Blazing fire is hard to extinguish chapter 22
Trouble
Lin Chi was with Li Tingyan when he received the call. New Year’s Day was just around the corner, and the streets were decorated with lanterns and paper cutouts full of festive spirit.
Recently, he had also participated in shooting a New Year’s Day promotional video with eleven other models.
He was in a good mood, looking out the window. Li Tingyan’s car was stopped at a red light, and he saw a family of three walking on the sidewalk—a warm and harmonious scene. The little boy, who looked about five or six, had a round mushroom haircut and was being doted on by his father, asking to be carried after walking a few steps.
The father, a refined middle-aged man, smiled helplessly and picked up the boy, carrying him on his shoulder while talking to the mother.
Lin Chi blinked his eyes, his gaze lingering on the little boy’s face for a moment.
He actually liked such scenes.
They made him feel that there were happy families in the world, that not everyone’s birth was a mistake.
It was then that the phone rang.
The caller ID showed an unfamiliar number.
Lin Chi didn’t think much of it and answered immediately. Given his busy work schedule, an unknown number could very well be a potential collaborator.
But as soon as he put the phone to his ear, he realized he was wrong.
An unfamiliar number could also mean a long-lost “father.”
The voice on the other end was hoarse, speaking in a mumbling dialect as if the tongue was injured, yet shouting at the top of his lungs.
Lin Chi froze for a moment, then his face immediately turned cold.
“Where did you get my number?” he asked icily.
He rarely spoke to anyone in such a tone.
Li Tingyan glanced over, but Lin Chi paid no attention to his reaction.
The man on the phone, his voice a jumble of curses, continued shouting.
Lin Chi had been away from his hometown for so long that he was almost unfamiliar with the old dialect.
But he quickly understood the words.
“Where I got it is none of your business, you little bastard, blocking your old man.”
The background noise was chaotic, making the man’s voice even rougher.
“Do you think you can hide from me forever, you son of a bitch, just like your mother. I’ll call whenever I want. You’re famous now, hiding from me everywhere, but no matter how far you run, you’re still my son. You have to respect me, you have to support me.”
Lin Chi almost laughed out loud.
Although he knew not to expect anything from a scoundrel, hearing such rude, unpleasant curses still struck him as absurd.
He had no idea where Lin Zhaofeng got his number from.
But he was grown now.
He had come so far, with his own career and his own life.
Yet, every now and then, these dark shadows from the past would reemerge, piercing him and reminding him not to forget the gloom and whirlpools of his past.
Lin Chi sneered, mocking, “If you’re calling for money, just say so. Don’t beat around the bush. It’s not easy to get through to me.”
Over the years, he had mastered the art of handling such calls.
The other end paused for a moment, then burst into even more furious curses, “Is this how you talk to me! Just you wait you little bastard…”
But Lin Chi didn’t listen any longer and hung up.
The car was silent.
The shouting on the other end had been so loud that Li Tingyan overheard some of it.
Even though he couldn’t understand it, from a few words, he could guess who it was.
He glanced at Lin Chi again, discreetly.
Lin Chi’s arm rested on the armrest, his good mood completely gone.
He knew Li Tingyan had heard.
“Sorry, did I scare you?” he apologized blandly, “Sorry you had to hear such unpleasant things.”
He chuckled, still in the mood to joke, “With your background, you’ve probably never heard such foul language in your life.”
Li Tingyan shook his head.
“Not really.”
He said, “When I first started dealing with the family business, I had arguments with partners and clashed with people on construction sites; they cursed even worse.”
He was telling the truth. The business world was full of all kinds of people, many of whom had struggled to get where they were. What were a few curses?
He paused, then couldn’t help but ask, “Was that your dad?”
He had heard Lin Chi talk about his family’s past and knew how bad his father was.
But until now, that person had been just a vague symbol, now made concrete through a phone call.
Rude, barbaric, and inferior.
It was hard to believe that such a person could be Lin Chi’s father.
“Mm.”
Lin Chi raised his hand and pressed his brow.
He didn’t hide it from Li Tingyan, “Yes, it’s my dad, but I cut off contact with him when I started working at eighteen. Over the years, apart from occasionally sending him money, we haven’t had any interaction. I’ve never given him my contact information, and I send money through different accounts. He must have found my number somehow this time.”
Lin Chi remembered the furious roar just now, which had made his ears ache and his stomach turn. Disgusting.
But after a while, he adapted.
How could he not?
He had endured like this for the first eighteen years of his life.
The scars from his childhood had long since healed.
He said casually, “He has nothing else to say to me except asking for money. I just blocked him. Don’t worry about it.”
That was his way of saying he didn’t want to discuss it further.
Li Tingyan tactfully didn’t ask any more questions.
But during dinner, he noticed that Lin Chi seemed absent-minded.
Lin Chi was usually very talkative, naturally lively and could make anything interesting. There were no rules about silence at meals; he always chatted with Li Tingyan.
But today, he was unusually quiet.
Li Tingyan looked at him from across the table, feeling uncomfortable seeing him so downcast.
Especially in such a festive atmosphere in the restaurant, with many red decorations for the upcoming New Year, the red walls adorned with beautiful golden bells and paper-cut decorations on the windows.
In this joyful atmosphere, Lin Chi seemed as cold as porcelain.
It made him feel strangely uneasy.
But since Lin Chi didn’t want to talk about it, Li Tingyan tactfully didn’t bring up the topic again and instead started talking about the horses he kept on his estate.
Lin Chi was interested in this topic.
“If you have time, you can come with me to the estate for a vacation, and you can see them with your own eyes,” he said.
Lin Chi just smiled and didn’t take it to heart.
They both treated the call as insignificant.
After dinner, Li Tingyan took Lin Chi to visit an antique café. Lin Chi liked the place very much, and soon his mood improved.
After that day, he quickly forgot about the incident from the phone call and threw himself back into work.
The internal shoot for “GOX” was like a signal, and soon all sorts of magazine shoots came rushing towards him. Huo Yuning carefully selected, leaving quite a few.
Lin Chi, with stiff hair and scales-like glitter on his face, posed according to the photographer’s instructions.
After finally finishing the shoot, he removed his makeup and changed into his own clothes, but his phone rang anxiously again.
It was another unfamiliar number, but the IP address was familiar, still from the higher-level city where his hometown was located.
Qing City.
He frowned. His first reaction was that his gambling-addicted father was bothering him again.
But after a moment’s hesitation, he answered the call.
“Hello, may I speak to Mr. Lin Chi?”
The voice on the phone was gentle but urgent.
“This is he.”
“Okay, here’s the situation. I’m from the Second People’s Hospital of Changyu County. Your father, Lin Zhaofeng, is currently undergoing emergency treatment in our hospital…”
She said more, but her voice became somewhat blurry.
Lin Chi was so shocked that his phone almost slipped from his hand.
But he quickly calmed down.
He confirmed a few details with the nurse and immediately replied, “Alright, I’ll come right away.”
Huo Yuning noticed that something was wrong with his expression and stopped packing up, asking with concern, “Is something wrong?”
Lin Chi was about to speak, but found it difficult to articulate. It felt like something was stuck in his throat, unable to be spoken or swallowed.
What should he say?
Huo Yuning knew about his family’s troubles before, and had even been bothered by his unfortunate father. If he said something now, Huo Yuning would definitely want to help him out.
But he was already an adult and could handle family matters on his own.
So after two seconds of silence, he casually said, “There’s something going on at home. I need to go back and deal with it. It might take a couple of days. Could you arrange a few days off for me?”