Bai Huan used the excuse that he needed to return to the Bai family home to pack his luggage and parted ways with Bai Chen. After watching Bai Chen enter the old residential building, he wandered aimlessly through the maze of interconnected lanes.
He found the church. The congregation had finished their service and was sharing Communion. From a distance, he spotted Chen Yuanyuan surrounded by a group of people. One complained that her husband never came home at night, another that his son always ranked at the bottom of his class, and yet another that his wife loved playing mahjong and lost three or four thousand yuan every month.
Chen Yuanyuan bit into a little wheat wafer, blew the crumbs off his lips, and said, "These are all trials the Lord has given you. Amen."
Bai Huan: "..."
After pouring out their troubles to Chen Yuanyuan, the people surrounding him took out their wallets, counted out varying amounts of cash, and stuffed the bills into his hands. Chen Yuanyuan solemnly refused several times before putting the money into his own pocket.
Bai Huan couldn't bear to watch any longer. He wanted nothing more than to cover his face.
His adoptive parents were such respectable, fastidious people, yet his biological father was a swindler who cheated unfortunate people out of their money.
He fled as though running for his life.
Although there was no father-son affection between him and Chen Yuanyuan, the importance humans attached to blood relationships ultimately made him instinctively associate Chen Yuanyuan's immoral behavior with himself—even though no one had even seen him.
He ran out of the lanes, panting for breath.
Just then, Bell, Bai Mingzhen's assistant, called him.
"Young Master, Attorney Bai asked me to find out why you're not at home."
Bai Huan: "Why doesn't he call me himself?"
"Attorney Bai says you've blocked his number."
Bai Huan promptly lowered his phone, removed Bai Mingzhen from his blocked contacts, then raised it again.
"I haven't blocked him at all. If you don't believe me, tell him to call again."
Bell was already accustomed to this. She said she would pass the message along to Attorney Bai.
Not long after she hung up, Bai Mingzhen called.
Naturally, he didn't ask why Bai Huan had blocked him. Instead, he repeated Bell's earlier question.
"You're not at home. I asked those good-for-nothing friends of yours, and none of them knew where you were either. Where did you go?"
"Shopping at the mall, obviously," Bai Huan lied without batting an eyelid.
"Do you have enough money?"
"No."
"Then spend less."
"..."
After exchanging a few casual remarks, Bai Mingzhen seemed to move his phone away to speak with someone else.
When he returned to the conversation, his voice was lower amid the faint crackle of the connection, carrying a trace of displeasure that was almost impossible to detect.
"Why did you run off to Lanshuitang alone? Are you really that impatient to go back?"
Bai Huan looked at the shimmering surface of the river.
"Who says I'm in Lanshuitang?"
"Both your phone and Bai Xing's have location tracking installed. Mom and the others generally don't check it."
The Bai family was extraordinarily wealthy. They had been rich since his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather, so naturally, they couldn't afford to neglect their descendants' safety.
Bai Huan understood that perfectly well, but he still had a question.
"Even Mom doesn't check it. What are you checking it for?"
"You've been acting strangely. I guessed you'd run off somewhere."
Bai Mingzhen continued handling work while speaking to his younger brother. The employees coming and going around him deliberately moved more quietly.
When he heard Bai Huan mumbling something unintelligible, he knew further questioning wouldn't produce any answers, so he merely reminded him to come home early.
After a long pause, a soft scoff came through Bai Mingzhen's phone.
"But I am home right now."
"Taimi, that isn't your home. Those people merely gave birth to you."
This was the first time in several days that Bai Mingzhen had called him by his childhood nickname.
Ever since their relationship had grown distant, Bai Mingzhen had mostly addressed him by his full name.
Bai Huan's nose stung.
"If Lanshuitang isn't my home, and Banchun Manor isn't my home either, then where is my home?"
"Your home is wherever the person who raised you is."
Bai Mingzhen flipped through a document as he spoke quietly.
"Mom raised me, but she doesn't want me anymore either. She's sending me away to Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi."
Bai Huan stretched out his legs. Everything below his calves extended past the railing, dangling above the river.
Bai Mingzhen gave an ambiguous little laugh.
"Who raised you? Think carefully before answering."
The way Bai Mingzhen spoke reminded Bai Huan of when his eldest brother had helped him with homework as a child.
Whenever Bai Huan chose the wrong answer, Bai Mingzhen would tell him to think again in a tone that revealed neither pleasure nor anger.
