Bai Huan couldn't bring himself to smile at his new name. He gave a quiet "Oh" and asked softly, "Do I really have to change my name?"
Wang Caiyi and Chen Yuanyuan exchanged glances before Wang Caiyi gently asked, "Do you think the name doesn't sound nice?"
Bai Huan said nothing and shook his head.
It didn't matter whether the name sounded nice or not. What mattered was that he didn't want the surname Chen. He only wanted to be a Bai.
As long as his surname was Bai, he wouldn't even mind being called Bai Zhugen or Bai Gougen—Bai Pig Root or Bai Dog Root.
By then, Bai Mushan had finished his phone call and returned to the table. After sitting down, he sighed before picking up his chopsticks and casually remarked, "Mingzhen will be back tonight."
"Tonight?!"
Bai Xing was startled. The thought of his eldest brother's stern, unsmiling face was enough to make him stammer.
"D-didn't he say he wouldn't be back until he finished the case?"
"He's already dealt with the important parts. The rest has been handed over to other lawyers at the firm. I told him there was no need to rush back, but he's worried about Taimi and Little Chen, so he insisted on returning," Bai Mushan explained.
Bai Huan, on the other hand, curled his lip indifferently.
"He didn't even answer when I called him earlier."
"He's busy. Do you expect him to constantly check whether you've called?"
Cheng Yueqing scolded her youngest son just as she usually would.
Only after the words left her mouth did she remember that the boy beside her was her biological child. She immediately picked up a piece of braised pork and placed it in Bai Chen's bowl.
"Little Chen, your eldest brother will be back tonight. Remember to call him Eldest Brother when you see him. He's someone who places great importance on proper manners."
Bai Chen nodded.
Seeing how happily and harmoniously the family interacted, Chen Yuanyuan remarked, "Taimi seems to be very close to his two older brothers."
Bai Huan had no idea how to face his biological father, so he picked up a pork rib and stuffed it into his mouth, making it impossible for himself to speak.
Cheng Yueqing snorted.
"Who knows whether they're close or not? That little rascal is absolutely wild. When his eldest brother was in university, he was about to get himself a girlfriend. The girl came to our house, and Taimi chased her away, ruining his brother's romance! And his little brother—oh, I shouldn't call him that anymore, he's his second brother now—Taimi dyed his hair green while he was asleep! Made him look just like a turtle!"
Everyone around the table burst into laughter.
Even Bai Chen, the real young master, couldn't help laughing.
Bai Huan chewed up the pork rib, lowered his head, and spat the bones into his bowl. Then, looking thoroughly prepared for a debate, he began his defense.
"I overheard that girl talking on the phone behind his back. She said she'd almost hooked herself a rich husband. I couldn't stand it. As for Second Brother, he wanted to dye his hair green himself. He just didn't dare because he was afraid you'd scold him, so he blamed it on me."
"You were so little back then, and you already knew what it meant to hook a rich husband?" Wang Caiyi asked in surprise.
Since it was his biological mother who had spoken, Bai Huan fell silent again.
On the surface, everyone had enjoyed a harmonious family meal.
After lunch, the adults moved to the outdoor pavilion in the garden behind the house to drink tea.
Bai Huan didn't follow them. Instead, he stood beneath the eaves leading into the garden, quietly studying the two people who had brought him into the world.
Under the blazing midsummer sun, every blade of grass in the Bai family's garden had been meticulously tended.
Although Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi had clearly dressed up for their visit, they still looked utterly out of place in this mansion, where every inch of land was worth a fortune.
The former tried hard to appear at ease, while the latter couldn't conceal her amazement at everything she saw.
Bai Mushan had been seated for less than fifteen minutes before excusing himself on the grounds that he had business to attend to, leaving Cheng Yueqing to entertain the guests.
Cheng Yueqing was a typical member of the petite bourgeoisie.
Although she looked down on the couple, she concealed her disdain exceptionally well, leading them to believe that the wealthy madam genuinely enjoyed their company.
