A Single Father’s Troubles - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Clarification

Lin Tingwan was completely dazed by this massive “pot” that had suddenly fallen from the sky.

The confined space of the car made him feel even more uncomfortable; his ears were ringing, his head was spinning, and even Kuang Ye’s voice didn’t sound quite real.

“What… what father?”

Kuang Ye silently handed the phone to Lin Tingwan. Seeing the photo, Lin Tingwan’s expression went blank for a moment. Realizing something, he looked at Kuang Ye with a guilty conscience.

“I, I…”

Grit his teeth, Kuang Ye asked one word at a time: “If you’re so determined to find a father for that brat, why can’t you look at me?!”

Lin Tingwan’s head was spinning from Kuang Ye’s intensity. What on earth, he wanted to talk about Bian Wang, so how did it turn into finding a father for Guagua!

He explained anxiously: “I’m not—there’s nothing between me and Bian Wang!”

Seeing his panicked expression but clear gaze, Kuang Ye also froze for a moment.

“You didn’t… come here to tell me you’re breaking up?”

Breaking up? Had he even been “together” with Kuang Ye? However, he absolutely dared not say that out loud.

Wait—Kuang Ye’s loss of control just now was because he thought… he was going to leave him? Lin Tingwan looked at Kuang Ye with a complicated gaze. “Have you misunderstood something?”

“I’ve always treated Bian Wang as a younger brother. How could you think… of that!”

“Then why did you lie to me and not tell me you were going out with Bian Wang today!” Kuang Ye was nearly dying of frustration.

Lin Tingwan didn’t dare look at him, saying muffledly, “Well… if I had said I was going to watch Bian Wang’s game, would you have agreed?”

Without a second thought, Kuang Ye said, “Impossible!”

Lin Tingwan spread his hands helplessly, as if to say, See?

Kuang Ye fell silent.

Lin Tingwan had long ago figured out his temperament. Seeing Kuang Ye sitting there with a long face, obviously suppressing a belly full of jealousy with nowhere to vent, he didn’t dwell too much on the matter.

“Kuang Ye, I have something very important to tell you!”

As long as it wasn’t about breaking up, Kuang Ye was actually quite easy to talk to. He wasn’t like a fuse ready to explode anymore. However, he still refused to let Lin Tingwan stay too far from him, stretching out an arm to hook Lin Tingwan’s shoulder. He subconsciously rubbed it, asking nonchalantly, “What trouble is that guy Bian making now?”

Thinking of the situation with Bian Wang, the Lin Tingwan who had finally gained some spirit immediately deflated. He lowered his head dejectedly and said, feeling like he wanted to cry but had no tears, “I really regret it now. I should have listened to you and kept my distance from Bian Wang…”

Before the smile could even surface on Kuang Ye’s face, his gaze suddenly sharpened. He straightened up: “He confessed to you?!!”

“How did you know?” Lin Tingwan looked at Kuang Ye in shock, blurting out: “Are you stalking me?”

Kuang Ye looked at him with disdain and said crossly, “Does that even require stalking? That kid’s gaze toward you has never been clean!”

“You didn’t agree, did you? No, you definitely didn’t. Who does he think he is!” Kuang Ye said with absolute certainty.

Lin Tingwan had a bitter face. “How could he… how could he…”

Looking at this person who attracted so much attention, Kuang Ye’s teeth felt a bit itchy.

How could so many people be eyeing his big treasure?

He pulled Lin Tingwan into his arms, feeling a bit more grounded, but it still didn’t feel like enough. After thinking about it, he simply lifted him up and sat him on his lap. He tightened his grip around Lin Tingwan’s waist until their two bodies were pressed together without a single gap. Only then did Kuang Ye feel more comfortable.

“He’s a toad lusting after swan meat!”

“Don’t talk about him like that… no, that’s not the point now. The point is, why would he confess to me?! Help me analyze this!” Lin Tingwan felt worried whenever he thought about Bian Wang.

“Is this hard to understand?” Kuang Ye cupped Lin Tingwan’s face and gave him a light peck on the lips. His voice sounded like it was rolling over Lin Tingwan’s eardrums, deep and husky. “Do you have any idea how attractive you are, hmm?”

Lin Tingwan could least withstand Kuang Ye’s deep, resonant voice. He reached out to push the large head away, turning red from his cheeks to his heels. He said shyly, “…Don’t be like this, we’re talking business.”

Kuang Ye took the opportunity to grab his hand and kiss it. “Which part of what I’m saying isn’t business?”

Lin Tingwan didn’t want to argue about this with Kuang Ye anymore. In Kuang Ye’s eyes, was he simply a case of “beauty is in the eye of the F-buddy”? Anyway, Kuang Ye thought he was better than anyone else. Lin Tingwan was incredibly troubled, staring at Kuang Ye resentfully. “Agh, stop joking with me. Help me think about what I should do.”

“What do you mean ‘what to do’? Just reject him, isn’t that enough?”

Only because Lin Tingwan was the one asking would Kuang Ye even bother to be patient. Looking at his eyes, which seemed like they had just been crying, Kuang Ye’s throat tightened. He couldn’t bring himself to scold him anymore. He couldn’t help leaning in closer: “Talking about another man right in front of your ‘hubby’ aren’t you afraid I’ll be jealous?”

Kuang Ye’s thumb wiped roughly across Lin Tingwan’s lower lip, which had been kissed red: “Do you want to avoid this kind of thing happening again?”

Lin Tingwan nodded vigorously.

Kuang Ye put his arm around his waist and said, “There’s an immediate, effective method. It just depends on whether you want to do it.”

Lin Tingwan’s eyes lit up, looking like a student hungry for knowledge.

