Chapter 54

The entire He family was shocked by her words. Susan had always been a dignified person, never raising her voice even when angry, let alone using such malicious language to speak about a child who was only seven or eight years old at the time.

“Susan, how could you? Ning Ning is the legitimate bloodline of our old He family. Who are you to stop him from coming back?” Ji Jin, after the initial shock, was more furious.

With three sons, He Qingmo was not reliable, He Qingchen and Lin Lin didn’t want more children, having one daughter was enough for them. So, in the He family’s younger generation, He Shuning was the only eldest grandson. Even though he stayed abroad most of the time, he was still the apple of his grandparents’ eyes.

Learning that all these years, Shuning didn’t come back because of Susan, Ji Jin couldn’t contain her anger.

Susan, who had always respected her elders, seemed like a different person today. She coldly looked at Ji Jin and said, “Why should I let him come back? Why should I accept a child who is the offspring of a woman who seduced someone else’s husband, caused the death of my child, and made me unable to conceive? Mom, when you feel sorry for your grandson, have you ever thought about me? Have you thought about the child in my womb, who didn’t even have the chance to call me ‘mom’ before leaving this world? He is also your grandson!”

The living room fell into an extremely awkward silence.

He Chengyi remained silent, Ji Jin’s anger couldn’t find an outlet, He Qing’an kept his head down, suppressed to the extreme. He Qingchen looked at them with a helpless sigh.

In the room, only two people wore expressions of shock: He Qingmo and Lin Lin.

Having been married for only a few years, Lin Lin didn’t know much about these adult matters. As for He Qingmo, he was young at the time of these events, and the family had kept these things tightly sealed from him.

He always knew that his eldest brother made a mistake when he was young, resulting in He Shuning’s existence. According to his memory, Shuning’s mother should have been just a hostess, and after the incident, the He family paid her off, she gave birth to the child and left. To avoid affecting the marriage of his brother and sister-in-law, Shuning was born abroad and didn’t return for a while.

Why he never came back later, He Qingmo was not clear.

But he always thought that after that incident, his sister-in-law forgave his brother and accepted the child.

Never thought there were still grudges and resentment.

Susan looked at the He family members who were rendered speechless by her, “Do you think I’m excessive? If it were you, what would you do? Let me tell you, when I miscarried because of that woman, I even had the heart to kill He Shuning! Don’t expect me to accept him. Today, I’ll make it clear. If he steps into this house, my marriage with He Qing’an is over!”

With that, she calmly took two boxes out of her bag and placed them on the coffee table, “Mom and Dad, these are gifts I bought for you during my business trip. They’re here.” Then she turned and left.

The He family remained silent, the atmosphere very oppressive.

After a while, Ji Jin began to frantically beat He Qing’an, crying and scolding him, “It’s all because of you, this useless thing. Who asked you to do such a thing back then, attracting such a shameless woman. If it weren’t for her greed, Susan wouldn’t have miscarried, wouldn’t be unable to have children, and wouldn’t hate Ning Ning so much. It’s all because of you, today I’ll beat you to death, you bastard!”

He Qing’an remained silent, letting her beat him.

“Enough!” Suddenly, He Chengyi grabbed a cup and smashed it on the ground, roaring, “What’s the use of beating him now? Second and third, find He Shuning first. We’ll deal with other matters later. Eldest, go home first. We, the He family, owe Susan an apology.” After speaking, he angrily turned and went upstairs.

Ji Jin didn’t dare to say anything for a while, only wiping away tears and instructing He Qingmo and He Qingchen to find Shuning.

When He Qingmo left the He family, he felt a bit heavy-hearted. Susan’s actions seemed excessive, but who could guarantee that they wouldn’t act more excessively if they were in her shoes? Thinking about it from her perspective, her actions were understandable.

But what did Shuning do wrong?

He couldn’t control his own life. He was just a child forced into this world against his will. It was his parents, or rather his mother’s fault. Why should the blame be placed on him?

