Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Who on earth was leaving their house at such hours?
From the corner of her eyes, Ruan Danchen caught a glimpse of the two people walking out of the elevator—they looked like the people living a floor beneath them.
She did not get a good look at them. Immediately, she buried her face against Qi Chenglin’s neck and pulled her hair to the front, covering her flushed face. She did not instruct Qi Chenglin to put her down.
If he put her down, she would have to face her neighbors—how awkward would that be? She would rather play dead in Qi Chenglin’s arms.
Seeing her ‘if I can’t see them, they can’t see me’ attitude, her neighbors burst out laughing.
The people living beneath them was an elderly couple who had already retired. Their business had been handed over to their son while they enjoy retirement at home.
They were going out tonight because they heard that their youngest daughter-in-law was pregnant with a second child. Since their youngest son lived in the same residential area, the elderly could not resist rushing over to his home. Unexpectedly, they ran into this lovey-dovey young couple.
The old man grinned. He did not feel like he had interrupted the young couple at all. In his usual booming and confident voice, he asked, “Out here to play?”
“…” Ruan Danchen was speechless.
Why was that old man not leaving yet?
“No, we’re just out for a romantic time,” Qi Chenglin said calmly.
The old man’s eyes twitched. Initially, he wanted to tease Qi Chenglin more but it seemed like things were not going to plan—the words could not leave his mouth. Before he could think of a witty comment, his wife dragged him away.
While walking away, the old man turned around and shouted pridefully, “My youngest daughter-in-law is pregnant with her second child! I’ll be sure to bring you some red eggs after the baby shower.”
Qi Chenglin snorted softly. The old man did not hear him. Qi Chenglin asked, “How many months in?”
“We just got the news today! Only one month old,” the old man answered joyously.
Hearing that date, Qi Chenglin’s mood brightened. He smiled and said courteously, “Take care, mister.”
The old man was astonished—since when was Qi Chenglin ever so polite? Even he knew that this brat was quite small-minded.
When it came to business, his two sons had fallen victim to the Qi brothers countless times—the old man could not forgive and forget. He wanted to use this as a chance to make Qi Chenglin envious, yet Qi Chenglin’s reaction was not what the old man expected.
Qi Chenglin did not pay much attention to him either—he entered the already-open elevator door.
The old man’s wife pinched his arm. “What are you bragging about? Don’t you know you shouldn’t jinx it in the first three months!”
In the elevator, Ruan Danchen wanted to be put down, but Qi Chenglin refused. Still holding her in his arms, he instructed, “Press the button.”
Ruan Danchen reached out and pressed the button to their floor. Covering her face out of embarrassment, Raun Danchen muttered, “They saw me. How humiliating.”
“Since they’ve already seen you, there’s no point in putting you down anymore,” Qi Chenglin pointed out. He was determined to carry her all the way back to their home.
“Am I not heavy? Where did u get all this strength from?” Ruan Danchen patted his shoulders and squeezed them—they were extraordinarily muscular.
“Just enjoy it while I can still carry you. When you become fatter and fatter, I won’t even be able to pick you up anymore,” Qi Chenglin teased.
“…” Previously, Ruan Danchen thought that this man was quite the romantic, but after hearing that, she ground her teeth and grumbled, “I don’t need you to carry me around now either! I hate you!”
She twisted and turned in his arms. In truth, Qi Chenglin’s arms were already sore, but he was still reluctant to put her down. Even so, her struggling was making him lose his grip. Hastily, he pushed her against the wall and readjusted his grip—with the wall supporting her, he was not afraid of her falling anymore.
“Stop fooling around. Aren’t you afraid you’re going to fall and hurt yourself?” Qi Chenglin ordered firmly.
Hearing that, Ruan Danchen did not dare to move anymore. She clenched her teeth and mumbled, “When my tummy gets bigger, I’ll ask you to carry me whenever I like.”
“Sure,” Qi Chenglin answered with an I-will-do-anything-for-you smile.
Influenced by Qi Chenglin’s subtle coaxing, her anger subsided, but she still puffed up her little cheeks.
…
The next morning, Ruan Danchen and Qi Chenglin headed to the hospital right after sending Qi Youxuan to school. Ruan Danchen had not revealed this matter to the little one yet as she wanted to settle everything appropriately before explaining it to him.
It was quite a complicated matter, so Ruan Danchen was still pondering how she could simplify it for the little boy.
By the time they reached the hospital, Chen Minxia was out of the room going through the procedures required to get Ruan Keshan discharged. His injuries were not severe—he only stayed the night as a precaution. However, judging from the wreckage of the car, Ruan Keshan was exceedingly lucky to have escaped without major injuries.
