Let Me Meet You chapter 33

The Surgery  

Perhaps it was the housekeeper’s skill or the preferences of the family, but lunch at the Li residence consisted entirely of Suzhou-style dishes:  

Squirrel Fish, Lychee Pork, and even simple vegetables like braised loofah came paired with sugar-dusted fried corn cakes.  

Sheng Min liked sweet foods, but knowing Li Xuan didn’t, he’d always compromised when ordering meals. Now, faced with a table full of sweet dishes, he found himself unexpectedly nauseous.  

At the large wooden dining table, only he and Li Mingge were seated. Shu Xin had found the soup not hot enough and followed the housekeeper into the kitchen to reheat it herself.

Although the table was positioned near floor-to-ceiling windows, the heavy curtains were tightly drawn, letting no sunlight in. The overhead lighting was dim and cold.  

Li Mingge sat opposite Sheng Min, flipping through a newspaper. Sheng Min glanced at the clock, but his movement didn’t escape Li Mingge’s sharp eyes.  

“No need to rush off,” Li Mingge said slowly without looking up. “Finish your meal. I have something to discuss with you afterward.”  

“I have a meeting at 1:30, so I’ll need to leave soon. Or you can tell me now.”  

Li Mingge lifted his gaze from the newspaper, a cold smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Li Xuan, do you think you’re—”  

Footsteps sounded from the kitchen before he could finish. Li Mingge shot Sheng Min a warning look before turning with a warm expression.  

“Place it here,” Shu Xin instructed the housekeeper, who put the soup down in front of Sheng Min.  

“Here.” Shu Xin sat beside Sheng Min, smiling brightly as she scooped some soup into a bowl and pushed it toward him. “Your dad went to pick you up this morning, and I made this just for you. Try it.”  

The soup was rich with medicinal herbs, its sweetness enhanced by honey dates and red dates, but it was overpowered by the gamey smell of animal innards, making the original flavors indistinguishable.  

Sheng Min hesitated briefly before reaching out to accept it. Before he could touch the bowl, Shu Xin’s expression changed as her gaze shifted sharply. She abruptly placed the bowl back on the table with a heavy thud and shouted, “Zhang Jie!”  

Her outburst startled everyone. Even Li Mingge, who initially appeared calm, seemed unaware of what had triggered her sudden anger. Shu Xin stood up and pointed at Sheng Min’s chair, yelling at the hurriedly approaching housekeeper:  

“How many times have I told you? The child cannot sit in this kind of chair! He had surgery, and there’s a wound on his back! This backrest is too hard! Why can’t you ever remember?”  

Her anger caused her whole body to tremble. The housekeeper looked confused and stammered, “But you said last time it was fine to change…”  

“When did I ever say that?” Shu Xin clearly didn’t remember, and the explanation only made her more furious. As she flailed her arms, she accidentally knocked over the soup bowl. It teetered dangerously, nearly falling, but Sheng Min quickly caught it, spilling some on his hand in the process.  

This sudden commotion finally drew Shu Xin’s attention. She gasped and rushed to grab Sheng Min’s hand.  

“It’s nothing. I wasn’t burned,” Sheng Min reassured her quickly.  

“Let me see,” Shu Xin insisted. Spotting a red mark on his hand, her expression turned from alarm to deep guilt.  

“This is all my fault,” she muttered repeatedly, her voice trembling as if she were in a trance. She dabbed at Sheng Min’s hand with a tissue. “It’s all my fault… my fault…”  

“How could it be your fault?” Li Mingge circled the table and gently placed his arm around her shoulders. “It’s just a little mark. We’ll put some ointment on it, and it’ll be fine.”  

But Shu Xin kept shaking her head, tears suddenly streaming down her face. “I’ve never properly taken care of him… If I hadn’t gone to the base while I was pregnant with him…”

Sheng Min couldn’t make sense of those words, but Li Mingge’s expression shifted. “It’s been so many years. You should stop dwelling on it. Besides, isn’t the child fine now?”

