The two brothers sat outside the hospital room for a while. Rong Yuheng felt a bit thirsty, so he got up to buy some water from the vending machine in the hallway.

Turning a corner, he found himself in a corridor by the window. The faint daylight seeped in through the windows, casting a very subtle golden edge on the horizon, and the outlines of the street below slowly became visible.

Rong Yuheng glanced at his phone; it was 6:45 in the morning. He bought two bottles of oolong tea and was about to return when he suddenly realized that he hadn’t informed Wen Zhecheng.

Rong Yuheng quickly sent a message.

[Rong Yuheng]: Master, I forgot to message you! I’m already at the hospital [Crying sea otter emoji].

Within a few minutes, Wen Zhecheng replied.

[Wen Zhecheng]: It’s alright. How is Uncle Rong’s condition?

[Rong Yuheng]: Dad is stable now, still sleeping.

[Wen Zhecheng]: That’s good. You should also take a rest. What’s the matter with Uncle? What did the doctor say?

Rong Yuheng suddenly fell silent. How was he supposed to explain to Wen Zhecheng that his dad had fainted from squatting on the toilet too long?

After pondering for a while, he decided to be vague.

[Rong Yuheng]: He had a temporary drop in blood supply to the brain and needs to rest.

Since Wen Zhecheng still had to prepare for filming, they exchanged a few more words before ending the conversation. Rong Yuheng wrapped his coat around himself; the morning air was still a bit chilly. He carried the two bottles of oolong tea back to the hospital room, where he found the door open, and several doctors and nurses were going in and out.

Rong Yuheng’s heart skipped a beat. “What’s going on?”

Rong Chongyan stood at the door, took the water from him, and said, “It’s nothing. Dad woke up, and the doctors are checking his condition.”

While they were talking, the medical staff in the room had finished measuring his vital signs. One of them called Rong Chongyan and asked him to come to the front desk to complete some procedures and wait for the results.

Rong Chongyan replied, then turned to Rong Yuheng and said, “You go in and see Dad first. I’ll come over later.”

“Okay.”

When Rong Yuheng entered the room, he saw a spacious ward with a single bed. Medical equipment such as a ventilator and a blood gas analyzer were set up beside it. Although the environment and equipment in the room were top-notch, Rong Yuheng couldn’t help but feel a sense of “emptiness” among all these expensive furnishings.

Rong Tianshen lay on the hospital bed. He was usually a stern and strict person, but now he had no strength to even sit up. He noticed Rong Yuheng entering and his eyelids trembled slightly.

Rong Yuheng approached his father’s bed cautiously, lowered his head to take a look, and after a while, he finally managed to utter a sentence from his throat, “You managed to end up in the hospital just from taking a dump.”

Rong Tianshen, whose bottom line had been exposed, suddenly became angry and embarrassed. His eyelids trembled even more violently. “What’s wrong? I’ve become useless because I’m old!”

Rong Yuheng suspected that his father hadn’t quite shaken off the script of “King Zhao’s Displeasure with Lian Po.”

Seeing that his son was silent, Rong Tianshen bit his cheek and let out a heavy sigh. “What are you here for? I get angry every time I see you!”

Rong Yuheng couldn’t bear to see his father like this. While insufficient blood supply to the brain might not sound like a big problem, especially for someone his father’s age, it was still dangerous. Moreover, with all the medical equipment around, it was evident that Rong Tianshen’s health was not as good as it seemed.

The room fell silent, and no one spoke again.

As soon as Rong Chongyan entered the room, he saw the two father and son with red eyes, each turning their heads away from the other.

Rong Chongyan’s throat gurgled: What’s going on again… What should he say?

This was really difficult for him. 

“Dad, Xiaoheng rushed here overnight,” Rong Chongyan said after a two-second pause. He walked over, placed the oolong tea on the bedside table, and adjusted the blanket for Rong Tianshen. “Feeling better?”

Rong Tianshen gave a “hum,” and his complexion improved slightly.

“I’m perfectly fine.”

The three of them sat in the hospital room and talked for a while. Then a nurse called them from outside, “Mr. Rong’s family members, please come out for a moment!”

Rong Chongyan got up and walked out, and Rong Yuheng was afraid of staying alone with Rong Tianshen, fearing they might argue, so he followed his brother.

