Chapter 3: The Situation of the Shen Family

Walking into the Shen Family home and turning on the lights, Shen Yan felt a thousand thoughts racing through his mind as he looked at the familiar yet strange layout before him.

When he was two years old, Shen Fu fell ill; after exhausting the family's wealth, he still could not be saved. Facing a home stripped bare and a debt of fifty thousand, Shen Mu resolutely abandoned her child and chose to remarry.

At the time, Shen Nainai was still an accountant at a public institution, a woman in her prime, and she decisively took on the burden of the household and the responsibility of raising Shen Yan.

Every month, after deducting daily expenses, her entire salary was used to pay off the external debts.

Later, after Shen Nainai officially completed her retirement procedures, her monthly pension of three thousand yuan was more than enough to support the grandmother and grandson, with quite a bit left over.

In 2005, fate smiled upon them; the dilapidated two-story cottage left behind by Shen Fu was slated for demolition, and the developer compensated them with two commercial apartments and one storefront on the ground floor.

Considering the costs of home renovation, after much deliberation, Shen Nainai sold one of the commercial apartments for two hundred thousand yuan; it was precisely because of this that the grandmother and grandson had their current stable home.

In truth, it was not easy for Shen Nainai to raise Shen Yan all by herself. She lost her son early, her daughter-in-law had heartlessly remarried, and she still had to work. During the day, she would leave Shen Yan at a nursery, and after work, she still had to buy groceries, cook, and take care of Shen Yan; the hardships involved were something others could hardly fathom.

Fortunately, Shen Yan was quite sensible. Aside from not being good with words, he basically never caused Shen Nainai any worry in his previous life; he handled all the housework and won scholarships every year in university.

After graduation, although he was unaccustomed to the social environment, he learned the art of pastry-making from his uncle and lived a prosperous life, buying both a car and a house. The neighbors all praised him, complimenting Shen Nainai on raising such a good grandson.

It is just a pity that the good times did not last, and he met a woman who...

Sigh! It is better not to mention it.

This commercial apartment of the Shen Family is 90 square meters in size, with a simple and clear layout. To the left of the entrance is the bathroom, to the right are the dining room and kitchen, and there are also a master bedroom, a second bedroom, a living room, a utility room, and a balcony.

Turning on the Air Conditioner placed in the corner of the living room, gusts of cool air rushed toward him, as if they were clear springs flowing down from the mountains, carrying freshness and coolness, making one feel as if they were in a lush, green forest.

With nothing to do, Shen Yan lay on the sofa in the living room, picked up the television remote, and pressed it lightly.

By this time, network set-top boxes had already taken the stage, but the Shen Family had not installed one, using that old-fashioned signal receiver instead.

As he flipped through the channels, Shen Yan felt everything was dull and flavorless, just like a dish cooked without salt, unable to stir up any appetite.

Finally, the television screen settled on a spy drama called "Lurk," starring Sun Honglei and Yao Chen.

In truth, Shen Yan did not care what content the television was playing; inexplicably, he just wanted it to be a bit noisier around him, attempting to let his restless heart calm down.

Even now, he found it somewhat hard to believe that something as bizarre as rebirth had actually happened to him.

How should he walk the path ahead?

As early as 5:30 PM, the college entrance examination application system had already closed, which meant it was impossible for Shen Yan to follow the routine and go to study in Shanghai like in his previous life.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Suddenly, the door was knocked, and Shen Yan's train of thought was interrupted.

It was both unexpected and within reason; the visitors were Youwei's parents.

The father, named Yu Chengdong, was a man in his early forties, 1.75 meters tall, with a square face, wearing a white T-shirt on top and black casual shorts on the bottom.

He was currently the deputy director of the Public Security Bureau, upright and unyielding in character, doing things by the book, and belonged to the type who was down-to-earth.

The mother, named Sun Bixia, wore a light blue shirt paired with brown casual trousers, giving people a sense of capability and confidence.

Unlike ordinary middle-aged women, Sun Bixia was a middle school teacher. Although her salary was not high, with various bonuses and benefits plus the income from running tutoring classes outside of school, earning seventy or eighty thousand a year was easy.

With a substantial family income, plus the fact that her husband doted on her, she had never done any heavy labor, could occasionally go to a beauty salon for treatments, and usually paid attention to exercising her figure.

Although she was already thirty-nine, from her appearance, she was clearly a young woman in her early thirties, full of charm, with every gesture revealing a mature allure.

Without waiting for Shen Yan to speak, Yu Chengdong said first, "Xiao Yan, how are you feeling now? Your Sun Yi and I were originally planning to go to the hospital to see you, but after hearing from Youwei that it was nothing serious, we didn't go."

Shen Yan waved his hand and said, "Everything is fine. Thank you, Uncle Yu and Sun Yi, for your concern. Would you two like to come in and sit for a while? It's not very convenient to talk standing at the door."

The couple gladly accepted, and after entering the room, the three of them sat down on the sofa in turn.

Upon discovering that "Lurk" was playing on the television, Yu Chengdong immediately perked up and said excitedly, "Xiao Yan, I didn't expect that you, at such a young age, would also be so interested in spy dramas."

Shen Yan said sheepishly that he was just watching it casually, and Yu Chengdong praised the show as being very good and worth watching.

Seeing her husband forget the real business entirely and ramble on, Sun Bixia could not help but roll her eyes.

Her husband was satisfactory in every way, but only this point made people laugh and cry; as soon as any war of resistance drama or spy drama was mentioned, he would immerse himself in that era full of passion and hot-bloodedness, unable to extricate himself.

This kind of sentiment was truly hard to understand.

He had not experienced it personally, and the television dramas were just fabricated; was there any need to be so serious about it?

Immediately, she directly picked up a box of milk by his feet and placed it on the coffee table, then took a small stack of hundred-yuan bills from her pocket, and said with slight apology, "Xiao Yan, I'm really sorry, we don't know where the bug that bit you and caused your injury came from in our house."

"Please, you must accept this box of milk and the medical expenses."

Shen Yan was slightly stunned and hurriedly declined, "Sun Yi, this was completely an accident; it has nothing to do with your family, there's no need for this."

"Eh! You were bitten at our house, how can you say it has nothing to do with us? Don't be shy, just accept the medical expenses." Sun Bixia insisted on her view.

The two pushed the matter back and forth for a while, and Yu Chengdong began to join the fray; it was two against one, and with Shen Yan's tongue not being sharp enough, he was easily led around until he was lost.

Closing the door, looking at the milk and the hundred-yuan bills on the coffee table, Shen Yan was also left between laughter and tears.

Forget it, he would wait for Grandma to come back and let her handle it.

At the same time, Shen Yan decided to circle a step in his life plan: improve his emotional intelligence.

His tongue must be trained; having been reborn once, he had to make some changes no matter what.