Absolutely Spoiled – Chapter 15

Translated by: Cozy Translations

Chapter 15 – Don’t cry

During the winter of 9th grade, it was Yu Zhiyi’s 14th birthday.

Just like always, Grandma would cook up her favorite dishes and Shi Yi would accompany her to eat cake.

It was just…she didn’t get any presents from her parents this year.

As was tradition, Grandma boiled some eggs for her, “After today, our Yiyi will be a fifteen-year-old young lady.”

She was fourteen, but in the eyes of the elderly, after the day of her fourteenth birthday, she’d be considered fifteen. She also felt that she had grown up quite a lot.

Grandma had already bought some groceries beforehand. While cooking, Yu Zhiyi was standing next to her helping out.

“Grandma, let me cook, you just wait outside.” The young lady usually assisted in household chores, unwilling to let her grandma work hard alone.

Grandma was originally about to bend down to grab a basin. Just as she bent down, she was overcome with dizziness, and she almost couldn’t stand. Yu Zhiyi’s back was facing her grandma as she washed the vegetables, so she didn’t see what had happened just now.

Grandma held onto the wall to stand up and replied with, “I’ll go out firs tot take a look at the other stuff.”

“Okay.” Yu Zhiyi continued to busy about in the kitchen.

Holding onto the wall for support, Grandma slowly walked to the living room and collapsed onto the sofa.

This has already happened a few times, but each time, the dizziness sensation did not last long. She was afraid to tell her granddaughter, afraid that she would worry. Lamenting about how it would be a waste of money to go to the hospital, it would be fine if she just rested at home for a while and waited for it to past.

—

In the afternoon, Yu Zhiyi went to the Shi family. Originally, the Shi family had also called on her grandma to also come over to eat cake, but Grandma thought that the Shi family treated the child well because they liked Yiyi, so if she also followed along, it would be a little embarrassing.

Yu Zhiyi didn’t return until nighttime, “Grandma, did anyone call home today?”

Neither she nor her grandma had a cellphone, so the only way of communication was through the landline at home. She was still secretly harboring some expectations.

Seeing her hopeful yet not daring to say anything, sympathy welled up in her grandma’s heart, but she could only shake her head.

Yu Zhiyi returned to her room.

Her grandma hesitated for a bit, then called Ruan Qing, wanting to ask what exactly have they, as parents, been doing, unable to even wish their daughter a happy birthday.

She didn’t know that at this moment, Yu Kai and Ruan Qing could care less about some birthday celebration!

“I can’t do this anymore! You can do whatever you want, but you actually dared to…to go gamble!”

“Ah Qing, I was wrong, I was really wrong. Forgive me, I won’t ever do it again, let’s continue to pass our days peacefully, okay?”

Ruan Qing watched as her husband knelt on the ground and begged for forgiveness, crying until her eyes were red. Half a year ago, she had taken her younger daughter with her was exactly because she had been fighting with her husband.

After toiling away outside for a decade, they had finally achieved some success. Thus, they happily planned to buy a house in the city, wanting to have a good place to go back even when they returned to their hometown. But who could’ve thought that Yu Kai actually fell for someone else’s words and took out a couple hundred thousand dollars to invest. Not only did he not earn any profits, he even had to pay up tens of thousands of dollars.

Ten thousand plus ten thousand, to a normal family, this was not a small sum of money by any means! Ruan Qing and Yu Kai fought, and in a fit of anger, she had brought her younger daughter back to her maiden home.

In Yu Zhiyi’s point of view, it just looked like her mom and younger sister had come back home to live for half a month. However, at that time, Yu Kai had come in search of her, begging for her forgiveness. On account of the kids, Ruan Qing’s heart softened, and she didn’t dare to delay work any further, so she had only stayed for half a month.

For the next six months, their lives had seemingly returned to normal. But once the sprouts of conflict have been planted, they will lead to even greater conflicts.

Ruan Qing had begun to put her guard up against Yu Kai. The moment he acted out of the ordinary, she would suspect him and interrogate him, leading to countless arguments. After fighting so many times, the dissatisfaction and grudge she held became deeper and deeper.

