Chapter 60: Damn it, it’s actually Yao Wenjing…

The next morning, Yao Wenjing made breakfast, and the rooms of Lin Zhi and Lin Qingye were eerily quiet.

Yao Wenjing ate breakfast alone, then pressed his ear to the door to eavesdrop. There was still no sound from Lin Zhi and Lin Qingye’s room.

It seemed like they really couldn’t sleep last night.

Yao Wenjing didn’t call them. Instead, he put the two remaining breakfasts in the fridge and stuck a note on it in a prominent place to remind the awkward father and son to heat it up and eat. After tidying up, he went out alone to prepare to open the convenience store for business.

Hey, Yao Wenjing thought to himself amusingly. If it weren’t for him, this store would probably close every now and then, but lately, the store’s sales were all supported by him alone.

Lin Zhi had indeed stayed up late last night, dreaming a lot of chaotic things. He dreamt that Lin Qingye locked him in a room, and Lu Liu and Yao Wenjing worked together to “steal” him out. Fearing that the noise would wake Lin Qingye next door, he tiptoed quietly, but suddenly, his phone in his pocket rang with a cheerful ringtone. Lin Qingye heard the sound, shouted from his room, and ran out to stop them. Then… Lin Zhi woke up.

What the heck is all this?

The phone’s ringtone continued from the dream into reality. Lin Zhi reached over to grab his phone from the nightstand, squinting as he couldn’t clearly see who was calling. His fingers, relying on muscle memory, answered the call, his voice hoarse: “Hello…”

No one replied, only some rustling sounds, as if clothes were rubbing together.

“Who is it?” Lin Zhi said impatiently, and while saying “If you don’t speak, I’ll hang up,” he moved the phone closer to his eyes, finally seeing who was calling. “Xiao Jing? What’s up?”

The rustling sounds still came from the phone.

“Did you accidentally dial?” Lin Zhi mumbled. After waiting for a few seconds, the silence continued. Just as Lin Zhi was about to hang up, Yao Wenjing’s voice suddenly came through. Yao Wenjing sounded distant, and clearly wasn’t talking to Lin Zhi. The content of the conversation had nothing to do with calling him.

“Looks like it was a wrong number,” Lin Zhi thought, about to hang up, but just as his finger was a few millimeters away, another male voice came through the phone.

The man’s voice sounded a bit familiar, but not enough for Lin Zhi to immediately recognize who it was.

Lin Zhi became fully alert and turned up the volume on his phone. He didn’t want to eavesdrop on Yao Wenjing’s privacy, but from the conversation, it seemed the exchange between Yao Wenjing and this man wasn’t pleasant.

The conversation was intermittent. Lin Zhi couldn’t catch much but started to feel the man’s voice was more familiar. The man’s voice was hoarse, like he had smoked too much, with a tone that suggested something stuck in his throat. He was probably around forty years old.

Lin Zhi frowned slightly. The man’s deep, rough tone sounded very familiar, but it was as though there was a barrier, and he couldn’t quite place who it was.

Suddenly, Lin Zhi clearly heard a word from the man’s voice.

“Damn!” Lin Zhi suddenly sprang up from the bed, quickly rolling out of the bed and throwing on his slippers, rushing out of the room like a whirlwind.

Damn it, it’s Yao Wenjing’s father!

Lin Zhi quickly dismissed the unpleasantness from last night with Lin Qingye and immediately slammed the door of Lin Qingye’s room, shouting, “Dad, are you at home?”

Lin Qingye didn’t have the habit of locking the door when at home. After Lin Zhi knocked, he didn’t wait for a response and pushed the door open. He saw Lin Qingye still in bed and directly yanked the covers off him. “Get up, something’s happened.”

“What the hell are you doing early in the morning?” Lin Qingye was so startled by his actions, he thought there had been an earthquake. He cursed, but obediently got out of bed.

“Your godson is about to be taken away!” Lin Zhi opened the wardrobe beside the bed, grabbed a long cotton coat for Lin Qingye, “Hurry up, get dressed, we’re going to rescue him.”

Lin Qingye was completely bewildered, as though he had been suddenly woken from a dream. Lin Zhi was talking nonsense, and he couldn’t understand what was happening with Yao Wenjing. He could only follow Lin Zhi’s instructions to dress and put on shoes. Within three minutes, the father and son hurriedly left the house.

On the way downstairs, Lin Zhi wore his earphones, listening to what was happening on Yao Wenjing’s side while explaining the situation to Lin Qingye.

After hearing everything, and with his own imagination running wild, Lin Qingye’s anger surged, and he roared, “That scumbag still dares to look for Wenjing? Back then, he…”

“Keep your voice down, Dad,” Lin Zhi said, pressing his index fingers against the sides of his earbuds. After letting go, he turned his body in another direction. “Xiao Jing mentioned the snack street over on Tongxin Road, inside the alley.”

“Then let’s hurry over there,” Lin Qingye immediately flagged down a taxi by the roadside.

Knowing Yao Wenjing had been taken to the snack street eased some of Lin Zhi’s worry. At this time of day, there were plenty of people out for breakfast, and the breakfast stalls in the alley were all open. That scumbag father of Yao Wenjing wouldn’t dare do anything in broad daylight with so many people around.

