Chapter 57 The Cuckoo and the Magpie

Chapter 57: The Cuckoo and the Magpie

Clearly, they both remembered each other.

They recalled meeting before at Huating Restaurant, with Jiang Luo present.

How could it be him?

Zhao Shuo was visibly stunned, a look of surprise on his face. He glanced at Su Lan, then at Zhao Guangyuan.

Meanwhile, the moment Huo Zongzhuo recognized Zhao Shuo, his mind quickly pieced things together. He was astonished—so Jiang Luo really was part of the Zhao family?

No wonder he had always felt that Su Lan and Zhao Guangyuan bore some resemblance to Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo was the son of Zhao Guangyuan and Su Lan.

Their younger son?

The one Zhao Guangyuan had mentioned as the child who was out making his own way in business?

It all added up.

Huo Zongzhuo thought to himself.

Zhao Shuo, under the watchful eyes of Zhao Guangyuan and Su Lan, quickly stepped forward and asked them, "Is this really Mr. Huo?"

Zhao Guangyuan shot Zhao Shuo a look, his tone clearly disapproving. "Speak properly. Where are your manners?"

"No, Dad," Zhao Shuo said as he approached, extending his hand to Huo Zongzhuo. "We've met before, haven't we? At Huating, when Jiang Luo was also there."

Huo Zongzhuo didn't stand but reached out and shook Zhao Shuo's hand. "Yes."

Jiang Luo?

Hearing Jiang Luo's name, Zhao Guangyuan and Su Lan were both taken aback. They exchanged a glance and looked at Zhao Shuo. "Jiang Luo? What do you mean?"

Zhao Shuo then explained, "Didn't I tell you before that I ran into Jiang Luo at a restaurant in Huating once?"

"That time, Mr. Huo was also there, eating with Jiang Luo."

Zhao Guangyuan and Su Lan immediately turned their attention to Huo Zongzhuo.

Zhao Guangyuan exclaimed, "Zongzhuo? You know our Jiang Luo?"

Huo Zongzhuo replied calmly, "Indeed, I do. I had no idea he was Director Zhao's son."

Zhao Shuo couldn't help but laugh. "What a small world. Turns out we're all connected."

Naturally, the conversation shifted to Jiang Luo.

Zhao Guangyuan and Su Lan asked Huo Zongzhuo how he had come to know Jiang Luo. Meanwhile, Huo Zongzhuo’s thoughts drifted, recalling how Jiang Luo had once told him that he had no family.

Even without knowing the full story, Huo Zongzhuo’s instincts leaned heavily in Jiang Luo’s favor.

When Zhao Guangyuan and Su Lan asked him, Huo Zongzhuo said, "It was a coincidence. Back in April this year, I was out late after a business dinner near Nanjing East Road and happened to see Jiang Luo sleeping alone on a bench by the river."

At this, all three members of the Zhao family fell silent.

Huo Zongzhuo looked down and sipped his coffee, his mind racing with various speculations.

Regardless of the circumstances, Huo Zongzhuo was completely on Jiang Luo's side.

Thinking of the Zhao family’s comfortable life in their Western-style house—a beautiful three-story home with a garden—while Jiang Luo had no place of his own and had been staying at the Hilton, Huo Zongzhuo felt the warmth of their earlier conversation begin to cool.

But as he set his coffee cup back on the table and looked up, he saw Zhao Guangyuan and Zhao Shuo sitting in silence, while Su Lan’s eyes welled up with tears, which began to fall quietly.

"Mom," Zhao Shuo said, moving toward Su Lan. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.

Zhao Guangyuan sighed and said to Huo Zongzhuo, "If anyone is to blame for Jiang Luo’s situation, it’s us. We truly failed him."

Zhao Shuo helped the tearful Su Lan upstairs to rest and calm down, leaving Zhao Guangyuan to explain to Huo Zongzhuo the story of the mixed-up children eighteen years earlier.

Huo Zongzhuo was deeply shocked just hearing the beginning of the story.

Zhao Guangyuan continued with a sigh, "Originally, when we went to the silk factory in early April this year, we should've brought Jiang Luo home immediately. But... ah! It’s my fault, truly my fault."

Zhao Guangyuan admitted, "I’ll be honest—back then, when we saw that Jiang Luo wasn’t focusing on his studies, hadn’t taken the college entrance exam, hadn’t gone to vocational school, and wasn’t working, but instead spent his days hanging out at discos with questionable people, acting like a delinquent, we were very disappointed."

"I don’t know if you can understand how we felt."

Huo Zongzhuo thought to himself that he could not.

Zhao Guangyuan went on, "In any case, we didn’t bring Jiang Luo home at that time. We left him at the silk factory with his adoptive parents."

"After returning, we did ask someone to help find him a proper job."

"Later, with so much work at the office keeping me busy, and my wife’s factory undergoing restructuring, we were both swamped and ended up delaying our plans to bring Jiang Luo home."

"By the time we tried to reach out to him again, Jiang Luo wanted nothing to do with us."

"Later, when he went to Zhejiang to start his business, we found out and got him a truck, but he refused it and ignored us."

"Now, with work keeping us so busy, we haven’t had a proper chance to talk to Jiang Luo, and he continues to avoid us."

