The back door opened with a creak. Talk of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives. “Mom, she’s my friend.”
Mom? He called her mom? So she’s Wei Zhan Yi’s mother?
The melancholic woman gave her a gentle smile.
“Shi Xie, Miss Ding is your friend? She’s so beautiful!”
Shi Xie? Wei Shi Xie? Isn’t that his father’s name? Why would his mother call him by his father’s name? She was puzzled and suspicious.
Wei Zhan Yi smiled at his mother without further comment, then turned to ask her. “Finished the soup?”
She nodded blankly.
“I’ll take Qing Yan for a walk nearby, we’ll be back soon.”
He held her hand, pushed open the back door, and walked towards the fresh, green outdoors.
“Your mom calls you Shi Xie?” As soon as they stepped outside, she immediately lowered her voice to ask.
He laughed lightly.
“What are you laughing at?” Did he find this amusing? She didn’t like competing with his mother!
Wait, what was she thinking? Competing with his mother? For him?
She quickly tapped her forehead twice. Stay clear, stay clear!
“No matter which of my brother or I come back, she’ll mistakenly think I’m my dad.” He spread his hands. “Fourteen years ago, after being deeply traumatized, she can’t distinguish between reality and illusion.”
“Does she… she…” Crazy? However, she didn’t have the courage to say those last two words.
He took her hand and walked towards the nearby fields.
At a glance, it was all lush green, some with naturally vibrant life, some carefully cultivated into neat vegetable plots, equally pleasing to the eye. This was where he grew up. After experiencing a major upheaval, he had been lying low here, preparing to spread his wings and create a peak.
“Want to hear our story after leaving that villa?”
“Want to.” Of course she wanted to!
“When my mother was unconscious, sixteen-year-old me, twelve-year-old Wei Zheng Hai, and ten-year-old Wei Fang Yu were all kicked out. We didn’t know where to go because Wang Jin Qiang and others had fabricated charges, completely confiscating my father’s assets, even losing the villa.”
“Same night?”
“Same night.”
How cruel!
“We had to stay at the servants’ homes temporarily, but within three days, Second Madam came.”
“Second Madam?”
“When all relatives were avoiding us, she took the initiative to find us. Actually, she had started her journey right after seeing the news. The reason she didn’t meet us until the third day was that she couldn’t find us in the first two days.”
“I guess she must have first gone to look for your relatives.” Qing Yan snapped her fingers. “But couldn’t find anyone.”
“Exactly, and each family came with a round of scolding. After finding us, she immediately took charge of my father’s funeral, then told us she had a house in the countryside where we could live.”
He pointed to the brick house behind him, which looked old but still solid.
But, isn’t she your grandfather’s concubine?” In her impression, weren’t the main wife and concubine supposed to be irreconcilable? Wei Zhanyi’s mother was born to the main wife!
“Even now, I’m not quite clear why the second wife would come to us without hesitation.”
At that time, they had fallen so low that even stray dogs couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to them. Who would want to take in such an unlucky family?
“My mother’s family was a very wealthy financial group. My grandmother came from a good background. Although she only gave birth to one daughter, my grandfather still doted on her, so my mother grew up like a hothouse flower. Later, my grandfather met the second wife. The second wife was from a poor background. After marrying her, she worked hard, helped with the business, managed the household, always accepting her fate and never competing for attention.”
“So, she came to help you out without a second thought because she was loyal? Isn’t that too loyal!”
“I believe so. But when I asked about it once, she just casually said that this was what she owed my grandfather.”
“What does that mean?” She was indignant. Didn’t anyone think that although the second wife was nominally a “concubine”, she was essentially working like a servant?
“My grandfather hoped she would give birth to a son, but she was barren. Perhaps she felt guilty.”
Unable to bear a son meant having to work like an ox? This infuriated her.
“So, I was about to say something about women back then…” she began angrily.
He laughed. “Are you going to give a feminist speech, or do you want to hear my story?”
She reluctantly stopped. “Of course, I want to hear your story.”
Actually, these things weren’t even mentioned in the Super Daily interview! The newspaper only talked about his vision for the future and his career ambitions, without a word about his journey to success.
Was it because they thought it wasn’t interesting, or because he simply didn’t want to talk about it?
She secretly hoped it was because he refused to speak about it. This way, their secret garden would belong only to them. Once her shoulder healed, she would still beg him to go smash that big villa together.
“After the second wife brought us here, my brother and sister were in shock. Suddenly moving from a mansion to a brick house was a gap that was hard to accept. They cried about wanting to go back, but the second wife didn’t offer any comforting lies. She just told them that we couldn’t go back to that home; if they wanted to return, they’d have to fight for it with their own hands.”
“Isn’t that a bit… cruel?” She shuddered.
“What’s cruel is the reality itself, not how it’s expressed.”
“That makes sense.”
“Then, the second wife told me she didn’t have enough money to support all of us. She asked me to work, helping neighbors mow grass and plant vegetables. Sometimes I’d walk far to help roof a house or fix a water tower. When Zhenhai was fifteen, he joined me.”
“No wonder you’re so physically fit. When you first became successful, some business people said your physique suggested you must have trained, but no one had seen you at any sports club.”
“Of course not. How could we afford club memberships back then? We worked and studied at the same time. I was driven by revenge. I gritted my teeth, balancing work and studies, and even when studying away from home, I was always preparing to enter the business world.”
“Why work so hard?” She remembered he had once refused his father’s white envelope. “You didn’t keep refusing everyone’s kindness, did you?” She frowned.
“At first, the second wife didn’t allow us to accept charity…”
She exhaled with a hint of gunpowder. “You should know that Old Di wasn’t offering charity, he just couldn’t bear to see his students suffering…”
“I know, I know.” He quickly tried to reassure her.
Usually casual with Old Di, she would immediately defend her own people if anyone seemed to slight him. He squeezed her hand and chuckled softly, feeling lucky to be part of her family.
I will translate the text into English:
“I laugh at the way your eyes sparkled when you talked about Second Grandmother, just like the way you first looked at me face to face.”
“What kind of look?”
“Like a cat seeing a mouse, a wolf dog seeing a meat chop, Sun Wukong seeing a peach…”
“Hey! Are you that desperate?” Would he give another example and make her look like a mishmash?
“Exactly, I’m desperate!” He looked proud. “I fell in love with you at that moment.”
She laughed and scolded: “You’re a businessman reeking of money! Can’t you stop using such artsy dialogue?”
He knew she was shy but was determined not to let her escape. “I’m serious.”
She was still giggling. “How cheesy can you be!”
