/
Chapter 52: 相认
(Recognize Each Other)
“Is that really what he said yesterday?” Shen Yu Bei’s voice was unsteady as he looked directly at Zhao Zheng An.
“Yeah, Ziqi, he doesn’t have a bad response to it.” Zhao Zheng’an answered him.
Shen Yu Bei’s heart was excited, if it was really as Zhao Zheng An said, then it was not far from the day they would recognize each other. He was looking forward to it, just … how to recognize? This was also another problem.
I can’t just say to him, I’m your uncle, right?
It’s too abrupt!
Thinking about it, Shen Yu Bei once again turned his attention to Zhao Zheng An.
“Oh,” Zhao Zheng’an laughed dryly, the eager gaze could not be avoided even if he wanted to. These days, those with high seniority crushed to death those with low seniority.
Zhong Ziqi has noticed something wrong with Zhao Zheng’an, in the past few days, if he had to say what was wrong….It seemed like he was hiding something from him, every time when he wasn’t paying attention, he would look at him and stare at him, look like he wanted to say something but then hesitate. Zhong Ziqi had never seen him like this before, so he intuited that something was definitely wrong!
When he returned home that day, Zhong Ziqi didn’t rush to cook, but poured two bowls of water and gestured for Zhao Zheng’an to sit down.
“What’s wrong?” Zhao Zheng’an sat down with uncertainty, picked up the water and drank it all in one go.
Da Hei and Xiao Hei wagged their tails and sat crouched at his feet, whimpering twice.
“Don’t you have something to say to me?” Zhong Ziqi glanced at him.
“Er …… how do you know?”
“You’re preoccupied (with a heavy heart) every day. I’m not late to see it of course.” After all, he was the person who shared the same bed with him. He knew him best, maybe others couldn’t see it but he could tell that he must have something to hide from him.
“Well…this…indeed, there is something I don’t know how to tell you.” Zhao Zheng’an smiled bitterly, Shen Yu Bei was not good at how to say it but he also did not know how to say it either.
“What is it? You just say it straight. Is it a big thing?”
Zhao Zheng’an nodded, not small.
[Zhong Ziqi asked him if the matter they would be discussing is a big problem or an important problem, Zhao Zheng’an said in his heart that it was indeed not a small matter. ]
“Come on, don’t be overly sensitive! It’s getting late and I still have to cook us dinner.” He was curious as to what exactly had put Zhao Zheng’an in such a difficult position. Was there something wrong with Wang Cuihua’s family again?
“Then I’ll say it ……” Zhao Zheng’an hesitated for a moment: “The matter I’m talking about has to do with Shen Yu Bei.”
“Him? What’s wrong?” Zhong Ziqi was puzzled, he hadn’t seen the pair of master and servant in the shop in the past few days, he thought they had left.
“Well …… remember the assumption I mentioned to you last time?”
“Assumption?” Zhong Ziqi was stunned: “You mean the hypothesis about my Amu?”
“Yes, in fact, that’s not a hypothesis, it’s true (real). Shen Yu Bei is Your Amu’s little brother. In terms of seniority, you have to call him Uncle.”
After saying that, Zhao Zheng’an added:”Your biological uncle.”
Zhong Ziqi was really dumbfounded this time.He didn’t expect the casual guess to be true. If the original body was still around, he believed that the original body would be very happy to have another relative appear after the ‘people rebelling and friends deserting’, but he wasn’t the original body, he was an ‘impostor’, so what roared through his heart at this moment was just :” How could it be so deceiving? ! Even the ‘8 o’clock show’ is not this melodramatic (dog blood)! Where is the promised ‘peaceful and ordinary life’?”
[众叛亲离 ( 眾叛親離 ): zhòng pàn qīn lí
lit. people rebelling and friends deserting (idiom) / fig. to find oneself utterly isolated/alone]
[Eight o’clock show or drama which is a Taiwanese TV term. It generally refers to the serial drama program that the TV station broadcasts at 8 o’clock in the evening on weekdays (Monday to Friday)]
No wonder he had always felt a sense of familiarity and intimacy with Shen Yu Bei, it turned out that he was his Amu’s little brother. No wonder he didn’t recognise him since he wasn’t the real one, how could he remember?
“He came here this time to acknowledge you. I heard that their family has been looking for Amu for more than ten years, but Amu concealed his identity so they didn’t find him.” Zhao Zheng’an watched his emotions carefully as he spoke.