“How can I not think about it? He’s suffered so much…” Shu Xin cried even harder, clutching Sheng Min’s hand tightly. Tears rolled onto the back of his hand, one after another. As Li Mingge tried to comfort her, he glanced at Sheng Min, signaling him to step away to avoid agitating Shu Xin further.

Such a trivial matter, yet Shu Xin was crying as though she might faint. Sheng Min knew her mental state wasn’t stable, but her intense mood swings made him uncomfortable as a bystander. He forced a reassuring smile. “It’s really fine. I’ll just rinse it off,” he said, gently pulling his hand free and retreating to the bathroom.

Behind the closed door, Shu Xin’s cries were still faintly audible, mixed with Li Mingge’s attempts to console her. Soon after, arguments and the sound of breaking ceramics echoed outside, disrupting the brief peace.

The burning sensation on his hand surfaced belatedly. Hesitant, Sheng Min decided not to go back out. Instead, he turned on the faucet, letting the cool water flow over his reddened skin. The sound of water muffled the commotion outside, allowing him a moment of reprieve from his heightened anxiety. Only after his fingers turned pale and wrinkled from the water did he turn it off.

At some point, the noise outside had subsided. During the hand-washing, Sheng Min thought he’d heard a sharp scream, but now there was only faint talking and footsteps. He began to doubt his own hearing.

Feeling slightly dazed, he wasn’t ready to return to the scene. Instead, he cupped his hands under the faucet to splash water on his face, mentally reviewing everything that had happened that day. With his fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the cold marble counter, he tried to extract some clarity from the chaos.

Then, he stopped abruptly.

Something felt wrong.

He frowned, hesitantly placing a hand on his waist. Through the soft cotton of his T-shirt, his fingers detected a slight but unmistakable ridge.

As if burned, Sheng Min pulled his hand back but forced himself to lift his shirt slowly. What he saw on his waist was a faint surgical scar.

It wasn’t the first time he’d noticed it. The evening when he first met Li Xuan, after taking a shower, they applied medicine to each other, and Sheng Min had noticed this scar. But Li Xuan had so many old injuries, and this one wasn’t unusual. At the time, they weren’t close enough for Sheng Min to ask about it, and he never found the right opportunity later on..

Surgery. Sheng Min recalled Shu Xin’s earlier words.

Perhaps it was psychological, but looking at the scar now, it did seem like a neat surgical incision.

But who had undergone the surgery? Rationally, Sheng Min thought it was probably Li Xuan. Yet he couldn’t stop his mind from drifting to the memory of another frail child. 

If it were the latter, then why did Li Xuan have a scar in the exact same location?

Cold sweat trickled down his back, and Sheng Min desperately hoped it was just an overreaction.

He looked up, and the light reflected off the pale blue tiles, turning the light into an eerie blue. The reflection in the mirror looked both familiar and unfamiliar. Sheng Min felt a sudden sense of weightlessness, like walking a tightrope with no visible ends. But even if there was a cable, it wasn’t him standing on it.

This unsettling thought didn’t provide him with any comfort. Instead, he found himself struggling to breathe. The crying sound in his ears returned—whether from Shu Xin or someone else, he couldn’t tell. The ceiling and floor seemed to sway. Sheng Min knew these were mere hallucinations, but he couldn’t suppress them. Gripping the counter tightly, he shook his head vigorously, fumbling for his pocket and taking out a small pillbox. He dry-swallowed a tandospirone pill.

The medication didn’t work immediately, and the wait for relief felt endless. Fortunately, no one came to disturb him during this time. Sheng Min drank a handful of tap water before finally opening the door and stepping out.

The dining room had undergone a small transformation. The chair where he’d been seated had been replaced with one with a softer back, several dishes had been removed and there were water stains on the wooden floor.

Only Li Mingge remained in the dining room; Shu Xin and the housekeeper were nowhere to be seen.

“She was given a sedative and went to rest.” Li Mingge sounded weary, his disheveled appearance marred by a fresh scratch on his left cheek.

