Bringing Along a Ball and Hiding from Foreign Devils
Chapter 22 - Pulling Closer
That day, Leonid and Rowan talked a lot. Rowan managed not to complain too much. Instead, he gave a lot of advice.
Seeing that he was still full of struggles, Rowan sighed. After a while, he called someone in another country. In just two days, Leonid received a call from Russia.
Leonid got the call at two in the morning. Apparently, the family wasn"t paying attention to the time difference between the two places. They just called without hesitation. When it"s connected, the few people on the other end instantly kept talking. Leonid only managed to hear what they were saying after a while.
"Stop!" Leonid yelled helplessly, "speak one at a time!"
It was silent for a while, then, Leonid heard them fighting to speak again. In the end, his mother Anna spoke first.
"Son," Anna"s voice was gentle, but with a strong sense of determination that people couldn"t refute, "you told us that you"re admiring someone, that"s why you needed to cancel the marriage. Therefore, your Dad and I apologized to the family of Natasha. So, where"s that girl? Were you just lying to me?"
When Leonid heard her voice, he instantly sat more straight up and answered respectfully, "no."
"Good. Then we"ll fly over there to see you tomorrow, and I"ll see how my future daughter-in-law looks like."
"Mom." Leonid said helplessly, "did Alexander tell you anything?"
"Ah, huh." Anna didn"t deny it. At that time, it was Rowan who called, and Anna sounded like she"s punishing, "what do you want me to say? Isn"t there a son now? You made it look so easy, so how come you"re chickening out? In the future, don"t tell anyone that you"re my son. I don"t want to bear that burden!"
Leonid thought, Rowan, watch out for yourself, how dare you mention about the son. No wonder they"d call in the middle of the night.
Someone else picked up the phone the other end. It was his father Igor, "Leonid, you should toughen up! If you fail in persuading, then you should use stronger force! Think of how you made her pregnant, then think of how you"re going to get her back!"
After he said so, another person grabbed the phone. This time, it was Alexis who started all this, "brother, don"t listen to Dad. You need to soften yourself when talking to your wife…"
Before Alexander finished, there was another person again. Leonid seemed to hear still his mother complaining a bit to Alexis. She said something about being soft would push the person away.
Leonid began to have a headache. No one could give him good advice. If he followed any of their suggestions, Ren Zhouyuan would have left a long time ago.
Leonid tried to be patient to comfort his parents. He gave them an excuse with which he wasn"t sure if he"d be able to keep. Unexpectedly, just when he hung on, his brother called again.
"Alexis," Leonid sounded so weak when he said, "what you"re going to say, I"ve heard it countless times, and I perfectly understand all it. I guarantee you that I"ll achieve the goal shortly."
Alexis laughed a bit on the other end, "my good brother, I"m just here to ask about you. See if I can help you with anything, and I don"t mean to push you at all. Well, it looks like you"ve got enough advice, I"ll let you rest then."
When Leonid heard this, he immediately stopped Alexis. In his mind, Alexis" family was the perfect model for him. Back then, his brother had spent a large amount of energy pursuing his wife. His suggestions would, of course, be more practical.
Alexis didn"t hide. He talked with Leonid for one night. How did he get Dalia back then? He"s going to teach his brother now. Leonid was listening to his brother carefully, and he almost noted everything down with a pen and paper.
When he went to work the next day, Ren Zhouyuan was surprised to find that Leonid, who had still looked resentful yesterday, was like a completely changed person. It was evident that he"s in a good mood, but what surprised him more was not the change of his momentum, but the fact that he"d had a 180-degree turn in his att.i.tude!
As of today, Ren Zhouyuan has always felt that he was superfluous at this level. He once wondered if he needed to step up to this level. Aside from the fact that Rowan would sometimes chat with him, Leonid rarely saw him. When they occasionally b.u.mped into each other, Leonid would at most nod at him reluctantly.
But today, out of the blue, Leonid invited him for lunch!
Ren Zhouyuan was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped. Let alone having lunch together. He was so scared to be found out if he stood in front of Leonid for more than two months. Fortunately, he was used to bringing his lunchbox, and he rejected Leonid"s invitation even though the latter seemed unhappy about it.
The incident was far more complicated than this. He found out that Rowan had been spending less time in his office, thus reflecting his use of being an "a.s.sistant".
Leonid seemed to have become a "problematic middle-aged man." Whenever he had any issues at work, he"d call Ren Zhouyuan for help. Ren Zhouyuan had no idea where he"d got a bunch of Chinese information, and Ren Zhouyuan told him to make them translated into Russian. Thinking that it"s just a waste of time, Leonid made him stay in office so that he could translate the whole thing to Ren Zhouyuan sentence by sentence.
Ren Zhouyuan wasn"t sure if it had been the way Rowan worked. But his voice felt a bit uncomfortable for the next few days. Unfortunately, Leonid wasn"t planning to let him go at all. Since he was no longer allocated the job of transcription, he was given a laptop in the office. Then, Ren Zhouyuan could explain to Leonid if he wanted to have anything clarified.
In the beginning, Ren Zhouyuan was feeling uncomfortable, but he was soon used to it. He had become accustomed to dealing with Leonid. He had even read that doc.u.mentation more than Leonid. Sometimes, before Leonid finished a sentence, he instantly knew what he was going to say, and he"d answer at once.
Then, Leonid found a new way to torture him. He"d ask Ren Zhouyuan something about An An when he was concentrated on work. Whenever he was asked, Ren Zhouyuan"s heart would beat much faster, and he"d carefully answer neutrally and briefly.
Ironically, Leonid was so skillful in his way of questioning. Every time he mentioned An An, he"d first say something about his brother"s son. He"d look like a man who wanted a kid. Very often, Ren Zhouyuan wasn"t sure whether he just purely liked children, or if he"d discovered something.
However, habits can be a scary thing. Under such frequent attacks, Ren Zhouyuan soon began to let his guard down. And unconsciously, he had started to say a lot more too. When he was busy with the doc.u.ments, he"d complain to himself about how talkative Leonid was, and he hadn"t noticed that there"s a change with his att.i.tude too.
Leonid was using this way to shorten the distance between him and Ren Zhouyuan slowly. And he could feel that Ren Zhouyuan was not afraid of him anymore, which made him more confident.
Therefore, he made use of this opportunity to buy a bunch of mechanical parts and circuit boards in the name of his company for Ren Zhouyuan. He explained that those were the samples that the company required. He asked Ren Zhouyuan to transfer them to An An. When Ren Zhouyuan accepted them, he looked a bit weird, but he didn"t refuse. He also said thanks.
Leonid finally knew what it"s like to buy something for his son. He had no idea what kids like in general, and he could choose whatever he felt like to. Luckily, what he"d bought were suitable for An An. He was also getting better in making excuses. When Ren Zhouyuan looked at his eyes full of antic.i.p.ation, he couldn"t help but accept all of them.
However, after a long time, Ren Zhouyuan noticed something weird.
The most obvious part is that Rowan seemed to have disappeared for half a month! He had also asked Leonid for this, but he only said that he didn"t know, which further proved Ren Zhouyuan"s guess.
When Leonid invited Ren Zhouyuan for dinner again, he frowned and brought up the subject.
Leonid thought that this guy couldn"t hold it anymore. He was feeling kind of agitated, but he tried not to show it on his face. He tried hard to look calm, nodded robotically while feeling extremely happy!