Shadow and Sunlight

On April 11, 2012, Xiaofeng had just finished her self-study class and was walking towards the parking lot while talking on the phone with Xiaoqi.

"I'm still quite looking forward to it, after all, it's my first competition."

"Don't be nervous, just finish the race safely. The main thing is to gain experience."

"Wait for me at the team assembly point. I'll ask Fourth Uncle..."

"Ah—Yao Annie!"

Xiao Qi anxiously called out, "Xiao Feng! Xiao Feng!" But the receiver only came back busy. Her heart sank, and she quickly called Jiang Wenqing.

Behind the parking lot's viewing trees, Yao Anni humiliated Xiao Feng to the hilt. Then, she winked at her two accomplices, who immediately clamped Xiao Feng's arms. Yao Anni wielded a box cutter, the blade gleaming coldly in the sunlight. She slashed Xiao Feng's right cheek from cheekbone to near his lips, snarling, "You're seducing men with this face, aren't you? I'll teach you a lesson!"

Xiaofeng cried out in pain. The four or five centimeter long wound first turned white. After a while, blood rushed out and flowed down her cheek.

"She really looks like that when she cries, so pitiful." Yao Anni sneered and gestured. Her accomplices immediately surrounded her and started punching and kicking Xiaofeng.

"Let her go!" Jiang Wenqing's voice sounded like thunder, making people's eardrums hurt.

The group fled in all directions. Xiaofeng was quickly sent to the hospital where Zhou Yong was.

All the members of the Jiang family rushed over. Jiang Wan just asked with concern, "What happened?", but Zhou Yong angrily asked back, "What did you do?", leaving her speechless. The scene was awkward for a moment.

"Facial cuts, fractures of the ulna and radius in the right hand, two broken ribs... Jiang Wenqing!" Zhou Yong's emotions were rarely controlled, and his voice was trembling.

Jiang Wenqing lowered his head, his back teeth clacking as he squeezed out a name: "Yao Annie."

Jiang Wenfeng, who was standing nearby, instantly understood the whole situation. He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white, and was about to rush out of the ward when his uncle, who was quick-witted and quick-handed, grabbed him and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to find Yao Annie!" Jiang Wenfeng's eyes were as red as if they were about to spit fire.

Jiang Heng walked over, stood in front of him, and said in a deep voice: "Now, can you explain the situation clearly?"

Jiang Wenfeng bowed deeply to Jiang Wenqing, his voice hoarse: "Brother, I'm sorry..."

After listening to Jiang Wenfeng's story, Jiang Wenqing's raised fist suddenly stopped at the moment it was about to hit his brother's cheek. The people around them had been prepared to separate the two, but they all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this.

"Treatment is more important first. There's no need to keep so many people here. Jiang Wenqing, come with me." Zhou Yong was the first to walk out of the ward.

In the office, Zhou Yong sat on his office chair, his tone heavy with sorrow: "Jiang Wenqing, I gave you a good person, and now you're sending him back to me like this?"

"I'm sorry! It's my fault." Jiang Wenqing's voice was filled with guilt. "First, tell me, how is Xiaofeng doing?"

"Pain management should prioritize rib fractures, followed by ulna and radius fractures, and finally facial wounds." Zhou Yong took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "The rib fractures are non-displaced, but they will be very painful for two weeks. You should avoid coughing and deep breathing, and use a chest strap to fix them, and take painkillers. I just had internal fixation surgery for the ulna and radius fractures on my right hand, so I need to be immobilized. I need someone to take care of me throughout my daily life. The facial wound will be in an inflammatory phase for a week, with redness and swelling. Scars will form within three weeks, and it may take a year or even longer for the scars to fade."

Jiang Wenqing nodded: "As for Yao Annie, I will make her pay the price; we will also take care of my brother's affairs."

"What do you need me to do?"

"I'll leave the treatment to you. I'll be with you 24 hours a day. If you need anything, just call me." After Jiang Wenqing finished speaking, he bowed deeply and turned to go to the ward.

Xiaofeng was already awake, curled up in her blankets, her shoulders rising and falling with silent tremors. Jiang Wan was patting her back in comfort. But when she saw Wenqing appear at the door, all her forbearance suddenly broke. As soon as she uttered a trembling "Qing..." she felt a sharp sting in her ribs, like a dull knife grinding against the bone. She bit her lower lip hard, but the movement of her face pulled at the wound, sending another wave of pain through her. She arched her back in pain, tears welling up in her eyes, but she couldn't even muster the strength to cry out loud.

The ECG monitor suddenly sounded a shrill alarm, and the doctor rushed in to check. Xiao Feng was in so much pain that she could only utter one word: "It hurts..."

Wen Qing's palm gently fell on her shoulder, gentle but not daring to use force: "Don't be afraid..." His voice was very hoarse, and his fingers gently brushed away the strands of hair on her forehead that were stuck to her by cold sweat.

Xiaofeng finally buried her face in Wenqing's chest, her suppressed sobs turning into intermittent gasps. Wenqing could see tears hanging on her eyelashes, and the next second, she suddenly closed her eyes in pain. That look made him feel like a piece of his heart was being torn out.

