Chapter 46: Family Can Be Chosen

Cai Ji’s mother had endured two years. One time, after being beaten so badly by her drunken husband that her head was covered in blood and she couldn’t even go to work, she finally made up her mind to divorce him.

Back then, she wanted to take Cai Ji with her, but his father held Cai Ji while crying uncontrollably, saying he had already been abandoned by his wife and couldn’t bear to be abandoned by his son too. Relatives from all sides chimed in, saying that since Cai Ji carried the Cai family name, he couldn’t leave the Cai household; otherwise, he would be heartless and unfilial. What they really meant was that they didn’t want Cai Ji’s broke father turning to them for money in the future. They even said that if Cai Ji’s mother remarried and ended up sending the child back, no one would want to take care of him, and it would make it even harder for her to find another partner.

Little Cai Ji overheard his father threatening that if Cai Ji didn’t stay, he would never agree to the divorce, and they could drag it out for eternity to see who gave in first.

All the little boy wanted was to set his mother free, so he clenched his teeth and chose to stay with his father.

His mother cried for a long, long time while holding him. After she left, whenever things didn’t go well, Cai Ji’s father would take it out on him, saying he too would eventually run away someday.

His mother moved to the capital. Life was tough at first, but she eventually got a job at a garment factory and began to get back on her feet. Her income improved, but whenever she sent money or supplies back, Cai Ji’s father would snatch them for himself.

Several times, Cai Ji’s mother traveled thousands of miles to visit him, only to be driven away by his father and his relatives.

She resorted to secretly going to his school, watching him through the classroom window and leaving supplies and money in his desk drawer.

Later, when Cai Ji took the high school entrance exam, his mother asked her second husband—a small garment factory owner—to help him get admitted to Guangyao High School in Beicheng. She was pregnant at the time, and the shock of that made Cai Ji feel abandoned. So when his mother asked if he wanted to move to the capital with her, he refused again.

Feeling guilty, she sent even more money than before. Meanwhile, Cai Ji’s father lived off that money, lounging around at home, and even remarried.

After hearing all this, Jiang Ruotang was about to lose it.

He had thought that no one could ruin a good hand of cards like he had in his past life… but it turned out Cai Ji was just as “talented” in that regard.

Respect. Deep respect!

“Cai Ji, do you know why your mom had her current husband pull strings to get you into Guangyao High School?” Jiang Ruotang asked.

“To make it up to me, I guess,” Cai Ji answered listlessly.

If Cai Ji hadn’t been covered in injuries, Jiang Ruotang might’ve jumped up and knocked some sense into him.

“It was to give you the power to change your life and get away from your father! She’s always wanted to take you with her—you’re the one who refused! Guangyao has one of the top three college admission rates in the city. Your mom got you in because she wanted you to get into a good university, leave this place, and reunite with her in the capital—somewhere your father could never reach you!”

Cai Ji froze in shock.

“Your mom’s money has been supporting your dad, your stepmom, and even your crazy stepbrother! Honestly, I thought you should be running that household! You should be able to hit whoever you want, boss around whoever you want—they should be treating you like a golden goose because you’re the only source of income in that house!”

Looking at Jiang Ruotang’s heartbroken expression, Cai Ji reflexively muttered, “Really?”

“Of course!” Jiang Ruotang said firmly. “Even the textbooks say it—‘the economic base determines the superstructure!’ You are your family’s entire economic base!”

“But… if I don’t give them money, I’ll get beaten…”

Jiang Ruotang was almost shaking with frustration: “Then call the police!”

“One of our downstairs neighbors did that before. When the police came, my dad said he was just disciplining his son, and the cops told him not to go overboard—then left.”

Jiang Ruotang: “…”

He had forgotten—this was ten years ago. Social awareness hadn’t caught up yet, and even the laws weren’t very complete.

“My dad also said… if anything ever happened to him… I’d be left without a home…”

“You don’t have a home now!” Jiang Ruotang snapped. “Not only do you not have a home, you don’t even have money—you’re literally paying to get beaten!”

Cai Ji lowered his eyes, and after a long pause, murmured, “At least they still want my money. If my dad got sent to jail, there wouldn’t even be anyone left who cares about my money.”

“But… family shouldn’t be like this.” Jiang Ruotang knew that this was just how Cai Ji had grown up—some things would always sound outrageous no matter how many times he explained them, because Cai Ji couldn’t break out of that mental prison.

But every extra day he stayed in that environment was draining his life away.

Jiang Ruotang suddenly thought of how Cai Ji always looked at him and Zhao Changfeng when they joked around, or how he looked at Zhao Yunshu with longing when she stood up for him. Now he finally understood why Cai Ji envied him so much.