Bai Huan settled onto a nearby swing and asked A Xiu, the young maid, to brew him a pot of green tea.
A Xiu said, "Madam is having black tea. Wouldn't you like some black tea too, Young Master?"
"There are plenty of excellent green teas. Why bother drinking black tea? How tasteless," Bai Huan replied indifferently.
A Xiu hurriedly asked, "Then shall I prepare the tea from Huizhou as usual?"
Bai Huan nodded and solemnly thanked A Xiu for her trouble.
A Xiu soon returned with the tea.
Bai Huan took two consecutive sips.
When he noticed that she still hadn't left, he raised his head in confusion, only to discover that tears were streaming down her face.
"A Xiu, why are you crying?" Bai Huan asked.
"Madam is so heartless! I can't believe she actually agreed to let you go back with that couple! Just look at them. Their clothes are all wrinkled, and their shoes are covered in dust. If you go with them, you'll almost certainly have to endure a hard life. My heart aches for you!"
Bai Huan slowly withdrew his gaze.
Lowering his head, he stared at the rich, dark tea in his cup.
"That hard life was supposed to be mine in the first place. There's nothing to complain about. If they hadn't mixed me up with their biological child, I wouldn't even have had the chance to drink tea brewed by you, A Xiu."
Seeing Bai Huan trying to make light of his misfortune only made A Xiu feel worse.
She gritted her teeth.
"I'm going with you!"
Bai Huan knew she was speaking in a moment of emotion and couldn't be taken seriously, so he didn't respond.
A Xiu continued, "We just have to wait until the Eldest Young Master comes back. He'll stand up for you."
"We're not even close anymore. Besides, he's not my biological eldest brother now. If he's going to stand up for anyone, it should be Bai Chen."
A Xiu couldn't bear to hear him say that.
"But Young Master, he's the one who practically raised you with his own hands."
At the mention of being raised by Bai Mingzhen, resentment welled up in Bai Huan's heart.
When they were little, their parents had both been busy.
Bai Mingzhen was more than ten years older than Bai Huan and Bai Xing, so he had helped the family's housekeeper and maids look after the two younger boys.
Bai Xing was afraid of Bai Mingzhen. Once he turned three, whenever he needed anything, he would only seek out the housekeeper or the young maids.
Bai Huan, however, had never been afraid of him.
He insisted that Bai Mingzhen feed him at mealtimes and tell him stories before bed.
Whenever Bai Mingzhen returned from school, the first thing he had to do was pick Bai Huan up and play the game where he tossed him into the air and caught him again.
Before Bai Mingzhen went to university, he and Bai Huan had been closer than anyone else in the family.
But after entering university, Bai Mingzhen had suddenly transformed into a cold-blooded creature who kept everyone in the family at a distance.
And that included Bai Huan.
Bai Huan did the calculations.
It had been almost ten years since he'd last stepped into Bai Mingzhen's room.
He wasn't allowed inside.
How impressive.
The last time he'd seen Bai Mingzhen was more than half a year ago, on Lunar New Year's Eve.
Bai Mingzhen had hurriedly eaten a meal, left red envelopes for the family, and departed.
And it had also been almost ten years since Bai Huan had last called him Eldest Brother.
Bai Huan sighed and asked A Xiu to cut up some fruit for him.
He wanted snow melon.
"All right."
A Xiu turned around.
But before she could take a single step, a series of clattering crashes rang out behind her.
She hurriedly turned back.
The teapot on the table had toppled over, its lid lying overturned, and a large amount of steaming hot tea had spilled across Bai Huan's legs.
Bai Huan had been scalded.
Fortunately, the Bai family had a private physician.
As a result, Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi were no longer in such a hurry to take their biological son home. They decided to wait until Bai Huan's injury had mostly healed before coming to collect him.
When they left, they took Bai Chen with them.
Bai Huan stood at the entrance with a cheerful smile, limping slightly as he saw them off.
He watched the three of them climb into an outdated BYD car, one after another.
