Chapter 14 Stars Falling from the Sky
Xingxing hadn't moved yet, but Cheng Qian'an next to him was stunned.
He looked blankly at his outstretched hand, then at Xingxing, and with a pouty mouth, he turned around and threw himself into Xingxing's arms.
Then the child put his hand on his forehead.
"No hugs." Xingxing said to him seriously.
Qiuqiu stood proudly on Xingxing's shoulder, humming contentedly, with no sign of Xingxing's anxiety and anger when he was pounced on just now.
Cheng Qian felt even more aggrieved, and tears fell from his eyes.
Xingxing looked at him, but remembered that he seemed to have shed tears in this place last time.
It's a bit magical, I want to try it again tomorrow.
Suppressing the little thought in her mind, Xingxing looked at her grandmother who was also reaching out to hug her. Her expression of rejection softened a little, but she still shook her head gently:
"Grandma, hold my hand~"
He held out his little hand, which was carefully held by the old man's warm, dry hand.
Seeing this, Cheng Qian followed suit and put his hand into his grandmother's other hand.
The old man stood up. Although he felt regretful, he also felt warm. He held the hands of the two children and slowly walked back.
Zhou Xiangyang already got off work very late, and the arrival of the Cheng family disrupted his schedule again. However, Zhang Yayu and the housekeeper were both smart people with clear vision and would not let their arrival cause trouble to the father and son.
Originally, it was planned to invite the father and son to a restaurant outside for lunch, but after a while, Xingxing was lying in Zhou Xiangyang's arms, yawning one after another and feeling sleepy. Butler Cheng simply ordered some clean takeout, and several people squeezed into this narrow little room to chat and eat.
After Xingxing was tucked into the quilt and fell asleep, and Cheng Qian'an also fell asleep in the driver's arms, Zhang Yayu asked the driver to hold Cheng Qian'an and wait for them in the car. She and the housekeeper stayed and chatted with Zhou Xiangyang for a few more words.
"Xiao Zhou." Zhang Yayu looked at the young man who was treated harshly by fate. Seeing his puzzled expression, she opened her mouth and finally asked what was in her heart: "Can I ask you... Is Xingxing your biological child?"
Almost as soon as she said this, the young man in front of her suddenly straightened his body and stared at her with an extremely nervous and defensive look, and his tone was as fierce as a wolf that was offended: "What do you mean by this?!"
If you listen carefully, you can hear the stagnation and obscurity in his tone, and every word seems to be squeezed out of his throat.
In fact, Zhou Xiangyang's heart had become heavy and dropped because of these few short words. His chest seemed to be blocked by a bunch of straw that could not be untied, allowing him to stay alive, but making breathing extremely difficult. Every rise and fall of his heart and chest pulled on every nerve in his brain, causing it to throb with pain.
He stared at the refined and respectable old man in front of him, perhaps because he stared too hard, he felt dizzy and the world seemed to be turning upside down invisibly, and he was turning with it. His brain was in a cloud, but he still had to force out a bit of rationality to listen to the other party's answer with difficulty.
Butler Cheng reached out and helped the staggering young man, then found that every inch of his only hand was stiff and tense. Supporting him was like supporting a rigid statue; not only was his hand stiff, but his palm was also cold.
Zhang Yayu didn't expect his reaction to be so big. She was shocked and worried, so she asked Butler Cheng to help him go back to the house and sit down.
"Madam, what you just said... You asked me, do you know something?!" Zhou Xiangyang couldn't sit still. He stared at Zhang Yayu without blinking, his voice trembling: "Have you ever seen someone who looks like Xingxing?"
He still held on to some glimmer of hope at this moment, with countless thoughts running through his head.
Has she seen someone who looks like Xingxing? Did that family also lose their child?
She just asked casually, was it something that she accidentally revealed during the previous chat?
she……
"...He's my son." Zhang Yayu's equally difficult answer made Zhou Xiangyang stand still, as if struck by lightning.
son?
Her son?
Looks like a star?
"Are you kidding me..." Zhou Xiangyang tried his best to force out a smile that was uglier than crying, and said in a hoarse voice: "How could Xingxing look like your son? Besides, your little grandson——"
The attempt to refute came to an abrupt end.
Zhou Xiangyang thought of Cheng Qian'an's age.
3 years old.
During a previous chat, Butler Cheng also mentioned Cheng Qi'an's birthday, saying that it was only one day different from Xingxing's, and that this was fate.
Only one day apart, she looks like her son...
Zhou Xiangyang shook his head with a pale face, but he couldn't erase the speculation in his mind.
But isn’t this a bit too outrageous?
We were clearly just sending the young master home, so why did the follow-up turn out to be... Xingxing might be their child?
"You are so rich..." He still shook his head, but his words were full of ridicule: "You are rich, how could you lose your child?"
