163: Rehearsing

The next day, Zheng Ru appeared in the Zheng family home early in the morning. As a married daughter, she often ran to the Zheng family when she had nothing to do in the name of seeing the old man. Put nicely, it could be called filial piety, but everyone else knew what it meant. Wei Kai, like them, was an important member of the government. His ability to get up to this point had a lot to do with the Zheng family. However, his position was not as high as theirs, and he sat in his position for 2 or 3 years. If he didn’t go further, it would be difficult for him to get promoted in the future.

For her husband, Zheng Ru ran here two out of three days. From time to time, she learned from the old man’s hobbies and collected various good teas or health-preserving prescriptions for the old man. However, the old man never expressed his attitude, causing Zheng Ru anxiety. Wei Kai had also mentioned it to her several times, but she dared not show it in front of the old man.

Today, Zheng Ru was prepared when she came. In recent years, she had been searching for good things, and her family had already prepared some things to be ready for use soon. When the old man came downstairs, everyone saw her eagerly rush over, and shot disdainful and contemptuous glances.

Zheng Jingen actually admired this aunt’s perseverance and cheek. He spent most days a year at the Zheng family home, but he also sympathized with his aunt. When he was playing chess with his grandfather, his grandfather once said, ‘Although your uncle has some ability, he lacks long-term sight. He is not bold enough nor courageous enough, and if offered a position beyond his ability, will not be able to sit anymore.’

This sentence directly determined his uncle’s future political career. Since Grandpa didn’t tell his aunt, Zheng Jingen wouldn’t be stupid enough to tell her, so Zheng Ru and her husband had been kept in the dark until now. Even if she sent as much fine tea as possible to the old man, the old man would not let go.

"Jingen, na, I heard that you and your parents are going to eat out this afternoon. Why are you going out to eat well? Is it more lively to eat together? Or is it that you’ve made an appointment with someone?" Zheng Ru came to Zheng Jingen after courting the old man, her smile hypocritical.

[T/N: na = just a sound she is adding, like ah or bah at the end of sentences in other Chinese novels. This time it’s kind of used to sound cute/coquettish.]

Zheng Jingen moved his eyebrows. "Occasionally, I want to go out to eat. Does aunt have to take care of even this? If aunt is free, go home with uncle and cousin instead, your family will be happier together."

"What are you talking about? Aunt just cares about you." The smile on Zheng Ru's face froze.

Zheng Jingen gave her a deep look. "Aunt cares about us but you better care about my cousin. I heard that he caused trouble at Beijing University yesterday, and it was something he initiated. Aunt should take care of him when you have time. He’s still the grandson of the Zheng family."

Zheng Ru was very surprised that Zheng Jingen would have known about this. Before she spoke, the fourth son, Zheng Jinghua, approached her. "I also heard about this. I don’t know if Wei Wei told aunt, but he lost face at school yesterday, and it was a big deal. He treated a girl’s brother as a love rival, without them saying anything. The biggest point, though, is that Wei Wei and the girl don’t have anything to do with each other. This is a sensation at Beijing University.”

Zheng Ru couldn't laugh anymore. Of course she knew it, but she didn't expect that even Zheng Jinghua, a senior [T/N: in the university], knew. "It's nothing, Wei Wei didn’t know that the man was her brother ..." She tried to speak up for her son.

Zheng Jinghua laughed aloud, "Even if he didn't know it, he shouldn’t stand to blame others. Right, after that incident, Wei Wei skipped class and disappeared all day. I have a friend who said they saw him go to a bar with weird and strange people."

He had had this kind of problem before, but it was relatively short-termed, because the Zheng family’s education was too strict. Once he disgusted his grandfather, he could only live a mediocre life in the future. This was only realized after he was violently beaten by Zheng Jingen. Since then, he had worshiped his second brother.

Because his grandfather was partial to the second house, his parents used to keep silent about the excellent Zheng Jingen. It was certain that he had complaints. When he was young, he was affected by his parents’ ideas, so he grew up to become rebellious, and even acting against his second brother.

He still remembered that when he was fifteen years old, because he was hanging around with a group of dog friends and dog all year round, he went to various sensual places, and even took drugs under the temptation of his friends. They were in a relatively famous bar, when his friends took out white powder from who-knows-where, saying that the effect of this white powder was better than usual.

