Chapter 50: An Encounter at the Orphanage
Translator: Flying Lines
Fang Qiao had seen Old Mr. Lu once. As the scene of being knocked out of the house was still vivid in his mind, now, when meeting again, he was still scared.
The middle-aged lady who was very well maintained behind old Mr. Lu should be Mrs. Lu, who had the same eyebrow with Lu Yanxing and looked serious when she did not speak.
Fang Qiao stood at the door, cat in arms, at a loss. Lu Yanzhou came out of the kitchen with a spatula and casually pulled Fang behind him in a protective manner.
“Dad, mom.” Lu Yanzhou said while holding Fang Qiao’s hand, “This is my boyfriend.”
Fang Qiao gasped. What a familiar scene! A second time to be knocked out of house!!!!
Fang Qiao, flustered, hurried to make a deep bow and called in a loud voice, “Hello, uncle, aunt!”
The two were both quite taken aback and looked at him for quite a while before nodding.
Mrs. Lu took out something and handed it to Lu Yanzhou. When she spoke, her voice was very gentle, “You didn’t come home for your birthday, so I have made some longevity noodles for you.”
Lu Yanzhou took it over and replied in a low but very polite voice, “Thank you, mom.”
Seeing that the task was completed, Old Mr. Lu didn’t want to stay for long, so he urged his wife to leave. Before leaving, he still reminded Mr. Lu, “Next week is your niece’s birthday, this time you must go home for dinner!”
His tone of voice was harsh and cannot be refuted.
They turned around and left but Mrs. Lu turned back again. This time, she said with a smile to Fang Qiao, “Fang Qiao, please come together. Lulu has been quarreling for several times to play with you.”
Being suddenly invited, Fang was flattered and didn’t know what to do. So Lu Yanzhou pressed his head to nod as a ‘yes’ to the invitation.
After the couple left, Lu Yanzhou went to the dinner table and put the noodles in the bowl. Fang Qiao followed him with a foolish smile and said, “Your mother is very kind to you.”
Lu Yanzhou hummed as a response and pushed the bowl to Fang Qiao, who grabbed the chopsticks and “sucked” the noodles before signing with emotion, “Although she didn’t give birth to you, she raised you so well, which I really envy.”
Without saying a word, Lu Yanzhou picked up a tissue and wiped Fang Qiao’s mouth.
“You know what, I’ve been waiting in the orphanage for many years, hoping someone will take me home. Whether it’s my parents or a kind-hearted adoption, all I want is a home.” Fang Qiao shrugged, “You see, that dream was never realized.”
It had been such a long time that Fang Qiao was even able to narrate the past in a casual voice. However, Lu Yanzhou’s heart was gripped. He rubbed Fang Qiao’s head and said softly, “Now it’s realized.”
Fang Qiao blinked twice and it took a while before he understood what Lu meant. Suddenly, his heart was filled with sweetness, and the corners of his mouth kept lifting. He could only bit his chopsticks tightly so as not to laugh out.
Lu Yanzhou took out his phone while Fang was not paying attention, and sent a message to his assistant: Help me find out which orphanage Fang Qiao grew up in.
Fang Qiao would go back to the orphanage every other time. This weekend, when he arrived at the door of the orphanage with a few bags of snacks, he thought he was dreaming.
Lu Yanzhou was also shocked to see Fang Qiao. He had just investigated the orphanage where Fang Qiao had grown up in and came to have a look. Unexpectedly, he ran into Fang Qiao.
The Dean hurriedly introduced, “Fang Qiao, come to meet our sponsor.”
Lu Yanzhou came over to carry the things for Fang Qiao, “I just learned that the orphanage my father sponsored 20 years ago is where you grew up. It’s really a coincidence.”
Fang Qiao chuckled, “Yes, it is.”
In the afternoon, Lu Yanzhou played with the children who were all greatly interested in Lu Yanzhou. They keep asking questions, “Uncle, what do you do?”
“I’m the boss of an entertainment company,” Lu said
“What is an entertainment company?”
