MY ONE & ONLY OPTION ( Wangxian Rom-com)(COMPLETED)

Chapter-10

Now he was alone. Weiying took his time running his fingers over the cool leather couch before he drifted over to the large bookshelf that lined the wall behind it. Lanzhan seemed to have an eclectic taste in reading material. There was a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. There were plenty of books on marketing, some of which he had read, but there was a large collection of fiction as well, ranging from classics like Dante and Mark Twain to modern fics by David Baldacci and James Patterson.

Weiying picked up one of the framed pictures on the shelves. It was of Madam lan, Sizhui, Lanzhan, and a man he presumed to be lanzhan stepfather, Ursa’s second husband. He could see the sun shining on the ocean behind them. Weiying wondered if the photo was taken on the beach. It was clearly an older picture: Sizhui couldn’t have been older than ten or eleven, with braces on his teeth, and Lanzhan looked younger too, with hair that fell into his eyes. He was smiling. He looked happy.

he didn’t hear him come into the room until he spoke from behind his, startling his.

“I just remembered that I never told you about my dad.” Lanzhan’s voice was a low murmur.

Weiying spun around, clutching the picture frame to his chest like he’d just been caught doing something that he wasn’t supposed to. Lanzhan was standing by the couch, dressed in a white shirt and black sweatpants, his hair mussed. Weiying wondered if it was from sleep or if he’d been running his hands through it as his mind ran at a million miles a second, the way here was.

“Shit,” he managed to say. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.

Lanzhan came deeper into the room, his footfalls silent on the hardwood floor. He gently pulled the picture from Weiying’s hand before he looked down at it, his brow furrowing slightly. Then he put it back in its place on the helf.

He looked up at Weiying. “My mom divorced my dad when I was eleven. After...this.” He gestured to his face. He let out a breath. “It was a long time coming, but that was her breaking point. I was in the hospital, and she packed up our shit in the middle of the night and left. She and Xichen stayed with me in the hospital while she drained as much money as she could from their bank accounts. Got a restraining order, filed criminal charges, and divorced him. It was the best thing that’s ever happened to all of us.”

Lanzhan turned and walked away from his. He went into the kitchen and Weiying trailed after him as he pulled two glasses out of the cupboard before he fetched a bottle of bourbon out of a second cupboard. He poured a shot into each glass before he handed one to Weiying. he took it from him and watched as he tipped his drink down his throat. Then he refilled his glass.

Lanzhan brushed past him and went back to the living room. He sat down on the couch and balanced his glass on his knee, staring at it contemplatively. Weiying tiptoed delicately back into the living room and sat on the other end of the couch, tucking his legs beneath his.

He waited. He didn’t want to ask questions, or pry. He wanted Lanzhan to tell him whatever he wanted to, whatever he was comfortable with. Weiying had always assumed that things had been bad with his father, but this was worse than he had imagined. Weiying had wondered about the scar...but somehow, it hadn’t occurred to his that abuse may have been the cause.

And really, that could explain so much about Lanzhan, and Xichen too. If they were abrasive and cold, it was likely a product of the environment in which they had grown up. It could explain Lanzhan’s harsh exterior, but how he was so kind and thoughtful once he let go of the asshole facade.