Zheng Jinghua just sniffed the white powder at that time, not knowing of the danger of the white powder. After being told by his friends, he decided to give it a try. As a result, the private room was kicked open from the outside, and Zheng Jingen appeared at the door and dragged him out without a word. After he resisted, he was punched a few times, and then dragged to an unfamiliar place, where a group of drug addicts wandered, pale, thin, and bony. They laid on the ground shivering like beggars, from time to time, screaming unstoppably. Others had to borrow from someone who sold drugs because they didn’t have money, kneeling and licking toes or drilling their crotch.

His second brother told him that those people were drug users. If he continued to use drugs, this would be his end in the future. In order to alleviate the drug addiction, they had to buy white powder from people everywhere. If the addiction occurred, life would be worse than death. At the age of fifteen, his circle of life since childhood had always been bright and beautiful. When he saw this scene, he became frightened.

Later, he heard the news that, after his second brother appeared and took him away from the bar the other day, an official second generation smoked the white powder under the temptation of that friend, and died. The white powder was not an ordinary drug, and if smoked in large portions, could kill people. At the time, the incident was extremely troublesome, and no one involved in the incident came to a good end. Since then, he did not dare to take drugs again. Not only did he quit his drug addiction with the help of his second brother, return to the righteous path, and even stop contacting those dog friends, he later told his parents about this. Because his parents didn’t know of this matter from beginning to end, he wanted to borrow this incident to unravel his parents' prejudice against his second uncle and his second cousin.

Although the matter was over, his parents were scared when hearing that he had almost died. They also knew that there was a wide range of implications in that incident, and a thorough investigation was carried out. Many officials were dismissed as a result of it. Some people were implicated because of their children’s involvement. The two did not expect that their son would pass by the god of death. Since then, the couple had grateful feelings towards Zheng Jingen. If their son was in danger, it would be useless for them to argue.

Zheng Ru was finally mad at Zheng Jinghua and left. If she stayed any longer, she might not be able to hold back against what Zheng Jinghua, a little kid, would say to her
.
She couldn’t understand. Zheng Jinghua had always been against Zheng Jingen when he was a kid. How did it suddenly change? As long as she said a word to the people of the second house, the boy would run out and make trouble. Her purpose was not achieved, but she was provoked. For a while, Zheng Ru simply didn't want to think about it at all, anyway, it shouldn't be so coincidental.

Not long after she left, the family of four in the second room also went out.

The agreed meeting place was at a restaurant in the Imperial Capital. The place was set by Zheng Jingen, and it was far from the main house of the Zheng family. The chances of meeting acquaintances were very low. He booked a box for six, and the four arrived before Wang Cheng.

Zheng Jingxue picked up the menu and asked, "Parents, brother, what would you like to eat?"

"Wait a minute first," Zheng Jingen said.

"Brother has made an appointment?" Zheng Jingxue asked in amazement. Zheng Jingen nodded, but did not say who the other party was. Zheng Jingxue didn't ask when she saw the situation. Instead, Mother Zheng looked at him first, then looked at her husband. Her expression was thoughtful and she didn’t talk as much as usual. The father and son both noticed, but neither of them spoke.

At this time, Wang Cheng and Chu Yifeng had just gone out.

The main idea of ​​this visit to the Imperial City was to recognize relatives. When he was going to see the biological parents who he hadn't met for 25 years, in Wang Cheng's words, anyone would be nervous. He accumulated all the tension of 25 years at this moment.

"Boss Chu, what should I say when I see them? If they want me to recognize my ancestors and stay with them, what shall I say?" In the car, Wang Cheng asked this for the nth time.

"Don’t you already have an answer in your heart?" Chu Yifeng glanced at him and shook his head.

Wang Cheng said, "Rehearse first."

"Are you acting?"

"I'd rather it just be a show." There would be no trouble this way. He was very entangled. His current parents treated him well, and he never thought about leaving them for his biological parents. However, Zheng Jingen said that his biological parents had always missed him, and had not stopped looking for him for so many years. Although he had no feelings for them now, but they were his biological parents, they must hope that he would return to them.

"We’re here, it's too late to be tangled again." Chu Yifeng drove the car over and parked in the parking lot set up on both sides of the restaurant. Wang Cheng got out of the car and looked up. Ronghua Restaurant, it sounded a bit like an ordinary restaurant. This was exactly where they agreed to meet this time, and his biological parents were waiting for him inside.

***

Back    ToC    Next