Chapter 32: Family Ties

  This chapter is a bit late, but it has more than 3,400 words.

  "I'm exhausted to death."

  Outside the window, the sun shines brightly, and the air is fresh and clean after the rain. However, it's soon polluted again by the exhaust fumes from cars during rush hour. Meanwhile, people in the city are still busy with their own lives, rushing to and fro, without a moment to care about whether their surroundings are good or bad.

  The birds on the branches are still chirping, autumn has arrived, crops are abundant, and the birds' food is more abundant. They are all fat and strong, preparing for the upcoming cold weather.

  At this time when everything was busy, Shangguan Nian'er lay on the bed with no strength in her body, and the ceiling fan blew the wind "whooshing" as her eyelids grew heavier.

  This morning, after leaving the mountain forest with Xiang Beibei, the two took a taxi to the hospital to check if there was any remaining venom. Fortunately, the test results were all normal, but as a precaution, the hospital still prescribed some antidotes for the two of them. Xiang Beibei's buttocks were also re-cleaned, and the doctor said that it was nothing serious and would heal in two or three days.

  Shangguan Nengren's face turned red as he let the doctor examine his egg, fortunately, the doctor said there was no problem, prescribed some medicine, and it would subside in two or three days, finally letting Shangguan Nengren breathe a sigh of relief.

  Egg egg, I'll never let you sing sad songs again.

  After leaving the hospital, the two of them parted ways at the hospital entrance. BeiBei took a taxi, while the poor and exhausted Officer Wang could only squeeze onto a public bus.

  Come and join us!

  It's not easy to get home, and after a sleepless night, I walked for more than an hour on the mountain road, exhausted. As soon as I entered the door, I threw myself on the bed, humming comfortably.

  Unconsciously, Shangguan Nengren fell asleep like this until noon when his mother came home to cook and found that her son had returned.

  "Son, get up and have lunch." After preparing lunch, Mother came into the house and called Ouyang Neng to get out of bed.

  "Hmm... um..." Officer Nang Er slowly opened his eyes, saw his mother and mumbled: "Mom, what time is it?"

  "It's almost twelve thirty, son, when are you coming back?" his mother asked.

  Shangguan Nengren sat up with a roll, yawned, scratched the back of his ear and said: "It's already past 9 o'clock! Mom, I'm exhausted. I didn't sleep well last night."

  "It rained so heavily last night, your father and I were worried all night, but it's good that you're okay." Mother smiled.

  Upper officials can move people's hearts, no matter when, the ones who care about themselves the most are still their parents!

  "Mom, you and dad were worried."

  His mother looked at Shang Guan and smiled with relief: "My son has really grown up."

  "Mom, I've grown up long ago."

  "Hehe, okay, mom knows, get up and eat quickly! School starts tomorrow, prepare everything you need to today, don't be careless, got it?"

  "Don't worry, now you know!"

  The two girls walked into the living room, laughing and chatting. They had a cool noodle dish for lunch. Xiang Yu was sitting at the table peeling garlic and saw Xiang Neng walk out. He said calmly, "You're back?"

  "Uh-huh." Officer Nang Erren composed himself and nodded: "Dad, I'm sorry to have worried you."

  Shangguan Yi put garlic in a bowl and said: "I'm not worried, it's your mother who is worried."

  As soon as she heard this, her mother got angry: "Who's worried about being poor? And who was it that said last night, 'I don't know how my son is doing now'?"

  Shangguan Yi lowered his head and scooped up some noodles, saying: "So many words, go get the vinegar for me."

  "You're just talking nonsense!" His mother hummed softly and patted the top of Nangong's head, saying: "Son, go wash your hands."

  "Oh, haha." Officer Neng looked at his dishonest dad and couldn't help but feel amused. Recently, his dad had become more and more lovable.

  While having dinner, mother kept asking if we had fun these two days and if anything interesting happened.

  Shangguan couldn't help but excitedly recount his camping experience to everyone, except for the part about being bitten by a snake. Of course, he had changed Beibei's gender, otherwise his parents would have blown their tops if they knew he went camping with a girl.

  "Did your classmate give you the tent and all that?" The mother was shocked to hear that her son's classmate had given him camping gear, along with a PSP.

  Shangguan raised an eyebrow and spoke for the first time: "What's your classmate's background?"

  "Hey, Dad, don't worry about it. This classmate of mine is a rich second-generation kid, his family has loads of money, so this kind of thing doesn't even matter to him. To be honest, he was just giving it away because he didn't want the hassle of carrying the tent back, and he dumped all the burden on me instead. And that PSP? Someone else gave it to him for free, he didn't spend a single cent on it, so giving it to me wouldn't hurt his feelings either."

  Shangguan Yi thought for a moment, nodded, and lowered his head to eat noodles.

  "Son, don't mind your father, he's just fond of worrying about useless things." The mother seized the opportunity to retort at Shangguan Yi, who calmly continued eating his noodles, not taking it to heart.

  On this point, Guan Neng has always admired his father. The couple has been married for many years and rarely sees a red face, but every time it's his mother who gets angry, while his father remains calm and composed, not paying attention to her outbursts. This demeanor makes Guan Neng surrender in admiration.

  To be honest, Shangguan Nian has always thought that his father was a man who could do great things, but unfortunately, he was born into the wrong family. Since childhood, his family was very poor, and after graduating from junior high school, he had to enter society to make a living for himself. For over 20 years, he never caught a good opportunity.

