Chapter 3185: Chunshu Lane's Bitter Summer 27/28

Chenshu watered the potted plant Jin Chen had brought on the balcony.

The mint grew well, its leaves verdant, lazily spreading in the afternoon heat; he took the watering can and slowly poured a circle around the rim, water seeping into the soil, his phone vibrating in his pocket. The phone rang, he glanced at the caller ID, answered, switched the watering can to his other hand, his motion unbroken.

"How is it?" he opened the door and saw the mountain.

Wen Anhe was still quite excited, "Hey, let me tell you, there are really a lot of stories in Lingcheng; if I had known, I would have gone into writing back then, why bother with art, wasting my keen insight."

Chenshu chuckled, set the watering can aside, leaned on the balcony railing, and said, "Cut the nonsense, how's the investigation going?"

"You wouldn't believe it, but I actually dug up something: Xu Hong and Zhang Kailè, that mother‑son pair, officially live at the old Zhang family's place, yet they also have a small property near the North Riverside Station, not registered under Xu Hong's name, though she often brings Zhang Kailè there to stay."

From Wen Anhe's end came the rustle of turning pages, "Hey, guess who bought that apartment?"

Chenshu turned, leaned his back on the railing, lifted his gaze to the living room, where Jin Chen lay prone on the straw mat, pencil in hand, head down calculating the new problem the professor had sent.

Chenshu pressed his lips, voice faint, "…Zhang Jianguo."

"Exactly!" Wen Anhe clicked his tongue twice, "It's the deceased husband's brother of Xu Hong, Zhang Jianguo, who bought it. Not just the house—based on what I've learned these days, the old couple of the Zhang family probably know about it too, and they go over there for a meal every now and then."

Wen Anhe's tone turned odd, "Though I've heard, Zhang Jianguo also has a family—how come stories of widows and mistresses are so popular in Lingcheng?"

Chenshu lowered his eyes, his fingertip slowly rubbing the rust marks on the balcony railing.

From that day at the police station, seeing Zhang Jianguo's attitude toward Zhang Kailè, seeing Xu Hong step in front of Zhang Kailè when Zhang Jianguo instinctively reached out to help, he had a vague sense something was off, but when he finally learned the truth, a dull, heavy anger welled up in his chest.

Because he was a bastard sent by his mother to the Xiang family, unable to bear his father's surname, Chenshu despised his own illegitimate birth, and despised even more anyone unfaithful to love and family.

Wen Anhe went on with his analysis over there, then asked, "By the way, why are you investigating these people?"

Chenshu let out a soft sigh and said quietly, "Zhang Jianguo is Jin Chen's uncle."

Wen Anhe, "Damn!"

"Xiao Miusi doesn't live at his aunt's place, does he? …Damn, damn! His uncle is using his family's money to support another man's wife and child! No wonder… No way… tsk! Wait up, I'm sure I can dig up more info!"

Chenshu didn't stop him and hung up.

Perhaps Chenshu had been watching too long; Jin Chen lifted his gaze from the calculation sheet, propped his face with his hand, and lay sideways on the straw mat, looking toward the balcony.

Through the glass door, Chenshu gave him a faint smile; just as he was about to turn and go inside, his peripheral vision caught Zhang Jianguo and Jin Xiu Mei coming up from the alley below, a few steps apart—Zhang Jianguo's stride quick and aggressive, Jin Xiu Mei trotting behind, saying something, Zhang Jianguo not looking back.

Chenshu stepped back, withdrawing from the edge of the balcony so he wouldn't be seen from below, then glanced back inside the house.

He returned to the living room, crouched beside the straw mat, and said, "Xiao Chen, it's going to rain in the next couple days—go grab a few jackets."

Jin Chen set down his pen, brushed the pencil dust off his wrist, nodded, sat up cross‑legged, and asked, "Brother, will you come with me?"

"Sure." Chenshu said.

They stepped into Jin Chen's room first.

Jin Chen opened the wardrobe, his head diving into the pile of folded jackets, occasionally pulling a few out to stack on the bed's edge. Chenshu followed him in and, as an afterthought, closed the door.

Soon, a sound came from outside the door.

Jin Xiu Mei burst in, panting, still not recovered from the earlier argument, and Zhang Jianguo slumped heavily onto the sofa, shouting, "Jin Chen, you? Where did that lunatic go?!"

Jin Xiu Mei, "What's the point of looking for him? Jin Chen moved next door to live with that friend."

