Su Yao could clearly feel it—in Uncle Su’s words, there was a deep admiration for Su Yuan.
Even after all these years, that feeling hadn’t faded; on the contrary, it had grown richer with time.
The aura he carried even influenced Su Yao, and as she listened, her heart and mind were drawn back over twenty years, witnessing the story between her parents.
That day, Uncle Su and Su Yuan drank a bit of liquor.
Neither of them could hold their drink, so it didn’t take long before they were both out of it.
It was then that Su Yuan told Uncle Su, “Your sister found me. She gave me a sum of money, said it was for medical expenses. Take it back to her. It’s too much; she doesn’t need to give me this much.”
Su Yuan kept a little for himself, but most of it he put into Uncle Su’s hands.
Uncle Su stared at that large sum—he should have been happy, but looking at Su Yuan sitting before him, he just couldn’t bring himself to smile.
That money was from his sister, Chen Ye, all earned from working out of town.
The Chen family was poor—they only managed to get Chen Ye through high school. Once she graduated, regardless of her exam results, the family wouldn’t pay another cent.
Uncle Su had never worked outside at that time, but he still knew how hard it must have been.
If he kept that money, going against his conscience, it wouldn’t just be letting Su Yuan down—it’d be letting his own sister down, too.
So he thought long and hard, and in the end, secretly stuffed the money into Chen Ye’s suitcase.
If he’d tried to return it openly, she’d just insist on sending it to Su Yuan anyway.
Later, Su Yuan took the entrance exam again and did unexpectedly well. He lived up to everyone’s hopes and went to the big City that summer.
Uncle Su went to the Farewell—many, many others did too; he was just one of the less noticeable ones.
That was also the last time that year he saw Su Yuan.
After Su Yuan left, Chen Ye chose to leave home as well. She went to the City, and hardly ever came back that year.
Uncle Su felt a bit down at the time—he had peers, of course, but after spending so long with good friends, it was hard to get along with those guys who couldn’t finish three sentences without dragging someone’s mother into it.
Those days stretched on for quite a while. Besides enduring and accepting it, Uncle Su really couldn’t do much else.
Then, one day by chance, Uncle Su overheard his parents talking about marrying off his sister.
He was stunned for a long time after hearing that.
But Chen Ye rarely came home anymore. Once, she did return and was nagged so much by their parents that she didn’t even come back for the New Year.
That matter never really made progress.
At first, Uncle Su was worried, but eventually, he just forgot about it.
Until one day, coming home from school, he saw Chen Ye, who had been forcibly brought back from the City.
Uncle Su couldn’t describe the discomfort in his heart.
That night, the family argued for a long time, saying all sorts of harsh things. Uncle Su didn’t dare utter a word in front of his parents.
“And then?” Su Yao was listening with full concentration, but Uncle Su seemed to lose himself, dazed, not continuing the story.
Even though she knew Su Yuan and Chen Ye ended up getting married, she was still eager to know what happened next.
Uncle Su was called back to the present by Su Yao’s voice.
He took another sip of water, recalled carefully, and continued.
“……”
After that, he didn’t really know if things had worked out or not.
The house was noisy all the time, and he was so fed up that he sneaked out.
He didn’t expect to run into Su Yuan, who had just returned from the City.
Coming home should have been a proud, triumphant occasion, but Su Yuan seemed down and out, his beard scruffy—Uncle Su almost didn’t recognize him.
The moment Su Yuan saw him, he dragged him out for a meal. To call it a meal was really to go drinking.
Two years on, their drinking tolerance had improved; it took quite a bit of beer before they started to feel tipsy.
But Su Yuan was still the same—even when drunk, he stayed silent, refusing to talk about anything he’d seen in the big City.
Instead, it was Uncle Su who began telling stories about all the changes at home over the years.
The arcade in town had moved, a new road was built somewhere, someone’s family built a new house, which brother dropped out to work or which one got into some school, and stories of old folks who had passed away—he spoke smoothly, like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.
Finally, he talked about Chen Ye’s situation, saying the family wanted to marry her off soon and had already picked out some families.
But in his opinion, they were all a bunch of misfits—not good enough for his sister at all.
Su Yuan stood up, paid the bill, and left without a word.
“Afterward, I found out that Su Yuan had gone to my house alone to propose marriage.”
Su Yao stared at Uncle Su, her big, watery eyes saying, Are you seriously skipping over the good parts like this?
Do you have any idea how much you’re wasting my feelings!
Uncle Su gave an awkward laugh. He’d drunk too much back then and couldn’t walk straight; by the time he got home, everything was already over, so that was all he knew.
