Chapter 272 The Most Romantic Thing

(Thanks to reader [Xiao Qi╮] for adding another Alliance Leader for Mixed! And thanks also to all the friends who tipped; at the moment I really can’t add extra Chapters to say thanks. Sometimes the Chapters go up on auto-update and I don’t thank everyone one by one. Many thanks again! — Old Lai, tormented by a sore throat)

Last night Li Yan was also tormented by negative emotions, but in the end he found calm through that release with her. For him, though, it was triggered by his Heart Demon, an old problem of many years, and that’s not a cure at the root. Zhang Yurong’s obviously wasn’t that serious; hers could be overcome through opening up and working it through.

He pondered for a while, thinking how to open her up. He couldn’t talk about his own experience; if he did, not only would it fail to help, it would scare her to death. He could only come at it from another angle.

"Do you remember what I was like before we went back home?"

His sudden out‑of‑the‑blue question made Yurong a little puzzled. "What?"

"Back then I was actually really nervous. Put it nicely, I was ’shy of nearing home’; put it bluntly, I was dreading it, afraid of going back!"

Yurong was a bit surprised and didn’t know why he was saying this. "I was definitely more nervous than you at the time, so I didn’t notice."

"I was like that because I’d been away from home for so many years, and now that I’m this age, I still haven’t made it, can’t return in glory, can’t bring honor to my ancestors. So I kept drifting outside, avoiding going home. This time I finally got to bring home a pretty and capable wife, but I still felt guilty inside. Yet once I actually got back, I realized that facing my parents, my neighbors, other relatives and friends and so on didn’t come with the huge burden I’d imagined!

Even though time had made everything feel unfamiliar and estranged, there were some things—like my parents—that I’d learned to cherish more. Going home this time, everything I saw and felt filled out my memories and gave me an unforgettable experience. It made everything feel closer and more real."

Zhang Yurong listened quietly to Li Yan. As they interacted more and got to know each other, she’d become very clear that her husband, who didn’t even have a middle‑school diploma, had actually read quite a few books and learned quite a few things on his own. He’d seen a lot, experienced a lot, and sometimes what he said really made a lot of sense.

At a moment like this he wouldn’t bring up going back to his hometown for no reason; he clearly had a point to make. Thinking of how he’d just seen through the essence of her emotional shift, she began to chew over his words.

"Back when your dad was seriously ill, you felt unbearably heavy inside, living under a lot of pressure, so that now when a friend dies you can still tap into the heaviness from that time. But have you ever thought about what you became after Dad’s condition improved?" Li Yan put it more directly.

"Once he was healthy, of course I was happy."

"Right, but that’s not enough! Let me think... Dad’s health improved after we got married, didn’t it? Was it the effect of a wedding driving out bad luck?"

"Get lost!"

"Haha, just kidding. It should be put this way: when the old man was gravely ill, a perfect son‑in‑law finally dropped from the sky, someone who could bring his daughter happiness. Seeing that his daughter had someone to rely on let him set his mind at ease; he no longer had that weight on his heart, so he could relax and accept treatment without worries. Plus, with a better mood, he recovered faster. The pity is, as his health got better and better, you got busier and busier and spent less and less time with him. Later on we basically just did the pro‑forma thing of going back once a week to have dinner with him."

Yurong had been amused by his roundabout way of complimenting her, but when she heard the latter part—his criticism—she was slightly taken aback.

"You might say the company was busy and that, as the president, you naturally had a lot to do. Since your father’s condition had improved, you of course needed to spend more time on work and couldn’t let the company run into trouble. Your intention was good, and that kind of choice was the right one."

Yurong was feeling guilty, and hadn’t expected him to then endorse what she’d done.

"Family and career are Dad’s two pillars. You getting married only let him put down half his worries. Only if the company is stable can he let go of the other half. It’s just that he has confidence in you and has never actually worried about that half. But at that time you’d spread yourself too thin. The succession to the presidency wasn’t yet stable, and on top of that he was seriously ill. There must have been factions eyeing the president’s seat. Once his condition improved, you really did need to shift your focus to work—sit firmly in that president’s chair and run the company well so it didn’t fall into a situation of internal and external troubles.

The problem was, once work went smoothly and your father’s illness also stabilized, you spent even more time on work. So a long time ago I urged you to delegate power—focus on being the decision‑maker and overseer, and stop doing everything personally. Of course, back then it was also because I didn’t want my wife staying up working overtime every day and turning into an old hag early on..."

Yurong reached out and smacked him. He’d been talking so well, she was in the middle of "receiving instruction", and then he had to drop a line that broke the rhythm and spoiled the mood.

"Heh‑heh, at this point, with how smart you are, you should understand what I’m trying to persuade you of, right?" Li Yan said with a squinty smile, unabashedly running his hand over her back.

"Pervert..." Yurong muttered, then straightened her expression and said seriously, "I get it. After my father’s condition improved, I was just happy and relieved, but I didn’t learn to cherish it. Today when I heard from Dad that Liu Yuyang had committed suicide, I connected it to him... so my heart filled up with worry. But now I understand that fear and worry are useless. Birth, aging, illness and death are processes everyone must go through. Rather than worrying about an uncertain Future, it’s better to seize the present and cherish what’s in front of us!"