[隱姓埋名 yǐn xìng mái míng
to conceal one’s identity / living incognito]
“Why did Amu have to conceal his identity and come to this rural backwater place?”
“I heard that it seems to run away from the marriage, your … grandfather, set a marriage for Amu,your Amu did not agree and ran away.”
“Oh … you know quite a lot.” Zhong Ziqi supported his chin and looked at him with a smile yet not a smile.
Zhao Zheng’an scratched his head awkwardly, “Remember that day when I said I’d invite them to dinner? I actually went to talk to him to ask him what he wanted, but I didn’t expect him to tell me straight away. Before he left, he asked me to probe you.In the end, you even suspected me of being ‘money-minded’!”
At the end of the sentence, Zhao Zheng’an was particularly aggrieved. He had to manoeuvre between two people and accept his wife’s suspicion.
“Fine, fine, I’m wrong to blame you, can’t I?” Zhong Ziqi was speechless, who let him not make his words clear.
Zhao Zheng’an with ‘give him an inch, and he’ll want a mile’ moved forward to
hold his wife’s small white tender hand and rub it around: “Have you thought about it?”
[得寸进尺 ( 得寸進尺 )dé cùn jìn chǐ :
lit. win an inch, want a foot (idiom); fig. not satisfied with small gains / give him an inch, and he’ll want a mile]
Zhong Ziqi absentmindedly let him take advantage of him: “Does he really want me to recognize him?”
“Well, I think he’s serious. He’s quite emotional.”
“Then ….just acknowledge it. ” Zhong Ziqi saw no harm in it, so let’s admit it.It was just as well, he had something he wanted to get help through this uncle. Anyway, he didn’t lose out either way.
“Then I’ll talk to him tomorrow to make an appointment.”
“Okay, that’s it! I’m going to cook.” Zhong Ziqi was not nervous about meeting tomorrow, Shen Yu Bei only appeared halfway so he didn’t know his character and how he was dealing with others and problems .So he was not worried that Shen Yu Bei would see through him because the person who knows him best in this world was no longer there.
But Zhao Zheng’an didn’t know what he had in mind. He thought Zhong Ziqi must need to think it over, so after dinner that day, he didn’t bother him, honestly took a shower and went to bed.
The next day, Zhao Zheng’an went to the restaurant to talk to Shen Yu Bei about this matter. Finally the two of them set a meeting at the Jin Hua Restaurant in the late afternoon.
The waiting time was originally apprehensive, but Zhong Ziqi didn’t have time to think about it because he was busy. By the time he got back to his senses, it was time for the meeting.
Zhong Ziqi asked Zhao Ning to come over and help him take over: “I’m going out with Zheng’an, you help me watch for a while.”
“Okay, go ahead and come back early.” Zhao Ning nodded cheerfully.
Zhong Ziqi and Zhao Zheng’an arrived at the single room they had booked at JIn Hua, knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Zhao Zheng’an pushed the door open and let Zhong Ziqi go in first, then he walked behind him to close the door.
“Sit!” Shen Yu Bei nudged his hand down the chair.
Zhong Ziqi sat opposite him. Zhao Zheng’an followed him and then sat beside him.
“Hong Ying, you tell the shop attendant that the food is ready to be served.” Shen Yu Bei instructed Hong Ying.
“Yes.” Hong Ying walked out.
After the door closed, there was silence, neither of them speaking, only looking at each other.
“You and your Amu resemble each other.” Shen Yu Bei was the first to speak, the more he looked closer the more alike he became.
“They all say that.”
Zhong Ziqi smiled, remembering that many people would say that he and his Amu resembled each other, but actually he did not exactly inherit his Amu’s looks, combined with Zhong Zhen Hang’s looks, he did not grow into a stunning beauty. He got the type of face that the more you look at him, the better he looks.
“Your Amu must not have mentioned anything about me before, right?” Shen Yu Bei asked, since he hid his real name then he guessed he wouldn’t mentioned anything about him to Zhong Ziqi
Zhong Ziqi saw the sad thoughts flashing in Shen Yu Bei’s eyes, his heart was inexplicably uncomfortable too, this was perhaps because they share the same blood! He searched his memory for a while, but he couldn’t help it. After all, he wasn’t original and there were things that he had to think about to remember. Otherwise, unless the ‘memory was deeply left”, he couldn’t remember.
“Amu had mentioned it.”
“Really?” Shen Yu Bei’s eyes lit up imperceptibly: “What did he say?”
