The Wild Dog and the Daisy - Chapter 19

That night, I kept turning things over in my mind.

I tried searching for news about Yan Chen’s arranged marriage.

But there was nothing.

News about arranged marriages from that year was almost impossible to find.

What was going on?

Did he not get married?

Or was it a secret marriage?

I twisted and rolled on my bed like a worm.

Ding dong-a friend request popped up.

The note read: Song Minxin.

I always knew she studied music, that she would debut as a singer or join a top orchestra.

But since I returned to China, I hadn’t seen her appear in the media.

Instead, I’d heard from others that she’d opened a hospital and was now in charge of psychological counseling.

I accepted her request.

Song Minxin: “Xiao Hua?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

She replied: “I knew you weren’t dead. Yan Chen turned the whole crash site upside down…”

I asked, “Huh? In the group chat, they said he didn’t send you off to the arranged marriage because he wanted to protect you.”

She said, “Oh, that was just a cover. His mom is way too crazy.”

She opened up.

“He’s got problems too. Tried to kill himself and ended up in the hospital. His mom said, ‘I knew you had something twisted with her.’ I happened to be back in the country, so I went to the hospital too and heard them arguing.”

“She wanted you dead.”

A chill ran through me.

No wonder-after I landed in that foreign country,

I got into a little car accident.

A car barreled straight at the one I was in.

The driver couldn’t dodge in time.

Right before the crash, another car suddenly shot out, intercepting it.

My driver was scared half to death.

He stomped on the gas and sped away.

Song Minxin continued, “His mom just wants an obedient son. Yan Chen’s afraid she’ll try something again, so he pretends to be the perfect son now.”

“Let me tell you, his brother’s fate… Yan Chen doesn’t want to end up like Yan Chi.”

Song Minxin told me,

Actually, Yan Chen isn’t an only child.

He has an older brother, ten years his senior.

Under his brother’s protection, Yan Chen lived like a little tyrant.

The Yan Family never really groomed him.

He was just treated like a pretty ornament.

Because Yan Chi’s brilliance was overwhelming.

He was a rare natural-born talent, not some manufactured product created by the family’s heavy investment.

Yan Chi was the kind of genius that comes once in a hundred years.

Mr. and Mrs. Yan poured all their energy into him.

Under that crushing pressure, he… ended it.

On Yan Chen’s birthday.

It’s said that after that, Yan Chen never celebrated his birthday again.

Suddenly, I realized-when he said that day wasn’t a good day,

maybe,

maybe he wanted to spend his first birthday with me.

After that, the Yan Family had no choice but to pick up Yan Chen and start grooming him.

But he wasn’t born a genius.

He could never catch up to his brother.

After finishing, Song Minxin asked me:

“Is he with you?”

“I’m his psychologist now. He’s stubborn, but I told him to explain things properly to you. He said he’d come find you today.”

I replied, “I know he’s married, but he still wants to have that kind of relationship with me, so I told him to leave.”

On her end: “Huh?!”

“He can’t be alone for more than a day. He’ll spiral, do something stupid. I thought he was with you, so when he didn’t report back, I didn’t ask…”

“I’m heading there now. I’ll send you the address. It’s up to you if you want to go see him.”

Without thinking, without even changing my clothes or shoes, I dashed downstairs.

The drive took five minutes.

I arrived at his place.

The password door didn’t open.

I knocked, but no one answered.

I tried entering my birthday.

It opened.

The shower was roaring from the bathroom.

“Yan Chen!”