CH 60

In XiaoTong’s presence, Ji Yao heard another version of all the stories.

During their years of dating, Ji Yao had initially wondered why Jiang Heng never mentioned his family. At that time, he thought Jiang Heng was reserved and didn’t want to share too much personal information about himself. However, it wasn’t until today that he realized Jiang Heng simply had nothing to say.

XiaoTong was a proud woman. When she was young, she defied her parents’ wishes and married Jiang Yi, which caused a major rift in her family. Therefore, no matter how difficult her life became after marriage, she never sought help from her family.

Jiang Yi’s family wasn’t well off, so XiaoTong had to start from scratch with him. They began by selling odd items at a street stall, then later moved on to dealing with mechanical products. They ran their business during the day and attended social functions in the evening. It took them more than five years to finally establish their own company and achieve stability.

During those earlier years, Jiang Heng’s parents were often away, and as a semi-left-behind child, he only saw his parents a few times a year.

When he was ten years old, his father’s affair was exposed, and he began to behave recklessly without restraint in front of him. The family went through a drastic change overnight.

He resented his father, and he didn’t want to stay in that changed household. So, the following year, when he entered junior high, he took matters into his own hands and chose to go to a boarding school. He never returned home after that.

It made sense, Ji Yao thought. How could parents continuously play with their children’s feelings like that?

Turns out, Jiang Heng’s selective sharing was everything about his family life.

“When he was eight years old, the family business was in a period of rapid expansion, and I had just taken on a major case. I had originally wanted to celebrate his birthday with him,” XiaoTong said. “But at that time, I was immature myself, and I was in a hurry after a day of work without eating. When I got home, I was really hungry and hadn’t had time to prepare a meal, so I cut a piece of his cake and ate it.”

“That day, when he came back from school and couldn’t cut the cake with me, he was almost in tears,” XiaoTong said. “At that time, I didn’t take it seriously and could only comfort him, saying he had to make do. He was a very obedient child, and he later turned that page.”

“But later on, I realized I shouldn’t have done that,” XiaoTong sighed. “He was just a child, and he didn’t want fancy things or the cake itself—he just wanted me to be with him on his special day.”

XiaoTong’s last sentence was like a needle with fine hairs, piercing Ji Yao’s heart sharply. His breath hitched, and he felt a painful itch in his chest.

He remembered the hot spring trip they never went on three years ago and Jiang Heng’s tone when he talked about his birthday.

He didn’t express his sadness or disappointment. He just said, “It’s not a big deal.”

Jiang Heng had undoubtedly been a good child since childhood. He was considerate, mature for his age, and had known how to “put oneself in others’ shoes” from a very young age. He understood what his parents were doing when they were away, so he could empathize with their difficulties.

But ironically, good children often ended up at a disadvantage.

Ji Yao hung his head, staring at the golden shrimp ball in front of him, his thoughts a tangled mess. The past and present intertwined, mixed up even more than the shrimp ball before him.

In fact, Ji Yao wasn’t a saint. During those difficult days in the past, he occasionally couldn’t help but shift some blame onto Jiang Heng, wondering why he didn’t confront him when he discovered this issue.

But now, Ji Yao suddenly understood. He couldn’t have said it—his intimate requests had rarely been met from childhood to adulthood. So maybe he simply didn’t know how to express anger and frustration to someone close to him.

“I thought a couple of missed birthdays were no big deal. We would have plenty of opportunities in the future once the company stabilized. But I didn’t expect to later discover Jiang Yi’s affair,” XiaoTong said.

At that time, she had wanted a divorce in anger, but Jiang Yi refused. So, XiaoTong had to separate from him, planning to file for divorce after the required separation period.

“We were young and not sensible, we were self-centered in everything we did. During the period when we were running the business, we didn’t go home often,” XiaoTong said, sighing deeply. “I used to tell Jiang Heng to understand and that things would get better once we stabilized. He agreed, and later, he followed through. But I didn’t expect that, in the end, this family couldn’t hold together.”

Ji Yao could see that XiaoTong truly regretted it even today.

But he didn’t know what to say, and he didn’t even know who to blame. A pampered daughter suddenly fell into the dust, and she had to build her future with her own hands, supporting herself and her family. Perhaps that alone was already challenging for her, especially considering her young age at marriage and having a child before she fully matured. It didn’t seem surprising.

In fact, there were countless left-behind children in the world. If Jiang Yi hadn’t started sleeping around, XiaoTong and he would have struggled together for more than ten years, built a stable family, and it would have been a story of hardship followed by sweetness for them.

