Wang Cheng had no idea that the events surrounding his family had stirred up another wave in Guanjia Village. Nearly every household was discussing him. Very few people knew that Papa Wang had found and taken him in. In Guanjia Village, only a handful of people from Mama Wang’s maternal family and a few elders of the Wang family knew. Almost none of the younger generation did. Once the truth spread, many people could only sigh.
Wang Xiaoyan had originally planned to use her engagement banquet with Wang Ningkai to expose the rumor that Wang Cheng was gay. Even if it was not true, she believed that if enough people repeated it, some would eventually accept it. Unfortunately for her, that goal failed. In her anger, she blurted out the truth that Wang Cheng was not Papa Wang and Mama Wang’s biological son, and that revelation completely overshadowed the homosexuality rumor. None of the younger people present even brought that part up afterward. Instead, Wang Xiaoyan was criticized by the villagers for her behavior, and within a day rumors that she had no upbringing had spread throughout Guanjia Village.
Wang Xiaoyan was furious, but she still believed she had done nothing wrong. She complained to her parents and to Madam Li’s family, and none of them blamed her. The day after the engagement banquet, Wang Xiaoyan and Wang Ningkai returned to the city with great fanfare instead.
Afterward, however, Wang Xiaoyan badmouthed Wang Cheng to practically everyone she met, seemingly determined to make the whole world know. But their daily lives barely overlapped. Very few people who mattered to Wang Cheng ever heard her, so the gossip had almost no effect on him.
That remained true until another incident occurred, one that directly affected Wang Xiaoyan’s future. From then on, the two families never knew peace. It was only then that everyone learned Wang Xiaoyan had been spreading malicious stories about Wang Cheng everywhere, while Wang Ningkai, as his eldest cousin, had done nothing to stop her.
Wang Cheng did not return home, and Papa Wang and Mama Wang were both worried. Still, they knew he was not someone who acted impulsively. When his phone would not connect, the couple decided to give him a few days to calm down. Originally, they had wanted to confront Madam Li and demand an explanation. But after they settled down, they heard that Madam Li and Wang Hongwei had gone to the city with Wang Ningkai. One look made it obvious they were avoiding accountability from the third brother’s family.
When Madam Zhang heard about it, she cursed Madam Li’s household as well. They had caused trouble and then fled quickly. Madam Zhang had fully expected the third brother and his wife to come argue with her, and she had thrown herself wholeheartedly into preparing for battle. Yet the couple did not react at all. After asking around, she learned they were behaving much as usual, as if nothing had affected them.
Could it be they no longer cared about Wang Cheng? Impossible.
Madam Zhang knew how much the couple valued their children. When they were younger, she had once tried to persuade them to give Wang Cheng away, only to be scolded fiercely. If they had not wanted to raise him, they would never have brought him home in the first place. Unable to understand them, Madam Zhang spent her days turning the matter over in her head.
Madam Li and Wang Hongwei, meanwhile, were doing perfectly well in the city with their son. Away from Guanjia Village, the incident barely affected them. Or rather, they had never cared much about it in the first place, even though their side had started the trouble.
Wang Ningkai owned an apartment in the city measuring more than one hundred square meters. He had bought it when his company first began prospering, when housing prices were still relatively low. Several years later, its value had risen by one or two times. Plenty of people his age could not even afford an apartment of a few dozen square meters, so Wang Ningkai had always been extremely confident about his own success.
Over the next two days, the two families seemed to hit it off completely and quickly began discussing the wedding.
People from rural backgrounds like theirs did not normally bother with a formal engagement, but Wang Xiaoyan wanted the experience, while Madam Li’s family wanted a grand display in the village. So they agreed to hold two events: an engagement banquet in Guanjia Village and the wedding banquet back in the city.
Meanwhile, when Wang Cheng and Chu Yifeng went out for lunch, Wang Cheng suddenly remembered something he had almost completely forgotten.
“Damn, I need to call Yuan Xia and tell him about that.” Wang Cheng exclaimed and immediately took out his phone to dial Yuan Xia. The shock over his own family background had pushed everything else out of his mind.
Chu Yifeng took the phone from him. “No need.”
“What do you mean? You know about it?” Wang Cheng asked in surprise.
“This happened on the third. Someone was targeting Yuan Xia. They secretly photographed you meeting him and posted the pictures on Shanhai University’s forum to smear him. Later, they also exposed his relationship with Jiang Xuan,” Chu Yifeng told him.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? How is Yuan Xia? Is he all right? No, I need to go see him.” Wang Cheng was startled. Something this serious had happened and he was only learning about it now.
Chu Yifeng held him back. “Relax. I already had the posts deleted. Yuan Xia is fine. Jiang Xuan has come back and is with him. There’s nothing you can do by going over now.”
Only then did Wang Cheng calm down. “Good. As long as he’s okay. Did you find out who did it? I knew Wang Xiaoyan couldn’t possibly have the ability to secretly photograph me and Yuan Xia herself. She must have seen that picture on the forum.”
“What did she do?” Chu Yifeng’s expression turned cold. Wang Cheng had skipped over that part before, so Chu Yifeng still did not know Wang Xiaoyan had publicly accused him of being gay. Wang Cheng briefly explained, then said, “Forget her for now. Do you know who was behind the posts?”