Although his words were directed at Sheng Min, his tone carried a hint of reproach rather than explanation. As he spoke, he stood up. “Let’s talk… And don’t rush to refuse. Even if you’re in a hurry, it’s not even 1:30 yet.”

….

Li Mingge’s study was on the second floor, adjacent to a storage room. Although insistent on talking, he took his time once seated, pouring himself tea leisurely while occasionally casting glances at Sheng Min.

Sheng Min pretended not to notice, avoiding eye contact. After a long silence, Li Mingge finally spoke, beginning with a strange statement: “That friend of yours… he’s getting out soon, isn’t he?”

Sheng Min’s brow furrowed slightly.

“I think his surname is Zhao? What’s his name again… I can’t quite remember,” Li Mingge asked, his tone casual.

“Zhao Jizhe,” Sheng Min replied, recalling the letter from prison.

“Yes, that’s it.” Li Mingge smiled faintly, devoid of warmth. “It’s in the next couple of months, right?”

Sheng Min didn’t answer, and Li Mingge didn’t seem to need confirmation.

“Your department head mentioned that applications for the graduate school summer program were due last month. You didn’t submit yours. With your grades and being a student there, it’s a mere formality—why are you so reluctant? Or are you really not planning to continue your studies?”

Sheng Min lowered his gaze. Last month, he hadn’t even known Li Xuan.

“Li Xuan.” Li Mingge clasped his hands together, his posture relaxed. “Judging by your recent behavior, are you planning to sever ties with our family as soon as your friend gets out? I’ve treated you well, haven’t I? You can’t just turn your back like that.”

Sheng Min froze, unconsciously frowning. He didn’t know anything and, after a moment of contemplation, decided to probe cautiously. “I thought… that was already agreed upon.”

“You were only a teenager back then, what could you possibly understand?”

“I may have been a teenager, but you weren’t,” Sheng Min replied calmly, softening his tone. “What are you proposing?”

“What am I proposing?” Li Mingge took a sip of tea. “My expectations of you have always been the same. I’ve already asked the department head to help you with the application form. You have to continue studying… don’t look at me like that. I know what you’re thinking. You don’t like physics, but there’s no choice. You’ve seen your mother’s current condition. Studying for a master’s and a PhD and then joining the physics institute—that’s the path she wants for you. You just need to follow it.”

“What about me?” Sheng Min calmly asked on behalf of Li Xuan. “She doesn’t even know who I am, and I’m supposed to just play along as a puppet?”

It seemed like something in his words triggered Li Mingge’s anger. He had been leaning back in his chair, but now he leaned forward, bracing himself on the table.

“She doesn’t know who you are?” Li Mingge lightly tapped the table. “Kid, some things are best left unsaid. I thought you wouldn’t be so clueless. My wife regards you as her son, just like when we found you. It’s all your good fortune. I thought you would have understood that by now.”

His tone was so self-assured that Sheng Min couldn’t help but frown.

“I’ve always thought you weren’t so naive. Do you think I don’t know about the little tricks you’ve been playing over the years? Do you really think that now your small company is up and running, you have the right to negotiate with me, to live worry-free?”

Noticing the change in his expression, Li Mingge laughed dismissively. “A brick falling from the entrepreneurial park would hit ten people, nine of whom would be in the internet business. What future does your game company have? I admit, you’re smart, but you’re too young and lack capital. Your company probably isn’t profitable yet, and to keep it going, you need money. How much do you have? How long can you last? I’ve been running things in N City for years, and I still have some connections. If you go against me, I can make sure you can’t find a single investor.”

“Li Xuan.” He seemed to summarize, “Right now, you’re living carefree because you’re under the protection of our name. Without me, you’d probably still be an undocumented person, unable to go to school. If you’re lucky, maybe you’d be working at some shady internet café, and if not, no one would even know if you died. You’ve been living the good life for so long, you’ve forgotten your past. Do you really think you’re a genius worth a lot of money?”