Outside the hospital room, the nurse handed them a report and said, “Mr. Rong needs a comprehensive physical examination. If you agree, please come with me later to complete the paperwork. Also, if you have his medical records and previous examination reports, please bring them.”

Rong Chongyan said, “I’ll go with you to handle the paperwork. Xiaoheng, can you go home and fetch Dad’s examination reports and medical records?”

Rong Yuheng replied, “Sure.”

—

The Rong family had a dedicated driver, and it took less than twenty minutes to get from the hospital to their home. Rong Yuheng arrived at home just before 8 o’clock in the morning.

The spacious villa was empty, with not a soul in sight. The living room lights were still on, and the entrance was a bit messy, indicating the chaos that had ensued when Rong Tianshen had fainted.

Rong Yuheng went upstairs, crossed the wooden-floored corridor, and arrived at Rong Tianshen’s bedroom door. He pushed it open and saw that the bedside lamp was still on, and the computer was left running.

Rong Yuheng hadn’t been told where the medical records were kept, so he had to search for them himself. They weren’t in the bedside table, nor on the desk. After a thorough search, he walked over to the bookshelf.

Rong Tianshen’s bookshelf was semi-open, with half of it covered by a glass door and the other half with solid wood doors. Behind the glass door, there were books on finance, business management, and history neatly arranged. Rong Yuheng paused for a moment, then took out all the history books, hidden them under Rong Tianshen’s bed in secret.

He had figured out Rong Tianshen’s logic: “Learn from history, and you’ll be admitted to the hospital.”

There were no records behind the glass door, so Rong Yuheng opened the wooden door.

The bookshelf was tucked into a corner, and the lighting was a bit dim. When Rong Yuheng opened the door, he couldn’t see clearly inside. He crouched down and realized that something was off.

There were three layers of bookshelves, neatly stacked with three piles of albums. There were at least a few hundred of them, like three layers of cargo containers.

On the bottom shelf, there were several stacks of files and notebooks, looking somewhat disorganized. It was obvious that they had been randomly stuffed at the bottom to make room for the three layers of albums.

Rong Yuheng’s fingertips trembled slightly, and then he reached into the pile of documents and pulled out a medical examination report and a medical record book. The examination report was neatly placed in a file pouch, but the medical record book had a folded corner.

Suddenly, Rong Yuheng’s eyes welled up with tears. His nose tingled, and his vision blurred.

After he carefully put away the examination report and the medical record book, he reached out and pulled out one of the albums from the three stacks—it was their STAR-T’s debut album. Rong Tianshen had secretly bought hundreds of them and stored them in his bookshelf without telling anyone.

Rong Yuheng felt a mixture of anger and amusement. Did the album hold such significance that he bought so many and kept them so neatly, even stashing his own medical records underneath? He truly was a big conch shell.

He crouched there for a while, thinking about standing up, but considering Rong Tianshen’s recent experience, he slowly lifted himself up by holding onto the bookshelf to prevent himself from fainting.

Otherwise, his precious pearl brother might cry.

Rong Yuheng took a deep breath, wiped away his tears, and then headed back to the hospital in a hurry.

—

When Rong Yuheng arrived at the hospital, Rong Chongyan had already completed the necessary paperwork. He handed over the examination reports and medical records to the nurse, and the two brothers slowly walked towards the end of the corridor.

After turning a corner, the corridor was empty. Rong Yuheng suddenly stopped in his tracks and called out to Rong Chongyan, “Brother.”

Rong Chongyan turned around and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Rong Yuheng’s throat moved, and his voice sounded somewhat strained, “Do you know that Dad… bought our group’s albums?”

Rong Chongyan paused for a moment and then replied, “I have a rough idea.” He continued, “When you guys released your album, I mentioned it to him, but he didn’t say anything at the time. Later, one day, a delivery arrived at home with two large boxes. I wanted to help him carry them upstairs, but he insisted on doing it himself and struggled to carry them up.”

Rong Yuheng blinked his eyelashes, and tears welled up again. He couldn’t bear the thought of Rong Tianshen struggling to carry the boxes upstairs.

“He bought our group’s album, hundreds of them, and hid them in the bookshelf,” Rong Yuheng sniffed, “Why is he like this? He didn’t even tell me.”

Rong Chongyan took a few steps forward, embracing his younger brother gently and patting him on the back. “Dad has always been like this.”

