39: Chapter 39 Returning Home in Glory, The Mystery of the Shen Surname

Before leaving Shanghai, Shen Du changed out of his custom Tom Ford suit in his luxury apartment.

He chose a dark cashmere sweater and layered a minimalist black trench coat over it.

Returning home required dignity, but not ostentatious display.

By the time the roar of the Mercedes-Benz G55's V8 engine tore through the mountain mist, it was already seven or eight in the evening.

In this remote little village deep in the mountains of Zhejiang, it was the time when villagers were resting after dinner.

The once-quiet valley was shattered by a deep, rumbling engine roar.

Throughout the village lanes, many villagers who were busy with farm work or preparing to wash up put down what they were doing and poked their heads out.

In the eyes of these villagers, this massive, pitch-black beast seemed completely out of place.

"Wh-whose relative is back? This commotion is way too loud."

"What kind of car is that? It looks like a black square box."

"Look at how shiny it is; it must be worth a lot of money, right? When has our village ever produced someone like this?"

Villagers stood at their gates with coats draped over their shoulders, their whispers and pointing spreading through the night breeze.

Under the gaze of many eyes, the off-road tires of the black G-Wagon crunched over the muddy dirt road.

The headlights illuminated the village street as bright as day.

The collision between the multi-million dollar machine and the backward mountain village created a stark sense of class disparity.

Shen Du steered with one hand, his expression calm as he passed the familiar low-lying mud houses along the road.

The vibration of this "black beast" on the uneven road was a declaration.

The boy who once had to rely on scholarships and his mother selling farm produce to scrape together tuition was now an existence beyond the imagination of this mountain region.

The roar of the steel beast came to an abrupt halt.

The white light of the headlights hit a dilapidated bungalow at the end of the village.

The plaster had peeled away due to erosion from wind and rain, revealing the bricks underneath.

Compared to the newly built western-style houses at the entrance of the village, this house looked wretched.

This place had once been the starting point of Shen Du's childhood.

It was also the root of what he had fought desperately to escape in his past life, yet ached for in the dead of night.

Shen Du sat in the driver's seat and did not get out immediately.

He gazed at the familiar bungalow through the windshield. Memories flooded his mind.

Ever since his father died in an accident, this home had become an "ominous place" in the eyes of the clan.

His mother, Wang Hanmei, had no family to rely on.

In this mountain village with strong clan values, she became a widowed mother with a child, marginalized by everyone.

Shen Du still remembered.

When he was little, every New Year's Eve, his grandparents would bring cheap pastries and sit for less than ten minutes.

They never came inside to sit. They would just stand at the door, eyeing Shen Du with detached gazes.

As if looking at a stranger, and then they would hurry away.

This "visiting," which didn't even count as charity, vanished completely during the Spring Festival after Shen Du got into high school.

In his past life, Shen Du had been exhausted, struggling to survive in Shanghai.

He had always assumed it was just the coldness of familial affection.

But now, looking back from this height, Shen Du sensed the undercurrents beneath the calm surface.

"To be this indifferent, to not even have the instinct of blood ties..."

Shen Du extended his fingers and tapped lightly on the steering wheel.

His grandparents' attitude toward him didn't seem like dislike.

It was more like they were dealing with a nuisance.

Sitting in the cabin after killing the engine.

In the darkness, only the fluorescent glow of the dashboard illuminated Shen Du's cold, stern face.

His thoughts peeled away a gap in logic from those fragments of old memories.

"Grandfather's surname is Wang, and I... am surnamed Shen."

Shen Du's slender fingertips tapped against the center console, producing muffled thuds.

To the Shen Du of his past life, this might have been merely a coincidence, or the "past" his mother spoke of vaguely.

But to the Shen Du of this life, this was a massive logical loophole.

In a remote mountain village with strong clan values.

If a grandson does not share his grandfather's surname, there are only two possibilities:

Either it was a matrilocal marriage.

Or... there was a secret hidden behind the name "Shen" that could not see the light of day.

Even more bizarrely, his mother was also named Wang Hanmei.

"A coincidental overlap, or a shell woven to cover up the truth?"

Shen Du's eyes deepened in the darkness.

His grandparents were surnamed Wang, yet they showed such heartless detachment toward him, an "out-surnamed grandson."