"Moving out is just fine." Zhang Jianguo snorted, "This little nut actually has ninety‑odd thousand stashed away, and you didn't even know? You haven't taken the card yourself? I've raised him for ten years, and he's hoarded the money tight as a drum!"

"How would I know he'd hide it from me?" Jin Xiu Mei's voice tinged with resentment and frustration, "He's not like before—he even guards against me now—what can I do?"

"…No way, how could this kid earn that much in just a few years just from working at a supermarket? He's pulling a fast one—maybe he's gotten back in touch with his uncle."

Zhang Jianguo asked again, "Do you have any idea how much money Jin Chen actually has on him?"

"How could I possibly know!" Jin Xiu Mei's voice rose, "You've got the nerve to say that? Even if I knew, how could I dare ask Jin Chen for it?"

"Back then his uncle gave three hundred thousand, you said to keep two hundred thousand at home for Yue Yue's schooling, and after another ten years of saving we could afford a new house. As his aunt, I…"

"Pah!"

Zhang Jianguo slapped Jin Xiu Mei hard, "Thirty thousand—what's the big deal? You're putting on airs? Back then I casually said to keep two hundred thousand, and you nodded too."

"Besides, it's you who stopped that little nut from going to college—not me!"

A door apart.

Jin Chen remained frozen in the pose of rummaging through the wardrobe, utterly still, like a statue suddenly turned to ice.

Chenshu's heart surged with fierce anger; having learned that Zhang Jianguo was involved with Xu Hong outside, he had even suspected Zhang Jianguo of embezzling the money Jin Chen's uncle had given him, using it to support another's child, never imagining…… that Jin Xiu Mei was not innocent either.

If Jin Xiu Mei only knows about the three hundred thousand, just how much did Jin Chen's uncle actually give him back then?

When he left, did he also once hope that this ten‑year‑old child would be well treated by his closest aunt and raised properly?

Chenshu drew a deep breath, closed his eyes, and gently embraced Jin Chen from behind.

Jin Chen blinked.

He seemed to slowly awaken from a deep, deep nightmare, loosening from his rigid posture, turning to face Chenshu and holding him tight.

Jin Chen's chin rested on Chenshu's shoulder; outside the quarrel continued—Zhang Jianguo swearing, Jin Xiu Mei sobbing softly—those sounds filtered through the thin door, muffled and distant.

Jin Chen whispered in Chenshu's ear, "Brother, they lied to me."

Thus, even the last shred of familial affection Jin Chen felt for Jin Xiu Mei was utterly erased beyond that door.

He suddenly felt lonely.

The loneliness of his ten‑year‑old self returned—the feeling of being abandoned, of being unwanted, of being in the middle of the world with nowhere to go.

He was terrified of having no home. Yet ten years later, this home turned out to be a phantom palace built on a sea of deceit.

The protection he thought he had, the kindness he thought he'd earned, the guilt and debt he'd endured for ten years—all were false from the start, nothing but fabrications built on lies.

Jin Chen surveyed the tiny room where he'd lived for ten years, the space that had held all his adolescent secrets and pains, but now looking at it he felt no sense of belonging—like an ill‑timed intruder who had wandered into someone else's nest and still imagined himself part of the family.

Jin Chen's stomach churned with violent nausea, his face paling; he could only keep kissing Chenshu, desperately drawing breath, and Chenshu opened his mouth and tongue to accept him.

A few minutes later, the disturbance outside the door ended with Zhang Jianguo kicking over a table.

A loud bang, something smashed to the floor, Zhang Jianguo flung the door open and stormed out, then came Jin Xiu Mei's low weeping.

Jin Chen's hand, wrapped around Chenshu's waist, tightened, burying his face deep in the scorching nape, murmuring, his eyes a previously unseen dark depth, "Let's leave Chunshu Lane, leave Lingcheng, brother."

Chenshu gave a soft reply, kissing Jin Chen's cheek, then the corner of his eye, "That money—do you want to take it back?"

Jin Chen lowered his eyes, "I don't want to give it to Zhang Jianguo for use; I want to take it back."

Chenshu rubbed his ear bone, "I'll help you."

——

After returning that day, Jin Chen replied to the professor net friend's message, agreeing to participate in the summit event.

Professor Jin Feng, who had been his net friend for so long, also had some understanding of Jin Chen's family situation, and curiously asked him how he suddenly made up his mind.

Jin Chen remained silent for a while, thinking it over, and finally replied.

