My girlfriend is from the future!

This casual tapping caused He Tianran's expression to change, but that was his only reaction.

He Yuanchong slowly raised his head after being slapped down. There was no anger or negative emotion from being disturbed on his face. A smile reappeared on his face, with a helpless yet ingratiating look.

"Oh, Dad, I came back especially to see you. I've been craving your food... Look."

As He Yuanchong spoke, he picked up his chopsticks and ate a bowl of rice noodle rolls. As soon as he finished speaking, he stuffed the rice noodle rolls into his mouth, while constantly looking up at the owner, as if trying to prove that what he said was true.

The bespectacled boss looked at him and sneered.

"Hey Brother Zhao, Chongzai's back to see you again?"

A new customer arrived in the corridor, seemingly a long-time resident. He offered a cigarette to the shop owner, but the bespectacled owner didn't light it, casually tucking it behind his ear. He Yuanchong, however, swallowed a mouthful of powder, wiped his nose, and greeted him solicitously:

"Uncle Li~"

"Hey, Chongzai's still so sensible. He remembers to come home and see his dad. When you become successful, remember to let your dad enjoy life!"

"Okay~"

"Old Li, find a place to sit down, it's the same old routine, isn't it?"

"Yes."

The bespectacled boss nodded. There were no helpers in the kitchen, so he had to do everything himself. Right now, he also had to take care of the customers. He wiped his hands with his apron, glanced at He Tianran, then at He Yuanchong, said "I'll tell you later," and turned to leave, starting to get busy.

He Yuanchong's smile gradually faded. After witnessing this scene, He Tianran finally understood where his younger brother's usual obsequiousness and fawning over He Panshan came from.

Perhaps, this was simply his way of surviving...

"I remember... didn't your 'old man' abandon you and Aunt Tao a long time ago?"

He Tianran asked uncertainly, as neither He Panshan nor Tao Wei in his family rarely mentioned these past events, and he only knew a general outline.

"Abandoned him early? To be precise, he's abandoned me on and off many times. Ever since I can remember, sometimes it's considered good if I see him once every ten days or half a month, and it's not uncommon for him to come back once every three or five years. I remember once during Chinese New Year, he came back and brought me a bucket of instant noodles. That was the most delicious New Year's Eve dinner I've ever had..."

He Yuanchong put down his chopsticks, picked up a tissue from the table, and slowly wiped his fingers, which had just been stained with soy sauce.

"Later, as I grew a little older, I gradually understood that he wasn't running around for work or business trips. He had a mountain of gambling debts, borrowing and paying back repeatedly. Finally, when I was in junior high school, the interest snowballed, and he absconded with everything he could, leaving behind this run-down shop and a pile of unpaid debts. The debt collectors came to our door every day, throwing paint and smashing things..."

Having said that, given He Yuanchong's past shrewdness, he should have stopped there, but he didn't. The feeling of returning to familiar places seemed to have opened the floodgates of his childhood memories:
"That's the story, bro. Don't you think it's too cliché? How about I tell you something new, something you don't know?"

"what?"

"Do you know why Dad... I mean, our Dad, likes sailing?"

He Tianran's gaze sharpened:
"He didn't get along with his grandfather. You know Dad's personality; until I was born, he was practically a failure. As for why he liked going to sea, as far as I know, it's because he had a falling out with his grandfather and became a sailor, and from then on, he loved sailing..."

He Tianran stopped there and didn't say anything more.

"Do you know why he fell out with his grandfather?"

This time, He Tianran did not answer, but He Yuanchong continued speaking:

"At that time, he already knew my mother, but under my grandfather's arrangement, he went on a blind date with Aunt Bai. Actually, there's nothing to say about how things developed up to this point. He wanted to start a company and catch the internet wave at the turn of the century, which showed great business acumen. My grandfather wouldn't support him, and only Aunt Bai could help him, so choosing to be with Aunt Bai was not wrong. After all, my mother was just a fan of his band at the time."

"You mean... back then, Dad..."

He Tianran felt a chill run down his spine. He stared at He Yuanchong, trying to find even the slightest trace of a lie on his face, but there was none…

In those eyes, so unlike his own, there was only a deep, dark resentment, a venom that had been suppressed for too long, as he lowered his voice to an extremely low hue:

"No, He Panshan is a very upright person in this regard, or rather, he knows very well what he wants, but he deserves to die here..."

He truly loved my mother for a considerable period of time; you could say she gave him the best years of her life. But after the breakup, he shouldn't have… stood by and watched that beast from the same band take advantage of her!

He Tianran suddenly looked at the bespectacled shop owner who was standing not far away, facing away from them. In the smoky kitchen, he was scooping rice paste and spreading fillings in one smooth motion, completely oblivious to his son's resentment outside...

