Out of a sense of responsibility, the school notified Chen An’s parents about his refusal of the recommendation to Tsinghua and Peking University. Both expressed disbelief. During his math olympiad preparation in the provincial capital, Chen An had been very diligent, not hesitating to travel back and forth on weekends, and had discussed his recommendation aspirations with them over meals. If he wanted to go to Z University, his provincial first place ranking would have been sufficient—he didn’t need to work so desperately hard over the past six months.
The dream was within easy reach, but Chen An abandoned it at will, without prior consultation or subsequent report. Chen An didn’t put his parents’ expectations or his bright future in his eyes at all.
Wang Liting was successfully enraged.
Chen An had his own ideas since childhood. By fifth and sixth grade, he already knew how to negotiate with them using the interests they valued most. They were busy with work and had many social engagements, with no time to discipline him. Occasionally worried that the teaching resources in the small town weren’t good enough, they would have him do test papers from the provincial capital. The results always came out quite impressive, so they felt reassured.
Only as time passed, Wang Liting increasingly felt uneasy. As Chen An slowly grew up, the gap between him and them grew deeper and deeper. He would eat at the Cheng family’s home and chat about everything. But when he returned to their home in the provincial capital, he was often silent and taciturn. He constantly made various excuses to stay in his hometown during holidays. The provincial capital wasn’t far from Taixi, yet the family could barely see each other a few times. It was only in the past six months, when he came here on weekends to study, that Wang Liting gradually felt they had a complete family.
They say no one is closer than parents, no one nearer than husband and wife. Wang Liting thought that with blood ties present, even the coldest feelings could be repaired. She deliberately reduced the frequency of her business trips, stayed by her son’s side on weekends, and personally cooked for him. Just when she was working hard toward a harmonious and beautiful direction, Cheng Dong passed away.
All her efforts were destroyed in an instant.
Chen An resented her for stopping everyone and not notifying him to come back to see Cheng Dong one last time. Their relationship dropped to freezing point from then on. He didn’t return home for Spring Festival and barely answered Wang Liting’s calls. She tried to have a proper conversation with him once. Chen An asked coldly: “If it was my dad who died that day, would you have called me or not?”
Wang Liting blurted out: “But Cheng Dong isn’t your dad.”
“Then we have no need to continue this conversation.” After Chen An dropped this line, he turned and left decisively.
What exactly made Chen An become like this? What made him willing to break with his entire family for the sake of an outsider?
She went to search through Chen An’s drawers, through the clothes he left there, through Chen An’s computer.
As a result, on Chen An’s computer, she discovered a folder named “Darling Treasure.” Opening it, she found it densely packed with photos—she had to scroll the mouse wheel many circles before reaching the bottom. Some of these photos were converted from old film photos that she had seen before; others were phone photos with unclear pixels that, judging by the dates, should have been taken in the past two years.
These enormous quantities of photos had only one subject: Cheng Lele.
Chen An had recorded and organized Cheng Lele’s growth process from childhood to present. He had written a note beside each photo. Some long, some short—strung together, they were like a thick diary.
She flipped through them one by one.
“The little friend got stung by a bee and cried. I remember her voice was hoarse from crying at the time. The swelling didn’t go down for several days. I laughed at her for being ugly, and she cried herself into depression. But I fooled her with a bag of candy. The little friend never had much ambition from childhood.”
“First time in life eating durian. Swore on the spot she’d never eat it again. The next day, begged me to go buy some, learned several dog barks from me.”
“After growing up, likes to pout her lips. Cute.”
“16th birthday party. Hope Darling Treasure is happy every day.”
…
The last one was a large group photo of the two of them close to the camera lens, faces pressed together cheek to cheek.
“First fight and cold war. Sigh, if only I could still coax her with a bag of candy. Going to the competition in a few days. Want to pack Darling Treasure in my suitcase and elope.”
These densely packed memos drew all of Wang Liting’s unease to a single point.