Yu Kai was just a man, after all. Coming home to his wife pulling an ugly expression every day, he finally exploded and went out drinking with a few others. Somehow or another, he began to gamble.

At first, he won some small prize money and was very happy. The next day, he even bought a few nice things to give to his wife and daughter. Later, those buddies of his dragged him over again, and he half-heartedly resisted them. Discovering that his luck was pretty good, he actually earned over ten thousand dollars after a few times.

His monthly salary wasn’t even ten thousand. After playing for two to three days and gaining over ten thousand dollars, Yu Kai couldn’t resist the temptation and would sometimes go over to gamble a few rounds.

Some things were like drugs, you’d get hooked right after the first taste.

Just as Yu Kai was thoroughly entrenched in this method of earning fast cash, reality gave him a fatal blow!

He originally wanted to place a big bet and earn back the down payment for the house. Yet, right at this crucial moment, he had lost until he was left with nothing! The money that was originally planned to be the down payment for the house was gone just like that…

The money that they had earned over these years with their blood, sweat, and tears had slipped away because of her husband’s idiocy. How could Ruan Qing possibly swallow this grievance down?

If it weren’t for the fact that she couldn’t take leave from work, Ruan Qing really wanted to leave this place!

Every time they came home, they would fight. Yu Xinyan would be woken up by them and would stand by the doorway, calling out for her parents as she rubbed her eyes.

Ruan Qing hurriedly led her younger daughter away, “Yanyan, it’s so late, hurry and go to bed…”

Yu Xinyan was almost nine years old now. She could tell that her parents had been acting unusual. After a few days, Ruan Qing directly took her daughter with her to temporarily stay at a friend’s place.

When Yu Kai returned home and saw the empty room, he collapsed on the ground, completely dispirited.

*

Not long after, Yu Zhiyi heard from her aunt that her family was no longer buying a new house.

She didn’t know what exactly happened, only hearing that her father and mother had fought because of the house.

Grandma was sitting on the bed and watching TV. Yu Zhiyi walked in to stay with her for a bit, “Grandma, what happened to dad and mom?”

“Nothing happened, don’t worry. Yiyi should just study hard.” The amiable grandmother only reports good news, not bad news.

The only people Yu Zhiyi could ask were her grandma and uncle’s family. Everyone only spoke in half-truths, so she had no idea how serious this matter had goten.

Even so, she was pretty happy about their family temporarily being unable to buy a house. After all, this way she could continue to stay with Shi Yi.

Just when Yu Zhiyi was planning on telling Shi Yi this piece of news, she heard Ning Suya speaking excitedly to Shi Yi, “Your dad and I went to the city to look at a house a few days ago. It’s close to the schools there and the environment is quite nice. When you go to high school, our whole family can move over there.”

At the time, Shi Yi had chosen to stay in the middle school in their town, but it was definite that he would attend the city high school. Plus, with his grades, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to get into the city’s best high school.

These few years, the Shi couple’s careers had been very successful. Father Shi was going to be promoted to the position in the city in two months, so they were planning to wait until Shi Yi graduated before moving.

“Also, Yiyi, did your family pick a location for your house yet? If it’s close, you’ll still be able to play with Shi Yi every day.” Ning Suya earnestly asked.

She had heard some gossip here and there, but never anything concrete over this past year. As an outsider, it was also inappropriate for her to ask about other family’s household affairs. Now that she was sure she was going to move, she casually brought up this topic.

Yu Zhiyi shook her head and mumbled, “I don’t know.”

Ning Suya didn’t ask further, but this piece of news hit Yu Zhiyi like a lightning bolt.

She was no longer moving, but Shi Yi was going to move?

So are the two of them destined to be apart?

Shi Yi understood Yu Zhiyi very well. Even if she blinked more than usual, he would take notice, not to mention Yu Zhiyi was an open book. When it was only the two of them left, Shi Yi asked, “What’s wrong? Unhappy?”

