Hearing the commotion, Wen Qingcai hurried to Wen Yifeng’s side.

“What happened??”

Wen Yifeng laughed in anger and slammed his phone onto the table in front of Wen Qingcai. “What else could it be? Who knows, maybe Shaozhuo has already been sold by someone!”

Furious, after hanging up on the driver, Wen Yifeng dialed his contact surnamed Lin directly.

As soon as the call connected, Wen Yifeng took the initiative, aggressively questioning in a loud voice: “Mr. Lin, I treated you as doing business in good faith, but you guys are great—you took so much of our money, and now you’ve lost Shaozhuo? Is this kidnapping, or trafficking, or do you just find life too dull and are in a rush to squat in prison?”

This momentum was as sharp as a sword, thrusting toward the other party with a belly full of rage.

But this momentum, transmitted via signal to the other side, was quietly dissolved by a peaceful chuckle from the man on the other end of the phone.

Lin Chen spoke unhurriedly: “Oh my, Mr. Wen, don’t get angry just yet. I was just about to tell you both about this.”

Lin Chen: “These days, our professional acting agent carefully evaluated the specific situation in your home and adjusted the details of our plan based on the specific interaction patterns between you, Ms. Wen, and Young Master Wen. He just reported the matter to me.”

Lin Chen sighed: “His act of acting first and reporting later was indeed a bit against procedure, making me quite unhappy too. Look, before your call came, I had just given him a harsh scolding and deducted his performance bonus for this month!”

“However, setting aside the sudden plan adjustment, you can absolutely trust our acting agent’s judgment and plan selection. In fact, Young Master Wen’s current situation is very poor. It would be difficult for his condition to improve if he continued living at home. Our acting agent considered multiple factors before deciding to temporarily take him to live elsewhere to adjust his state, so as to better and more efficiently improve Young Master Wen’s psychological condition.”

As if to prove his words, Wen Yifeng’s WeChat suddenly beeped.

Clicking it open, it was a photo sent by Lin Chen.

In the photo, inside a spacious and bright room, Wen Shaozhuo’s eyes were bright, and his face wore a surprised and irrepressible smile. His hands were pressed against the window, head stretching out, looking at something unknown outside.

They had, of course, seen this smile before.

Shaozhuo loved to smile like this when he was six or seven.
Smiling brightly and joyfully, loving to run toward them unsteadily while laughing, shouting “Dad,” “Mom,” and then actively throwing himself into their arms.

Wen Yifeng’s anger suddenly misfired for two seconds.

This photo looked like a casual snapshot by the other party—composition, lighting, everything was casual. But the state of the young man in the photo was enough to make him ignore everything outside the person.

Wen Yifeng: “…Taken today?”

As soon as he said this, he felt his attitude wasn’t right, so he immediately resumed his solemn expression and asked his wife, “What do you think?”

Wen Qingcai’s gaze remained fixed on the photo, her anger also dissipating silently.

She shook her head with a sigh: “This photo looks like it’s back to when Shaozhuo was little. Back then, Shaozhuo’s personality was actually okay, just not top-notch in learning various things. I don’t know why he got worse as he grew up—shortcomings weren’t fixed, strengths all disappeared, and now it’s even…”

With these words, Wen Yifeng could no longer mention kidnapping or trafficking.

The bad mood was replaced by another kind of bad. Wen Yifeng asked a few questions about where Shaozhuo was living now, who he was living with, what the daily schedule was like while away from home, whether school attendance could be guaranteed, and when he planned to return home…

After understanding the basic situation, Wen Dad and Wen Mom temporarily went silent, briefly exchanged attitudes, felt that this plan looked hopeful to pull Shaozhuo’s state back to the psychologically normal appearance of his childhood, and reluctantly agreed while holding their noses.

Before hanging up, Wen Yifeng specifically instructed: “The plan can proceed according to your schedule, but tell your acting agent, during this time living away from home with Shaozhuo, absolutely do not be too ostentatious in front of other families in the Imperial Capital. Don’t embarrass the family.”

Lin Chen agreed, coaxed the two bosses back into being willing to pay the balance, and hung up.

He walked out of the room into the living room, leaning against the wall with folded arms, watching the young man inside who knew no fatigue and had been painting the scenery outside the window for four or five hours straight.

Wen Shaozhuo had always been sensitive to gazes.

As soon as Wen Siheng came out of his room, he abruptly snapped out of his total concentration, turning his head toward the noise.

Seeing Wen Siheng, he embarrassedly put down his brush and called out softly, “Brother A’Heng.”

Wen Siheng walked to his side: “Don’t, I didn’t come out to disturb you.”

He leaned his head over enthusiastically to look at Wen Shaozhuo’s canvas.

Although Wen Shaozhuo was painting the scenery outside the window, except for the positions of the trees and buildings, everything else—whether the colors or the overall atmosphere—had nothing to do with reality.

The trees in the painting were grotesque; the tall buildings in the distance were gloomy and dark.

But within this weird and eerie picture, scattered spots of light shone through from one side. That was the direction of home, which wasn’t depicted on the canvas.

Light spots scattered brightly or dimly throughout the picture, dispelling the eeriness of the painting and bringing an inexplicably warm and peaceful color to the whole image.