As a child, Bai Huan had genuinely believed his eldest brother was gentle and magnanimous, willing to give him countless chances to correct his mistakes.
In reality, choosing incorrectly one more time meant getting smacked across the palm.
Bai Huan had received quite a few smacks on the palm.
Even though they weren't face-to-face, his palms involuntarily began to tingle.
He argued, "Would you dare tell Mom that you're the one who raised me?"
The silence this time lasted longer than any of the previous ones.
When Bai Mingzhen spoke again, the earlier ease and leisure had disappeared from his voice, leaving it somewhat cold.
"Whether they fulfilled their responsibilities as parents is something they know better than anyone."
Bai Huan chuckled.
"So even someone as successful in life as Attorney Bai has childhood trauma from his family that he can't forget?"
Bai Mingzhen's tone barely changed.
"You have a supplementary card linked to my account. I'll have my assistant collect it from you in a couple of days."
"...Bai Mingzhen, you really can't take a joke."
Bai Mingzhen had been joking, but his words turned out to be prophetic.
That very afternoon, after Bai Huan returned from Lanshuitang to Banchun Manor, dusk was settling over the estate.
At the main entrance, his face failed to register three times in succession, triggering an alarm.
A security guard hurried over with several others. Upon recognizing Bai Huan, he apologized repeatedly.
"We were supposed to wait a few days until Young Master Bai Chen arrived before updating the identity records. But this new guy is an idiot, always rushing like he's on his way to his next reincarnation. He went ahead and changed everything today..."
Seeing the guard fumbling in a panic, while the employee responsible for the mistake stood behind him looking equally helpless, Bai Huan stopped him.
"There's no need to change it back. I won't be living here anymore anyway."
That was merely the first obstacle.
After returning to the house, A Xiu approached Bai Huan with a troubled expression.
She said the butler had sent her to collect Bai Mushan's supplementary bank card, Cheng Yueqing's credit card, the electronic access card and keys to the house, and various other belongings.
Bai Huan's face turned deathly pale.
A Xiu looked as though she wanted to say something but hesitated.
"Wait a moment."
Bai Huan went into the small study nearby and rummaged through the drawers.
He not only handed A Xiu every card and document registered under the Bai family's name, but also indiscriminately shoved his school campus card, student badge, and a whole pile of other things into her arms.
He smiled faintly.
"Is there anything else I need to return? Should I pay back the money you spent raising me too?"
A Xiu didn't dare provoke the young master, who was clearly on the verge of losing his mind.
She turned and fled.
Seeing that A Xiu had forgotten to close the door, Bai Huan walked over and gently pushed it shut.
Before he could even lock it, he kicked the door panel twice.
He heard a crack from his ankle.
Excruciating pain shot through his entire body, yet his expression remained blank.
Only after venting enough of his anger did he limp over to the sofa and sit down.
Once he had calmed down, he finally had the chance to feel miserable.
He was like a puppy whose neck had been snapped, left to whimper alone in a corner.
The wound hadn't even stopped bleeding when his phone began ringing on the bed.
Bai Huan turned his head. Even from that distance, he could see that Bai Mingzhen was calling.
He crawled straight from the sofa onto the bed, answered the phone, and said hello.
Because Bai Huan was so skilled at concealing his emotions, Bai Mingzhen couldn't tell what humiliation he had just suffered.
He instructed him, "If Mom comes asking for my supplementary card, tell her I haven't agreed to let her transfer my property to someone else. Tell her you have to return it to me personally."
One corner of Bai Huan's mouth lifted.
"Are you afraid Mom will use your card?"
Bai Mingzhen's voice was calm. He understood Bai Huan's predicament perfectly.
"I just don't want you left without a penny to your name. Even if we weren't destined to remain brothers, we still have the affection that comes from having been brothers."
"Mom doesn't even care about the affection between mother and son," Bai Huan said, his heart aching.
"I'm not like them."
After saying this, Bai Mingzhen added before the young man could respond:
"At least, I'm not like them when it comes to you."
Bai Huan's sharp black eyes flickered.
He didn't open his mouth to ask whether those words were sincere.
As long as he received the benefits, they were true enough.
These are all trials the Lord has given me. Amen.
On the seventh day after learning he was the false young master, the cuckoo occupying another bird's nest was finally being forced to make room.
Bai Mushan sat in the living room with a grief-stricken expression, his head lowered in silence.
