Chapter 42: A Battle of Words with Chen Qiming

Chen Qiming felt a surge of satisfaction. He took a step forward, staring at Xie Youzhen and clicking his tongue.

Xie Youzhen’s face instantly flushed red.

He looked up in anger, glaring at Chen Qiming. “I didn’t come here to see you!”

Toward this former adoptive son of his.

His feelings were complicated.

Even though he had known long ago that this was not his own son, he had still raised him with all his heart.

After all, human hearts are made of flesh.

How could he not have feelings for him?

He had provided him with food and clothes, paid for his schooling, and earnestly taught him how to be a good person.

Even when he found out that the boy was actually the son of Hudong County’s wealthiest man, Chen Donghai, and Zhao Lanzhi, he had felt nothing but joy.

He was glad that the boy would have a better life and no longer have to suffer with them.

And over the past year since the family reunion, as he watched Xie Zhao run back to Hudong County time and again to seek out Chen Donghai and his wife, his heart had been deeply shaken.

There was a saying in the countryside: the bond of raising a child is stronger than the bond of birth.

He had thought.

Even if Chen Qiming had not come back to visit him once this past year, as time went on, he would surely remember at least a little of the kindness shown to him.

But now… Xie Youzhen clenched his fists, his face turning from red to pale as a sharp pain throbbed in his chest.

“What’s going on?”

“Are they going to fight? What happened?”

“It sounds like this young man is his adoptive son, and he used to get beaten at home when he was little! Well, no wonder he still remembers it now! It’s true what they say, people don’t cherish children who aren’t their own blood!”

…

A large crowd had gathered.

Fish buyers and onlookers alike crowded together in a noisy bustle.

Chen Qiming raised his voice even louder, feeling incredibly smug.

“You have no idea! Back then, because he knew I wasn’t his own flesh and blood, he found every excuse to beat me! I only got to eat meat during holidays, and I was as skinny as a toothpick!”

“But now things are different. I found my real parents. He saw how well off my family is, so he came knocking on our door again. Who knows, he might even be trying to squeeze some money out of me!”

He rambled on, growing more excited by the second.

That was until Xie Cheng pulled Xie Zhao along, pushing through the crowd to rush inside.

“Shut up!”

Xie Cheng’s face flushed red as he roared, “You’re full of crap! We should have beaten you to death back then!”

The sudden shout drew everyone’s eyes to him.

But Xie Cheng was clumsy with words. After snapping at Chen Qiming, he simply stood in front of Xie Youzhen with a tense face, not saying another word.

The crowd: “?”

Well, wasn’t that basically admitting they had beaten the adoptive son?

Chen Qiming clapped his hands and shouted, “See! Him too! He beat me as well! Heaven knows what kind of life I lived in their house!”

Furious, Xie Cheng lunged forward, wanting to hit him.

But Xie Zhao was quick, grabbing him before he could.

“Brother, let me handle this.”

Xie Zhao lowered his voice to soothe Xie Cheng, gently patting the back of his hand.

Xie Cheng’s jaw clenched so hard it clicked. He was too angry to know how to explain himself, but he still stared stubbornly at Xie Zhao and said, “We didn’t! From the time he was little, Mom and Dad never treated him badly!”

Xie Zhao nodded.

“I know.”

How could he not know?

Over the past two days, whenever he was with Xie Tian, he would ask her about Chen Qiming.

The bits and pieces he gathered had given him a sense that something was off.

He smiled, stepped forward, and stared at Chen Qiming.

Across two lifetimes, this was their first official meeting.

“How do you even have the face to show yourself?”

Xie Zhao scoffed, his eyes locked onto him. “If I were you, I would have hidden at home in shame long ago.”

Chen Qiming’s eyes widened in shock.

“What nonsense are you talking about?!”

Xie Zhao shrugged.

“When you were six, you stole all the money in the house to buy popsicles and toys. That was the money for next year’s seeds, which the commune^[1] had left in our dad’s care. That was the first time you got beaten.”

“At eight, you stole and ate the chicken meant for Grandma and Grandpa. And that wasn’t all; to avoid getting scolded, you buried the leftovers in the field, only to be caught by Ergou^[2] from next door. That was the second time you got beaten.”

“The third time, when you were fourteen, you peeked at Widow Zhang from the end of the village taking a bath…” Xie Zhao listed the incidents one by one, his tone calm yet shocking to everyone listening.

The noisy crowd suddenly fell into a strange silence.

Well, there you go.

It turned out he only remembered getting beaten, but completely forgot why he was beaten!

If any of these things happened in their own homes, they would have beaten even their own flesh and blood half to death!

“If I did that, my parents would have beaten me to death!”

“Stealing at such a young age, how did the village not parade him through the streets^[3]? That’s a fundamental moral failure. If he were my kid, I’d beat him so hard he wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for three days!”

“Yeah! Hearing all that, he totally deserved it!”

…

The voices in the crowd weren’t quiet, and Chen Qiming’s face flushed red and white with sheer embarrassment!

His face burning, he argued back, “That was only because I was too hungry! It was because you didn’t give me enough food and clothes that I did those things! Are you saying you did absolutely nothing wrong?”

Xie Zhao was amused.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard someone blame others for their own wrongdoings! What a joke!”

Xie Zhao crossed his arms and looked at the crowd, speaking slowly. “Everyone, my dad and my brother are clumsy with words, but look at what they’re wearing! Look at their clothes, look at their shoes!”

“And look at their hands! Can calluses like these be faked?”

Xie Zhao paused, then turned a mocking gaze toward Chen Qiming. “But look at him! He lived with the Xie Family for eighteen years, yet there isn’t a single callus on his hands!”

“How could my parents and my brother have mistreated him?!”

The crowd quieted down, processing this.

Chen Qiming’s hands were clean and fair, clearly belonging to someone who had never done hard labor.

If anyone claimed he was mistreated.

Indeed, no one would believe it.

Chen Qiming’s face turned from dark to pale. Furious, he shouted, “That was because I had to study! Otherwise, why else would they not make me work?”

“Exactly! You had to study! Even when the whole family didn’t have enough to eat, Mom and Dad still gritted their teeth and tightened their belts to pay for your schooling!”

Xie Zhao pressed forward step by step, his gaze terrifyingly sharp. “Is this how our Xie Family abused you? Eldest Brother went down into the mines and Little Sister dropped out of school, all to support your education. And you call that abuse?”

“Do you have any conscience at all? And you call yourself an educated man! Where did all that learning go?”

“Fed to the dogs, I suppose?!”

Xie Zhao’s tone grew increasingly aggressive and rapid.

At this final, booming accusation, Chen Qiming’s face turned incredibly pale. He spun around, shoved his way through the crowd, and fled in humiliation.

The surrounding crowd fell into a strange silence for a moment, followed by a sudden burst of applause!

“We almost let that kid fool us! What a load of nonsense! If getting an education counts as abuse, I’d beg for that kind of abuse any day!”

“My own parents couldn’t even afford to put me through school, and I’m their own flesh and blood! He’s just an adopted son, yet they paid for his education. They treated him so well, but he’s still not satisfied and has the nerve to come here looking for trouble. His conscience really has been eaten by dogs!”