Chapter 46
The driver, Chen Shu, reminded him, “Mr. He, time for the kindergarten.”
He Wangzhong, “Going to the kindergarten to see Cha Bao? I want to go too.”
He Renyuan’s mind short-circuited, but his automatic response kicked in, “Cha Bao went back to his hometown, I’m going to his parent-teacher meeting.”
He Wangzhong smiled knowingly. That brat, already attending parent-teacher meetings for Cha Bao, “Cha Bao still calls you Uncle?”
He Renyuan: “…”
Cha Bao Restaurant, Shu He Building, the kindergarten, all in the same area, in a straight line. He Wangzhong chose the locations carefully, hoping his precious grandson could go to school, work, and eat, all in one go.
He Renyuan, “Dad, I’ll be going now.”
In the car, Chen Shu looked at his boss through the rearview mirror. It was rare to see the boss looking so confused.
After a while, He Renyuan took out his phone and called the housekeeper, “Uncle Qi, my dad made a Cha Bao look-alike scoring machine, did you know?”
The housekeeper said cheerfully, “Yes, I’m sure you got a bone fracture discount.”
He Renyuan didn’t understand what the housekeeper meant, “You… you cheated for me?”
The housekeeper was confused, “No, why would I need to cheat?”
He Renyuan’s hand crumpled his suit pants, “So, I look like Cha Bao?”
The housekeeper flattered, “How could that be? It’s Cha Bao who looks like you, young master.”
This roundabout way of speaking almost made He Renyuan choke, “Go to the study and bring me the archives from around January two years ago, three months’ worth.”
The housekeeper immediately understood He Renyuan’s intention. The young master was suspicious of Cha Bao’s parentage? But Cha Bao clearly looked more like Bai Qingyu.
Oh, nephews resemble their maternal uncles. The young master didn’t have a sister, so he couldn’t be the uncle, only Bai Qingyu could. It made sense that Cha Bao looked more like Bai Qingyu.
The most worrisome thing was when the young master had no doubts. Once he started suspecting, it was 99% certain.
The housekeeper hummed as he went upstairs to find the archives.
He Renyuan, after a moment of silence, called his aunt, He Ying. The housekeeper and his father were eager for a grandson, they might be biased. His aunt was the most reliable.
He Ying, “What’s up? I’m in the countryside.”
He Renyuan, “Why did you introduce Bai Qingyu as a housekeeper?”
“He seemed to be having a hard time with a child…” He Ying realized, “You brat, don’t tell me you’re really Cha Bao’s father.”
Her brother mentioned acknowledging Cha Bao, but He Renyuan was still just an uncle. He Ying asked about the paternity test, and He Wangzhong vaguely said 70%.
He Ying thought it was just wishful thinking on He Wangzhong’s part.
He Renyuan, “It’s because you thought Cha Bao looked like me, right?”
He Ying, “Otherwise? I knew you didn’t like children, why would I bring one to your house?”
He Renyuan was speechless. He thought the housekeeper introduced Bai Qingyu because he was brain-damaged, since he was healthy.
He Renyuan hung up and asked Chen Shu, “Do I look like Cha Bao?”
Chen Shu, “Yes.”
He Renyuan started to suspect everyone around him was mute, “Why didn’t you ever mention it?”
Chen Shu, “…Because Cha Bao also looks like his dad.”
He Renyuan, “Anything else?”
Chen Shu, “Boss, this is your private life, how could we mention it?” Gossiping behind his back was one thing, saying it to his face was asking for death.
He Renyuan closed his eyes. He should blame himself. No one ever questioned him pretending to be Cha Bao’s father or uncle. He thought he was a good actor, but it was just his looks.
He was scolded for ten minutes on the beach as Cha Bao’s dad, and it didn’t enlighten him. He was shipped with Bai Qingyu by the mute sisters for so long, and it didn’t enlighten him.
When He Renyuan arrived at the kindergarten, the housekeeper just happened to deliver the archives.
The parent-teacher meeting was held in a small auditorium. He Renyuan sat backstage and listened.
He flipped through the archives, searching for any trace of Bai Qingyu from two years ago.
However, there were no gaps in his memory of the past three years, and the archives faithfully recorded his busy schedule.
Cha Bao was fifteen months old. Twenty-five months ago, he was abroad, receiving ineffective treatment for his amnesia.
Bai Qingyu couldn’t have appeared at that time.
His aunt had already ruled out these factors, what was he doing?
Unable to find any intersection with Bai Qingyu, his mind short-circuited, he didn’t dare to continue his deduction.
The parents gradually arrived. They were all colleagues, some knew each other, some didn’t, but they could all chat, and Cha Bao’s name was frequently mentioned.
“Which one of you is Cha Bao’s dad? Is Cha Bao’s dad here?”
“My son told me to befriend Cha Bao’s dad.”
“My son said he and Cha Bao are best friends.”
“No way, my son said the same thing.”
“So, is Cha Bao’s dad here?”
Teacher Xiao Zhang picked up the materials from the desk and accidentally dropped a magazine, which opened to a certain page.
It was the Shu He Group’s internal magazine, the open page featuring a New Year’s interview with the CEO, He Renyuan’s photo next to it.
Teacher Xiao Zhang picked up the magazine and suddenly grabbed Teacher Xiao Yu, “I know why Cha Bao looks familiar, he looks like our CEO.”
