Shen Ruozhen gradually lacked oxygen. He turned his face away and leaned on Xiang Mingzhang's shoulder. He opened another bottle of champagne in the garden downstairs. With a "bang", screams of joy rang out all around.
Xiang Mingzhang rubbed the back of Shen Ruozhen's neck with his palm and said, "Try the cake."
The cake was placed on the cupboard by the wall. Shen Ruozhen got up from Xiang Mingzhang's legs and pecked his earlobe. He walked over, straightened his collar and untied the bow on the box.
Behind him, Xiang Mingzhang placed one hand on the piano keys and played a series of heavy bass notes, with the lingering sound carrying a buzzing sound.
Shen Ruozhen pulled the ribbon and looked sideways, asking sharply, "What's wrong?"
Xiang Mingzhang closed the piano cover, stood up, and said, "I was invited here today. Besides really missing you, I also have something I want to tell you."
Shen Ruozhen and Xiang Mingzhang went to the terrace together. The railing was wide enough to accommodate the cake.
The weather was warm, and the butter had melted a little. On top of the cake was a layer of plump, translucent fresh lychees. Shen Ruozhen scooped one out with a fork. It was cool. He chewed the sweetness and said, "What's the matter?"
Xiang Mingzhang leaned against the railing, folding his arms lazily: "Remember when we met with Lawyer Lei before, she seemed to pay too much attention to you."
Shen Ruozhen said: "I remember, what's wrong?"
At that time, they both didn't know the reason. Some time ago, Xiang Mingzhang and the Chu family had been dealing with share changes and had been in frequent contact, so he asked the lawyer to pay more attention to it.
"It's just speculation at the moment," Xiang Mingzhang said. "Lawyer Lei may have doubted your identity."
Shen Ruozhen was slightly stunned. He dug a hole in the cake. He couldn't help but think of Alan. He had admitted to Alan on the yacht that he was not Chu Shichen.
Although Alan was dead, Xiang Mingzhang called out his real name at the critical moment.
Shen Ruozhen asked: "Is it because of the kidnapping case?"
Xiang Mingzhang nodded in agreement: "The kidnappers heard it at the time."
"And Uncle Qi." Shen Ruozhen said, "Uncle Qi and Xiang Xingzhao are one and the same, and they have long suspected my identity."
Xiang Mingzhang said: "But on the contrary, one of the kidnappers mentioned your name in his confession, but Uncle Qi denied it."
Shen Ruozhen ignored this aspect. If it was revealed that the real Chu Shichen was already dead, and if the truth of the yacht explosion was investigated, Uncle Qi would be more guilty.
After Xiang Xingzhao's death, Uncle Qi overturned his confession and admitted that Xiang Xingzhao was the mastermind. The investigation of the entire case focused on the Xiang family.
Moreover, the situation on the yacht was chaotic and the kidnappers were not 100% sure. In addition, Uncle Qi denied it flatly, so this statement was difficult to verify.
After all, it was a suspicious point, so Shen Ruozhen asked: "Will the police contact us for investigation?"
Xiang Mingzhang said: "It's possible, but Uncle Qi denied it at first, and then changed his confession later. The kidnappers are also involved in Thailand, so the case has been delayed."
After the incident, the case was fully represented by Xiang Mingzhang's legal team. Lawyer Lei had known Mrs. Chu for many years and had been paying close attention to the case privately. He also had a wide network of contacts, including classmates and friends in the lawyer circle and the public security, procuratorial and judicial departments, so he inevitably received some news.
There is no final conclusion about the kidnapper's mention of "Shen Ruozhen". Lawyer Lei must have found it unbelievable, but he couldn't bring it up openly.
Shen Ruozhen recalled that meeting. Lawyer Lei looked at him several times and must have become suspicious.
As "Chu Shichen", he has changed drastically in the eyes of others. Once any reason arises, people will inevitably use reverse reasoning to explore it.
Shen Ruozhen looked down from the railing and saw Lawyer Lei's team gathered under a parasol to chat. There was an empty chair, but Lawyer Lei himself was not there.
"Lawyer Lei must be struggling with whether to tell..." He got stuck and said the second half of the sentence softly, "Mrs. Chu."
Xiang Mingzhang was an outsider with limited knowledge, so he asked, "Do you think she will?" From investigating the yacht accident to handling large and small commissions from the Chu family, Shen Ruozhen believed that Lawyer Lei was rigorous, responsible, and fair. Such a person would not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes. He said, "I think she will."
Xiang Mingzhang said: "No matter what, you should be mentally prepared."
Shen Ruozhen deeply understands the saying that plans cannot keep up with changes. Before the accident, he wanted to restore his true identity after everything was over, but after knowing the cause of Chu Shichen's death, he decided to delay and help Yisi settle down first.
