Chapter 81: It’s Gu Yang
The person who discovered this matter was Xie Wu.
After that incident when he went to the clothing store and got caught, he secretly investigated several more times on his own.
The results of the investigation were… hard to describe.
The rumor that Feng Xiaochun had followed a wealthy boss when she was young turned out to be true. The fact that the man already had a family was also true. Xia Chun was the child she had with that boss, and she had even taken her elementary-school-aged child to his house to cause a scene.
When you put it that way… wasn’t that basically being a mistress?
Since the person he was investigating was the parent of a fellow student, Xie Wu couldn’t say much and could only grumble to himself.
He really didn’t know what terrible taste his brother had. First he liked Zhou Qinqin, and then right after that he liked Feng Xiaochun.
Feng Xiaochun lazed around all day, loved buying random things, never worked, and just played cards with a group of girlfriends. She didn’t take care of her child either—either leaving him alone at home or dropping him off at the clothing shop downstairs with the shop owner’s wife.
She must have received a large sum of money from that wealthy boss back then, but the money only went out and never came in. It was probably almost all spent by now.
But although Feng Xiaochun herself was a failure as a person, she had given birth to a good daughter. From a very young age the child had worked as a child model, and the money earned was enough to cover their expenses.
“Not a daughter, didn’t you see the news online? Feng Xiaochun had a son!”
“Oh my, Feng Xiaochun is really something else. Why dress a perfectly good son as a daughter?”
“To make money, of course. What kind of mother does that…”
Xie Wu didn’t continue listening.
After the incident, he had been worried about Xia Chun and secretly went to Class Ten to check. But by then Xia Chun had already taken leave.
The two of them weren’t very close, so he didn’t feel comfortable asking too many questions. He just planned to make one last trip to that clothing store.
Unexpectedly, he ran into Feng Xiaochun there, her hair messy.
He was still wearing his school uniform. The woman’s originally vacant gaze suddenly lit up. She rushed over, grabbed his clothes, and asked with a trembling voice whether he had seen her Xia Chun.
From her incoherent words, Xie Wu barely pieced together the situation.
Xia Chun had disappeared.
Everything had been fine, but when she woke up in the morning, he was suddenly gone. His phone was off and unreachable. Even— even his bank card was left on the table…
“Suddenly disappeared? Did something happen?”
Faced with his question, Feng Xiaochun hesitated, her eyes avoiding his.
Xie Wu guessed there might be some hidden reason, but now clearly wasn’t the time to dig deeper. Feng Xiaochun had already become a well-known figure on this street, and gossip immediately began circulating around them.
Although he had privately criticized Feng Xiaochun’s character before, seeing her like this, the only thing Xie Wu could do now was comfort her and promise to help look.
“So that’s roughly what happened. Xia Chun is missing now. Do any of you have connections who could help find him?”
Xu Qingfeng said, “Even so, we don’t know Xia Chun. Why not just report it to the police?”
Ying Jiayi said, “Twenty-four hours haven’t passed yet. The police probably won’t accept the case.”
Yu Bai said, “I tried calling just now too. Xia Chun has two phones—one for work and one personal—and neither is reachable. Nothing bad happened, right?”
Xie Wu scratched his head. He really was grasping at straws. Asking classmates probably wouldn’t help either.
Maybe he should ask the class monitor…
Just as he was thinking that, He Ming’an sent him a private message.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m not too sure either. I just ran into Xia Chun’s mom on the road. She said he disappeared this morning. He even left his bank card on the table—all his savings are in it.”
Xie Wu told him everything he knew and, while he was at it, wanted to ask if He Ming’an could check Xia Chun’s information left at school.
The chat window showed “typing” several times.
But after a long while, no new message came.
Xie Wu was about to send what he had typed when his finger froze in midair.
Feng Xiaochun had followed a wealthy boss when she was young.
That boss was a rich man whose name counted among the notable ones in Jiangcheng.
A notable rich man in Jiangcheng…
Xia Chun had once gone to his house and caused a scene when he was in elementary school…
Xie Wu remembered that He Ming’an had a younger illegitimate half-brother around the same age. He had heard the child also studied at Guanli…
!!!
Although he had long known Xia Chun was actually a boy dressed as a girl, he had never connected it to that possibility.
He was the intuitive type. The sudden flash of insight connected all the scattered pieces in his mind.
