After returning home, Wang Cheng did not tell his parents about what had happened. He put the keys down in the living room, went back to his room for a change of clothes, and quietly took a shower.
Papa Wang and Mama Wang did not notice anything unusual. The two sat in the living room watching television. After a while, a pleasant ringtone sounded. It came from Wang Cheng’s phone, which he had left on the table and forgotten to take with him. Mama Wang was sitting closest, so she reached over and picked it up.
“Wei Dandan?”
Mama Wang read the name on the screen aloud, then immediately exchanged a look with Papa Wang. That name obviously belonged to a girl. Their second son, who had spent more than twenty years living like a monk, finally had a woman calling him?
They could hardly be blamed for thinking that way. Wang Cheng was clearly handsome, yet from childhood to adulthood they had never seen him grow close to any woman. Even in high school, they had never heard of him being particularly close to any girl. At one point, the two had wondered whether all those years of being a monk had made their son a little foolish.
When Wang Cheng came out after his shower, his phone had already been returned to its original place. Nothing unusual showed on the older couple’s faces. Only when he sat down on the nearby sofa while drying his hair did both of them turn to stare at him, abandoning the news on television.
“Dad, Mom, why are you looking at me like that?” Wang Cheng had something to hide from them, so their stares made him feel a little guilty.
Papa Wang gave Mama Wang a meaningful look.
“A girl named Wei Dandan called you just now. Mom took it upon herself to answer. She seems like a very polite girl. She said she was your high-school classmate,” Mama Wang said calmly.
Wang Cheng finally understood. So they had misunderstood. He hurried to explain, “A while ago, I went with Boss to handle some business and ran into her at a hotel. She works there.”
Although his explanation clearly separated their relationship, Mama Wang and Papa Wang did not believe there was truly nothing between them. If they had never kept in touch before, why would they exchange mobile numbers immediately after meeting again and even call each other afterward?
Wang Cheng did not explain much more. The more one explained this kind of thing, the murkier it became. He watched television with them for a while, then found an excuse to return to his room.
He had taken Monday off, so he did not need to rush to work the next day. Wang Cheng did not set out until after breakfast. Instructor He had called him two days earlier to say that he had already registered Wang Cheng and told him to reach the driving school before nine-thirty Monday morning. If he was late, no one would wait for him.
Yuan Xia had been notified as well. By the time Wang Cheng arrived, Yuan Xia was already waiting at the assembly point. There were still ten minutes before the meeting time, but several people had yet to arrive.
Wang Cheng greeted Yuan Xia, and the two chatted about what had been happening lately. As nine-thirty approached, Instructor He Guang arrived.
The test center was not very far away. He had heard it was only about a twenty-five-minute drive, but He Guang was extremely punctual. If he said he would not wait, then he would not wait. The moment the time arrived, he told everyone to get into the vehicle.
Amid the quiet chatter in the vehicle, Wang Cheng learned that one person still had not shown up. That was the consequence of not being punctual. Terrifying indeed.
“Young people these days really don’t treat time seriously. Fewer and fewer of them know how to be punctual.” Yuan Xia glanced at Wang Cheng and sighed helplessly.
“You’re responsible for your own life. That’s all there is to it.” Wang Cheng rested his hands behind his head and crossed one leg over the other. In truth, he was exactly the sort of person who had once treated time as though it meant nothing. Otherwise, he would not have gone back to his hometown and idled away several years after finishing high school.
Yuan Xia thought about it. “True.”
When they arrived, they could not take the test immediately. Instructor He still needed to complete their registration, and they could only enter once their turn came. Wang Cheng and Yuan Xia had registered comparatively late and had not been assigned test slots at the time, so they were here for a supplementary sitting.
The wait was somewhat long. About an hour later, a woman appeared in their line of sight, looking panicked and so anxious that her eyes were red. Wang Cheng recognized her. She was the pretty woman who, during an earlier driving lesson, had come over with another man and demanded the car keys from him. She was in the same situation as they were, and she was the person who had arrived late.
Seeing them, the woman breathed a sigh of relief.
Managing to find this place after being left behind for arriving late was an accomplishment in itself.
The woman seemed about to complain that the instructor had not waited for her, but He Guang had a fierce and straightforward temper. He did not care about protecting anyone’s pride, nor was he some young man inclined to go easy on a pretty woman. In front of everyone, he gave her a thorough scolding, making her eyes turn red all over again. Aggrieved, she found a seat and sat down.
“Once you’re an adult, you have to take responsibility for your own actions.” Wang Cheng glanced at the woman being ignored, his tone openly gloating, with the faintest hint of something else beneath it.
Yuan Xia sighed and shook his head. Wang Cheng’s words made sense.
