Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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The anger that was about to burst out was blocked by this sudden sentence, and Mr. Luo’s voice and expression froze in place.
There was dead silence on the terrace for a few seconds.
The night wind blew through the gap of the long terrace window in front of Luo Zhan, which was not closed tightly, and made a whistling sound that was sometimes sharp and sometimes rustling.
Luo Zhan lowered his eyes. From the nose line to the cheekbones and then to the jaw, his cold profile was tense with sharp lines. It was also an expressionless face, but it was completely different from his usual careless and lazy look.
Even his usually lazy eyes were now dark and deep, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Luo Zhan slowly closed the long window.
Next to the slightly bent knuckles, the whistling sound of the wind was torn and stretched to the sharpest and most piercing degree, and then completely disappeared when the last bit of the gap was slammed shut.
Then Luo Zhan put down his hand and turned around.
Only then did Mr. Luo come back to his senses.
His face was frozen as he asked, “You, what nonsense are you talking about… How could you and Tang Ran have known each other for a long time?”
Although his words were vague, Mr. Luo did not look away even for a second. He stared closely into Luo Zhan’s eyes, as if he wanted to get some answer from them.
Luo Zhan frowned little by little, his voice cold: “I also feel like I’m talking nonsense. On the way here just now, I was thinking, if Tang Ran really appeared in my memory, then why don’t I have the slightest impression of her.”
Hearing this, Mr. Luo’s eyes suddenly relaxed. He seemed to be a little relieved for some reason.
After a few seconds of silence, Mr. Luo coughed softly in the wind: “Did you see that little girl at the Tang family? Did she say something or -“
“I haven’t finished what I’m saying.” Luo Zhan suddenly interrupted him, “Grandpa, why are you in such a hurry?”
Mr. Luo froze, turned around, met his grandson’s cold eyes, and retorted guiltily: “Who said I was anxious?”
Luo Zhan: “Then wait until I finish speaking.”
“You also remember not having seen her, so what else is there to say?”
“She is indeed not in my memory,” Luo Zhan paused for two seconds and narrowed his eyes slightly, “but it’s only in the memory I remember.”
“…”
Mr. Luo’s figure paused slightly.
Luo Zhan walked over without retreating, not missing any changes in his grandfather’s expression and eyes: “After I was 12, I could trace back everything that happened to me according to the clues of time and place. Before I was 11, although it was boring, it was also the same – the only blank was the year in between.”
Luo Zhan walked up to the old man and slowly paused at the end of his words: “On the way, it suddenly occurred to me that if there was anything that happened in my life that I didn’t know about, it must have happened in that year – because the memories of that nearly a year were all told to me by you, Grandpa.”
Old Master Luo frowned: “What’s the matter? You fell off your horse that year, hit your head and were in a coma for several months, so you lost some of your memory–“
“Was I really in a coma for those few months?” Luo Zhan suddenly asked back.
Mr. Luo paused and said, “What else?”
Luo Zhan was silent. He looked at Old Man Luo, his eyes gradually becoming gloomy.
Mr. Luo felt guilty when he was stared at. He could only frown and ask unhappily: “What’s that look in your eyes? Don’t you believe what I said?”
Luo Zhan: “I was just skeptical at first. After all, when I recalled it later, my recovery speed and physical condition at that time were really not like that of someone who had been in a coma in bed for several months.”
Mr. Luo looked away: “Physical recovery varies from person to person, so what’s the big deal.”
“…”
Luo Zhan’s lips curled up and his eyes were cold.
Seeing this half-smile, Mr. Luo felt uneasy in his heart and frowned: “What are you smiling at?”
“I’m just sure.” Luo Zhan said, “You must have hidden something from me during that time. If not, then with your temper and what happened tonight, how could you explain it to me so patiently now?”
“……!”
Mr. Luo’s face changed.
But he forgot in his guilty conscience about what he had reminded the housekeeper Lin Yi in the evening –
His little grandson had an unruly temperament, but when it came to playing chess, he was just as good at using tricks as he was at getting out of trouble.
If he wasn’t careful, even he, his grandfather, would be included in the plot.
