At least now Carmen understands why Wuxi always seemed so familiar to her, he looks a lot like her childhood friend and his demeanor is very much like his mother. His smile should have given it away for her and now that she knows he is her best friend's son she can see his mother in his smile.
She makes him dinner and a soothing tea before she goes into his room to wake him. He needs to keep up his nourishment while carrying three babies. She nearly chokes on a sob thinking that he is carrying three babies and her friend will never get to hold those sweet treasures. She stops at his door and calms herself before she walks into his room and gently wakes him.
"Wuxi sweetheart, wake up, you need to eat something." She coaxes him awake.
He stirs and moans softly as he opens his eyes which are still swollen and sensitive from earlier. He closes his eyes again for a moment before opening them up again. He looks at Carmen "Hi, sorry about earlier." He says as he sits up and moves to the edge of the bed.
He puts his hands on the edge of the bed preparing to stand up but instead sits there for a moment before looking up at the woman standing in front of him "Thank you for before, I'm not sure how long I would have sat there if you hadn't come."
She shakes her head unable to speak for a moment as she looks at him and sees so many of her friend's features mirrored in his. She smiles finally "I made dinner, come eat something and then maybe take a shower and go back to bed if you want to."
He bobs his head slowly and stands up, they walk into the kitchen and she puts a bowl of white rice with a mild ginger sauce and seared fish in front of him. "I thought maybe we could eat light tonight considering the day you have had, I figured your stomach might not handle anything too rich or heavy."
He takes a small bite and smiles at her "This is perfect thank you, it is delicious too, I want to learn to cook this, I really like it."
She sits down with him and takes her own bowl putting it in front of herself. She clears her throat "Wuxi, I want to talk to you about something."
He nods his head as he eats not really looking at her "Go ahead"
"After your breakdown today, I was curious about the family you have been living with, so I got some information on them and you and your sister. Not to pry or anything but just so I could better understand without making you talk about it if you didn't want to." She says quickly.
He shrugs "I don't mind, I have nothing to hide, you can check all you want, I trust you."
She smiles at him "I, gosh this is harder than I thought."
He looks up fully then and tilts his head "What's hard?"
She sighs "Darling your mother was my childhood best friend, we grew up together and remained best friends until college."
His chopsticks stop halfway to his mouth and pauses there for a moment before being put back down. "What?"
She gives him a gentle smile "We were practically sisters and inseparable for the whole of our lives until I went aboard to study my second year of college and we slowly lost touch. We both got busy with college and I met my husband and got married and had children. It is difficult to maintain relationships of any kind when you are half a world away from each other and trying to build a life. We hadn't spoken in about fifteen years when she died. I tried to find her when we moved back to China but your mother and father had moved to Chongqing when you and your sister were just babies, the mutual friends we had when we were in college didn't know where she had moved to, and she didn't have any family to speak of, so I had no other way to try and track her down. I would have never thought to look for her there, she always said she would never leave Beijing because she loved the energy of the city."
She pauses to let him adjust to this new information and he squirms in his seat for a moment "Will you tell me what she was like when she was younger." He asks shyly.
She laughs lightly "I will tell you everything about her, you are very much like her, I think that is why I have always been so drawn to you from the first moment I met you."
He smiles sadly and begins to eat again nodding "Wuxi, would you consider calling me Carmen Mom? We are family, your mother was the sister of my heart and I will treat you like one of my own. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me but I promise to be there from now on."
He smiles nodding "Alright Carmen Mom, I would be honored but you don't have to be sorry for something you had no control over, you did the best you could to try and find my parents when you got back. You can't blame yourself for something that wasn't your fault."
She reaches across the table and cups his cheek with her hand "You are so much like her."
He smiles and nuzzles her hand then starts eating again, she watches him for a bit before she eats her own food. Making up her mind she nods to herself "Do you want to talk about what happened today?"
He sighs shrugging "I went off on my guardian, she has treated me like shit since the day I moved into her house but she was pretty good at hiding some of it. I-I hit her, slapped her, I've never hit anyone before, I still can't believe I did that, I was just so hurt and mad. She got me kicked out of college because I am pregnant which hurts my chances of getting a degree, and although I have never met the man apparently the dean had something against me because he called her to ask for permission to kick me out. I guess he finally realized I was pregnant because I am showing and found a reason to get rid of me." he looks down dejected.
She purses her lips in irritation, an idea worming in her head "It sounds to me like she deserved it. What is the name of this dean sweetheart?"
He shakes his head "It doesn't matter, my attendance was terminated today. That's why I got so mad, I didn't even realize I was going over there until I parked and then I got pissed and had a knockdown drag-out fight with her. I slapped her, twice, then went off on Jiang Fengmian and my twin hitting them with some truths about how she had been treating me all these years, then stormed out and drove off and that's where you found me."
She sighs "Oh my sweet boy I am so sorry I was not there for you before, I really would like to know the name of the dean though, will you tell me please?"
He stabs his chopsticks in his bowl a few times then shrugs again "Sure, not that it will do any good but his name is Dean Lan, Lan Qiren."
She smiles at him "Thank you darling, why don't you finish your dinner and go take a shower hm? It will make you feel better. Thank you for sharing with me, I know today was really hard on you but try to let it go for now. Good things always happen to good people and you my dear are such a good person. Good things will happen for you I just know it, now finish up so I can clean the kitchen before I leave."
