With a half-skeptical attitude, Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingtai tapped to open the recording.

As soon as it started, what fell into their ears was a hoarse, faintly trembling voice: “…No, Bro—Wen Siheng—Brother, I don’t want to go home!”

The voice of “One Hundred and Twenty Million” was no different from their own son’s, but the completely different tone and manner of speaking made it very clear they could tell the two apart.

“What’s wrong, A’Shao? …Oh dear, why are you crying again? A’Shao, you’ve been away from home for so long—don’t you miss Mom and Dad? Don’t you want to come back and see them?”

Their son’s voice was shrill with fear: “No… no! Brother!”

His words became jumbled and incoherent. “Aren’t we living just fine outside, Brother? We can earn our own money, we can feed ourselves, we… I don’t want to go home, Brother. If I go home, they’ll definitely tear up all my drawings again and force me to go to all those classes! They, they…”

“Brother, do you know? When they look at me, they’re not looking at me at all… I don’t know who they’re seeing. I—I’m so scared. Who on earth are they looking at? Do I really exist? Can they actually see me?”

“…I don’t want to study finance at all. They keep saying I have talent in finance, that as long as I apply myself I can learn it easily… but I really can’t understand it. As soon as I listen in class, my head feels like it’s going to explode.”

“They want me to have lots of friends, but I did make friends. They were the ones who drove them all away and forbade me from seeing them. Then they turned around and blamed me for not making friends!”

“They keep telling me to have hobbies, to have passion, to have ambition. But clearly I do have things I like, things I’m passionate about, things I want to do—and they never let me do any of it…”

“They also…”

One thing after another, one item piled on the next. When had Father Wen and Mother Wen ever heard their son say these things?

Never. Not once.

Since childhood, everything their son ever said to them boiled down to just two phrases—“I don’t want to.” “Okay.”

Their anger slowly sank into silence.

In the rare pauses when the terrified youth in the recording fell quiet, the two exchanged a hesitant glance.

Irritated, Wen Yifeng lit a cigarette. “Looks like he never understood our good intentions at all.”

Glaring fiercely, Wen Qingtai snatched the cigarette and crushed it out. “If you want to smoke, do it outside! …Honestly, this child—if he doesn’t understand, why doesn’t he just ask? Why does he have to get stuck in his own dead-end thinking, stuck so long he’s driven himself sick!”

She sighed. “And none of this is even that hard to deal with… It’s still that stubborn brain of his that just won’t turn the corner.”

Feeling wronged, Wen Yifeng flung the cigarette away. “If it really comes to it, when Shaozhuo comes home, we’ll just carve out some time and teach him ourselves.”

Frowning tightly, Wen Qingtai finally remembered what Wen Siheng had said at the start. “But Siheng said Shaozhuo is unwilling to come back… Honestly, what child doesn’t want to come home? Yes, we’ve been strict with him, but no matter how strict we are, can it be harder than going out into the world alone and struggling like this??”

She truly could not understand.

While they were speaking in low voices, the recorded audio continued.

The youth’s voice was pained and hoarse; just listening was enough to conjure the image of someone clutching his head in agony on the other side. “I don’t know what they actually want from me… I feel like that’s not my life at all. It’s the life of that person in their eyes!”

“I… I… Brother, what meaning does a life like that even have? If I have to go back, then I’d rather, I’d rather…”

The other voice suddenly grew flustered. “Wait, A’Shao… hey! What are you doing? Put the knife down!!…”

Clatter! Crash!

The sudden noise made both Wen Qingtai and Wen Yifeng jump.

“What’s he doing?” Wen Yifeng blurted.

“Trying to kill himself again?!” Wen Qingtai cried.

Amid the burst of chaos, the recording cut off.

The two of them could no longer sit still.

At once, Wen Qingtai told her husband to call Wen Siheng, while she herself hurried to shout for the driver.

They couldn’t get through to Wen Siheng.

He only sent a single line:
[Not convenient to answer the phone, still coaxing A’Shao. This is the first time his mood has been this bad since he moved out to live with me. If you ask me, the two of you… sigh, forget it.]

Fortunately, they already knew where their son was staying. Wen Qingtai immediately sent the location to the driver and said anxiously, “Drive faster!”

As she spoke, she sighed heavily and smacked her knee. “Honestly, using this trick to threaten us is one thing—how can he go and threaten poor Siheng too!”

Seething, Wen Yifeng cursed, “Really treating his life like a toy!”

