Xia Chengzhang lives on the first floor, and even though nothing is blocking the front, the afternoon light still makes the surroundings somewhat dim.
The room was dark, with no lights on, and Xia Chengzhang didn’t switch on the wheelchair’s electric lights. Instead, he used both hands to turn the wheelchair and moved forward slowly.
Xia Chengzhang glanced at the somewhat thin middle-aged man and felt a bit unsure.
Seeing his hesitation Xue Chong introduced the slightly thin middle-aged man, “This is our family doctor, Doctor Cui.”
Xia Chengzhang nodded quietly, and after a moment, he spoke in a soft voice as if talking to himself, “I’m not that fragile.”
As he spoke, he grabbed onto the sides of his wheelchair. The effort was visible on his hands, with rough knuckles showing faint white marks from the strain.
As everyone settled into their seats, silence fell over the room.
At first, Xia Chengzhang was scared and worried, but now he seemed much calmer. He turned to grab a paper cup from under the water dispenser and then reached up to take a kettle.
Xue Chong didn’t allow him to pour the water; instead, he quietly took the kettle himself.
After filling both the paper cups and placing them in front of Xia Chengzhang, he absentmindedly lifted his wrist to check the time.
“In usual times, your cooking aunt should be back from grocery shopping soon, right?” Xue Chong got straight to the point, saying, “Then Yunzhi and I won’t beat around the bush.”
Xia Chengzhang looked at Xue Chong and then glanced at Wen Yunzhi.
As Xia Chengzhang looked, he noticed that Wen Yunzhi’s face lacked its usual soft smile. Her eyes were red, and the lines on her eyebrows and lips seemed like marks of merit earned through years of enduring pain.
Without the disguise, it’s even harder to look at.
The pain struck Xia Chengzhang’s heart like a hammer, making it difficult for him to bear. It was so intense that he couldn’t help but lower his head again, trying to cope with the emotional impact.
But now, the expression on his face seemed to be filled with shame and embarrassment.
“Xia Wan is our child,” said Xue Chong seriously. He put down a brown paper bag he had been holding onto the coffee table and pushed it in front of Xia Chengzhang. “This is a paternity test; you can take a look.”
Xia Chengzhang gazed at the brown paper bag and, after a moment, reached out his hand towards it.
The words were packed together, swirling in front of his eyes like flies. He looked at them for a bit but couldn’t see anything clearly.
Xue Chong explained, “He was originally named Xue Wenke. When he was just two years old, his aunt took him out to pick up someone, but he got lost at the station.”
Hearing this, Xia Chengzhang instinctively licked his lips and unconsciously closed his eyes.
For many years, he has been living in fear and anxiety. He would keep thinking about Xia Wan’s biological parents, and how they might show up one day looking after Xia Wan.
Among all the things that worried him, his biggest fear was losing Xia Wan. But when Xia Wan’s real parents showed up at their door, and he noticed the clear pain in Wen Yunzhi’s expression, he felt even more guilty than before.
“Wanwan,” he anxiously rubbed his hands together, his voice strained and rough, “I did meet him at the station.”
The tension in his voice revealed the weight of the revelation as he shared this information with Xia Wan.
“Then, did he…” Wen Yunzhi, who had been quiet since entering, suddenly looked up, “Did he cry back then?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He paused for a moment, seeming to remember how he felt during that period, his brows creasing tightly together.
“At that time, I was feeling really, really sad, and I almost didn’t want to keep living. Strangely, just before I decided to leave this world, I suddenly thought about my hometown, which I hadn’t visited for a long time,” Xia Chengzhang shared.
“I bought a ticket and decided to go back to my hometown. It was tough for me to find a taxi that was suitable for people with disabilities. The driver was really kind; he even helped me to the waiting hall when we reached the station,” Xia Chengzhang explained.
What Xia Chengzhang said was very trivial, but no one interrupted him.
“It was summer, and the waiting hall had a strong smell,” Xia Chengzhang recounted. “When I entered, I didn’t notice Wanwan initially because he was with a pair of unkempt middle-aged people in a corner. The waiting hall was crowded, and I felt really embarrassed. I couldn’t handle people staring, so I moved my wheelchair to a corner. Only when I got closer did I hear the child crying,” he continued, describing the challenging situation at the station.
