Late that night, Chu Jianshu sat in the chair in his study. The computer screen displayed the paternity test results that had just been sent directly to him.
He had already been seventy or eighty percent certain in his heart, yet when the paternity test truly confirmed it, it felt as though a huge stone that had been hanging halfway in the air inside him suddenly dropped to the ground.
He released a long breath. Days of hesitation dissolved. Chu Jianshu was so happy that he could not help standing up and pacing around twice.
His youngest son, whom he had thought he would never see again, had actually been found.
If his wife learned the news, she would surely be overjoyed.
That child was truly good-looking. He had inherited the best features of both of them. If he was properly nourished and cared for, he would surely grow into an extraordinarily beautiful child.
Then the child's frail appearance suddenly surfaced in his mind. This was the first time Chu Jianshu had ever been so close to him.
Stunted growth, dry yellow hair, a thin and undersized body, marks of domestic abuse on his arms, an excessively quiet personality, the way he looked at adults—all of it poured cold water directly over Chu Jianshu's happiness.
The situation was worse than he had imagined.
He had once thought that even if the child had been abducted and sold, if he ended up in a family that desperately wanted a boy, at least he might live reasonably well.
But reality was the complete opposite. It was even worse than his darkest expectations.
His wife had once developed a psychiatric illness after losing their child. After they adopted Chu Yigui, she gained something to hold on to and gradually improved. By now, she seemed much better.
If she learned that her own child had suffered somewhere beyond her sight…
Chu Jianshu's phone rang. "Hello, Wenqiu."
"Chairman Chu, the information you asked me to investigate about that child has just been compiled. Would you like to receive it now?" A middle-aged man's voice came clearly through the phone in the late-night study. It was Chu Jianshu's assistant, Song Wenqiu.
"Wenqiu." Chu Jianshu took a deep breath, put the phone on speaker, and set it on the desk, his voice carrying a trace of joy. "Today I had a paternity test done with that child. It's him."
Song Wenqiu paused, then immediately said, "Congratulations, Chairman Chu. Madam will certainly be extremely happy."
"I'm very happy too." The refined middle-aged man expressed his joy with characteristic restraint, yet could not help sharing it with the friend who had remained by his side for so long.
"Then shall I report the information on your youngest son, Wan Qiu, now?" Song Wenqiu had already changed the way he referred to the child.
"Mm. Send it to me." Chu Jianshu had asked Song Wenqiu to investigate long ago. He had not expected the information to arrive at the exact same time as the good news.
Chu Jianshu opened the file on his computer. There was not much, but every sentence precisely summarized Wan Qiu's life.
Song Wenqiu said from the other end, "Wan Qiu is fourteen this year. When he was five, a woman named Wan Xiaohua took him to the countryside. Wan Xiaohua had a mental illness. Her husband had died young, and she had one daughter named Ning Qiaozhen. People in the village simply assumed Wan Qiu was a child Ning Qiaozhen had given birth to elsewhere, so no one became suspicious."
Chu Jianshu looked at the report and listened to Song Wenqiu's voice. The joy in his mind gradually quieted.
"When Wan Qiu was eleven, Wan Xiaohua drowned in the village river. Wan Qiu was then raised by Ning Qiaozhen. Ning Qiaozhen is thirty-nine this year and has no stable employment. The old house in the urban village where she currently lives is rented. She lives there with a distant relative named Ning Hai. According to the investigation, Ning Qiaozhen and Ning Hai appear to be in a romantic relationship."
A distant relative? Chu Jianshu's brows drew together unconsciously.
Although he had already prepared himself mentally, only after truly learning the details could he understand just how unbearable Wan Qiu's living environment was to him.
"Wan Qiu did not attend school while being raised by Wan Xiaohua. He began school only after Ning Qiaozhen took him in at age eleven. When the new term starts this year, he will enter sixth grade. Because he is older than his classmates, withdrawn, and doesn't speak much, he has almost no friends in class. His grades are at the bottom of his year. His teachers said there may be some problem with his intellectual development. They once suggested that he be evaluated, but…"
But Ning Qiaozhen obviously did not care about Wan Qiu's condition and had never taken him for any related examinations.
