Bai Mingzhen asked him: Where's the supplementary card I gave you?
Bai Huan typed rapidly: Mom took it from me yesterday. She said it would be easier for her to ask you for it herself.
After reading the message, Bai Mingzhen immediately called Bai Huan.
"Hello."
Bai Mingzhen's tone was noticeably displeased.
"She asked for it, so you just gave it to her?"
The questioning made Bai Huan's scalp tingle. Feeling resentful, he stubbornly replied, "But she's Mom."
Wang Caiyi, sitting in the passenger seat, heard him speak but couldn't make out the words. She only vaguely caught the word "Mom," so she hummed in acknowledgment and turned around. When she realized Bai Huan was on the phone, she hurriedly turned back.
"Did she tell you she still is?" Bai Mingzhen asked again. "Do you still think she is?"
Those words were far too cutting.
Bai Huan's eyes immediately reddened.
How remarkable.
It felt as though a ball of fire were burning inside him, leaving him with barely any reason.
He retorted, "You're her biological son, and she's your biological mother! So why didn't she give you a single penny when you started your business?"
After Bai Huan finished speaking, the person on the other end remained silent.
He glanced at the screen.
The call was still connected.
In the front seats, Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi exchanged several glances. They guessed that Bai Huan was arguing with the Bai family's eldest son.
After hesitating for a moment, Wang Caiyi turned around and softly asked what had happened.
"Whatever it is, talk it out properly. Don't argue."
Bai Huan held the phone against his ear and stared out the window, pretending not to hear.
After another long silence, Bai Mingzhen's slightly lowered voice came through the receiver.
"Bai Huan, didn't I tell you long ago that you could either listen to me or listen to Mom? You could only choose one."
Bai Huan's gaze flickered.
He answered yes.
"So you chose the latter..."
"I thought there was no distinction between what's yours and mine in a family. Besides, she's both our..."
Bai Mingzhen interrupted Bai Huan as well.
His voice was like a blast of cold air, chilling the half of Bai Huan's face pressed against the phone.
"What did you think? Did you think I was talking about you giving her the supplementary card?"
Bai Huan froze.
When he came back to his senses, he felt both utterly humiliated and furious.
He stopped restraining himself and snapped angrily, "You're still holding a grudge over Mom and me drugging you the night before your physics competition! I already told you I didn't know there was anything in that glass of water! I apologized to you afterward too!"
That incident had happened when Bai Mingzhen was still in high school.
Cheng Yueqing hadn't wanted Bai Mingzhen to attend a university of political science and law. To prevent it, she had been willing to resort to any means necessary to ruin all his academic achievements in China, giving her an excuse to send him abroad.
But Bai Mingzhen wasn't close to her.
Even as a teenager, he had openly displayed his wariness toward her.
The only person whose approach he never rejected was Bai Huan.
That gave Cheng Yueqing an opportunity.
Bai Huan had personally handed Bai Mingzhen the glass of water that had been tampered with.
Although Bai Mingzhen ultimately managed to get through the examination through sheer force of will, the incident still caused an unprecedented argument between the brothers.
And Bai Huan had only been six years old at the time.
Even though Cheng Yueqing said it didn't matter and couldn't be bothered to comfort Bai Huan, he could still tell from his brother's expression that he had made a terrible mistake.
He stubbornly insisted that it had nothing to do with him.
But after their argument, Bai Huan would still bring a plate of fruit to his brother's room and knock on the door.
Bai Mingzhen generally didn't get angry.
But when he did, it was no ordinary anger.
Bai Huan was met with rejection for an entire week before Bai Mingzhen finally spoke to him again.
The first thing he said was:
"Between me and Mom, who do you choose?"
At the time, Bai Huan only wanted his brother to stop being angry.
Trembling with apprehension, he answered, "I choose Big Brother."
"Very well."
Only then did Bai Mingzhen's expression soften, and he reached out to ruffle Bai Huan's hair.
Bai Huan would never dare ruin his brother's life, nor would he ever want to.