She shook her head, “I just don’t know where I’ll be living in the future?”

Shi Yi’s hand landed on her head, “It’s still early, don’t think about these useless things.”

He teased her, “You’re already foolish, stop stuffing more things into your brain.”

Shi Yi had finished his homework a long time ago so Yu Zhiyi had to rely on herself to slowly finish the problems. Sitting next to her, Shi Yi was quietly playing video games. Yu Zhiyi would occasionally tilt her head to glance at home, trying hard to not disturb him.

In the end, she finished all the ones she could and the ones she couldn’t, she left them blank.

When Shi Yi’s video game reached a pivotal point, Yu Zhiyi turned her chair and faced him. Her round and glassy eyes unblinkingly stared at him, waiting for him to be free. Shi Yi glanced at her and set down the console. He leaned over, “Which one do you need help with?”

Yu Zhiyi opened her workbook and showed him the empty spaces.

Shi Yi familiarly took out a pencil from his pencil case and grabbed some scrap paper. He drew on it as he explained, “The center of the circle is O, AB and CD are two lines on either side of O parallel to each other…”

When they reached the last two problems, Shi Yi finally couldn’t hold back and thumped his pencil against the book, “Yu Zhiyi, how many times have I explained these types of problems to you? You keep making the same mistakes!”

Actually, once you’ve gotten to the end fo the workbooks, you’ll realize that the problems in the workbook are all pretty much the same.

The young lady knew she was wrong as she tugged the corner of his shirt, “Brother, don’t be angry, Yiyi is listening.”

Even the most hardened of tempers would be ebbed away with the young lady’s sweet and soft voice.

Shi Yi took in a deep breath and tried to adjust his emotions.

Actually, he didn’t realize that every time Yu Zhiyi asked the same question, he would also give the same thorough explanation each time. After explaining the answer, he would still confirm once more, “Do you understand?”

The young lady nodded her head and wrote down the correct answer in the work book.

After finishing her homework, she finally revealed her worries, “Dad and Mom seem to have fought, and Grandma said we aren’t moving anymore. But when I asked them what exactly happened with Dad and Mom, none of them would tell me the truth.”

“Actually, there was one time when Grandma wasn’t home and I secretly called Mom. Mom said she was busy working, so she didn’t answer my question.” The little girl bowed her head, “If I keep hounding them about this question, would they think me annoying?”

“Our Yiyi is so cute, no one would think you’re annoying.”

The environment one lived in was very important to one’s upbringing. The peace and harmony of the family would also affect the mental and physical health of children. In the end, the young girl that he had carefully cared for in the palm of his hands all these years still became very sensitive due to the lack of parental love.

Yu Zhiyi had been feeling very down recently. When she packed up her schoolwork and was about to head home, Shi Yi stood up, “I’ll send you home.”

The two families didn’t live far from each other, just a 2-3 minute walk and they reached the courtyard.

Her aunt was standing outside washing laundry as she made small talk with the neighbor, “That sister-in-law of mine had a big fight with her husband, I heard they’re going to divorce.”

The sister-in-law that her aunt was speaking of was naturally referring to her mother, Ruan Qing.

Ironically enough, the secret that the adults had tried so hard to hide from the child had been let out just like that.

Shi Yi quickly covered her ears, as if his actions would be able to erase the nasty words from the outside world.

Yu Zhiyi’s eyes were widened in disbelief, her body slightly trembling.

For a child who thirsted for a warm family, to hear her parents were divorcing was a nightmare she didn’t want to face!

Shi Yi suddenly reached out and pulled her into a hug. Her cheek was pressed against his chest. He lowered his head slightly, his chin close to her pink and soft ears. His warm palm was pressed against her neck and his other hand gently rubbed her back, “Yiyi, don’t cry. Brother won’t be able to handle it.”

This author has something to say: I’m unable to describe what I’m feeling at the moment…one day Luoluo will drown in the sourness of my own writings

Translator’s comments: Get your tissues out everyone because this is about to get a little bumpy

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