Chapter 37
The rain gradually grew heavier.
The funeral had ended, and the guests slowly descended the mountain and left the cemetery.
Yan Shiting, who had been standing in front of Grandmother Yan’s grave, also turned to leave and prepare to go down the mountain.
Yu Li silently held an umbrella and followed behind him.
There were too many people at the funeral, and he still dared not reveal his close relationship with Yan Shiting. In these past few days, he had not dared to get too close to Yan Shiting.
Yan Shiting did not know that Yu Li was following behind him.
After walking past a few rows of gravestones, Yan Shiting turned his steps and walked in another direction.
Yu Li was a little puzzled, and then he heard Doctor Yan say beside him, “That’s the direction of Shiting’s parents’ graves. He should be planning to go and visit them.”
Yu Li remained silent, looking at the back of Yan Shiting, and then turned to Doctor Yan and said, “I’ll go keep him company. Doctor Yan, you can go first.”
Doctor Yan seemed a little surprised, pausing for a moment before nodding and saying, “Okay, the ground is slippery, be careful.”
She hesitated for a moment and then said, “Yu Li, if you want to know more, you can just ask Shiting directly.”
“Some things have been weighing on his heart for a long time.”
Yu Li stood there dumbfounded for a long time before nodding and following in the direction Yan Shiting had taken, holding the umbrella.
After walking for a while, he saw Yan Shiting stop in front of a double-person joint burial grave.
Yu Li suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking at Yan Shiting’s back.
The heavy rain poured down, the raindrops falling to the ground and splashing up.
Even though he was holding an umbrella, Yan Shiting’s pants legs were still wet from the rain.
The wind was strong, his coat fluttering wildly in the wind and rain.
Yu Li watched for a long time.
Somehow, he suddenly remembered the day of Grandmother Yan’s birthday banquet, Yan Shiting under the ivy-covered wall.
At that time, he had only seen that Yan Shiting was heavy-hearted, but now, the image of Yan Shiting in the wind and rain overlapping with the image under the ivy, Yu Li finally understood that Yan Shiting was also very sad at that time.
Yu Li tightened his lips.
He stepped forward and silently stood behind Yan Shiting.
Seemingly sensing his arrival, Yan Shiting slowly turned around.
The moment he saw Yu Li, there was a slight change in Yan Shiting’s gaze.
Before Yu Li could discern it, Yan Shiting stepped forward and grabbed his hand, saying, “Let’s go.”
Yu Li glanced sideways at the double-person joint burial grave.
Yan Shiting spoke again in a low voice, “I’ll bring you here next time.”
Yu Li withdrew his gaze and looked at Yan Shiting.
After a moment, he nodded lightly, “Okay. Brother, if you’re not going to the company this afternoon, let’s go home together.”
Yan Shiting tightened his grip on Yu Li’s hand and also nodded, “Mm, I’m not going.”
Going home together.
–
After going down the mountain, there were not many people left at the bottom.
Arriving at the parking lot, Yu Li saw Yan Sui standing in the corner, confronting two people from a distance.
He looked closely and found that one of the people facing Yan Sui was the same one who had previously said that Yan Shiting was cold-blooded and heartless.
At this moment, that person’s expression was clearly a little guilty, with a bright red slap mark on his left cheek.
Yu Li glanced at Yan Shiting, who was talking to Doctor Yan, and walked towards Yan Sui, wanting to see what had happened.
As he approached, Yu Li heard Yan Sui say in a vicious tone, “Zhou Xuetao, if my brother doesn’t recognize his own kin, what am I? Do you think I don’t know how my brother treats his family?”
“If you dare, just say those words in front of my brother next time.”
The man next to Zhou Xuetao, who looked a few years older, quickly said, “I’m sorry, Yan Sui. My brother has been spoiled by the family. I will have my father discipline him when we go back.”
The man’s face was anxious, and after speaking, he glared angrily at the one called Zhou Xuetao.
“Hurry up and apologize to him!”
Zhou Xuetao’s mouth twitched a few times, and he muttered, “Sorry, Yan Sui.”
