Lin Hai simply glanced at him before turning his gaze back to Pei Shi Yu, saying without any reservation,

"Shi Yu isn't an outsider, so let's just talk about it here."

"Do you think that's appropriate?"

"She's going to be family soon anyway, so what's inappropriate?"

"I mean, I don't want our conflict to affect Pei Shi Yu's mood."

"I'm not here to argue with you," Lin Hai insisted.

I frowned at Lin Hai's attitude. Just then, there was a knock on the door...

"Come in," I said loudly.

The doctor came in and went straight to Pei Shi Yu's bed, asking, "Are you feeling any discomfort?"

"No."

"Actually, there's nothing serious. Just stay in the hospital for a few days for observation. If the fetus is stable, you can be discharged," the doctor said with a smile.

Then he did a routine check-up for Pei Shi Yu. I went over and asked, "Doctor, is the baby okay?"

"Yes, the current condition seems normal, but you still need to be careful."

After hearing this, Lin Hai came to my side and asked softly, "Shi Yu is pregnant?"

"Didn't you hear it?" I said a little impatiently.

After speaking, I glanced at him and saw a look of joy on his face. Perhaps the recent events had been too oppressive for him, so the expression on his face seemed particularly obvious at this moment.

The check-up was quick, taking only a few minutes. As soon as the doctor left, Lin Hai asked me with a blaming tone, "Why didn't you tell me about such a big thing last night?"

I looked at him, finding it quite amusing. I didn't know where he got the nerve to interfere in our lives...

"Didn't you say you had something to tell me last night? Let's go out then."

"It would be better to say it here. The purpose of seeing you is to improve our relationship. It's not that I only want to see you because Lin Yang is gone..."

I interrupted him, "Isn't it?"

Lin Hai was speechless for a moment, then his tone became more like a father as he said to me, "Of course, that's part of the reason. Because Lin Yang listened to me more. You, on the other hand, have been quite independent since you were a child. To say nothing else, when you left home at sixteen, didn't you even bother to say goodbye?"

"Did you look for me?" I questioned.

"How could I not? Later, someone said you left by bus. You could still be found in town. Now that you're in Hangzhou, you don't even give me a call."

"I left home to get rid of you all. Why would I call you?"

"Then tell me, why do you have such a big grudge against me? You were the one who left home, and you were the one who didn't contact us. We all guessed that you went to find your mother. Otherwise, wouldn't you have come back to see your grandparents after so many years?"

I originally just disliked him, but now the way he spoke seemed quite responsible, probably because Pei Shi Yu was present. He even blamed me for everything back then, which made me feel that he was too hypocritical...

"I can't communicate with you, and I won't be able to. Can you please stay away from me in the future?" I said, quite annoyed.

"That's just like you. Every time your leaving home is mentioned, it's as if you're the only one who's been wronged. Your grandmother was so heartbroken. She raised you by herself, and then you just left without a word..."

Regarding his counter-accusation, I asked him sternly, "What's your wife's attitude towards me? Don't you have any idea?"

"She's her, and I'm me. Are you her son or my son? If you didn't leave home, would I mistreat you?"

"Not mistreat?"

"Where have I mistreated you?"

"You live in the city, so of course you don't know what happened to me."

"Wasn't your grandmother good enough to you? You don't know how sad she was after you left."

"Don't give me that. Everyone knows the truth. I'm not stupid. I can tell whether people are good to me or not."

Seeing that I was getting angry, Lin Hai paused for a moment before speaking again, "It's certain that you lost your parents' care when you were young. Leaving aside the affairs of us adults, you were indeed more wronged than other children. You also know Lin Yang's mother's temper. If you lived with us, you would be even more unacceptable. It was best for your grandmother to take care of you. I was also quite busy at that time. I originally planned to buy you an apartment in the city to live in alone after you finished high school and went to college..."

"You planned to send me to college?" I interrupted him with skepticism.

"Isn't that obvious?"

"How hypocritical can you be?"

"Lin Che, you're too twisted. Even after you left, I still bought you an apartment."

After saying that, he took out a property ownership certificate from his bag and put it in front of me, also opening it up for me to see, "Look at the date and the name. I was angry with you because you left without a word. Before your mother came to me, I really thought she had taken you away."

The date on the property ownership certificate was already more than ten years ago, and it was indeed in my name. But I knew this man too well. Leaving aside everything else, putting me in jail was ruthless enough, wasn't it? And now he could actually talk about it so lightly, just to play the good guy in front of Pei Shi Yu.

Seeing that I had suddenly become silent, Lin Hai began to say again, "The reason I want to say these things in front of Shi Yu today is also to completely resolve the knot between us father and son. We will inevitably meet again in the future. I don't want us to glare at each other every time we meet."

"Do you want to hear the truth?" I asked, looking at him.

"Is that even a question?"

"Then listen carefully. In my heart, I will never acknowledge you as my father. You can think about the reason yourself. As for the surface, I won't argue with you in the future. I guess there won't be many opportunities to meet anyway."

"Let's take advantage of Shi Yu being here to clear up all the misunderstandings between us."

The more Lin Hai acted like this, the more I lost patience to explain. The matter of him trying to win over Chen Biao at the construction site, and his attitude towards me, seemed as vivid as if it had just happened. And now he could actually disregard it. Perhaps other things could be resolved, but the things I had personally experienced would only make me look down on him even more, no matter how much he pretended.

He was so attentive to me now. If I guessed correctly, it should be because I had gotten together with Pei Shi Yu. If it were someone else, would he still treat me this way?

Standing across from me, Lin Hai had indeed lost a lot of weight since Lin Yang's death. You could even describe it as drastically. He, who used to have a face full of fat, not only lost his double chin but also looked particularly old, as if he had aged ten years all at once. I carefully sized him up. If I wanted to find the feeling of a father in him, no matter how much I imagined, I couldn't feel anything at all. It was actually quite ironic. Even though we were biological father and son, our relationship was as thin as paper...