Previously, He Qingmo didn’t have much feeling towards this nephew. He knew there was such a person, felt he was troublesome, causing trouble from time to time. He always thought he was just idle.

But now, thinking about it, living alone abroad from a young age, without any relatives around, no matter how many servants there were, they couldn’t replace family. Moreover, at the age of seven or eight, he was pointed at and scolded as a bastard, his mother labeled as a shameless woman. Such words must have caused irreversible damage to him in his early years.

So, he ended up causing trouble and drifting apart from his father. And, no matter what, he refused to come back.

He Qingmo pinched his brow, called Song Yang to find someone, and then dialed the housekeeper’s number in Shuning’s home in M country to understand the situation.

The butler had been working in the He family since He Shuning’s birth, spending more time with him over the years than anyone else in the family. So, he should understand He Shuning better than anyone else.

After learning some of his habits and preferences, He Qingmo asked, “In your opinion, if he doesn’t go back temporarily, where do you think he might go?”

The butler was uncertain, “He hasn’t mentioned that. He usually doesn’t talk much about that side of things. But I once saw a travel brochure in his room, and it seemed to be about Jiangnan.”

“Jiangnan…” He Qingmo fell into a slight silence. “Alright, thank you. I’ll inform you if there are any clues.”

“Thank you very much. Please find him as soon as possible and tell him that we’re all waiting for him to come home,” the butler sincerely thanked.

After hanging up the phone, He Qingmo felt a bit emotional. After Ji Jin revealed this matter, he dismissed the household staff there, but He Qingmo felt that they were more like He Shuning’s family now.

At this time, Fan Xing finished the morning classes, hastily grabbed some food from the cafeteria due to not sleeping well the night before, and rushed back to the dormitory for a nap.

Just before falling asleep, he received a message from Eric: “I’m leaving, goodbye!”

Fan Xing stared at those words in a daze for a while. Then, he replied, “Okay, have a safe journey.”

He didn’t think much about it, just feeling that Eric was probably returning to M country, considering that he was in university and couldn’t be away for too long. Moreover, now that everything was clear between them, there was no need for Eric to stay.

But just because of this message, he wasted the rare opportunity to catch up on sleep during lunchtime and couldn’t close his eyes at all.

Feeling extremely sleepy during afternoon classes, it wasn’t until the end of the second class that He Qingmo’s message came through, and he became a bit more awake.

He Qingmo asked him to wait at the school gate and come over after class.

Fan Xing was a bit puzzled. It wasn’t a weekend, so why would He Qingmo come to the school?

Nevertheless, he was in a good mood. Even though they had met in the morning, he was still happy to see him again in the evening.

After class, he handed his books to his roommate and rushed to the school gate.

At this time, the school gate had a considerable crowd, so He Qingmo’s car was parked in a slightly remote alley. Fan Xing jogged over, saw no one around, and quickly slipped into the car. Smiling at the man, he said, “Brother, did you oversleep until now?”

He Qingmo leaned over to help him fasten his seatbelt, and at the same time, pinched his cheek, chuckling, “Yes, so now I have energy. Be mentally prepared, Fan Xing, pay off the debt from last night.”

“What did I owe last night…” Fan Xing hadn’t finished his sentence when he realized what the man meant. His face turned hot, and he turned away, looking outside, muttering, “It’s not like I didn’t want to.”

The man glanced at him, raised an eyebrow, “So, you were looking forward to it? Blame the husband. The husband was worried you wouldn’t wake up this morning. If I had known that Fan Xing was so expectant, I wouldn’t have taken a cold shower.”

“Who’s looking forward to it?” Fan Xing instinctively turned back to retort, but seeing the man’s teasing expression, he pouted and stopped talking.

He Qingmo didn’t continue to tease him, directly taking him to have dinner.

While eating, Fan Xing noticed that the man seemed to have something on his mind. Putting down his chopsticks, he shifted closer to the man and gently asked, “Brother, what’s wrong? Did something happen? Are you upset about something?”