Cheng Yueqing, meanwhile, paced back and forth beside him, wringing her hands. Her eyes were already red from crying.
Hearing footsteps coming down the stairs, she hurried forward.
When she saw Bai Huan, she immediately asked whether he had finished packing his belongings.
In just a few days, Bai Huan's face had grown noticeably thinner.
He gave a pale smile.
"Didn't you say I wasn't allowed to take anything with me? So I don't have any luggage to pack."
Just yesterday, Cheng Yueqing had suddenly changed her mind.
She was no longer willing to arrange a car to transport the false young master's belongings back to his own home.
She hadn't provided any coherent explanation.
In short, he wasn't allowed to take anything.
Even the shirt, trousers, shoes, and socks the false young master was wearing today had been brought over by Chen Yuanyuan after work yesterday, at the butler's request.
At that moment, Bai Huan was wearing an ill-fitting T-shirt.
It was too wide and too long.
The jeans on his lower body were also too long and baggy.
On his feet was a pair of counterfeit sneakers.
A counterfeit wearing counterfeits.
Although they didn't fit his feet, they certainly suited his circumstances.
How remarkable.
Bai Huan looked at Cheng Yueqing's tear-streaked face and thought this to himself.
Then he remembered how, just a week ago, she had said that spending more than ten million yuan to keep him in the Bai family would be a losing business deal.
He was beginning to wonder whether Bai Mushan and Cheng Yueqing really were the same people who had been his parents.
Bai Huan did his utmost to remain calm.
Looking around the empty living room, he asked, "Isn't anyone else coming?"
Cheng Yueqing followed him.
"Your paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents said they wanted to come see you off, but they're getting old, after all. Traveling back and forth would be exhausting, so your father and I told them not to come. Your eldest and second paternal uncles, along with your aunts and maternal uncles, all have things to do too. They couldn't get away. They were crying on the phone when they spoke to me!"
Although Bai Huan no longer believed much of what Cheng Yueqing said, he still smiled faintly.
"Then please help me thank them, Auntie."
"That's... What did you just call me?"
Only then did Cheng Yueqing register his words.
Her beautiful eyes trembled with disbelief.
"Auntie."
Although Bai Huan's tone was firm, his heart was actually wavering.
After all, the person standing before him was the woman he had believed to be his mother for eighteen years.
"Oh, goodness! You can't call me that!"
Cheng Yueqing lost her temper, tears streaming down her face.
"Enough."
Bai Mushan rose from the sofa.
"Mr. Chen and his family are here. Wipe away your tears. Don't let people laugh at us."
Bai Huan said, "I'm taking Xiao He with me."
"We'll discuss that later."
Bai Mushan wiped his face once more with his handkerchief.
The butler was already outside exchanging pleasantries with the visitors, so Bai Mushan went out to greet them.
Bai Huan followed behind Bai Mushan and Cheng Yueqing.
Not only had the other members of the Bai family failed to appear, but even Bai Xing hadn't come to see him off.
Bai Huan looked around, quietly fell a few steps behind, then ran back into the living room.
He snatched Xiao He straight out of Auntie Cheng Yueqing's arms.
"He's mine. I'm taking him."
When Bai Huan returned to stand behind his adoptive parents with the little dog in his arms, he had become obedient and well-behaved again.
He smiled at the family of three standing before him.
But when he saw Bai Chen, his expression froze.
Bai Chen was wearing the clothes Bai Huan hadn't been allowed to take away.
What was that supposed to mean?
"Taimi, it's time to go."
By the time Bai Huan came back to his senses, Cheng Yueqing was already holding Bai Chen's hand.
The words she was saying to him sounded an awful lot like Hurry up and get lost.
Bai Huan walked stiffly toward Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi.
His shoes made an embarrassing squeaking sound against the marble floor.
Fortunately, nobody noticed.
Behind him, everyone was overjoyed at the true young master's return.
In front of him, the excessive attentiveness of the two middle-aged people was even more nauseating.
All the embarrassment and humiliation were his alone to endure.
How pathetic.
"The shirt's a little big, and so are the trousers. Do the shoes fit?"
Wang Caiyi's face was flushed with excitement.
She seemed so happy that she didn't know what to do with herself and couldn't stop talking.
"I called your adoptive mother to ask about your clothing sizes, but she told me to contact the butler. The butler wouldn't answer the phone. I'd only seen you that one time, so I had to guess and buy things at random. And look, they don't fit! We'll go to the mall later and buy you another couple of outfits."
