Picking Up Stars

捡星星

picking-up-stars

Chapter 35

Qin Fang happily returned home for the weekend as soon as it started.
He left right after class on Friday, planning to stay until Sunday afternoon to spend two days with Jian Muyang. He didn't take to heart at all whether his father would be angry or not.
What could being angry do anyway? What effect would it have?
But he also didn't want to start any conflicts with his father. It wasn't worth it. They didn't have a close father-son relationship anyway and rarely contacted each other, so there was no need for hostility. They could each live their own lives.
When Qin Fang returned, his father wasn't home, and even Jian Muyang hadn't come back yet. Qin Fang saw that the car that picks up Jian Muyang from school wasn't parked in the garage, so he knew he wasn't back.
He could imagine what state the home was in right now, so he didn't even get out of the car and just played on his phone in the vehicle.
When Jian Muyang came back and jumped out of the car, Qin Fang deliberately didn't move from his reclined seat position. Seeing Jian Muyang rushing into the house like a little train, after less than five minutes he turned back around.
Jian Muyang peeked through the window tentatively, and seeing the light from Qin Fang's phone screen, he instantly grinned, pressing his face against the window and making a silly face.
Qin Fang adjusted his seat back and got out of the car.
"When I went home and saw you weren't there, I was confused." Jian Muyang bumped his head against Qin Fang's body, clinging to his brother as they walked. "Could it be that you left again? No, that's not right... then I saw your car."
Qin Fang ruffled his hair. Kids at this age grew too fast. He always felt that every time he saw him, he had grown again.
The two of them entered the small building together. The state of the home was just as Qin Fang had imagined. With Dong Yin, the nanny, the confinement nanny, and the babysitter, there were so many people it made one dizzy.
The baby was lying in the mobile crib grabbing a rattle. When the two of them went in, Dong Yin looked over and asked, "You're back?"
Jian Muyang responded, but Qin Fang didn't make a sound. He walked over silently to look at the baby. It had been over a month since the birth, and in total Qin Fang had only caught him a few times when he was awake.
Now seeing him stretching his arms and legs like a little turtle flipped on its back, he found it very interesting. Qin Fang smiled soundlessly. He hadn't washed his hands, so he didn't plan to hold him.
"This is Qin Fang, right?" The voice suddenly rang out from the kitchen doorway, startling Qin Fang for a moment. He looked up and saw it was Jian Muyang's maternal grandmother.
Qin Fang pursed his lips. He didn't want to address her, so he only nodded.
Originally, the four women bustling about had already made him dizzy, and now another one was added. Although Dong Yin's mother was also a quite cultivated intellectual woman who spoke softly and wasn't talkative, the environment with five women still made him a bit agitated.
So after Qin Fang looked at the baby, he went upstairs, and Jian Muyang naturally followed him.
Back in Qin Fang's room, Jian Muyang closed the door and sat beside Qin Fang. Qin Fang saw that he was in a good mood and figured he hadn't been wronged recently. Otherwise, a child's face can't hide his thoughts.
Qin Fang said to him, "You shouldn't be staying with me. Since your grandma is here, you should go downstairs and sit with her for a while."
Jian Muyang shook his head and said with a smile, "I just want to stay with you."
Qin Fang looked at him and sighed in his heart. There were many things he didn't understand, and Qin Fang couldn't possibly explain to him.
Children can't pretend. He genuinely liked his brother, but he didn't know that in some cases, this would only make his mother more worried.
Jian Mingtao was certainly not some foolish father who couldn't keep his composure. With an outsider in the house, Jian Mingtao wouldn't possibly bring up the matter at the dinner table. The meal was eaten very peacefully and calmly.
After the meal, Jian Mingtao asked Qin Fang to go to the study with him. Jian Muyang looked nervous, but Qin Fang just smiled and flicked his forehead.