Upon hearing this revelation, Wen Yunzhi swiftly straightened her body, and Xue Chong, sensing the gravity of the situation, suddenly tightened his hold on her hand.
“What happened next?” she asked, her voice trembling with a mix of tension and anxiety.
“I heard the child crying and repeating a few words over and over again like Ake doesn’t want, Ake wants aunt, and so on. Even though he was crying, his words were very clear,” Xia Chengzhang explained.
“Maybe because I was nearby, the man picked him up, covered his mouth with his hand, and seemed quite panicked. It was only then that I got a clear look at the child. He was dressed neatly, fair, and cute. His face was tear-streaked, giving him the appearance of a distressed child. The disheveled middle-aged people with him didn’t seem like his family at all,” Xia Chengzhang said.
With the dubious behavior of the middle-aged people at that moment, Xia Chengzhang’s suspicions were confirmed.
Upon hearing this, Wen Yunzhi’s face filled with tears, her heart shattered by the revelation. Xia Chengzhang felt extremely tense as he recollected this, gripping his hands tightly in distress.
“I realized the child should be called Ake, so I called out Ake very loudly,” Xia Chengzhang recounted.
“The child was very clever and immediately opened his arms to me, calling me ‘Dad.’ It seemed the guilty made the middle-aged couple abandon him. So, they fled, leaving the child alone, crying loudly. I picked him up and I held him tightly,” Xia Chengzhang explained.
“It’s not that I didn’t consider calling the police then, but honestly, I don’t know what was going through my mind at that moment,” Xia Cheng Zhang expressed, holding his head in anguish. “Maybe it was because my girlfriend and I both love children, and we had plans about how many kids we’d have and how to raise them. Or perhaps it was because my own hopes had been shattered, and I felt a deep resentment toward the world, wondering why I was the only unlucky one… Maybe I wanted others to suffer as well. In short, due to a strange combination of circumstances, I ended up taking the child away,” he explained, the complexities of his emotions evident in his troubled expression.
“The child was very young and didn’t require a train ticket. Perhaps tired from crying, he fell asleep as soon as he got on the train, which luckily didn’t raise any suspicions among people,” Xia Chengzhang murmured. “I took him back to my hometown with the intention to inform the police after he woke up and have the child sent back. But seeing how delicate and adorable he was, I couldn’t bring myself to leave him in the hands of others…”
Xia Chengzhang paused, his lips pursed in contemplation. “I’m not sure when I began seeing him as my lifeline. The initial intention of helping him find his parents slowly faded away. Unconsciously, this child became everything in my life. I no longer wished for death; instead, I yearned to witness his growth and see him start a family… So, at times, I even question if those events at the train station truly happened. Wanwan feels like mine now. It’s as if this child has no connection with anyone else.”
The room fell silent for a moment. Wen Yunzhi covered her nose with her hand, tears dampening the back of it. Xue Chong swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and remained silent for a long time.
Xia Chengzhang lowered his head and confessed with a hint of sorrow in his tone, “I’ve always wished that Wan Wan’s biological parents would never find him. For this, I’d give up anything. I even declined Lao Zhang’s offer to get back to Xia’s studio. Despite being sick, I didn’t feel much physical pain. Instead, I felt a sense of relief.”
He paused for a moment and added, “I feel like this is God’s punishment for me. When this punishment came, I accepted it willingly so he would have no reason to take Wanwan away from me.”
“Really,” he murmured, “but you’re still here.”
The room was extremely quiet, and someone’s soft sobbing could be heard as if they were trying to hold back their tears and emotions.
Xue Chong tightened his lips with determination, and his eyes welled up with tears, reflecting his deep emotions.
He felt relieved that he hadn’t disclosed all of this in front of Xia Wan. However, he couldn’t bring himself to speak. They wanted Xia Chengzhang to take the lead in revealing the truth to Xia Wan.
This was the approach he and Wen Yunzhi believed would have the least impact on Xia Wan.
Before they arrived, their hearts were filled with strong resentment.
But now, at this moment, although some resentment still remained, it became less clear and more like a distant feeling.
Wen Yunzhi turned her head to wipe away tears, her temples throbbing from crying.
“Do you realize the pain you’ve caused us by doing this?” Wen Yunzhi choked on tears. “Do you understand the years of agony we’ve endured searching for Ake? Every time I witness human traffickers harming children, I’m haunted by nightmares of my wrongdoing. In my dreams, the faces of those suffering children are always replaced by Ake’s, and the pain is so suffocating that sometimes it even got harder to breathe.”