He Qingmo turned his head to look at him, and with a concerned expression, Fan Xing’s clear and bright eyes reflected his figure.

He reached out, holding Fan Xing’s hand, gently pinching it, and sighed, “Well, let me tell you. Shuning has run away.”

“Ah?” Fan Xing was stunned for a moment before realizing that He Shuning was Eric. He quickly added, “What do you mean he ran away? He sent me a message during the day saying he’s going back. Probably back to M country, right?”

He Qingmo shook his head, explaining to Fan Xing the situation of Eric’s disappearance and his background.

He Qingmo had initially hesitated to reveal this, not wanting Fan Xing to worry or have too much contact with Eric. However, he changed his mind. He shouldn’t distrust Fan Xing.

Fan Xing was genuinely worried, even distressed. He always thought that Eric lived in a very happy family. Whether as a top student or a rebellious youth who fought with delinquents, he never saw a dark side in Eric.

He always thought that a family that could shape such a personality must be a happy and harmonious one.

He always thought that Eric was just a carefree rich kid.

How could he have imagined that such a confident and proud teenager had been carrying the title of a self-born child for many years and couldn’t return home?

He didn’t know why Eric left this time, whether it was purely due to family reasons or if he was also influenced by him. Looking at it from a friend’s perspective, he felt very uncomfortable and worried. After all, Eric, to avoid being found by the people from the He family, couldn’t even use his credit card, and only had the three thousand yuan Fan Xing gave him.

In such an unfamiliar place, how long could he hold on?

What if there was an accident? What should they do then?

“Don’t worry, I’ve already found him,” He Qingmo knew that Fan Xing would react this way.

“Really? Where is he?” Fan Xing asked eagerly.

“At Taihu.”

“Taihu?”

Fan Xing was momentarily stunned, then felt a faint pain in his chest. He bit his lip and softly said, “I told him before that if I have the chance to return to China, I want to visit Taihu because it’s my grandmother’s hometown.”

At that time, Fan Xing could only confirm that Eric was Asian and didn’t know that he was Chinese like himself. When he mentioned Taihu or Jiangnan, Eric had no understanding. So, Fan Xing introduced him, telling him how beautiful it was and even showed him pictures online.

He remembered the eager expression on Eric’s face at that time, saying, “I want to go too. Let’s go together sometime, bring your grandmother along.”

At that time, Fan Xing was ecstatic.

But now… there was only sighs of helplessness and sadness.

In fact, when He Qingmo heard about Jiangnan from the butler, he had a faint idea.

Later, it was confirmed that the other party was indeed at Taihu.

Because he couldn’t directly take a plane or high-speed train, Eric spent quite some time from B city to Taihu. He left before dawn and only contacted Fan Xing in the afternoon when Song Yang confirmed that he had arrived.

“Let’s go, let’s find him.” He Qingmo pulled Fan Xing up to leave.

By now, it was already dark outside, but the two of them didn’t delay. They went straight to the airport.

He Qingmo had planned to go over tonight when he came to find Fan Xing, so Song Yang had everything prepared. After arriving at the airport, they boarded a plane, and two hours later, the plane landed in Jiangnan.

Due to the tight schedule, they didn’t drive this time. Instead, they took a helicopter directly from the airport. After twenty minutes, the helicopter landed in an open space a few kilometers away from the inn where Eric stayed. They got off and drove to the location.

The inn owner told them that Eric had checked in but hadn’t returned since. He suggested they either call him or check nearby bars.

Fan Xing tried to call his phone, but it was continuously turned off. So, they had no choice but to go to the bars.

Fortunately, there weren’t many bars nearby, mostly in residential areas with controlled noise levels. They were mostly quiet bars, not the chaotic ones with dancing crowds. It made finding someone easier.

Thus, they successfully found Eric in the third bar. At that time, Eric was already heavily drunk, unable to stand steadily, surrounded by a group of people trying to get handsy with him.

 

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