“Have you two had breakfast?” inquired Ruan Danchen.
“Yes, yes, we did.” Ruan Keshan was so nervous and excited to see Ruan Danchen that he became tongue-tied.
When Chen Minxia came back in, she heard her husband asking the pointless question, “Have… Have you two eaten?”
Although it was a silly question, Ruan Danchen did not laugh or mock him. With a soft expression, she nodded and replied earnestly, “Yeah, we’ve eaten too.”
Chen Maixia entered the room and announced, “Everything’s done. We can leave now, but before that, we have to drop by Dad’s place to get his DNA sample.”
Chen Minxia had taken a day off from work and followed in Qi Chenglin’s car to Grandfather Ruan’s house.
On the way there, Ruan Keshan unveiled many things about the Ruan family.
He talked about everything that has happened in the family—no matter big or small. He even told her about the minor details in their daily lives. However, he did not say much about their search for Ruan Danchen—he never revealed the hardship they went through to find her. Even so, this only made Ruan Danchen more upset—it made her want to get closer to them.
Nonetheless, she knew that Ruan Keshan did it because he did not want to upset her. He did not want to let her think he was just wanted to whine about those few tough years either.
Ruan Danchen also understood that the fact that she was the granddaughter-in-law of the Qi family made the Ruan family feel the need to be cautious when speaking to her. After all, she was a relative they had not seen for twenty-seven years. They did not want to cause any misunderstandings at the slip of the tongue.
There was nothing Ruan Danchen could do about it. She could only hope to tear down these walls of theirs by spending more time together and learning more about each other’s lives.
Ruan Lichuan had left for the airport with his assistant early in the morning. The only person at home was Liao Qiying, also known as Grandmother Ruan.
Liao Qiying came from a well-educated family as well. Her father was the conductor of the National Orchestra. Liao Qiying was also a renowned pianist who had now retired. Rather than toiling as a piano instructor, she decided to devote all her time to her family and to searching for her long lost granddaughter.
Many families had used their connection with the family to try to convince Liao Qiying to teach their children. Nevertheless, she rejected all of them.
She was busy looking for her granddaughter—she had no time for others’ children.
Chen Minxia and Ruan Danchen had the same opinion—since this matter still had some uncertainties, they wanted to avoid revealing it to the elders just yet so it would not stress them out.
Ruan Zeshan and Chen Minxia, on the other hand, did not mind at all. They had confidence in both Qi Chenglin and Ruan Danchen—they had long seen her as family.
Nevertheless, it was only natural for the elders to be a little skeptical. How could they just take Qi Chenglin’s word for it when it was something so important?
Thus, Ruan Keshan and Chen Minxia did not inform Liao Qiying yet. Afraid that Grandmother Ruan will suspect something when she saw Ruan Keshan’s injured lag, they decided that Chen Minxia should go up alone.
After a short while, Chen Minxia came back down and produced a small plastic bag from her handbag. Inside it contained a few strands of hair. “Done.”
Grandmother Ruan had curly hair while Grandfather Ruan’s was straight, so they were easy to distinguish.
The four of them headed to the DNA test lab. With Qi Chenglin present, things were sped up significantly, as usual.
Once they had submitted all their test samples, they went to a cafe and sat down to wait for the results, which would take approximately four to five hours before they could receive it.
Since they had been apart for so many years, they did not know much about each others’ lives—time flew by as they filled each other in about little details of their lives.
As for Ruan Danchen and Qi Chenglin’s past, she revealed it to them with Qi Chenglin’s permission.
“That monster!” Ruan Keshan yelled after hearing Ruan Danchen’s story. Needless to say, he was furious at Liu Ronghua.
“She… She… Monster!” Ruan Keshan clenched his fists. His body trembled with rage. “We only found out that she was in B City through the news a while ago. It wasn’t easy to find her and yet she dared to lie to my face! She told us that when she went back to the hospital, the child was gone and you have no relations to us what-so-ever!”
“How could she be so devious! How could there be someone so vile?!” Ruan Keshan exploded.
Liu Ronghua knew them; she knew Ruan Danchen was part of their family, yet she chose to force Ruan Danchen into a life of suffering instead of simply giving her back to them.
In their home, Ruan Danchen may not be able to live as lavishly as in the Qi family’s home, but at least they could be confident that Ruan Danchen would be pampered and grow up without troubles, rather than suffer out there with Liu Ronghua.
