Chapter 6: 6. Meeting Uncle Zhang Ruins One for Life

Yangcheng.

Meng He sat on the sofa, shouting angrily at his wife: "Look at your precious son; he only knows how to cause me trouble every single day, never doing anything proper. Now he's actually grown so bold that he doesn't even answer my calls."

Lin Meizhi wasn't about to let him have his way. "Isn't he your son too? You only know how to blame me all day long."

"Hmph! Who knows?" Meng He became even more incensed.

Lin Meizhi suddenly smiled, putting on a shy expression as she said, "Oh, since you know, then I'll go change the surnames of both our children back tomorrow. You know, 'Zhang Mingxuan' actually sounds quite nice, doesn't it?"

To everyone's surprise, Meng He didn't continue to get angry this time; instead, he looked as if he had something to say but was holding back.

"I'm telling you, Mom and Dad, can you not bring this up every time you argue?" A young beauty sitting beside them spoke up.

"Do you have any idea that because you two used to argue about this all the time when we were little, my brother and I even went and stole your hair to get a DNA test done?" Meng Zixuan said, rolling her eyes.

She was truly speechless regarding these parents of hers. What kind of family uses their children's bloodline as a joke every time they fight? And it was always the same person. She really didn't know if her dad was just thick-skinned or what, but regardless of how her mom brought it up, he just never got angry.

Meng He seemed not to have heard Meng Zixuan's words; instead, he looked at his wife very seriously and said, "Wife, let me tell you something."

"What is it? Go ahead," Lin Meizhi said, somewhat surprised to see her husband's serious expression.

Meng He thought for a moment, organized his words, and said, "It's like this. Look, Meng Mingxuan is already twenty-six; it's time for him to find a partner and get married. And after he marries, I want his first son to have the surname Zhang."

"Look, our Meng Family's ancestral line has been passed down, and we'll have someone to burn paper for us after we're gone."

"As long as we're still here, it's fine, but once we're gone, there will be no one to sweep the grave for Brother Zhang and pay their respects to him."

Hearing him say this, Lin Meizhi's expression also turned heavy. She was silent for a moment before saying, "I have no objections."

"I'm telling you, Mom and Dad, is this really necessary? Even if Uncle Zhang was a benefactor to our family, it shouldn't go this far, right?" Meng Zixuan couldn't help but cry out.

She already knew quite a bit about this Uncle Zhang whom she had never met. There was no help for it; she couldn't avoid knowing, as every time her mom and dad argued, they would bring this Uncle Zhang up.

Even when she was little, she had almost truly believed she was Uncle Zhang's daughter—how could her memory of it not be deep?

"You don't know a damn thing! If it weren't for your Uncle Zhang, could your mother's illness have been cured? If your mother's illness hadn't been cured, could you two exist? Besides, if it weren't for your Uncle Zhang, I would still be a scrap collector right now," Meng He barked at his daughter.

Lin Meizhi also looked at her daughter and said, "Actually, when I told you before that you should have been surnamed Zhang, I really wasn't lying to you."

"No way? I verified it with a DNA test," Meng Zixuan was startled; her mother's expression was truly very serious right now.

"I wasn't talking about bloodlines. You are my, Meng He's, daughter—that is absolutely certain. It's just that when your Uncle Zhang had his accident, your mother hadn't been pregnant for long, so we were thinking at the time that you would take your Uncle Zhang's surname. But since you were a girl, you would definitely have to marry into another family, so we didn't change it."

"By the time your brother came along, your mother's health had developed problems and she couldn't give birth again, and I had my own selfish motives—I didn't want my Meng Family line to be broken—so we didn't change his surname either," Meng He's tone was somewhat guilty.

Meng Zixuan didn't feel uncomfortable because of her parents' preference for sons; over all these years, her parents had never shown any signs of favoring boys over girls, and they had even treated her better than her brother.

Meng Zixuan clicked her tongue and said, "I really find it hard to imagine what kind of charm this Uncle Zhang of mine, whom I've never met, could have had. He hasn't been in this world for nearly thirty years, and you still miss him so much."

She was truly very curious, and this curiosity had persisted ever since she was old enough to understand things.

Lin Meizhi suddenly said with a look of longing, "You really shouldn't deny it; your Uncle Zhang's charm was truly immense. Mature, steady, handsome, wealthy, sincere to others, loyal, talented..."

Meng Zixuan looked at her mother's infatuated expression and couldn't help but cover her forehead, saying, "Dad, you're just going to watch Mom act like a lovesick fan? You're not jealous at all?"

Before Meng He could speak, Lin Meizhi glanced at him and said, "If it weren't for the fact that I, your mother, felt I wasn't good enough for your Uncle Zhang back then, would it have ever been your turn?"

"Dad, no way, you can tolerate this?" Meng Zixuan waited for a long time but didn't see her dad get angry; her jaw hit the floor. In this moment, she refreshed her understanding of this Uncle Zhang once again.

"Mom, tell me about it in detail. Just how much charm did Uncle Zhang have? According to what you're saying, hasn't this become a case of 'meeting Uncle Zhang ruins one for life'?" Meng Zixuan sat down beside her mother and shook her arm, saying.

"You're really not wrong about that. You know Aunt Huo, right?" Lin Meizhi said.

"Of course I do! Aunt Huo is my idol. If I could be like Aunt Huo..." Halfway through, Meng Zixuan suddenly stopped speaking. She opened her eyes wide in disbelief and said, "Mom, don't tell me that the reason Aunt Huo never married is because of Uncle Zhang?"

She immediately thought of how Huo Zhiyuan had never married, and how there were rumors outside that she was a proponent of non-marriage or a lesbian.

Now, hearing her mother say this, her worldview was instantly refreshed.

Lin Meizhi stroked her hair and said, "It is precisely because of that. What else did you think? Actually, I used to worry that you would meet someone like your Uncle Zhang. Such a person appearing in your life is indeed a very beautiful thing."

"But at the same time, it is also a cruel thing. After the brief beauty, all that remains is endless emptiness."

"But clearly I thought too much; there is only one Uncle Zhang, and you don't have that kind of opportunity."

"Hearing you two say this, I'm truly becoming more and more curious about Uncle Zhang. I really want to travel back to that time and meet him," Meng Zixuan said with sudden yearning.

"Wait, that's not right. According to what you said, Uncle Zhang should have been 23 when he had his accident. In your era, there must have been many people who were already married with children, right? Did Uncle Zhang not find someone?" Meng Zixuan suddenly felt a spark of gossip.

Lin Meizhi said, "They say there was someone, but none of us ever saw her, so we all guessed that your Uncle Zhang probably said that on purpose so as not to delay certain people."

"It seems my Uncle Zhang really was a man of deep affection and righteousness, not a scumbag. Since he didn't fancy you, he found an excuse to make you give up," Meng Zixuan laughed.

"You brat, is that any way to talk to your mother? Your mother was a real beauty back in the day, alright?" Lin Meizhi tapped Meng Zixuan's forehead and said indignantly.