Unexpectedly, his identity has been exposed and may have been revealed in advance.
He had no control over all this, in fact he himself could not escape responsibility at all. It seemed full of surprises, yet also like it was destined.
Shen Ruozhen had imagined that he would be exposed one day, and he had felt worried and ashamed. But now that the time had come, he was very calm. Having been a thief for so long, he had probably already lost his sense of shame.
He resigned himself to the fact that it would be exposed sooner or later, so it would be helpful if someone could help pave the way.
A lychee wrapped in melted butter slowly collapsed, Shen Ruozhen scooped out a large piece and stuffed it into his mouth, as if to fill something. Xiang Mingzhang raised his hand to wipe off the butter that overflowed from the corner of his mouth, and then rubbed it on his lips.
There was a knock on the bedroom door and Shen Ruozhen turned around.
Mrs. Chu opened the door and came in, her pointed heels thumping on the floor. She walked to the door frame of the terrace and said, "I couldn't find you for a long time. You must be hiding upstairs."
Xiang Mingzhang said: "It was my fault for being rude and forcing him to bring me up."
"It's okay." Mrs. Chu said with a smile, "Lunch is about to start. Should we go downstairs and eat together, or should we bring it up to you?"
Eating is equivalent to socializing. Shen Ruozhen said, "How can we not entertain guests? It's enough to hide for a while. We will go down immediately."
Mrs. Chu had nothing else to do, so she turned around and walked away. When she passed by the piano, she caught a glimpse of fingerprints on the piano cover. She stopped and called out, "Xiao Chen?"
Shen Ruozhen pursed her lips: "Mom, what's wrong?"
Mrs. Chu said, "When you were a kid, you were asked to learn piano, but you didn't like it and couldn't sit still. You drove several teachers away. Do you remember?"
Of course Shen Ruozhen didn’t remember, nor should he remember. He shook his head.
Mrs. Chu bent down, pushed the piano stool closer, and said, "You have a piano worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and a top teacher, but you only learned one or two basic songs. You never practiced and moved the piano to this guest room because it took up too much space and it was covered in dust."
Shen Ruozhen said: "Really?"
Mrs. Chu wiped off the fingerprints with the cuff of her dress: "Did you play it secretly?"
Xiang Mingzhang said: "I'm sorry, Auntie, I did touch it."
Mrs. Chu smiled and said, "I thought, even if Xiaochen recovers his memory, he probably still won't like playing the piano."
Shen Ruozhen felt like a ball of cream was stuck in his throat, which he could neither swallow nor spit out.
The sunlight on the terrace was too strong, and the bedroom seemed pitch dark. Shen Ruozhen could not see Mrs. Chu's expression. He only saw Mrs. Chu's slender fingers stroking the piano, reluctant to take it away.
"Mom." he called out.
Suddenly, Mrs. Chu said in a normal tone, "Take Mingzhang downstairs quickly. Cake alone is not enough. He should at least have a bowl of soup."
After saying that, Mrs. Chu withdrew and left, her skirt swaying as she walked away. Shen Ruozhen felt a little dizzy, and only when he felt Xiang Mingzhang's hand on his back did he feel at ease.
There is a long dining table on the corridor of the back garden, with a row of peonies placed in the middle to separate the left and right sides. Both sides of the table are filled with people, who are close to each other but not too close to each other, and the atmosphere is just right.
Shen Ruozhen wanted to train Chu Shihui, so he simply said a few words to her and then started to dodge. Lawyer Lei sat opposite him, and perhaps he was trying to avoid her, keeping his head slightly lowered throughout the meal.
The afternoon banquet ended, the guests had a great time, and Xiang Mingzhang stayed alone until dusk.
Shen Ruozhen walked Xiang Mingzhang to the gate and said, "I've been busy with work lately. Call me if you have anything."
"It's my turn to say the second half of the sentence." Xiang Mingzhang hugged him and rubbed his back. "Call me immediately if you have anything."
Shen Ruozhen watched the car disappear from his sight, then returned to his villa. After the banquet, the place was in a mess, so he hired a cleaning company to clean it up.
Aunt Tang and Sister Xiu were busy directing the work indoors and in the garden respectively. Shen Ruozhen helped bring the brewed tea to the bedroom and knocked on the door. Mrs. Chu had changed into home clothes and velvet slippers and was removing her makeup in front of the dressing table.
Shen Ruozhen put down the teacup and said, "I've talked a lot today, so this is good for moistening my throat."
Mrs. Chu looked at him in the mirror: "Good."
Shen Ruozhen reminded: "You have worked hard to organize the banquet, so go to bed early."