But it just happened at the moment of sweetness that everything fell apart.

Ji Yao suddenly understood why Jiang Heng hated his father so much, enough to say, “I’ll never go back to Shanghai.”

Because to Jiang Heng, Jiang Yi was not just a family betrayer but also the one who shattered his hopes.

Afterward, the family fell apart, and XiaoTong started drifting. Jiang Heng officially entered the boarding school, and from then on, he took care of himself. XiaoTong felt guilty, so she worked even harder to earn money, hoping to make up for it materially.

However, the more she wanted to earn money, the busier she became. Seeing XiaoTong busier, Jiang Heng didn’t want to trouble her even more, so he handled everything himself, refusing to ask for help.

Jiang Heng reported good news without mentioning the bad, always hiding his sadness, anger, and sorrow behind his back, leaving XiaoTong with a mature and rational good son.

But because he didn’t speak, XiaoTong believed that this compensatory pattern was correct. Thus, they quickly fell into a vicious cycle of caring about each other but being misaligned.

Until he grew up into an adult, transformed into a strong and self-reliant man, he seemed to have truly forged a steel-like character that was immune to harm, a person who could withstand any poison, storm, and who actively persuaded XiaoTong to find her new world.

Indeed, Ji Yao thought.

If it weren’t for XiaoTong, Ji Yao might never have known these things. His impression of Jiang Heng’s family would have remained at the light-hearted “fishing in the river and playing pool” level. Ironically, Jiang Heng hadn’t lied; he had just shared only half of everything, turning his heavy emotions into casual conversation.

Ji Yao suddenly realized that Jiang Heng might have hidden his emotions so many times over the years that he had given people the impression that he was a different person.

“I’ve been an irresponsible mother,” XiaoTong said softly. “I always thought he didn’t need me, not until the winter two years ago when he suddenly came to find me.”

Two years ago, Ji Yao quickly calculated in his mind, that should have been a year after they broke up.

“At that time, he looked very upset. He drank quite a bit that night and lay on the couch, hugging a cushion and resting it on my lap,” XiaoTong said.

At that time, XiaoTong had just been married for a whole year, and she missed her son even when she was in a foreign country. When she saw Jiang Heng suddenly coming, she was overjoyed, and all her attention was focused on him.

But Jiang Heng’s mood was uncharacteristically low that night. He had too much to drink, rolled over, and hugged her waist.

“Mom,” Jiang Heng had softly asked, “Can I stay with you for a few more days?”

At that time, XiaoTong didn’t understand what was going on. She looked at Jiang Heng in confusion and reached out to stroke his hair.

“Of course, you can stay as long as you want,” XiaoTong said. “If you’re willing, when you finish school in the UK, come live with us here in France. That would be the best.”

Her words seemed to soothe Jiang Heng, and he mumbled a response, leaning against XiaoTong, not saying a word for a long time.

But that night, unfortunately, in the late hours, Amber suddenly developed a high fever. Charles didn’t want to disturb their mother-son conversation, so he quietly went to the living room to search for the first-aid kit. However, he wasn’t familiar with its contents, and after a clattering search, he let Jiang Heng know.

The next day, Jiang Heng boarded a train and left, saying he was going to Sweden to see the snow.

At that time, XiaoTong still didn’t understand why he had suddenly left. It wasn’t until a week later, while eating at the dining table, that she suddenly realized. It was only then that she discovered Jiang Heng didn’t think he didn’t need her; he just didn’t want to be a burden to her—even though XiaoTong had never considered him a burden.

Some realizations come in an instant, especially when it’s too late, making the pain even more intense.

Ji Yao’s throat tightened, and he didn’t know how he managed to squeeze out the words from his throat: “Why did he… suddenly come to find you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he wasn’t in a good mood at the time,” XiaoTong replied, shaking her head. “It happened to be Christmas Day, and I thought he came to celebrate our wedding anniversary with Charles and me.”

Ji Yao suddenly understood.

Only today did he have a clear concept—Jiang Heng had learned and lived everything on his own. He had undergone surgery and celebrated the days by himself, and he had signed the surgical consent forms himself. From the day Ji Yao met him, it was as if he had emerged from the cracks in a stone.

He had friends from all over the world but no family.

He had once tried to consider Ji Yao as family, but Ji Yao had let down his trust.

It turned out that during all those years, among all the choices made by everyone, Jiang Heng had been the one at a disadvantage, the one who had been abandoned.

Maybe, on that same day, he and Xiao Tong had abandoned Jiang Heng.