Rebirth: Different Way [(重生) 殊途]

Chapter 89

Li Mingxuan had a dream.

Everything in the dream seemed to unfold before his eyes one scene after another as if it were a movie. At the beginning of the dream was a place he knew very well, the hall of the Shen family's house, and he recognized almost immediately that the young child hiding under the stairs, alone and holding a teddy bear, was Shen Xi. He didn't know why he was seeing the young Shen Xi, but he couldn't help but walk over to him when an argument came from upstairs, stopping Li Mingxuan in his tracks. Han Rou was arguing with his uncle over something fiercely, and Li Mingxuan was quite upset. Shen Xi was so little, how could his parents quarrel in front of him?

Li Mingxuan looked at Shen Xi with concern, but Shen Xi seemed to be used to such scenes and did not cry and fuss like a normal child, but just quietly hugged the bear and looked up the stairs in silence. The argument between Han Rou and his uncle soon came to an end, and he saw his uncle leave the house in a rage, while Han Rou chased him to the living room, smashing everything in the living room to pieces in anger.

Shen Xi carefully got out from under the stairs and tugged at Han Rou's sleeve, saying sensibly, "Mommy, I don't want Daddy anymore, I have Mommy and Little Bear and that's enough, don't fight with Daddy." Han Rou seemed to hug Shen Xi and cry. Li Mingxuan didn't pay attention to what Han Rou said, his mind was full of the words Shen Xi had just said. After the quarrel, Han Rou took Shen Xi back to live with the Han family for half a month. During this half month, he watched his uncle go to Li's house day after day to accompany Shen Ji and Shen Cheng, and watched his uncle take time to visit Shen Rong at Zhou Mingmei's place. But his uncle never set foot in the Han family, completely abandoning Shen Xi.

Half a month later, Han Rong returned to the Shen family with Shen Xi in her arms and began another wave of arguments with his uncle.

The scenes in the dream changed quickly, and Li Mingxuan was shocked to realise that Shen Xi had been living in the midst of Han Rou and Shen Dehan's quarrels until he was six years old. As he watched the two of them fight fiercely because of his uncle's indifference, Li Mingxuan's heart ached for Shen Xi, who was hiding in the shadows alone. He had no friends and his only playmate was the teddy bear by his side. Li Mingxuan noticed that Shen Xi rarely smiled at home and would only be happy like a normal child when he went to Han's house.

Li Mingxuan had heard too many bad things about Han Ruo in the past. She was unruly and domineering; she had tossed the Shen family into chaos. But in the dream, even though Han Rou had a thousand bad qualities, she was the only one who touched Shen Xi. She loved Shen Xi in her own clumsy way. As Li Mingxuan watched her quarrel again and again with his uncle over his coldness towards Shen Xi, pushing him further away as a result, as he watched her struggle to give Shen Xi a normal home, Li Mingxuan could only let out a silent sigh and feel even more heartbroken for Shen Xi. Shen Xi grew up day by day and Han Rou's state became worse and worse until she made a decisive jump to her death on that rainy day. Li Mingxuan watched Shen Xi witness all this, watched him falling very ill, watched him recover and forget everything he had seen that day, watched him losing his family members and being left on his own. Li Mingxuan's heart clenched; he wanted to be by Shen Xi's side, wanted to hold him tightly, but he could do nothing but watch quietly as the scenes unfolded before him.

He had heard his mother and Shen Ji talk about things that happened next, but it was never as shocking as seeing it with his own eyes. He watched Shen Xi grow up under his uncle's indifference, watched him skip school, race cars and take psychedelic drugs at a young age, watched him spend his days getting drunk and dreaming of dying in different ways. No one in the Shen family asked him about his studies, no one asked him about his life, and no one even asked him where he lived when he didn't return home for days on end. Although Li Mingxuan had regretted his indifference to Shen Xi countless times, this time he truly understood what their indifference had done to Shen Xi.