Sheng Min didn’t say anything. Li Mingge’s condescending attitude made him feel a bit disgusted. Seeing his silence, Li Mingge softened his tone. “Actually, there was no need for things to escalate like this. You’re a smart kid; you know what’s best for you. You’re aware of your mother’s health, and we can’t have more children, nor do we plan on adopting another one. Be a bit more obedient and shut down your company. Your mom wants you to study physics and carry on her unfinished dream. Just follow her wishes. In the future, all my money, the company, everything, will be yours. What you’re doing now is all for that, right? As long as you listen, I can give you everything. We’re getting old, how many years do we have left? You can’t possibly be too foolish to understand that.”

“I can’t.” Sheng Min said, his voice calm, but full of a certain defiance. He could understand Li Mingge’s attitude toward Li Xuan, but why?

He regretted sitting here, listening to this person insult Li Xuan. “I have my own life. Whatever you say doesn’t matter; I know my own path. I’ll fulfill the promises I made to you before, but you can’t act as if they never existed. Other than that, I have nothing more to say, and there’s no need to negotiate further. I’ll be leaving now.”

He didn’t look at Li Mingge again, and turned to leave.

“Ah.” As the door opened, the housekeeper stepped back a couple of steps. It was unclear how long she’d been standing there, maybe she heard their argument. Her face was awkward. “Madam woke up and wants to see you.”

Sheng Min’s thoughts shifted, and his gaze passed over Li Mingge, who had come out after him. “Okay.”

Shu Xin had been given a strong sedative, so although she was awake, her spirits were far from good. When she saw Sheng Min enter, her eyes brightened. “Is your hand okay?”

“It’s fine.” Sheng Min whispered, quickly saying before she could speak again, “I need to head back to school.”

“Why leave already? Didn’t you have no classes this afternoon?”

“Yes, no classes.” Sheng Min helped her sit up. “There’s a club activity.”

“Oh..” Shu Xin said with some disappointment.

“There’s one more thing…” Sheng Min pretended to be hesitant.

“What is it?”

“The department head has a project he wants me to join, so I’ll be busy for a while and might not be able to come back every week.”

“I haven’t heard about this.” Shu Xin said.

“It was just mentioned today.” Sheng Min smiled and glanced at Li Mingge. “You can ask him if you don’t believe me.”

Sure enough, Shu Xin looked at Li Mingge with a questioning glance. Li Mingge couldn’t argue with Sheng Min in front of Shu Xin and hadn’t expected to be put in this situation. After a pause, he said, “There’s some truth to that. I said I would come back to ask for your opinion.”

“Let me go, then,” Sheng Min said gently, holding Shu Xin’s hand. She looked reluctant. “But you wouldn’t be so busy that you can’t come back at all. Your classes aren’t difficult now, and you already come home so rarely. I was hoping you’d stay here full-time…”

Shu Xin’s hands were soft in Sheng Min’s palm, like the touch of tears sliding down. For a moment, he felt a pang of guilt but steeled himself and threw out the final bargaining chip. “I’m doing this for you. When you asked me to study physics, it was because you wanted me to take over your career. If I want to produce results quickly, I have to spend more time studying.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Sheng Min saw Li Mingge’s face darken at those words. As expected, Shu Xin wavered. “Alright… You have talent, and I can’t hold you back.”

“Thank you.” Sheng Min nodded obediently. “I’ll be going now. Take care and rest well.”

Shu Xin nodded but was reluctant to let go of his hand. Pretending not to notice, Sheng Min stood up and left.

“Li Xuan!” As he was going down the stairs, Li Mingge chased after him, calling sharply.

Sheng Min stopped in his tracks.

“Mr. Li.” He spoke quickly before Li Mingge could say anything. “You don’t need to worry about my company. Controlling everything isn’t as easy as you think. Even without your investment, I can get the funding I need.”

“Also don’t think too highly of yourself, and don’t underestimate others.” Sheng Min recalled Li Xuan sitting in front of his computer, frowning while typing, and unintentionally switched pronouns. “Because he really is a genius, and he really is worth something.”