Mo Du (默读) - Silent Reading

Macbeth XV

“My mother was pregnant with me when she married Zhou Junmao. I’m her son with her previous husband. Of course, they told others that I was born ‘prematured’.” Zhou Huaijin laughed bitterly. “Outsiders all thought Zhou Junmao was a capable, dedicated, public-spirited, patriotic—a standard of virtue and prestige. Mr. Fei, I don’t suppose you also think that?”

Fei Du looked up in faint surprise.

“Oh, I’ve heard that old Mr. Fei never remarried after losing his wife.” Zhou Huaijin had evidently misunderstood the reason for his surprise. He spread his hands a little self-mockingly. “What, are these things is very hard for you to understand?”

Fei Du said quietly, “So you’re saying you’ve performed a paternity test?”

Zhou Huaijin shrugged. “What would be the point? I’ve known since I was little that I wasn’t his biological son. Zhou Junmao wouldn’t have gotten it wrong himself. If he hadn’t been so sure, he would have done a test. I had no illusions about him. Huaixin is his only true son, and he still didn’t care about him at all, never mind me.—You may laugh, but the fact that he never poisoned me is the result of a many-sided game of chess.”

Fei Du’s hands were still trembling uncontrollably. He had to apply some force to twist the cap off the ice-cold water bottle. At the same time, he glanced at Zhou Huaijin as though nothing was the matter.—Though Zhou Huaijin looked very young, from the date recorded on his ID, he was already thirty-eight.

It seemed that Zhou Huaijin wasn’t too clear on the fact that paternity testing technology hadn’t been widely available thirty-eight or thirty-nine years ago.

“Are you hinting that Zhou Junmao,” Fei Du said, considering his wording, “would have used some not very appropriate means?”

“If not, how else would've my biological father died? Did he really died because of a heart attack?” Zhou Huaijin said coldly. “His right-hand man Zheng Kaifeng was a local thug. Birds of a feather flock together. There’s nothing they wouldn’t have done.”

“How do you know?”

“My mother told me before her death. When she was young, she was unsatisfied with my biological father’s desire for control and some of his… not very easy to accept hobbies, but she didn’t want to divorce him. Meeting all kinds of seduction, she started an affair with Zhou Junmao. Then, egged on by those two pieces of scum Zhou and Zheng, she conspired with them to do this. But could an adulterous couple find eternal happiness?” Zhou Huaijin, temperate as jade, showed the barbs that had been hidden under his skin for decades. “It’s ridiculous. Not long after, she found out that this man was even worse than the last scumbag, and she inconveniently had me. Zhou Junmao always thought that she had evidence of their conspiracy to murder Zhou Yahou, and because of that—and because of the company shares she held—he held his nose and pretended I didn’t even exist.”

Fei Du’s misgivings were growing heavier and heavier. “Thought?”

“My mother had a secret safe deposit box at a private bank. No one but her and her designated heir could open it. That was the key she used to keep Zhou Junmao under lock. Later it fell into my hands.” Zhou Huaijin sighed. “Zhou Junmao is dead now anyway, so I can tell the truth.—In the safe deposit box there was only a package of expired emergency heart medication. Otherwise, would I have had any use for such inadequate and serpentine means to ruin his reputation?”

“You say you’re Zhou Yahou’s son.” Fei Du slowly asked, “Who knows that?”

“Zhou Dalong was virtuous and moral on the surface, but he considered himself to be extremely potent. How could he let others know that he was raising another man’s child? Aside from Zheng Kaifeng, I think everyone else would have been in the dark. Though Huaixin…” At this point, Zhou Huaijin again looked up at the operating room light. He paused, then said with difficulty, “Since he was little, Huaixin has been more sensitive than other children. I think he must have guessed, he just never said. That child… I watched that child grow up. My mother was tormented all her life by that murderer, and she was getting on in age when she had Huaixin. Postpartum depression made her nervous problems worse. She had no attention to spare and take care of him. In the Zhou house, aside from my mother, a stupid murderer, he was the only person I had a blood tie to. He was so small, so innocent. Even though that person’s blood flowed in his veins… he only had me, and I only had him.”