CFRFGC Chapter 125

⌈A family of five, each holding an ice cream in their hands.⌋

Shen Xingzhuo wandered the streets alone.

Since that day when Shen Xingran left, Shen Xingzhuo also left the Shen family’s villa.

He didn’t return to his apartment.

He also didn’t care about the chaos that was now the state of his studio.

Life seemed to have suddenly become extremely chaotic, pressing down on him all at once, leaving him completely confused.

Shen Xingzhuo didn’t like this feeling.

When faced with such chaos, his instinct was to escape to somewhere empty, to relax by himself for a bit.

Once all the confusion gradually settled down, he would return, as if nothing had ever happened.

But this time, Shen Xingzhuo had run far away, yet his mind was still in turmoil.

He didn’t need to close his eyes to hear the words Shen Xingran had said echoing in his mind.

“You’re the worst in the entire Shen family.”

“You can’t outdo Shen Xingyu in anything else, so you’re just trying to beat him at being a good older brother!”

Every time those words echoed in his mind, Shen Xingzhuo’s steps would falter.

He kept struggling, thinking deeply.

Trying to find something to prove that he wasn’t really that bad.

Something to prove that he was indeed trying to be a good older brother.

But Shen Xingran’s words were too sharp. Shen Xingzhuo searched hard for evidence.

Yet, he found that reality kept confirming those words.

Whenever Shen Xingran asked him for help, he would always mention Shen Xingyu.

At the mere mention of Shen Xingyu’s name, his mind would heat up and no matter what Shen Xingran asked, he would agree to it without thinking.

He couldn’t stand seeing Lu Ran working outside, bowing his head to others.

Was it because he truly pitied Lu Ran’s situation, or because he simply didn’t want to see his younger brother, Shen Xingzhuo’s brother, groveling before others?

If it was out of pity for Lu Ran, then why hadn’t he actually changed Lu Ran’s circumstances?

He could have sent Lu Ran to college.

He could have arranged a place for Lu Ran to live.

He had the means to make Lu Ran live like an ordinary college student.

So why hadn’t he done any of that?

Every time, he would only get angry for a moment when seeing Lu Ran working, yet he never changed anything.

He did nothing.

But deep inside, he resented Lu Ran for not wanting to call him brother.

Shen Xingzhuo stopped in front of a fast-food restaurant.

He stared at the figure behind the counter through the glass door for a long while.

Eventually, he slowly opened the door and walked inside.

“Welcome,” the staff greeted, raising their head.

But it wasn’t the young man Shen Xingzhuo remembered.

Shen Xingzhuo bought a strawberry-flavored ice cream cone.

He hadn’t eaten much in the past couple of days. He finished the cone quickly.

The sweet and sour strawberry flavor seemed like a taste buried deep in his memories.

Shen Xingzhuo continued to wander aimlessly through the streets.

Gradually, he came to a patch of grass surrounded by a fence.

A familiar yellow shape caught his eye.

An elderly little dog was quietly sniffing the grass.

Shen Xingzhuo’s eyes lit up.

The gloom of the past few days seemed to lift. In that instant, it felt like hope had returned to his life.

He crouched down and clapped his hands, calling, “Da Huang!”

The little dog, hearing the sound, looked at him through the fence.

It seemed to recognize him as someone familiar.

The little dog wagged its tail and slowly trotted toward him.

The fur around its mouth had already turned white.

But its body was still in good health.

However, it was running slowly.

Because one of the dog’s hind legs was limp.

It dragged the injured leg behind it, limping slowly toward Shen Xingzhuo, who was squatting outside the fence.

The excitement and hope on Shen Xingzhuo’s face slowly froze and faded as he watched the dog’s uneven steps and limping leg.

On the other side of the lawn, an elderly butler noticed the dog’s movements and called, “Da Huang, come back.”

The little dog stopped, glanced at Shen Xingzhuo from a distance, and finally turned around slowly.

Still limping on one leg, it slowly ran back.

Shen Xingzhuo’s outstretched hand hung in the air.

Perhaps it was because he had been squatting for too long, or maybe because he hadn’t eaten properly in days, Shen Xingzhuo felt a slight dizziness.

He didn’t remember how he stood up or how he ended up in the middle of the street.