She said it all in one breath, pouring out all the grievances in her heart. She let out the emotions she had been holding in her heart for many years. The intensity of her words reflected the weight of the pain she had been carrying.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Xia Chengzhang uttered with remorse, lowering his head and positioning his hands on both sides of the wheelchair. He struggled to rise and kneel before Wen Yunzhi and his wife, seeking forgiveness. However, Xue Chong intervened, raising his hand to prevent Xia Chengzhang from going down on his knees.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Dr. Cui, who had been seated quietly, stood up and said, “I’ll go and check.”
Xue Chong nodded.
Dr. Cui opened the inner door and peered through the peephole. After a moment, he returned, saying, “It’s Mr. Huo.”
Xia Chengzhang quickly looked up when he heard that, his eyes showing a bit of worry.
If Huo Yu found out what really happened, would he still respect him like before? Or would he be sad and disappointed?
And what if Wanwan discovered the truth?
Even though Xia Chengzhang had always been troubled by these unsettling questions, at this moment, they became more vivid and pressing than ever. The fear of how Huo Yu and Wanwan would react to the truth loomed heavily in his mind.
It felt like a sharp knife that had been hanging over him had suddenly come down without any mercy.
He couldn’t evade or escape from this situation anymore.
The doorbell rang again, but this time Dr. Cui stayed in place.
Xue Chong and Wen Yunzhi also stayed quiet, not uttering a word.
It appeared that unless Xia Chengzhang consented to them opening the door, they were prepared to maintain their silence.
After a while, Xia Chengzhang eventually raised his hand and vigorously rubbed his face.
“Let Xiaoyu come in,” he said, “it’s cold outside.”
Dr. Cui reacted and went to open the door again.
It was November, and the temperature was quite low. Huo Yu was wearing a coat. As he entered inside he also brought in a chilly breeze.
As time went by, the room got darker. Huo Yu lifted his hand to switch on the light.
With the bright light on, the sad faces of everyone in the room were more visible. Huo Yu pursed his lips and walked over slowly.
“Xiao Yu,” Xia Chengzhang looked up, forcing a smile that felt uglier than crying, “Why did you come back again?”
When Huo Yu left in the morning, he purposely left one of his lighters in Xia Wan’s room.
But for some reason, he did not say it.
“Huo Yu,” Xue Chong wasn’t as naive as Xia Chengzhang. At that moment, he had already picked up on the clues. His voice was gentle but firm, “You already knew about this, didn’t you?”
Huo Yu stayed silent for a moment and then nodded his head, “I’ve known about it for a while.”
Xia Chengzhang’s mind went completely blank. He stood there in shock for a while, and it took him some time to regain his senses. When he did, he lowered his head again, overwhelmed by the weight of the situation.
Before Huo Yu entered the room, he had been leaning against the window, eavesdropping for a while.
While he didn’t catch every detail of what Xia Chengzhang said, he grasped the gist of it.
Huo Yu has seen many difficult things, so he’s not too gentle or soft-hearted. He thought Xue Chong and Wen Yunzhi were similar to him. They’re all trying to find the right way to deal with Xia Wan’s feelings.
However, even though he’s tough, it still made him a bit sad when he heard Xia Chengzhang holding back his tears.
For Huo Yu, Xia Chengzhang is the only person who has made him feel like a “father” after his own father passed away. If he feels this way, he can only imagine how Xia Wan must feel after knowing the truth.
“Uncle, Aunt,” Huo Yu glanced at Wen Yunzhi and Xue Chong, and then at Xia Chengzhang, “Dad.”
“If you can trust me,” he said slowly, “just leave this matter to me.”
Upon hearing this, Wen Yunzhi and Xue Chong exchanged quick glances, silently communicating their thoughts.
In less than a year, they had observed Huo Yu, a young man, demonstrating significant courage and determination.
It’s clear that Huo Yu genuinely loves Xia Wan.
Even though there were doubts about when he first appeared and his intention, whether he knew about Xia Wan’s identity when he married him (XW).
But later, they dismissed that idea.
They realized that, aside from regular cooperation, Huo Yu had never used Xia Wan to gain any advantage.
