Chapter 128: What Kind of Savage Are You Talking About?

Upon hearing Chu Feiyu’s words, Di Hanqing and Zhou Qinhua felt a sharp pang in their hearts. It seemed their son still harbored so much resentment toward them that he would go as far as telling others that his parents were dead.

"May I ask your name, classmate? Could you please go call A-Jie for us? We truly are his parents," Di Hanqing said, feeling somewhat dejected.

"My name is Chu Feiyu. A-Jie is likely still sleeping. Why don't you wait in the living room? I'll go wake him." Chu Feiyu mused, recalling some rumors he had heard about the Di family.

"Alright, thank you," Di Hanqing nodded, and he and Zhou Qinhua moved into the house.

"Chu Feiyu? Could he be from the Chu family?" Zhou Qinhua whispered to Di Hanqing once Chu Feiyu had entered the bedroom.

"Likely so. The Chu family and the Di family... sigh," Di Hanqing replied with a bitter smile.

A moment later, Di Renjie emerged, rubbing his sleep-heavy eyes, his pajamas worn askew. "A-Yu, I like KFC, but you didn't have to buy it first thing in the morning. That’s so embarrassing."

Di Renjie yawned, though he felt delighted inside; being able to eat his favorite KFC early in the morning was pure bliss. However, when he saw the scene in the living room, his expression collapsed instantly.

KFC? That was, of course, a lie Chu Feiyu had told. He knew that if he had told Di Renjie his parents were here, the young man would never have come out.

"A-Yu, you!" Di Renjie turned in anger, but Chu Feiyu simply slammed the door shut. Di Renjie stood there, stunned and at a loss.

"A-Jie..." Di Hanqing stood up from his chair, hesitated for a moment, and walked toward his son.

Di Renjie did not turn around. Hearing the footsteps behind him, he said coldly, "Don't come any closer!"

Di Hanqing froze in his tracks, stopping where he stood. "A-Jie, we..." He tried to speak, but Di Renjie cut him off sharply.

"Shut up! I don't want to hear anything!" Di Renjie shouted.

Di Hanqing looked at Zhou Qinhua, and they exchanged a bitter, helpless smile.

"A-Jie, we are your parents, after all. We..." Zhou Qinhua stood up and spoke softly.

"My parents died a long time ago!" Di Renjie sneered. The atmosphere turned awkward, leaving Di Hanqing and Zhou Qinhua at a loss for how to proceed.

"We will go for now and return another day," Di Hanqing said, pulling Zhou Qinhua toward the door. They left, casting one last look at Di Renjie’s back before closing the door behind them.

Chu Feiyu, who had been watching the situation through a crack in the door, walked out after the couple had departed. He patted Di Renjie on the shoulder. "A-Jie, they are your biological parents. There is no grudge that cannot be resolved."

"If they hadn't messed up, would I have been called a child without parents since I was little? I was despised by the family for twenty years. Do you have any idea how I survived that?" Di Renjie gritted his teeth, his face twisted in pain.

Years ago, Di Hanqing and Zhou Qinhua had taken a massive risk in an attempt to restore their family's standing. They believed that if they succeeded, they would be hailed as heroes for generations. But if they failed, the Di family would fall to the very bottom, never to recover.

They failed.

When you attempt something extraordinary, people will judge you by the outcome. If you succeed, they praise your pioneering spirit as unprecedented. If you fail, the mockery is relentless: "Look, I told you it was impossible; you were just too arrogant."

The consequence of their failure was that the couple was expelled from the Di family, leaving behind their son, Di Renjie, who was not yet three years old. As for why he wasn't cast out with them, that was tied to the complex, tangled politics of the Di family.

"It has been so many years, and they have suffered their own share of pain. The fact that they came to find you is, in itself, a form of courage," Chu Feiyu said, patting his shoulder again.

"Courage? If they had any sense of responsibility, they should have taken me with them! Do you know how I spent my childhood? Watching other children coddled by their parents while I didn't even have a single relative by my side!" Di Renjie said, tears streaming down his face.

Chu Feiyu sighed, unsure how to comfort him. This was something Di Renjie would have to come to terms with on his own.

...

"Hey, Tough Guy, there’s a lantern festival at the North City Forest World tonight. Yingying and I are going; why don't you come with us?" In class, Shen Xiaoqing poked Qin Tian in the back. Qin Tian leaned back, listening to her.

"A lantern festival? Sure, whatever," Qin Tian replied, tilting his head.

He had long grown tired of such exhibitions. Having grown up in a circus and traveled far and wide, there was little he hadn't seen. He wasn't bragging, but he had once watched a rocket launch to the moon from up close—talk about impressive!

After class, the three of them bypassed home and headed straight for Forest World. Qin Tian had initially considered driving, but after searching for information on previous lantern festivals, he abandoned the idea—parking would be impossible. It was better to rely on his own two feet; even in a traffic jam, he could navigate through the crowds with ease.

"I heard there are wild men in Forest World! I wonder if we’ll run into one!"

"A wild man? Aren't you afraid he might do *that* to you?"

"You're curvier than me; he'd do it to you first!"

As the trio arrived at the entrance, they found it packed with people. Qin Tian’s ears twitched as he caught the playful banter of two women nearby. Wild men? That was novel, though likely just a marketing stunt by Forest World to attract curious crowds.

"Tough Guy, I heard the wild man haunts this area. Should we go in and look? Maybe we’ll make a huge discovery, get a national reward, and reach the pinnacle of life!" Shen Xiaoqing pointed toward a patch of artificial forest.

"It’s just marketing. There’s no such thing as a wild man," Qin Tian shook his head.

"Huh?" Suddenly, Qin Tian noticed something unusual. He saw two tiny points of light glowing within the dense woods. They were a pair of small eyes—a pair of small eyes that Qin Tian was very familiar with.

"Wow! Is that the wild man?" Shen Xiaoqing had spotted them too.

Qin Tian’s breath hitched, and he fought the urge to smack Shen Xiaoqing on the head.

Wild man, my foot! That’s my damn monkey!