Only after making sure Bai Huan had swallowed the beef did Bai Mingzhen release him. He pulled out a tissue and wiped his hands.
"You need to be taught a lesson," he said.
"You're disgusting."
Bai Huan didn't hold back either. After cursing him, he lowered his head and continued eating. But after a few bites, his expression darkened.
"Bai Mingzhen, I don't want to go back."
"Go back where?" Bai Mingzhen asked.
"In there. That building. I don't even know those people. Why should I have to live with them? If you won't let me live at your place, then buy me an apartment. I'll move in by myself."
Bai Mingzhen rolled down the car window, and a wave of hot air immediately swept inside.
"If you want a place of your own, earn the money yourself. I'm under no obligation to support you."
The hot wind swept over Bai Mingzhen and brushed against Bai Huan's face as well.
But to Bai Huan, what struck his face didn't feel like wind. It felt like a basinful of dough being spread evenly across his face, sealing off his sight and breathing so completely that he could barely catch his breath.
Bai Mingzhen had utterly ruined his appetite.
Before the man could react, Bai Huan overturned an entire container of food onto his crotch, opened the car door, and took off running.
Bai Mingzhen was a clean freak, but Bai Huan couldn't care less how angry he might be.
After all, Bai Mingzhen didn't seem to care all that much about his feelings either.
Come to think of it, Bai Mingzhen's obsession with cleanliness didn't exactly meet the usual definition of the term. Bai Huan had seen his bed and desk in less-than-perfect order before.
Bai Mingzhen simply hated other people setting foot in his territory.
Forget his mother and father—even Bai Huan was kept firmly outside his door.
By the time Bai Huan returned home, he was panting for breath.
Wang Caiyi, however, was only startled by the troubled expression on his face.
"What did he say to you? Why do you look so unhappy?"
Bai Huan shook his head without answering.
Then his gaze fell on the man sitting at the dining table, wolfing down his food.
He hesitated for a moment before walking around to face him.
Only then did he recognize the man as the mentally impaired resident from the fourth floor.
Noticing Bai Huan's confusion, Wang Caiyi took the initiative to explain.
"Your Uncle He comes to our house for dinner every Friday. Little Chu has to go to school, and there's nobody at home to cook for him."
"Who's Little Chu? His son?" Bai Huan asked.
"The boy we ran into in the stairwell yesterday."
As she spoke, Wang Caiyi went into the kitchen and brought out another bowl of soup for the man.
"Oh," Bai Huan said. "He eats at our place on Fridays. What about the other days?"
"Apart from Sundays, the neighbors in the building take turns looking after him on the remaining five days," Wang Caiyi explained.
"..."
Bai Huan marveled inwardly.
How remarkable.
"Is his welfare allowance enough to live on?"
Wang Caiyi gave the boy a mildly reproachful look.
"Your Uncle He has a job. He collects rubbish along the river, and the neighborhood office pays him two thousand yuan a month."
After He Youxiang had eaten and drunk his fill, he wiped his mouth before leaving.
Then he took a bag of candy out of his canvas bag and placed it on the table.
"For him."
He pointed at Bai Huan.
With He Youxiang's candy, every resident in the building had now given the returning "young master of a wealthy family" a welcome gift.
Bai Huan didn't think much of it.
Apart from putting the Chinese roses Grandma Wu Xiangxiu had given him into a vase in his room, he left all the other gifts in the living room without a second glance.
Later that evening, Bai Huan had just finished showering and was lying on his stomach at the small desk, working on his scrapbook.
He had reached the garden section when someone knocked softly on the door.
Chen Yuanyuan's voice came from outside.
"I brought back some late-night snacks. Taimi, would you like to come out and have some?"
Bai Huan instinctively wanted to say no.
But then he remembered that tomorrow he would have to spend another entire day at home eating leftovers.
He had no choice but to put down his tools and get up.
When he opened the door, he startled Chen Yuanyuan, who had been pressing his ear against it to listen for movement.
Pretending not to notice the guilty look on Chen Yuanyuan's face, Bai Huan said, "I'll eat."
Wang Caiyi had already gone to bed.
Chen Yuanyuan switched on only one small light in the dining room.
Father and son sat beneath its warm glow, eating borscht, stir-fried river snails, and fried wontons.
Without the bond of blood, Bai Huan and Chen Yuanyuan would never have sat at the same table for a meal.
Even though they now knew perfectly well that they were each other's closest family, it was impossible for them to suddenly become intimate.
To make matters worse, Chen Yuanyuan wasn't particularly good at making small talk, while Bai Huan had no intention of getting close to him.
So they could only sit there, each lost in his own thoughts, eating his own food.
Chen Yuanyuan was the first to speak.
He put down his chopsticks and pointed at the Chrome Hearts ring on Bai Huan's finger.
"We're a working-class family. It's best not to be too ostentatious."
"..."
Bai Huan thought the man must be talking in his sleep.
He turned a deaf ear and continued crunching on a crispy fried wonton.
Delicious.
