Chapter 19: Father and Son
The two entered and got into the elevator. Wei Xun looked at Mu Jia Shu sternly.
Mu Jia Shu looked at him, then looked at himself in the smooth wall of the elevator. He felt he looked elegant and quite good.
Wei Xun said, “In the future, you are not allowed to be all tangled up with people of questionable character!”
Mu Jia Shu: “…Young Master Wei, that person is my friend.”
Wei Xun raised an eyebrow and let out a cold laugh, “Friend? I’d say he’s an ex-boyfriend. If I hadn’t gone over, you two would have been hugging! In broad daylight, it’s an offense to public decency.”
Mu Jia Shu thought to himself: As expected, you know even more clearly than I do. Then why are you still putting on an act?
“Yes,” Mu Jia Shu replied. “Today was because of some small disagreements over past matters. In the future, I will do my best to ensure it doesn’t spill over to the company and affect the company’s reputation and image. Young Master Wei, I apologize.”
Mu Jia Shu’s admission of his mistake was so comprehensive and specific that Wei Xun had nothing left to say. He could only give a “humph” and look away, no longer staring at him.
But while he could control his eyes, he couldn’t control his heart.
He had watched Mu Jia Shu’s body be cremated. He was present when the urn was buried. If anyone didn’t believe Mu Jia Shu was truly dead, he had no reason not to believe it either.
So, on one hand, Wei Xun was sternly warning himself not to treat anyone as Xiao Shu—that would be an insult to him and a lack of respect for the other person.
But on the other hand, he uncontrollably felt that Shen Shu had too many similarities to Mu Jia Shu, often making him feel dazed.
Wei Xun now couldn’t even distinguish whether all this was due to Shen Shu himself or a hallucination born from how much he missed Mu Jia Shu.
He had tested Shen Shu before, and the result clearly showed the two were different. Moreover, his kind of testing was inherently absurd. After studying Marxism for so many years and being a soldier, he couldn’t possibly believe in something like an immortal spirit.
The blurred truth caused his attitude toward him to be unpredictable—wanting to get close, yet instinctively resisting.
After stepping out of the elevator, Mu Jia Shu was just about to go eat when he was called back by Wei Xun, “Wait.”
Mu Jia Shu stopped and looked back at him.
Wei Xun said, “What are you having for lunch?”
Mu Jia Shu: “…Instant noodles.”
“I knew it.” Wei Xun snorted in contempt, very dissatisfied. “Eating that kind of non-nutritional stuff again! I really don’t understand where the salary I give you goes. Regardless of whether that stuff is good for your body, don’t you get tired of it?”
Mu Jia Shu didn’t know what to say. Wei Xun glared at him and led him into the lounge. On the table sat a portion of rice with toppings, “Eat.”
Mu Jia Shu asked, “I eat?”
“Do you expect me to eat while you watch?” Wei Xun didn’t know why his temper was so big today, and he snapped at him irritably.
Mu Jia Shu rubbed his nose.
Instead, Wei Xun felt a bit bad and softened his tone, saying, “I’ve already eaten. Pingzhao didn’t know and ordered another delivery for me. There just happened to be an extra portion, and you haven’t had lunch yet. It would be a waste to leave it. Uh, I saw you eating yesterday; your tastes seem similar to mine, like you don’t have any dietary restrictions.”
With his status, it was rare for him to explain so much to someone calmly, but unfortunately, the basic content was all nonsense.
When he was eating at noon, he passed Mu Jia Shu’s desk and saw he wasn’t in his seat. With a quick glance, he didn’t find anything else but first spotted a plastic bag of instant noodles next to the table. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Until he finished eating, he still felt uneasy no matter how he thought about it. So, he bought an extra portion of food and carried it up.
Wei Xun waited for a while and didn’t see Mu Jia Shu return. He walked to the window and looked down, just in time to see him all tangled up with another young man. Without a second thought, he went downstairs and brought him back up.
Mu Jia Shu looked at the food on the table. Whether he believed the story or not, he smiled and said, “Then I’ll take advantage of your generosity. Thank you. In a while, I…”
He originally wanted to say he would give Wei Xun the money for the meal in a while, but thinking it would be too petty, he changed his words at the last second, “In a while, I will definitely work hard.”
In fact, Wei Xun had very little for him to do. Mu Jia Shu’s so-called “working hard” was nothing more than being a doorman and an assistant. However, because his “special talent” had been discovered when he helped Liang Pingzhao last time, his treatment had improved—Wei Xun had upgraded Mu Jia Shu’s Children’s Pictorial to a laptop and told him he could “study when there’s nothing to do, and if he passes the company assessment in a year, there’s hope of becoming a formal employee.”
Although he wasn’t particularly looking forward to the legendary formal position, this computer did provide great convenience for Mu Jia Shu, allowing him to directly learn about various stocks and other relevant financial market trends without having to go to an internet café.