Kuang Ye said, “It’s simple. Just find a father for your son.”

This non-sequitur from Kuang Ye sounded completely nonsensical to him.

“…What?”

Kuang Ye moved closer, leaning into his ear to repeat, “I said, if your kid had a father and you had a husband, wouldn’t these problems be solved instantly?”

Holding Lin Tingwan, he continued to himself, “…Why would that guy Bian confess to you? Isn’t it because you’re single?!”

“If you had a partner, would he still have the nerve to be a ‘third party’? Does he think I’m dead?”

“You didn’t want the brat to know about us, and I agreed. You wanted me to meet you secretly like we’re having an affair, and I agreed to that too.”

He was getting more and more ridiculous. Lin Tingwan finally couldn’t listen anymore, especially when Kuang Ye started muttering like a grieving widow: “…I’m even willing to be a hidden male ‘mistress,’ I haven’t even had a single bite of a proper meal, do you know how hard it is for me?” Lin Tingwan couldn’t help but reach out and cover his mouth, wishing he could dig a hole to hide in. “What kind of nonsense are you talking about!”

Kuang Ye’s belly full of grievances had been dismissed as “nonsense.” He couldn’t help raising his voice: “Am I not making sense?!”

He spent every day like a paparazzi keeping an eye on the men around Lin Tingwan. Was it easy for him!

Seeing his expression getting more and more twisted, Lin Tingwan’s heart trembled: “Kuang Ye, don’t be like this, I’m scared.”

“Forget about the kid’s father for a moment… my urgent priority is to move house, right? My current landlord is Bian Wang.”

Kuang Ye feigned a look of surprise. “What? You’re still living in that guy Bian’s house? No! This is too dangerous! You must move immediately.”

Lin Tingwan simply felt that his relationship with Bian Wang was now awkward and that renting his house was strange. Hearing Kuang Ye speak with such a serious expression, his heart lifted in tension: “What’s dangerous about it?”

“Have you seen Skynet? Have you seen Legal Online? Do you know how high the crime rate for home invasion by acquaintances is!”

Lin Tingwan was dazed by his words, subconsciously refuting: “No, Bian Wang isn’t that kind of person.”

Kuang Ye raised his voice: “How well do you know him? Can you see into his dark heart?” He seized the opportunity to desperately smear Bian Wang’s character. “He loves you but can’t have you. Who knows if his heart will twist one day, and to satisfy his base desires, he’ll do something crazy!”

While rubbing his ears, Lin Tingwan said sheepishly, “…Then, I’ll just make things clear with him.”

“No, you must move! Move immediately! Don’t worry about the house; I’ll arrange it!”

Lin Tingwan really didn’t want to move. But Kuang Ye was right about one thing: since Bian Wang had confessed to him, what would it mean if he continued to live in the other’s house?

However, Lin Tingwan rejected Kuang Ye’s kindness. “I have a place to stay. I’ll move out.”

Kuang Ye arranging it? Wouldn’t that be “leaving the wolf’s den only to enter the tiger’s mouth”?

“You?” Kuang Ye crossed his arms and looked at him with a skeptical expression. “Where would you stay? Don’t tell me it’s on a real estate app.”

Lin Tingwan, having been seen through, flushed deep red. He said stubbornly, “No. Anyway, I just have a place. Don’t worry about it.”

Kuang Ye narrowed his eyes and said nothing.

Lin Tingwan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and started to spin a lie as soon as he opened his mouth: “My grandfather’s family has a house in the city. I can take Guagua there.”

Kuang Ye gave a smug laugh. “If your grandfather had kept in touch with you, it wouldn’t have been like when I went to find them—”

As if remembering something, he abruptly cut himself off.

Lin Tingwan heard it and blurted out, “You went to find my grandfather?”

His mind went blank. “When?”

Kuang Ye looked at him for a few seconds, turned his head away, and rubbed his nose. “…Four years ago, right after you and I broke up.”

Lin Tingwan’s eyes widened slightly. Four years ago… Kuang Ye wasn’t lying; he had looked for him?

But why look for him? Lin Tingwan looked at Kuang Ye with a complicated gaze, words hovering on the tip of his tongue.

Kuang Ye felt a bit bad seeing his lips tremble as if he were about to cry, so he took the initiative to change the subject. “If you don’t like the house I’m living in now, we can buy another villa and decorate it in whatever style you want, okay?”

Lin Tingwan wiped his eyes forcefully and suddenly calmed down.

Even if Kuang Ye… still had lingering feelings for him, so what? The issue with Guagua hadn’t been resolved yet.

He tactfully declined Kuang Ye’s kindness. “No need to go to the trouble. I’ll find a house.”

His repeated rejections made Kuang Ye frown.

Whenever it came to the child, Lin Tingwan always seemed to be rejecting him.

Children can experience normal families in kindergarten. And in China, the Same-Sex Marriage Protection Act has long been passed; same-sex and opposite-sex marriages are very common now. Among Guagua’s teachers at the kindergarten, there were also people from same-sex families. Society doesn’t hold prejudice against this orientation, and Lin Tingwan wasn’t such a conservative person.

In that case, the things Lin Tingwan said before didn’t hold water at all.

Add to that the fact that Guagua had previously invited him to the house, but Lin Tingwan said to wait. And when Bian Wang confessed, Lin Tingwan had also refused to let him meet Guagua…

“I feel like you’re hiding something from me regarding that brat.”

The truth about Guagua was Lin Tingwan’s biggest secret. Mentioning him made Lin Tingwan feel guilty. At this moment, being stared at made his skin crawl, and he stammered back: “Wh-what… I’m not hiding anything from you.”

Kuang Ye narrowed his eyes even more: “You very much, especially, extremely do not want me to meet that brat.”

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