What woke him up was the screeching sound of brakes.

And the driver’s startled shout, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Shen Xingzhuo sat on the ground, sweat dripping from his forehead.

He raised his head and looked at the front wheel of the car not far away. An out-of-place thought suddenly crossed his mind: So this is what it feels like to be in a car accident.

The court had sent people to seize Shen Hongyuan’s assets.

Even the villa they were living in was not spared. They were ordered to vacate.

Madam Shen didn’t expect that one day she would be kicked out of this villa.

If it had been in the past, Madam Shen would not have accepted this. She would have argued fiercely with the public officers and caused a scene.

But this time, Madam Shen seemed to have lost all her spirit.

When the court officials came, she was the only one left in the villa.

The servants had already left.

Shen Xingzhuo and Shen Xingyu had not returned yet.

Upon hearing the notice, Madam Shen simply nodded and then turned to her room to pack her things.

Madam Shen habitually started by packing her jewelry.

But when she entered, she realized that these items would all be auctioned off to pay off Shen Hongyuan’s debts.

Madam Shen suddenly didn’t know what else to pack.

She casually rummaged through her things and found some old items under the cabinet.

She opened a box and found a photo frame lying face down on top.

Shen Fu picked up the frame and discovered that it contained a photograph.

To be precise, it was a family photo.

The background seemed to be a theme park, with a giant Ferris wheel in the distance.

She was very young back then, with a good figure and full of vitality.

Shen Hongyuan also looked different, holding her waist and smiling brightly at the camera.

They stood in the back.

In front of them were three boys of different ages.

The oldest one was around twelve or thirteen, wearing a shirt and slacks, looking as if he was taking an ID photo, with a stern expression on his face.

The younger boy was probably about six or seven, a mischievous age, wearing a baseball cap backward, his pants covered in sand.

The youngest was still a three- or four-year-old chubby child, soft and fair.

He looked the happiest, holding Madam Shen’s sleeve with one hand while extending his other hand, pointing at the camera lens in front of them.

He had a big, bright smile.

It seemed to be summer from the way they were dressed.

The five of them, each holding an ice cream cone.

She and Shen Hongyuan held white vanilla-flavored ones.

The oldest, Shen Xingyu, was holding a lemon-yellow ice cream cone.

Shen Xingzhuo didn’t look at the camera; he was focused on licking his pink strawberry ice cream cone.

The child in front, his ice cream was out of the frame, so it was unclear what flavor it was.

What surprised Madam Shen even more was that in this photograph, everyone’s expressions were very relaxed.

At least at the moment the photo was taken, everyone in the picture seemed genuinely happy.

Madam Shen held the photo frame and sat by the bed.

She tried hard to recall and vaguely remembered that this was probably from a summer vacation in some year.

During that time, they had brought their youngest son, who had been living with the old master, to stay with them.

The family had finally reunited.

They went to an amusement park and had a good time with the kids.

At that time, Shen Hongyuan’s father’s health had already started to decline.

So Shen Hongyuan was very busy.

That was their rare moment of relaxation.

The two younger children had played wildly.

They crawled all over the sandbox. On the trampoline, they nearly made themselves sick from bouncing.

Even Shen Xingyu, who was like a little adult, couldn’t resist shooting balloons with a gun for a long time.

Madam Shen still remembered that she and Shen Hongyuan had gotten tired and sat down to rest.

Shen Hongyuan had put his arm around her shoulders and said, “Seeing the kids having so much fun, maybe we should buy some land and build an amusement park, so they can play however they want.”

This was one of the few memories of “happiness” in this family.

But soon, they no longer had such opportunities.

Shen Hongyuan’s father’s health rapidly deteriorated, with drastic fluctuations in his blood sugar, leading to several fainting episodes.

During that time, Shen Hongyuan also became increasingly tense.

Later, when his father’s condition worsened, they sent the youngest son back to his own home.

But after only a day, the child was taken away again.

Some time later, Shen Hongyuan suddenly became idle.

However, his emotions grew more volatile. Madam Shen often argued with him.

When Shen Hongyuan was younger, if he lost his temper for no reason, he would feel guilty for some time.

So, to make up for it and also to unwind, he suggested they go to the villa in the mountains for a vacation.