"They're wearable. It's fine."
Whether they were too big, too small, or just right, they were all pathetic knockoffs.
No matter how carefully he chose, the whole thing was still a joke.
"Why don't you stay for dinner?"
After exchanging a few words with Bai Chen, Cheng Yueqing turned to Chen Yuanyuan with a beaming smile.
But when she looked at Bai Huan again, her eyes involuntarily filled with tears.
"I really can't bear to part with you."
Seeing the woman who had raised him looking as though her heart was overflowing with sorrow, the heart Bai Huan had deliberately kept frozen for several days slowly began to thaw.
He was just about to open his mouth and agree when Cheng Yueqing suddenly slipped back into that affected, pampered tone of hers.
"Eh? Why are you holding Xiao He? Are you planning to take him away? You can't take him! He's the Bai family's little dog, don't you understand?"
The more she spoke, the sharper her tone became.
Bai Huan was used to it.
Cheng Yueqing was the empress of the household.
Her elegance in front of outsiders was entirely an act.
In reality, she had even mocked the elderly nanny who had raised her since childhood so mercilessly that the woman had returned to her hometown in Fujian.
The nanny currently working for her had only been hired last year, and just last month, she had told the butler she wanted to quit too.
"Xiao He is my dog. I'm the one who bought him."
Bai Huan's heart hardened again.
"You bought him with the Bai family's money. A dog bought with the Bai family's money naturally belongs to the Bai family. You..."
Bai Chen, standing behind her, gave her a gentle tug.
Cheng Yueqing finally realized she had lost her composure.
She immediately stopped and switched to a more conciliatory tone.
"How about this? How much did you spend buying Xiao He? Mom will give you the money, and you can sell Xiao He to me, all right?"
"This dog must cost several thousand yuan, right?"
Chen Yuanyuan tilted his head and examined the curly-haired little dog carefully.
"Taimi, why don't you just give the dog to your adoptive mother? She did raise you, after all."
"Xiao He isn't a dog you can buy for a few thousand yuan. He came from a European kennel that breeds show-quality dogs. We had to jump the waiting list to get him, and he cost over three hundred thousand yuan," Cheng Yueqing said.
Wang Caiyi gasped.
"A single dog costs that much?"
When Chen Yuanyuan heard that the dog was worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, he was so startled that he immediately reached out to snatch Xiao He from Bai Huan's arms and return him to the Bai family.
"No."
Bai Huan dodged Chen Yuanyuan's hand.
"This dog is mine. I'm not selling him."
"Taimi."
Even Bai Mushan, who rarely spoke up, tried to persuade him.
"Don't be stubborn. You'll have plenty of expenses in the future. If you take him away, can you afford to keep him? You can't even support yourself right now. Taking the dog with you would be animal abuse."
They had been standing outside for a long time.
The scorching air made Xiao He pant continuously to cool himself down.
Streams of hot sweat also rolled down Bai Huan's face.
His cheap, unbreathable clothes enveloped his body like a steamer.
For a moment, he couldn't tell whether he felt so miserable that he wanted to go mad because of the heat, or because he was too desperate and heartbroken.
Bai Huan stubbornly refused to cry.
Whoever cried was pathetic.
He clenched his jaw tightly and forced the words through his teeth.
"Xiao He is mine. I'm taking him."
He remained adamant.
Cheng Yueqing made a concession.
"Then Mom will buy you another dog. Leave Xiao He with Mom, all right?"
Surely that should be acceptable.
Everyone thought so.
It would essentially mean that the Bai family had bought two dogs and given one to the false young master.
They would have done everything they reasonably could for him.
Bai Huan was already a difficult child to placate under ordinary circumstances.
Now that everyone was trying to coerce and entice him into giving in, there was no possibility of him relenting.
He shook his head again.
"I don't want any other dog. I want Xiao He, and I'm taking him."
It wasn't necessarily that the young man loved dogs all that much.
But these people could get so worked up over a single dog while treating his departure as though it were nothing.
Bai Huan refused to let them have their way.
"I still have a class at my art studio this afternoon..."
Seeing the stalemate, Wang Caiyi spoke awkwardly.
Bai Huan turned toward her and said flatly, "Can you even teach someone to become an artist?"
The butler stepped forward to smooth things over.