  More than a decade ago, I invested in a project that was considered niche at the time but is now a lucrative business. However, my grandfather suddenly fell ill and needed a large sum of money for surgery. My father didn't hesitate to use the investment money for his treatment. In the end, my grandfather only lived for two more years. Looking back, if we hadn't spent that money on his surgery, our family would have been at least millionaires by now.

  Missing that opportunity, Father can only huddle in the factory to work, although diligent for more than a decade, the salary of 4-5 thousand yuan per month in recent years is also acceptable, but Shang Guan Nengren has always felt sorry for his father's choice many years ago. However, as a child, when parents are ill and need money, Shang Guan Nengren also asks himself what he would do if faced with such a situation?

  In the end, I came to the conclusion that even if I had to sell all my belongings, I would do it to pay for my parents' medical treatment. In this world, no matter how rich or poor you are, the only ones who truly care about you are your parents, who are thicker than water. Money can be earned again, but once your parents are gone, they're gone forever.

  Above all, the official was not resentful of his father's choice at first, but instead admired his father more. He taught by example and deed, his father never educated him with language, but always influenced him with his own behavior standards.

  Shangguan Nian felt that he was very fortunate to have such a father in this life.

  After lunch, his parents took a short rest and went out to work one after another. Guan Nian returned to his small bedroom and tidied up his backpack.

  A whole set of camping equipment is too luxurious, especially the multi-functional Swiss Army knife and flashlight. The functions of the Swiss Army knife don't need to be mentioned, but the flashlight is something that can be used as a desk lamp in the future, it's much brighter than those on the market, protecting your eyesight while studying at night, and it's top-notch as a bedside lamp. At night when you can't sleep and are afraid of disturbing your parents so you don't dare turn on the computer, lying in bed reading comics or something is quite enjoyable.

  And after the third year of high school, you have to live in a dormitory. Although students can choose whether to board or commute for the first half of the year, they must accept full closed management for the second half of the year. At that time, this flashlight will come in handy. It's very scary at night after the power is cut off, and suddenly you have an emergency, you can't even find the toilet. With a flashlight, you don't have to worry at all.

  The most enjoyable is still PSP, last night played until there was not much electricity left, Officer Neng Ren quickly charged it up, inside installed more than 100 different types of games, all are cracked versions, memory stick reached a terrifying 160G, Officer Neng Ren just searched online according to the model, the price scared him silly.

  This PSP model is actually over 40,000 and it's a global limited edition, very hard to find on the market.

  Shangguan Nengren excitedly wanted to sing loudly to Beibei: "Being conquered by you like this..."

  Over 40,000 PSP! And to think that BeiBei just gave it away without batting an eyelid. That camping equipment set is definitely worth a pretty penny too, and who knows, the total value might even be over 100,000!

  Thinking of tens of thousands of things being given to Bei Bei like this, Shang Guan's resentment towards Bei Bei has dissipated a lot.

  A poor devil, can't help but feel resentful towards the person who gave him tens of thousands, even if that person is a female demon who almost made him become a eunuch.

  The PSP is too expensive, and if I don't dare to bring it back to the dorm when I'm on duty at night, it might get stolen, and there's no place for me to cry.

  Don't look at the students now, they don't care about spending money, their quality is much higher than before, but when they encounter something particularly expensive, particularly good, and particularly interesting, they will also have a bad heart, and won't spend money unless the universal values are turned upside down.

  Everything is tidy and stuffed into the closet, PSP is charging, can't play for now, Upper Official is rubbing his face, starting to organize school books and stationery.

  Thinking about the start of school tomorrow, Wang Mouren got a headache. Children who don't study well are like this, afraid to go to school. In two years of high school, Wang Mouren hasn't grasped more and more knowledge points, and the gap is getting bigger and bigger as time goes on. Now he is already at the bottom of the class. Even if he wants to work hard in his third year of high school, he won't be able to catch up because he has fallen behind too much in the first two years.

  The feeling of not understanding in class is terrible.

  "Should I absorb the ability to learn?" Suddenly, this idea popped up in Shang Guan's mind, and the more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He was originally a student, and everything was centered around learning. If his studies weren't going well, losing face would be a small matter, but disappointing his parents would be truly agonizing.

  The more rice one eats in a year, the clearer the official can see this society. People live for many reasons, not just for themselves, but also for their families, friends and relatives. Humans are social animals, if you lose face in your community, your parents will also be humiliated, the pressure generated from this can make a person feel suffocated.

  It's just like when men and women are dating, before they get married, it doesn't matter how many people they date, because the relationship between the two parties at this stage is not protected by law, if it doesn't work out, they can just break up and not bother each other.

  But once they enter the marriage hall, the relationship between men and women not only receives legal protection but also adds ties between two families. In this case, if the couple gets divorced, the attitude of both families will bring them tremendous pressure, which is far from the ease and simplicity of breaking up before marriage.

  Moreover, the higher the divorce rate in big cities, the more it has to do with this aspect. The relationship between neighbors in big cities is almost non-existent, and relatives are rarely around, giving people in big cities a free-spirited living environment. Once people live freely, they will produce many absurd things that do not conform to traditional values.

  Compared to others, the smaller the place, especially in rural areas, neighbors often visit each other's homes, and everyone in the village knows each other. In such an environment, people naturally pay attention to how others perceive them, and this invisible pressure makes everyone mindful of their words and actions, lest they lose face and bring trouble to their family.

  Because of the bond with family members, as a student, if learning is not good, parents will naturally feel ashamed. In the past two years, I have already lost face for my parents. At least in the last year, or even in the four years after college, I want to make my parents proud of me, so it's necessary to improve my ability to absorb and learn.