"The mentally ill have been deceived; the mentally ill must go to the new world."

Professor Jin Feng cheerfully sent a string of emojis, then after thinking, added another message: "If you need legal aid, you can contact me."

Jin Chen stared at that message for a while, then turned his head to look out the window; the evening in Chunshu Lane was as usual, cooking smoke wafting, car sounds rising and falling, someone downstairs shouting for a child to come home for dinner, everything appearing just as calm as always.

But he no longer belonged to Chunshu Lane.

Before Jin Chen had finished preparing to leave, what emerged in the showdown with Jin Xiumei was actually a rumor about his relationship with Chenshu.

In Chunshu Lane, all secrets and baseless rumors are endlessly amplified, and trivial family matters are most easily turned into after-dinner chatter.

In less than two days, the whole lane knew: the mentally ill nephew of Jin Xiumei on the third floor was together with the young artistic man who had just moved in next door.

The three words "together" carried different meanings in different people's mouths—some said it ambiguously, some said it contemptuously, some said it with schadenfreude—but no one thought it was normal. They chewed on it and then spat it out; two men being together was simply unheard of!

As for who started spreading the rumor, they didn't care either.

Unfortunately, it was hard for Jin Chen to remain unaware.

That hateful woman Xu Hong—her son was locked up in a detention center, and she was out there doing bad deeds.

Jin Chen loathed her even more, but regarding the exposure of his relationship with Chenshu, he felt no fear or embarrassment at all.

Really strange—he was just dating his brother, hadn't burned anyone's house down, so why did those people avoid him like the plague? Could it be they feared his illness would worsen after dating? Jin Chen couldn't figure it out.

It wasn't anything important; it didn't affect his mood at all, and even gave him a bit of secret happiness.

Many people knew Chenshu belonged to him; if they came to scold him, he could still show them the sculpture his brother had made by hand, standing in the corner of the Living Room, and when the plastic film was lifted it looked gorgeous beyond words.

Jin Chen lightheartedly carried Chenshu's parcel from the lane entrance back, passing downstairs; the few aunts who had been nice to him a few days ago suddenly changed their faces.

They swayed their fans, gathered together muttering; seeing him approach, they lowered their voices but their eyes stuck to him, as if looking at some strange creature.

Jin Chen walked straight past without stopping.

But unfortunately, he ran into Jin Xiumei in the stairwell, who looked as if struck by a bolt from the blue.

She stood at the corner between the first and second floors, her face ashen, lips trembling, as if she had just been hit on the head. Beside her stood Zhang Yue, backpack slung over his shoulders, equally shocked, still not recovered from the news he had just heard.

Grandma Zhao stood at the bottom of the stairs; seeing Jin Chen go up, she quickly shrank her neck to avoid him, as if he carried some contagious disease.

Jin Chen wanted to bypass them and go upstairs. Between him and Jin Xiumei there was nothing left to say; the wounds that had accumulated year after year no longer needed to be rubbed with salt.

"Jin Chen!"

Jin Xiumei shouted to stop him, her voice sharp and trembling; Jin Chen halted, standing on the two steps, looking down at her.

Jin Xiumei's breathing grew rapid, her chest heaving violently; she opened her mouth and finally squeezed out: "You… you go home first, I have something to ask you!"

Jin Chen knew what she was going to ask; looking at Jin Xiumei's face, lined with the marks of years of labor, he said, "You've heard, right? I and Chenshu…"

"Jin Chen!!" Jin Xiumei furiously cut him off, her voice loud enough to echo in the stairwell.

"Come upstairs with me! Aren't you ashamed? Hurry home and say it!"

Jin Chen let out a soft sigh, Silence turned around, and continued upward.

Jin Xiumei followed behind, her steps hurried and chaotic; during this time, Zhang Yue repeatedly tried to speak, but the news he had just learned left him unable to speak, so he could only bite his lips and follow step by step.

Jin Xiumei slammed the door shut.

She stood in the entryway, face full of fatigue, gritting her teeth as she fiddled with the rag on the wooden cabinet, picking it up then putting it down.

After a while, she turned to face Jin Chen and said, "You… you and that Chenshu…"

Jin Chen calmly looked at her and said, "We are dating."

Jin Xiumei felt as if she had been fiercely slapped.

She stepped back and said, "Do you even know what you're saying? Do you know how people outside talk about you? They say you're a Pervert, they say you're sick, they say you…"

"I've always been sick." Jin Chen said, "Aunt, you've always known that, haven't you?"