Chapter 64

Chapter 64

Tian Ruan arrived at Deyin University's main gate with his backpack.

The driver stood rigidly beside the Maybach and opened the door upon seeing Tian Ruan. "Young Master, this way."

Tian Ruan got into the car, the scent of Yu Jingmo’s signature woody-cool cologne lingering around him. "Why did you ask for leave for me?"

"To the hospital," Yu Jingmo said bluntly.

"What happened to my mom?" Tian Ruan asked immediately.

"Your father met your mother. Your mother went too."

"..." Tian Ruan’s mind spun—having multiple parents was complicated. "Why did he meet my mom?"

"Perhaps he was curious about what kind of person your foster mother is. He wanted to reveal the truth."

"What was he thinking?" Tian Ruan couldn’t understand. "He just fell last night, and today he's already sneaking off to another ward?"

Yu Jingmo: "Not sneaking. He hobbled on crutches."

"..." Tian Ruan pictured Du Danren limping on crutches, dragging a leg in a cast, making his way into Sha Meijuan's ward, only to call her his son’s mother.

Sha Meijuan must have been devastated—her son, raised for so many years, suddenly turned out to be someone else's.

Total nightmare.

"They shouldn't have been in the same hospital," Tian Ruan sighed, hindsight kicking in. "Just one night, and things already went wrong."

Yu Jingmo: "She had to find out sometime."

"I was planning to tell her when she was in better health."

"I asked the attending physician. He said your mother is recovering well. Yesterday, she even lifted 5-pound weights with another patient from a different ward."

"..." Tian Ruan couldn’t picture Sha Meijuan lifting weights—it was unimaginable.

When they arrived at the hospital, Du Henbie was already waiting at the entrance of the inpatient building. He said to Tian Ruan, "Your mom went after my dad. She smashed his other leg with a dumbbell—now that one's fractured too."

Tian Ruan’s jaw dropped.

For a moment, Tian Ruan wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for Du Danren or rethink everything he knew about Sha Meijuan.

Sha Meijuan had always been a shrinking violet, cautious wherever she went, though she carried a quiet pride that kept her from easily bowing her head. This might have been the first time she'd ever snapped like this.

"So... where's your dad?" Tian Ruan still couldn't bring himself to say "my dad."

Du Henbie gave a humorless smirk. "Waiting for surgery."

Tian Ruan: "Take me to see him."

The fifth floor of the inpatient building housed the surgical wing. The sound of gurneys rushing past—some carrying patients about to undergo surgery, others just finished—echoed intermittently. Relatives nibbled on vending-machine snacks and drank water they'd bought, having waited too long.

The air was heavy with worry.

The only movement came from the occasional announcements over the PA system and names flashing on the screen.

Du Danren lay on the hospital bed, gazing vacantly at the ceiling.

Madam Du stood nearby, eyes slightly red, muttering: "Honestly—a grown man breaking bones from just a fall and picking fights too."

Du Danren: "I wasn't fighting. She hit me."

"Be that as it may, she’s Xiao Ruan’s adoptive mother. Of course she couldn’t accept you showing up unannounced like that. You’re so sharp in business but clueless when it comes to people."

"I’m sorry."

Madam Du wore a thin cashmere shawl, but the unheated lobby left her chilled. She tightened the shawl around herself.

Du Danren glanced at her. "Your face feels cold."

Madam Du: "I'm cold everywhere—inside and out."

Du Danren lifted the blanket covering him. "Here, take this."

"Don’t move around." Madam Du tucked the blanket back around him, then couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of his leg suspended high in the air. "Really now."

"?"

"...Mom." Tian Ruan called out.

Madam Du collected herself and turned to him, her expression gentle. "Don't you have school, Xiao Ruan? Why are you here?"

Tian Ruan glanced at Du Danren. "How is he?"

"Just a minor procedure. The doctor said it’ll only take like ten minutes—just removing a blood clot in his leg."

"Well that's a relief." Tian Ruan relaxed slightly and said to Du Danren, "Sorry, my mom overreacted."

Du Danren: "Not just a bit. She went ballistic."

