Chapter 16: Wen Chen, Have You Lost Your Mind?
Luo Qingjia spaced out for a mere second, but that was all it took for Wen Chen to toss the fragrant crab roe wontons to his second assistant, Xiao Yuan.
Xiao Yuan respectfully caught them and then handed over a bowl of extremely unappetizing plain congee. "Mr. Wen, this is the meal you ordered from Zhenxiu Restaurant."
Wen Chen gave a curt nod and smoothly sat down on the chair Xiao Yuan had just wiped clean. His face entirely expressionless, he scooped up a spoonful of congee, held it out to Wen Qingheng, and spat out two cold words: "Eat it."
Wen Qingheng looked deeply conflicted. His body instinctively leaned back, as if utterly repulsed by Wen Chen's proximity.
"Thank you, Uncle, but I'm not hungry. Jiajia just fed me some wontons. Thank you for coming to see me. You have a million things to manage every day, so I wouldn't dare trouble you to take care of me. Having Jiajia here is enough. Why don't you go back to your work?"
Wen Qingheng’s tone was perfectly respectful, yet his underlying message of kicking the man out was incredibly strong. Though he directed his words at Wen Chen, he cast a pleading, SOS glance at Luo Qingjia.
Even though Wen Qingheng also possessed phoenix eyes, they held none of the sharp, imposing authority usually associated with them. When he looked at someone with slightly furrowed brows like he was doing now, the natural upward tilt of his outer eye corners softened. His gaze brimmed with such tenderness and vulnerability that it stirred an undeniable urge to protect him.
Luo Qingjia’s eyes fell to Wen Qingheng’s wrist again, where faint traces of blood still lingered. Though it had stopped bleeding, the wound definitely needed tending to. And more importantly, the psychological knot behind this self-inflicted injury had to be untangled.
Having Wen Chen here was hindering his ability to resolve the problem and negatively affecting Wen Qingheng's mood. Everything had a priority; he had to pacify Wen Qingheng first, and then find time to soothe Wen Chen later.
Having made up his mind, Luo Qingjia leaned closer to Wen Chen and spoke up to bail Wen Qingheng out. "He's right, Uncle. You should head back first—"
Smack! Wen Chen slammed the bowl heavily onto the bedside table. "He might not be hungry, but Jiajia is. He hasn't had breakfast yet." With that, he grabbed Luo Qingjia by the hand and started dragging him toward the door.
"Wait a minute, I'm not leaving!" Luo Qingjia felt a flash of resentment. He felt that Wen Chen's blatant favoritism was going a bit too far.
Wen Chen treated him—the fake nephew—so incredibly well, yet was brutally cold to his actual, blood-related nephew. Even lying injured in a hospital bed, Wen Qingheng couldn't get a shred of concern from him.
No matter how you looked at it, Wen Qingheng was his family. Wen Chen’s older brother and sister-in-law might have treated Wen Chen poorly in the past, but Wen Qingheng had never wronged him.
Usually, Luo Qingjia reveled in Wen Chen’s unique, exclusive favoritism. But when it came to Wen Qingheng, all he felt was guilt and heartache.
Because Wen Qingheng was the second-best person to him in the entire world, and the only pure family member he had left. His feelings for Wen Chen had long since changed. rather than a family member, he wanted Wen Chen to be his lover.
When his identity as the "fake young master" was first exposed, he had endured endless cold shoulders and couldn't even get a full meal. Thankfully, Wen Qingheng had helped him both openly and in secret, sparing him from suffering too much.
Most importantly, it was because of Wen Qingheng’s help back then that he hadn't been sent away to an orphanage. That allowed him to wait until Wen Chen returned from studying abroad, paving the way for the blissfully happy ten years he had just experienced.
But his happiness only highlighted Wen Qingheng’s misfortune. Wen Qingheng’s biological parents were refined egoists who only made demands of him without offering any love. They didn't even allow Wen Qingheng to visit the "little home" he shared with Wen Chen to cultivate a relationship.
And Wen Chen, entirely focused on taking care of his fake nephew, had grossly neglected his real one.
Furthermore, if he hadn't played the cuckoo in the nest for the first ten years of his life. if Wen Qingheng had been raised in the Wen family from birth, Wen Qingheng wouldn't have always felt like an outsider who didn't fit in.
Luo Qingjia remembered that before his fake identity was exposed (and especially before his terrible academic grades were revealed), Father and Mother Wen had been quite warm toward him.
When he was little, Wen Chen—the typically unsmiling youngest uncle—would secretly pat his head and pinch his cheeks when no one was looking, and sneak him candies when he was upset.
If he hadn't usurped the crucial first ten years when a wealthy family's young master had the best chance to receive parental love, wouldn't Wen Qingheng's relationship with his parents and with Wen Chen be much more intimate?
He had once asked Wen Qingheng why he treated him so well. Why didn't he resent him for stealing his life?
It was only when they were eighteen that Wen Qingheng finally gave him an answer. "In my heart, my surname has always been Luo. Your biological parents are my true parents, so I've always viewed you as a younger brother. Can Jiajia call me Gege? I want to protect Jiajia for the rest of my life."
"Okay," the eighteen-year-old Luo Qingjia had replied. But deep down, he was thinking that he didn't need Wen Qingheng's protection, he had Wen Chen. What he needed to do was compensate this good brother of his. He owed him far too much.
Over the years, with Wen Qingheng studying abroad, he barely had any opportunities to make amends. Now that Wen Qingheng was finally back, Luo Qingjia was determined to make him feel the warmth of family.
