Yan Yan - Chapter 43.1

Chapter 43.1

The Bai family had two dining halls. One was a small, cosy one where they served food to family members, and the other was a big hall for hosting parties and gatherings.

The big dining hall was in its own room and had really cool decorations. It was even nicer than the private rooms in five-star hotels.

Nine wooden chairs that match were put next to a big round table made of Huanghuali wood.

After all the people sat down, lunch started.

When she went to Bai’s house for dinner for the first time, Su Yan felt shy and uncomfortable. She was nervous and couldn’t relax, so she didn’t want to pick up her food. She seemed not to be hungry, but she was actually starving.

Bai Xingfan saw that she didn’t have a lot of food, but he didn’t say anything because he knew she was sensitive. Instead, he helped her get more food without asking her.

The chilled food was served before the hot food. He gave her a chicken leg, some boiled shrimp, a little bit of beef, and a piece of rice lotus.

Su Yan felt a bit shy because many people were watching her, but she was still really happy deep down.

More importantly, she didn’t have to be hungry anymore.

Certainly, everyone at the dinner table noticed Bai Xingfan’s behaviour, but no one spoke about it and simply looked at each other with big smiles.

Old Mrs. Bai and Mr. Bai were sitting at the top of the table, and after watching their oldest grandson’s performance, they looked at each other and could tell from each other’s eyes that they both really enjoyed it.

Su Yan ate a lot of food because her boyfriend, Bai Xingfan, kept giving her more. She felt very full and couldn’t eat anymore.

When he was about to roll her roast duck roll again, she hurriedly held his wrist. “Enough! Enough!”

She would throw up if she ate more.

Bai Xingfan was afraid she wasn’t full, so he grabbed an empty bowl and asked, “Let’s have some soup!”

Su Yan said, “…”

After Bai filled the bowl with beef soup, he placed it in front of Su Yan.

Su Yan looked at the bowl of soup and just couldn’t bring herself to drink it. She had to be honest and say, “I can’t drink it anymore.”

Bai Xingfan: “Drink as much as you can.”

Su Yan closed her lips and quietly said, “There will be leftovers.”

When she was little, she didn’t have enough food, so she learned not to waste food. And still, she didn’t want to waste it.

Bai Xingfan also said, “You drink, then I’ll drink the rest.”

Everyone who was sitting quickly looked over, and they looked surprised, especially the three teenagers.

Bai Xingfan was a clean freak. Could he drink leftover soup?

Su Yan’s face turned red, and she was very embarrassed.

Even though he usually didn’t eat her leftovers when they were together, this was the first time he did it in front of his family.

Bai Xinglan looked at his brother and said, “Brother, I can’t finish my soup.” He looked hopeful.

Cheng Jiheng: “…”

Ji Shubai: “…”

‘Lanlan, why are you embarrassing yourself?’

Bai Xingfan: “Then throw it.”

Bai Xinglan said, “…”

The difference was a bit obvious!

After eating, Bai Xingfan’s father left the house to go back to work, and old Mr. Bai took Bai Xingfan to the study room.

Jiang Lin went to the kitchen to cut up some fruit for everybody. Su Yan quickly went after her and said she wanted to help.

There were no other people in the kitchen at that time.

Su Yan shut the kitchen door.

Jiang Lin smiled at Su Yan and said, “Thanks.”

Su Yan quickly said, “Yes, it should be.”

She said yes to Jiang Lin’s request at the bathroom door earlier, but they didn’t have time to talk right away. They finally got a chance to talk after lunch.

She was always interested to hear what Bai Xingfan’s mother would say to her, but she felt a bit anxious.

Jiang Lin noticed that Su Yan was worried and said kindly, “Don’t worry, I don’t have any bad feelings towards you.”

Su Yan felt better and went to the middle of the kitchen. She rolled up her sleeves and offered to help.

“No, I will do it by myself,” Jiang Lin said as she took a small watermelon from the fruit basket and put it on the cutting board. “Just watch and listen to me.”

“Oh.” Su Yan could only stand next to Jiang Lin and wait for her to speak.

Actually, Jiang Lin didn’t know how to speak, even though she wanted to say something to the girl in front of her.

After thinking for a while, she brought up the topic. “Xingfan really likes you. He interrupted me because he was afraid I might say something to embarrass you.”

Su Yan was shocked. She never thought it would happen this way. Her heart felt strange. A mother would always defend her child, no matter what.

Jiang Lin sighed and said, “My son has always not liked me and maybe even hates me. But it’s my fault; I made him who he is. I don’t know if he told you where I come from.”

Bai Xingfan had told her about that, but she didn’t want to admit it because she thought it would be embarrassing. So, she decided to tell a small lie, but just before she could deny it, she just realised something and decided to be honest, so she said, “Yes.”

She didn’t want the woman in front of her to feel that her son chose to hide from her girlfriend because she disliked her background.

Jiang Lin had been cutting the fruit for some time and seemed very surprised by the answer.

Su Yan finally spoke up and said, “He didn’t have any trouble saying it.”

Jiang Lin didn’t say anything for a long time. “I always thought he didn’t like where I came from.”

Su Yan spoke with a strong tone. “He never felt like that.”

Jiang Lin smiled, but her eyes started to get red. She said, “I don’t like myself. I’m an actor, and I’m not qualified to marry into the Bai family, but when I got pregnant with Xingfan, I married his father. But I didn’t just sit around and do nothing like people thought I would. I am worried every day that Xingfan will be made fun of because of where I come from. I’m also worried that he might make bad choices because I haven’t taught him well enough and that he might be negatively influenced by me. So I never paved him the easy way.”

She took a deep breath and stayed calm. “I expected a lot from him, and I wanted him to do his best in everything. He was in the first grade of elementary school, and he got second place in the class on his midterm exam. The teacher gave him an award, and he took it home and wanted to show me. He wanted me to say good things about it. I wanted to do it too, but I was scared he would get too confident and not take action, so I had to be tough. I ripped up his certificate and told him off for not winning first place. I asked him what he had to be proud of and told him he needed to come first in the test and not be behind.”

Su Yan suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe, especially after hearing the words “tear up his certificate.” Her heart felt tight, and it hurt a lot.

That year, Bai Xingfan was just seven years old.

He only wanted his mother to praise him, but instead, she scolded and criticised him.

How sad must that seven-year-old child feel?

Have a nice day!