The message asking for help still hadn’t been sent. For a moment, Xie Wu didn’t know whether to go forward or back.
He wanted to help Xia Chun, but he couldn’t imagine what kind of mood He Ming’an must be in while typing those words.
People naturally favor those closer to them. In his heart, he would inevitably lean toward He Ming’an.
That was only human nature.
After an unknown amount of time, a message finally came from the other side.
“I understand.”
Just a simple sentence.
In the end, Xie Wu still didn’t send the message he had typed.
The phone rang.
Gu Yang answered the call.
Only the sound of breathing came from the other end.
He spoke softly, “What’s wrong?”
Finally, a voice came through.
He Ming’an spoke slowly.
“Nothing. I just wanted to hear your voice.”
He sat in his room without turning on the lights. The dark space was illuminated only by the faint glow of his phone.
As if hearing something, he asked again,
“What are you doing right now?”
Gu Yang didn’t answer.
He had just stepped aside to make way for a family of three walking past.
“Do you want to see me?”
He Ming’an froze, unable to react for a moment.
“I just happened to pass by your house. If you don’t want to see me, forget it. I’m heading back.”
“Where are you now?”
“At your gate,” the voice said casually, as if he had merely wandered past during a walk—if one ignored the fact that their homes were half an hour apart by car.
He Ming’an quickly told the housekeeper to open the gate and hurriedly grabbed a coat, phone in hand, rushing downstairs.
“Good evening, Young Master Gu Yang.”
The gray-haired butler smiled kindly. His face somewhat resembled Uncle Huang’s, so even though they hadn’t met many times, Gu Yang felt a bit of natural goodwill toward him.
“Good evening.”
Gu Yang looked around casually.
“This is actually my first time here.”
“Young Master has never brought anyone home before. Not just him—President He rarely invites people here either,” the butler explained, worried Gu Yang might feel uncomfortable.
Gu Yang only hummed lightly and didn’t say more.
Next to the main house stood a small side building, very conspicuous and oddly out of place with the rest of the architecture.
Gu Yang’s gaze lingered on it.
Lights were still on inside. Someone was tidying things up. Servants moved in and out. A woman with her hair in a bun stood by the door.
“That is Young Master’s mother,” the butler said quietly.
Gu Yang hummed again, his expression becoming even more silent.
Rumors about the mistress of the He family had always circulated outside. Since the visitor was an important friend of their young master, the butler couldn’t help explaining a little.
“Some people like to gossip and say Madam has a strange personality and never cares about the household.”
He lowered his head.
“But Madam is actually a very kind and gentle person. In recent years she has devoted herself to Buddhist practice, but she still does charity work and has helped many people. She’s also kind to us servants and has never scolded anyone.”
The woman with the bun looked over.
Her eyes were clear and tranquil. Perhaps because she practiced Buddhism all year round, her whole aura felt calm and open.
“This is Young Master’s friend,” the butler introduced.
“I don’t think I’ve seen him bring anyone home before,” Madam He said.
Then she smiled self-mockingly.
“Perhaps it’s because of me.”
“Madam…” the butler hesitated.
“Uncle Yang,” Madam He said softly, “I haven’t gone out these past few days, but things outside seem very lively.”
The sentence clearly carried deeper meaning.
The butler didn’t know what to say.
“He Yihong even had someone pass me a message saying he wouldn’t interfere with anything.”
She laughed faintly with sarcasm.
“He even specifically told me that.”
“Madam, President He just…”
“He made a mistake himself, yet he can’t clean up the mess, leaving everything so embarrassing.”
Her voice trembled slightly.
She had thought she had already let it go, but when forced to face it again, her heart still hurt uncontrollably.
“And now all he says is that he won’t interfere.”
Noticing Gu Yang looking at her, Madam He met his gaze and smiled politely.
“Sorry. I started complaining without realizing it.”
“You look very much like Ming’an,” Gu Yang said.
Her smile paused slightly.
She brushed a loose strand of hair from her cheek.
“Really? Many people used to say that.”
But that was a long time ago.
So long ago that she could hardly remember clearly.
Yet she still remembered standing among a crowd holding her child’s hand and hearing people say those words. The happiness she felt then had been genuine.
How had things ended up like this?
After calming down, she had even considered that the scarf might just have been an accident.
But the thorn in her heart had never truly disappeared.