However, this time He Tianran's gaze went even deeper...

In that small room, besides a series of cooking utensils for making rice noodle rolls, He Tianran also saw some very old posters of Hong Kong and Taiwan bands, and...

An electric guitar hanging in the corner, already covered in grease and dust.

"He shouldn't have turned a blind eye. He knew what kind of people he was surrounded by at that time. He shouldn't have stood idly by..."

He Yuanchong's whispers, which sounded like either a curse or a lament, continued in his ears. He Tianran looked away, his heart filled with mixed emotions...

"That's enough... I understand. Yuan Chong, you don't need to say anything more."

"You...know...it—?"

He Yuanchong repeated those four words through gritted teeth. He glanced up at the familiar alleyway shop filled with the smoky aroma of cooking oil and his old home, but there was not a trace of nostalgia in his eyes.
"No, you don't know, in these old tenement buildings, there's always a musty, sour smell mixed with cooking fumes in the stairwell. In summer, it's like a sauna, with only a creaking broken fan. In winter, the walls are drafty, and you have to queue at a public bathhouse to take a shower... My mother experienced all of this, and I vaguely remember some of it too."

He raised his hand and pointed to a tightly closed, peeling green iron gate diagonally opposite:

"The bathhouse... I think it was in that spot, but I can't quite remember. But I can't forget that feeling..."

So, that's when I realized, what's the point of being a good student? A 'child prodigy'? A 'PhD'? Can they put food on the table? Can they protect you from those ruthless people? Can they stop my mom from crying secretly at night?"

He looked at He Tianran, his eyes no longer holding their usual sinister calculation, but instead revealing an undisguised resentment and determination:
"Brother, you were born on a mountaintop, you will never understand what it feels like to see your mother being looked down upon by relatives for marrying the wrong person, and to be ridiculed by your classmates for having a gambling father!"
You can't even begin to understand how we felt when a man named He Panshan appeared and, like a savior, took us away from this place!

His voice trembled slightly, carrying a twisted excitement:
"Is it gratitude? No, it's fear! It's the fear of desperately clinging to this lifeline, refusing to fall back into the mire even if it means death!"

So my mom is determined to fight back. She will no longer care about He Panshan's abandonment of her, nor will she care about Aunt Bai's existence!
So I'm going to fight for it! Because I know better than anyone that if we fail, if we lose the He family's reputation, how many people will laugh at us, and how badly we'll fall!

He Yuanchong leaned back abruptly in his chair, his chest heaving, his face flushed with excitement. He stared at He Tianran:
"Now, brother, tell me, is it too much for me to offer 80 million and two plots of land in exchange for your forgiveness and a chance to establish myself in Hong Kong? I just want to hold onto something tangible to make sure I don't wake up one morning to find myself back in this place! Was I wrong?!"

His voice, which had been deliberately suppressed, finally erupted uncontrollably, causing all the diners around to turn to look in his direction, including the busy owner, who stopped what he was doing and peered over.

He Tianran listened in silence.

For the first time, he saw so clearly the swamp in He Yuanchong's heart, a place where no brotherly affection could grow, but rather where vines clung wildly and ambitions with venomous thorns were nourished by the fear of survival.

The steam from the rice noodle rolls had long since dissipated, and the cold sauce had solidified on the edge of the plate.

"So..." Having listened to this past story for a long time, He Tianran finally spoke slowly: "You brought me here just to reopen your wounds and let me see them?"

He Yuanchong froze, because the look in He Tianran's eyes was all too familiar to him. Just as he had said, He Panshan was a person with very clear goals, which was very hateful. And this trait had also been inherited by He Tianran.

"Are you trying to tell me... that those who have nothing to lose are not afraid of those who have something to lose, and warning me not to push you too far, or you'll do anything?"

He Tianran asked.

The excitement on He Yuanchong's face cooled down, and that familiar, forced smile he had worn when facing his father returned stiffly to his face. He avoided He Tianran's gaze.
"Brother, don't put it so harshly. If the Harbour City project is done well, wouldn't that be a good thing for Shanhai and for Dad? I just want to... make sure I have a more secure position in it."

He paused, a barely perceptible hint of anxiety in his voice: "That 80 million and the land, I really... can you give me some more time, until the project is completed..."

"Om-"

"Om-"

At that moment, both of their phones vibrated simultaneously.

The two brothers were both stunned for a moment, and then swiped to unlock their phone screens.

The sender was He Panshan.

The content is concise and chilling, exuding a cold, unquestionable authority.

"Go home at 7 p.m.

"Your mother is here too."

"We need to talk about you and what's going on between you and your brothers."

