Wang Cheng woke rather late the next day. He had barely slept the night before. Knowing he was about to learn the entire truth left him a little worked up, so he kept turning over in bed. Chu Yifeng was affected by it too. Eventually he threw back the blanket, pulled Wang Cheng over, and did it twice. After that, all of Wang Cheng’s nervous energy vanished, leaving only the heat of passion behind.
“Animal.”
Wang Cheng walked out of the bedroom and saw the refreshed-looking Chu Yifeng preparing breakfast. His teeth immediately itched with resentment. The bastard had known perfectly well Wang Cheng needed to go home today, yet still dragged him into bed until the middle of the night.
The animal crooked a finger at him. “Come eat breakfast.”
Breakfast was crab-roe soup dumplings. Both the preparation and ingredients were particular, but everyone agreed they tasted excellent. You needed a straw to eat this kind of dumpling. Bite straight into one and you could spray yourself with scalding broth. Chu Yifeng had already inserted straws into them. He bought four in total, each fairly large. Only one stall at the morning market made them properly, and although they were expensive, arriving a little late often meant they were already sold out.
The two sat facing each other over breakfast.
“I’m going back to Guanjia Village with you later.”
Wang Cheng nearly burned himself halfway through eating. He stared at Chu Yifeng after that shocking declaration. “Did I hear you right? You’re coming home with me? My parents could sweep you straight out the door.”
Chu Yifeng smiled. “Before the engagement banquet, that was certainly possible.”
Wang Cheng froze when he heard that and suddenly understood his intention. He had only one thought: crafty. Far too crafty.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Your parents feel guilty toward you right now. No matter what you ask, they’ll probably agree. Even if they don’t openly approve, they most likely won’t oppose us anymore. Once your mom is handled, your dad won’t be much of a problem.”
“You’re something else. You can even take advantage of something this serious.” The way Chu Yifeng explained it made Wang Cheng feel as though he was not returning home to learn about his origins at all, but taking Chu Yifeng back to perform some tragic romance together. The thought made everything feel wrong. Could they not handle one serious matter normally for once?
A shrewd businessman knew how to seize every opportunity available, and Chu Yifeng was a successful businessman.
Familiar scenery disappeared behind them, and Guanjia Village soon came into view. It was not Wangjia Village, the place Wang Cheng knew so well he could find his way with his eyes closed, yet he had already begun thinking of Guanjia Village as his future home. Their car stopped outside the family house. Besides the delivery truck, another unfamiliar car was parked there.
“Isn’t that Mr. Zheng’s car?” Wang Cheng stepped out and stared at it in surprise. He had seen Zheng Jingen drive it several times. When Zheng Jingen called, he had also said he wanted to meet at Wang Cheng’s home today. Wang Cheng assumed he might not arrive until the afternoon. He had not expected him to be here even earlier than they were.
“We’ll know what he wants soon enough.” Chu Yifeng came to stand beside him.
Wang Cheng nodded. They entered and found Zheng Jingen sitting in the living room. Papa Wang was there too, but unlike before, when he could chat endlessly with the man, he was unusually quiet. His face looked somewhat haggard and faint dark circles shadowed his eyes. He probably had not fallen asleep until very late the night before.
“Mr. Chu came too?” Papa Wang was clearly surprised to see Chu Yifeng. Even now, he still did not know about Wang Cheng and Chu Yifeng’s relationship, so his attitude remained normal. He simply felt that what they were about to discuss was family business, and even if Chu Yifeng was a friend, it might not be appropriate for him to hear.
Mama Wang happened to come out of the kitchen carrying fruit. Seeing Chu Yifeng, her steps visibly paused, though no one noticed.
Zheng Jingen also frowned almost imperceptibly. Wang Cheng and Chu Yifeng’s relationship appeared deeper than he had assumed. Wang Cheng had actually brought Chu Yifeng to something this important. It looked increasingly likely that he was serious about the man.
“Wang Cheng hasn’t been quite himself these past few days. I was worried something might happen, so I drove him over personally.” Chu Yifeng nodded to them in greeting and explained.
