three minutes before suddenly remembering that a golden house had been built for his mother <sup>1</sup> idiom, ‘a golden house to keep one’s mistress’ , she was the model example of a mistress who had risen in rank. He was so irritated that he actually fell speechless.
Yan Shuo was an illegitimate child. When he was little, people talked about it every day. Out on the streets, people talked; even in books, people talked.
Whether it was poking at his head or poking at his backbone, they itched to constantly stick by his ears—speaking both openly and secretly, calling him a shameless bastard and his mother a shameless slut.
Unfortunately, Yan Shuo was born with brute strength and a bad temper. During his stubborn chuuni years, he would simply go up and fight without saying a word.
And there really wasn’t anyone who could beat him.
But even so, he was handsome and had outstanding grades. Even though there was a seed of darkness and intensity buried within, he was still so excellent that his peers couldn’t look straight at him.
Therefore, those weak-willed people—who bullied the weak but feared the strong—gradually stopped talking so blatantly since they didn’t want their heads broken open. They could only gossip secretly.
Later on, the eldest son of the Yan family unexpectedly passed away, and the second son’s genes were badly damaged. As a result, Yan Shuo, who hadn’t met his father since he was little, took the position smoothly. He brought his mother along; her high-heels tapping on the ground, she entered the great family with an imperious air.
Since then, no one had dared to speak thoughtlessly about them.
Even later on, his military rank rose steadily and without obstruction; he established his meritorious service on the battlefield, shoulders covered with countless medals. He practically became someone that most people couldn’t even mention.
After a while, Yan Shuo himself would have the misconception that those years as an illegitimate child had all been a dream.
Fortunately, his mother’s words brought him back to reality. Huh, she really hadn’t changed—those years were still real and tangible, and that seed of darkness and intensity was still buried within him.
The accumulated soil of the past few years had covered it, but he didn’t know if that seed was truly dead or not.
He slowly closed his eyes, hearing the chattering of the woman before him. The coffee cup between his fingers let out a rather unpleasant sound—shallow cracks appeared on it, scaring Gu Qiu so that her eyelid twitched.
Startled, she realised that Yan Shuo was furious. Although she was rather brainless, she was born with the ability to read faces; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been such a professional mistress.
Yan Shuo saw her panic-stricken expression and suddenly froze, looking down at his hand.
What was he doing?
Venting his anger towards his mother?
Back then, Gu Qiu had been a naïve, pretty, and slightly silly canary; easily believing the rich and handsome General Yan’s nonsense, and easily entrusting herself completely to him.
But he had his family background to consider, and was just playing around with her. After knocking her up, he slapped her ass and said goodbye.
From this perspective, his father was a complete scum. No matter how glorious his achievements were, in Yan Shuo’s heart, he was still scum.
Unfortunately, that canary’s brain was made up of two ounces <sup>2</sup> literally 100 grams, but that would be four ounces and doesn’t flow as well lol of flesh, and she was really, excessively stupid. Still believing in true love or something of the sort, she foolishly spent more than ten years as a mistress.
Before Yan Jincheng <sup>3</sup> the older brother died, his mother had already passed. If it had been true love, then at that time, the canary would’ve been able to take the top seat—but that didn’t happen, because she was nothing but a pleasure seeking canary.
At least her luck was good; unexpectedly, the day came where she succeeded.
She hadn’t been so shameless at the beginning, nor had she wanted to become the other woman.
It was a pity that the easy and indecent lifestyle had rotted her soul, and in the end, she’d become a brazen canary.
But there was no point in directing his anger at Gu Qiu. He had long gotten over being that chuunibyou youth.
No matter what, Gu Qiu was still his mother who’d personally raised him.
He looked up, glancing at the canary, and sighed, “I’m not angry, don’t be scared.”
The canary was aggrieved to no end, “You can intimidate your own mother like this now?”
Having thought of the past, Yan Shuo was quite annoyed. He waved a hand at her, stood up, and walked out the door.
“I’ll send you back,” Yan Shuo paused as he thought; in this life, a canary was simply a canary, “He’s different from you. I’m different from your husband as well.”
…
Shen Zhifan had been sent home by Laurent. Yan Shuo’s mother had originally come to call him back home for a family banquet, but had interrupted them instead. Although this matter with her son made her grieve and lament, it seemed that there was no solution, so she dropped it. However, she wasn’t willing to let him off too easily, and dragged Yan Shuo home for the dinner party.
When he got home, Shen Zhifan suddenly remembered that after the kiss, they hadn’t even talked; somewhat stifled, he covered his face.
Having missed the chance to make his intentions clear while sober, he felt a little disappointed.
At that moment, he opened the door—in the next, Yan Shuo called him.
“Hello?”
Shen Zhifan was a little surprised. After all, the General’s family banquet sounded high-end and classy.
As expected, he could hear the noise of clinking glasses and chatter in the background of the call.
“Did you get home?” Yan Shuo asked.
“En.”
“It’s very noisy over here,” There was a slight helplessness in his tone. He changed the topic, suddenly softening, “I really want to be alone with you.”
Shen Zhifan, “…”
He kneeled down and covered his face, afraid that his upturned lips would be seen.
However, after a moment, he realised that the other man couldn’t see, and felt that he was really a little dumb.
“…Why aren’t you speaking?”
Flushed, Shen Zhifan lightly replied, “Did you drink tonight?”
“…” Yan Shuo paused, “Oh, alcohol? I’m giving it up.”
1
idiom, ‘a golden house to keep one’s mistress’ 2
literally 100 grams, but that would be four ounces and doesn’t flow as well lol 3