After sitting in silence for a while without touching his plate it seemed his actions had finally been noticed. Shan Uang who he sat the closest to tapped his shoulder and leaned in “is something wrong Shan Quon, why aren’t you eating?”

Shan Quon lazily turned his head and looked at the man, his eyes were blank of all emotions but in his mind, his memories swirled. Growing up in an orphanage that barely got by, seafood wasn’t something the children were able to have, especially things like shrimp. So it was fine that Shan Uang didn’t know, even he hadn’t found out until a few months later in his last life when he found out the old madam liked seafood.

Being a meal he never had he took his allowance and went out to a restaurant and ordered some seafood, he swore the shrimp had only rested on his tongue for a second before he started to feel like he couldn’t breathe. He coughed it out, and tried to get some water but knocked over the glass and fell from his chair, he laid on the floor unable to breathe as his body jerked and he felt like he would suffocate to death.

It was then the door was pushed open, a waiter that had been passing had heard the noise and wanted to come help, otherwise, he was sure he would’ve died. He had been rushed to the hospital and of course, the Shans were alerted, at first, they were worried about him, but after hearing the reason he was sent they became suspicious of him.

In their minds seafood wasn’t something that counted as expensive, they could never fathom that some people had never eaten it all their lives. So his action of going to eat seafood to try and get close to the Shan family was seen as him purposely eating something he knew he was allergic to in order to spite them. Even though it wasn’t obvious to him they had started treating him politely, but because they weren’t overly cold the servants continued to work as they had.

After the memory faded Shan Quon yawned and spoke in a lazy manner. “I’m allergic to seafood, if I eat anything that had come into contact with it I’ll swell up like a balloon and suffocate.”

He hadn’t deliberately spoken quietly, so his statement was heard by everyone in the dining room. The chatter and laughter instantly cut and they all looked at him before looking at old Master Shan, Shan Quon looked over to see a tic had formed on his forehead as if he was enduring something. Shan Quon knew he was just upset at the fact that a member of his family was allergic to the one thing his beloved loved to eat, it was said that that was the thing old madam Shan craved when she was pregnant with each of her children.

After a while old Master Shan took a deep breath and calmed his nerves before looking at Shan Quon, he looked as if he was searching for the lie in what Shan Quon had said. This gaze of his would have scared another member of his family and in the life, before it had also scared Shan Quon witless as a child since the only thing the old man ever looked at him with was disgust.

But Shan Quon looked back at the old man completely unbothered even a small yawn escaped his lips as he tried not to dose off. The old Master sighed and looked at a servant, “there should be fresh steaks in the fridge, have one made for Shan Quon, and make sure it doesn’t make contact with anything that was used to handle the shrimp.”

After saying that he looked at the butler, it was the same man that had retrieved him from the orphanage in both his lives, also the man that had locked him into the asylum at the orders of his father. “Later find time to take Shan Quon to the hospital and have him do a full health check and stock up on his allergy sedatives so nothing happens to him.”

“Yes, Old Master Shan.” The butler nodded and quickly left the room and a minute later the atmosphere returned to its joyous one.

Not long after the plate of seafood was removed from in front of Shan Quon and replaced with a plate of juicy steak. His drowsiness instantly vanished as he sat up and began to eat his meal, he could feel the members of the Shan family glancing over at him from time to time, as if to check he was fine. After he was finished the table was cleared and soon a plate of dessert was placed in front of him, he happily cleared the plate and then sat back in a relaxed manner.

A while later the adults left the room with glasses of wine as they went to talk among themselves, while the children got into their own groups and ran to go play. He had heard in his last life that a small play park was built in a large room on the third floor. But because of many things he had never been able to see, he didn’t even know where it was.

He continued to sit in the chair until he heard footsteps and looked up to see two people reenter the dining room. Looking at his half-brothers, Shan Quon could see that they were very similar to each other but not to the point they were copy and paste.

The boys walked in quietly and looked at him for a while before they finally spoke. “Grandfather said that since we were your brothers we had to look after you…” Shan Gao spoke lowly it was clear he didn’t want to listen to his grandfather’s words but in the end had no choice.

Shan Gan the oldest of the two sighed and stepped forward. “The others have gone to the playroom, come with us I’m sure you can find something to do there.”