CH 078 EXCHANGING FATHERS

“Big Brother…..”

He Qianmin turned around when he heard footsteps, his eyes lighting up.

“Don’t you know to wear a coat when you go out?” Jiang Chen frowned, took off his jacket, and threw it on him: “Put it on.”

“I’m not cold.” He Qianmin caught the warm jacket, feeling anxious and happy: “Big Brother, can I go to your house tonight?”

“If I don’t allow you to go, will you sleep on the streets?” Jiang Chen lifted his chin, turned and walked towards the taxi waiting on the side of the road: “Put on the jacket and go back with me.”

He Qianmin hurriedly put on Jiang Chen’s jacket, and the warmth unexpectedly flowed through his limbs to his heart. He grabbed the hem of the jacket tightly, took a few quick steps to catch up with Jiang Chen, and followed behind him step by step.

“Mister, sorry for the long wait, please take us to Zhonghai Park Community.”

The driver smiled and said, “Okay, let’s go right away.”

The heat was turned on in the taxi, and He Qianmin felt the blood gradually begin to flow in his frozen body, and his whole body became warmer. He turned his head to look at Jiang Chen, but seeing his stern expression, he was immediately at a loss: “Big Brother…..”

Jiang Chen’s tone was very mild: “It’s so late, and you don’t wear a coat and don’t bring money when you go out, have you ever thought about what you would do if you are in danger?”

He Qianmin explained: “I have walked this road many times, it is safe even at night, and I have a mobile phone, so I can call you.”

“What if I didn’t look at my phone during my experiments, and my phone was turned off or muted?”

“I…..” He Qianmin never thought about the possibility of Jiang Chen not answering his call, he said honestly: “I didn’t think about it so much at the time, and I felt that you would definitely answer my call.”

Hearing his honest attitude, Jiang Chen didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh. He caught a glimpse of He Qianmin’s aggrieved and apprehensive expression from the corner of his eye. When he saw him standing alone on the dark street, his anger surged up just like that but now little by little it extinguished.

“Don’t be so impulsive in the future.” Jiang Chen clicked his tongue and raised his hand to pat him on the head. When his eyes swept over his still reddened eyes and nose, the hand that was about to pat again paused. Instead, he rubbed his head vigorously a few times: “No matter what happens, you must put your own safety first, got it?”

“I got it, Big Brother.” He Qianmin was pushed forward by his strength, and his head rested on Jiang Chen’s shoulder. Even when the hand on his head lightened he didn’t move, and the tip of his nose stung a bit: “Big Brother, it’s so good that you’re here.”

Jiang Chen rubbed his head, and his voice gentled: “No more next time.”

“I promise there won’t be a next time…..” He Qianmin said softly.

The driver suddenly said, “This is your younger brother, right?”

Jiang Chen was taken aback, then smiled and said, “Yes.”

The driver glanced at the two of them from the rearview mirror, and said with a smile: “Younger Brother, don’t be so willful in the future. Your brother was so anxious to find you all the way, he kept urging me to drive faster.”

He Qianmin didn’t look up, and Jiang Chen replied for him: “Don’t mind him, he is in a bad mood today, he’s not usually like this.”

“Kids, it’s normal.” The driver said with a smile, “I have two boys myself, just like you two. When the younger brother loses his temper, he doesn’t listen to anyone but his older brother. So I can tell you two are brothers at a glance.”

He Qianmin sat up, turned his face away and sniffed, saying in a muffled voice, “Do we look like brothers?”

“Of course.” The driver said, “Uncle has been driving for so many years. Putting aside everything else, in terms of judging people, I am always on the mark. Don’t even mention you two who look like brothers at a glance. I can also tell at a glance whether they are husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend, whether they are going on a date, to catch a cheater, or to divorce. Let this uncle tell you, it is also a science to be able to judge people, for example…..”

The driver was explaining his way of judging people, but He Qianmin couldn’t hear anything. He stared blankly at Jiang Chen’s profile. The neon lights formed a silhouette on his face through the car window, covering up his rapidly trembling eyelashes.

In a flash of insight stimulated by the driver’s first comment just now, He Qianmin suddenly found the answer to a question he had been wondering for a long time: Why did He Qianjian have to have a physical examination at the same time as Jiang Chen every year.

——For drawing blood.

He had fallen into a blind spot before, he always thought that with the He family having a physical examination every year to draw blood, if He Qianjian was not the biological son of his parents, it would be absolutely impossible for him to keep it secret. But he never thought that He Qianjian could use the ability to exchange things through the air to exchange his and Jiang Chen’s blood.

