147: Chapter 147 I've hit the jackpot!

Su Ye held a cigarette in his hand and asked his father, Su Hong, on the other end of the line curiously: "And then? Dad, did Fourth Uncle never come back? Did you end up paying back the two thousand yuan he borrowed?"

Su Hong was silent for a while on the other end of the line before saying: "What else could I do? Regardless, he is my brother and your Fourth Uncle. Whether he ran away or met with some misfortune, I still had to pay it back."

Su Ye had a strong impression of this Fourth Uncle because, every year, his father would take him to clean up Fourth Uncle's cenotaph, offer incense, and mutter a few words.

At this moment, Su Ye wanted to ask the system whether his Fourth Uncle was real or fake, but obviously, the system was currently in sleep mode and couldn't be asked. Even if it weren't sleeping, Su Ye didn't think the system would answer this question.

That's right. Just a moment ago, Su Ye had learned about the contact he obtained from his Intermediate Connection Card. He had undoubtedly struck gold by pulling an SSR, the kind with gold-plated borders.

[Name: Su Yi] [Gender: Male] [Age: 50] [Position: Vice Minister of a Central Ministry] [Home Address: Guanghua Residential Complex, Beijing] [Connection Level (R4 → R3)]

The R3 kept flashing. Su Ye didn't know why—perhaps it meant it hadn't been fully confirmed yet. But regardless, at the very least, he now had a backer who was a high-ranking official at the vice-ministerial level, and one in the central government at that. He didn't need to worry about the Qin Family and the Liu Family behind them at all. He just had to wait for his Fourth Uncle to reach out to him.

—— In a private ward at the Beijing First Hospital, Su Wan was using a fruit knife to peel a bright red apple, while Su Yi leaned against the bed wearing a hospital gown.

After hearing Su Yi finish recounting what he had remembered, Su Wan cut the peeled apple and placed it on a plate nearby. Then, she picked up a slice and handed it to Su Yi, her eyes and brows filled with happiness for him.

"So, you're from Sichuan Province? You still have parents, a younger brother, and three older sisters back home?"

"And you have a cute little nephew?"

When mentioning the little nephew, Su Wan's voice rose by two octaves, clearly showing her delight. After all, there was an old saying in Daxia: "With a nephew standing at the door, one is not considered without a lineage."

The thing Su Wan felt most guilty about in her life was being unable to bear Su Yi any children. To put it bluntly, even after Su Yi passed away, there would be no family member to smash the fire basin for him. But she hadn't expected that Su Yi now had a little nephew, so that was no longer an issue.

Su Yi smiled bitterly as he took the apple from Su Wan's hand and popped it into his mouth to chew. The crisp, sweet apple juice, however, left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"To be honest, honey, even though I know about my family now, I don't dare to acknowledge them. The five thousand yuan my younger brother gave me back then was his and his wife's entire life savings. And yet—and yet I just took it and never returned. On top of that, I owed two thousand yuan in external debts. You have to understand, when I left, the family couldn't even scrape together five hundred yuan. I absolutely dare not imagine what the situation at home became afterward."

"I truly wish I had actually died back then."

Hearing Su Yi's words, Su Wan truly didn't know what to say. Her brother-in-law had given everything he had to her husband; he had truly done all he could. Haven't we seen so many biological brothers fighting and bickering over a little bit of property, even coming to blows or ending up in court?

"Sigh—" Finally, a sigh escaped Su Wan's lips as she looked at her husband with some worry. "So what should we do? It's not like you can just never acknowledge them—"

Before Su Wan could finish, Su Yi said straightforwardly: "Absolutely not."

Then, his voice lowered: "I do have to acknowledge them. It's just a matter of when, how, and in what capacity. I haven't figured that out yet."

Su Wan understood Su Yi's concern. After all, it had been so long, and they didn't know the current situation of his family. Moreover, if he were to acknowledge them with his current status, people might overthink it—whether he had suddenly repented or something else.

Like, why? You were nowhere to be found when we were down and out, nowhere to be found when we were drowning in debt, but now that you've become a high-ranking official, you come to see us? Are you really here to acknowledge family, or to tell us to keep our mouths shut?

Besides, if those local officials found out where her brother-in-law was, the threshold of their home would probably be trampled flat. That might not necessarily be a good thing.

Su Wan nodded seriously and agreed: "Indeed, this matter needs careful consideration."

At this point, Su Wan rolled her eyes at Su Yi and chided him: "Tell me, since when do we have secrets between us as a married couple? If Minister Jiang hadn't come to visit you just now, I wouldn't have even known you were planning to transfer as the Party Secretary of Sichuan Province."

Seeing his wife like this, Su Yi could only smile sheepishly and say: "I, I hadn't confirmed it yet. I was thinking of telling you after it was confirmed."

Su Wan pinched Su Yi's arm hard, making him wince in pain.

"You and your 'telling me after it's confirmed.' It's been over twenty years; do you think I don't know what you're thinking? In your eyes, am I really such an unreasonable woman?"

Having said this, Su Wan sighed deeply: "I know this is a critical step in your political career—it's no exaggeration to say it's a world of difference. And I have the awareness; I know that the big picture comes first. So, you could have just been straight with me."

Su Yi looked at the look of disappointment in Su Wan's eyes and felt his heart ache. He sat up and embraced his wife: "To be honest, I can't bear to leave you. We haven't been separated for over ten years. Once I go down there, I don't know how long it will be before I can come back up. Plus, we are both busy; we might not even see each other twice a year."

Su Wan rested her head on her husband's shoulder and said slowly: "We're an old married couple, and we're both Party members; we can withstand this test. Even the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl only meet once a year; we're certainly better off than them. Besides, I can keep an eye on any developments here in Beijing for you, so you won't be in the dark about critical matters. You know, I work in the propaganda department; my information network is quite well-informed."

At this point, Su Wan thought for a moment and added: "Besides, you can take this opportunity to go down there and take a good look, and make amends to my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. This is a chance. If you were still in Beijing, it would be much more troublesome."

After being told this by his wife, Su Yi felt it was true. If he had been wavering before, after recovering his memories, he deeply longed to return to that small courtyard by the mountainside. He wanted to see if his family was safe and sound, to see his siblings—especially his younger brother, to whom he owed the most—and to know how his nephew was doing. If he remembered correctly, Su Ye should be 25 years old by now and would have been out in the world for several years.