Jian Mingtao took after his grandfather, and Qin Fang took after Jian Mingtao. Actually, they all looked alike - tall and handsome. Jian Mingtao pointed to the sofa and said to him, "Have a seat."
Qin Fang hadn't planned to stand as punishment anyway, so he walked over and sat down.
Having been in business for many years, Jian Mingtao wouldn't be so blunt as to get straight to the point in a conversation. So they actually chatted amiably for ten minutes, with the content all about Qin Fang's daily life. This was indeed a bit hard to get used to.
The prelude over, it was finally time for the main event. Jian Mingtao was no longer euphemistic and said, "That video of yours, I saw it."
"What video of mine?" Qin Fang asked in return.
Jian Mingtao said, "What video? Do you still need to ask me?"
Qin Fang seemed to realize and nodded. He laughed and said, "Weibo? I didn't even know you look at Weibo, Dad. You're too hip."
This was sarcasm. It was obvious how that video had gotten to his father's hands.
Jian Mingtao didn't take his bait and continued with his own words. The gentleness from before was gone, and now his face was slightly grim as he stared at Qin Fang. "Have you gotten too wild?"
Qin Fang raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'wild'?"
"What are you doing at school?" Jian Mingtao frowned, not too patient. "Hanging out with boys, even giving away bikes. Who did you learn this from? Can't you learn something good?"
Qin Fang leaned his head against the back of the sofa. His father's words made him want to laugh a little, but he didn't actually laugh out loud.
He said quite seriously, "Dad, let's first find the main point. Do you want to talk to me about 'boys' or 'giving away bikes'?"
His father didn't want to split hairs with him and said, "I always thought you were quite sensible and knew where the bottom line was no matter how you played around, so I never restricted you."
Qin Fang also said his own piece, starting, "First, are we still going to talk about this 'boys' thing? What era is it? Let's not even discuss this outdated topic. Then about 'giving away bikes' - did you see me give one away in the video? Did I say that?"
His father was dissatisfied with him blurring the focus and raised his eyebrows. "Don't give me that attitude. Put away your attitude."
Qin Fang sat up straight, his face not showing any perfunctoriness, and said quite seriously, "I don't have an attitude. I'm also trying to have a serious talk with you. Originally, it was just these two things. I know that what you mainly want to talk about is the first one. I really don't have much to say about that. It's an era of freedom in love. Dad, I don't want to have any conflicts with you."
Qin Fang had never really had any conflicts with his father. In terms of personality, he was a child that made it very difficult for people to get angry at him. He didn't cause trouble or talk back. He accepted what was given and didn't ask for what wasn't.
He was indeed very easy to raise, without any thorns. Now Qin Fang told his father that he didn't want to have any conflicts with him, so his father no longer wanted to say the things he had originally planned to say.
In the end, Jian Mingtao only said to him with a solemn face, "I hope you always understand what you're doing and what the consequences are. At your age, you're not a child anymore. You've reached the stage where you need to take responsibility for your own life. There has to be a limit to your messing around. Don't live like scum. At the very least, you should live up to your grandfather."
Qin Fang lowered his gaze, pursed his lips, and said nothing else except, "Okay."
An unpleasant conversation like this should stop here, there was no need to continue, so Qin Fang stood up and said, "If there's nothing else, I'll go out."
His father grunted an "hmm" from his throat.
Before Qin Fang opened the door, he stopped again, turned his head and said, "Dad, I didn't want to say it originally, but since you mentioned Grandpa, I want to say something else."
Jian Mingtao looked up at him.
Qin Fang said slowly, "Grandpa indeed made a lot of plans for me, which is enough for me. As for the rest, I don't want anything. So you can convey to Aunt Yin that you don't plan to give me anything, tell her not to worry too much or play any tricks, it's unnecessary, I really don't want to set foot in this family."