“A place manages the stars.”
“Brother Fang Qiao is also a star. Do you manage him?”
Lu Yanzhou took a look at Fang Qiao and pretended to be bothered, “I can’t, he is the boss.”
“Wow, Brother Fang Qiao is so powerful. He’s the boss of the boss.”
Lu Yanzhou showed them the pictures of the stars, told them what those stars were like in private, and made a group of children who had never seen the outer world giggle.
Fang Qiao sat by and listened silently. He grew up here and came back several times a year after he entered the society. Although the conditions of the orphanage were much better than before, they were a special group. Most time here was oppressive and long.
However, at this moment, it seemed different because of the arrival of Lu Yanzhou. Fang Qiao, watching Lu Yanzhou surrounded by little kids, sometimes laughing sometimes helpless, suddenly felt a kind of peace and satisfaction that had never been felt before.
Lu Yanzhou sensed the blazing eyes cast on himself, raised his head and met Fang Qiao’s eyes. Lu Yanzhou smiled and sent a WeChat message to Fang Qiao.
Baby Zhou: Am I handsome?
Baby Qiao: Yes.
Lu Yanzhou sat in the pile of children and played with them until evening, when the Dean came to urge them to have dinner.
Fang Qiao was in a perfect mood today. Not in a hurry to leave, he held Lu Yanzhou’s hand and showed him around the orphanage smilingly, telling him some childhood memories.
“Look, I lived in this building. When I was six years old, I slept on the top berth. I once fell down from the crack of the railing in sleep because I was too thin. It hurt a lot. There are still scars on the back of my head.”
Fang Qiao added, “There used to be an abandoned pool here. Once I hid in the pool and fell asleep during a hide-and-seek. No one noticed. They searched me till the middle of the night and almost called the police.”
“When I was young, I liked to move a stool to sit at the door, so that whenever a couple came for adoption, they could see me at first sight and take me away,” Fang said. “Unfortunately, no one has such a good eye.”
Lu Yanzhou held Fang Qiao’s hand tighter.
There was a small playground in the back of the orphanage. Fang Qiao was so tired that he just sit on the parallel bar. Lu Yanzhou was afraid that he may fall down and stood by to guard him carefully.
“I thought you didn’t like children,” said Fang when thinking of the way Lu Yanzhou played with the children just now, quite different from how he treated his niece.
“I don’t, but when I see them, I will imagine you as a child, and unconsciously like them,” Lu said.
Fang Qiao suddenly heard the word “like”, and his heart began to jump fast. Face blushing hot, he lowered his head to stare at the ground.
Seeing him playing dumb, Lu reached for his cheek and forced him to look at himself.
Fang Qiao saw that the man in front of him was smiling, in such a good-looking and serious manner, and then he said in an unprecedented gentle tone:
“Fang Qiao, I like you.”
Each of the magic word hit Fang Qiao’s heart, shaking him all over.
He heard Lu Yanzhou saying:
“Baby, I will be your family from now on.”
“We live together and wake up to see each other every morning.”
“You can take my birthday as yours. We’ll celebrate it together.”
“I’ll take you on a trip. I have a private beach where you can enjoy yourself to the fullest.”
“If you want to open cake shops, twenty is the least. And you don’t have to worry about losing money. I have loads of it.”
“Oh, yes, we can also adopt a child. Just choose one from those kids in the orphanage. If one is not enough, we can have two. One with your surname and the other mine.”
…
Lu Yanzhou kept saying and planning their future. Fang Qiao laughed so heartily that tears came out when hasted to stop Lu in making further plans.
The afterglow of the sunset shone on the playground, making Lu Yanzhou look so warm. Fang Qiao felt that he had never been so happy.
He let go of his grip on the parallel bar, bent down, opened his arms to hug Lu Yanzhou and kissed him.
At this moment, Fang Qiao still had a lot of uncertainty about the future, but what he could be sure of was that at the age of 24, he finally met such a person, who firmly held his hand and took him home after years and years of waiting.