But that didn't mean his brother had the right to keep holding the matter against him.
"Bai Huan, don't change the subject. You know I'm not trying to hold you accountable for that."
Bai Mingzhen never fell into Bai Huan's traps.
"Whatever she tells you to do, you do it. That's what makes me unhappy."
His little trick exposed, Bai Huan took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
Bai Mingzhen was a prominent lawyer, exceptionally skilled at seizing upon other people's weaknesses and refusing to let go.
Yet when it came to Bai Huan, he always raised the stick high only to bring it down gently.
He said he understood.
But then he added, "So I won't be giving you any allowance this month."
"What do you mean?"
"I arranged for Bell to open another bank account for you. I was planning to deposit a sum of money into it every month as your allowance."
Bai Huan froze.
"And then?"
"And then, because you've fallen back into your old habits, you won't receive your allowance until next month."
Bai Huan protested, "You never told me the rules!"
Bai Mingzhen gave a faint laugh.
"Rules can't keep you in line. Punishment can."
With that, Bai Mingzhen hung up.
Bai Huan wanted to throw his phone out of the car window, just as he would have done in the past.
But now he didn't have a spare phone to replace it after venting his anger.
He gripped the phone tightly, slumped listlessly against his seat, and looked absolutely miserable.
The family of three remained silent for the rest of the journey.
It wasn't until they were approaching Lanshuitang that Wang Caiyi remembered there was hardly any fresh meat or vegetables in the refrigerator.
Chen Yuanyuan turned the car around and took them to a supermarket.
Wang Caiyi kept asking Bai Huan what he liked to eat.
Bai Huan opened his mouth, then hesitated.
He had always been particular about food when he lived with the Bai family.
He only ate beef from cattle that had been grain-fed for more than five hundred days.
He only ate fish, shrimp, and crabs that were in season and had been caught that very day.
When it came to fruits and vegetables, if wild-grown produce was available, he wouldn't choose organic.
But he understood his biological parents' financial circumstances.
Naturally, he wouldn't demand that they meet his former standards of living.
So he simply said anything was fine, whatever they wanted, and that he wasn't a picky eater.
When they reached the supermarket, Bai Huan didn't get out of the car with them.
He stayed inside until they finally arrived at Taohua Lane in Lanshuitang.
Only when they reached what was now his home did he follow Wang Caiyi out of the car.
Together with Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi, he carried the numerous bags from the trunk upstairs.
The old residential building had no elevator.
They had to climb all the way to the fifth floor on their own two legs.
Bai Huan continuously examined his surroundings.
On the first floor, he saw the female dog Chen Yuanyuan had mentioned earlier, along with three puppies of different colors curled beneath her belly.
When the family of four saw this intruder, each of them barked at him.
They were extremely unfriendly.
Bai Huan kept his distance, terrified that fleas or something similar might jump onto him.
On the second floor, an elderly woman was basking in the sunlight.
She greeted Wang Caiyi with a cheerful smile.
When she spotted the young man behind her, she promptly got to her feet and thrust a bag of dried fish and shelled edamame toward them.
"Everyone in Taohua Lane has been saying that you and Little Chen were going to bring your biological son home today. I remembered, so I specially fried the little fish my old man caught. Let your boy have a taste!"
Wang Caiyi was delighted and urged Bai Huan to thank her.
Bai Huan smiled faintly.
"Thank you, Grandma Xiangxiu."
Wu Xiangxiu froze for a moment.
Then she exclaimed, "Oh my! How did you know to call me Grandma Xiangxiu?"
Bai Huan glanced toward the sign standing beside the balcony.
It read:
Grandma Xiangxiu's Haircuts — 10 Yuan Each.
The young man's intelligence and quick wit were undeniable.
Wu Xiangxiu was pleasantly surprised.
Compared with the "Granny Wu" everyone in Taohua Lane called her, she genuinely preferred being addressed by her given name, Xiangxiu.
Delighted, she asked mother and son to wait.
Then she went inside, walked to the balcony on the other side, and cut several yellow roses to give Bai Huan.