The sight reminded him of a transaction where goods and payment were exchanged simultaneously.
They hadn't managed to collect the goods, yet they'd already taken the money away.
After returning to his room, Bai Huan pulled out two suitcases and began packing.
A Xiu had told him that the Chen family's apartment was located in the oldest residential district in Nancheng.
Although it was the largest apartment layout available in that neighbourhood, it still measured less than ninety square meters.
He would have his own bedroom, but he would no longer have a separate dressing room.
That meant he couldn't take all his clothes with him.
A Xiu was aware of this too.
She came in and said, "Madam will arrange for someone to sort through everything you need and pack it up for delivery. There's no need for you to do it yourself, Young Master."
"She told you that?"
"Madam told me just now."
Bai Huan wrinkled his nose and sat cross-legged on the carpet.
"It's difficult to go from luxury to frugality. I might as well take nothing at all."
"How could you possibly do that?!"
Bai Huan couldn't tell whether he was upset because he hated having other people arrange his life for him, or because he was heartbroken that his mother had already made all the arrangements for sending him away.
He stretched out his leg and kicked one of the suitcases in a fit of pique.
"I don't want any of it. I don't want anything!"
A Xiu cried out in alarm.
"Young Master, be careful of your injured leg!"
It wasn't as though he'd been scalded that badly.
Bai Huan couldn't have cared less.
Besides, he'd deliberately knocked over the teapot himself.
He wanted to stay in this house a little longer.
As for what he intended to do with the extra time, even Bai Huan didn't know.
He didn't even have any plans to leave his room again.
After A Xiu went out, he remained sitting on the carpet, leaning against the sofa at the foot of his bed.
He turned on the television, rested his chin on his knees, and watched two episodes of Better Call Saul.
Then he tilted his head to one side and fell asleep.
The Bai family was one of Nancheng's most prominent and wealthy households.
Their ancestors had already been rich, and by Bai Mushan's generation, the family's wealth and influence had grown even more extraordinary.
Of the three or four brothers in his generation, Bai Mushan was the most ostentatious.
He had moved out of the ancestral residence early on and settled his family in a luxurious manor far removed from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.
Cheng Yueqing also owned businesses of her own.
She was a modern heiress of Nancheng who insisted on having the most fashionable things in everything from food and clothing to housing and transportation.
In that respect, husband and wife were quite like-minded.
As for the younger generation, most were still pursuing their studies or further education.
But Bai Mingzhen, despite his young age, had already become a renowned partner at a law firm with a reputation both domestically and internationally.
At one point, his annual revenue generation had reached fifty million US dollars.
A couple of years earlier, while Bai Huan and Bai Xing were still bickering over who would get the last piece of fruit, Bai Mingzhen had already become a special legal adviser to the securities regulatory commission.
With someone like Bai Mingzhen, no matter how close he'd been to his younger brothers during childhood, a certain distance was bound to develop as he grew older.
Even Bai Huan, whom he'd practically raised himself, was no exception.
Nancheng was famous for its plane trees.
Naturally, the Bai family had planted rows of French plane trees along several of the main roads running through their estate.
Their palm-sized leaves swayed in the evening breeze, illuminated by the streetlights until they resembled fragments of green glass.
Suddenly, two beams of headlights appeared in the distance, overpowering the streetlights.
Between the headlights was a license plate belonging to one of the earliest batches issued to private car owners in the country.
The vehicle itself was an old-fashioned silver Volkswagen.
The driver sat upright behind the wheel, while the front passenger seat was empty.
The car's true owner had just finished a video conference in the back seat.
Meanwhile, Bai Huan's sleeping position had changed.
Instead of leaning against the sofa, he was now curled up directly on the carpet.
At some point, Xiao He had wandered into the room.
The little dog was sprawled on its back, all four paws pointing skyward, sleeping beside Bai Huan's bare thigh, where ointment had been applied.
The Bai family's main residence was enormous.
It was a detached villa surrounded by flowers, lush trees, lakes, and streams, as though all the beauty of the estate revolved around it.