If Jiang Chen was his parents’ biological son and his biological brother, then everything that He Qianjian did before could be explained clearly.

He Qianjian did everything possible to prevent Jiang Chen from meeting them, because Jiang Chen looked too much like the He family, so much that even strangers could tell their blood relationship at a glance.

The strange thing was that, as a real He family member, he never felt that Jiang Chen looked much like him before, so even if many people mentioned in his ears that they looked like biological brothers, He Qianmin would only think it was because the good relationship between him and Jiang Chen made people feel that way.

Some people also said that Jiang Chen and He Qianyang looked alike, but He Qianmin didn’t think so. In his opinion, He Qianyang and Jiang Chen were completely different people. He didn’t even need to look to find the differences between them let alone think they were similar.

Because they were too familiar, so it was easier to distinguish. And it was exactly this familiarity that blinded He Qianmin’s eyes and made him not figure it out until now.

He Qianmin searched for every bit of what He Qianjian said about Jiang Chen in his mind, and strung together all the previous clues into a line, pointing directly to the answer in his heart:

——He Qianjian sent people to stalk Jiang Chen for four years because he was monitoring Jiang Chen, worried that Jiang Chen would find out his identity and expose him; He Qianjian sent Sun Zhi to block Jiang Chen and cut him, and that time happened to be when his father wanted him to take another physical examination to draw blood; He Qianjian sent someone to kidnap Jiang Chen because he wanted to get rid of Jiang Chen, murder him and let the secret be buried in the grave forever; the post on Chenghua forum was deleted so quickly because He Qianjian was afraid that someone would investigate after seeing it…..Everything he did was for one purpose, and that was to prevent people from discovering the truth that he was a cuckoo occupying the magpie’s nest.

He Qianmin grasped the edge of the jacket, his eyelashes trembling violently, and there was only one thing in his mind: He Qianjian was a fake, Jiang Chen was his true brother!

Jiang Chen didn’t hear anything from the boy next to him for a long time, and so Jiang Chen thought He Qianmin had fallen asleep. When he turned slightly, his fingers accidentally touched the other’s cold hand, and so he said in a low voice, “Mister, please turn up the heat.”

The driver also noticed the silence at the back, and after nodding slightly, he turned up the heat without a word.

The rest of the way back was quiet, and the taxi slowly stopped at the entrance of the community.

“Qian Min?” Jiang Chen patted He Qianmin’s arm, “We’re here.”

He Qianmin didn’t sleep at all, and sat up straight when called by Jiang Chen. The inner struggle within him along the way was especially intense at this time. He wanted to tell Jiang Chen the truth immediately, but worried that Jiang Chen might not be willing to accept it.

He had seen with his own eyes how good Jiang Chen’s relationship with Uncle Jiang and Aunt Yang was, so he knew very well that if it were him, it might be hard for him to accept this news as well, moreover he didn’t have any evidence yet.

“Aren’t you going to get out of the car?” Seeing He Qianmin sitting upright and motionless, Jiang Chen laughed and said, “Still not awake?”

He Qianmin regained his composure, hesitated to speak a few times, but finally swallowed the words in front of Jiang Chen’s smiling eyes. Instead he opened the door and got out of the car.

It was quite late now. Yang Si was pregnant and went to bed early and slept lightly, and Jiang Zhuo was afraid that going to bed late would wake her up, so he also went to bed early with her. When Jiang Chen and He Qianmin entered, only a small dim light was left in the living room.

“Be a little quiet.” Jiang Chen reminded in a lowered voice, and led He Qianmin into his room.

It was not the first time for He Qianmin to come to Jiang Chen’s room, but last time he just had a brief glance and didn’t stay long, so now was his true visit. He looked at everything around him curiously: the walnut-colored wardrobe on the left side of the door that was the same length and the same color as the bed. A reading lamp, an alarm clock and a cup of water were placed on the bedside table next to the wardrobe. The bed was covered with dark blue sheets and quilts, which were neatly folded. On the other side of the bed were bookcases that covered the entire wall other than the window. They were full of books, and many more were piled on the floor next to the desk opposite the bed. The desk was very long and large, and should have been specially customized. There was no problem for three people to sit there and do homework at the same time. The desk was very clean, except for the two computers on the left side, one tilted and the other facing the desk line. The other side should be where Jiang Chen usually did his homework, and only a desk lamp and a book were placed on top.

The whole room was not too big, but it was very clean and tidy. There were no books on the bookcase parallel to the lower edge of the window. Instead there was a glass vase near the desk and a few flowers were blooming inside. The empty space next to the vase was filled with all kinds of novel handmade toys, including a train, an airplane and a robot, colorfully placed in the dark-theme room, and it was not obtrusive at all, but rather gave the room a little more warmth.

