Chapter 307: Chapter 307: Acknowledge Them? Why Not?

Chen Jianghe had always liked listening to the news and keeping up with current affairs. He knew this news was most likely true. One tree doesn’t make a forest, so he simply shared the news with everyone and encouraged them all to study together.

All the young people in the village who wanted to go to college responded enthusiastically. Chen Jianghe took the lead and organized a study group at the educated youth spot, clearing out a storage room to use as a classroom. He shared the study materials his parents had sent him with everyone.

The study group was held in the evenings, from seven to ten. Everyone studied together, helping each other with anything they didn’t understand. The atmosphere was lively and productive.

After Xu Mingshan’s incident, Xu Meiling lost her job as a scorekeeper and was unwilling to work properly. She spent her days lying around in bed, neglecting her child.

All the household chores fell on Chen Jianghe.

At first, he sympathized with her bad mood, but then one day, he accidentally saw Miaomiao grabbing her own poop and putting it in her mouth, and Xu Meiling didn’t even care. That was the last straw for Chen Jianghe—he was furious.

He fought with Xu Meiling many times, even coming to blows. In short, things got ugly.

After the news about the college entrance exam came, Chen Jianghe didn’t want to argue with her anymore. He simply took his daughter with him to work every day, and after work, brought her to the study group. He completely ignored Xu Meiling.

He made up his mind: he was going to get into college, return to the city, leave this deadweight behind, and get out of this miserable place.

Xu Meiling noticed that Chen Jianghe was ignoring her and focused only on studying for the college entrance exam. She felt a strong sense of crisis.

She kept thinking, if Chen Jianghe got into college and escaped from here, he’d leave her for good.

She went back to her parents’ house to complain, but Xu Mingshan was already a pariah, shunned by everyone, and couldn’t help her at all. He just said, “You at least finished high school. Why don’t you take the exam too?”

Of course Xu Meiling had thought about it, but she knew her own abilities—she’d always been at the bottom of the class.

But then she thought, what if? It was the first year the college entrance exam was reinstated—maybe the questions would be easier?

So she shamelessly joined Chen Jianghe at the study group.

Gu Qinghuan and Lin Xiaomeng also organized a small study group, but not in the village.

She and Lin Xiaomeng took the lead, along with Jiang Xue, Hao Zhigao, and a few young teachers from the school. After class, they’d study and discuss together.

Ever since that incident, Lin Xiaomeng had clearly felt awkward around her. After all, Xu Huaizhi had benefited a lot from Xu Huaian.

But Gu Qinghuan kept things separate and didn’t hold it against her. She treated her as before—just no longer called her “sister-in-law.”

The study group continued until the end of June.

School was out for summer break.

After finishing the semester and saying goodbye to her students, Gu Qinghuan took the initiative to resign to Principal Chen.

With just a few months before the official news about the college entrance exam, she wanted to free up her time to focus on studying.

Principal Chen tried hard to persuade her to stay, but everyone has their own aspirations. In the end, he agreed to let her go.

Gu Qinghuan packed up her personal belongings and brought them back to the Xu family’s village. She also divided up the vegetables in her garden among the other teachers.

Chen Fang even organized a farewell party for her.

Before she left, she handed over the scholarship funds for those thirty-odd children, entrusting the matter to Principal Chen.

She was determined to leave this place, so she could only trust this matter to someone reliable—and that person could only be Principal Chen. She didn’t trust anyone else.

Only then did Principal Chen realize that Gu Qinghuan had quietly done such a big thing, and the school hadn’t heard a word about it.

The more he saw how good Gu Qinghuan was, the more reluctant he was to lose such a capable teacher. But everyone has their own path, and this place was never meant to be her stage. She deserved a bigger world.

During the summer break, Gu Qinghuan met with the children she had sponsored one last time.

She held their report cards in her hand, unable to stop smiling. The children looked completely different—confident, cheerful, full of youthful energy. Each of them had turned in a report card to be proud of.

She handed out their tuition and living expenses for the new semester, reminding them to study hard. In the future, they could collect their tuition from Principal Chen.

The children knew she was preparing for the college entrance exam and encouraged her, saying, “Teacher Gu, you can definitely do it!”

Yes, she believed she could do it too.

—

Yun Runtong and his wife returned to Beijing and couldn’t wait to find Xu Huaian.

They told him everything that had happened over the years, in full detail.

Xu Huaian had never imagined that he wasn’t the Xu family’s biological son. He didn’t know whether to feel happy or sad—he just felt bitter inside.

Years ago, he’d wished he wasn’t his parents’ biological child. That way, when he was treated unfairly, it wouldn’t hurt so much.

Why did his parents treat only him so poorly? Was he really their child?

He’d even asked the elderly villagers who’d seen him born, and they all said he really was born to Liu Guifang—everyone had seen her pregnant belly.