Their luck was fairly good. They did not have to wait another two or three hours. After a little over an hour, their turn finally came. While they were taking the test, however, something strange happened back in Guanjia Village.
Just as they had the day before, Papa Wang and Mama Wang went to the new house. When they opened the door, they found brick fragments scattered all over the first-floor tiles. It was already eight in the morning, and villagers tended to rise early. Nearby residents quickly noticed the situation and gathered around.
News spread that someone had played a malicious prank on Wang Cheng’s new house, perhaps in retaliation. But not long afterward, that story was eclipsed by the discovery that more than a hundred tiles in Second Uncle’s still-unfinished new house had been smashed. Madam Zhang had still been taking pleasure in the Wang family’s misfortune when she heard the news about her own house. The next second, she shrieked like a pig being slaughtered. The family stormed over, and the villagers gathered outside immediately made way, their expressions containing more schadenfreude than sympathy.
“Which damned bastard smashed all my tiles?!” Madam Zhang charged inside furiously. One look at the scene turned her face livid. The tiles stacked against the wall had all been reduced to fragments. Not a single one remained intact.
Wang Hongwen and his daughter came in behind her, their expressions equally ugly. Their attention was entirely on the broken tiles scattered across the floor, so neither noticed the strange look on Wang Ningxiang’s face. Besides shock, there was an inexplicable trace of panic.
“W-what on earth happened here?” Wang Hongwen could not imagine who hated them enough to do something like this.
“If I find out which damned bastard did this, I’ll skin them alive!” Madam Zhang’s face flushed red with rage. Because she cared about appearances, she had bought relatively expensive tiles, each costing thirty yuan. More than a hundred of them added up to four or five thousand yuan. Losing that much money at once made her heart ache.
Wang Hongwen went through everyone he could think of, but none seemed likely. They had offended people before, certainly, but surely none of those grudges were serious enough for someone to smash more than a hundred of their tiles.
“We have to investigate this. I want to see which damned bastard had the nerve to do it,” Madam Zhang snarled.
Wang Ningxiang’s eyes darted around before she suddenly said, “Mom, do you think someone from Third Uncle’s family could have done it?”
“Impossible.” Wang Hongwen rejected the idea before Madam Zhang could answer.
“Why is it impossible? Don’t forget, Third Uncle’s second son only came back yesterday, and this happened today. It could easily have something to do with him.” Wang Ningxiang stamped her foot and bit her lip unwillingly.
“Your Third Uncle would never do something like this.” Wang Hongwen knew his younger brother very well. Wang Hongxin was an honest man and would never encourage his son to do such a thing.
“Your dad is right. Your Third Uncle wouldn’t do this. Besides, Mom heard that someone broke glass at their house too.” Madam Zhang cut off Wang Ningxiang’s attempt to argue. She did not believe Wang Hongxin had done it either, and Guan Lanfang was equally unlikely. Guan Lanfang was not easy to bully, but she would never do something like this. Besides, the two households had not had any recent disputes or friction, so there was even less reason. Madam Zhang actually thought an outsider was more likely. The problem was that she had offended so many people over the years that she could not figure out who it might be.
Wang Ningxiang desperately wanted to steer her parents toward suspecting Third Uncle’s family, but she herself had a guilty conscience. She had been the one who damaged the glass and floor at Third Uncle’s house. If she sounded too certain, her parents would definitely become suspicious of her. If what she had done spread through the village, she would be finished.
The incident soon became the villagers’ favorite topic after meals. Everyone argued and guessed about who had done it. Some thought the same person must have targeted both houses, but Wang Cheng’s parents were good people and unlikely to have made enemies, so no matter how much everyone speculated, they could not come up with an answer.
Who would have guessed that the truth behind the whole incident was simply two younger members of the family retaliating against each other?
There were no surveillance cameras installed in the countryside. When Wang Cheng came over the previous evening, the nearby households had all been inside eating dinner or watching television, so no one had noticed him. Naturally, suspicion never fell on him. Unless Wang Ningxiang dared confess what she had done first, the whole matter was destined to remain unresolved.
By the time Wang Cheng finished the test and returned to the apartment, it was already past noon. Chu Yifeng was not there and had probably already eaten lunch by then. Wang Cheng went into the kitchen and made himself a bowl of beef noodles with an egg, settling for a simple meal. He was eating with gusto when the phone in his pocket rang. One glance showed the number from home. Wang Cheng knew he probably could not hide the truth from Mama Wang, so he answered.
“Chengcheng, you did it, didn’t you?” Mama Wang’s tone was certain. Wang Cheng immediately confessed the whole story honestly, embellishing it a little along the way.
Mama Wang was silent for a few seconds. “Next time, you’re not allowed to hide something like this from us.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, Mother.” Wang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief. He had known Mama Wang would not really scold him. Papa Wang might have been another matter.