From these details, it could be seen that the owner of the room must be well-loved and had a very happy family.

“Why are you in a daze again?” Jiang Chen came out of the shower and saw that He Qianmin was still standing at the door in a daze. He put the clothes he just dug out of the closet into his arms: “These are clothes I haven’t worn. The bath towels are also new, the shampoo is in a dark blue bottle, and the body wash is in light blue, go take a shower.”

He Qianmin grabbed the clothes in his hand, nodded with downcast eyes, turned and left the room.

Jiang Chen didn’t notice the strangeness in him, only thought he was sleepy. He brushed his hair casually, walked to the desk and sat down. While turning on the computer, he put on the earphones, and said in a low voice: “Chnangjiang, according to the notes in my address book, search He Yanfeng’s email.”

“He Yanfeng’s email address has been found.”

“Send him a copy of the video I recovered tonight.”

“Searching, sent.”

Jiang Chen took off his earphones, narrowed eyes with a complicated gaze within them, turned around and walked to the window.

……

During the ten minutes of showering, He Qianmin struggled fiercely with himself while analyzing it countless times in his mind, and finally made a decision.

What He Qianjian did proved that he must know his birth background, but it was hard to speculate when he found out about it. The only time frame that could be determined must be before his second year of junior high school. Moreover, He Qianmin was very sure that there must be someone behind He Qianjian helping him, otherwise He Qianjian was only a few days old more than ten years ago, and no matter how omniscient he was, he would not be able to exchange DNA samples between him and Jiang Chen by himself.

However, He Qianmin had no idea who was behind him and what was their purpose.

But he felt that since he already knew the truth of the matter, and that the truth would be revealed sooner or later, the sooner Jiang Chen knew, the better. He Qianjian and the people standing behind him absolutely did not want his identity being exposed, and if Jiang Chen continued to remain in the dark, he would only be in danger.

Standing at the door of the room, He Qianmin took a few deep breaths, and opened the door only after making sufficient mental preparations.

“Big Brother.”

Jiang Chen turned around and saw He Qianmin in baggy clothes, with disheveled hair on top of a fair and handsome face, his eyes wet from the steam, looking at him in a helpless and pitiful manner.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chen’s heart softened, and he walked towards him: “Is the water too cold?”

He Qianmin’s eyes fell on the robot in his hand, and he tightened his fingers holding the bath towel, but he couldn’t say anything despite the words sitting on the tip of his tongue.

Jiang Chen noticed his gaze, handed him the robot in his hand, and said with a smile, “Want it? It’s yours now.”

He Qianmin lowered his head, looked at the exquisitely crafted robot in his hand, and said nothing.

“This was a birthday present my dad made for me when I was six years old. He made all my toys when I was a child, and we assembled them together.” Jiang Chen chuckled, pointed at the robot’s chest, and said with a smile: “Do you see this blue piece? In order to surprise me, he specially designed this robot according to the robot character in my favorite cartoon at that time. In the cartoon, the whole body of the robot is red so the wood was painted red before splicing, but when I was a child, I was angry for a long time that he decided on the color of the robot without discussing it with me. In the end, in order to coax me, my dad painted the robot’s body blue, and it became the odd mix it is now.”

He didn’t even need to look at Jiang Chen’s expression, just hearing the tenderness and nostalgia in his tone was enough. He Qianmin’s eyelashes trembled, he touched the piece of blue, and said in a low voice: “Uncle Jiang is very good to Big Brother.”

“Of course.” Jiang Chen recalled: “Since I was a child, all my friends have envied me for having such parents. Especially my dad, because he loves to play with children, and the toys he makes are interesting and beautiful, so those children all like him very much, and there were even children crying and saying that they wanted to exchange their fathers with me.”

“And later?”

“What later?”

“What happened to the child who was crying about exchanging fathers with you?”

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but laugh: “He was spanked by his father, and he never said that again.”

He Qianmin’s grasp on the robot’s knuckles turned white. He was silent for a few seconds before he took a deep breath and raised his head: “Then what if…..”

Jiang Chen raised his eyes: “En? What if?”

He Qianmin avoided his gaze, picked up a bath towel to cover his head, and wiped his hair vigorously. Jiang Chen clicked his tongue, got up, took the bath towel, and helped him wipe his hair: “Have you ever wiped your hair yourself?”

There was silence in the room, and after a long time, a voice came from the bath towel, muffled and soft: “It’s nothing.”

Jiang Chen thought he said no, so he rubbed his hair vigorously, and gently told him: “I’ll only wipe it for you this time, but you have to learn how to do it yourself in the future. This is a basic life skill.”