The pain of betrayal and isolation was something she could never forget.
“You came to see Ming’an, right? It’s cold outside—go inside quickly.”
Every year she went to a temple in the mountains for a period of quiet cultivation. The servants behind her had already packed her belongings. A wooden box holding a statue of the Bodhisattva lay quietly in the corner.
The dust on it had been wiped away by her one day on a whim.
Her gaze flickered.
In the end she said softly to the servant beside her,
“Take this with us too.”
The butler stepped slightly to block Gu Yang’s lingering gaze and politely gestured for him to go inside.
When they reached the main door, He Ming’an had just opened it.
The two looked at each other unexpectedly.
He Ming’an’s eyes widened slightly, his pupils shrinking as he stared at the person in front of him in a daze.
Only a second later did he suddenly look toward the small building beside them.
“Madam has already left,” the butler said.
“I see.”
He Ming’an didn’t ask whether she had said anything before leaving. This kind of thing had become routine between them.
“Ah Yang, did you meet my mother just now?” he asked softly.
Gu Yang nodded.
“I see. What did you two talk about?”
The butler tactfully withdrew, leaving space for the two of them.
Before Gu Yang could answer, He Ming’an changed the subject himself.
“This is your first time coming to my house, right? Staying at home feels boring, so we always arranged to meet outside before. I never invited you here.”
He smiled as usual.
But it was all a lie.
The truth was he didn’t want Gu Yang to see.
The most humiliating, unspeakable part of his life.
He tried desperately to hide it, yet at the same time hoped someone would notice.
He really was contradictory.
“It’s already so late. Why did you suddenly come here?”
“Didn’t I say it was on the way?”
“Mm, on the way.”
“I just came back from the underwater world. Can’t I swing by here?”
“The underwater world? The one at Luhe Plaza? Didn’t you say last time it was boring? Who did you go with?”
After the series of questions, Gu Yang vaguely answered,
“Song Yinxing.”
“With Xiao Song? Did you have fun?”
It was a simple question.
But Gu Yang’s ears suddenly turned suspiciously red. He stiffly turned his head away, clearly unwilling to face the topic.
He Ming’an watched his reaction silently, as if trying to read something from it.
But what he said was:
“Luhe Plaza… isn’t that in the opposite direction? It’s actually farther from here.”
“Didn’t you call me first?” Gu Yang finally snapped.
“So my phone call summoned a miracle descending from the sky?”
He Ming’an stood half in the shadow under the eaves. His smile looked forced.
Moonlight broke through scattered clouds and fell softly over Gu Yang’s suddenly quiet face, giving him a hazy, unreal appearance.
“Yes,” Gu Yang said expressionlessly.
“And now you can make a wish to me, this miracle. Miss the chance and it won’t come again.”
Clouds slowly covered the moon.
The smile on He Ming’an’s face was gradually swallowed by darkness.
After a very long time, he finally spoke softly, almost with a tone of relief.
“A wish…”
“Then Ah Yang, can I ask you for a favor?”
In the extremely quiet surroundings, even the moonlight was hidden behind clouds.
No one would appear here.
Because this place was an unfinished building abandoned by the developer long ago.
At first, people had protested with banners for several years.
Feng Xiaochun had been one of them.
The woman who hadn’t even finished middle school had spelling mistakes on the banner she prepared. He silently took a pen and corrected them.
“Better leave the mistakes,” Feng Xiaochun said. “Correcting them ruins the momentum.”
When she said that, her eyes still shone with life.
People said women were like flowers.
But he always felt his mother was more like wild grass.
Not because she wasn’t beautiful.
But because she was truly tough.
He had heard stories of her childhood.
Her family had been extremely poor and had many children. They planned to sell her to an old widower in the neighboring village in exchange for money.
She overheard the plan, stole the family’s money, and ran away one night to the city to make a living.
Because she had no education, she couldn’t do respectable work.
But she was beautiful.
With a little dressing up, when she stood there, men’s eyes would immediately linger on her.
Among them she chose the richest boss.
Young and inexperienced, she fell headlong into the dazzling gifts of luxury bags and jewelry he gave her, lowering all her guard.
She had never imagined that the boss already had a wife.
Without realizing it, she had become the other woman.
That was Feng Xiaochun’s version of the story.
But the real truth—only those involved would know.
