“Lele, you can suspect any man in the world, but not him.” With tears in her eyes, Ye Wanqiu trembled, her voice choked up as she recalled the past: “Your Uncle Lu isn’t that kind of person, nor will he ever be. He is very good, someone you can completely trust. Lele, you must believe in him, just as you believe in Mom, okay?”
“I understand.” Lin Duole wanted to ask more, but fearing it would make his mother sad, he nodded and said, “I will listen to Uncle Lu from now on, and I will study hard at school.”
“Good child, don’t cry. Mom can finally be released; you should be happy instead.” Ye Wanqiu stroked Lin Duole’s cheek, wiping away his tears as she rambled softly: “My Lele is so pretty—thankfully, you aren’t a girl.”
“Not being a girl makes me feel much more at ease,” Ye Wanqiu murmured, her tone carrying a trace of relief and calm indifference.
She gave her son a few more instructions, then had Lin Duole call Lu Tingyu inside.
When Lu Tingyu entered, Ye Wanqiu had just finished wiping her tears. She pursed her lips and smiled, saying, “I’ll be entrusting Lele to you from now on.”
When Lu Tingyu received Ye Wanqiu’s call, he was still in Shanghai. After hanging up, he felt so dazed he could barely stand straight. Once he regained his composure, he quickly called his son.
“Don’t worry, Wanqiu.” Lu Tingyu had a headache. He had spent the entire day traveling by car and hadn’t closed his eyes all night. Sitting face-to-face now, he suddenly realized with a shock that this might be his last meeting with Wanqiu. “Look at you, why didn’t you contact me earlier? If you had, perhaps this illness could have been treated in time, and you could have had a few more years to watch Lele grow up.”
“That would have been too much trouble for you, and I would have felt guilty in my heart.” Ye Wanqiu managed to rally a bit of spirit. She looked terribly emaciated, her hands covered in dark bruises from needle punctures, with hardly a patch of fair skin left. “Besides, with this illness of mine, it’s the same wherever I go—it treats the symptoms, not the root cause. The day would come sooner or later.”
“What’s this talk about trouble?” Lu Tingyu sat by the edge of the bed, turning his head aside, his eyes slightly red as he said, “You know that all these years, I’ve never held anyone else in my heart.”
Certain things were bound to be irredeemable. He didn’t ask if he regretted it, nor did he ask if Wanqiu regretted it. Standing in the long river of history, looking back, he realized fate was like a closed chain—interlocking ring by ring, unable to accommodate the slightest misalignment.
Hearing those words, Ye Wanqiu felt as if she had suddenly returned to her late teens. She let out a low chuckle, looking at the man before her dressed in a suit and leather shoes, with fresh, dark stubble just beginning to sprout on his chin. He had probably rushed over in too much of a hurry to even clean himself up properly. “I owe you too much; I’m almost unable to pay it all back.”
“How so?” Lu Tingyu looked into her eyes and shook his head: “You have never owed me anything.”
“How do I not?” Ye Wanqiu said, “Leaving the child in your care—there are so many places where you’ll need to spend money.”
“What kind of words are those? I have a little brat of my own—what’s the difference between raising one and raising two? Besides, that’s the child you gave birth to. Raising him is something I do willingly.”
A breeze blew outside the window. Fearing she might catch cold, Lu Tingyu tucked her blanket in, then pointed outside the ward where the two children sat talking. “Look, the two of them are chatting outside. Privately, I’ve already agreed with Chengyu that he and I will take good care of Lele in the future.”
Just a moment ago in the hospital corridor, he had spoken plainly to Lu Chengyu: “The hospital just issued a critical condition notice, telling the family to prepare themselves.”
A wave of stormy emotion almost crashed through Lu Chengyu’s heart. Across the glass window, he looked at the woman on the hospital bed who shared a subtle resemblance with his mother, not expecting her to pass away at such a young age.
“Once Wanqiu is gone, Lele will only have his grandparents left. As for the situation with the old folks, you saw it in the courtyard just now,” Lu Tingyu continued. “My thought is to bring Lele to our house. You are a bit older than Lele, so you’ll be his older brother from now on.”
Lu Chengyu furrowed his brow, finding it somewhat hard to accept. But in reality, he understood the underlying meaning of those words; he became even more convinced that Lin Duole was his father’s illegitimate son.
“Does Mom know about all this?” Lu Chengyu was not surprised in the least by the prospect of his father having an illegitimate son. It could even be said that whenever night fell, he knew full well what kind of beast in human clothing his father was.
“Your mom went to Russia on a business trip. Don’t worry for now—when she gets home, I’ll explain everything clearly to her.” Lu Tingyu brushed past the topic of his wife in a single sentence, continuing on about the new younger brother: “Lele grew up in Taoxi Village. What it’s like here is something you’ve seen and felt for yourself. Except for his mom, no one else treats him well. He has suffered too much hardship. Once he comes to our home, yield to him in everything, be good to him, and don’t pick on him.”
Before the person had even stepped through the door, his dad was already setting down ground rules for the new younger brother. Lu Chengyu couldn’t describe the feeling in his heart. Seeing his younger brother’s face, he felt a slight sense of disappointment, yet thinking of how hard his younger brother had lived for the past decade or so, he suddenly felt a wave of relief.
Lu Chengyu understood that men like his father—respectable, distinguished, and worth a fortune—often kept mistresses in secret. What he worried about most right now was how his mother would accept this sudden illegitimate son when she returned home.
Or perhaps his mother had known everything all along, which was why Lu Tingyu was so completely unphased in letting him be the last to know.