"These are more suitable as a welcome gift than edamame."
Bai Huan gave his first genuinely heartfelt smile of the day.
Nobody lived on the third floor.
Wang Caiyi explained that the building had three apartments on each floor.
Two families lived on the first floor, while three families occupied the second.
The third floor had been available for rent for ages, but nobody had rented it.
Only a father and son lived on the fourth floor.
"That father and son are terribly pitiful. They survive on welfare payments."
Holding the brightly colored flowers, Bai Huan was in a good mood and took the initiative to ask, "Doesn't the son work?"
"His son is a year younger than you. He's only just finished his first year of high school. How could he work?"
At this point, Wang Caiyi slowed her steps slightly and walked alongside Bai Huan.
Lowering her voice, she said, "The father and son downstairs have the surname He. When you see the father, you can call him Uncle He. But your Uncle He had a fever when he was little that damaged his brain. Even if you call out to him, he won't recognize you."
"Oh," Bai Huan said.
"Then it's remarkable that he managed to have a son despite his brain being damaged."
"He's a very handsome man, you know. When he was a teenager, he completely captivated a girl. She was so infatuated with him that she wanted to support him. Later, she gave birth to a son, but life was terribly hard. As it happened, a very wealthy man started pursuing her. She struggled with the decision for a few days, then abandoned the father and son and ran away."
The more Wang Caiyi spoke, the more details she shared.
Although it was nothing more than neighborhood gossip, Bai Huan found it rather novel.
He was just about to ask a few more questions when a door slammed heavily upstairs.
Immediately afterward, a tall, slender boy appeared.
He had a fair, delicate, strikingly handsome face, but his expression was icy.
Bai Huan paused slightly when he saw him.
His outstanding appearance was secondary.
After all, Bai Huan looked in the mirror every day.
He was already immune to beauty.
"You're bleeding," Bai Huan pointed out.
The other boy kept his eyes straight ahead.
He ignored Bai Huan completely and walked downstairs past him as though he hadn't heard a word.
Seeing her son get such a cold reception, Wang Caiyi actually laughed.
"He's quite a character around Lanshuitang. He's got a fierce temper, stubborn as a crab, and he's famous for it. No matter who talks to him, he barely bothers to answer."
Bai Huan curled his lip.
Just some nobody.
Not worth mentioning.
Chen Yuanyuan went ahead and opened the door.
When Bai Huan reached the fifth floor, Chen Yuanyuan stood at the entrance, waiting with a slightly nervous expression.
He took the things from Bai Huan's hands.
Almost unconsciously, Bai Huan became the first person to enter the apartment.
The apartment was far smaller than he had imagined.
However, its artistic, tasteful decor made the place barely acceptable to him.
But then he noticed the dense patches of mold covering the base of the wall.
He frowned.
Crossing the living room, he approached the floor-to-ceiling windows with white lattice frames.
Below stood a plane tree whose branches grew in every direction with almost arrogant abandon.
Several elderly people sat beneath it, fanning themselves while playing Chinese chess.
Chen Yuanyuan was an exceptionally attentive man.
He walked over and stopped a short distance behind Bai Huan.
"Nancheng is very humid, and all the houses in Taohua Lane are old. Mold grows on the walls easily. Next Sunday, Dad will repaint the bottom of the walls."
"Don't you have church on Sundays?"
Bai Huan spoke instinctively.
Then he paused.
"I saw a very beautiful church on the way here."
Chen Yuanyuan was both surprised and delighted.
Bai Huan had always been skilled at reading people's expressions.
Before Chen Yuanyuan could speak, he added, "Unfortunately, I don't have any religious beliefs."
The cramped living room contained a long writing desk covered with paintings and calligraphy that had been left out to dry.
On the other side, close to the kitchen, stood a round dining table.
Several plates of unfinished leftovers sat beneath a mesh food cover.
Looking through the kitchen doorway, he saw a pile of old, battered pots and utensils stacked on top of ancient cabinets.
