Chapter 19: A Huge Mix-Up

Aunt Zhao looked completely bewildered. “Your sister has been at my house all afternoon. Why would I be looking for her?”

“I brought her back because my own kids are home from school now and I need to start making dinner, so I don’t have time to look after her. By the way, hasn’t your dad come back yet?”

“He promised he’d come back as soon as he finished his errands, but it’s almost dark now and there’s still no sign of him. Just as they say, no hair on his chin means he can’t handle things reliably^[1].”

As she was earnestly complaining, the look in Zhou Chengdong’s eyes and his expression shifted.

“Big Brother, I think we misunderstood him…” Zhou Chengnan whispered.

Zhou Chengdong didn’t answer. Instead, he looked at Aunt Zhao and asked, “So he left her at your place this afternoon?”

Aunt Zhao nodded. “As soon as you kids left for school, he brought Wanning over to my place. He said he had things to take care of and asked me to look after her, saying he’d come pick her up once he finished.

“Who knew it would take all afternoon? He still hasn’t come back, and who knows what he’s doing. He really is an irresponsible father.”

Though Aunt Zhao was criticizing Chen Liyang, her words sent massive shockwaves through the four brothers’ hearts.

When their sister went missing, they had considered all kinds of possibilities, such as Chen Liyang selling her, abandoning her, or giving her away. The one thing they had never imagined was that he would proactively ask Aunt Zhao to look after her out of concern over leaving her home alone.

Seeing the strange expressions on the four brothers’ faces, Aunt Zhao finally realized. “Don’t tell me you thought your dad took your sister out to sell her?

“No wonder you all rushed out of your rooms looking so frantic.”

Seeing them remain silent, Aunt Zhao continued earnestly, “In the past, your dad did a lot of wrong things and treated you poorly, but I can tell he’s truly remorseful now.

“Everyone makes mistakes, but acknowledging them and changing for the better is what matters.

“If anything comes up in the future, don’t just guess among yourselves. You can always come to me.”

As the saying goes, unless the whip lands on your own back, you don’t feel the pain^[2]. Aunt Zhao was in no position to tell the boys how to handle their stepfather.

Still, if Chen Liyang truly turned over a new leaf, they could lead good lives too, couldn’t they?

Otherwise, if they really drove Chen Liyang away, what would they eat or wear in the future?

“I understand, Aunt Zhao. Thank you for looking after our sister. If your family ever needs help with chores, you can always ask us brothers,” Zhou Chengdong replied with a nod.

Aunt Zhao smiled. “Alright then, I’ll leave Wanning to you boys. I need to hurry back and make dinner.” With that, she left.

In the courtyard, the four brothers looked at their silent sister, momentarily at a loss for words.

Zhou Chengxi was the most embarrassed of all. He was the one who had insisted that Chen Liyang sold their sister, and he was the one who had declared he would kill Chen Liyang.

Who could have guessed that Chen Liyang would entrust their sister to Aunt Zhao? When had he ever been so thoughtful?

“We definitely misunderstood him about this,” Zhou Chengxi spoke up first, stubbornly clinging to his pride. “But why didn’t he tell us at noon? If he had, would we have misunderstood him?”

“Enough. As long as Little Sister is fine, let’s just pretend this never happened.

“You guys go do your homework. I’ll make dinner.” After such a massive mix-up, Zhou Chengdong just wanted to find some work to do to ease his embarrassment.

“Didn’t he say he would make dinner tonight?” Zhou Chengnan asked.

It was obvious who “he” referred to.

“Who knows what he went off to do? Running around everywhere when he’s injured. Looks to me like he didn’t get beaten hard enough.” To save face, Zhou Chengxi held nothing back in trash-talking Chen Liyang.

There weren’t many vegetables at home, so Zhou Chengdong planned to make tomato egg soup and stir-fry some water spinach.

Zhou Chengbei wanted to watch TV, but fearing that Chen Liyang might suddenly return, he could only sit on the sofa and chat with his sister.

Even though it was a completely one-sided conversation, he believed that given time, his sister would eventually respond to him.

In the courtyard, the eldest brother was prepping the water spinach.

Since they didn’t use pesticides, the leaves showed plenty of signs of insect damage.

Yet this was one of the few foods they had to fill their stomachs.

The second brother helped at his side, and by unspoken mutual agreement, neither of them brought up what had just happened.

Zhou Chengxi gathered the clothes hanging in the courtyard for their baths later.

As for Chen Liyang’s clothes, he completely ignored them.

He had figured it out: if doing chores at home got him beaten anyway, why should he bother helping him with anything?

Right at that moment, a familiar voice sounded from the courtyard entrance.

“Yes, this is my place. You can stop right at the gate.”

Even if that voice were burned to ashes, they would still recognize it.

Everyone looked over in the direction of the voice and saw Chen Liyang riding on the back of an electric scooter.

They had never seen the person riding the scooter before.

Just as they assumed this was one of his fair-weather friends^[3], the rider spoke up. “Buddy, can you get off on your own?”

“Yeah. It’s just a few stitches, not a broken bone.” Chen Liyang put his left foot down first, then slowly stepped off the electric scooter.

Only then did Zhou Chengdong and the others notice that Chen Liyang’s right calf was injured. Even though it was bandaged, blood was still seeping through.

“Here are your things. I’m really sorry about today.”

Seeing how impoverished Chen Liyang’s living conditions were and the children who were as thin as bamboo poles, the man felt an even deeper pang of guilt.

“It’s fine. You didn’t hit me on purpose, and besides, you already compensated me.

“Let’s consider the matter settled. You’ve seen my family’s situation, so I won’t keep you for dinner. It’s getting late, so hurry on home!” Chen Liyang said casually.

After speaking, he looked at the little ones in the courtyard. Seeing them standing there blankly, he waved them over. “Come help carry these things.”

Zhou Chengdong stepped forward quickly and took the shopping bags from the man’s hands.

Unexpectedly, they were quite heavy, and he almost couldn’t lift them. Fortunately, the second brother stepped in to help carry one of the bags.

“I thought you were joking earlier, but you really do have this many kids, and they’re all so grown up.” The man looked at Zhou Chengdong and Zhou Chengxi with a sigh of emotion.

During the examination at the hospital, he had learned that Chen Liyang was twenty-eight years old.

He had assumed his oldest child would be seven or eight at most, which would make sense if he had a child every year.

He hadn’t expected the eldest to be almost as tall as he was, at least fourteen or fifteen. Didn’t that mean Chen Liyang had a child when he was only thirteen?

The two brothers froze once more. Had he really brought them up to a stranger on his own initiative again?

While the two brothers stood dazed, the man turned the conversation to them. “Kids, you’re so lucky to have such a great dad.

“I accidentally hit him this afternoon and hurt him. Just to rush back and cook dinner for you, he didn’t even want to get X-rays. I had to stop him myself.”

Zhou Chengxi, who had been walking over, paused in his tracks.

He glanced at Chen Liyang’s calf. Because of the injury, his pant leg had been rolled up to his knee.

The wound was on the back, so he couldn’t see it directly, but clear bloodstains were still visible on the pants, showing that the injury was far from minor.

Yet without knowing any of this, when his younger brother said Chen Liyang was cooking dinner, he had said such awful words.

In that moment, he had never felt so deeply conflicted inside.