He does as he is told, she watches him leave the room to go take a shower and she scowls "Qiren you jackass, always so stern for no reason. You just wait until I get my hands on you!"
She cleans the kitchen and checks on Wuxi before she leaves, he is fast asleep so she lets the security detail know that before she leaves. She gets in her car and sits there for a moment, her anger rising with each breath she takes at how he kicked that boy out simply because he is pregnant. She hmphs to herself in vexation before she puts her car in gear and leaves Wuxi's villa headed for home.
Carmen walks into the Wang mansion and yells out "Qiren get in here right now."
Wangji comes in from the kitchen and looks at her "Mother what's wrong?"
She sneers "Your Uncle Qiren is what's wrong, Qiren out here now." she says again sternly.
He comes out from the office and looks at her "Carmen what are you yelling about? You know we don't like yelling in this house."
She hmphs at him "You don't like yelling, I like yelling just fine, now talk to me about Wei Wuxian and explain to me exactly why you kicked him out of school today?"
Wangji confused looks at his obviously very irritated mother but stays quiet so he can hear what's going on. Qiren scowls at the name "That boy is a menace, his instructors are always complaining that he can't sit still, he talks too much, asks unruly questions, and is disruptive to the other students. So when I saw an opportunity to remove the problem I did."
Carmen is trying to keep from smacking him "You kicked him out because he is pregnant, he is an eighteen-year-old pregnant boy with ADHD who you had sitting in a classroom listening to lectures when he is an art major. He is disruptive because he is bored, he asks questions because he is intelligent and wants to understand more than just what the average student does and he talks to others because he is sweet and kind and likes to help others. Reinstate him immediately he deserves to get a proper education."
Qiren huffs at her "I will not, people like him shouldn't be at our college, it looks bad on the rest of our students and puts a bad light on the reputation of the college as a whole. He will not be allowed to come back, even if I wanted to, which I don't, I have blacklisted him from ever attending again."
She looks at him like he grew a third head "I can't believe you, an educator blocking the education of a boy who is so talented. What do you have against him really? I'll know if you are lying to me so you had better answer truthfully."
He looks away from her and Wangji having heard what his uncle has done is not happy with him any more than his mother is. "Answer her Uncle, why did you kick that boy out?"
Qiren looks at Wangji with a stern look "Your father died because of his parents."
Carmen's mouth drops open "What in the world are you talking about? Robert died in a plane crash; the engines failed it was no one's fault."
"He was traveling with that heathen's parents when the plane went down, I got a list of the passengers and not only were they on it but it was their company's plane." He crosses his arms over his chest as if this explains everything.
Lan Wangji scrunches his eyebrows "So you are blaming the boy whose parents both died in a plane crash because my father was also on the same plane and died, am I understanding you correctly?"
Qiren rolls his eyes "Well I'm obviously not actually blaming the boy he was only a child when it went down, however, I do hold the family responsible for my brother's death."
Carmen huffs out a humorless laugh "So you are holding two eighteen year old's responsible for my husband's death?"
Qiren sighs in frustration "Not the children per se but the family, I mean they are the ones responsible after all."
Carmen closes her eyes for a moment trying to remain calm before she speaks, her fists tightly clenched "They are the family Qiren, they are all that is left of that family. Oh and by the way I just found out today that that family you are so eager to sneer at, his mother was Cangse Sanren my best friend from my earliest memories of my childhood until college. She was my sister in my heart and those two kids are all that is left of her. That troublemaker boy has been treated horribly by the family that took them in and is now pregnant with triplets. Congratulations on being the biggest ass of the century for treating him the way you have. I can't believe you would treat Wei Wuxian this way simply because you are still angry over Robert's death."
Qiren's mouth opens slightly, his face slowly changing from anger to remorse after hearing Carmen's words. "I, I didn't know."
She scoffs "Of course you didn't because you didn't bother to try and find out anything about him, you just let your anger lead you to treat him unfairly. You had better find a way to fix this, get him into an online program through the school or another school with just as much clout, you owe him this after what you did. He is such a talented artist and had I not accidentally gotten to know him, his future would have suffered because of your misguided anger." She gives him an exasperated look.
He sighs in resignation "I can't get him back into our school even remotely as I said I blacklisted him however I will speak to another dean that has remote classes and see if I can get him in. It would be easier if I had some of his work so that I could show them. They usually want to make sure that whoever they take is worthy of the honor."
Carmen rolls her eyes "I happen to have his website you can have them look at his artwork there. That will give them enough to go on for admission. Wangji grab me your laptop."
He nods, grabs his laptop and opens it on the dining room table, Carmen steps up, types in the URL and pulls up his website. She smiles as she steps back and lets Qiren take a look she watches his eyes light up as he looks through the artwork on the website. He turns to her "He is very talented, his work is so realistic, I owe this young man an apology, I let my anger get the better of me and made a huge mistake in the process."
Qiren stands up and Wangji begins to look through the pieces, he is fascinated by every single one. All of the work he is used to seeing are mockups of hotels and resorts which are very dry and bland normally, looking like tiny digital models. This is something else, something he is completely intrigued by. Carmen stands there looking smug as they both look at the website and see the talent being displayed there.
Wangji looks at his mother "Is this the friend you were talking about?"
She nods smiling "Yes, he's really good isn't he?"
He nods "Yes he is."