Wang Cheng rolled his eyes inwardly. The man was actually using him as an excuse. He was annoyed, but could hardly contradict him now. Undermining each other was something to save for when no one else was around. Papa Wang paused, feeling vaguely that something was off but unable to identify what. He replied automatically, “Then we’ve troubled Mr. Chu.” They had important things to discuss next, and Papa Wang still understood priorities, so this time he did not invite Chu Yifeng to sit down.
Seeing her husband react like this made Mama Wang want to shake him. Their son could hardly be making the situation more obvious, yet Papa Wang still had not noticed.
Wang Cheng pulled Chu Yifeng over to sit, then nodded to Zheng Jingen across from them. “Mr. Zheng, you arrived early. You said before that you had something to tell me. What is it?” Zheng Jingen had mentioned that the matter also involved his parents and had deliberately come to the house, so clearly there was no need to hide it from them. Papa Wang and Mama Wang both stiffened at his words, though Wang Cheng did not notice.
“Chengcheng, you probably want to know about your background. Your mom and I asked you to come back because we wanted to tell you about it.” Papa Wang interrupted. Some things were better explained by them.
Wang Cheng looked at Papa Wang and clasped his hands tightly together. “I do want to know.”
Papa Wang did not speak immediately. Instead, he looked toward Chu Yifeng. “Mr. Chu, I’m sorry, but what we’re going to talk about is a family matter. It may not be convenient for…”
“Dad.” Wang Cheng cut him off. “I asked Boss Chu to come with me. He already knows. There’s no problem saying it in front of him.”
Everyone already seemed convinced he had personally invited Chu Yifeng anyway, so there was no point denying it.
“This…” Papa Wang’s eyes widened. For a moment he did not know what to say. That strange feeling became stronger and stronger, as though some truth was about to burst into the open.
“Forget it. There’s nothing here that needs to stay hidden. Since Chengcheng already told Mr. Chu, there’s no harm in letting him hear the rest.” Mama Wang finally spoke. She looked at Wang Cheng with tenderness. “Your eldest cousin’s fiancée was right. You really aren’t your dad’s and my biological son. I gave birth to your elder brother in the first year after your father and I married. Back then, your father wasn’t yet working at that factory.”
During the first few years of their marriage, Papa Wang worked in the city to support the family. To save money, he never lived there. Instead, he rode an old bicycle to and from work every day, leaving early in the morning and not returning until eight or nine at night. One evening, while riding home after work as usual, he heard a baby crying in the outskirts. Following the sound, Papa Wang found an infant in the roadside grass who looked as though he had been abandoned. That baby was Wang Cheng.
Back then, people did not hear about parents abandoning babies and small children as often as they did now, but Papa Wang’s first thought was still that the baby had been left behind. It happened more often in rural areas. Some families kept having children until they had more than they could feed, so they either gave babies away or abandoned them. Papa Wang already had a child of his own and was softhearted by nature. He could not bear to leave the infant there to freeze to death, so he carried him back to Wangjia Village.
When he reached home, Mama Wang initially refused to raise the baby after learning her husband had found one. They were already struggling to feed the son they had. But in those days, very few households were willing to take in an abandoned infant. Every family had children of its own, and if they could barely feed their own, who would raise someone else’s? The couple went from house to house, but no one agreed. Unable to abandon such a lovely child when he was still a living human being, the two finally gritted their teeth and decided to raise him themselves.
Old Madam Wang and her husband opposed the decision. Eldest Uncle’s and Second Uncle’s families also tried to persuade them not to keep a baby whose origins were unknown, warning that perhaps he had been abandoned because he was ill. The facts later proved otherwise. From childhood to adulthood, Wang Cheng barely even caught colds and was healthier than Wang Ning’an. And so the couple ignored their relatives’ objections and raised Wang Cheng exactly as though he were their own biological son, for more than twenty years.