She had always known the two had deep feelings for each other, and had even considered that perhaps one day they would take a step beyond their sibling relationship. But the current situation came earlier than the timeline she had imagined. That was secondary—what made her apprehensive was that Chen An’s feelings were burning and intense, yet he had never shown any abnormality in front of them. If not for him inexplicably choosing Z University this time and ruining his future for her sake, she might still be kept in the dark.
Almost all parents naturally assume they understand everything about their children. To demonstrate the equal relationship modern families pursue, they turn a blind eye to certain private spaces of their children within a controllable range. However, once they discover signs of losing control, they won’t tolerate it for even a second.
It was Cheng Lele’s fault. She had to cut off this source.
After Wang Liting finished the phone call, Chen An was rushing home from Z University.
Three years ago, they bought a large flat of over two hundred square meters in the city center of the provincial capital. Luxuriously decorated with exquisite furniture, yet there were no traces of living atmosphere—it was like a meticulously arranged model home.
Chen Tao was presiding over a provincial work conference. Wang Liting hadn’t had time to discuss with Chen Tao—in fact, there were rarely moments of communication between the couple. She sat alone on the long leather sofa in the center of the living room, wearing an emerald green silk dress with gray cotton slippers on her feet.
Seeing Chen An enter the house travel-worn, Wang Liting stood up and asked: “Have you eaten?”
Chen An put down his backpack: “You urgently called me back—what’s the matter?”
Wang Liting glanced at Chen An. She didn’t know when, but her son’s features had grown to not look much like her anymore. His eyelids were thin, his eyes slightly elongated, and the gaze directed at her always carried a hint of sharpness. His nose seemed more prominent than in childhood, making his entire face more three-dimensional. The jawline was also more rugged. At first glance, he looked like an adult.
When he was born, he had been so ugly and scrunched up. How did he suddenly become a handsome adult?
Chen An took a bottle of water from the refrigerator. As he twisted the cap, Wang Liting got straight to the point: “You want to go to Z University?”
Chen An’s slender fingers squeezed the plastic bottle, making it crackle. He nodded. When he received Wang Liting’s call, he had guessed the matter of the recommendation couldn’t be hidden anymore. Fortunately, this matter was already settled. So he drank two mouthfuls of water and asked calmly: “The school told you?”
“If the school hadn’t contacted us, when were you planning to inform us?”
“I was originally planning to have a showdown with you these couple of days.”
Wang Liting tried not to let herself appear hysterical. She looked quietly at Chen An’s profile and asked: “Why?”
Chen An walked over and sat on the single sofa beside her: “Z University’s finance department is pretty good. Actually, it doesn’t matter where I study. In the future I want to invest and start my own business…”
Wang Liting interrupted him: “Starting a business requires connections. In this world, the most reliable connections besides family are your undergraduate classmates. Do you think Tsinghua and Peking University classmates or Z University classmates would be more helpful to you?”
“Mom, now when you do anything you have to mention connections—if not for Dad’s official career, then for your business. Every day you’re thinking about that intricate network of powerful connections. Aren’t you tired?”
Wang Liting laughed coldly: “Who am I tired for? The things I’ve worked so hard to earn, you discard like worn-out shoes!”
Chen An raised both hands: “Mom, let’s not discuss this topic anymore, okay?”
Wang Liting had been restraining herself to avoid direct conflict with Chen An. She knew that relying on her authority to suppress him now would only backfire. She smoothed the wrinkles on her skirt and said: “Then let’s discuss a topic you’re interested in. I just discussed with your godmother. We feel you and Lele are overly intimate, which isn’t beneficial to your respective studies and futures, so for now you two shouldn’t see each other. Anyway, you’ve already gotten your university admission ticket, there’s no need to continue high school. During this recent period, follow me in managing the business. Didn’t you say you wanted to invest and start a business? Consider it early internship—I’ll find someone to mentor you.”
