Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.
Those Sweet Times
Chapter 96 Part 2
Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin
Shen Zemu put down the chopsticks and started to tell her what had happened in the past. The tone of his voice was rather calm and his words were concise and neutral, but Yang Yin’s heart hurt as she listened to him.
When Shen Zemu was in seventh grade, his father was appointed to be the head of a prefecture in Z province. There were many shady politics in that prefecture. After Shen’s father went there, he had probably interfered in someone’s interests. Not too long afterwards, someone set his father up. Someone reported anonymously that his father had embezzled money and taken bribes. The prosecutors found a box full of money under his bed at the place he lived. His father was sent to a detention center and his grandmother fell sick from the shock and checked into the hospital.
When this matter was exposed, Shen Zemu had a very hard time in school. His classmates gave him the nickname “corruptor.” There were a few upper class boys who beat him everyday. At the time, everything that was happening to the family was too hectic for his mother to pay much attention to him.
Shen Zemu was beaten up everyday.
Yang Yin asked with red eyes: “Why didn’t you tell the teacher and your mother?”
“There were too many things going on at home at the time and I felt that I shouldn’t let my parents worry about me if I’m man enough.”
“What happened then?”
“Then, they cleared my father’s case. The money had been placed there by someone else to frame him.”
“No, I mean what happened to you then?”
“I was in the hospital.”
That was the last they beat him and he had been beaten unconscious. He was in the ICU for five days. The hospital even notified his family that he was in critical condition several times. After he completely recovered and left the hospital, he found out that he was suffering from neurasthenia.
Yang Yin cried, she felt her heart hurt. She couldn’t imagine the bloody scene where Shen Zemu at 12 or 13 years of age being beaten by a group of boys.
Shen Zemu pulled out some napkins on the table to hand over to her and comforted her: “It happened many, many years ago.”
Yang Yin asked: “Shen Zemu, do you feel that the world isn’t beautiful at all?”
“I feel this world is neither good or bad.”
“I originally felt that the world isn’t too nice so you just have to make the best of it. Later on……”
“Hrm?”
She blinked.
Later on she had met a person and just because of him, she started to feel that the whole world had become beautiful.
Yang Yin picked up the fried egg in her bowl to put into Shen Zemu’s bowl: “You, eat more.”
Shen Zemu looked at the two stacked eggs in his bowl. The incident had happened almost ten years ago and today he got a fried egg as compensation.
After eating, they washed dishes together. Afterwards, Yang Yin patted Shen Zemu’s shoulder and said: “It’s getting late. Go sleep.”
“How about you?”
“Hrm?”
“You aren’t going to sleep?”
“I’ll let the food digest a bit. I’ll go to sleep pretty soon.”
Shen Zemu went back to his own room. He wasn’t feeling sleepy at all with a full stomach. He stood in front of the window, staring blankly outside. Suddenly he heard a high pitched shriek from downstairs: “Ah! ! ! ! !” The sound was horrifying.
Shen Zemu turned and ran downstairs without thinking. When he was outside Yang Yin’s room, he didn’t even bother knocking and pushed the door open.
Yang Yin was huddling on top of her bed, holding the blanket in her arms and shivering.
Seeing Shen Zemu come into her room, Yang Yin called out to him while trembling: “Shen, Shen, Shen, Shen, Shen Zemu……”
“What’s wrong?” Shen Zemu asked, frowning.
“M- - - - -ouse.” She sounded like she was about to cry.
Shen Zemu relaxed, it was only a mouse.
Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.
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