"You told Dad about me? Brother, didn't we agree before, you..."

Before He Tianran could even look up, He Yuanchong shouted first.

"Enough!" He Tianran looked up, equally annoyed. "If I had told you, would we still be here together today?"

What was bound to happen eventually did happen, but He Tianran really didn't expect that these two things would come together.

Bai Wenyu didn't even give him any time to buffer or communicate privately. She directly put his problem with He Yuanchong on the family negotiation table, which meant that she was really angry and did not intend to leave him any room to act on his own.

He Tianran stood up, his tall figure making the narrow passageway seem even more crowded.

He looked at He Yuanchong with no anger or sympathy in his eyes, only indifference.

“Brother, your fears and your past are your own business, and they should not be a reason for you to overstep your bounds.”

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried the same unquestionable decisiveness as his father's.

"Besides..." He turned to leave, but stopped in his tracks, turned his head and left with his last words, "Don't bring me to places like this again. Where your 'roots' are is none of my business and won't change any facts."

After saying that, He Tianran strode through the noisy corridor and down the dimly lit stairs, leaving behind his "younger brother," who was mired in the quagmire of his own fate, under the gray sky.

This meeting with He Yuanchong was like uncovering a festering sore, revealing another side of the family beneath its glamorous facade.

But this did not shake his decision; on the contrary, it made him realize more clearly that there are some people and some things that cannot be retreated from, and there is no way to retreat from them.

……

……

"Your 'brother' left?"

Not long after He Tianran left, the owner of the rice noodle roll shop finally finished his work and came up, plopping down next to He Yuanchong.

"You... know him?"

He Yuanchong's eyebrows twitched twice as he watched his father, in a biological sense, take the cigarette that a previous guest had given him from behind his ear, light it with a contented air, and exhale a puff of white smoke.

"He Panshan's eldest son? I recognized him at first glance. He's been in the news a lot these past two years. Whenever people in the store talk about rich kids, his name is always mentioned. But you, you've changed your surname to 'He,' how come we haven't seen any news about you?"

He Yuanchong smiled without saying a word and picked up his chopsticks again.

"Why did you decide to come see me today?"

"Because of something."

"The eighty million you were talking about earlier? Hmm, did they catch you doing something wrong? What is it?"

The shopkeeper flicked his cigarette ash into He Tianran's plate of rice noodle rolls, which he hadn't touched.

"Because of a woman."

He Yuanchong chewed his food and replied vaguely.

"Hey—" the boss laughed, slapped his thigh, and said in a vulgar and sarcastic tone, "What woman is worth 80 million? Gold and silver? You've probably been tricked into a scam by your brother, haven't you?"

He Yuanchong paused, then resumed chewing, and suddenly said:
"What's 80 million? Didn't you sell your mother for more than that?"

"Snapped--"

The boss, surnamed Zhao, slapped his son on the back of the head again, but the focus of his reprimand was unexpected:
"You brat, how can you talk like that? Your dad got cheated on and didn't earn a single penny after paying off his debts. If I had been there the day your mom ran away, we'd be living the high life somewhere right now. Besides, you're giving them money. Don't run away when the He family disowns you... Wait, what are you doing here today?"

He Yuanchong put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth:

"Try playing the victim card, see if it works or not, it was a woman's idea that came to me."

"Hey, you idiot, you were so smart when you were little, how come you've started believing women now? Does it even work? You've exposed your old man, don't let your debts go unpaid later, or your creditors will have to pay for yours instead."

"Hahahaha, hehehehe, Dad, you're so funny, hahahaha..."

He Yuanchong threw his head back and laughed, tears streaming down his face.

The bespectacled shop owner silently smoked, listening to his son's laughter and seeing his smile before him. Suddenly, he felt that it was quite nice for the father and son to have a chat like this...

“Oh dear… no…” He Yuanchong rubbed the laugh lines on the sides of his nose. “It’s not that playing the victim is working, so there’s another way, and I need your help, Dad.”

"Sure, but my appearance fee is very high. You're quite a..."

"Boss, a bowl of rice noodle rolls, please."

"Okay, just a moment." The shopkeeper stubbed out his cigarette on He Tianran's plate and patted He Yuanchong on the shoulder: "Wait here, we'll talk in a bit."

After saying that, he stood up and walked towards the room.

He Yuanchong stared at the cigarette butt still smoldering on the plate opposite him, muttering to himself:

"Dad, it'll be quick...you can help right now..."

"What? Can't you speak a little louder, kid?"

Upon hearing this, the restaurant owner surnamed Zhao turned around and saw He Yuanchong with a ferocious smile on his face, holding the tray from which he had just extinguished his cigarette, and slamming it directly onto Zhao's face. (End of Chapter)