When Ruan Keshan, who was usually calm and well-tempered, heard about Liu Ronghua taking advantage of Ruan Danchen, he could not help but feel the urge to tear Liu Ronghua apart.
Although Ruan Danchen’s life had taken a turn for the better, who would atone for the anguish she suffered in the past twenty-six years?
If the price for a good life was twenty-six years of agony, Ruan Keshan would rather have Ruan Danchen grow up in the Ruan family home—grow up under his love and care.
Besides, was being part of the Qi family really so great?
It was true that she had loving in-laws, a pampering husband, and a bright little boy; nonetheless, being part of the Qi family was immensely stressful—as made evident by the countless attacks made against her lately.
Moreover, those were only the ones that dared to show their hatred. As for the ones that secretly harbored animosity toward her, Ruan Keshan did not even have the heart to imagine how many there were.
“Why on earth would she do that?” Ruan Keshan could not wrap his head around Liu Ronghua’s reasoning.
What did she hope to achieve by being a single mother to a child who was not hers?
“I’ve always thought that Liu Ronghua loved Keyu, but if that was the case, why didn’t she take good care of his child? Why did she abuse you?” Chen Minxia questioned, knitted her eyebrows together tightly. “Was it because she detested the fact that Yuehuan was Keyu’s wife and mother to his child? Was it because Keyu never had other feelings for Liu Ronghua and never knew the love she harbored toward him? Was that why she wanted you? As a memento of Keyu? But perhaps when she saw you, she was inevitably reminded of Yuehuan, and so she could not help but take out her anger on you.”
Needless to say, Chen Minxia was only able to analyze Liu Ronghua’s thought pattern because she was a woman—despite how intelligent Qi Chenglin was, he never could have deciphered how the brain of an envious and self-contradicting woman functioned.
Unknowingly, Chen Minxia had successfully unraveled a huge portion of Liu Ronghua’s mentality.
“Since we’re talking about Liu Ronghua, your predictions seem quite plausible,” Qi Chenglin admitted as he nodded his head in agreement. “That woman’s mind works differently from others’. We can’t understand her from a normal person’s point of view.”
“She says she loves Keyu, yet she treats Ruan Danchen like this! She has no right to say she loves him!” raged Ruan Keshan before he gulped down a huge cup of cold water.
Qi Chenglin checked the time and pointed out, “The results should be out soon. We should go check. We can discuss the details after the reports come out.”
Ruan Keshan nodded. The four of them headed back to the DNA test lab.
After waiting for nearly twenty minutes, a worker handed them two freshly produced reports.
One was between Ruan Danchen and Ruan Lichuan while the other was between her and Ruan Keshan.
Ruan Keshan was too anxious and excited to think about finding a place to sit. Thus, Chen Minxia led him to an empty chair in the waiting area of the lab and sat him down. Instantly, he took the report out of its envelope.
He flipped through his report hastily and let out a wide grin at the end. Without having him say a word, the result was evident from the look on his face.
Then, he went through Ruan Danchen and Grandfather Ruan’s report. Immediately, he started to cry without caring about the strangers around them.
He handed the reports to Ruan Danchen and took off his glasses to wipe his tears. “Danchen, you’re our niece! You’re our niece!”
Tears rolled down Ruan Danchen’s face as she read the report. She passed it to Chen Minxia and turned to hug Qi Chenglin.
Qi Chenglin patted the back of her head and soothed her back. Droplets of tears fell on his shirt. He felt as if her tears were burning on his chest.
Qi Chenglin looked down and kissed her temple and the corner of her eyes.
“Chenglin, I… I have an uncle, an aunt, a grandpa, and a grandma. I… I have so much now. I…” Ruan Danchen stuttered as she cried in his arms.
“That’s right, you have so much now. Next time, I won’t dare to bully you anymore. If I enrage you, you might just run back to the Ruan family,” Qi Chenglin teased softly as he comforted her.
Ruan Danchen tutted and smiled as she sobbed.
Chen Minxia kept the report away and moved to Ruan Keshan’s side. She hugged him gently. “We found her. We can finally stop searching. Finally, we found Keyu’s daughter. Danchen may have led a difficult life, but at least she’s better off than we imagined. In the future, we won’t have to worry about her anymore. We can live our lives in peace.”
Ruan Keshan nodded relentlessly. He looked up and turned to Ruan Danchen, not minding his face full of tears.
“Danchen, can you… Can you call me ‘Uncle’?” requested Ruan Keshan timidly. His eyes were blood red.
“Uncle.” Ruan Danchen instantly leaned into Ruan Keshan’s embrace.