He had been utterly love-struck before, which was why he had used Wen Qingheng to make Wen Chen jealous. It was only at the moment he saw Wen Qingheng take a knife to himself that he realized just how selfish he had been.
He had always revolved entirely around Wen Chen. Whenever Wen Qingheng reached out to him. whether it was a rare face-to-face meeting or a transatlantic phone call, Luo Qingjia would chatter endlessly about every little detail of his life with Wen Chen. He had never once stopped to consider if hearing those things made Wen Qingheng feel awful, and he rarely even asked how Wen Qingheng was doing.
Wen Qingheng had reached a point where he was physically harming himself. This psychological pain must have been building up for a long time, yet Luo Qingjia had remained completely oblivious until today.
Looking at Wen Qingheng’s pale, bloodless face, Luo Qingjia’s guilt peaked. He even began to direct some of his misplaced anger at Wen Chen, feeling that the man was simply too unreasonable and cold-blooded.
"Let go of me! I'm staying here to take care of my brother!" Luo Qingjia yelled, forcefully trying to shake off the grip.
But the harder he fought, the tighter Wen Chen’s hold became. Not only did he fail to break free from Wen Chen's iron grip, but his own wrist was squeezed red in the process.
Thoroughly enraged, he leaned down and clamped his teeth hard onto Wen Chen’s forearm.
Leaving bite marks on Wen Chen was his go-to trick whenever he threw a temper tantrum. Wen Chen always let him act out; after he finished biting the left arm, Wen Chen would offer his right arm until Luo Qingjia’s anger subsided.
The outcome was always the same. Wen Chen would cave to his unreasonable demands and even earnestly praise him, saying, "Jiajia's teeth are so perfectly straight, the bite marks look very pretty."
This time, however, Wen Chen’s reaction was completely different. His face dark like a thundercloud, he just kept dragging him away. It was only when they heard Wen Qingheng speaking to the assistant that he stopped.
"Xiao Yuan, these are my leftover wontons. Could you please not take them away? I'm so sick of hospital food, this is the only thing I have an appetite for." Wen Qingheng looked pitifully at the round-faced young man who was packing up the food containers, getting ready to leave.
The round-faced assistant looked at his terrifyingly scowling boss, Mr. Wen, and then at the "Little Mr. Wen" who had just started working at the corporation. His head spun with the dilemma.
Ultimately, without asking for his boss's permission, he took it upon himself to nod. He figured Mr. Wen wouldn't be so petty as to grudge someone a few leftover wontons.
He had originally intended to leave the exquisite food box behind entirely, but when he saw the conspicuous character "Jia" engraved on the outside, he quickly grabbed a disposable container from the bedside drawer.
He transferred the remaining wontons into it and quietly placed it in front of the younger Mr. Wen, along with chopsticks and a spoon. He then carefully packed up the original food box bearing Wen Chen’s handwriting and held it securely in his hand.
Having accomplished this, Xiao Yuan mentally gave himself a pat on the back, feeling like a humble, unsung hero. He had managed to avoid offending his boss while also keeping his conscience clear by not refusing someone’s small request.
Unexpectedly, the younger Mr. Wen picked up the wontons and suddenly raised his voice to call out, "Thank you so much, Xiao Yuan. These wontons mean a lot to me. I'm so glad you were willing to help."
Xiao Yuan rolled his eyes internally. Bah! What an ungrateful little wolf! I help him and he throws me right under the bus! Next time I definitely won't let my sympathy get the better of me. Boss Wen is way better. cold on the outside, but warm on the inside.
The "good guy" Wen Chen, upon hearing Wen Qingheng’s words, took long strides right up to him. He snatched the container from his hands and—whoosh—tossed it straight into the trash can.
Wen Qingheng widened his eyes in sheer disbelief. He pointed a trembling finger at Wen Chen, the knife wound on his wrist beginning to seep blood again. "Do you... do you really hate me that much?"
Wen Chen frowned. He was deeply repulsed by Wen Qingheng’s hypocritical, pretentious act.
It was completely normal for Jiajia not to know common sense, considering he hated studying. But Wen Qingheng was a top student, there was no way he didn't know that crab roe was a dietary trigger.
Even from a Western medical perspective, it was highly allergenic and strictly contraindicated for patients in the acute phase of a bone fracture.
This brat doing all this was nothing more than a "bitter flesh" strategy to tie Jiajia down and gain his sympathy.
Heh. If Jiajia knew that his precious "Gege" had deliberately injured himself just to win sympathy, he definitely wouldn't want anything to do with him anymore.
When you truly care for someone, you can't bear to make them worry or feel heartbroken for you. What Wen Qingheng was doing proved he didn't truly care about Jiajia at all.
"Wen Chen, have you lost your mind?!" Luo Qingjia shoved Wen Chen toward the door. "Leave! You're not welcome here."
Luo Qingjia had seen the wound on Wen Qingheng’s wrist start to bleed again, his face a picture of absolute despair, yet Wen Chen was still glaring at him furiously. Anxious and angry, Luo Qingjia had lost control and screamed those words at Wen Chen.
The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted it. He wanted to chase after Wen Chen and apologize.
But Wen Qingheng grabbed onto him. "Jiajia, please don't go. Don't abandon me. If you don't want me either, I really won't be able to go on living."
Luo Qingjia looked at the lonely silhouette standing outside the door, and then at the miserable person beside him who looked entirely devoid of the will to live. For a moment, he was caught in an impossible dilemma.
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