After saying that, Qin Fang opened the door and went out, because if he didn't leave, his father would definitely get angry, so it was best to leave first.
Jian Muyang had been waiting in Qin Fang's bedroom. Seeing him return, he carefully looked at his expression. Qin Fang deliberately put on a cold face, and Jian Muyang asked in a low voice, "Brother, are you okay?"
Only then did Qin Fang smile and say to him, "What could happen?"
Jian Muyang let out a sigh of relief and said, "I was afraid Dad would hit you."
"It won't come to that," Qin Fang said.
His father couldn't possibly hit him, Qin Fang was clear about this. But he didn't expect it to go so smoothly. According to his expectations, his father would get angry and argue with him, but surprisingly, he didn't.
However, it didn't make Qin Fang feel at ease. This kind of conversation was still quite depressing, especially when Grandpa was mentioned at the end.
He didn't like mentioning Grandpa in this kind of conversation.
The autumn rain got colder with each shower. After two rains, the temperature dropped sharply, and even thick coats couldn't quite withstand the cold wind.
The day Qin Fang returned from the Jian family was especially cold, and the rain was also heavy. The raindrops splashed on the glass, the windshield wipers slid quickly, and it was easy to get stuck in traffic in this weather. Any accident on the street could cause a traffic jam on three streets.
Qin Fang moved slowly in the traffic flow. The rain was too heavy, the pattering sound of raindrops hitting the car mixed with the rapid frequency of the windshield wipers, making people irritable.
When Xing Yan's message came, Qin Fang happened to be stuck and not moving. He clicked to read: Are you back yet?
Qin Fang replied: Not yet, what's up?
Xing Yan: Then don't come back for now, it's raining heavily in the city.
Qin Fang called him directly.
Xing Yan picked up quite quickly. Qin Fang said to him, "I'm already on the way."
"You're back?" Xing Yan asked him on the phone, "It wasn't raining before you left?"
"It was, I didn't take it seriously," Qin Fang heard the noise in his phone and raised an eyebrow to ask, "Are you outside?"
Xing Yan "hmm"ed.
"Where are you?" Qin Fang asked, "Can you make it back? I'll pick you up."
Xing Yan said there was no need.
Qin Fang frowned, "Then how will you get back? You still want to take a taxi? You're too naive, Yan-ge."
Xing Yan said, "Wait for the rain to stop."
"When will the rain stop?" Qin Fang even laughed, "What if it doesn't stop?"
Xing Yan still wanted to say it wasn't necessary, but Qin Fang said, "Send me your location."
The location was shared, fifteen kilometers away from Xing Yan, not far or near, a distance that would be quick to reach if there was no traffic jam, but based on the current speed, it would probably take a while.
In this weather, Xing Yan couldn't expect to take a taxi back. There were few taxis on the road, they all found a place to rest, running a couple of trips and getting stuck on the road, it was annoying. And the pedestrians were all trying to hail a taxi, it depended on who was lucky.
It was a little over an hour when Qin Fang picked up Xing Yan, who was already drenched. Qin Fang turned up the temperature and told him, "Take off your coat."
Xing Yan took off his coat, and Qin Fang turned the air vent towards him.
Qin Fang casually asked, "What did you come here for?"
Xing Yan put his backpack in the back and said, "Had something to do."
He didn't say, and Qin Fang didn't ask further. Thunder roared, the heavy rain outside never stopped, but the atmosphere in the car was quite good, with a sense of security from being isolated in a separate world.
Qin Fang said, "It seems we are indeed quite popular, even my dad saw it."
Thinking about it, it was indeed quite interesting. Everyone found out in a muddled way. After saying that, Qin Fang himself laughed.
Xing Yan looked over at him and asked, "Did he say something about you?"
Qin Fang shook his head, "No."
Xing Yan glanced at him, and then neither of them spoke again. The car was quiet for a long time.
Later, Xing Yan suddenly spoke up and said in a low voice, "You probably didn't hear what I said that day."
Qin Fang asked him, "Which sentence?"
Xing Yan said, "You fell asleep."
"Ah," Qin Fang nodded, “The sentence where you told me not to figure it out anymore?”

Picking Up Stars

Picking Up Stars

Chapter 35 - Chapter 35

Windwalker