The taxi couldn’t drive into the alley, so Lin Zhi and Lin Qingye got out at the entrance. They started searching carefully from the first stall, scanning the customers. They had braced themselves for the difficult task of spotting Yao Wenjing among the crowd of men, women, young, and old. Unexpectedly, when they reached the third stall, they saw Yao Wenjing sitting on a bench by the roadside, staring expressionlessly at a man across from him who was eating breakfast with a baseball cap on.

“Xiao Jing!” / “Wenjing!”

Lin Zhi and Lin Qingye called out almost simultaneously.

Hearing their voices, Yao Wenjing turned his head to look. He immediately stood up from the bench, excitement showing as he called back, “Godfather! Xiao Zhi!”

“Are you okay?” Lin Zhi jogged up to Yao Wenjing’s side, carefully looking him over from head to toe. He shot a pointed glance at the man sitting at the table and asked with underlying meaning, “Did anyone bully you?”

Yao Wenjing shook his head. “I’m fine.”

Lin Zhi was about to ask more questions when Yao Kangping, with oil still glistening at the corners of his mouth, interrupted.

“Well, look at that. You’ve learned to call for reinforcements now, huh?” Yao Kangping had clearly recognized Lin Zhi as the classmate who had previously gone to his house looking for Yao Wenjing. In his usual sarcastic tone, he said, “Son, your friend is really polite. You’re my son, I’m your dad, but instead of greeting me, he jumps right to accusing me of bullying you.”

“Oh?” Lin Qingye calmly stepped forward, positioning himself between Lin Zhi and Yao Wenjing. With a feigned smile, he extended his right hand and said, “So, you’re Wenjing’s father? A pleasure to meet you. I’m Wenjing’s godfather.”

“Godfather? Ha.” Yao Kangping had no intention of shaking hands. He coldly stared at Yao Wenjing and said, “My son really has done well for himself. When did you get yourself a godfather? Why wasn’t I, your real father, informed?”

Lin Qingye, unfazed, retracted his hand and nonchalantly flicked the edge of his padded coat before sitting down directly across from Yao Kangping. His posture was strikingly confident, with his elbows resting on his thighs. The only thing undermining his imposing aura was the pair of cotton pajama pants he hadn’t changed out of before rushing out.

“Xiao Jing wanted to tell you,” Lin Zhi chimed in as he sat down, sarcasm dripping from his voice, “But who knows where you’ve been hiding for the past six months? All you left behind was a pile of debts for Xiao Jing. Do you think you deserve to call yourself his father?”

Struck where it hurt, Yao Kangping flew into a rage and retorted, “This is between me and Yao Wenjing. What right do you, an outsider, have to interfere?”

“Xiao Zhi is not an outsider!” Yao Wenjing shouted loudly.

“That’s right,” Lin Qingye nodded with a smile. “Wenjing’s matters are our family’s matters.”

Yao Kangping, overwhelmed by the three of them taking turns to rebut him, was left fuming and breathless. Even a blind man could see that he was the one being excluded. Narrowing his eyes, he growled fiercely, “Yao Wenjing, don’t you forget who raised you all these years. I worked my damn ass off for over a decade, and what did I raise? An ungrateful ingrate!”

“I won’t forget,” Yao Wenjing replied. “I will never forget how you treated me all these years.”

“You’re just like your shameless mother,” Yao Kangping spat venomously. “Ungrateful, the both of you! Leaving your real father behind to take care of your godfather in his old age instead!”

“What did you just say?” Yao Wenjing trembled with anger. “You—you—”

Lin Zhi gently patted Yao Wenjing’s back to soothe him while glaring at Yao Kangping, shaking with rage himself. Unable to find the exact words to describe Yao Kangping, he could only choke out, “You’re disgusting.”

“Mr. Yao,” Lin Qingye finally dropped any pretense of politeness and said bluntly, “I used to think you were unworthy of being a husband, and unworthy of being a father. But now that I’ve met you, I realize you’re not even worthy of being called a man. You’ve disgraced all of us.”

“I’m the disgrace?” Yao Kangping laughed hysterically, almost maniacally. “You think you’re any better? I don’t believe you’re so kind-hearted as to take care of my son for free. Isn’t it just because he’s reached the age where he can make money, and you want him to support you in your old age?”

“Go to hell!” Lin Zhi, having endured enough, finally snapped and shouted, “Only someone like you—spineless outside but full of fists at home, beating your wife and child, lazy and useless, achieving nothing in life—would be shameless enough to count on their child to take care of them in old age!”

“Hahaha—” Yao Kangping, seeming completely unhinged, let out a pitiful and deranged laugh. Immersed in his own delusions, he ignored everyone else’s words. “Since you cherish my son so much, why don’t I sell him to you? Two hundred thousand—give me two hundred thousand, and my son is yours.”

The surrounding customers glanced over at Yao Kangping’s deranged outburst, drawn by his crazed laughter. Lin Zhi looked at his hysterical demeanor, and, oddly enough, most of his anger dissipated. He said flatly, “You’re out of your mind. There’s no way you’re getting two hundred thousand. But if you want to visit a hospital to get your brain checked, I can donate two bucks for your bus fare.”