A powerful figure they’d only seen on the news had just appeared at their doorstep. It was impossible not to be shocked. Su Siwen’s fingers, gripping the wheelchair, were slightly pale. Sitting in the wheelchair, his back was ramrod straight as he tried his best to appear composed.
“Hello,” he said, his tone neither subservient nor arrogant.
Shen Minyan gave a slight nod, his gaze flickering toward Su’s knees before returning. “Hello, I’m Shen Minyan.”
“Su Siwen.”
In the center of the small living room, the tall man sat on the wooden sofa, legs crossed, his eyes sharp and stern like a noble statue.
Su Siwen poured him a cup of tea. “We don’t have anything special at home. Please excuse the simplicity.”
His words were humble, but there wasn’t a trace of apology in them. The tea was the most common green tea in Nancheng. Shen Minyan brought the cup to his lips and took a sip. The sweet aroma filled his senses.
“It’s perfectly fine,” he said.
The moment he had stepped inside, he had taken in the apartment with a sweeping glance. It was likely an old apartment that had been renovated. There were wooden furnishings, appliances from a bygone era yet well-maintained and clean, and toys and children’s items scattered throughout. Simple, yet filled with a sense of warmth everywhere.
“May I see the child?” Shen Minyan set down his teacup.
Su Siwen pursed his lips, his gaze falling on the half-closed kitchen door. Shen Minyan followed his gaze and spotted a pair of small feet in cloth shoes under the door, with the ugly pink dog lying beside it. The corner of his mouth involuntarily twitched upward. His two sons had never been particularly close to him since childhood. Besides his own children, Shen Minyan didn’t like kids in general.
He disliked all things uncontrollable, and children were the most uncontrollable beings, prone to inexplicable screaming, crying, tantrums, and irrational behavior. Since he had entered, though, the child named Su Youli had been quiet the whole time. According to Zhang Shun, he was a very well-behaved little one.
“Youyou,” Su Siwen called out as he wheeled himself over toward the kitchen.
The little boy, wearing a deep blue tie-dye short-sleeve shirt, was hiding behind the door. Hearing his father’s call, he instinctively responded, “Yes?”
“Come here to Daddy.”
The child was afraid of the stern-looking stranger in the living room, but Daddy was calling him. The three adults in the living room stared intently at the little feet visible under the door. It took three minutes of tiny, shuffling steps before a pair of clear, bewildered eyes appeared.
“Daddy,” Youyou whispered.
“Baby, don’t be afraid. Come to Daddy,” Su Siwen reached out to Youyou.
The little boy glanced up at the scary uncle, pursed his lips, and buried his head in Su Siwen’s embrace. Zhang Shun’s smile had grown stiff on his face. He desperately tried to catch Chairman Shen’s eye, hoping he’d soften his expression a bit, but to no avail. Shen Minyan tried his best to smile, but to outsiders, it looked even more terrifying than not smiling at all.
Five minutes later, Qin Kun returned home, followed closely by the little troublemaker Shen Ning, who had just been dragged away by the bodyguards. Shen Minyan’s fists clenched. He felt like hitting his son. Qin Kun walked over to the wheelchair and picked up his son from Su Siwen’s arms. “Daddy needs to talk to our guests. Youyou, go play with your brother for a while, okay?”
Youyou looked at his little daddy, then at the scary uncle sitting across from them, and nodded.
“Brother Shen Ning,” the little boy stammered nervously, reaching out toward the teenager standing to the side.
Shen Ning walked past Shen Minyan with his head held high, beaming as he took Youyou into his arms. “Big brother will take you to buy candy and toys!”
“Thank you, brother.”
With the two children—one big, one small—gone, the adults finally got down to serious matters. The time they found Youyou had coincided precisely with the day the child had been stolen. The kidnapper had been clever, choosing to abandon the child in an urban village far from the city-center hospital. The infrastructure there was old and poorly maintained, the police were negligent, and garbage piled up in the alleys sometimes went uncleared for days.
Recalling it now, Qin Kun still felt a chill. “We had just stabilized our jobs back then and happened to be renting a place nearby. It was pure coincidence.”
Zhang Shun, who was allowed to listen in, imagined the young master being left in a foul-smelling garbage dump. How many germs must have been lurking there!
“You are truly good people,” he said sincerely.
Qin Kun held Su Siwen’s hand; both their palms were sweaty, feeling both cold and hot. Shen Minyan pressed his lips together, stern and unsmiling. The pretense of amiability he had put on earlier for the sake of the little child had completely vanished.
“He looks very much like my wife,” Shen Minyan said suddenly.
Qin Kun met his gaze. Actually, the moment he had seen Shen Minyan earlier, he had noticed. Children tended to resemble their biological parents. Though Youyou was still young, it was clear he bore some resemblance to Shen Minyan. Especially when Shen Ning had held him earlier, the two children looked exactly like biological brothers.
Qin Kun stood up, went to the second floor to fetch something, and handed it to Zhang Shun. “This is Youyou’s toothbrush.”
There were no professional paternity testing facilities in Yinshui Town; they would have to go into the city. With Shen Minyan’s approval, Zhang Shun hurried off to take care of the matter. As he was leaving, Shen Minyan stood in the small courtyard of the Su family. Inside the door, the two young men, one sitting, one standing, were dealing with the summer heat. The house had no air conditioning, so Qin Kun was using a fan to cool Su Siwen.
Summers in Nancheng were fiercely hot; exposed skin felt as if it were in a sauna at all times. Adults could endure it, but could a three-year-old child? Wouldn’t such heat make him sick? Shen Minyan suddenly felt an impulse. He turned back and walked toward the two men. “If you’re willing, regardless of the test results, I am prepared to adopt Su Youli.”
Su Siwen gripped the fabric over his knees. Shen Minyan had probably noticed their difficult financial situation and their inability to raise Youyou properly, which was why they were seeking a father for him.
He took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Shen, Youyou is my life. If it weren’t for my leg, we wouldn’t have chosen this path.”
After all, until now, he had believed Youyou was a child abandoned by his birth parents.
His clear, unwavering eyes looked directly at Shen Minyan as he said, “Let’s wait for the results. If Youyou really is your son, I will convince him to return to Beicheng with you.”
Shen Minyan didn’t respond. This was the first time someone had refused a condition he had offered. He could adopt Su Youli without waiting for the results; he could even give them a sum of money. But before he could clarify, he had already been turned down.
“Fine,” he said coldly before turning to leave.
Behind him, Su Siwen slumped weakly against Qin Kun, his eyes reddening. “Do you think he really is Youyou’s birth father?”
For once, Qin Kun didn’t reply. Deep down, he already had an answer.
…
The paternity test results would take another two days. Shen Minyan checked into a homestay, in a room next to Shen Ning’s. The homestay had a waterside pavilion on the first floor. Shen Minyan, wearing leather shoes, walked along the stone-paved path. The sound of flowing water mingled with intermittent chatter.
“Brother Shen Ning, your dad is so scary!”
It was the little one’s voice.
Shen Ning unwrapped a lollipop and let the little boy take a lick, answering in a casual, careless tone. “Yeah, tell me about it.”
“Brother, were you hurt earlier?”
Su Youli still remembered how the adults had treated Brother Shen Ning so roughly earlier.
If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on ko-fi