He passed the master bedroom.
A few steps farther along was his own bedroom.
It was an extremely small room.
Only about the size of one of Bai Huan's bathtubs at the Bai family home.
Its only redeeming quality was the decent natural light.
That was all.
At this moment, Bai Huan's feelings finally began to change.
He could no longer stand apart from everything and pass judgment on it.
Because he, too, had become part of this collection of shabby, broken-down things.
There were no South Sea pearls or North American diamonds here.
There was only a cold, cramped, dilapidated apartment, along with endless leftovers that would be reheated and eaten again and again, seemingly never running out.
He had already bid farewell to his former privileged life and the people he had believed were his closest family.
He would return to his original place and spend most of the rest of his life with the impoverished, down-and-out middle-aged couple standing behind him.
Bai Huan was overwhelmed by despair.
He didn't hear a word Chen Yuanyuan or Wang Caiyi said.
He simply announced, "I want to sleep for a while."
Then he entered the bedroom and locked the door behind him.
Everything that had originally belonged to Bai Chen had already been removed from the room.
Only a few study schedules and utterly ordinary report cards remained stuck to the wall.
Bai Huan's total score was more than twice Bai Chen's.
All the Bai family's excellent genes must have gone to Bai Mingzhen.
Before lying down, Bai Huan bent over and sniffed the bedsheets.
Only after confirming there was no strange smell did he lie on the bed.
There was an air conditioner in the room, but Bai Huan didn't turn it on.
He listened to the birds calling outside the wide-open window and the miscellaneous noises coming from every direction.
The noisier the world outside seemed, the lonelier and more frightened he felt.
The phone in his trouser pocket rang.
Bai Huan waited a while before answering.
The caller was Bai Xing.
"When did you leave? A Xiu said you caused a huge scene at home before leaving. Mom also said you were being unreasonable. What on earth were you doing?"
"I left ages ago," Bai Huan replied listlessly.
"Then maybe I remembered the date wrong. I thought Mr. Chen and his family were coming to pick you up tomorrow."
"No. It was today."
Bai Xing sounded rather worried.
"How are things over there?"
"Not great," Bai Huan answered honestly.
"I heard about it from the butler. Your biological parents aren't well-off. Their family fell on hard times when they were young, and there are a lot of children in the family. Your parents are the only two with stable jobs, so even though their salaries and benefits are pretty good, they still have to support their brothers and sisters. They're barely making ends meet. I'm afraid life is going to be difficult for you from now on."
Bai Xing thought he was being humorous and burst into laughter on the other end.
Bai Huan laughed too.
He kept laughing until Bai Xing stopped and asked what was wrong.
Bai Huan quietly cursed, "Fucking idiot."
Then he hung up.
Outside the bedroom, Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi waited until they could no longer hear any movement from Bai Huan before hurriedly tidying up the dining table.
Chen Yuanyuan kept blaming himself for having rushed out so quickly that morning that he'd forgotten to clear the table.
The child must have been disgusted by it.
Meanwhile, Wang Caiyi busied herself organizing the things they had just bought.
She also washed all the child's new clothes and hung them up to dry.
The weather was hot and dry.
By evening, the child would be able to wear clean new pajamas.
While the child they had just brought home was still sleeping, Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi, who had both taken showers, sat beside the writing desk in the living room with their account books, checking their finances.
Over the years, they had never carefully calculated how much money they had lent out.
It was fine as long as they didn't count.
But once they did, the total genuinely frightened both of them.
Even Chen Yuanyuan, who had always regarded money as something insignificant, couldn't help sighing.
"More than three million yuan, almost. How are we supposed to get it back? Their lives are even harder than ours..."
Wang Caiyi tied up her hair and gritted her teeth.
"We still have to ask for it! Did we bring Taimi home just so he could suffer alongside us? Besides, that money should have belonged to him in the first place."
"Keep your voice down."
Both of them had gentle, mild features, and both worked in creative fields.
No matter what they were discussing, they always gave off an impression of peaceful domestic tranquility.
