43. I've also thought about it...
The first time Chu Chiyi told Mu Jia about his family was ten years ago, after a parent-teacher meeting, on the rooftop of the school building.
He remembered the time and the scene very clearly, perhaps because they had watched a beautiful twilight together that time.
What I can't remember are the specific details of what I said at the time.
All I remember is that what was said wasn't true, or rather, it wasn't the whole truth.
When he was ten years old, Song Xiuyu got an opportunity to study abroad, so she gave up her teaching position in China and went to the Netherlands.
Once he left, he almost never came back.
Two months after Song Xiuyu left, Chu Jingkuo brought a woman home.
Their marriage had always existed in name only. Chu Jingkuo came from a scholarly family and had a smooth academic and career path. He had always been a prodigy, and with his superior appearance, he was never short of women.
At that time, he and Song Xiuyu had not yet officially divorced.
The woman he brought back was named Pei Lan.
The woman's makeup was exquisite, and her sexy and charming off-the-shoulder top and bodycon skirt were all dressed in the style that Chu Jingkuo usually liked.
She looked at the boy sitting on the living room sofa reading a book. He looked to be about ten years old, with a fair complexion, dark pupils, and an air of composure that seemed out of place for his age.
Chu Jingkuo nodded.
When the boy saw them return, he didn't say anything and continued reading his book as if he hadn't seen them at all.
Chu Jingkuo was not annoyed at all, and simply continued to show her around his home.
A gleaming piano sits in the corner of the living room.
Seeing Pei Lan's envious expression, Chu Jingkuo curled his lips: "My son's. When he was a child, his mother insisted that he learn it, and he passed level 10 a few years ago."
Pei Lan immediately echoed his words, praising him endlessly.
Then, for reasons unknown, Chu Jingkuo called to the boy not far away: "Xiao Yi, come here, let me play a few notes for your Aunt Pei Lan."
Unexpectedly, the boy actually came over and sat down at the piano.
With slender fingers deftly flipping across the piano keys, the music flowed out smoothly like a stream of water.
"That was beautiful." When the song ended, Pei Lan nestled beside the man, laughing heartily.
Chu Jingkuo slapped her bottom and smiled mischievously, "Do you understand?"
At the time, Pei Lan didn't know what Chu Jingkuo meant. She just thought he was mocking her for her low education level, lack of worldly experience, and lack of artistic training.
A few days later, she suddenly became curious and used music recognition software to identify a short piece of music that she had recorded that day.
I only found out then that the piece was called "The Little Dog Waltz" by Chopin.
The boy's choice to play that piece was probably ironic.
It's an ironic way of saying someone is like a little dog that only knows how to circle around men, wagging its tail and begging for mercy...
The woman's beautiful face flushed red and then turned pale in an instant.
Not long after that, Chu Jingkuo also went abroad.
He went to the United States, where, as one of the top investment banking elites in the country at the time, he would have even greater opportunities.
Then, not long after, the protracted and globally significant subprime crisis erupted across the ocean.
More than two years later, Chu Jingkuo returned to China.
A few days later, because someone came to his door to collect debts, he had no choice but to take his son and hide at his parents' house.
Unexpectedly, the creditor was incredibly resourceful, relentlessly pursuing him and even causing trouble at Chu Chiyi's grandparents' house.
After two groups of creditors came to the door, one night, after his parents and son had gone to sleep, Chu Jingkuo went to the window in the living room alone.
Without much hesitation, he stood by the window for less than half a minute before jumping from the sixth floor.
When Chu Chiyi heard the noise and ran to the window, the person had already gone downstairs.
He instinctively leaned out of the window, took one look, and from then on, he could no longer eat animal organs.
He should have thought of this earlier. If it weren't for the fact that there was no way to turn things around and he was desperate, why would someone as proud as Chu Jingkuo slink back to the country and even take him to hide from his debts at an old man's house?
Indeed, all of Chu Jingkuo's real estate, bonds, stocks, deposits, cash... have evaporated on the other side of the ocean.
Chu Jingkuo died. When he died, the shattered skull compressed his optic nerve, so he died with his eyes open.
The two elderly people were traumatized and were both hospitalized.
In addition, he left behind a debt that was an absolute huge sum for his elderly parents and young son.
