Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1231: A little too late
Lin threw him a neutral glance. "Do you want me to greet you?"
His question further irked Hou Fa. "You..."
He was quick to remember the purpose behind his visit and forced himself to calm down. He looked away, not wanting to disturb the peaceful atmosphere. Silence returned but with a restlessness.
Eventually, Hou Fa couldn’t resist and asked, "...How is your cafe going?"
Lin was slightly taken aback by the question. He had been observing his unsaid bitter feelings all this time and was sure that he was going to utter some harsh words again.
"It’s going well."
"How well? Does it even get you any money?"
"The cafe is running decently if that’s what you want to know."
"Decently is not gonna cut it for you," he grimaced. "Do you even see the prices outside? How are you and Cai going to sustain yourself by running a small cafe?"
"We will be fine."
His expression turned sour. "Oh really. Where are you living? How big is your house?"
"We have two rooms on the second floor."
"That’s all?" He was dumbfounded. "So it’s not a proper home, just two rooms above your cafe. How does it mean that you are doing well at all? You should at least have a 2-bedroom house in one of those high-rise towers. You are not some college students living in dorm-like facilities!"
Lin’s eyes narrowed. "We are fine."
"Of course you will say that. What is your backup plan?"
"Backup plan?"
He glared. "If you are doing business, of course you should have a backup plan!"
"I don’t have one."
His gaze darkened. "I don’t see any hope in your small cafe helping you give a good standard of living. When will you be able to buy your own house going at this speed? You are already thirty-six. Listen to me and get some high-paying job. You never know when your cafe will run out of business."
His gaze turned cold. "It won’t."
"You are getting emotional over this. Business seems lucrative but it’s risky as hell. You never know what can go wrong. So many of my friends drowned by dreaming of that luxury. A job is safe and secure."
Lin’s lips stretched into a thin line. "Once again, you are disrespecting my decisions."
"It’s not disrespecting if you didn’t make a level-headed decision in the first place," he gritted his teeth. "Six years of your life has already been wasted in prison! Why would you be so foolish and gamble away the rest of your life too?"
"I am doing just fine."
"Fine? No, you are not! The only reason you chose to go this path was because companies wouldn’t have hired a man with your background anymore. That’s why, it was a mistake to follow that girl! Yahui ruined your life! It’s because of her that you ended up in prison and destroyed your future!"
He clenched his fist under the table, his gaze becoming darker and more severe.
"Really? And what kind of a future would I have gotten staying with you?"
"Are you seriously comparing your parents to a homeless brat who God knows if she came from a detestable background?"
"Yeah, sure. Our background was so sparkling and shining. Like the respectable family in society. But let me tell you - only you enjoyed that luxury. Cai and I hated every minute that we were forced to live with you."
His cold words sliced through the air like a sharp gust of a wind.
"So what if Yahui might have had a questionable background? Or maybe she didn’t. At least...she looked my way. She looked Cai’s way. She took care of us when you two were busy fighting. I was...especially the source of your fights, wasn’t I?"
He stiffened.
"Yes, it’s difficult to raise a child with special needs," Lin didn’t mention himself with any specific sympathy. "So I believe I made the right decision when I left home. It wasn’t to follow Yahui. It wasn’t just that. Why do you tend to forget that you were a bigger part of our lives than her? Why do you never stop to think for once that the problem could be the environment you built for your sons and not a girl who you treat as an outsider?"
"You-"
But Lin cut him off midway. "So I don’t want to hear your opinion about my career choices, certainly..." his gaze hardened, "not from a man who never met his son in prison even once because he probably didn’t even know what was going on in his life. Or maybe you did learn about it eventually but chose not to visit because you were ashamed of me. I don’t care what the reason is. It’s a little too late for you now to start caring about how Cai and my future would look like."
Hou Fa bit his lower lip, his body lightly trembling in fury and a mix of other emotions he couldn’t quite put a finger on.
"Yeah clearly, I am too late..." he looked away, swallowing a gulp. "Very late..." he murmured to himself in a daze.
"So what now? Will you accept being Zhong Sihan’s adopted son? If you hate us so much, it’s only right that you throw away the Hou last name."
Lin stared at him hard. He didn’t know why his last words cut him though like a painful stab wound.
Throw away huh...
"You make it sound so easy," his eyelids trembled for a short moment.
Hou Fa let out a small wry laugh. "Isn’t it easy? Zhong Sihan has a questionable past, but he has shitloads of money and a luxurious villa. You are set even if you don’t work for the rest of your life. Then clearly, there is some bond between you two. That’s why he is so adamant in adopting you. When he talked to us in the park that day, he was lightning quick to create the distance between us and you. Zhong Sihan acted like that rich boy’s father who throws money at the poor girl’s face to get the hell out of his son’s life."
He slowly turned, meeting Lin’s eyes. "I am glad that it’s a happy ending for you. It might be a little late, but you will have the kind of father you always wanted."
