Perhaps their ill-fated romance had been ordained by the gods. No matter what, they were humans after all, and nothing they did could’ve prevented the untimely end of their relationship.
“Xichen and Ruixi will be heading off to primary school soon, right? It’s time to bring her back and live out the rest of our lives together.”
Their children weren’t to blame for the grudges they harbored towards each other in the past. Naturally, the blame wasn’t their children’s to shoulder.
Ever since he found out from Bai Yinning that Lin Xinyan had left, Zong Qifeng had constantly been on edge. He was afraid that his son would do something he would regret in the future.
Zong Qifeng had tasted bitter regret before, and he didn’t want Zong Jinghao to follow him down the same slippery path.
Zong Jinghao continued, his voice quavering a little, “I wonder if she hates me. She’s been gone for so long, but she has never visited me in my dreams.”
The older man didn’t reply. Instead, he continued standing silently and listening to him.
A gust of wind blew through the garden, sending the trees rustling noisily as their branches danced in the breeze.
Time had simply flown by. The sun, which had been high up in the sky the entire day, had disappeared behind a mountain in the west. The mountain blocked out the rays of the sun, finally allowing dusk to settle over the city.
The father and son stayed in the room for a long time, with nobody coming in to disturb them. When it was dinnertime, however, Zong Jinghao finally exited the room by himself.
Cheng Yuwen had prepared dinner and set the dishes down on the round table in the courtyard. Zong Yanxi ran over to Zong Jinghao and tugged at his hand. “Daddy.”
Zong Jinghao caressed her hair lightly.
“Come and have dinner with us,” Zong Yanxi said, dragging him over to the table.
Buzz—
At that moment, Zong Jinghao’s phone started vibrating, signaling that he had an incoming call. Telling his daughter to sit down first, he walked to a corner and took out his phone. Shen Peichuan was calling him. Zong Jinghao accepted his call and brought the phone to his ear.
From the other end of the line, Shen Peichuan said, “Wen Qing’s sentence is out.”
Wen Qing’s car accident had caused three people to die on the spot. For such a serious case, it was only right for him to be punished according to the law. When the judicial court launched its own investigation, they quickly realized that the car accident had been caused by a kidnapping case gone wrong. Wen Qing then turned himself in and confessed all his wrongdoings, even offering a public apology for his actions. He had sounded so sincere that the court decided to lighten his sentence.
“He got a two-year suspended sentence,” said Shen Peichuan.
When the judge announced his sentence, this was what he said exactly, “Wen Qing, you should have known better as a civil servant. Your crimes have severely tainted the image of the civil service in the eyes of the public, not to mention the damage caused to its reputation. For that, you deserve to be punished severely. However, considering that you surrendered yourself to the police, confessed your wrongdoings, apologized to the public and showed a willingness to turn over a new leaf, we have opted to lighten your sentence. You are hereby sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence, and you will not be able to take up a job in the civil service for the rest of your life.”
Zong Jinghao didn’t seem affected by this news at all. Showing no desire for revenge, he replied blandly, “I understand.”
“Other relevant authorities have meted out similar penalties to Wen Qing, but… Gu Bei managed to get away scot-free.”
Wen Qing had sought out Gu Bei first, and as such, he was the mastermind behind the crimes. Besides, Gu Bei wasn’t the one who had hired the gangsters to hijack the car. He had let his assistant manager do it instead.
In order to implicate Gu Bei, Zong Jinghao had taken a video of the clandestine meeting between the assistant manager and the gangsters. He had even managed to get a recording of the assistant manager saying that Gu Bei had sent him there. However, when the assistant manager got arrested, he had sworn up and down that he had orchestrated everything by himself, and that Gu Bei had nothing to do with it.
Besides, Mr. Gu had made use of his connections with the higher-ups to ensure that Gu Bei would escape imprisonment.
Anyone who was able to open a highly-publicized nightclub had to be a person of great influence.
“After this, Gu Bei will definitely know that we tricked him and took advantage of him. Will he come after us for revenge?” After all, Gu Bei wasn’t exactly a nice person.
He had nearly fallen into their trap this time. Knowing Gu Bei, there was no way he would let it go so easily.
Zong Jinghao said, “Keep an eye on his movements. We’ll make further plans when I get back.”
“Okay.”
