His fiancé stolen by his (supposedly) kind-hearted and merciful younger brother, Sun Fang decides to take the high road. (To the surprise of everyone who's ever known him.) Instead of fighting to get his cheating fiancé back, Sun Fang sets out to fu...
The first thing Deng Xi said when Sun Fang answered the phone was, "Sun Yi and Marcus got into a fight at a gala! It's everywhere," his voice gleeful.
Sun Fang snorted. "Good for him," he said and studied his recently painted nails. The golden color sparkled in the light, tiny pieces of glitter mixed in. When he held out his hand in front of him, the long nails and fingers seemed elegant and graceful. He hummed a little under his breath as Deng Xi contained to regale him with the story of how everyone had seen Sun Yi and Marcus getting into a vicious fight at a charity gala.
It was kind of funny, Sun Fang supposed. Sun Yi had apparently splashed wine onto Marcus, and Marcus had seemingly shattered a plate. He didn't know how they'd gotten into such a loud fight; last he'd seen them they'd been annoying, yes, but also seemed to be getting along well.
"You don't get it," his cousin said, seemingly annoyed at Sun Fang's humming. "You father is furious at Sun Yi! Apparently, he's grounded him. Grounded him! Like he's a child! And now Sun Yi's just ghosting through the house, sulking and glaring at people."
"How do you know that?" Sun Fang's eyebrows furrowed. The image was amusing, and his lips twitched when he pictured it.
"I popped over for a visit," Deng Xi said. There was something in the background, some kind of noise that made Sun Fang frown in thought. Deng Xi continued, "The look on his face when he saw me... damn, it was hilarious."
Sun Fang laughed, "I can imagine."
"You sure you don't want to come see for yourself?" Deng Xi asked.
Sun Fang's laugh turned into a scowl instantly. "You mean voluntarily go and visit the Sun Family? Voluntarily go and meet them? Have contact with them? No. Never."
"Ah... I didn't mean to upset you," Deng Xi murmured after a beat. His voice was lower pitched and at a slower tempo, and he was probably frowning. Sun Fang sighed, shoving his hand in his pocket and looking at both sides of the road before he crossed the street.
"It's fine," he said. "It's just that the whole point of this whole grand plan was that I wouldn't have to be in contact with them if I didn't want to, and I don't want to. It's one thing to poke fun at them on social media, or run into them somewhere. But I don't want to speak to them, or see them, or even think about them. I want to live a Sun Family free life, and never acknowledge their existence again."
"Even if they realize their folly and want to make up for it?" Deng Xi asked.
Sun Fang laughed, his good mood thankfully returning to him. "Even then. Just because we're related by blood, it doesn't mean that I have to make myself unhappy in order to make them happy. Sometimes, you have to take care of yourself first."
Deng Xi was silent for a moment. Then he asked, "Should I stop telling you things about Sun Yi?"
"No need, it can be fun to hear how things are going for him," Sun Fang answered. And he wasn't lying. Hearing about Sun Yi's messes could be fun. As long as he wasn't expected to insert himself into Sun Yi's story.
He'd left the Sun Family for a reason, after all. If he'd just wanted run away, it would in a sense have been easier, but that hadn't been his goal. His goal was to ensure that none of them would ever contact him, thus ensuring that his wish to only ever be in contact with them on his terms, if he ever so desired, would be realized. Now, they would never take the first step. To them, he was anathema.
Just the way he wanted it.
"Oh, well, then," Deng Xi said, his voice back to the normal pitch. And then he flew right back into the story, continuing to regale Sun Fang with the gala's utter chaos. Apparently, multiple artists from Sun Yi's entertainment company had been there and someone had offended a big-shot. It was supposedly a big scandal and it was made worse by the fool Sun Yi had made of himself. Nobody particularly cared what the fight had been about (in fact, Deng Xi hadn't been close enough to care and as such had no idea), they were just upset that he'd fought in a charity gala.
Sun Fang snorted at some of the online comments that Deng Xi described for him. He'd have to check it out himself when they hung up, if only to find out whether it was really as bad as Deng Xi kept insisting. Sun Yi was a lot of things, but he'd thought he was more careful than that. He wondered vaguely what the fight was about.
Well, no matter. It had nothing to do with him. Deng Xi's babbling finally slowed down after another twenty minutes or so, the noise that was in the background getting louder. It finally hit Sun Fang what it could be and so he asked, "Is that Casey?"
"Yeah," Deng Xi said and Sun Fang could actually hear him preening. It was probably warranted though, Casey came from Mianmian, after all. Deng Xi added, "She's in a phase where she has a lot of gases. The doctor says they'll pass, we just have to be patient."
"That's good," Sun Fang said. He'd finally arrived at his destination though, so he prepared to end the call. It'd taken a lot longer to get to the pottery class building than usual, since he'd walked the entire way. "I've got to go," he said abruptly. "My pottery class is about to start," he pointed out when he heard Deng Xi take a deep breath, like he was about to start talking again.
Sun Fang thought for a moment that he would argue, but his cousin merely said, "Okay, have fun!" and then hung up before Sun Fang could answer.
Rude.
*
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