Mrs. Chu said, "So good, so caring."
Shen Ruozhen smiled and walked out, thinking about many things in a few steps. He wanted to ask if Lawyer Lei had said anything, what he had said, or if nothing had happened
Walking to the door, Shen Ruozhen grasped the door handle and pressed it down.
In front of the dressing table, Mrs. Chu said, "Xiaochen."
Shen Ruozhen was determined: "Yeah."
Mrs. Chu was silent for a moment and asked, "It's been more than a year. Have you recovered your memory, even just a little bit?"
Shen Ruozhen was certain that Lawyer Lei had said that if Mrs. Chu showed any signs of abnormality upstairs, then this was a clear inquiry.
He denied it, revealing a flaw of giving up: "No, I won't recover my memory."
Shen Ruozhen opened the door and walked out of the bedroom. The corridor was shady, and his body, which had been warmed by the sun all day, gradually became cold.
He is fake, he is not Chu Shichen.
As a mother, whether she believes it or not, she would definitely be shocked and question it if she knew about such a bizarre thing. However, Mrs. Chu did not point it out or expose it, as if everything was still the same.
Shen Ruozhen had imagined everything that would happen after his identity was exposed: being accused and scolded, being kicked out of the door, being reported to the police and arrested as a liar, but he had never thought about his current situation.
The door separated the rooms, and he forgot to tell Mrs. Chu to drink the tea while it was hot.
On the second floor, Chu Shihui climbed up the stairs and shouted, "Brother, bring me a tangerine when you come up."
Shen Ruozhen picked a thin-skinned fruit from the fruit plate, peeled it as he went upstairs, and turned into Chu Shihui's room. He walked to the end of the bed and handed it to her.
The laptop was placed on the bed. Chu Shihui took the orange and said, "Brother, come and take a look."
Shen Ruozhen moved closer: "What are you looking at?"
On the screen was a paper topic, which was related to the theme of the design exhibition. The details were not yet written, so Chu Shihui turned directly to the acknowledgments section and said, "I wrote about you."
Black words on a white background: Chu Shichen.
Shen Ruozhen was happy and smiled: "Okay, let me read it after you finish writing it."
At night, Shen Ruozhen couldn't sleep. He opened his eyes and stared at the smoke from the small incense burner until the Canaan incense burned out, then he covered himself with the quilt.
Shen Ruozhen went to work as usual. When he was busy, he would forget about trivial matters for a short time, but he no longer worked overtime. He would take away the unfinished work and arrive home on time every day or even a few minutes early.
Aunt Tang said that he had changed from a workaholic to a homesick person.
Shen Ruozhen just overestimated himself. Beneath his calm appearance, he knew clearly how much reluctance he was hiding.
He tried his best not to pay attention to Mrs. Chu's movements, but it was difficult. Sister Xiu said that Mrs. Chu would go out tomorrow and there was no need to prepare lunch. The driver said that the car had been to the hospital and had bacteria, so it needed to be sent for cleaning.
Three days later, Shen Ruozhen was in his study with a lighted lamp when he received a call from the seal society informing him that the seal had been carved.
After hanging up the call, he stared at the table for a while, then pulled out a piece of white paper and picked up a pen.
The seal studio and the company building were on the same street, so Shen Ruozhen stopped by to pick it up on his way home from get off work the next day. It was a jade seal with a "Tianqi Tong Bao" pattern of the sun and the moon engraved on the top, and his real name at the bottom.
The seal artist from the seal society prepared a trial print and dipped the seal in red clay, but Shen Ruozhen printed it elsewhere.
When I got home, the garden and the villa were quiet, and it seemed like no one was at home.
Shen Ruozhen didn't bother to change his shoes and went straight upstairs. His heart skipped a beat - the door of "Chu Shichen's" uninhabited bedroom was open, and light was coming through.
He walked to the door step by step. In the bedroom, Mrs. Chu was sitting alone at the end of the bed, holding the photo frame that had been placed on the bedside table in her hands.
Shen Ruozhen suddenly felt his nose sore and he wanted to run away like a coward.
What's hanging over his head these days is not a sword, but a needle. If it falls, it won't kill him, but it will cause a stinging pain.
Mrs. Chu looked up and saw him, and said softly, "You're back."
Shen Ruozhen didn't escape after all. He walked into the room and asked, "Why are you staying here alone?"
Mrs. Chu didn't call him "Xiao Chen" or "you". She replied, "I'm waiting for my son to get off work."
Shen Ruozhen could hardly move. If this "son" was referring to him, could he treat it as the last time and shout, "...Mom."
Mrs. Chu did not respond. She looked at him and asked, "Child, who are you?"
(End of this chapter)