316: Revealed

In contrast with the dire struggles of the Yu family, Wang Cheng lived quite comfortably. After leaving Beijing University, he called Wang Ziyu from time to time to ask about her school situation. This was mostly because he was afraid that she still felt affection towards Gu Li, and that they’d somehow get close again. No matter what Gu Li’s intentions were, Wang Cheng didn't want to see that kind of thing happen again. For this reason, he also specifically instructed Qian Baobao to notify him immediately if something was suspicious. Fortunately, the school was on holiday.

Wang Ziyu seemed to have really seen things clearly, and she didn't go to Gu Li again after that. Even though Gu Li was injured because of her, she always found someone else to deliver meals or give condolences. It seemed that she really let him go.

On the contrary, Gu Li couldn’t seem to let her go. After everything had gone down, he went to Wang Ziyu privately, saying that he didn't expect his hidden identity to harm her, and hoped for her forgiveness.

Wang Ziyu told him that she didn't blame him, but her attitude was a lot more alienated. The times when they’d laugh and chat together no longer existed. Gu Li resorted to playing the ‘miserable’ card, yet she was still indifferent. Wang Ziyu had been acting like this for several days now, as if she suddenly changed back into the original Wang Ziyu who only devoted herself to studying. Gu Li knew that he had misjudged Wang Ziyu, and never appeared in front of her again. Sometimes he’d have someone deliver breakfast for Wang Ziyu, but every time, it entered Pang Chunjuan’s stomach.

One good thing came after another; Zheng Jingen suddenly called Wang Cheng to come back to the Zheng house that weekend.

The Zheng family was holding a family gathering that weekend. As a member of the Zheng family, Wang Cheng should come back if he wasn’t too busy. Wang Cheng didn’t intend to stay at first, and only planned to see a few faces to make them happy. However, Zheng Jingen told him there would be a good show, so for the sake of watching the drama, Wang Cheng ended up agreeing.

The weekend soon came.

Chu Yifeng drove Wang Cheng to the Zheng house’s neighborhood, and set a time to pick Wang Cheng up before leaving.

The Zheng family was more lively than usual this weekend since many juniors had come back. Zheng Ru, who had been ordered by Old Man Zheng not to come home ofen, brought her husband and son back to meet the Zheng family today. Wei Qiqi was originally supposed to come, but she refused to, as if she anticipated that something was going to happen.

Zheng Ru was thick-skinned, and didn’t feel embarrassed after being looked at by other people's mocking eyes. The Zheng house was her home. She could come and leave whenever she wanted, what was so embarrassing about it? Ever since her father told her not to come back often, she only came back every once in a while, but this time, she came back very confidently.

When Wang Cheng walked into the courtyard, he saw several he didn't want to see.

The Zheng family had long known of Wang Cheng and Chu Yifeng’s matter. They guessed that it was most likely Zhou Lin or her son’s doing, but they did not know that Wei Wei was also involved.

However, certain people were happy upon seeing Wang Cheng’s misfortune, naturally including Zheng Ru. After Wang Cheng's affairs were exposed, Zheng Ru never failed to treat Mother Zheng smugly. Although it was later revealed that some of the pictures were edited, she continued to go behind Mother Zheng’s back and spread that the two had an improper relationship. Considering what Wang Cheng had done to her before, Zheng Ru would never miss the rare opportunity when she was actually confronted with the protagonist.

"Yo, isn't this the busy man of the Zheng family? I heard that you were kicked out of the Zhou family by your grandfather and can't even enter the company. Now that you have nowhere to go, you have no choice but to come back to the Zheng family, right? That’s really pitiful. However, pitiful people must have a hateful quality about them, pitiful things don’t happen to good people. Since you had to mess around with a man, then that’s fine; now you’ve lost your position as heir. Let's see how you can explain things to your grandfather," Zheng Ru said mockingly.

What did he need to explain to his grandpa?

Wang Cheng raised his eyebrows. His gaze swept past Zheng Ru and fell on Wei Wei, who was behind her.

Wei Wei didn't seem to expect that Wang Cheng would stare at him. He felt guilty for a moment - it was almost like Wang Cheng’s deep, dark eyes held the ability to detect his secrets. However, Wang Cheng couldn’t know that the photo incident was related to him, it was impossible. He’d already gotten rid of the people they sent to follow Wang Cheng.

Zheng Ru couldn't help but get a little annoyed when she saw that Wang Cheng dared to ignore her.

"Aunt, I can respect you for Grandpa’s sake, but you'd better keep your mouth clean. If you annoy me too much, I will no longer care if my decisions abide by Grandpa or not." In the end, Wang Cheng was not a soft persimmon that could be grabbed at will. His gaze moved towards Zheng Ru again as he spoke in a flat, threat-filled voice.

When Zheng Ru met his cold eyes, her heart trembled. However, she couldn't bear to be shamed by a junior, and didn't believe that Wang Cheng would dare to do anything to her.

Her husband, Wei Kai, suddenly grabbed her and whispered in her ear: "Xiao Ru, don't make trouble. The Zhou family and the Zheng family are not Wang Cheng’s only backers." Though the attitude of the Chu family was unclear, the Gu family’s wasn’t. A few days ago, even the newspapers mentioned that Wang Cheng had connections to the Gu family.

Zheng Ru wasn’t thinking clearly just now, and she remembered these things only after her husband reminded her. She hurriedly looked at Wang Cheng. He walked in without looking back at all, completely ignoring them. She couldn't help but feel annoyed again in her heart.