There were so many rooms that Bai Huan still hadn't set foot in some of them.
The household employed numerous servants, but each had their own designated routes through the residence. They rarely appeared in front of their employers.
A Xiu was the only exception when it came to Bai Huan.
That was why she was the only one who dared knock on his bedroom door.
She knocked several times.
Bai Huan didn't wake up.
His eyes fluttered open briefly before closing again.
Remembering the Young Master's cold, sarcastic expression when he'd said, "How impressive," A Xiu didn't dare knock again.
She turned around and left.
Bai Huan slept soundly.
He hadn't slept properly for days.
He'd been afraid to sleep, as though a knife were hanging over his head.
That knife was bound to fall sooner or later.
But waiting for it to fall and having it already fallen were two very different things.
Today, the knife had finally come down, leaving his head battered and bleeding.
Yet at least he could finally sleep.
He had no idea how much longer he slept.
When Bai Huan finally opened his eyes again, he felt thoroughly rested.
Through the section of floor-to-ceiling window visible between the curtains, he could see that it was still dark outside.
He had no idea what time it was.
"Awake?"
A man's voice suddenly sounded in the room.
Startled, Bai Huan sprang up like a rabbit.
A blanket slipped from his body.
The person who'd entered must have covered him with it. No one else would have dared disturb his sleep.
Standing beside the sofa, Bai Huan turned halfway around.
Then he saw Bai Mingzhen sitting beside a table lamp.
Those dark, walnut-coloured eyes had been watching him for who knew how long.
They hadn't seen each other in more than half a year, and for a moment, Bai Huan almost didn't recognize him.
The man had clearly just returned from a long journey.
He was dressed in a suit, his tall, straight figure relaxed into the chair.
Somehow, he seemed even more distant and unapproachable than the last time Bai Huan had seen him.
"Bai Mingzhen, when did you get back?" Bai Huan asked nervously.
"A little after eleven."
"What time is it now?"
"Two in the morning."
Bai Mingzhen switched off the table lamp and turned on the room's main light.
The room was instantly flooded with brightness.
Standing beneath the chandelier, Bai Huan instinctively raised the back of his hand to shield his eyes.
Bai Mingzhen looked at him.
The boy wore a shirt made of premium pure cotton and a pair of shorts.
The red patches on his thigh were burns, while the white patches were ointment.
Bai Mingzhen stood up.
"Starting tomorrow, A Xiu won't be doing this job anymore. Send her to pull weeds on the sports field."
"Why are you firing A Xiu?"
The moment Bai Huan heard that someone under his care was being punished, he immediately lowered his hand and rushed over to grab Bai Mingzhen.
Of all the people in the family, Bai Huan dared bare his teeth and claws most freely in front of Bai Mingzhen.
Even though he was considerably shorter than the man, he refused to back down.
He tilted his chin up defiantly.
"Today you send me away, tomorrow you send A Xiu away, and the day after that you'll send Xiao He away too?"
Bai Mingzhen removed Bai Huan's hand from his arm.
"I'm removing her because she was negligent in her work. Why else do you think I'd do it?"
Bai Huan blinked.
A tear slipped from beneath his long eyelashes.
Bai Mingzhen asked, "Why are you crying?"
Bai Huan's eyes were filled with sorrow, and his thoughts were in turmoil.
His voice caught as he answered.
"They're going to swap me back with their real son. I'll have to leave in a couple of days."
"Leave for where?"
"My biological mother's place, obviously."
"It's not as though the Bai family can't afford to raise you."
"But they won't let the Bai family keep me."
There was nothing anyone could do about something like this.
Everyone had their own path to follow and their own hardships to endure.
Bai Huan hadn't truly expected Bai Mingzhen to help him.
It was just that he rarely got to see Bai Mingzhen even under normal circumstances.
Once he was sent back to his biological family, he was afraid he might never see him again.
So he thought that, at the very least, he wanted to see Bai Mingzhen one more time before leaving.
And ask him for a little money to take with him.