Yu Li’s footsteps slowed to a stop.
It seems that Yan Sui had overheard this person’s criticism of Yan Shiting, so he confronted the person.
Judging from the current situation, it seems the matter has already been resolved.
Yu Li thought about it and still turned around and left, heading deeper into the parking lot to find Yan Shiting.
After staying up all night to keep vigil, Yan Shiting was a little tired, and after getting in the car, he began to close his eyes and rest.
Yu Li raised the partition and took Yan Shiting’s hand.
Yan Shiting grasped his hand in return.
Neither of them said anything.
The car drove away from West Mountain Park, and the heavy rain pounded the ground relentlessly for a long time.
Yu Li did not fall asleep in the car, occasionally looking out the window at the scenery, and occasionally glancing at the resting Yan Shiting.
He suddenly thought of what he had just heard, the words Yan Sui had said to Zhou Xuetao.
It was clear that Yan Sui was very aware of how well his brother treated him and cared about his brother.
Yan Shiting didn’t have many family members and friends around him, and Yu Li didn’t want the two brothers to develop resentment because of that day’s small incident.
Yu Li bit his lip, determined in his heart.
When they arrived at Wan Ting, it was already two o’clock in the afternoon.
Due to the heavy rain, the sky was gloomy, and the house was a little dark.
Yan Shiting was about to turn on the lights in the house when he was suddenly hugged from behind by Yu Li.
“Brother.”
The muffled voice came from behind his back.
Yan Shiting paused, then heard Yu Li ask, “Brother, do you want to confide in me?”
“If you want to confide, you can tell me.”
On the last night at Yu Li’s hometown, Yan Shiting had also said these words.
At that time, he knew that Yu Li was in a bad mood, and he wanted to allow Yu Li to express himself and also to understand Yu Li better.
So that night, he heard the usually strong Yu Li speak with a tone of sadness, saying that he missed his father a little.
And now, Yu Li was saying the same words to him.
Perhaps, the purpose was not much different from his own at that time.
In the gloomy weather, the house was lit by warm lights.
Yan Shiting and Yu Li sat in the rocking chair by the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the rain outside.
After breaking the distance between them on Yu Li’s birthday night, when they sat together again, the intentionally maintained distance no longer existed.
At this moment, the two of them were leaning shoulder to shoulder, and Yu Li heard Yan Shiting’s low voice ask him:
“Where would you like me to start?”
Yu Li leaned back on the cushion and said, “When you and Yan Sui were very young?”
Hearing Yan Sui’s name, Yan Shiting slightly lowered his gaze towards him.
Then Yan Shiting slowly said:
“Before Yan Sui was born, our parents were very busy and didn’t have much time for me.”
At that time, the Yan Group had just been established, and their parents were both busy with the company’s affairs.
Without the company of his parents, Yan Shiting didn’t feel anything, as he had been independent in character since he was young and did not feel lonely.
He didn’t even need friends, and was content being alone.
It wasn’t until after Yan Sui was born that Yan Shiting had a “playmate”.
When their parents were busy, he carefully took care of this little brother, raising the baby who couldn’t even turn over into a little radish head who would run after him calling him “brother”.
It wasn’t long before the Yan Group’s business stabilized, and their parents also had a lot more time to spend with them.
Yan Shiting had to admit that in those few years, he gradually understood the meaning and beauty of “companionship”.
Until the year Yan Sui turned six, their father passed away due to illness, and their mother also departed soon after.
The family members whom he had thought would always accompany each other had now gone far away.
Afterwards, since Yan Shiting and Yan Sui were not yet of age, their uncle Yan Yufeng took charge of managing their shares, and the thriving Yan Group fell into their uncle’s hands.
Uncle Yan Yufeng was ambitious but incompetent.
“When my parents were in charge, the Yan Group was mainly engaged in real estate, relying on the bonus of the times, and successfully went public.”
“Yan Yufeng mismanaged it, and in order to save costs and gain more benefits, he used substandard materials. The new housing projects became shoddy construction, failed inspections, and many people canceled their purchases.”