A phone suddenly rang.
Chen Yuanyuan answered it.
"Dad."
Bai Chen's voice came from the other end.
"Have you arrived home?" Bai Chen asked.
Wang Caiyi stretched her neck toward the back of the phone, listening alongside Chen Yuanyuan.
"We're home. Is everything all right over there?"
"Mm. They're treating me very well. We just finished lunch. Have you and Mom eaten yet?"
"Taimi is taking an afternoon nap. Your mother and I are planning to wait until he wakes up so we can eat together. We've already cooked the rice, though."
Beside him, Wang Caiyi murmured, "I don't know whether Taimi prefers his rice a little firm or soft. I forgot to ask."
Bai Chen could hear the excitement in Chen Yuanyuan's voice.
Now that their biological child had returned to them, even his adoptive father, who always pretended to be above worldly concerns, couldn't suppress his joy.
And that was even more true of his gentle adoptive mother, who had always been so good at managing the household.
When Bai Chen didn't respond, Wang Caiyi gently took the phone from Chen Yuanyuan.
She asked whether Little Chen was still there.
"I'm here, Mom."
"Little Chen, don't overthink things. Even though you've returned to the Bai family, in your father's heart and mine, you're still our child. You still have the key to our home, don't you?"
Wang Caiyi spoke softly.
The old apartment wasn't particularly soundproof.
A noise came from Bai Huan's bedroom.
As though feeling guilty, Wang Caiyi hurriedly ended the call.
She looked at Chen Yuanyuan and lowered her voice.
"Taimi is more sensitive than you and me put together. He was willing to set fire to his room just to stop Little Chen from living in it. We absolutely can't let him hear what we were just saying."
Chen Yuanyuan had only just nodded when Bai Huan emerged.
The young man's hair was a complete mess from sleeping.
His sleepy eyes wandered around the room.
"Mom, I need to use the bathroom."
Wang Caiyi hurriedly stood up and showed him where it was.
When Bai Huan came out of the bathroom, he looked much more awake.
Holding his phone, he announced that he was going downstairs for a moment.
Then he opened the door and left without hesitation.
On the fourth floor, a handsome, delicate-featured man who looked no older than twenty-seven or twenty-eight was squatting in the corridor, eating a popsicle.
When he saw Bai Huan, he asked who he was.
He even offered Bai Huan the popsicle he'd already been licking.
Bai Huan was so frightened that he broke into a run.
Outside Taohua Lane, the street was quiet and peaceful.
The river murmured gently, sparkling beneath the evening light like a sheet of red sugar crystals.
A BMW was parked by the roadside.
When the woman in the driver's seat spotted Bai Huan, she opened the door and stepped out.
Bai Huan walked toward her.
After confirming that she was alone, he asked, "Where's Bai Mingzhen?"
"Young Master, Attorney Bai's case overseas hasn't been completely settled yet. He's still going to be busy for a while."
Bell walked around to the back of the car and opened the trunk.
"I'll help you carry these things upstairs."
"Bell."
Bai Huan remained where he was.
"Hm?"
"Don't call me Young Master anymore. I'm not a young master."
Hearing this, Bell's red lips curved into a gentle smile.
"Attorney Bai told me to call you Young Master. I'll only change how I address you when Attorney Bai tells me to."
Bai Huan only half understood.
Did even what other people called him have to be decided by Bai Mingzhen?
He followed behind Bell, watching her take one familiar shopping bag after another out of the trunk.
Without thinking, he asked, "Is this what Bai Mingzhen means when he says I have to listen to him?"
Bell couldn't help laughing.
"Young Master, I work for a salary. Naturally, I listen to whoever pays me."
When facing someone he trusted wholeheartedly, Bai Huan allowed himself to be a little more innocent and soft.
"Bai Mingzhen doesn't pay me a salary, but he still wants me to listen only to him."
"Attorney Bai gives you an allowance."
"Mom gives me one too."
Bell smiled and shook her head.
"Attorney Bai loves you much more than Ms. Cheng does."