"Not married?"
After the Gu family went bankrupt, Gu Yan had met Gu Yan a few more times because of Ye Qichen. At that time, in Ye Qichen's words, he and Gu Yan were just ordinary friends.
After Gu Yan's maternal grandfather, Qin Jian, was eliminated from the Qin family by Qin Beiting, Yu He never saw her again.
Who would have thought she had such a big son.
"She shouldn't be married," Ye Qichen said, but he wasn't sure himself.
Ever since Gu Yan confessed to him that night twelve years ago and he rejected her, they had had little contact, and he had hardly seen her again. He couldn't believe it when he heard news of her again, and she already had such a grown son.
"How old is the child?" he asked.
"He's a year ahead of Duoduo in school, so he should be 11," Yu He said.
Eleven years old...
Ye Qichen suddenly thought of something and stood up abruptly. "I suddenly remembered I have something to do. I'll be going now."
—
On the other side.
Gu Yan took Gu En away from school, went to a nearby subway station, took the subway for more than forty minutes to a shantytown, and then walked for more than twenty minutes from the subway station before they arrived at their rented apartment.
It was a six-story apartment building, and they lived on the sixth floor. There was no elevator, so the rent was relatively cheaper.
They walked in silence all the way up to the sixth floor.
Gu Yan took out her key, opened the main door, and pushed it open. The living room could be seen at a glance. It contained a set of old wooden chairs and a coffee table. The coffee table was almost piled high with daily necessities, leaving almost no empty space.
Although it was crowded, it was cleaned very well.
As soon as Gu En entered the house, he threw his schoolbag on the sofa and walked directly into the room, closing the door. He threw himself onto the bed and stared blankly at the bed board.
His room was even smaller than the living room. It had a 1.2-meter bunk bed, with the lower part for sleeping and the upper part for storage. A desk and chair were also placed there, leaving almost no space to move around.
The door that had just been closed was quickly pushed open again.
Gu Yan saw that Gu En dared to throw a tantrum first, and the anger she had suppressed all the way finally erupted. "Can't you just study properly for me?"
Gu En used his arm to block his forehead, not wanting to look at her, nor wanting to speak.
Seeing this, Gu Yan became even more angry, feeling both angry and helpless.
Although Qin Meimei had been harsh on her back then, she had grown up with a good education in the Gu family and knew that a good education was very important for a child.
So she hoped her child could also grow up with a good education. Therefore, she, who was once a young lady, began to not care about the type of work, not dislike hard work, and worked desperately to earn money, and asked many people for help, just to get Gu En into a school in the city center.
However, her son's rebelliousness always disappointed and made her feel guilty.
"When will you ever be sensible? If you can't study properly, what's the point of me working my hardest all these years to save up your tuition fees and support your education?!
"Do you know that every time you get into trouble, I have to humble myself in front of Director Liu and beg him to give you another chance? Every time Director Liu finally gives you a chance, you can't change for the better! How can I live like this?
"Can't you be sensible for once?"
Every time Gu En thought of his mother bowing and scraping in front of Director Liu, he felt very uncomfortable. That look made him feel very undignified, and he also felt it was not worth it for his mother.
But every time she had to be like that, as if dignity wasn't worth much.
He suddenly sat up and roared, "I told you long ago that I don't want to study."
Gu Yan looked at his resistant appearance and was stunned for a moment, then roared with disappointment, "At your age, what can you do if you don't study?!"
"I can go out and work to support myself, you don't have to worry about me!" Gu En said, clenching his fists.
Gu Yan's eyes began to sting and redden. Every time she saw her son like this, she hated her own incompetence and inability to give him a better life.
"Do you think you're so great? Have your wings grown strong now that you're older? At your age, you're not even old enough to work! Who would want you!"
"Then I'll do manual labor! Anyway, this kind of work doesn't require much skill!" Gu En said stubbornly, clenching his fists.
He wished he could grow up faster so that his mother wouldn't have to spend so much money to keep him in school, where he learned nothing and was mocked by classmates as a bastard with no father; and his mother was ridiculed as someone else's mistress!
If he could grow up quickly, he could earn money, and then his mother wouldn't have to work so many jobs a day.
But unfortunately, he was still so young and could do nothing, only use brute force.
"You..." Gu Yan's tears immediately welled up in her eyes.
She knew her son was blaming her for working as a mover in the mall.
She had been hiding the fact that she worked three jobs a day from her son. Until one day, she met her son while working at a supermarket.
After returning that day, her son told her to quit her job, saying it wasn't work for a woman, and told her not to do it, otherwise he wouldn't go to school.
Working as a mover in the supermarket was indeed tiring, but the piece-rate wages were high, and it was not a technical job. As long as one had strength and unloaded a lot of goods, the wages would be high. Moreover, it was paid daily, so the money came quickly.
She didn't want to quit, so she had to ask for two days off from the supermarket owner and continued to work after hiding it from her son, but he still found out.
"I don't need you to go to work! Before you turn eighteen, you just need to go to school properly and not worry about anything else. That would be the greatest comfort to me!" Gu Yan yelled. She went to the living room, grabbed the schoolbag from the sofa, and threw it at Gu En.
"I'm going to cook. Before you eat, write a letter of guarantee and give it to Director Liu tomorrow!"
After she finished speaking, she didn't forget to close the door when she went out and entered the kitchen.
She opened the refrigerator, picked out a few dishes that Gu En liked, and as she cooked, tears streamed down her face. Finally, she couldn't help it, turned off the stove, and stood in the kitchen, tears pouring down her face.
She, who had once lived a privileged life, never imagined that life without money would be so bitter, especially after giving birth to Gu En alone.
She didn't regret giving birth to Gu En, she just blamed herself for being incompetent and unable to give her son a better life.
"Knock, knock."
At this moment, a sudden knocking sound came from the living room.
Gu Yan hurriedly wiped away her tears, washed her face, adjusted her emotions, and then went to open the door.
When she saw the man standing at the door, she was very surprised. "Qi... Qichen!"
Ye Qichen had navigated here according to the address on the information. Looking at the dilapidated apartment building all around, he could hardly believe that Gu Yan would live in such an environment.
When the door opened and he saw her in person, he was sure and also a little surprised.
Because Gu Yan looked significantly more worn than her actual age and was dressed very plainly. It seemed that even after the Gu family's ruin, she had never been so down and out.
"Gu Yan, you've been living in a place like this with your child all these years?" he asked.