"Are there any contemporary writers you're particularly interested in?" Chen Yuanyuan asked, making an effort to find a topic of conversation.
Bai Huan shook his head.
Chen Yuanyuan pushed the plate of fried wontons a little closer to him.
"Then what hobbies do you usually have?"
"Golf, volleyball, skydiving, diving..."
Bai Huan paused.
He didn't think there was any need to say too much, but in the end, he added one more.
"And scrapbooking. You know, making pictures with stickers."
A thoughtful expression appeared on Chen Yuanyuan's face.
The activities the boy had mentioned earlier were things the Chen family could only have afforded back before their fortunes declined.
Now that the boy had returned, Chen Yuanyuan, as the head of the household and his father, couldn't even guarantee that his lifestyle would remain unchanged.
Two patches of embarrassed red spread across the man's cheeks.
He could only ask another question in a warm tone.
"How are your grades?"
Holding his chopsticks, Bai Huan thought for a moment before answering.
"I'm an international-program student. Ever since G9, I've gotten A's on every major exam and minor test."
The flush on Chen Yuanyuan's face became even more noticeable.
"Then how are you doing in the subjects tested in the domestic education system? Chinese, mathematics, foreign languages, and so on?"
"I'm doing well in all of them. Don't worry."
The man's face settled into a pale pink.
"That's good," he murmured.
He thought things over carefully for a while.
Then, after some hesitation and internal struggle, he spoke again.
"I've reserved a private room at a restaurant in town. Tomorrow, get yourself ready at home. Once your mother and I finish work, we'll take you there so you can meet the rest of the family."
Only after observing that Bai Huan showed no signs of resistance did Chen Yuanyuan continue.
"In a few days, once I've prepared all the paperwork, we'll go and change your name. You..."
"I'm not changing my name."
Bai Huan finally spoke.
His chopsticks froze halfway between the table and his mouth.
"I'm used to it. I don't want to change my name."
A person's name was something both superficial and profoundly meaningful.
If he changed his name, he truly wouldn't know what connection he still had to the Bai family.
Chen Yuanyuan assumed he was worried about the inconvenience of changing his name and offered a few words of reassurance.
"In my opinion, Bai Huan isn't a particularly good name anyway. According to your birth chart, the wood element clashes with you, and the character for Bai even contains the wood radical."
Bai Huan revealed one percent of his true self.
He rolled his eyes at Chen Yuanyuan.
"And Chen Jingen doesn't clash with me? The character for 'root' has the wood radical too."
That eye roll actually made Chen Yuanyuan feel much more at ease around the boy.
The child had grown up in an extraordinarily wealthy household. His every gesture, movement, word, and action had long since become worlds apart from theirs.
Chen Yuanyuan wasn't oblivious to the boy's resistance and the distance he maintained from them.
But the child had somehow inherited almost all the best features of both him and Wang Caiyi.
How could they, as his parents, not adore him?
Even if their warm affection was met with nothing but cold indifference.
Chen Yuanyuan wasn't particularly tall, so the boy had inherited Wang Caiyi's beautiful figure and graceful proportions.
Wang Caiyi had a round, moon-shaped face, so the boy had inherited Chen Yuanyuan's oval face instead, looking almost exactly like him.
Chen Yuanyuan's teeth weren't especially straight, so the boy had inherited Wang Caiyi's neat, white teeth, lined up as evenly as a string of pearls.
And Bai Huan hadn't missed out on any of the qualities his parents shared, either.
His thick, silky hair, his fair and smooth skin, his artistic air of standing apart from the world...
The only thing neither of them possessed was the composed, effortless elegance that came from being raised in a gilded nest of wealth and privilege.
But Chen Yuanyuan didn't think that was anything particularly important.
The Bai family belonged to the petty bourgeoisie. They were detached from the common people.
A family like that could never cultivate a beautiful soul.
Thinking this only strengthened Chen Yuanyuan's determination to change Bai Huan's name.
"Metal and water are the elements that favor you. That's why the name Chen Jingen uses metal to overcome wood. It also represents the tremendous hopes I have for you. There's no need to discuss this any further. Your mother and I have already made our decision."
Bai Huan spent the entire following day immersed in the pleasure of scrapbooking.
He kept adding stickers and drawings to the manor's garden, filling it with flowers, butterflies, and lush greenery.
It wasn't until Chen Yuanyuan called him that he finally stood up to change his clothes.
He put on a simple short-sleeved blue shirt and black trousers.
He didn't carry a single bag.
He was penniless anyway, so he had no use for a wallet.
He simply grabbed his phone, changed his shoes, and headed out.
Wang Caiyi had transferred two hundred yuan to him through WeChat.
He bought a can of Sprite at the supermarket downstairs.
The uncle sitting behind the checkout counter stared at him without blinking.
It wasn't until Bai Huan approached the counter to pay that the man suddenly slapped his forehead.
"Oh! You're Little Chen's son who got switched at birth, aren't you? So tell me, do you like your rich dad or your poor dad better?"