Tian Ruan: "...Why did you go over there?"

Du Danren: "Your adoptive mother was here—of course I had to see her. I even brought two boxes of supplements, and she threw them out. Why?"

Fair question. The reason was obvious to anyone with eyes, but explaining it to him was far more complicated.

Tian Ruan tried explaining: "If my mom had been married to you for years, but it turned out my older brother and I were actually someone else’s children, how would you feel?"

Du Danren: "..."

Madam Du, slightly embarrassed, was about to smooth things over when her husband spoke dead serious—

"Whether you’re my biological children or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that my wife is my wife."

Silence.

Madam Du jumped like she'd been burned, stepping back with an awkward expression. "You’re a grown man—what are you even saying?"

Du Danren put on his sternest face. "A man must keep his word."

"..."

It would've been touching—if he weren’t lying in a hospital bed with both legs comically suspended.

The original question no longer mattered.

Madam Du covered her lips with one hand, finally bursting into laughter. "What even is this logic...?" She sighed.

Tian Ruan had come to understand this bargain dad a bit—a real man like himself, a man of his word.

So he decided, "If you make it out of surgery okay, I'll call you 'Dad.'"

Du Danren: "I *am* your dad."

"Calling you 'Dad' is up to me."

Just then, the announcement came over the speakers—"Du Danyuan, Du Danyuan, please proceed to Preparation Room No. 3."

At first, Tian Ruan didn’t react, but then he realized it was referring to his bargain dad.

Two nurses came to wheel Du Danren away, politely refusing to let family follow. Du Danren was wheeled away looking stoic.

As Madam Du watched the preparation room door close, she explained to Tian Ruan, "They used his old name by mistake. Your dad was originally named Du Danyuan, but he insisted on changing it later."

There was actually a funny little story behind it. Du Danren’s original name, Du Danyuan, was derived from the phrase "Indifferent to fame, serene to go far," with a lovely meaning. But later, when he went into business, he kept running into bad luck. Du Danren believed his name was jinxing his finances.

So, at the age of thirty, he spent days racking his brains over a new name.

He didn’t want to betray his parents' hopes, so he decided to retain the character "Dan" (淡) and substitute "Yuan" (远) with "Ren" (仁).

As Confucius says in the *Analects*... "The benevolent are free from worries, the wise are free from confusion, and the courageous are free from fear."

No matter what one does, only with goodness can you last.

Thus, Du Danren told his wife, "I’m changing my name to Danren."

Madam Du didn’t take it seriously at first: "Why not go full 'Egg Yolk'?"

Du Danren: "...You think 'Egg Yolk' is better?"

Madam Du: "Your call, just not 'Egg Egg.'"

And so, he really went from Du Danyuan to Du Danren.

The surgery took only about ten minutes, just as the doctor had said. When Du Danren was wheeled out, no one felt particularly happy or sad—it really was a very minor procedure.

The only trouble was that Du Danren couldn’t move his legs for the next two days, even needing assistance to pee.

They brought in two male orderlies, but Du Danren still couldn’t accept it and went with a catheter instead of having someone help him pee.

The Du family was wealthy, staying in a private VIP room—fancy but dull.

Tian Ruan scoped out the neighboring rooms and said, "There’s an old man in his sixties next door who just had hemorrhoid surgery. He’s also bedridden. If you’re bored, Dad, you can have the nurses wheel you over to chat with him."

Du Danren: "...About what? I don’t have hemorrhoids."

"You don’t have to talk about hemorrhoids. That old man likes fishing—you’d hit it off over that."

"I do like fishing."

Tian Ruan could tell—these fishing enthusiasts all had that same chill, laid-back vibe. It seemed Du Danren wouldn’t be stuck twiddling his thumbs.

Then Tian Ruan and Yu Jingmo headed off to visit Sha Meijuan.

Du Henbie said, "I’ll come too."

Madam Du stayed silent, clearly still sore about it.

When Tian Ruan arrived at Sha Meijuan's hospital room, he indeed saw a small dumbbell. Though not large, a 2.5 kg weight would still hurt badly if it hit someone's leg.