Chen An placed the water bottle on the coffee table and looked at his mother with raised eyelids: “Mom, did you discuss with Godmother, or did you inform her to do this?”
Wang Liting finally couldn’t restrain herself and was angered by one sentence: “What do you mean? You think your mom is bullying Godmother? Whose side are you on? Who is actually your real mother?”
“Back then when you left me and came to the provincial capital, throwing me to the Cheng family, why didn’t you think about who was my real mother?”
Wang Liting was as if struck at a fatal point. She suddenly stood up, eyes wide with anger: “It was you who insisted on staying in Taixi! It was you who said you wanted to be first—”
Chen An interrupted her defense: “Mom, we’re family. Let’s not deceive ourselves when talking, and there’s no need to shirk responsibility under the cloak of democracy. Back then when you came to the provincial capital to work hard, Dad’s official career was at a critical moment. When I said I’d stay in Taixi, you agreed after just a few words—that’s called going with the flow, taking advantage of the situation, not respecting my wishes. You said you’d come back on weekends to take care of me. Think back carefully—over those years, how many weekends in a year did you actually come back to see me?”
Wang Liting’s chest heaved. She hadn’t expected Chen An would dig up old accounts from back then. Chen An’s precocious sensibility had covered up the debt from that time. They had once turned the page with peace of mind in tacit agreement, but her son’s questioning pierced through the thin veil, leaving her ashamed and embarrassed.
It turned out Chen An had always been clear about it and minded it.
Chen An softened his tone: “Mom, I’m not saying this to blame you. Left-behind children are everywhere—I’m not that fragile. Besides, the Cheng family raised me like their own son. I never suffered any grievance. I’m saying this not to make you compensate me. I’ve already grown up. But we still owe the Cheng family a debt of gratitude. These past two years, you’ve been busy maintaining relationships with those plastic sisters in your business circle. Did you ever think about Godmother’s poor health and finding doctors in the provincial capital to help? When Godfather had gastric bleeding and was hospitalized, you were on a business trip in America and didn’t even make a phone call, right? But when you heard the provincial governor’s daughter had low blood sugar, you personally drove to deliver cordyceps to her. You only care about scheming and maneuvering, but you’ve forgotten the most sincere feelings.” He said all this in one breath, then looked at Wang Liting who already showed signs of breaking down: “You don’t repay gratitude, but want to burn bridges. For your ridiculous jealousy and belated maternal love, you want me to sever ties with the Cheng family?”
Wang Liting’s emotions shifted from anger to tears streaming down. She looked at this most familiar yet most strange family member and asked dazedly: “An’an, is Mom really such a power-seeking, vain, ungrateful bastard in your heart?”
Wang Liting felt no guilt toward the Cheng family. Chen An wasn’t living under someone else’s roof in Taixi—he had his own house in his hometown, had Grandma to care for him, had enough pocket money. To catch the criminals who attacked Cheng Dong as soon as possible, Chen Tao had even reached out to understand the situation with the provincial capital’s public security system, using precious connections from old leaders to apply pressure. Originally she had also prepared a generous education fund for Cheng Lele to give after she finished the college entrance exam. But she guessed the proud Ye Xiaomei might not appreciate it.
Wang Liting believed that for families like theirs, they wouldn’t waste time on daily meticulous care and warm greetings, but when something happened, they wouldn’t stand by idly. In her eyes, this was what had practical significance. Like when Cheng Dong died—having everyone drop everything to come to the funeral, she thought had little meaning. And when she comforted Cheng Lele, she would only say “be strong.” Because right now, being strong was indeed the only path to take. Unfortunately, the romantic Ye Xiaomei didn’t understand. She hadn’t expected Chen An wouldn’t understand either.