Mr. Luo had a gloomy expression and his eyes kept changing.
Luo Zhan said: “You should be willing to accept the loss. Grandpa lost this round. As a price, shouldn’t you tell me what you hid from me back then?”
After hearing this, Mr. Luo came back to his senses and snorted coldly: “Who has bet with you? Anyway, I never said I wanted to bet with you. If you have the ability, think about it yourself. If you can’t remember, don’t look for me.”
Having said that, Mr. Luo walked around Luo Zhan with a grim expression and was about to leave.
Luo Zhan turned around and asked, “What happened that year that made you so secretive?”
“——”
Mr. Luo stopped moving.
After a few seconds, he sighed softly: “Don’t think about it, Luo Zhan. Believe me, thinking about those things will not do you any good.”
Luo Zhan frowned: “I don’t need benefits, I just want the truth.”
Mr. Luo’s voice sank: “What if the truth hurts you?”
“Even if it does, I need to know about it.”
“If it hurts you, do you think I would let you know?!” Mr. Luo finally couldn’t hold back his anger. He turned around and glared at Luo Zhan, “You are my grandson and the future heir of the Luo family that I am most optimistic about – you are the most important. Apart from you, all other people and things are inferior to you. Do you understand?”
“…”
Luo Zhan’s eyes darkened little by little.
After a while, he raised his drooping eyelids and his eyes were as cold as water: “Does those people and things also include Tang Ran?”
The old man said coldly: “Everything I said includes me and the rest of the Luo family, not to mention outsiders.”
“Even if this ‘outsider’ is my savior—” Luo Zhan clenched his fists and his voice became hoarse, “Even if she became blind because of me?”
“!”
Mr. Luo’s figure shook.
After being frozen for a few seconds, he came back to his senses in astonishment: “How do you know that she became blind in order to save you?”
“I guessed it.” Luo Zhan replied coldly. “And now it’s verified.”
Mr. Luo: “…”
Luo Zhan stood up and walked towards the long window exit of the terrace. He said in a cold voice: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t tell me. I will check this matter myself. I didn’t know before because I had no direction and was not curious – now it’s different. I will definitely find out the truth.”
“Stop.” Old Master Luo frowned and stopped Luo Zhan. He looked over and asked, “You want to know the truth because of Tang Ran?”
Luo Zhan said nothing.
Mr. Luo tried to soften his tone as much as possible and tried to persuade: “I told you that many things in this world are not black and white. Just like some truths, it will hurt everyone when it is revealed – how do you know that Tang Ran will not be hurt by this truth?”
Luo Zhan just thought it was nonsense. He curled his lips and glanced at the old man beside him lazily and coldly: “Do you think I’m stupid? How could her situation be worse than it is now?”
Grandpa Luo was almost choked by his grandson’s expression. Considering the fact that he was in the wrong and calculating the pros and cons at the moment, he gritted his teeth and endured it: “Then do you know where Tang Ran grew up before returning to the Tang family?”
“…”
Luo Zhan’s eyes paused slightly.
The uncontrollable fierceness in his emotions instinctively retracted into sharp thorns at this moment, as if he was afraid of accidentally hurting even the shadow of the little girl in his memory.
Luo Zhan was silent for a few seconds, then said unwillingly: “Orphanage.”
Mr. Tang sneered: “Then do you know how she got there?”
“How else can it be…”
Luo Zhan’s voice stopped abruptly.
The possibility that suddenly occurred to him made his pupils shrink. After a few seconds, Luo Zhan came back to his senses, breathing slightly faster, and looked at Mr. Luo in disbelief.
Mr. Luo’s eyes were complicated. “It’s what you think. The Tang family knew about her existence from the very beginning. In fact, from the very beginning, she was arranged by the Tang family to be an orphan without even a name and sent to an orphanage.”
“……!”
Luo Zhan’s mind was shaken slightly.
A fragment of memory from the deepest part of his mind was pried open and sounds and images came from an extremely distant place.
It was a cold room with metal fences and small windows with little light coming in. There were also two children sitting back to back, separated by the same wall.
