“I’m not the ‘Ian’ you know. My previous name is Xie Yan, and I’m from another world. A world where there’s no such thing as gers.” Ian explained, exhaling a little when he starts feeling more and more nervous.

“…I know.”

Silence swept through the study when Ian seemed to hold his breath.

“…what?” Ian muttered, his eyes wide in shock.

Chenyi closed his eyes with a sigh and leaned back, “I already knew you weren’t Ian. I wasn’t sure about the other world without gers thing, but sometimes you can’t seem to stop from reacting in small ways whenever anything related to gers are mentioned. You seem to forget things that gers are supposed to know about, or you get confused about basic knowledge connected to gers.”

“…and you just… never said anything?” Ian started to feel a bit faint and leaned against the back of the couch too.

“I couldn’t be 100% sure until you would say anything, so I didn’t want to mention it. I was hoping you’d come talk to me about it whenever you were ready.” Chenyi answered and looked at him.

Ian seemed to just sag. His wound-up shoulders dropped and he breathed out, “Okay, fine… but I wanted to talk to you about another thing… Ian, the Bernards, the contract…”

“I wondered when you would mention that.” Chenyi said before squaring up in preparation.

“It’s… awful. I don’t understand why anyone would just sell themselves… sell their family like that. It’s just…” Ian bit his lip in anger.

“I guess to someone who haven’t been in this world with gers, it seems bad. And I admit, yes it is bad. But it’s how this world works. People have been trying to change it, disapprove of it, but we’re a bit of a long way before that. And honestly, I only accepted the contract with the Bernards because I did need an heir. But that’s not the only reason.” he said and crossed his arms over his chest.

”I’ve already heard about how Ian was treated like in their household. I wanted to try and take him away from that, let him live his own life. But he just did as he was told by his parents, and wanted to get on with the conditions of the contract.” Ian grimaced at his words.

”And during his pregnancy, he wouldn’t even talk to me and would just stay in his room. Even after Wenduo was born, he never interacted with him or me. He stayed in his room at all times.”

”I tried asking him and he said he still had to wait for the 4 years period before we could get divorced… It was around those times that I found out he had autism, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried but I can’t really force him when he just wants the contract over and done with so he could go back to work. Ian…” Chenyi sighed and shook his head.

”The Bernards didn’t raise him right, they didn’t raise him at all. And his priorities and views in life were just different I guess. So I gave him his space. The one day, I come back and it’s you. And you were different.” he raised his head to look at Ian’s face.

“I…” Ian said, his eyes downcast, “I hope he has a good life— a better life— wherever he is now.”

Chenyi’s eyes softened as he reached out to give him a hug, “I hope so too.”

This Author wants to say something:

The first version of this had a title with a Frozen reference, and now it’s latest edited version’s title is an Aladdin reference.

…yes, I do enjoy Disney—