At that moment, inside the house—

In Wen Shaozhuo’s bedroom, Wen Siheng was gripping his hand tightly, speaking with firm, soothing tones. “Mom and Dad will be here soon—A’Shao, if you don’t want to see them, then don’t open the door. No one else has a key to this bedroom. As long as you don’t open it, no one can come in. If you don’t want to talk to them, you don’t have to respond either.”

“If there’s something you don’t want to do, then don’t do it. Leave everything else to me, got it?”

Just hearing the four words “Mom and Dad” was enough to make Wen Shaozhuo feel as if he’d been yanked out of this past month’s beautiful dream and thrown back into reality.

But this reality seemed somehow different from the reality of his past eighteen years.

Clutching his brother’s hand, he asked softly, “Can I really not open the door, Brother? But they’re… they’re still Mom and Dad, after all…”

Brother A’Heng raised an eyebrow. “So what? This is your bedroom. You have the right to decide what happens here. Your life is also your life. How you want to live it, what you want to do with it—that should all be up to you!”

After he finished speaking, Brother A’Heng seemed quite satisfied with himself; his energy grew even brighter.

He patted Wen Shaozhuo’s shoulder solemnly, then turned and walked toward the bedroom door—the doorbell outside was already ringing. Mom and Dad… had arrived.

As he left, he gave one last reminder. “Remember, if you don’t want to open the door, then don’t. If you don’t want to answer, then don’t. We’re not living off them or eating their food right now, so there’s no need to indulge them!”

“Got it, A’Shao? No matter who calls you, don’t open the door! Show them your attitude. Let them see where you stand!”

The door closed.

Back when he chose the rooms, Brother A’Heng had deliberately left this auto-locking bedroom for him.

Out of habit, Wen Shaozhuo curled up in a corner of the bed, drawing his knees up and circling them with his arms—but for the first time, he felt that maybe… he wasn’t that scared.

Back home, just hearing Mom and Dad moving outside his door was enough to make his body tremble uncontrollably.

But now?

Maybe it was the locked door that gave him strength, or the brother standing guard outside that gave him confidence. He felt… like he might actually be able to get through this time.

From outside came the muffled sounds of doors opening and closing.

Soon, his mother’s sharp, carrying voice floated over from a distance. “Shaozhuo… Shaozhuo? We’ve come to see you and brought you some presents. Come out and have a look!”

His father’s voice followed shortly after. “…You’ve been living out here for quite a while now. You’ve played enough and experienced enough, haven’t you? I think it’s time to come home.”

The sounds didn’t come any closer.

Brother A’Heng’s voice blocked the two sides, calm and even. “Dad, Mom, didn’t I already tell you? A’Shao and I are doing just fine living on our own. We can earn money to pay rent, earn money to eat. We can support ourselves. No need to go home and spend your money.”

Mom and Dad were immediately displeased, but for once they didn’t explode. Instead, they patiently tried persuading him with the usual lines about “no place like home” and “why suffer hardship for nothing.”

Wen Shaozhuo thought to himself that talk like that would never sway his brother.

Sure enough, his brother’s tone didn’t change at all. He said very directly, “But it’s not as comfortable at home as it is outside, and not as free either. A’Shao and I don’t want to go back.”

Don’t want to go back.

Staring blankly into space, Wen Shaozhuo listened.

Ah… Brother just said it like that, right to Mom and Dad.

Brother… was so brave.

When would he ever be able to become as brave and as resolute as his brother, to face Mom and Dad without fear, to say what he wanted to say and do what he wanted to do?

Frowning, Wen Yifeng said, “Even if Shaozhuo doesn’t know any better, you should. Feeling comfortable and at ease—what good does that do for a person’s growth? It only leads to degeneration!”

“Which one is Shaozhuo’s bedroom? Hurry up and show us!”

Sighing, Wen Siheng led them upstairs. “There, that one.”

At once, Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingtai stepped forward to knock, calling for their son, trying to tempt him with presents and reason him into opening the door.

But from start to finish, there was no response from inside other than a bit of soft rustling.

Frowning deeper, Wen Qingtai turned to ask Wen Siheng, “What’s going on? Is Shaozhuo really in there? Nothing’s happened to him, has it? Why isn’t he making a sound?”

“Because—” drawled Wen Siheng, “A’Shao doesn’t want to see you.”

Eyes widening, Wen Qingtai said, “Just because his father and I have been too strict? Everything we’ve done is for his own good!”