When he innocently questioned some logical inconsistencies in the story, the woman’s expression suddenly changed.
Her hand rose high.
A slap landed on his face.
The young child covered his cheek and cried.
Feng Xiaochun stared at him with a sharp, vicious look.
“Yes, cry like that. When we go to his house later, cling to your father’s leg and cry just like that. Make him give us more money.”
He would never forget that day.
Snow fell everywhere, the freezing cold piercing into his bones.
They got off the car outside a luxurious residential complex.
His mother took out her phone and began shouting curses into it while standing in the snow.
It was so cold.
The white breath from his mouth carried away what little warmth remained. His hands hurt from the cold, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Beside him, his mother had already entered a heated argument.
She wore a fur coat, a short skirt, and flesh-colored stockings.
Standing fearlessly in the heavy snow.
She really was tough.
But he was so cold.
So cold that even striking a match to warm himself would help.
In fairy tales, the little girl with matches made a wish with each one she lit.
What was his wish?
The howling wind poured down his neck. He tried pulling up his collar, but it kept slipping back.
He wished he had a scarf.
If something covered his neck, maybe it wouldn’t feel so cold.
Just as he vaguely thought that—
A soft scarf was suddenly held out in front of him.
He thought he was so cold he had started hallucinating.
He stared blankly.
Then the next second, the scarf was gently wrapped around his neck.
It still held a trace of warmth.
The frozen skin slowly came back to life.
The one who fulfilled his wish was not a match.
But a boy about his age.
Gentle, fair-skinned, neatly dressed.
Someone who looked like he belonged to a completely different world.
“This should help a bit. Go home early. Don’t stand here.”
After saying that, the boy left.
He silently watched the retreating figure.
Then slowly took his hands out of his torn pockets and tucked them into the scarf.
Thank you.
His stiff lips moved.
The words he didn’t manage to say were wrapped up inside the scarf along with the warmth.
After finishing the call, Feng Xiaochun angrily lowered her phone.
She didn’t notice the scarf around his neck.
She simply grabbed him and dragged him into the residential complex.
He barely remembered how he got inside.
He only remembered the sharp voices rising like thin blades slicing through the warm air of the living room.
A graceful woman who had been arranging flowers in the living room turned pale.
A middle-aged man rushed down the stairs with a dark expression.
He didn’t understand the adult world.
He could only shrink back until—
The door creaked open.
He turned his head.
And saw the boy who had given him the scarf.
He stumbled forward, dragged to the front.
All the storm of anger pointed at him.
“Who gave you that scarf—!”
The furious voice exploded in his ears.
Helpless, instinctively—
…he did the thing he would regret for the rest of his life.
He turned his head.
And looked at the boy.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Xia Chun murmured the words repeatedly.
His empty gaze lowered.
The height of more than ten floors stretched the distance below into a dizzying blur.
His legs hung over the edge.
He sat on the rooftop ledge.
With just a slight lean forward, he would fall straight down.
No one could save him.
That day had taught him one thing.
His mother was the mistress who destroyed another family.
And he was an illegitimate child who shouldn’t have been born.
The burning pain on his cheek had long faded, but the swelling remained.
Proof of how hard that slap had been.
He had already been sitting on this rooftop for more than an hour.
Yet he still hadn’t carried out the reason he climbed up here.
Was it because no one was around?
Because this time belonged only to him?
Without pressure or restraint, even the sense of urgency disappeared.
For a moment he couldn’t even tell—
Had he come here to end everything?
Or just to find a place to feel the wind?
Suddenly—
Footsteps sounded below.
Heavy.
Climbing upward.
Getting closer.
Clearer.
Then someone tried to open the rooftop door.
But he had already locked it.
After failing to open it, the sound disappeared for a moment.
Xia Chun stared at the door.
The feeling that vanished from his heart was hard to describe.
Maybe… expectation?
He almost laughed at the absurdity of the thought.
He had already decided to die, yet he still hoped someone would discover him and stop him.
Why not just livestream it then, if he wanted attention that badly?
But the footsteps started again.
Walking downward.
Not disappearing.
Xia Chun kept his head tilted, looking down.
The clouds drifted apart.
Under the exposed moonlight—
On a terrace a few floors below the rooftop, A figure walked out.
A very familiar face.
It was Gu Yang.
Xia Chun’s heart, which he had forced to calm down, began pounding violently again.