He tried his best to stand firm, took a deep breath, looked at the old man's reluctant and excited expression, and said slowly: "Yes, Xingxing is the child I picked up."
When Butler Cheng and Zhang Yayu both breathed lightly and looked at him excitedly, he smiled gently, wiped away the tears that slipped unconsciously, and said to them: "It was July, the hottest time of the year. I didn't have a job at that time, so I helped the community sweep the streets."
"You must have never stayed by a rotten and smelly garbage can at two or three o'clock in the afternoon and smelled it, right? I found Xingxing in the flower bed behind those stinky garbage cans. I heard his crying and went to look for him, and saw big green-headed flies buzzing around in the garbage cans crawling on him."
"I've heard people say that stray cats and dogs are most likely to be found in trash cans and flower beds, but stray cats can run and jump, and Xingxing is so small, and was carelessly wrapped in a man's clothes. It was so hot and smelly, and he was just like a newborn stray kitten, thrown into the flower bed..."
"You said Xingxing looks a lot like your son, but you clearly have a child who was born at the same time as Xingxing. His name is Cheng Qian, right? You cultured people give names with more connotations than I do, praying for peace, unlike me... I took Xingxing home, and was in a hurry to feed him, but I thought he might not survive. I held him and sat at the door in the middle of the night to watch the stars. I heard that children with names can live longer, so I randomly named him Zhou Chenxing."
"Stars that fall from the sky don't shine, no one wants them, and no one will see them. The King of Hell won't snatch my child away from me."
At this point, Zhou Xiangyang smiled and shared his initial thoughts with the two: "I originally wanted to give him an even uglier name, but then I thought, if the child really doesn't survive, after I bury him in the ground, there should be a nicer name in front of his grave, right? He came to this world, so he should leave with something good."
Zhou Xiangyang was no different from a beggar at that time. He could not even scrape together a dime, and he used all of it to buy milk powder and diapers for Xingxing. He could not afford diapers, so he could only buy more cheap diapers or paper towels. But cleaning was an even more difficult problem, since he had lost one hand.
So if the child doesn't survive, the only thing Zhou Xiangyang can give him is a name that sounds okay.
Zhang Yayu's eyes were cloudy with tears. She heard every word Zhou Xiangyang said clearly, and also understood his sarcastic questions after he gradually accepted his fate.
Why didn't a rich, cultured person realize that his child was missing for three years? Why did he raise another child and give that child everything that originally belonged to Xingxing, including his name?
Why did you lose the child? Was it intentional or...
"Old man, I have never concealed the fact that Xingxing was picked up by me. Ever since he was two years old, he would secretly save every penny I gave him. Every night, he would take it out, count it, and put it back like a little hamster."
Zhou Xiangyang stood up and took out a stack of crumpled old money from under the sofa in front of Zhang Yayu. He straightened it out and placed it in front of her.
"Here is a total of 35 yuan. Xingxing has saved it for a whole year. This is the money he plans to use to find his biological parents when he grows up."
"But two days ago, he gave me the money because we were so poor that we could hardly pay the rent. The landlord blocked me downstairs to collect the debt, and when I came back, Xingxing took out the money."
Zhou Xiangyang stared at the small stack of money with his eyes downcast, and smiled: "I cried like a loser at that time, but I was thinking that I would give up everything to create a better environment and conditions for Xingxing to grow up. We are both orphans, and we depend on each other for life. We will be father and son for life."
"Who knew that you would come here in just two days."
Zhou Xiangyang never felt that fate was against him. Even if everyone felt sorry for him, Zhou Xiangyang would still love life and work hard to live. No matter how hard or tired he was, he would never complain to God.
But now, for the first time, he wanted to question the so-called God and fate, why did they treat him like this?
Why did you ruthlessly drag him into the abyss when he had just felt the warmth of the sun?
If he had never had it, he would naturally not resent it.
But he had it before! He had it before!
Now these people suddenly appeared and said that Xingxing was their child... How could Zhou Xiangyang accept this? How could he not feel resentment? !
The room was filled with silence.
Xingxing lay on the bed with his eyes open, listening to the cry in Sunflower's father's voice and listening to his grandmother's tears falling to the ground. He suddenly felt a dull pain in his heart.
"Kid, don't be sad, everything will be fine." Qiuqiu rubbed the child's soft cheek, snuggled into his arms, and accompanied him to secretly listen to the conversation of the adults.
"Ball." The child suddenly called it in his mind.
Qiuqiu looked towards the stars and saw the little boy's slightly red eyes.
The star turned its back to the adults, curled up its small body, and whispered to it, "I am the star of Sunflower Dad."
“Yeah!” Qiuqiu agreed in a panic: “Xingxing, be good. We will not leave Sunflower Daddy. Even if the Cheng family knows about your existence, no one can take you away from Sunflower Daddy as long as you don’t want to!”
"But grandma is also in the kid's wish."
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