Wen Shaozhuo had been very immersed while painting.

But now snapping out of it and looking closely at his canvas, his whole face instantly turned red with nervousness.

Terrible! He had resolved when his art portfolio was seen by Brother A’Heng that he would absolutely never paint such strange and terrible pictures again…

But accidentally, his hand moved on its own, and the painting turned into this again.

Would Brother A’Heng, would he…

Brother A’Heng didn’t laugh at him.

Nor did he show any disdain or dislike for his painting.

Instead, his eyes widened in amazement, and he said very happily: “A’Shao’s style is really too unique! If all of A’Shao’s paintings were lined up together, the effect would definitely be shocking!”

Wen Shaozhuo felt Brother A’Heng was exaggerating too much.

He couldn’t help showing a shallow, cramped smile to Brother A’Heng: “This is an effect anyone can draw, Brother. Those amazing people definitely draw much better than me.”

Brother A’Heng didn’t take that comment but asked, “How does A’Shao feel about living here?”

This was one of the real estate resources owned by the old Cheng family residence, usually for descendants whose parents weren’t successful enough to buy a house easily but needed to attend school near B University.

It just so happened that no Cheng descendants needed it these past two years, so the house was empty. Cheng Huanzhen, who happened to pass by today, asked for it and rented it to them for two thousand a month.

Lin Chen had been worried the environment here was too good, giving Wen Shaozhuo an overly false good impression of life away from home.

Fortunately, Wen Shaozhuo seemed to focus on something completely different.

Wen Shaozhuo gripped his clothes somewhat uneasily and said, “I think it’s very good, Brother A’Heng.”

They arrived at the new house in the afternoon; not even a night had passed.

But Wen Shaozhuo felt that just from these few hours of simple experience, he never wanted to return home again.

No harsh voices scolding in his ears incessantly. Whether sitting, standing, drinking water, or painting, no one was watching and judging his every action in real-time.

He didn’t need to be reminded of his terribleness every three to five minutes, nor did he need to live in fear with every move, afraid of displeasing his parents.

Every breath seemed to become smooth.

All invisible, pricking things in the air seemed to be swept away.

Wen Shaozhuo vaguely felt like he hadn’t experienced such a “clean” environment for a long time.

Thinking of this, Wen Shaozhuo immediately worried proactively: “Brother A’Heng, but can we really earn three thousand yuan in a month? If we can’t, do we have to go back home to live?”

Wen Siheng was also very worried about this, but he smiled on his face, patting his chest and telling Wen Shaozhuo: “Don’t worry, A’Shao. Brother will go out to find a job tomorrow. There are plenty of waiter and milk tea shaker jobs on the street. Somehow we can earn three thousand yuan a month!”

Wen Shaozhuo perceptively noticed the worry in Brother A’Heng’s eyes.

…As expected, it’s still very difficult, right?

Wen Shaozhuo hesitated for a moment and said softly, “Brother A’Heng, if… if my paintings can really sell for money, please let me help earn this three thousand yuan too.”

Perhaps because he had truly experienced the feeling of living away from home, Wen Shaozhuo’s resistance to “making money by painting” was much less than during the funeral just now.

Brother A’Heng said smilingly: “Of course I won’t let A’Shao be idle. Brother will help A’Shao upload the selected portfolio to the internet tomorrow!”

Wen Siheng changed the subject: “But before that, there are more urgent things A’Shao needs to learn.”

Wen Shaozhuo blinked blankly and slowly, asking, “Learn?”

Wen Siheng looked at him sincerely and solemnly: “Cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning… we have to do all these jobs ourselves now!”

…

It was nearly twelve o’clock when Lin Chen finally left the villa and came to the road in the villa area.

The streetlights in the villa area were bright at night.

A LaTiMaSha was parked under a streetlight. A young man stood silently with hands in pockets, half-leaning against the car door, looking down at his leather shoes.

When footsteps sounded from the corner, he immediately lifted his head.

A young man who looked just of age walked out from the corner, natural curly hair falling casually by his ears. His expression was calm, his aura peaceful, walking steadily toward him.

Cheng Huanzhen moved away from the car door.

Cheng Huanzhen called out in a low voice: “Uncle.”

Lin Chen asked him: “You’ve been waiting like this all along?”

Cheng Huanzhen pressed his lips tightly together, not answering.

He reached out to hold his uncle’s wrist and asked in a low voice: “Uncle, can I hug you?”

This wasn’t the first time he asked for a hug.

Ever since Lin Chen revealed his identity to him, every time Cheng Huanzhen saw him, he would try to ask for a hug like this.

Lin Chen sighed and said, “You’re really clingy.”

Cheng Huanzhen’s lips pressed even tighter.

He lowered his voice, sounding a bit hoarse. He asked again: “Uncle, can I hug you?”

Lin Chen asked seriously and puzzledly: “Did the last two hugs fail to comfort you?”

Cheng Huanzhen couldn’t answer this question.

He was silent for three seconds, skipped the question, his voice becoming even more dejected. He asked: “Uncle, can I hug you?”

Lin Chen was always softer-hearted toward the juniors he had raised.

He sighed deeply, raised his wrist that was being tightly held, and signaled gently: “Then at least we shouldn’t stand under the streetlight, my repeater nephew.”