They seemed to have known each other for a long time. When the adults were not around, two hands would carefully reach out from between the fence and slowly grope their way together.
That was their only warmth in the cold.
[What’s your name?]
[Me? I don’t have a name.]
[No name? Then how do they call you?]
[The teacher calls me number 390 because I was the 390th child since the orphanage was founded… I also wanted to have a name, as they only play with children with names.]
[….]
[What about you? What’s your name?]
[I do not have one either.]
[Why?]
[Since you don’t have one, then I’ll play with you. If they don’t play with you, I’ll play with you.]
[Um!]
[…In the future, if there is a future, when we get out, I will give you a name.]
[Okay. Then I will only use the name you give me and never change it!]
[It’s a promise, you can’t forget it.]
[Well, I won’t forget!
[…]
She certainly hadn’t forgotten.
He forgot.
It turned out he was the boy she wanted to see again.
Luo Zhan’s eyes regained focus.
After waking up, pain, guilt, self-blame, regret… countless emotions began to intertwine in his heart, like invisible bugs gnawing at his heart, causing him unbearable pain.
He was saved by her at the cost of her eyes, but he forgot about her.
He became the young master of the Luo family again, living a carefree life. He forgot her alone in the corner of that dark world, letting her live alone and helpless for so many years.
Luo Zhan gritted his teeth.
Perhaps he used too much force, but the boy’s cheekbones were trembling slightly.
The corners of his eyes were red and bloodshot, and it looked like he would cry in the next second.
Mr. Luo couldn’t bear it after all: “I know you blame yourself, I did my best to compensate her, Luo Zhan. But this child… she has a special identity after all. I did my best to take her out of the orphanage and send her back to the Tang family. Don’t you understand why I chose the Tang family among so many families? – This is why I gave in. The Tang family kept silent about this matter, and in exchange, I pretended not to know Tang Ran’s life experience and no longer interfered in anything about the Tang family and Tang Ran.”
Luo Zhan raised his head with red eyes, his voice hoarse from extreme suppression of emotions: “You shouldn’t have let her go back to the Tang family!”
Mr. Luo paused: “Then what do you want me to do? For a little girl I have never met, I should forcefully interfere in the private affairs of the Tang family and even make the Luo family and the Tang family completely hostile to each other?”
Luo Zhan: “You can at least choose to take her away.”
“Will the Tang family agree to hand over such a time bomb to an insider like me?” Old Master Luo was so angry that his beard was shaking. “What’s more – you should have figured out during this period of time why the Tang family was so reluctant to accept Tang Ran. Taking in an unidentified child inro their ancestry, how can this not be an indelible stain on a family? There is no point in explaining this matter. I can’t let the Luo family be criticized and the ancestral temple be disgraced just for a little girl!”
“….”
As Mr. Luo spoke, Luo Zhan’s eyes grew colder.
After a long silence, he said, “You are right.”
Mr. Luo was stunned, and comforted him unexpectedly and shockedly: “If you can understand what I mean——”
Luo Zhan: “But I still can’t forgive you.”
“….”
“I will make it up to her in my own way. I don’t need you.”
Luo Zhan turned around and walked out to the terrace.
Mr. Luo was furious: “Where are you going?”
Luo Zhan: “According to the time, she should be here. Someone asked her to say hello to you.”
Mr. Luo was stunned, “How do you know?”
“….”
Luo Zhan stopped.
With the cold temperature in his eyes, he turned sideways and looked back. On his cold face, a vengeful smile flashed in his dark eyes.
Luo Zhan: “Because you gave her a nice gift.”
Mr. Luo was stunned: “Are you talking about that robot?”
“No.”
Luo Zhan curled his lips in cold mockery.
He pointed at himself.
“It’s me.”
T/N: Grandpa Luo has seriously fallen down in my estimation, he is talking so callously about someone who lost her eyes (her eyes!!!! for God’s sake) to save his precious heir and he feels like he did her a favor by sending her to this useless and cruel family…. Luo Xiu in SMBY was right he is just about benefits and doesn’t care about anything at all…..Argh… I’m so pissed off!!!
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