That was also why Wang Cheng’s name did not contain the generational character Ning. Old Madam Wang had forbidden it. Papa Wang anticipated that Wang Cheng might ask about this when he grew up, so when naming Wang Ziyu, he deliberately did not use Ning for her either. Otherwise, her original name should have been Wang Ningyu.
Everyone in Wangjia Village knew that Wang Hongxin and his wife treated the son they found extraordinarily well. From childhood onward, anything Wang Ning’an had, Wang Cheng had too. Other than being forced by circumstances to send Wang Cheng to become the old monk’s disciple, they had never shortchanged him.
After finishing that account, Papa Wang and Mama Wang both looked at Wang Cheng.
Wang Cheng’s expression was complicated. He was already an adult with his own judgment. He knew perfectly well who had treated him well. He had simply hoped his parents might know why he had been abandoned. Now it seemed they did not know that either.
“Chengcheng, Dad is really sorry. When I found you back then, there was no one nearby. I searched everywhere and couldn’t find a single thing that could identify you.” Papa Wang looked full of guilt.
Wang Cheng shook his head. “That isn’t your fault, Dad. You and Mom taking in a baby of unknown origin was already the greatest kindness you could have given me. Without you, I probably would have died long ago.”
Papa Wang’s face filled with emotion.
Mama Wang, however, looked toward Zheng Jingen and sighed. “Chengcheng, what Mr. Zheng came to tell you today has to do with your biological parents.”
“I’ll explain the rest,” Zheng Jingen finally said. When Wang Cheng looked at him, Zheng Jingen slowly revealed a truth that stunned him. “When you first met me, I think your first impression was probably that we look somewhat alike, right? I felt the same thing. The reason I first found your family’s jam shop was because of that resemblance. I suspected you might be my younger brother.”
Wang Cheng’s eyes widened. The very first thought that flashed through his mind was that Chu Yifeng had tricked him again. That malicious bastard had definitely known more than he admitted.
“A friend of mine once ran into you in the capital. You probably remember. He mistook you for me and later told me about it. It may sound unreliable, but from that moment I began thinking you might be the younger brother I had been searching for over the past twenty-five years. I tried every possible way to locate your family. Once I saw you in person, I became even more certain of my suspicion. Later, after asking around through many channels, I finally learned from an elderly former resident of Wangjia Village that you were a child Uncle Wang had taken in.”
“I used a few small methods to confirm you really are my brother, but I didn’t dare tell you rashly. If I’d walked straight up and said all this, you would’ve thought I was insane, wouldn’t you?” Zheng Jingen laughed at himself. He had wanted badly to reclaim this younger brother, but circumstances forced him to hold back. Then trouble erupted in Wang Cheng’s family. Seeing an opportunity, Zheng Jingen came to them. When he visited Papa Wang and Mama Wang that day, this was exactly what he had told them.
Wang Cheng had assumed that one day he might have to embark on some long search for his birth family. Instead, his real relatives had apparently been lurking around him already, waiting for a chance to claim him. Was he supposed to laugh or cry?
He studied Zheng Jingen’s face. Looked at from certain angles, they really did resemble each other. “So you really are my brother?”
Zheng Jingen nodded. “You also have a younger sister. Her name is Zheng Jingxue. She’s two years older than your current younger sister, and the two of them attend the same university. She’s already in her second year. Dad and I never stopped looking for you all these years. Mom has missed you terribly too. Ever since you disappeared, she transferred all that longing onto me and Jingxue and became somewhat obsessive. Jingxue used to complain that Mom watched her too closely. Dad said Mom was originally a very gentle person. Losing you made her terrified the same thing would happen again, and afterward she sometimes became dazed and deeply unsettled.”
It had to be said that Zheng Jingen’s appeal to family ties was very effective. Wang Cheng placed great importance on feelings. If his biological parents had abandoned him deliberately, he would never have expected anything from them. But Zheng Jingen had already made clear that they had never wanted to throw him away and that something else had happened. Listening to his description, Wang Cheng could not help imagining a gentle mother, clearly different from Mama Wang, along with a lively younger sister and a kind father.