"Xiao Yuan!" Sha Meijuan started crying the moment she saw Tian Ruan. "That awful man said you were his son. How could that be?"

Tian Ruan tried to reassure her first. "Mom, I’ll always be your son."

Sha Meijuan nodded, managing a smile.

"Even if I am related by blood to the Du family, I’m still your son."

At these words, Sha Meijuan's smile vanished instantly. "...What do you mean? You *are* my son. I raised you from childhood—you *are* my son!"

Tian Ruan said firmly, "Yes, you raised me from childhood. I *am* your son."

"Xiao Yuan..."

"Mom, I didn’t tell you—I've changed my name. It’s Tian Ruan now."

"Changed your name? What was wrong with Xiao Yuan?"

Tian Ruan didn’t know how to explain. "Just consider Tian Yuan gone, while I remain your son."

Sha Meijuan clutched his arm desperately. "You *are* my son!"

Tian Ruan flinched slightly but didn’t pull away, trying to reason with her. "But I do have Du family blood. I’m also Madam Du’s son."

Sha Meijuan wouldn't accept this. "You *are* my biological child. How could you not be? Then where is my real child?"

Tian Ruan: "Didn’t you say I got lost twenty years ago?"

Sha Meijuan began shaking uncontrollably. Her careless husband had once lost their child. Could it be that the child they found back then wasn’t the real one?

How... how could that be?

Sha Meijuan fell back onto the hospital bed, tears streaming down her face. "My Xiao Yuan is gone. Where did he go?"

Tian Ruan instinctively bent down to support her. "Mom..."

"You’re not Xiao Yuan. You’re not." Sha Meijuan pulled away, staring at him in disbelief. "Where is my Xiao Yuan?"

Tian Ruan’s heart squeezed painfully, as if someone had yanked it. Over these past days, he had really begun to see Sha Meijuan as his mother. Even with Madam Du’s appearance, Sha Meijuan still held a higher place in his heart than her.

But Sha Meijuan valued the bond of blood more. Without that blood tie, there was no son.

This was the reality for many mothers in the world—they yearned for their biological children, for blood was the most unbreakable contract in the mother-child relationship.

Now, Tian Ruan had to break that bond himself.

His heart suddenly felt hollow. He thought, even if Sha Meijuan no longer saw him as her son, it didn’t matter. He would still continue to care for her.

"Mom, don’t be sad. Maybe we can still find your real son," Tian Ruan said helplessly.

Yu Jingmo put an arm around Tian Ruan’s shoulder, offering silent comfort.

Leaning against him, Tian Ruan steadied himself. "The real Tian Yuan might still be living somewhere in this world."

Sha Meijuan snapped back to attention. "Really? Can we still find Xiao Yuan?"

"We won’t know unless we look," Tian Ruan said, knowing that all Sha Meijuan needed was just a little hope to keep going.

Tears welled up in Sha Meijuan's eyes, "Good, good... as long as we can still find him."

Only Tian Ruan knew that Tian Yuan might no longer be in this world.

Twenty years ago, Tian’s father had mistaken the children and, in his rush, left him by a flower bed, causing Tian Ruan to disappear.

Twenty years later, Tian Ruan returned to this world—perhaps by coincidence, perhaps by the cycle of karma—temporarily assuming Tian Yuan's identity.

It wasn’t until Madam Du recognized him that Tian Ruan realized he had always belonged to this world.

Eighteen years in the world beyond the book, twenty years in the world within.

Their tangled lives had finally realigned.

Where had the real Tian Yuan gone? Perhaps he had been rescued from the river in another world, his fate as a background character wiped away. An orphan with no ties, he could start anew and live the life he desired.

...Or perhaps, Tian Yuan truly was somewhere in this world, standing strong like a lone tree in the wild, waiting to be found.

Whatever the case, Tian Ruan hoped Tian Yuan was alive and thriving.

Yu Jingmo lowered his gaze to the young man in his arms, who betrayed no sign of sadness. His long lashes trembled, releasing a single glistening tear.

He raised his hand to wipe it away, as though the tear had never been.