“Big Brother.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

……

Knock, knock, knock.

He Yanfeng rubbed his eyebrows, looked towards the door: “Come in.”

“Isn’t the work done yet?”

Yang Yun walked in and put the glass of milk in his hand with a concerned tone.

He Yanfeng took the glass of milk and took a sip. His eyes fell on the mailbox page where there were still no unread emails, and he sighed softly. He didn’t know why, after hearing what Jiang Chen said, he just sat in the study until a quarter past eleven, during which time he didn’t do any work and just waited so dryly.

“Is there still a lot of work?” Yang Yun took the empty glass of milk he had finished drinking.

He Yanfeng shook his head, wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist with one hand, touched the switch button with the other, and said with a smile: “It’s nothing, I’ll sleep right away——”

His eyes suddenly fixed on the (1) unread email.

Seeing his expression, Yang Yun asked strangely, “What’s the matter?”

He Yanfeng’s finger that was already hovering on the power off button slowly moved away. He put his hand on the mouse, moved the cursor, and clicked on the email. This was an email with no title or content, only a video attachment.

“A video?” Yang Yun asked curiously, “Who sent it?”

“A business partner.”

He clearly hadn’t even clicked on the video yet, but He Yanfeng somehow believed that Jiang Chen wouldn’t lie to him. He believed that there were really things related to his two sons that he once misunderstood. His sixth sense told him that these things would not be something people could easily accept, so he subconsciously concealed it from his wife.

If it was really something difficult to digest, then he must first confirm it and make preparations before telling his wife, rather than just frighten and worry her without warning.

He Yanfeng got up, kissed Yang Yun’s forehead, and said with a smile: “I still have some things to deal with, you can go to bed by yourself first.”

Without thinking too much, Yang Yun kissed the corner of his mouth: “Good night.”

After his wife left, He Yanfeng sat down again and clicked on the video.

In the video was a group of laughing students. They were probably playing games and were laughing happily. He Yanfeng could see from the background of the private room that this was a newly opened club near Huyang Wetland Park. Because it was not far from Chenghua, and the entertainment attractions there were varied and novel, it was very suitable for young people. In addition, the owner of this club was one of the leaders in the younger generation circle, Li Nanfeng, the heir of Li De, so it was very popular among the younger generation in the circle.

He Yanfeng and Li Nanfeng had discussed business in this club several times. Because of this, he could see where it was at a glance, and he believed in the authenticity of the video even more. The video was still playing, and several boys in the corner of the screen stood up and walked to the other side.

He Yanfeng’s eyes became slightly more focused, seeing that one among the three boys was his younger son, He Qianmin. The three boys talked and laughed as they walked, and they came to a table filled with drinks. The drink table was full of glasses and bottles, and there were all kinds of drinks from juice to alcoholic drinks.

Unexpectedly, this group of little kiddos dared to drink at a party, He Yanfeng raised his eyebrows and laughed.

However, in the next second, his smile froze on his face. He Yanfeng clicked the space button forcefully, and the video was frozen on the scene of He Qianmin’s bloody hand. He Qianmin’s surprised and pained expression and the bewildered and frightened expressions on the two boys beside him were clearly reflected in He Yanfeng’s eyes, a fruit knife covered with blood on the ground.

He Yanfeng’s hand on the desk slowly tightened and loosened. He pulled the progress bar of the video and moved the time backwards by a few seconds.

——He Qianmin was smiling and talking to his friends while reaching for the glass cup on the drink table. In the direction where his hand was stretched out, the glass cup disappeared out of thin air, replaced by a fruit knife standing upright on the table right before he grasped it.

He Yanfeng watched this video over and over again, and even when his eyes started to become bloodshot, he didn’t know what to think, so he looked up to see the time and date in the upper right corner.

May 22, 8:06pm.

The night He Qianmin returned home with a wounded hand, with stitches and bandaged was May 22.

That night, when he went downstairs to drink water, he found that he was injured. After questioning, He Qianmin replied that he had accidentally cut himself. He didn’t think much about it at the time, but now that he recalled it carefully, he remembered his expression at that time. Compared with annoyance, it was more of a calm and tired look.

——Just like the expression he looked at them with when he ran away from home today.

He Yanfeng put his hands on his knees and then buried his face in his palms. Every word He Qianmin yelled today was repeated in his mind, and every time it was repeated, he felt more guilty.

While regretting, he was also thinking, if what Qian Min said before was true, then what did Qian Jian do all these years and just why did he do it.

He Yanfeng couldn’t think of a reason.