Chen An grabbed her hand: “Mom, as your son, I’m not qualified to criticize you or define you. I’m just asking you not to only focus on charging forward—stop and look back at appropriate times. Think about it—Lele used to love clinging to you to braid her hair because your skill was better than Godmother’s. The princess dresses you bought, she couldn’t bear to take them off, wearing them until they smelled, still wanting to burrow into your arms. On the New Year’s cards she drew for you, there were portraits of six people… Mom, Lele isn’t a terrible flood taking your son away. She was once your most beloved darling daughter. Have you forgotten?”
Wang Liting cried: “How could I forget? I—I just—”
She was momentarily at a loss for words. She knew that in that phone call just now, she had been overwhelmed by anger and had indeed abandoned those precious feelings. Or perhaps it was these years in the fame and fortune arena that made her accustomed to not taking outsiders’ feelings too seriously.
Chen An stood up, brought a glass of warm water from the kitchen, and handed it to Wang Liting: “Mom, trust me. I’ll be responsible for my future.”
Wang Liting took it and sipped. The warm liquid moistened her dry throat, allowing her emotions to stabilize temporarily.
She didn’t speak, slowly drinking sip by sip. When the glass was empty, she had already wiped away her tears. Her fair fingers caressed the rim of the glass. She no longer struggled to argue right and wrong with her son: “You insist on studying at Z University and won’t take the college entrance exam?”
“Won’t take it.”
“Fine.” Seeing his mind was made up and further words would be futile, Wang Liting stopped struggling. “Mom promises you, from now on if you and Lele are together, I won’t object. But…”
Chen An waited quietly for what came next.
“I have one condition. Before going to university, you come intern at the company.” Wang Liting knew Chen An would definitely try to reason with her again. She had already experienced her son’s negotiation skills of appealing to emotion and reason and didn’t want to discuss further. She raised her hand to stop him from speaking. “I don’t have such a big prejudice against puppy love. I just think that you and Lele grew up together, spending every day inseparable, so it’s natural your feelings are deep. But precisely because you two are together day and night, staying in a small place without moving, plus at your age everything you do is passionate, it contains various crises. In the future you’ll each have your own social circles, see the bustling world, and face far more temptations than that simple world. Maybe in a few years when you look back, you’ll discover it was because there were no other choices back then, one leaf blocking the mountain from view, that allowed such intensity. If you make a fuss then, the relationship between our two families won’t be any better than now. Better to take this time to cool down and calmly step back to take a look. If two people’s feelings last long, why must they be together day and night—what do you say?”
“This separation can wait until university—” Chen An roughly guessed his mother’s plan, wanting to use a delaying tactic.
Wang Liting waved her hand and presented facts and reasoned from another angle: “Ye Xiaomei won’t agree either. I suspect she’s gotten depression recently. We just had a fight—you appearing before her now would upset her. Don’t look at me like that. Don’t I know why you’re studying at Z University? As a mother, I have the right to be angry, don’t I? I’ll find a way to communicate with Ye Xiaomei once, but An’an, words spoken are like water spilled—the feelings between our two families have already broken. Even if we patch things up, the cracks will still be visible. You might as well give Godmother some time, let her have a psychological buffer.”
After Wang Liting calmed down, her thinking became clear. After all, she was a businesswoman who had weathered the treacherous business world. Through this conversation she had reversed the conversational authority: “Also, don’t have unrequited passion. You see Lele as your future wife, but Lele may not feel the same. Her disposition is simple. If one day she realizes you have other feelings for her, she might avoid you like the plague. It won’t even be my turn to break up the lovebirds.”
Wang Liting analyzed the reasoning from all angles. Having said all this, Chen An couldn’t refute and could only reluctantly accept. He quickly calculated the next countermeasures in his mind, going over all the online tutoring for Cheng Lele and weekend meeting times.
Wang Liting saw through it at a glance, thinking her son was a money-losing investment who forgot his mother once he had a wife. But at the same time, she pondered how, over the next year or so, to mend the fragmented mother-son relationship.
Finally, the two ate some frozen dumplings, each with their own ulterior motives, drawing a conclusion to this turbulent conversation.