Chapter 100 I...I had no choice
"I... I had no choice."
As Chen Yan's voice faded, Chen Yan spoke up with a helpless expression, or rather, he was speechless.
"That's right, Yan'er, your younger brother really likes that girl from the Liu family. You need to understand his difficulties. It hasn't been easy for him."
"You are the older brother. For the sake of your mother, you should be more understanding."
After Chen Yan finished speaking, Lin Shuhua, as if fearing the world wouldn't be chaotic enough, quickly chimed in to explain.
Perhaps she didn't even realize it herself, but as soon as those words left her mouth, the bias was so strong and obvious it might as well have been carved onto her forehead.
"Oh, is that so..."
Chen Yan looked at the mother and son before him, and his mind instantly became clear.
He finally understood why, on television, parents who couldn't balance their love for their children—favoring one over the others—ended up hurting the others' feelings and being shunned or driven away by them when they grew old.
Damn it, this favoritism is just too outrageous.
And another thing: the closer you are to serve, the less you are appreciated; the farther you run, the more you are missed.
This feeling is complicated indeed.
"He has his difficulties, so I must understand. What about me? What about my difficulties? Who has ever understood me? All the money from these past years has been given to you."
After catching his breath, Chen Yan finally spoke.
Lin Shuhua was choked by Chen Yan's words; she opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound.
Tears still hung on her face, and her lips trembled like a fish thrown onto the shore; she couldn't utter a single word.
Chen Yan looked at her appearance, and the fire in his heart suddenly died down by half.
It wasn't that his anger had dissipated, but that the rage had burned too fiercely, burning him hollow.
*Sigh*, I am furious.
He straightened up, took two steps back, and put distance between himself and this woman.
"Fine, if you won't speak, I'll speak for you."
His voice suddenly calmed down, so calm that he didn't seem like the person who had just thrown punches.
"You feel you owe him because he was taken away, and growing up in that den of tigers and wolves, the Chen family, you couldn't take care of him, so it wasn't easy.
You think that at least I was in the Orphanage, and although it was bitter, I was free and easy, without so many people watching and controlling me.
So you pity him, pitying him with such righteousness, and you feel it is only natural that I should understand him and yield to him."
When Chen Yan said this, the corners of his mouth curled into an arc, a smile uglier than crying.
"Mom, is that what you mean?"
That "Mom" made Lin Shuhua tremble all over.
This was the first time in over twenty years that Chen Yan had called her "Mom."
Not in a dream, not while drunk and babbling nonsense, but genuinely, face-to-face.
But in this "Mom," there was no affection, no warmth—only a blunt knife, carving him piece by piece.
"No... Xiao Yan, it's not like that..." Lin Shuhua shook her head, her hands clutching the bedsheets so tightly her knuckles turned white. "Mom didn't mean that. Mom just wanted to say that it hasn't been easy for either of you brothers, and you should be considerate of each other..."
"Considerate of each other?" Chen Yan laughed, his laughter very soft, so soft it was like he was talking to himself. "Fine, then I'll be considerate of him. Has he ever been considerate of me?"
He turned his head and looked at Chen Yan.
Chen Yan was leaning against the wall, the blood at the corner of his mouth already dried, congealing into a dark red mark.
He didn't wipe it away, nor did he speak; he just leaned there quietly, like a statue without warmth.
"I'm asking you." Chen Yan took a step closer. "Do you know how cold the winters are at the Orphanage?"
Chen Yan's eyelids twitched.
"Do you know how troublesome it is to be lacking food and clothing, yet still have to sing and dance for those idiots just to get government subsidies?"
Chen Yan's voice began to tremble, but this time it wasn't anger; it was some other emotion, like a jar of old wine buried for over twenty years that had its seal suddenly ripped off, the pungent aroma choking him.
"Do you know that I started working at sixteen, waiting tables, moving cargo, handing out flyers—I did every kind of job just to save for tuition.
You know that for all four years of college, I didn't ask the Orphanage for a single cent because I knew our mother's income wasn't much, the Orphanage subsidies weren't high, and she had to support so many children; it hasn't been easy for her."
"Do you know any of this?"
Chen Yan was silent for a few seconds before finally speaking.
"I didn't."
Three words, crisp and clean, without any embellishment.
"Well, now you know." Chen Yan stared at him. "And then what? What do you plan to do? Is saying 'sorry' the end of it?"
"No." Chen Yan straightened up from the wall and stood tall. "Sorry is useless."
He took a card out of his pocket and placed it on the cabinet by the hospital bed.
"There is some money on this card. It's not much, but it's enough for the Orphanage to renovate the dormitory building, install heating, and replace the beds. The password is Mom's birthday."
Chen Yan glanced at the card, then looked at Chen Yan.
"Charity?"
"It's not charity." Chen Yan's tone was still so flat, so flat it made one want to punch him again. "It's paying off a debt. Not paying it off completely, but starting to pay."
Lin Shuhua looked at the card, then at Chen Yan, and tears began to fall again.
She reached out to take Chen Yan's hand, but Chen Yan dodged.
"Xiao Yan, just accept it. Your younger brother, he..."
"I said, shut up!"
Chen Yan turned his head sharply and roared at Lin Shuhua.
After roaring, he was stunned himself.
He had never roared at Director Mother. Never.
From childhood to adulthood, no matter how bitter or difficult life was, he had never spoken a harsh word to this woman.
But now, he had.
He had roared at his own mother.
The hospital room was silent for a full ten seconds.
Chen Yan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again. His eyes were red, but not a single tear fell.
"Fine, the Orphanage has its money. What about mine? You don't give me power, so according to ancient rules, you must give me money."
Chen Yan extended his hand quite calmly.
"Fine, I'll give it. How much money do you want?"
Seeing the hand Chen Yan extended, Chen Yan nodded and readily agreed.
He wasn't afraid of Chen Yan making conditions; he was only afraid of Chen Yan not making conditions.
Things that could be solved with money were the simplest things.
"Three billion. I want three billion, clean."
Chen Yan spoke, three billion, said nonchalantly.
Hearing this, Chen Yan was stunned. Was his own older brother really this fierce? Asking for so much money.
Upon hearing these words, Chen Yan and Lin Shuhua were instantly dumbfounded.
How could such cold words come out of a 37°C mouth?
"I can't do that. Everything has its rules."
Chen Yan shook his head.
"Slap."
However, what greeted him was a heavy slap from Chen Yan...