Looking at the glass of water Su Yao refilled for him, his expression turned a bit sour.
“At that time, they still weren’t of legal Marriage Law age, so it could only be called an engagement.
Then Su Yuan took my sister to the City, your place.
I don’t really know how they lived after that.
I heard they held a Wedding, and Sis got pregnant…”
As he spoke, Uncle Su’s voice grew softer and softer.
He glanced at Su Yao, who was listening, her hand on the kettle, and seemed to have some reservations.
He briefly mentioned how he went there and saw Su Yao when she was still a baby.
“Sigh.”
Uncle Su let out a long sigh, stood up, and gave Su Yao a smile.
“I’ll get going, then. Su Yao, save my number, all right? If anything happens, you can give me a call.”
“Okay.”
Su Yao nodded gloomily, saved the number, and Uncle Su slunk away, clearly unwilling to stick around for more water.
Looking at this man surnamed Chen—her mother’s younger brother—Su Yao thought he was actually pretty decent.
He was willing to share these things with her and even came to visit.
In her memory, it was as if the Chen family had never had a daughter named Chen Ye, nor an external granddaughter named Su Yao—as if they simply didn’t exist.
They never visited, not even when something happened.
So, deep down, Su Yao was very resistant to her maternal grandparents from the Chen family.
People have their limitations.
Their era gave them only those options—but that wasn’t a reason Su Yao could forgive or accept, nor did she need to understand.
After all, it was all in the past.
She put down the kettle, refilled it, and set it to boil.
Su Yao planned to tidy up the place.
She threw away anything unnecessary; she couldn’t visit often, and who knew when she’d come again.
Most things didn’t need to be kept.
Dusting and wiping alone took a lot of time, not to mention hauling all the trash out to the Garbage Station by the roadside.
Busy for half a day, it finally looked much cleaner and more orderly.
Tired, Su Yao decided to sit and rest.
She took off the old clothes she found lying around, changed into her own warm, comfy down jacket, poured herself a cup of warm water, and sat on a stool in the living room, playing on her phone.
That’s when she noticed that Mu Nanqiu had called her.
Seeing several missed call records, cold sweat broke out on her back.
“I got so absorbed cleaning I didn’t notice the phone at all. What do I do? Am I doomed now…”
Su Yao’s heart thumped wildly.
After thinking it over, she decided to call back.
Waiting for the call to connect was torture.
As the connection tone rang, Su Yao held her breath.
In the elegantly decorated room, Mu Nanqiu simply held the phone to her ear without saying anything.
She gazed out the window at the scenery and idly played with a Red Box in her other hand.
She’d bought this thing ages ago and still hadn’t had a chance to use it.
Very soon, Su Yao’s timid apology came through the phone.
“I was just cleaning, and my phone was charging. I didn’t hear it.”
Mu Nanqiu smiled.
Just from the sound of her voice, she could already picture how cute Su Yao looked right now.
But she didn’t let Su Yao off so easily—instead, she replied very coolly, “Mm,” indicating she got it.
Sure enough, Su Yao said she’d turn up the ringtone next time.
Mu Nanqiu’s smile froze for a moment.
She twitched her lips and scolded Su Yao with a laugh, “Silly girl.”
“…………”
From her tone, Su Yao could tell Mu Nanqiu wasn’t angry at her for missing the call.
Clearly, the matter was over.
“The thing you wanted to tell me before—can you say it now?”
“↑……….”
Su Yao hadn’t expected that, while missing the call was forgiven, Mu Nanqiu would bring up this topic.
For a moment, she didn’t know how to say it, hesitated, but finally thought it was better to speak—she just needed to choose her words carefully.
“Let me think.”
“No rush.”
Mu Nanqiu opened the little box in her hand, admiring the beautiful ring inside as she waited for Su Yao to speak.
Su Yao stared at the ceiling, her thoughts entering a state of inner debate.
After a long time, she finally gathered herself and spoke to Mu Nanqiu.
“Nanqiu, I might not be my mother’s biological daughter…”
“?”
On the other end of the call, Mu Nanqiu froze.
She understood what Su Yao meant, but hearing it become reality still left her a bit confused.
Or maybe she just needed time to accept it.
Mu Nanqiu thought it over carefully and realized there was a flaw.
She spoke slowly.
“Yao Yao, you mean you might have been adopted? But you have a Birth Certificate…”
“Huh?”
Su Yao had thought she’d uncovered the entire truth—even if not, it was close.
But she hadn’t expected this—she actually had that document.
Which meant there were still secrets hidden between her parents.
“What exactly did my mom and dad do?”
They left, and with them, the secrets of the past were sealed away.