Now, he has become a rising star in the capital on his own. His influence surpasses even that of Wenxuan, and he doesn’t need to rely on Xia Wan.
“Sorry to trouble you,” Wen Yunzhi expressed.
Huo Yu nodded and then squatted down in front of Xia Chengzhang.
Xia Chengzhang’s face was stained with tears as he spoke, “Wanwan, he…, I…”
“Don’t worry,” Huo Yu reassured him, looking into his eyes with calmness. Instead of the contempt and disdain that scared Xia Chengzhang earlier, there was a deep sense of assurance. Just as he looked at Xue Chong and Wen Yunzhi moments ago, it was easy for people to feel a sense of trust. His words were also resolute, “Xia Wan will be fine as long as you have me.”
Xia Chengzhang looked at him for a while, then nodded slowly.
…….O…K… So Xia Chengzhang 100% kidnapped a child. No weird misunderstandings or any grey areas. He knew that the original family likely wanted the child back and that they most likely could provide a better environment for the child then he even could. But still, he kept the kid knowing all this and knowing he was wrong. Because ….. he was sad. And …… everyone’s going to forgive him ……………………… because he was sad???
Why?
I honestly understand how you feel but, I think the only reason why they don’t want to be too harsh on XCZ is because they are all waiting for Xia Wan’s reaction. If XW is harsh on XCZ, then they can punish him but if XW still loves XCZ, then they can only have some resentment and keep their distance
XCZ saved a small child from being kidnapped, only to kidnap that child and raise them as his own. He treated XW very well (except for not returning him to his legal and biological parents). Yes, what he did was wrong AND illegal, and he should have to suffer the consequences of his actions. But I think XW’s parents and HY are thinking of what’s best for XW and how to navigate the situation with as little emotional and psychological damage to XW as possible. As the one most affected by what happened, XW should have a say in what happens to XCZ.
Yes, I can feel your emotions. But in the end Og Xia Wan was raised by XC. And when our Mc came to this world he also connected with XC
Was carried away by being upset, so forgot to write: thank you for your work! 🫶🏼
WOW 😒 because you are sad your life is bad you kidnapped a child and deprived him of his family vise versa…. Whatever the little compassion or sympathy i had for him is gone, hope he is left alone but we know that not gonna happen
Wow, I have so mixed feelings about that… His only good point is that he really loves XW and wanting the best for him, BUT! He still kidnapped someone else kid! The h*ll was that?! ٩(๑`ȏ´๑)۶ It was obvious the child was well-rised, he wanted to go back to his family, he wasn’t left, someone just take his away! How you could do that, XCZ?! (╬⓪益⓪)
Thank You for the new chapter (｡’▽’｡)♡
Aight I just wanna let this out. OG Xia Wan won’t have that tragic ending if he wasn’t kidnapped by his “loving” father. Like I can’t muster any empathy towards the dad because first off, it’s the Xia relatives that made Xia Wan’s life miserable in the first place. Like he won’t meet with Huo Lin if he wasn’t pimped out. And because the dad is too busy being sick that he was unaware of the situation. Like ???? Selfish f*cker. That dad should get a therapist instead of abducting a child.
I don’t think he chose to be sick with Cnancer though? Like that is not something people can stop having 😭😭
girl what half assed reason is this to kidnap a child like surely the author could have written this better 😭 nothing is adding up i swear
Wow just wow. If ever that this happen to me, i’ll punch him. And if the MC did not transmigrate to my body and i’m the OG Xia Wan, i’ll abandon him. His reason is so fucking selfish. He’s the reason I’m in a difficulty right now and i don’t know if he’s oblivious to the fact that his family bullies me. And if not, not only punch will get in his face. What a bitch!
I also really like how that despite everything, Xia Wan is at the center, and Xia Wan loves and respects Chengzhang, because he was good to him for all he could muster. So really the best way for things to work out is for Xia Wan to know the full story and for them to make decisions with him leading the way
He’s not a good person, but he’s a great dad 😭
Time check it’s 12:26 AM and I’m crying 😭😭😭😭😭😭
I’m honestly pissed and do not feel bad for that man, he’s a thief and caused a family grief for 18 years, he had to chance to do the right thing and didn’t. He doesn’t deserve to be treated as if he’s the most innocent here.
Just because he treated the right foesnt make his crime less wrong.
** Just because he treated the boy right doesn’t make his crime less wrong.