Bai Huan didn't react.
He paid and left.
"Hey!"
Outside the door, He Youxiang suddenly jumped out, startling Bai Huan so badly that even his expression lost its usual elegance.
"My name is He Youxiang, and your name is Taimi. I know that. Please let me drink your soda."
He Youxiang was smiling as brightly as a flower.
Bai Huan took a sip of his soda.
"Why should I?"
"I want some. Let me drink yours first. I'll pay you back when I get my wages next month."
He Youxiang spoke without the slightest sense of awkwardness.
Bai Huan wasn't the sort of person who bullied someone with an intellectual disability.
So he went back into the store and bought him another can.
Then, with a casual flick of his sleeves, he strode away.
He had barely started walking when a bicycle suddenly stopped beside him.
Bai Huan was startled for the second time.
It was that boy named He Chu.
His T-shirt had been washed so many times that it had faded and lost its shape.
He supported the bicycle with one foot on the ground while counting out three yuan from his trouser pocket.
Without bothering to explain anything, he stuffed the money into Bai Huan's hand.
"Keep the change."
Then he, too, flicked his sleeves and strode away.
The banknotes in Bai Huan's hand were still warm.
He blinked.
Only after a long moment did he turn around and follow He Chu with his eyes.
By then, the boy had stopped in front of He Youxiang.
With one slap, he sent the can of soda flying out of his father's hand.
Then he walked into the supermarket.
A few seconds later, he emerged carrying a two-liter bottle of Sprite.
"How many times do I have to tell you? Don't eat or drink things given to you by people you don't know."
The boy's slightly muffled voice reached Bai Huan's ears.
"That little one from Caiyi's family doesn't have anyone to play with. I went to play with him..."
Father and son walked away.
Only then did Bai Huan realize that He Youxiang hadn't approached him because he wanted a can of soda.
He had felt sorry for him.
Bai Huan curled his lips.
How pathetic.
He had actually been pitied by a fool.
Bai Huan walked out of Taohua Lane and sat on a bench beside the road for a little over ten minutes.
He faced the only river running through Lanshuitang.
The square on the opposite bank was already bustling with activity.
Some people were doing square dancing, while others were out for an evening stroll.
The midsummer sun had already sunk low, hanging just above the flagpole in the square.
Its dim, reddish glow illuminated Lanshuitang, making the town look like a battered, heavily damaged relic that had only just been unearthed.
Chen Yuanyuan drove up from behind and called out to Taimi.
Bai Huan crushed his empty soda can before getting into the car.
He didn't see Wang Caiyi inside.
"Where's Mom?"
"She went ahead to welcome everyone. Your paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents are all there. When we get there, I'll introduce you, and you must remember to greet them properly. Your paternal grandfather is rather old-fashioned and has a lot of rules. If he says anything unpleasant, don't take it to heart. It doesn't mean he genuinely dislikes you."
Chen Yuanyuan talked nonstop throughout the drive.
Compared to Bai Huan, he seemed more like the one meeting his family for the first time.
He was nervous.
Bai Huan lowered his head and tapped on his phone.
He took a photograph of the scenery outside the car window and sent it to the small group chat he shared with Bai Mingzhen and Bai Xing.
[Off to acknowledge my ancestors and return to the family /cry]
[Bai Xing: Who's in their family?]
[Sounds like quite a few people. Several tables' worth.]
[Show me Xiao He.]
After a while, Bai Xing sent a video.
Xiao He was playing with a ball and rolling around in the garden.
Cheng Yueqing's voice could even be heard in the background.
Bai Huan was just about to ask what Mom and Dad were doing when another message from Bai Xing popped up.
[I don't know what's going on, but ever since you left, Xiao He hasn't been eating or drinking. The vet came to the house and said he's already a little dehydrated, but they still don't know why.]
The moment Bai Huan read that Xiao He wasn't eating or drinking, he sat bolt upright and immediately made a call.
"Why didn't you tell me yesterday that Xiao He wasn't eating?"
Bai Xing said, "We thought he'd just eaten too much before, so we didn't pay much attention to it."
Bai Huan lowered his eyes and clenched his fingers tightly.
"If you can't take proper care of him, then give him back to me."
"Well, there's no point telling me that. You'll have to talk to Mom."
"There's something wrong with your brains."
Bai Huan narrowed his bright black eyes and cursed at him.
Bai Xing responded with his usual cheeky grin.
"He'll eat when he gets hungry enough. Dogs aren't people. What, is he going to go on a hunger strike and starve himself to death? Oh, right, can I add Bai Chen to our brothers' group chat?"
Bai Huan gritted his teeth and curved his lips into a smile, concealing his disgust and anger.
"Sure."
After he hung up, a new member appeared in the group chat.
The new member's profile picture was a white silhouette of a person against a black background.
He sent a message to greet everyone.
[Hello, everyone.]
Taimi, one of the group's original members, was the first to reply.
[Hello. Welcome to the group.]
Then he left the group chat.