The debts remained even after the couple's death, with creditors continuing to visit their home and even causing trouble at the elderly couple's hospital.
But what could he do? He was only thirteen years old at the time, so did he have no choice but to die like Chu Jingkuo?
Unexpectedly, when he was at his wit's end, it was Pei Lan who found him.
At that time, with the capital given to her by Chu Jingkuo, coupled with catching the trend and her own diligence, in just a few years, Pei Lan had transformed from a migrant worker who was completely dependent on men into a female boss with considerable capital, owning several catering and entertainment establishments in the city.
The woman came to his house and sat down on the sofa, seemingly in the same spot he had sat last time.
"I can help you pay off your debts." The woman with exquisite makeup opened and closed her red lips, sitting and looking at him, but she exuded a condescending aura.
The boy stood opposite her, his face still expressionless, just like the first time: "Auntie, but I don't have the money to pay you back."
The woman looked him over, stared at him for a moment, and then suddenly smiled: "It's nothing."
Pei Lan had someone move his Steinway from his home to one of his restaurants.
In the days that followed, whenever he wasn't in school, Chu Chiyi would go to that restaurant to play the piano.
Actually, not many of the people who came to eat listened, but he still had to play it over and over again.
Others didn't care, but Pei Lan would be happy to hear it.
Didn't Chu Jingkuo used to laugh at her for not understanding?
Unfortunately, he didn't know that she could now listen to whatever she wanted.
You can listen to it all day long without taking a break.
The more she couldn't understand something, the more she wanted to listen.
Just as the more elegant and unattainable something was in the past, the more interesting it is to trample on it now.
She didn't actually know why she did it.
Was it because of the "Little Dog Waltz" that Chu Chiyi played when they first met?
Pei Lan had also asked herself, was she really that petty? Would she be so vindictive as to hold a grudge against a child?
Perhaps more so because of his father, because of his past disdain for her, and the various inequalities in their relationship.
A year or two later, most of the female diners, and sometimes the men, began to linger their gazes on the face of the person playing the piano for too long.
He adapted quickly, going from feeling like he was on pins and needles to taking it all in stride.
Pei Lan started asking him to accompany her to drink at her nightclub. Looking at his face, which bore a resemblance to Chu Jingkuo, she smiled and said, "Xiao Yi, you've gotten more and more handsome these past two years. I'll give you a 500 yuan commission per bottle. Once we sell 10,000 bottles, we're even. How about it?"
Can I refuse?
He hadn't thought about it.
He was still in school at the time and was about to enter high school.
He couldn't bring himself to say something as foolish and naive as, "I'd rather starve to death and carry bricks on a construction site than sell my smiles."
He might starve to death, but what about his grandparents who have been unable to take care of themselves since being discharged from the hospital and have been lying in the nursing home?
Even if he worked himself to death, the earnings would be nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to his medical and nursing care expenses.
As it turns out, alcohol tolerance, like anything else, can indeed be trained. From often drinking until he had a stomach hemorrhage at the beginning, to gradually becoming able to drink without getting drunk, it took him about two years. That year, he had just started his second year of high school.
Pei Lan was happy to see this happen and told him, "Don't go to school after you finish this year. What's the point of going to school? If your dad had a lower level of education, he might not have died such a tragic death."
"What's the point of not going to school?"
The woman looked at Chu Chiyi and suddenly laughed, as if he had just asked a silly question: "Accompanying you for drinks."
He'll stay with her for life, as long as she wants him to.
That same year, my grandparents, who had been suffering from illness for several years, passed away one after another.
That same year, several small creditors who hadn't surfaced before came knocking on the door again. Pei Lan simply organized a meeting and settled all their debts at once.
During the meal, someone glanced at the young man sitting next to Pei Lan and couldn't help but tease, "President Pei is truly a woman who doesn't yield to men. Impressive methods! She slept with my father back then, and now she's even brought her son under her wing. How does it feel? Any different?"
That time, for the first time, he couldn't hold back and got into a fight with the people at the table who were spewing profanities.
When the tables and chairs overturned, the dishes shattered, and shards pierced his skin, causing blood to gush out, he didn't actually feel anything.
Until that night, when he opened the door to the private room, he bumped into Mu Jia.
Oh my god, so that's where the story started! That incredible sense of redemption at the end made me cry so much.
Initiate closed-loop operation!
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