While Lu Tingyu went inside to speak with Ye Wanqiu, Lin Duole had no choice but to sit on the bench in the hospital corridor. Having just learned that he would be living at Lu Chengyu’s house, sitting on the same bench as Lu Chengyu made him feel much more constrained.
For a long while, the two sat together for over ten minutes without uttering a word. Although Lin Duole wasn’t shy or quiet by nature, facing this sudden turn of events today, he mostly didn’t know how to open his mouth.
“Your mom said you’ll have to rely on our family for school from now on?” Lu Chengyu turned to ask him. Seeing those big eyes brimming with tears, two dried tear tracks were almost visible on his pale, cool face.
Lin Duole nodded and said, “Yes.”
“Since you’re coming to rely on our family,” Lu Chengyu said, casting a cold, indifferent glance at him, “you should at least tell me what your name is, right?”
“Lin Duole.”
Lin Duole wiped his face. Seeing the other staring at him, he raised his head to explain his name once more: “My name is Lin, Duo, Le. ‘Lin’ as in double trees, ‘Duo’ as in ‘how much’, and ‘Le’ as in ‘happy’.”
His voice was mixed with a tearful choke that had yet to fade, adding a bit of innocent childishness. He sat straight as a rod on the chair, bathed in the sunlight slanting through the hallway. The light draped over him, giving him a naturally fluffy texture—like a glowing orange cat that made one unable to resist taking a few more glances, or even reaching out to pet him.
Lu Chengyu withdrew his gaze and said in a icy tone, “Got it. No need to tell me character by character.”
At this point, the two youths fell silent once again.
Not until Lu Tingyu walked out of the ward, tear tracks hanging from the corners of his eyes and looking considerably drawn and exhausted, did he pat Lin Duole’s shoulder and say in a muffled voice: “Lele, go in and see your mom one last time.”
In an instant, Lin Duole rushed into the room, tears already brimming in his eyes. He held his mother’s hands; the touch felt so real, with warmth still lingering on them, yet there was no longer any breath left in her.
“Mom!”
His dad had passed away early, and as far as he could remember, this was the first time he had cried out loud like this. Even though he had been prepared on the way to the hospital, and even though their previous conversation had foreshadowed it, when the moment actually arrived, he still could not accept it.
“Lele, Uncle Lu is deeply sorry about your mother. You are so young to lose the person who treated you best in this world.” As soon as he opened his mouth, his voice sounded somewhat hoarse. “But there are some things we cannot change, like separation and death.”
The moment Lu Tingyu uttered the word “death,” the tightly wound string in Lin Duole’s heart suddenly snapped, and his tears surged out uncontrollably.
The doctors removed the various instruments from the patient, bowed regretfully, and patted Lin Duole’s shoulder before leaving, comforting him: “Child, it wasn’t easy for your mom to hold on for so long. Condolences.”
His grandmother’s nonsense had come true—his mom really hadn’t made it to spring.
A hearse transported the body to the crematorium, and Lin Duole brought home an urn of ashes to bury his mother in her hometown.
Ye Wanqiu disliked noise and crowds during her lifetime, yet so many people came to see her off after her death.
It was Monday. Lu Tingyu originally wanted his son to go back to school first and wait until he finished handling these matters before bringing Duole back together. But he hadn’t expected Lu Chengyu to voluntarily request to stay behind. Feeling gratified, he called the teacher directly to ask for leave on his son’s behalf.
Father and son attended the funeral. Lu Tingyu stood in the courtyard, watching those unfamiliar faces, while the local villagers turned to look at him as well.
He was tall, dressed in simple black clothes. Just standing there gave off an aura of standing out from the crowd, completely out of place with his surroundings.
Everyone’s gazes shifted from scrutiny to curiosity, every single one landing on him.
Seeing Lu Tingyu and his son arrive, the grandmother hurried over to the entrance to greet them. She gestured cheerfully toward the gift registry, making a inviting gesture: “Oh, Boss Lu has arrived! Take a look—after you give your condolence gift, which table would you like to sit at?”
The reason the old woman was so polite was that she knew a man like this was always generous with money. Lu Tingyu naturally understood the meaning in the old woman’s eyes. He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his sharp features appearing considerably cold and detached behind the lenses.
Walking over to the doorway of the gift registry, there sat a table and a chair, with an old man taking money and a youth writing down names. Lu Tingyu deliberately retrieved his briefcase, reached his hand into the inner compartment, and stacked thick wads of cash onto the round table.
Several stacks of banknotes were more than what everyone present had given combined. Laid horizontally across the table painted in yellow lacquer, they looked exceptionally eye-catching. The old man collecting the money couldn’t help widening his eyes in shock, before hurriedly stashing them into the gift box.
Taking a seat at the banquet, Lu Chengyu looked around, seeing Lin Duole dressed in mourning clothes, receiving guests at the front table.
“This kid lost his dad early, and now his mom is gone too. Left with only his grandparents from now on, I fear life will be hard for him.”
“Isn’t that right? This kid is so good at studying—he’s been number one in our village since he was little. What a pity heaven is unfair—his parents passed away early, sigh~”
“Sigh, Wanqiu was a good woman too. Having married into our village all these years, everyone has seen it with their own eyes. Whose wife was as pretty as her while being as capable?”
“You’re right, Auntie. I saw it too—Wanqiu was always a good woman. Only an honest, dutiful woman could raise a child so well. Look at how capable Duole is now.”
“Yeah, we all saw it. How could such a good woman just pass away like that? What a real shame.”
A group of people at the banquet babbled on about what a good person the deceased had been in life. Lin Duole listened expressionlessly, feeling only irony in his heart.
When his mother was alive, their mouths were full of foul rumors; only after her death did they pick out nice words to praise her.