"Dad, Mom, maybe I shouldn’t go in." Wei Wei remembered the look Wang Cheng had when he saw him. He felt like something bad was bound to happen.

"No way! It was so hard to find an excuse to bring you and your father here. If this opportunity is wasted, your mother will have to be ridiculed by her relatives next time I come. I’m telling you, no matter what happens today, you can't back out." Zheng Ru grabbed Wei Wei's arm, afraid that her son would run away.

With everyone gathered together, the originally spacious hall became crowded. The sofas were not enough to sit everyone, so the juniors could only use chairs brought by the servants. However, there were a couple exceptions: Wang Cheng and Zheng Jingen.

Mother Zheng hadn't seen Wang Cheng in a few days. As soon as she saw him, she immediately pulled him to sit next to her and talk about family affairs. She didn't say a word about the photos. Her only regret was that Zheng Jingxue was not there today. Zheng Jingxue followed her mentor's team a few days ago to go to the United States for a seminar, similar to when she’d previously gone to another province. She belonged to the type of people who often traveled.

Feng Yuying and Zheng Ru were unwilling to see them act so harmoniously, so they chatted on and on about the photo, trying to change the topic to the incident. However, everyone ignored them tacitly, causing Feng Yuying and Zheng Ru to almost die of anger.

Soon, Old Man Zheng came downstairs, and the two had to stop for the moment.

The luncheon thus began. The whole family set up two long tables and everyone took their seats. The meal went smoothly. Although the Zheng family did not have the habit of eating quietly, the old man would never allow them to quarrel at the dinner table. However, they had no such scruples after eating.

Feng Yuying took this opportunity to ridicule Wang Cheng again and brought up the topic of the photos in front of the old man. Zheng Ru immediately agreed that the incident was problematic. ‘Wang Cheng was still a descendant of the Zheng family, after all’, and ‘if rumors spread that he was with a man, it would affect the Zheng family’s reputation’, and so on and so forth.

"Grandpa, I want to say something while everyone is here today.”

Zheng Jingen suddenly stood up, while the crowd became quiet and looked at him at once.

Father and Mother Zheng also looked at their eldest son in surprise. They had no idea what he had planned.

"Then say it." The old man looked calm.

"It's about the photos. Someone stalked Chengcheng and Mr. Chu and secretly took photos of them together, before using editing software to make them look particularly intimate."

Zheng Jingen took the initiative to mention this matter, which startled the crowd, since everyone thought that this was the last thing they would bring up. Feng Yuying and several others felt that this matter might be complicated, so they all stopped talking. Seeing that they didn't speak, Zheng Ru didn't speak anymore either. However, Wei Wei, who was sitting behind her, felt his heart skip a beat after hearing this, and his unease grew greater and greater.

The old man nodded, "I already knew about this matter."

Zheng Jingen said: "Grandpa might not know who secretly photographed Chengcheng and Mr. Chu. Fortunately, I asked someone to investigate this matter and I found the person who took the covert photos. He confessed that there were two people who instructed him to do so, one was Zhao Chenlin, the other..." Zheng Jingen glanced at Wei Wei, who was fidgeting, "Was Cousin Wei Wei."

"Impossible!"

The person who jumped up and retorted was Zheng Ru.

"How is it impossible? If my aunt wants it verified, I can ask someone to bring him in to identify my cousin in person." Zheng Jingen asked calmly in return.

Zheng Ru's face flickered between blue and white. She thought back and finally understood why her son was so reluctant to enter the gates of the Zheng house just now. That stinky brat actually did such a thing behind her back, but didn’t even bother to hide his tracks, and now they were caught. She was pissed.

Wei Wei also wanted to say that it was impossible. He and Zhao Chenlin had already sent that person out of the country. How could he be caught by Zheng Jingen? Even if Zheng Jingen found his identity, he wouldn’t have been able to stretch his hands abroad. Wei Wei wasn’t able to hit the truth: that person didn’t want to spend all their time in a foreign country unfamiliar to them, so they snuck back quietly - only to get caught by Zheng Jingen. If it wasn’t for that, it would have been too difficult to find them.

This result was also a bit surprising to Wang Cheng. He didn't expect Wei Wei to be involved.

The old man’s expression instantly sank and his sharp gaze fell on Wei Wei's pale face. His low, majestic voice replaced the previous noisiness. "Wei Wei, is what Jingen said true? Did you ask someone to take photos and frame Wang Cheng? Answer me honestly!"

Wei Wei was frightened and stood up, trembling. "Grandpa, grandpa, I- I..."

"Father, Xiao Wei didn't do it on purpose, please forgive him." Seeing that there was no room to maneuver, Zheng Ru knelt on the ground with a thump. At first glance, the expression on her son's face was one of guilt. If Zheng Jingen really brought that person over for a confrontation, things would be even more difficult for them to avoid. As long as her father was willing to forgive her son now, others would not dare to object and bring evidence later on.

"Forgive him?" Mother Zheng sneered, "Zheng Ru, your son did such a thing to ruin the reputation of my family's Chengcheng. Do you really think this is something that can be solved by calling it unintentional? Though I knew that you used to deliberately ridicule us, I didn’t expect you to suddenly join forces with outsiders to deliberately harm Chengcheng. Your son is really becoming more and more capable. I will leave it at this: even if my father is willing to forgive Wei Wei, I definitely won't forgive him."

"Father..." Zheng Ru knew that she couldn't talk sense into Mother Zheng, so she immediately looked to the old man for help, hoping that the old man would let Wei Wei off in the name of family.

Mother Zheng also looked at the old man, her eyes firm as if to warn of what would happen if the old man was partial to his daughter.

***

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