Qi Chenglin’s arms suddenly felt empty. He sighed helplessly when he saw his wife hugging her uncle and bawling her eyes out with him.
Other customers in the waiting area stared at them strangely. Chen Minxia was both laughing as she sobbed, “There are so many people watching us here. Let’s find some other place to talk.”
“Let’s head back to Mom’s place,” Ruan Keshan said as he and Ruan Danchen finally let go of each other.
Ruan Keshan took the tissue Chen Minxia handed to him and wiped his tears. He told Ruan Danchen, “Your grandma will be overjoyed.”
Having said that, Ruan Keshan started worrying again. He turned to Ruan Danchen. “This is so sudden. Do you think it’ll be too big of a shock for Mom?”
Chen Minxia scolded, “What else can we do? If we don’t bring Danchen back to Mom right now, she’ll kill you when she finds out.”
Ruan Keshan giggled foolishly. “Alright, let’s go, let’s go. We’ll hurry home and tell Mom about this.”
Ruan Keshan was so thrilled that he lost all his senses. Chen Minxia, on the other hand, could still think clearly. She turned to Qi Chenglin and inquired, “Do you two have any plans today? If you do, we can always do this some other time.”
Although Ruan Danchen was extremely delighted and exhilarated, she was worried that Grandmother Ruan might be distant toward her. After all, it had been twenty-seven years.
“No, it’s alright. I’ll have Xiao Yang send Youxuan and Zeer over too,” Qi Chenglin stated coolly. “If it isn’t intruding, we’d like to stay for dinner as well.”
“You won’t be intruding! No, not at all!” Ruan Keshan nodded continuously. Of course they were welcomed to stay.
After twenty-seven years, they finally found their long lost niece. Ruan Keshan guessed that Grandmother Ruan must want Ruan Danchen to stay for a few days. In spite of that, Ruan Keshan knew that Qi Chenglin would never agree so he did not bother to ask.
Chen Minxia and Ruan Danchen helped Ruan Keshan into the car. Chen Minxia knew that Ruan Keshan had dreamed of finding his niece for decades, so she proactively sat at the front passenger seat, letting Ruan Danchen and Ruan Keshan sit in the backseat together to chat.
Ruan Keshan kept staring at Ruan Danchen as if he was afraid she would disappear the moment he took his eyes off her—he could never let that happen to the niece he worked so hard to find.
Ruan Danchen’s heart melted. Besides Qi Chenglin, she never had anyone else care so deeply about her.
“When we heard the news about your parents’ incident, your grandma fell horribly sick. She got better eventually, but at that time, she was in critical condition. We thought she was going to leave us like Keyu—it was truly terrifying. Back then, if it weren’t for you and your grandma, your grandpa probably couldn’t have held on much longer either. However, his resolve to find you acted like a pillar of support he could grasp on, giving him a will to live. Surprisingly, it motivated him to become stronger. You were his purpose in life,” Ruan Keshan explained. Then, he proceeded to lay out the details of Grandmother Ruan’s condition.
Chen Minxia called Grandmother Ruan from the front seat. “Mom, we… We found Keyu’s daughter!”
Ruan Danchen could not hear what Grandmother Ruan was saying on the other side of the line. Chen Minxia replied, “You’ll understand when you see her. She looks exactly like Keyu. We came back this morning to get a sample of Dad’s hair for a DNA test. She did it with Keshan as well. Mom, please don’t blame us for hiding this from you. We wanted to know for sure before informing you. We want you to be happy.”
“…”
“Mmhmm, we’re bringing her home right now—along with your grandson-in-law. And your great-grandson will arrive later today! That’s right, you have a great-grandson!”
“…”
“I can’t say that she had a good life in those past years. She suffered a lot—all because of vile people. I’ll tell you everything when we get home, but rest assured mom, she’s living a blissful life now.”
“She’s right here, hold on.”
Chen Minxia handed the phone to Ruan Danchen. With a smile, she said, “Grandma wants to talk to you.”
Ruan Danchen took the phone nervously. She opened her mouth and uttered strenuously, “Grandma.”
She had never seen Grandmother Ruan—she did not know what she sounded like, what she looked like or her manner and attitude.
Right after Ruan Danchen called her Grandma, she heard Grandmother Ruan sobbing through the phone. As she cried, she whimpered, “Good girl… My precious granddaughter… You’ve been through so much…”
“Where are you all now? I’ll go grocery shopping right now. Will you stay for dinner tonight?” Grandmother Ruan asked abruptly.
“Yeah, we’ll all stay for dinner,” Ruan Danchen sniffled. Her lips curled up in bliss.