When he hung up the phone, Zong Jinghao turned and looked at his two children. Under the moonlight, they bent their heads over their bowls and ate quietly. Zong Qifeng’s words had struck a chord in him. Even while Zong Jinghao was seeking revenge on behalf of Cheng Yuxiu, he had never once thought of giving up on Lin Yanxin or the family.
He walked over to them. Seeing him approach, Cheng Yuwen pulled out his chair for him. “It’s already so late. Sit down and have dinner with us.”
Zong Jinghao looked at him before sitting down on the chair. “Thanks.”
“There’s no need for that. I’m an outsider, after all. You don’t have to be so polite in your own house.” Cheng Yuwen passed him a pair of chopsticks.
“If you need anything in the future, just let me know.” Zong Jinghao took the pair of chopsticks from him. “From now on, my father will be living here with us. Please help us take good care of him.”
Zong Qifeng had asked to stay with them for the time being. His body was in good shape, but his mental health was getting worse by the day.
Cheng Yuwen replied, “Of course I will! I’ve never treated your father like an outsider. Even if there’s no real love between him and my sister, they’ve been married for over twenty years now. I’ve always treated him like my brother-in-law.”
As he spoke, Cheng Yuwen felt a lump in his throat. Twenty years wasn’t a long time, but it certainly wasn’t a short time either.
Cheng Yuwen poured him a glass of wine. “Actually, there’s something I need to thank you for.”
He filled his own glass too. Although he was holed up in this tiny town of Baicheng, Cheng Yuwen kept perfect tabs on what was going on in the outside world.
“As you already know, this house was left to us by my ancestors. My ancestors sustained themselves by weaving, and Tea Silk was finally invented around my grandfather’s time. By the time the trade was passed on to my father, Tea Silk had gained quite a reputation for itself. During my father’s time, the standard of living in the country was getting higher, and people were becoming more concerned about their clothing. Tea Silk was held in high regard by many in the fabrics business.” Here, Cheng Yuwen’s expression turned rather sad. “We thought that it would eventually fade into obscurity as time went on, but it has been revived again.”
Ever since Lin Xinyan’s successful Tea Silk exhibition, more people had gained awareness of this beautiful, idiosyncratic fabric. Within the industry, it had started to gain widespread popularity again.
As one of the original experts of Tea Silk, Cheng Yuwen had gained a large following overnight.
“I knew you were behind this somehow. Without you, who would care so much about the Cheng family’s business?” Cheng Yuwen wiped his face with a towel before raising his glass in a toast. “Thanks, Jinghao.”
Zong Jinghao pursed his lips. He understood what Cheng Yuwen was saying, but he had gotten it wrong—Zong Jinghao had nothing to do with it.
Initially, Zong Jinghao wondered if Lin Xinyan had carried out the exhibition because she wanted to make amends for Cheng Yuxiu’s incident. Now, he finally understood that she simply wanted Tea Silk to gain widespread attention among the public again.
She wasn’t doing it to make amends, but to help the Cheng family continue their ancestral tradition. Perhaps this had been her destiny all along.
She had become the successor of the Tea Silk production method, and taken the Cheng family’s business to greater heights.
At that moment, Zong Jinghao suddenly wanted to thank her.
He wanted to thank her for all she had done for him and the entire Cheng family.
Zong Jinghao and Cheng Yuwen finished the entire bottle of wine. After that, Cheng Yuwen continued rambling on about things that had happened in the past.
Su Zhan refused to drink. He had to drive tomorrow. They were going to stay here tonight, before setting off for C City the next morning.
In C City, Lin Xinyan walked out from the store and stood by the side of the road, trying to hail a taxi. She had lent her car to Qin Ya.
Inside a black car that had been parked nearby, a man was surveilling her carefully. After observing her for a while, he turned to the person next to him and said, “Are you sure it’s that woman?”
Number Four replied, “Mr. Gu, don’t worry. I carried out my investigation very thoroughly. Zong Jinghao showed up at this city because of her.”
“But why does she look so unbothered?” Gu Bei had purposely sent those pictures to her in order to see what her reaction would be.
However, she looked so calm that it seemed as though nothing had happened to her.
Usually, girls who found out that their boyfriends were cheating on them reacted in very predictable ways. They either threw a fit or threatened to commit suicide by hanging themselves.
“I’m quite sure that Zong Jinghao broke off his engagement to the He family’s daughter back then in order to marry this woman. If I remember correctly, she was also the cause of Zong Jinghao’s dispute with Wen Qing.”
Hearing this, Gu Bei’s interest was piqued. “Oh, is that so?”