After returning home, the Jiang family tacitly held a family meeting. Jiang Wan took a deep breath and decided to tell Wen Feng the story that had been buried in her heart for many years - the story about her third uncle.

"In the Jiang family, only my second uncle is my grandparents' biological son. My father, third uncle, and fourth uncle were all adopted. After my grandparents passed away in 1971, life became unbearable, so my father took my third and fourth uncles and left the Jiang family. They wandered all the way and were finally taken in by an acrobatic troupe. There, they met a girl named Ayi. Her appearance and accent were different from those of others, making her seem particularly out of place. Seeing that she was lonely and helpless, the three brothers took special care of her. In 1976, to avoid being sold by the acrobatic troupe, the four of them fled there together and returned to Ninghai, where they finally reunited with my second uncle. It was also at that time that my second uncle gave Ayi a new name - Jiang Wan.

After returning to Ninghai, my third uncle confessed his love to me the night before he enlisted, hoping I would wait for him to return and marry him. But shortly after he left, I registered my marriage to my father and later gave birth to your brother. During those years in the acrobatics class, whenever I made a mistake and faced the whip, it was my father who blocked it for me. Once, when I fell from a height during a performance, it was my father who, despite all odds, caught me with his bare hands. This tacit understanding had long since taken root in our hearts through day-to-day support.

Perhaps because of this, Third Uncle repeatedly postponed his discharge from the army, ultimately dying on the battlefield in 1981. At the time, I felt I had indirectly harmed him, and filled with guilt, I took your brother to Florence, where we stayed for ten years.

It wasn’t until early 1992 that we returned to Ninghai and slowly started a new life, which we continue to enjoy today.”

"Uncle San died on the front lines, and yet you're living such a happy life? This is so unfair!" Jiang Wenfeng looked at his parents and second and fourth uncles in disbelief, his chest heaving. "What on earth do you want to achieve by telling me this?"

With sympathy for his uncle, he roared, "You are betraying me!"

Jiang Wan didn't refute him, but took out an old wooden box from the cabinet. Inside was more than a hundred letters left by her third uncle Jiang Song, all addressed to her. "Take a look for yourself, Wen Feng."

That night, Jiang Wenfeng stayed up all night, reading those yellowed letters one by one, trying to get closer to his third uncle whom he had never met and understand his choice through the lines.

The next morning, when Jiang Heng and Jiang Wan came downstairs, they found their youngest son sitting at the dining table with the breakfast he had bought. "Dad, Mom," Wen Feng's voice was hoarse from staying up late. "What would have happened if Third Uncle hadn't joined the army?"

"There are no 'ifs' in life." Jiang Heng looked at him, his tone heavy but firm, "Your Third Uncle's love is great."

"great?"

"Well, true love is fulfillment."

Wen Feng was silent for a moment, as if he had finally untied the knot in his heart. He looked up and said, "I understand. When will you go to the hospital to see Xiaofeng today?"

"You want to come along?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I want to go to the hospital to see Xiaofeng. After all, she's my sister-in-law, and we're family. And this incident was caused by me, so I should apologize to my brother and Xiaofeng."

Jiang Wan walked up and touched his head: "After breakfast, go to sleep for a while, we will go together in the afternoon."

Back at the hospital, Wen Qing was holding a video conference in his ward. He confidently bowed to the men on the screen and said, "28.6% of the outstanding shares. Thank you, everyone." When Zhou Yong came to check on him, Wen Qing turned the candlestick chart on his phone to him and said calmly, "This is the interest."

Every step Wen Qing took was as precise as a scalpel: first, he contacted Chen You, the third largest shareholder of the Yao family, in the name of "strategic investment", and quietly signed a bet agreement with the Zhou family's offshore company; he remitted 230 million Hong Kong dollars in consulting fees through a private bank in exchange for voting rights in Chen You's family trust; then he instigated the deputy director of the Yao family's audit department to defect, and accurately leaked the revised draft of the financial fraud 72 hours before the quarterly report was released.

Yao's stock price plummeted until it fell below its 52-week low. Wen Qing called Zhou Xiao, her voice calm, "Thank you. Now that's enough to bring the Yao family down from their laurels, it's time to close the net."

"You're welcome. Xiaofeng's business is also my business." Zhou Xiao's response was straightforward.

Meanwhile, Yao Anni was detained for intentional injury, and her family compensated her for her medical expenses. Ninghai University publicly criticized the incident, emphasizing "zero tolerance for campus violence."

When Jiang Wenfeng came to visit Xiaofeng, his face was a little embarrassed and sincere: "I was inconsiderate. I don't like you. I did that before just because I really hated those girls making noise around me, so I wanted to use you as an excuse to avoid dealing with them. I'm sorry, I hope you can forgive me." He paused, and added, "After you return to school, I can still take you to the infield rest area to watch training. Watching training from the audience seats has been banned." As he said that, he made a neat air shot, "By the way, the coach said that my three-point shooting touch is very good, and he wants me to play shooting guard instead. I will be very busy in training later, and may not have much time to see you. You have to get better soon, so that my brother will feel less distressed." After that, he showed a relieved smile.

Four weeks later, Xiaofeng removed the Kirschner pin in her right hand and began pulmonary function training. Only then was Wenqing able to occasionally leave the ward to handle urgent matters at the company.