Sometimes, thinking carefully, the experience of returning from the dead was truly miraculous. The world was still the same world, but viewed from a different identity and perspective, everything became completely different. Many things that could be easily obtained in the past now required renewed effort to strive for, and those acquaintances he used to see every day had become out of reach.
Mu Jia Shu remembered when he was very young, Wei Xun’s eldest brother, Wei Che, was still in high school. He had a very gentle temperament and loved children. After coming home from school, he would often read his Chinese language textbooks to his two wide-eyed younger brothers.
One time, a story he told left a very deep impression on Mu Jia Shu.
Actually, it was very simple. It was about an ancient wanderer who took a wrong path when entering the mountains. After finally finding the exit, he discovered that the world had changed, and a thousand years had passed.
His family, friends… even his enemies were all gone. The places he was familiar with had also vanished into thin air. Mu Jia Shu remembered that Wei Xun was only eight or nine at the time, yet he had lamented like a little adult, “Then he’s still living all alone. What’s the point?”
Yes, actually, it was quite pointless. Sometimes Mu Jia Shu almost thought he was Shen Shu himself, and the so-called Mu Jia Shu was just a ridiculous delusion. Whether he had been reborn or had gone mad was a difficult thing to judge.
But fortunately, Wei Xun was still there.
It seemed that no matter where he was or who he became, Wei Xun was always there.
He was like a thread connecting Shen Shu and Mu Jia Shu, allowing Mu Jia Shu to be certain that his past self had truly existed and was not a product of a mental hallucination.
In this world, besides himself, there was another person who cared so much about “Mu Jia Shu’s” existence and refused to give up.
This made him sincerely grateful.
Unknowingly, three months had passed in this manner. Wei Xun gave Mu Jia Shu a five-day break because he was also going on annual leave—Mu Jia Shu knew that in two days, it happened to be Wei Xun’s maternal grandfather’s birthday.
Although Wei Xun was called “Third Young Master,” this seniority was ranked among cousins. In reality, there were only two children in his family. The eldest brother, Wei Che, worked in the provincial military and couldn’t come home for years.
For this reason, Wei Xun had to be present for every birthday of the elderly man; otherwise, if neither of the family’s two children appeared, it would be truly unreasonable. It was just that at the banquet, someone always misspoke and mentioned Xiao Shu, which inevitably made him sad again.
After the meal, there were always some familiar or unfamiliar faces crowding around to talk to him. These people looked different, but the expressions on their faces were all the same. That kind of pleasing, eager, and flattering smile was very annoying to look at. Wei Xun answered casually and shook off the crowd to walk out of the hall and get some fresh air in the back garden.
A wind carrying damp moisture swept across the sparse vegetation. He lit a cigarette, put it in his mouth, took a deep breath, and heard light footsteps coming from the opposite side. Turning around, he saw Mu Jia Shu’s father, Mu Yanrui.
His heart felt a sudden pang of bitterness, but a smile appeared on his face, “Uncle Mu, have you also come out to get some fresh air?”
“Xiao Xun, I came out to find you.” Mu Yanrui’s hand pressed on his shoulder. “Walk with me for a bit.”
Wei Xun was familiar with him, second only to his own father. Hearing this, he agreed, stubbed out the cigarette, and accompanied Mu Yanrui along the small path.
This elder was already in his fifties, yet his appearance remained refined and handsome—most of the Mu family members were very good-looking.
Mu Yanrui didn’t say much else; he just casually asked about Wei Xun’s work and health and gave some suggestions for his company. Compared to the hot-tempered Wei Shaocheng, talking to him was obviously much more grounding—at least he didn’t have to worry about being kicked in the chest if he wasn’t careful.
It wasn’t until the path was nearly at its end that Mu Yanrui said with a smile, “As one gets old, one talks too much. After all this time, I still haven’t gotten to the main point. Don’t find me too long-winded.”
Wei Xun said with a smile, “How could I? I love listening to Uncle Mu talk to me.”
Mu Yanrui smiled and handed a small slip of paper to Wei Xun.
Wei Xun unfolded it and saw it was Mu Yanrui’s handwriting, but it only had a very unfamiliar address written on it, without any other information: “This is?”
Mu Yanrui said, “Xiao Xun, how many days until you go back to work?”
Wei Xun said, “Tomorrow is the last day of the break.”
Mu Yanrui nodded, “Then do me a favor. Take some time today or tomorrow to go to this address and see a child named ‘Nie Qi.’ He should be a boy, a few years younger than you. Chat with him and get a sense of his character and personality.”
The more Wei Xun heard, the more he felt something was off. He asked in surprise, “This person is…”
Mu Yanrui said quietly, “If there are no surprises, he should be considered the younger brother of Xiao Shu and Haochang.”
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