“Cai Ji, you need to get out of that house. That’s the only way you’ll find a new family. My current mom, and even Zhao Changfeng—they became my family because I chose them. Otherwise… they’d just be people who happened to live in the same house as me. Real family doesn’t treat you like an ATM. They won’t beat you to get their way. They won’t devalue you. Real family will stand up for you when you’re hurt.”

“Like Zhao Yunshu?” Cai Ji asked.

“Yes. Just like her. And there’s no blood between us. I’ve never given her a cent. But when I’m in trouble, when I need help, she’s always there. That’s what real friends and family are—people who don’t need to be bought.”

Just then, Jiang Ruotang’s phone rang. It was a call from Zhao Changfeng.

His loud voice blared through the phone, “Hey! Where the hell are you?! Do you know what time it is? Why aren’t you home yet?!”

Jiang Ruotang glanced at Cai Ji, then asked into the phone, “Changfeng, have I ever given you money?”

Zhao Changfeng was thrown off. “When have you ever given me money?”

Jiang Ruotang continued, “Okay, let’s say not just me—even my dad stops giving you money. If I got beat up out there—black eye, bloody nose, someone even burned me with a cigarette—what would you do?”

Zhao Changfeng paused, then said, “Who the hell?! Finally someone doing God’s work—burning you might be the best thing that ever happened!”

Then he hung up.

Jiang Ruotang was left staring blankly at his phone, thoroughly embarrassed.

Cai Ji tried to comfort him: “Zhao Changfeng just… knows you’re not the type to get bullied. That’s probably why he’s joking.”

“Heh…” Jiang Ruotang didn’t feel very comforted.

They sat in silence for about thirty seconds. Then Jiang Ruotang’s phone buzzed again—this time the caller ID said “Husky.”

“Your dog can make phone calls?” Cai Ji asked.

“No… that’s Zhao Changfeng…” Jiang Ruotang answered. Just as he picked up, he heard Zhao Changfeng yelling, “Where are you?! Are you dead or what?! I’m coming to get you right now!”

“Uh… what do you mean dead?”

“Didn’t you just say someone beat you up? Who the hell dared to burn you with a cigarette?! I swear I’ll dunk their head in a trash can! Why aren’t you saying anything? Did they beat you stupid?!”

Jiang Ruotang stood frozen. Suddenly, he really did feel like Zhao Changfeng might dunk his head in a trash can…

“I… I mean… no one actually beat me… I was just describing a scenario…”

Silence for two seconds. Then Zhao Changfeng’s voice shot up an octave.

“What do you mean—no one beat you?! Are you insane?! You imagined getting beat up?! Imagined getting burned with a cigarette?! If someone ever really beats you up and you chicken out, I’ll kill you myself! I’m coming over right now!”

“Why…?”

“To take you to a mental hospital!”

Jiang Ruotang didn’t even need to see his face—he could picture him now: a raging dragon breathing fire.

After he sent his location, something suddenly occurred to him. “Cai Ji, what you just saw—you better keep that a secret… Otherwise someone in my house will die tonight.”

“Keep what a secret?” Cai Ji asked, totally confused.

“Um… the Husky thing…”

After a pause, Cai Ji dazedly nodded. “…Okay.”

Zhao Changfeng arrived by cab. When he got out and saw Jiang Ruotang perfectly fine, sitting at a small table by the floor-to-ceiling windows, he visibly let out a sigh of relief.

Jiang Ruotang smiled and waved at him.

Zhao Changfeng walked in, picked him up, examined him from left to right, confirmed there were no injuries, and shoved him back in his chair.

“If you ever joke like that again, I will kill you!” Zhao Changfeng grumbled.

“Never again! I swear! I totally get how much you care about me now…”

“Care my ass! I just didn’t want you getting hurt and crying at home and making our parents worry.”

Zhao Changfeng finally sat down—then noticed the bruises on Cai Ji’s face. “Whoa! Who the hell did this to you?!”

“M-My dad…” Cai Ji muttered, voice barely louder than a mosquito.

Jiang Ruotang suddenly realized that the person who truly shared the most in common with Cai Ji wasn’t himself—it was Zhao Changfeng!

“Your dad? He beat you because you helped Meng Yang cheat on a test? I was just about to ask what the heck happened, ‘cause you don’t seem like the type to do that!”

Cai Ji lowered his head and gave a helpless smile. He wanted to say “It’s all in the past,” but even that kind of self-comfort felt hollow and impossible to believe.

He subconsciously reached for his milk tea, and as his sleeve shifted, several round burn scars were revealed. Zhao Changfeng had sharp eyes and immediately caught sight of them.