This didn't seem like the disgust caused by his father's early death; it was more like drawing a line.

As if he, Shen Du, did not belong here at all.

"Shen..."

Shen Du chewed on the surname.

He could feel that beneath this humble family background, there seemed to be an undercurrent that did not belong to these mountains.

He calmly planted this seed of doubt.

He wanted to know what kind of secret this "Shen" name, covered up for twenty years, actually involved.

The lingering "rumble" of the engine still echoed on the dirt ground outside the courtyard.

Inside the house, on an old wooden bed covered with a faded coarse cloth sheet.

Wang Hanmei woke with a start and sat up.

Years of heavy farm work made her sleep very light. Moreover, the noise that had crushed over the dirt road tonight was truly frighteningly loud.

She grabbed a worn-out, thick cotton-padded jacket and draped it over her shoulders, her fingers trembling slightly in the darkness.

"In the middle of the night, whose car is parked at the door?"

Wang Hanmei muttered to herself.

She knew very well that in her little bungalow, it was impossible for any relatives who could afford a car to visit.

Even the richest of Shen Du's grandparents' side of the family usually couldn't bear to drive a motorcycle over here.

Let alone a car that made such a massive commotion outside.

She felt her way out of bed and walked lightly to the window.

Through the gap in the glass, which was frosted with a thin layer of ice, she peered outside with full vigilance.

Under the pitch-black night, the interior reading light of that black beast was on.

By the faint light and moonlight.

Wang Hanmei clearly saw the figure who pushed open the car door and stepped out from the driver's seat.

The figure was tall and straight, wearing an expensive black trench coat. Every gesture exuded an aura.

Even though his temperament had undergone an earth-shaking change.

But even just from the profile of his face, Wang Hanmei recognized at a glance that it was her son, whom she thought of day and night!

"Du'er?!"

Wang Hanmei covered her mouth, nearly crying out in surprise.

She subconsciously wanted to rush out to open the door, but just after taking half a step, her legs felt like they were filled with lead, nailed to the spot.

Following that.

A sense of unease spread, gripping the farmer woman's heart.

In Wang Hanmei's understanding, the logic of things simply wasn't like this.

A poor student relying on poverty subsidies and her selling farm produce to get by.

How could he have suddenly returned driving a luxury car after only being gone for half a year?

The massive class chasm prevented this mother from feeling any joy at the moment about her "son's success."

On the contrary.

When she looked at that expensive trench coat and the black beast.

A forbidden name, which she had kept tightly buried in the bottom of her heart for twenty years, flashed into her mind:

Shanghai, the Shen Family.

Du'er went to Shanghai to study... could he have come into contact with those people?

Did the people from over there find him?

This awe of the behemoth hidden deep within Shanghai, and the panic of fearing her son would be dragged into the abyss.

Made Wang Hanmei's eyes turn red, and her breathing became rapid.

She stared fixedly at the back of the figure locking the car outside the window.

Accompanied by the "click" of the central locking system.

That car, which was so out of place in the dilapidated mountain village, fell silent in the night.

Shen Du didn't open the trunk, nor did he bring out any flamboyant gifts.

In his view.

Facing the mother who had raised him through all kinds of hardships, a display tainted with the stench of money seemed cheap and meaningless.

He used his slender fingers to smooth the hem of his black trench coat.

He reined in the sharp edge he had developed in that big metropolis.

With a sense of composure, he walked slowly to the dilapidated wooden door.

Standing outside this old wooden door that had blocked out countless snowy nights in his past life.

A ripple appeared in Shen Du's deep eyes.

"Mom, are you asleep?"

The low inquiry passed through the thin door panel into the pitch-black room.

The simple five words stopped the churning guesses and panic in Wang Hanmei's mind.

The stability and confidence in that voice were something she had never heard in the always taciturn son she had known for the past twenty years.

"Mom isn't asleep... I'm coming out right away!"

From inside the room came Wang Hanmei's rapid response with a nasal tone, followed by the sound of her putting on shoes and getting out of bed.

Standing outside the door, Shen Du lowered his eyelids, and a relieved smile curved the corners of his mouth.

On this bone-chilling winter night.

The regrets that had been crushed by the torrent of time in his past life were completely smoothed over at this moment.