He was glad to learn he wasn’t the Xu family’s son after all. He had his own parents—he wasn’t an unwanted child.

But then, what did all his years of suffering mean? It felt like fate had played a cruel joke on him.

If the person who started all this wasn’t already dead, he might have wanted to kill her himself.

He should have grown up in a loving family, with parents to rely on, someone to care for him—just like any other child.

Instead, he’d nearly died alone on a kang bed, with no one knowing. The hunger, the helplessness, the days without dignity—they all seemed so vivid still.

If he hadn’t met Gu Qinghuan, he might have ended his life in obscurity.

He used to envy young masters like Yun Nianzhou, who could do whatever they wanted under their parents’ protection, live as they pleased, face any storm with confidence, and never have to worry about making a wrong step—there was always someone to catch them.

They could have anything they wanted, love whoever they wished, and express themselves freely, without feeling inferior.

Unlike him, who could only fight for everything with his life, forging ahead, knowing that one wrong step meant disaster.

He had little to offer his beloved—just a sincere heart.

He’d been deeply insecure, especially with Gu Qinghuan. He felt like a thief, always afraid of being discovered, of losing her, never confident in his love.

But now, someone was telling him that all of this should have been his in the first place, but it was stolen from him by a twist of fate.

How could he let go of that?

He didn’t know. Life had been too hard. Before Gu Qinghuan came into his world, he truly didn’t know what happiness was.

Right now, he desperately wanted to call Gu Qinghuan, to hear her voice and calm himself down. But he couldn’t, so he just hugged the snacks she’d given him, chewing them furiously, trying to find some calm.

Yun Runtong and Liang Zhiqiu didn’t push him. They knew it would be hard for him to come to terms with it, so they just stayed quietly by his side, waiting.

After a long silence, he finally asked in a hoarse voice, “All these years, did you look for me? Did you think about me?”

Liang Zhiqiu couldn’t hold back anymore. She grabbed her son’s hand, tears streaming down her face.

“My child, there hasn’t been a moment when I didn’t think of you!

Back then, we searched for you in Beijing like looking for a needle in a haystack. Later, your father suspected Liu Chun had taken you back to her hometown in the northeast, so he applied for a transfer to the Shenyang military district. We stayed there for over ten years, always searching for you.

When your grandmother wanted to adopt Nianzhou, I was against it at first. Your father said, ‘If we adopt this child, maybe it will bring you good luck. Maybe, somewhere out there, someone will love you as much as we do.’

Because of you, he started to believe in karma, afraid that any mistake he made would affect your fate.

Every year on your birthday, your father would prepare a gift for you and keep it at home for you to see when you came back. When you were one, it was a rocking horse; when you were two, a wooden toy gun he made himself; when you were three, a tiny military cap...

My child, even though you didn’t grow up with us, you still became the person we hoped you’d be.

Your father hoped you’d become a soldier, and you really did become an outstanding one.

I hoped you’d be a kind and upright person, and you’ve done even better than I imagined. I’m so proud of you!”

Yun Runtong added, “Your mother is a doctor, a lifelong materialist, but to find you, she even started praying to gods and Buddha.

She visited every temple, sincerely praying for you to be safe and happy, hoping to see you again, even just once.

Sometimes she’d even pray, ‘If I could just see him again, I’d give up twenty years of my life, or thirty, even die right now if I had to.’

When your grandmother wanted to name that other child Nianzhou, your mother refused. She didn’t want anyone to replace you, wouldn’t even let that child come to our house.

In our Beijing home, there are not only the birthday gifts I prepared for you, but all of your mother’s love.

She redecorates your room every two years, afraid that if you ever come home, there won’t be a place for you and you’ll feel sad.

I watched that room change from a little boy’s room, to a teenager’s, to a grown man’s. I’ve also watched your mother grow older, but her love for you has never faded, never lessened.

Mine hasn’t either.

Would you like to come home with us and see it?”

For a moment, Xu Huaian really couldn’t accept it. If he were still a teenager, maybe he would have stubbornly turned away and said he didn’t need parents or anyone’s love.

But he wasn’t a teenager anymore. Reason told him: Acknowledge them! Why not? These were his parents, this was all supposed to be his—he should take it back.

They owed him this, didn’t they?

If he were the Yun family’s son, his efforts would have been recognized, his path would have been a hundred times smoother.

He could have been Gu Qinghuan’s safe harbor, instead of helplessly worrying when trouble came.

To be realistic, he was long past the age of needing parents—he could live just fine on his own.

The Yun couple’s touching words sounded hollow to him, because he, the one who lived through it, hadn’t felt any of it.

Love or not, he wouldn’t force it.

But the Yun family’s power and background could give him a good life—so he’d acknowledge them!

“Can I go see it?”

“Of course you can!” Liang Zhiqiu’s nose tingled as she saw how cautious her son was."

"Chapter 308: The Truth Revealed, Yun Nianzhou Breaks Down