“Who burned you?” Zhao Changfeng’s voice dropped an octave.

“My… my brother…” Cai Ji was instantly intimidated.

“Your brother? He just burns you for fun? That’s what you call a brother? He’s an animal!”

Zhao Changfeng’s biological father was a domestic abuser, so he was extremely sensitive to this kind of situation—any trigger would set him off.

Jiang Ruotang had wanted to calm him down, but at that moment, he suddenly realized: only Zhao Changfeng could really teach Cai Ji what to do. Still, this was Cai Ji’s private matter—without his permission, Jiang Ruotang couldn’t just blurt everything out.

“Changfeng, I think I saw a similar round scar on our mom… was that also from being burned?”

Zhao Changfeng took a deep breath, calming himself down. “Yeah. That scumbag got mad because my mom came home late from working overtime, went nuts, and gave her that burn. It made me so mad I could explode!”

Cai Ji stiffened and looked over. “And then what happened?”

“At first, my mom wanted to divorce him, but he refused. Even beat her up. I was in sixth grade at the time—when I came home and saw that, I wanted to grab the ashtray off the table and smash it over that bastard’s head! But my mom stopped me. She said I couldn’t use his kind of methods to fight back—she was afraid I’d turn into someone like him. But calling the cops back then didn’t help either. The police thought it was just a domestic issue and tried to play mediator. My biggest wish was for my mom to just divorce him and get away.”

“Weren’t you scared she’d remarry and not want you anymore? That you’d have to go back to live with your dad?” Cai Ji asked carefully.

“Hey, don’t insult the word ‘dad.’ That man is not my dad, okay?” Zhao Changfeng tilted his chin defiantly. “The smartest thing my mom ever did was not only divorcing him, but also getting him thrown in jail for a few months.”

“How did she manage that?” Cai Ji was curious. After all, when his own mother got divorced, she gave up everything just to be free—she left the house, didn’t ask for money, and even agreed to pay a monthly allowance for Cai Ji to make the divorce go through.

“My mom was driving the company car to another city for work. That scumbag saw she had packed some clothes and thought she was trying to run away, so he blocked the car and forced himself in. On the way, she brought up the divorce again, and he completely lost it—grabbed her by the throat, stopped the car, threw her out, and drove off alone! And this was on the highway—she couldn’t even find another ride. In his twisted mind, he thought punishing her like that would make her stop wanting a divorce. But that wasn’t her personal car—it belonged to the company, and there was a dashcam recording everything. My mom reported it to the police, saying he hijacked a company vehicle. The cops caught up with him. The car legally belonged to the company, and my mom never gave him permission to use it. His actions endangered her life. Neither my mom nor the company would sign any forgiveness forms, so he got locked up, and the divorce papers were finalized.”

Cai Ji lowered his head. After a long pause, he softly said, “Maybe I made the wrong choice back then. If I had left with my mom, maybe she could’ve worked harder with more peace of mind.”

“Exactly! That’s the whole point! Cai Ji, your dad didn’t fight for custody because he loved you or needed you. He did it to suck your mom dry! Your mom, your grandparents—they’re still shouldering this financial burden for you! Imagine how happy they’d be if you could finally be free! Think about it—you’re old enough to make your own decisions now. Are you keeping your dad around because you think your mom and grandparents have it too easy?” Jiang Ruotang spoke up.

Zhao Changfeng looked at the way Cai Ji just sat there, so timid and broken—it made him mad. “Wait a second, aren’t you eighteen already?”

“…Yeah.” Cai Ji nodded.

“Eighteen and still can’t take control of your own life? Seriously? I was twelve when I had the guts to smash that bastard’s head into a wall! You’re eighteen, man! Grow a spine, will you?”

Jiang Ruotang added from the side, “Yeah! All that money your mom and grandparents sent just ends up in the pockets of the people abusing you. If they knew, it would kill them from the anger! Look, even if you’ve fallen into a pit of mud—when someone throws you a rope, if you don’t grab it and climb out, and you just sit there reminiscing about how ‘comforting’ the mud feels—that’s called needing a mental hospital!”

“So… what should I do now?” Cai Ji asked.

Zhao Changfeng stood up. “What else? Go home and sleep. Ask the adults for help. The sun’s still going to rise tomorrow, and we still gotta go to class.”

Jiang Ruotang looked at Zhao Changfeng and thought—this guy didn’t turn out crooked because his heart was too big to be twisted.

“Alright then, let’s go home.”

Cai Ji watched as Zhao Changfeng and Jiang Ruotang walked toward the door, their backs lit by the soft glow of streetlight… but he remained seated in place.