Teacher Xiao Yu stammered, “Everyone with thick eyebrows and big eyes looks like that.”
He Renyuan couldn’t sit still any longer. Everyone who saw Cha Bao thought he looked like him, and he was still looking for scientific evidence!
Bai Qingyu wasn’t scientific to begin with, and Cha Bao’s DNA couldn’t even be tested by humans.
He was a tea deity, who said he couldn’t have a child with a man?
Who said a tea deity’s pregnancy had to be ten months, couldn’t it be twenty months?
Tea trees were pollinated in spring, the fruit fell in autumn, the seeds were buried in the soil and went dormant with the tea tree, and only sprouted in the spring of the third year. Wasn’t this reasonable?
He Renyuan abruptly stood up. Chen Shu hurriedly followed, “Not attending the meeting anymore?”
“Tell my dad to attend, take me to the train station.”
There were no direct tickets for the next high-speed train, so He Renyuan bought a standing ticket.
It didn’t matter, he couldn’t sit still anyway.
At every stop, like a heavy smoker, he rushed out.
Others were busy smoking, he needed fresh air to suppress the irrational clamor in his heart.
He was like a chain smoker who forgot his cigarettes, restrained and restless, so that at every stop, someone asked him if he wanted one.
He Renyuan waved his hand, “I’m quitting.”
Others gave him sympathetic looks, “Tough, isn’t it, bro?”
He Renyuan, “Tough.” He would die if he couldn’t see Bai Qingyu, if he couldn’t smell Bai Qingyu. He had empty memories and a heart full of speculations, he didn’t know what the outcome would be.
Someone said, “My wife wants a second child and asked me to quit smoking, but I can’t help it.”
He Renyuan put out his cigarette, “Quit.”
“Hey—you!”
From the fourth stop onwards, He Renyuan had a business class seat. He sat calmly, no longer trying to go out to cool down.
Although his wife hadn’t said she wanted a second child, it wasn’t right to go out and breathe secondhand smoke.
The train went through more and more tunnels, the carriage flickering between light and dark, the signal intermittent. He Renyuan knew he was getting closer and closer to Bai Qingyu.
Did Bai Qingyu also travel like this from his hometown, over mountains and rivers, transferring several times, without getting lost, all the way to him?
He Renyuan’s eyes ached. He now felt that Bai Qingyu was the smartest person in the world.
Bai Qingyu took his son home. The happiest were, of course, the grandfather and grandson.
As soon as he saw Bai Xiaocha, Old Man Deng pulled out his old bicycle and put Cha Bao on the back seat.
Old Man Deng swung his leg over the bike, and Bai Xiaocha cleverly clung to the back seat, so he wouldn’t be swept off.
The grandfather and grandson cooperated well, went to the market and bought two kilograms of pork belly, and came back to make braised pork for Cha Bao.
The excitement of the first day’s reunion passed, and life returned to normal. Old Man Deng and Bai Qingyu started watching period dramas and folding cardboard boxes to earn money.
Tea packaging was becoming more and more upscale. Even tea that sold for a hundred yuan was competing in the gift box market, not to mention the booming online sales, the daily demand for cardboard boxes was countless.
Bai Qingyu folded and commented, “This year’s Da Hong Pao box is better looking than last year’s.”
Bai Xiaocha didn’t know what last year’s looked like and echoed his dad, “This year’s tea clothes are beautiful.”
He sat on a small stool, also taking on a small task – after his dad finished folding a gift bag, he would stick a shiny anti-counterfeit label on the back.
As he was sticking them, he also stuck one on his arm and his fair cheek, just like the kindergarten teacher who often put a little red flower sticker on the foreheads of well-behaved children.
“What’s the use of this anti-counterfeit label?” Old Man Deng complained, wasn’t it just a sticker, not a tea deity’s edict.
Bai Xiaocha, “It’s useless!”
Old Man Deng looked at the anti-counterfeit label on his face and said with double standards, “The one on our Cha Bao’s face is a real label, it’s useful.”
Bai Xiaocha’s eyes crinkled, “Baby’s is a real label!”
Old Man Deng, “Our Cha Bao has become smarter after going to kindergarten in the city, he can even help Dad with work.”
He didn’t seem inexperienced.
Bai Qingyu carefully pressed down a cardboard box and gently placed it on the corner of the table for Bai Xiaocha.
The smart baby Bai Xiaocha also stuck one on his dad’s face, “Dad needs one too.”
Bai Qingyu, “Thank you, Baby.”
The sky had been overcast for two days and finally cleared up in the afternoon. Old Man Deng immediately turned off the TV, picked up the cardboard boxes, and said, “The sun is out, let’s work outside.”
The three of them moved their work to the courtyard.
When He Renyuan, after several transfers, finally found the earthen building according to the address on Bai Qingyu’s ID card, he saw the three generations working together on an assembly line, folding cardboard boxes.
The gift bags had “Da Hong Pao” written on them, the scene had a self-defeating humor.
Could he just pack Bai Qingyu into a tea box and take him away?
“Uncle Boss!” Bai Xiaocha was the first to spot his dusty uncle, “Uncle, are you here to make money too?”
Old Man Deng looked over, startled, “Qingyu, Qingyu, who is this?!”
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President He: With the anti-counterfeit label, he’s my real wife.