During that period, the Yan Group’s real estate, which was once known for being the most beneficial to the people, became despised by everyone in just one year.
A good friend of Yan Shiting’s father, unable to bear seeing the Yan Group collapse so quickly, summoned Yan Shiting when he was seventeen years old, teaching him how to do business and observe market trends.
Yan Shiting was gifted, and had also been cultivated by his father when he was young, so he quickly discovered many problems with the Yan Group.
After he came of age, he brought lawyers and regained his own shares, participated in the shareholders’ meeting as a shareholder, and interfered with Yan Yufeng’s decision-making.
The uncle-nephew confrontation amused some people. Later, as Yan Shiting’s every problem pointed out and the solutions he proposed allowed the Yan Group to profit, he gradually gained the support of some shareholders.
“In addition to that…”
Yan Shiting paused.
He looked out the window, furrowing his brows, his gaze gradually becoming ruthless.
Yu Li noticed the change in his mood and held his hand.
In addition to that, there was the matter that caused their uncle Yan Yufeng to be sentenced to death.
…
It was the twelfth lunar month, and it would soon be the Lunar New Year.
The lawyer was preparing to prosecute the Yan Yufeng family, and Yan Shiting noticed that one of the Yan Group’s shareholders was also a little abnormal.
He followed the clues and found that the shareholder was colluding with Yan Yufeng, plotting to kill his father, Yan Hongfeng.
Yan Yufeng took advantage of the fact that he and Yan Hongfeng lived together in the villa, and gave Yan Hongfeng a slow-acting poison, one dose every six months.
That kind of poison would slowly take effect in the body of the person who ingested it, eventually causing the person to become physically weak and organ failure, leading to death.
Before discovering the poisoning, Yan Shiting had always thought that his father had just fallen ill and overworked himself to death.
He saw it with his own eyes, his father’s last days, busy with the Yan Group until midnight, growing weaker and weaker, until he could only lie in bed and vomit blood.
But his cause of death was not illness, but poisoning.
Yan Shiting had just thought that his uncle Yan Yufeng was foolish and incompetent, but he never expected him to be so greedy.
After his father’s death, the shares were still with his mother.
Yan Yufeng was anxious, so he also poisoned Yan Shiting’s mother, Lyu Yuening.
This time, he used a large amount and the frequency was very high, and in less than two months, Lyu Yuening passed away with the same cause of death as Yan Hongfeng.
It was because of this haste that Yan Yufeng left evidence behind.
Nineteen-year-old Yan Shiting sat in the room all night, looking at the evidence.
At dawn, he went downstairs trembling, seeing Grandmother Yan come to beg him to spare Yan Yufeng.
At that time, although Grandmother Yan didn’t care about him much, she was not as hateful towards him as she was later on.
Seeing him in a daze, Grandmother Yan did not hurry to talk about Yan Yufeng’s matter, but instead asked about his well-being.
Yan Shiting looked at her kind and benevolent face, and then at the simple-looking Yan Sui beside her.
In the end, he had Yan Sui go out to play, and took Grandmother Yan to the study, showing her all the evidence of the poisoning.
“Grandmother, do you still think I should spare Yan Yufeng?”
His original intention was just to let Grandmother Yan see the evidence of her second son being harmed, so that she wouldn’t continue to protect Yan Yufeng.
However, when Grandmother Yan saw the evidence, there was not the slightest look of shock on her face, but instead her gaze was evasive and only showed guilt.
“Shiting, the dead can’t come back to life no matter what. Just let the living family members go, don’t keep dwelling on those old matters…”
Yan Shiting looked at the expression on her face, and in an instant, he understood something.
His mind went blank, and it took a long time before he found his voice again:
“You knew about it all along?”
He pressed on: “When did you find out? After the poisoning or before?”
Grandmother Yan avoided his gaze and did not speak.
The nineteen-year-old Yan Shiting was not as steady as the thirty-one-year-old.
Looking at the guilty Grandmother Yan, his eyes reddened, and his throat felt as if it had been cut by a knife.
He coldly voiced, each word seeming to be squeezed out from his throat:
“Grandmother, please answer me.”
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