Now even Wen Yifeng was getting anxious. Facing Wen Siheng but speaking to his son inside, he said, “You’re still young, you two. You’ve only just stepped into society and you don’t understand how harsh it can be! Messing around with a job or two for a month, barely scraping by for a while, sure, that’s possible. But can you really live like that for a lifetime?”

“Drawing? What kind of future can drawing bring? A couple of cheers and some applause, and then what? Is he going to paint until he reaches Da Vinci’s level or something?”

“Ten, twenty years from now, when the kids from the Chengs and the Lis and the Fangs have all grown up and taken over their family businesses—when his peers gather and chat at banquets, they’ll be talking about market trends and deals worth billions. And if someone asks what Shaozhuo’s been up to lately, what is he going to say? ‘Oh, I painted a picture and sold it for a few tens of thousands.’ Is that supposed to be something to be proud of??”

Softening his tone with great effort, he continued earnestly, “We already have enough money as a family, but social standing and face, those are things you have to earn for yourself!”

In his own mind, he felt that even if Shaozhuo couldn’t understand this, the young man with “One Hundred and Twenty Million” worth of experience standing beside him should.

But to his surprise, after listening, Wen Siheng calmly countered, “You want to gain social standing and face because you’ll feel happy having them. But did you ever ask A’Shao whether he’d be happy having them? Is that what he actually wants to pursue?”

“You’re forcing him to study things he doesn’t want to learn and making him do things he doesn’t want to do. The price is his entire lifetime’s worth of happiness, and what he gets in exchange is a kind of ‘face’ he never wanted in the first place.”

Looking genuinely puzzled, Wen Siheng added, “I didn’t get to study much at the orphanage, so I don’t understand—how does that add up to ‘for A’Shao’s sake’?”

For a moment, Wen Yifeng was at a loss for words.

But being speechless didn’t mean he had no way out. “How do you know Shaozhuo doesn’t want that? Even if he doesn’t right now, that’s only because he’s still young and hasn’t yet been out in society. Once he—”

Seeing that he was about to start knocking on the bedroom door again, Wen Siheng simply raised his voice and shouted, “A’Shao!”

The corridor fell silent. After a long moment, a quiet voice came from inside: “…Brother A’Heng.”

Hearing their son finally respond, the two parents were overjoyed and rushed to say something to him—but after that one sentence, he went quiet again, not reacting to any of their words.

“Si—heng!” Wen Yifeng called anxiously.

Only then did Wen Siheng speak again.

He asked loudly through the door, “A’Shao, you decide! Do you want to live outside with your brother, or do you want to go back home with Mom and Dad?”

The answer came quickly from inside. The voice wasn’t loud, but it was very clear. “…Brother, I’m not going home. I want to live with you.”

At that, Wen Siheng gave them a helpless smile and spread his hands in an equally helpless gesture.

But his voice was bright and loud as he said, “Sorry, Dad, Mom, A’Shao doesn’t want to go back with you ^ ^ It’s getting late, and we need to rest. Why don’t you… head home?”

Just like that, Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingtai were shown the door.

They were stunned by how they’d been treated—Shaozhuo actually wasn’t even willing to see them once??

They refused to accept it.

So the next day, they came again… and were rejected again.

On the third day, they tried using stern threats and long lectures… and still, Shaozhuo stayed in his room and completely ignored them.

On the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh days…

An entire week passed. He wouldn’t answer their calls or see them in person. The housekeeper could still get through on the phone, but the instant they spoke, Shaozhuo would hang up.

Faced with such an obvious difference in attitude, Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingtai finally had no way to pretend not to see it.

…

During this period, Cheng Huanzhen was very busy.

In just a week, he carefully studied more than a dozen books, including Basic Handbook of Male Physiology, Psychology and Sex, and What’s the Difference Between Family Love, Friendship, and Romantic Love?—100 Brilliant Tricks to Tell Feelings Apart!, and held several long, overnight conversations with Cheng Zhaorui.

Those talks were grueling. He had no idea why his father always looked on the verge of collapse, as if he had something to say but didn’t dare say it.

Very serious and earnest, Cheng Huanzhen told him, “Dad, I hope you can state your thoughts and everything you know truthfully. That will be the best outcome for both of us. You know, that sixty million…”

Completely undone, Cheng Zhaorui exclaimed, “Sixty million? What sixty million! How could letting a father find out about that sixty million possibly be better than letting him know that you’re g… You—you— I don’t know! I didn’t say anything! Getting hard in front of a male friend isn’t such a big deal. There are people in this world who get hard looking at cows, sheep, cats, and dogs, you know. Can’t you just not dig into this any further?!”