“It was one of Jiang Xuan’s cousins. The person who hired someone to kidnap Yuan Xia last time was that same cousin. This time, he used a teaching assistant at the university who was jealous that Yuan Xia had been promoted to lecturer so young. He used the assistant to post those threads, hoping to destroy Yuan Xia’s reputation and strike at Jiang Xuan through him.”
“That cousin of Jiang Xuan’s is vicious. He’s tried to hurt Yuan Xia again and again. You absolutely can’t let him off this easily.” Once there was a first time, there would be a second and a third. If he was spared now, Jiang Xuan’s cousin would definitely do something harmful to Yuan Xia again later.
“Jiang Xuan took control of an entire group at his age. You haven’t seen what his methods are like. The teacher who posted the threads has already been exposed and fired by the university. He won’t be able to teach again, and finding another job won’t be easy either.”
“What about the cousin?”
“That cousin may be more troublesome to deal with, but teaching him a lesson is still possible.” A cold glint flashed through Chu Yifeng’s eyes. If they traced the consequences far enough, Wang Cheng’s family secret being exposed also had an indirect connection to this incident.
Jiang Xuan’s paternal family was not a merchant family. Most of his relatives followed political careers. Hongyu Group, which Jiang Xuan inherited, was the business his maternal grandfather had built and had nothing to do with the Jiang family. Yet after Jiang Xuan’s father died, members of the Jiang family kept eyeing Hongyu Group. Dealing with them would therefore be more complicated. Even if the matter reached the old master of the family, he would probably only give the eldest branch a few mild scoldings.
Chu Yifeng rarely involved himself in matters like this, but since Wang Cheng had been dragged in, he had no intention of standing aside this time.
In the end, Wang Cheng still called Yuan Xia. Only after hearing Yuan Xia personally say he was all right did Wang Cheng relax. But Yuan Xia could no longer return to teaching at the university.
Once the second post appeared, it more or less confirmed in the public’s eyes that Yuan Xia was gay. The posts were deleted quickly, but too many people had already seen them. Even people at Shanhai High School were discussing the matter. Yuan Xia felt he had failed President Cheng and his mentor after they trusted him. Although he genuinely loved teaching, he eventually decided to leave Shanhai University.
Before leaving, Yuan Xia told President Cheng and his mentor the truth about his relationship with Jiang Xuan. Technically, he had not lied to them earlier. He truly had nothing to do with Wang Cheng. President Cheng and Professor Wu were open-minded about it. Both had lived most of their lives already, with one foot practically in the grave, and they did not blame Yuan Xia heavily for concealing the truth. They only regretted losing such a good teacher. Yuan Xia cared about teaching and took the profession seriously, unlike some people who used any underhanded method available in pursuit of fame and profit.
Yuan Xia was deeply grateful for their understanding, but his decision was firm. If he could no longer teach at Shanhai University, he could teach somewhere else. And even if he could not remain a teacher at all, there were other things he could do.
Zheng Jingen learned what happened in Guanjia Village two days after the incident. Ever since confirming Wang Cheng was his younger brother, he had been searching for a chance to talk to him. But because he had traveled to Shanhai City so frequently for a time, his unusual movements attracted his grandfather’s attention. After being warned, he had no choice but to restrain himself temporarily. His father told him not to rush either. They had already waited twenty-five years; there was no need to force things at this exact moment. After returning to the capital, Zheng Jingen had still kept an eye on Guanjia Village. When he heard what happened, he told Papa Zheng that the opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived, but he needed his father to cover for him. Otherwise, whoever was watching him would report his movements to Grandfather again.
“Dad, even if I can’t bring Little Brother back this time, I still want to tell him that we are his real family. Mom has missed him all these years.” For Mama Zheng’s sake, Zheng Jingen had to do this.
Twenty-five years ago, Wang Cheng had only been a newborn baby when he disappeared. Mama Zheng had nearly collapsed afterward. Their family eventually managed to help her recover somewhat, but from then on she transferred all the fear and longing she felt for her youngest son onto Zheng Jingen and his younger sister. When they were little, she watched them extremely closely and insisted on handling everything herself. She personally took them to school and picked them up. If she ever arrived and could not find them, panic immediately overwhelmed her.
Once, his younger sister wanted ice cream. Zheng Jingen gave in to her pleading and took her to buy some, thinking they would return immediately. Unfortunately, Mama Zheng arrived during that brief interval. Unable to find them, she searched frantically everywhere. Afterward, both children were punished with several strikes of a ruler, and Zheng Jingen in particular was warned never to take his sister anywhere again before an adult arrived.
“Dad understands. Go without worrying. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility.” Papa Zheng might say there was no need to rush, but in his heart he missed his younger son no less than Zheng Jingen did.
With that promise, Zheng Jingen felt reassured. He finished that day’s work and arranged the tasks for the next several days. The following day, he flew to Shanhai City. Papa Zheng assumed his eldest son intended to confront Wang Cheng directly and reveal everything, but Zheng Jingen did not go to Wang Cheng after landing. Instead, he headed straight for Guanjia Village.