"Perhaps everyone could go inside and sit down to discuss this?"
But at that moment, Chen Yuanyuan also announced that he had a meeting at the publishing house that afternoon.
Hearing this, Bai Mushan walked aside and made a phone call.
Not long after he hung up, several young men in security uniforms arrived on an estate shuttle.
Bai Mushan addressed them.
"This child refuses to let go of the dog. I'll have to trouble you to help me today. Take the dog away from him, then put the child into his family's car."
Bai Huan cried out in disbelief.
"Dad!"
Chen Yuanyuan looked over worriedly.
Bai Mushan, however, simply turned around and went back inside.
One of the security guards reached toward Xiao He in Bai Huan's arms.
Xiao He was wary of strangers.
He bared his teeth and barked, his body going rigid. Then he scrambled up Bai Huan's body with all four paws and clung to his shoulder.
Another security guard seized Bai Huan's arms and pinned them in place as though he were dealing with a criminal, preventing him from moving.
Of all the moments he had experienced during the week since discovering his true identity, this was the most humiliating.
It wasn't until his arms had been painfully twisted that Bai Huan reacted and began fighting back.
He kicked one of the security guards in the thigh and demanded of Cheng Yueqing:
"Mom, how can you treat me like this?"
Tears fell from his eyes.
Because he had been subjected to such outrageous humiliation, he cast aside the guilt and unease he had felt about occupying someone else's rightful place.
He buried all his apologies toward this family, including Bai Chen, and asked through his tears:
"Why won't you even let me have the little dog? Why do you have to take everything away from me? I didn't know anything! I was little back then too..."
Cheng Yueqing couldn't bear it anymore.
After all, she had watched him grow up.
But all she did was cover her mouth and turn her head away so she wouldn't have to watch the miserable scene.
Only after Xiao He had been forcibly snatched away did Bai Huan regain his freedom.
He chased after them.
Before he could even reach out, one of the security guards turned around and shoved him hard.
Bai Huan stumbled and fell, landing on the ground.
Looking up, he recognized the man.
It was the very security guard who had prematurely deleted his identity information from Banchun Manor's system yesterday.
"Why don't you take a look at what you are now..."
The man spoke to Bai Huan in a very low voice.
A deafening buzz filled Bai Huan's head.
Wang Caiyi helped him to his feet, frowning as she said, "Can't you just talk things through? This is a civilized society. How can you resort to violence?"
She wanted to check whether Bai Huan had been injured, but he gently pushed her away.
She didn't understand why.
Not until she saw Bai Huan pick up a brick from the flower bed and head straight toward the security guard who had shoved him.
"Bai Huan!"
Wang Caiyi went pale with fright.
"Honey, quick..."
A figure swept past her eyes.
The man was broad-shouldered and tall, with an upright bearing.
In just a few long strides, he reached Bai Huan from behind.
Just as Bai Huan raised the brick high, preparing to smash it against the back of the security guard's head, the man wrapped an arm around his waist and dragged him backward.
The brick struck nothing but air.
Furious beyond reason, Bai Huan hurled it.
It struck the security guard in the back.
The man turned around with a ferocious expression, looking as though he wanted to devour someone alive.
But the moment he saw the man standing behind Bai Huan, he instantly shrank back.
"Young Master Bai."
There was only one person in the Bai family whom the staff addressed as Young Master Bai.
Bai Mingzhen.
Neither Bai Huan nor Bai Xing was addressed that way.
One was called Little Young Master, and the other Young Master Xing.
Bai Huan was so furious that his body was practically convulsing.
His pride was higher than the heavens. How could he possibly endure being treated with such contempt?
Bai Mingzhen patted his cheek.
When he received no response, he simply scooped Bai Huan up into his arms.
He turned to Wang Caiyi and Chen Yuanyuan.
"I'll take him to my car first and let him calm down. You two can get in your car as well. Once he's feeling better, I'll take you home."
Bai Mingzhen's car was parked more than a hundred meters away.
Carrying Bai Huan, he took a shortcut straight through the garden, stepping across the flower beds along the way.
Bai Huan wrapped his arms tightly around his eldest brother's neck.
He caught the familiar scent of chamomile.
Gradually, his body relaxed.
Just before Bai Mingzhen could put him into the car, Bai Huan suddenly pushed the open car door shut.
He raised his head and asked:
"Bai Mingzhen, none of them want me anymore, but you do. Who are you to me?"