Chapter 24

Mur Beiwang glanced at his silent older brother in the distance.

He shrugged at his father and said, “Go ask your good son, Mur Beichen, what exactly he did.”

Mur Junze’s mouth twitched. “He’s the good son—what are you then?”

“A rascal, right? Haven’t you always called me that?” Mur Beiwang replied, pulling another candy from his pocket and popping it into his mouth.

Seeing this, Mur Junze rubbed his hair, then pulled out his wallet and handed him ten yuan.
“Stop always making Chuwei buy you snacks. Tomorrow, you go buy her something she likes and bring it to her.”

“Dad, ten yuan’s not enough,” Mur Beiwang said, noticing his father’s puzzled look. “There’s this new kind of chocolate—fifteen yuan a box. Chuwei hasn’t tried it yet. I want to get her that.”

Hearing this, Mur Junze took out another ten yuan and handed it over.
“Buy it for her tomorrow. If she likes it, and it’s finished, come back and ask me for more money to buy it again.”

Mur Beiwang looked at him with suspicion. “Dad, you quit smoking? You still have money? I’d be better off asking Mom for cash.”

“I quit a long time ago—Chuwei can’t stand the smell of smoke,” Mur Junze said directly.

Mur Beiwang gave him a skeptical look. “Then where’s that smoke smell on you coming from?”

“It’s from your Uncle Zhou and the others—they smoke a lot, I just got it on me,” Mur Junze explained.

Mur Beiwang looked up at him with narrowed eyes, the corners of his mouth curling into a sly grin.
“Then I’ll just take the remaining five yuan as my pocket money. I was going to just ask you for one yuan and save the rest to buy you cigarettes. But since you don’t smoke now, I might as well keep it all.”

Mur Junze raised an eyebrow. “One month of washing the dishes.”

Mur Beiwang frowned—he hadn’t expected that condition. But then he thought about it—it was just washing dishes at night. After hesitating, he nodded. “Fine, I’ll wash dishes for a month.”

Mur Junze turned and walked toward Mur Beichen.

Before he could say anything, the door suddenly creaked open, and Mur’s mother came out of the room.

She was holding a whip in her hand and walked straight to Mur Junze, handing it to him.

Mur Junze stared at the whip in surprise, wondering what on earth had happened that was so serious it called for this.

He looked at his wife in puzzlement—he knew she’d always disapproved of him hitting the children, and ever since Chuwei had come to live with them, the whip hadn’t been used even once.

He’d worried it might scare Chuwei—after all, she was a girl.

Even when Mur Beiwang’s antics made him so mad he was jumping up and down, he’d never thought of using the whip, only punishing him with kneeling.

“Why bring out the whip? Sure, Beiwang skipping class was wrong, and tomorrow I’ll take him to school to apologize to his teacher. As for the brothers fighting, they can just talk it out themselves—it’s over now, isn’t it?” Mur Junze said, frowning at the whip.

Mur’s mother tossed the whip to the ground and looked at her husband. “Do you know why Beiwang hit Beichen? Because of Chuwei.”

Mur Junze’s expression stiffened. He glanced at Beichen, then back at his wife. “What do you mean?”

He knew very well how close Beiwang and Chuwei were, so the moment he heard Beiwang had fought Beichen over her, he realized Beichen must have done something to wrong her.

“Beichen, be honest—what exactly happened?”

“What did you do to Chuwei that made Beiwang skip class just to come beat you up?”

Mur Junze’s tone grew sharp, his smile gone, eyes fixed like a hawk on Beichen.

Mur Beichen felt a pang of guilt. He knew his father was angry now, but still tried to explain.
“Dad, it was just a misunderstanding. I’ll find a chance to explain to Chuwei.”

Mur’s mother let out a cold laugh, cutting him off mercilessly.
“Misunderstanding? If it were really just that, why would you be kneeling here?”

“Don’t bother thinking about explanations anymore. Your engagement to Chuwei is canceled! I will never let her marry someone who doesn’t value her.”

Her tone was firm—she was giving him no chance to redeem himself.

“If you don’t hold Chuwei in your heart, then your father and I will find her someone who truly cherishes her.”

She then told her husband in full detail what their eldest son had done the day before.

When Mur Junze finished listening, he was both furious and amused.

“Mur Beichen, tell me—is what your mother said true? That yesterday you spent the whole day with that Xu Xueqing, and that the dinner you went to was actually a welcome party for her return?”

“You knew perfectly well that yesterday we were at that restaurant celebrating Chuwei’s birthday—her eighteenth birthday. And you, her fiancé, didn’t even show up.”

“In the past, fine—you didn’t come home. But this was her eighteenth birthday! If you really don’t like her, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Do you have any idea? Today, your Uncle Xia’s comrades were talking about holding a wedding banquet for you two—they were all happy to come. And the Gu family—Gu Lin told me that if you don’t like Chuwei, then let her marry his son Shisheng. I told him that was impossible.”

“I was wrong. I never should have arranged this engagement in the first place.”

Mur Junze looked at the whip on the ground, then picked it up.

“You’re grown now, your wings are hard, and I can’t control you anymore. Leave—don’t come back. I’ll just consider you no longer my son.” He took a deep breath.

Mur Beichen stared at his father in disbelief. “Dad, it’s not like that—”

But Mur Junze didn’t listen. His eyes were slightly red as he glanced at the open window, then asked his wife, “How’s Chuwei?”

Mur’s mother shook her head. “I sent her back to her room. But she feels the same way—she wants to end the engagement.”

“The fifteenth, we’ve already announced that the family will be hosting a banquet for a happy occasion. Since the wedding can’t happen, let’s make it a recognition banquet instead. We’ll formally make Chuwei our daughter, and from then on the Mur family will be her family.” She laid out her plan.

Mur Junze nodded. “Alright, we’ll do it your way.”

“If anyone asks, I’ll say I failed at raising my son. And tomorrow, you come with me to the Xu family—I want to ask them how exactly they raised their daughter.” He spoke through gritted teeth.