Zhong Ziqi looked suspiciously at this guy that he suspected of having a ‘brother complex’: “My Amu didn’t say much. He only said that he had a younger brother who was very well-behaved and cute. He liked to run around after him since he was young …The younger brother was especially smart…Later on, he got separated along with his parents when he fled so he didn’t know where he went.”
Shen Yubei was lost in thought for a moment, then picked himself up and said, “My brother must not have mentioned to you that our family is actually a ‘famous aristocratic family’ in Jiang Nan. Your Amu grew up pampered and spoiled since childhood,his ‘ten fingers do not touch the sun’ as the unmarried ger of a noble family. There were so many young masters from the aristocratic family who wanted to marry him to their house that they could line up on the streets. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see any of them.”
[十指不沾阳春水 : to have no need to fend for oneself (idiom)/to lead a pampered life]
Speaking of this Shen Yu Bei let out a laugh and asked Zhong Ziqi: “What kind of person do you think your Amu is?”
“En…very gentle, rarely loses his temper… Talks gently … treats people with kindness.” Zhong Ziqi felt that his Amu was the existence of a goddess in modern times or the kind of goddess that ‘must not be blasphemed’.
Shen Yu Bei nodded in agreement: “Yes! Everyone thinks so, but in fact he has his own little thoughts. For example, for those people who pursue him, he either complains about them being insufficient in scholarly knowledge, or he would be picky on people who are ‘casual and elegant bearing’, or say that they are ugly. It’s fine if he dislikes them being ugly,but he even dislikes it if they are handsome.”
“Is it wrong to be good-looking?” Zhong Ziqi and Zhao Zhengan both couldn’t help but be curious.
“Yes, too good looking, brother says he doesn’t feel ‘secure’, there will definitely be many gers chasing after him in the future. He can’t cope with all those ‘flowers’.”
Zhong Ziqi couldn’t help laughing, it was hard to imagine the dignified Amu would say such rebellious things.
“My father and my Amu were furious when they heard my brother’s words, but they still thought that he was too young and that he would naturally understand when he was old enough to marry. Who would have thought that whenever my brother decided on something, no matter how much people persuaded him, he would never change it. On the surface, he looked gentle and kind, but inside he was a ‘particularly stubborn’ person who would not turn back until he hit the south wall.”
[不撞南墙不回头: to stubbornly insist on one’s own ideas (idiom)
The history of this came from the orientation of houses in traditional Chinese culture, mostly from the north to the south. However, every person with status and power has a wall inside the gate. This wall is the “South Wall”, so you have to walk left or right when you go out. If you walk straight, you will definitely hit the South Wall]
Zhong Ziqi remembered that in the past both of his parents ‘in the name’, basically, Zhong Zhen Hang was the one who made the decisions on the big things, his Amu made the decisions on the small things, very much the ‘standard family’ (The standard of men earn money outside and women take care of household chores). Even when something happened, the two of them had to discuss it and listen to each other’s opinions before making a decision. As far as he could remember, they had never quarrelled, except occasionally when his father teased his Amu and he was embarrassed and snapped at him a few words.
Moreover, they were a couple that loved each other. He knew each other best. His father was also the intelligent one, so there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed his Amu’s peculiar and out of ordinary ways, so he thought his father might have known about his Amu too, but just hadn’t spread the word to the outside world.
Only when the original body asked him curiously what kind of person his grandfather was, did his Amu mention to him about his former family where the ‘characters hadn’t changed’ but the family background had changed.
He felt deeply that his Amu for not being a ‘screenwriter’ was such a waste of talent.
“In the end I didn’t even think he’d like your father, to be honest I was surprised . Without the ‘glory, splendor, wealth and rank’ [idiom for ‘high position and great wealth’], he has to ‘do everything himself’, I think he must like your father a lot, otherwise he wouldn’t have been willing to do so.”
Shen Yu Bei shook his head to make a final conclusion. Since it was his brother’s choice of person, even if he didn’t think it was a match, he wouldn’t have commented on it. Life was ‘like a person who drinks the water, he will know for himself whether it is warm or cold’.As long as he lived happily, he was fine with it.
[如人饮水，冷暖自知 ( 如人飲水，冷暖自知 )rú rén yǐn shuǐ , lěng nuǎn zì zhī :
the person who drinks it knows best whether the water is hot or cold (Zen proverb); self-awareness comes from within / to know best by personal experience]
Translator’s Note:
I am perfectionist in this chapter.
I know it since the previous chapters, Shen Yu Bei, you must be a ‘brocon’.
Who thought Zhong Ziqi would also think the same