But on the way there, they had another argument.

It was during that argument that the youngest son went missing.

Madam Shen still remembered that period of gloomy, dark times.

It was a rainy summer.

The sky was heavy and oppressive, making it hard to breathe.

The journey to the villa was long, so to make the trip more comfortable and to have some fun along the way, they prepared a few RVs and formed a caravan.

But at the time, Madam Shen was very dissatisfied.

Clearly, it was Shen Hongyuan who had to coax her into being happy and suggested going on a vacation.

But once they were out, Shen Hongyuan spent most of his time hiding in his own car, not sure what he was doing.

Occasionally, he came out, but even when talking to her, he seemed absent-minded.

Madam Shen became very angry. The road was suffocating and she lashed out at Shen Hongyuan right there.

Shen Hongyuan also exploded in a fit of rage.

Madam Shen was so upset that she locked herself in the RV and cried.

The youngest son came to her, but Madam Shen pushed him away.

However, Madam Shen didn’t worry.

There were three RVs in the caravan and Shen Hongyuan had also prepared a separate SUV.

The eldest son, with heavy academic work, occupied one of the RVs.

The second and youngest sons, who were arguing, were placed together in one RV, with an aunt taking care of them.

There was also a driver.

But the funny thing was that when they arrived at the villa in the mountains, everyone came out of their own vehicles.

That’s when they realized the youngest son was missing.

Madam Shen was so shocked that her limbs went numb. She immediately arranged for people to search.

But the road into the mountain was difficult and soon it started raining heavily.

A small-scale flash flood broke out at the foot of the mountain.

They were trapped on the mountain.

Madam Shen thought that was the darkest moment of her life.

But it wasn’t until they came down the mountain and returned to the Shen family that things took a strange turn.

The news of the youngest son’s disappearance couldn’t be hidden and her friends began to inquire about it.

But something bizarre happened.

Even though many people had gone on the vacation, each person who learned the situation looked at her with a regretful, reproachful gaze and asked: “How could you, a grown adult, lose the child?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be more careful as a mother? Otherwise, you expect the father to take care of the kids?”

“You hired a nanny? What good is she, she’s not the one who gave birth to him.”

“How could you leave such a young child alone?”

The reproach came like a tidal wave.

It was as if, with her being the mother, everyone else could disappear into thin air.

She became the scapegoat.

After this incident, every action of Madam Shen seemed to be wrong.

Everyone, from all directions, tried to prove that she was an incompetent mother.

This title suddenly pressed down on her.

Madam Shen became lost and at a loss.

Since marrying, her only identity had been “Madam Shen”.

The virtuous wife and mother of the Shen family.

When she went out, the only things she talked about with others were her clothes, shoes, and her husband and children.

Suddenly, even this one identity shattered.

Until one day, Shen Hongyuan brought a boy home.

This boy was a few months younger than her youngest son.

He grew up in an orphanage, frail, uneducated, and had never been loved properly.

Madam Shen looked at the boy.

She didn’t see any trace of her youngest son in him.

But she saw a blank paper, ready to be filled in as a “mother”.

She wanted to pour all her love, all her meticulous care, and all her unconditional protection into that blank sheet.

No one could interfere with her “answering” process, not Shen Hongyuan, nor the other two sons.

When Madam Shen first took her adopted son to the social stage, upon hearing the first compliment from those around her, Shen Fu smiled in satisfaction.

Through this brand new “Shen Xingran”, Madam Shen had finally reclaimed her identity as the “virtuous wife and mother”.

The door creaked open.

Madam Shen was suddenly pulled from her thoughts.

She turned to see Shen Xingyu had come back.

“You, you went to find… Lu Ran, what did he say?” Madam Shen hurriedly asked.

Shen Xingyu didn’t answer, only saying, “The house under my name was also sealed. A friend provided me with a place to stay. We can temporarily move there.”

As he spoke, he stepped forward and saw the photo frame in Madam Shen’s hands.

Shen Xingyu paused for a moment, took the frame, glanced at it, and then gently set it down.

He told Madam Shen, “These things aren’t important, just take them all.”

As the two were packing things up.

Shen Xingyu received a call from the hospital.

They informed him that Shen Xingzhuo had been in a car accident.

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