Otherwise, they might have found information about Wan Qiu much earlier. Given Chu Jianshu's standing and influence in the medical field, he had long asked hospitals to pay special attention to children of the same age.
Chu Jianshu's fingernails dug unconsciously into his palms. The more he learned, the harder it became to accept.
Every word in the report on the screen seemed to be recording his failures toward Wan Qiu. At last, Chu Jianshu closed his eyes, feeling terrible.
"Yigui, what are you doing standing at the door?" A servant's voice suddenly came from outside. Chu Jianshu's eyes snapped open and turned toward the door in surprise.
"Yigui?" Chu Jianshu immediately opened the door and saw Chu Yigui standing outside with a tray of tea.
In the dim corridor light of the late night, the boy turned sideways to look at Chu Jianshu. He was slender and rather tall. Soft short hair fell slightly over his somewhat sharp brows and eyes, making his appearance as gentle as possible. His features were excellent and his bearing exceptional. Even his relaxed standing posture carried a uniquely fine upbringing, pleasing to the eye.
"Father, congratulations on finding him." The boy's voice had already changed with puberty, smooth and resonant like a cello in the night. There was not the slightest jealousy or dissatisfaction in his tone. He was calm as a windless lake, clear and still.
"Yigui, even after Wan Qiu comes back, you are still our child." Chu Jianshu set down the teacup in Chu Yigui's hands and passed the tray to the servant.
The servant was shocked to hear such an earth-shattering secret. She gave Chu Yigui a worried look before helplessly carrying the tray away.
Chu Yigui was adopted. He was the same age as Wan Qiu and had been brought into the family to comfort Chu Jianshu's mentally unwell wife. He was obedient and sensible, exceptionally handsome, an almost perfect child, and they had always loved him dearly.
"I know, Father. You don't need to worry. You and Mother have always treated me very well." Chu Yigui thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Wan Qiu… between the two of us, who is the older brother and who is the younger?"
"Wan Qiu is a little older. You're the younger brother." Chu Jianshu smiled. "Though judging by appearances, he may look younger than you."
"So he's my older brother." Chu Yigui smiled.
"Don't dwell on it too much. You and Wan Qiu are both our children," Chu Jianshu could not help saying again.
Chu Yigui smiled and shook his head. "It's really fine. I'm happy too."
Chu Jianshu hesitated. Chu Yigui's one flaw was that he fit the standard of a "good child" too perfectly, making it difficult to grasp what he truly thought.
"When are you going to tell Mother?" Seeing Chu Jianshu's hesitation, Chu Yigui took the initiative to change the subject.
"I'm thinking about that too. The current situation may not be suitable for telling your mother yet." Thinking of Wan Qiu's present condition, Chu Jianshu could not imagine how his hot-tempered wife would react once she knew.
Chu Yigui gazed at Chu Jianshu and said, "Perhaps it's still better to tell Mom directly."
"Hm?" Chu Jianshu lifted his eyes.
"Losing my older brother was extremely painful for Mom, and her emotions have been unstable because of it all these years. If she later learns that you deliberately hid news about him from her, I'm afraid she'll be even angrier." Chu Yigui offered the suggestion seriously. "This should be good news. It shouldn't become something that makes her angry."
Hearing Chu Yigui call Wan Qiu his older brother so naturally, Chu Jianshu unconsciously relaxed a little.
"That child has been living very badly. I'm afraid she might…"
"That's still something Mom has the right to know and decide for herself," Chu Yigui replied seriously. "Trust that Mom can be rational."
Chu Jianshu looked at the child in front of him. Whether in intelligence or emotional awareness, Chu Yigui was impeccable. He even faintly seemed capable of surpassing his two older brothers.
"Yigui, you're a good child." Chu Jianshu's voice carried an almost imperceptible sigh.
"Tell Mom the good news quickly." Chu Yigui's urging remained calm. "Mom will definitely rush back immediately."
Chu Jianshu imagined his wife, currently abroad, likely charging back in a storm the moment she heard the news. He could not help giving a somewhat helpless smile.
Chu Yigui watched him without speaking again, falling quietly silent.