Rong Tianshen didn’t understand anything, he only knew that Rong Chongyan had said it was Xiaoheng’s debut album, and they needed to boost the sales. So he secretly bought hundreds of them and kept them neatly in the house, without telling anyone.

Rong Yuheng recalled Rong Tianshen lying in the hospital bed, saying he was old with weak looking, and his heart ached.

He would rather have Rong Tianshen scold and argue with him all day, unable to admit his aging while indulging in food and drinks, than see him reluctantly acknowledging his own decline.

Rong Yuheng buried his head in Rong Chongyan’s chest and cried loudly, tears and snot soaking the expensive shirt, making it all sticky and wet.

Rong Chongyan helplessly raised his chin, letting his little conch shell vent.

“You came back in a hurry both times, haven’t you visited the backyard yet?”

Rong Yuheng, sniffling and wiping away tears and snot from Rong Chongyan’s chest, raised his head and asked, “Huh?”

Rong Chongyan replied, “Dad secretly set up the wind turbine swing in the backyard.”

Rong Yuheng, “…”

He had finally managed to calm down a bit, but now his mood was disrupted again. He buried his face in Rong Chongyan’s chest and cried while kicking and punching him, “Why are you telling me this! You did it on purpose! Waaaah…”

Rong Chongyan, enduring the little conch shell’s rain of blows, gently stroked his hair. Well… this little fool.

—

On the set, Rong Yuheng couldn’t take too much time off. After making sure Rong Tianshen’s condition had stabilized, he prepared to leave.

Before leaving, Rong Tianshen still maintained his image and let out two sighs of relief in Rong Yuheng’s direction.

Rong Yuheng, rarely patient, reached out to touch Rong Tianshen’s forehead and held a small Jade Guanyin pendant to bless his father.

Rong Tianshen was instantly startled and almost broke his carefully maintained image. “What… what are you doing?”

With teary eyes, Rong Yuheng said, “I wish you a speedy recovery.”

Rong Tianshen replied, “Ah… alright.”

After leaving the hospital, Rong Yuheng rushed back to the film set. It was a little after 3 o’clock in the afternoon when he landed, and Shi Qiu came to pick him up.

“How’s your dad’s condition?” Shi Qiu asked.

“It has stabilized, but the doctor recommends he rest for a while longer. However, he can’t let go of the company’s affairs.”

Shi Qiu, driving and checking the road, nodded. “I understand.”

Rong Yuheng leaned against the car window, lost in his thoughts.

When they arrived at the film set, Shi Qiu parked the car and absentmindedly took out her phone to check messages. She suddenly exclaimed, “Oh my god!” and quickly grabbed Rong Yuheng, saying, “When you went to the hospital, someone secretly took pictures of you, and now it’s trending on Weibo!”

Rong Yuheng exclaimed, “What?” He couldn’t fathom why anyone would take pictures of him while he was just visiting a hospital. What was there to capture?

Rong Yuheng asked, “What did they take?”

Shi Qiu replied, “A photo of you crying your heart out in your brother’s arms.”

Rong Yuheng, “…”

Relying on his half-year experience of being an entertainment news consumer, he made a guess. “Are they trying to say I’m being held by a rich man, crying in his arms? And then spread rumors of me having a sugar daddy and being financially supported…”

Shi Qiu replied, “…” What had the entertainment industry turned this originally innocent child into!

She reassured him, “You’re overthinking it. Everyone knows your family background, no one would come forward to be slapped in the face.”

Rong Yuheng asked, “What is that? Pulling silk?”

Shi Qiu then handed her phone to him. On the trending topic, there was a picture of Rong Yuheng crying in the arms of a tall man, tears streaming down his face in utter despair, while the man was gently stroking his head.

The bold headline was in large bold letters, emphasizing its presence:

“Rong Yuheng Spotted Crying in the Hospital, Suspected of Facing a Major Family Crisis!”

Rong Yuheng, “…”

Shi Qiu consoled him, “But this kind of news isn’t scandalous, so it won’t have much impact on you. If you’re comfortable with it, you can explain your father’s situation, and our team can also clarify.”

Rong Yuheng stared at the trending topic, his gaze heavy, and his tone solemn.

“Perhaps, not quite comfortable explaining…”

TL Notes: A very sorry that I can’t upload everyday this week. Many place around the town got power off. And my place was too. So, it was not conducive.  That was until i know that my Library town is a great place!