"Ah."

Huo Zongzhuo listened but felt little sympathy for the Zhao family’s actions. His heart ached silently for Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo had never mentioned any of this.

"So, Zongzhuo, you’ve known Jiang Luo since that early on?"

A glimmer of hope sparked in Zhao Guangyuan’s heart. "How has Jiang Luo been lately? I know he started a company, created a clothing brand that’s selling quite well, and even set up his own factory in a nearby town."

Huo Zongzhuo finally spoke again, but his words hit Zhao Guangyuan hard.

He said, "He’s doing well, of course. He’s very clever and capable."

"But as you know, he’s only eighteen. To achieve all this without any help, he must've been through a lot."

Zhao Guangyuan felt a pang of guilt and kept sighing, filled with self-reproach.

Zhao Guangyuan then asked, "Are the two of you close?"

"Fairly close."

Huo Zongzhuo didn’t go into detail.

Zhao Guangyuan then said, "We can't reach Jiang Luo. If anything happens and you find out, Zongzhuo, please help or give me a heads-up so I can help him out."

Huo Zongzhuo came off as mild-mannered and upright around others, but in reality, he had a real temper.

He was really protective of Jiang Luo, and hearing Zhao Guangyuan's what sounded like high-and-mighty talk made him feel displeased.

So, Huo Zongzhuo took another quiet dig at Zhao Guangyuan: "When he faces difficulties, he doesn’t even tell his own family or biological parents, much less anyone else."

"I’d like to help, but I’m afraid he won’t even say a word."

Zhao Guangyuan kept sighing: "It’s my fault, all my fault."

He added, "I know he set up a factory in Juxiang Town, so I called their local office and put in a good word."

"Beyond that, if Jiang Luo doesn’t tell us anything, there’s no way for us to step in—we’re pretty much helpless."

He expressed relief: "Fortunately, the kid’s got what it takes and has been doing well."

Huo Zongzhuo could tell that while Zhao Guangyuan talked about regret and blamed himself, his current fondness for Jiang Luo was genuine, just as his dislike for the Jiang Luo he met in April at the silk factory’s tenement building was also real.

Should it be said that Zhao Guangyuan and the Zhao family were snobs?

That’s just how people are.

How many parents naturally love their children?

They don’t love the child.

They love the child they expect.

Once the child steps out of line or falls outside their expectations, they turn cold and cut off their love just like that.

That’s just how people are.

Huo Zongzhuo saw right through it and felt a chill, his face went blank.

He began to think of Jiang Luo, wondering what he was doing at that moment.

He thought that if he’d known it’d be like this, he wouldn’t have visited or been so polite to Zhao Guangyuan.

In his eyes, Zhao Guangyuan was indeed a promising leader in the Pudong branch.

But if he wanted to, Huo Zongzhuo could network with plenty of officials; it didn’t have to be Zhao Guangyuan.

Huo Zongzhuo decided that he would keep his distance from Zhao Guangyuan in the future.

His affection and sympathy for Jiang Luo were matched only by his disgust for the Zhao family’s hypocrisy.

So, without staying long, Huo Zongzhuo made an excuse, said he had things to do, and stood up to go, not even planning to stay for lunch.

Zhao Guangyuan sighed repeatedly, too out of it to play host, so he didn’t insist on keeping him and stood up to walk Huo Zongzhuo out.

At the door, Zhao Guangyuan said, "This family shame and my personal incompetence have given you a laugh, Zongzhuo."

Huo Zongzhuo glanced at Zhao Guangyuan but didn’t respond, thinking to himself: I’m not laughing at all right now.

Zhao Guangyuan added, "If anything happens with Jiang Luo, please keep an eye out for him. If you have time, shoot me a call so I can help the child."

"Alright."

Huo Zongzhuo answered quietly.

As he headed out, he thought of something and asked, "Let me ask one more thing—is the kid from the silk mill still staying with your family?"

"You mean Ming Ming?"

Zhao Guangyuan said, "Yes. Although he’s not our biological child, we raised him for eighteen years and we care about him. We can’t just throw him out because there’s no blood relation."

"Besides, he’s still in university, and his biological parents can’t support him financially."

Huo Zongzhuo laid it out bluntly, "Since it was a mistake, to correct it, you should switch back."

"Switch back—there has to be a swap for there to be a return."

"We Chinese believe in 'owning up to your mistakes is a big deal.' Since it was wrong and needs fixing, you gotta do something about it."

"If it were me, what belongs to my child, what he didn’t get before, I’d give it to him now because it was always his."

"A cuckoo in a magpie’s nest—the cuckoo is the cuckoo, the magpie is the magpie."

Zhao Guangyuan was stunned, listened, and pondered, feeling that Huo Zongzhuo was spot-on.

Yes, the cuckoo is the cuckoo, the magpie is the magpie.

Zhao Guangyuan thought to himself that Jiang Luo was his son, the Zhao family’s bloodline, and such lineage wouldn’t be lacking, which was why Jiang Luo could get his act together and now do so well with his business.

A cuckoo in a magpie’s nest.

A cuckoo in a magpie’s nest.

Hearing that, Zhao Guangyuan felt even more that Huo Zongzhuo was right.

Returning inside, Zhao Guangyuan sat alone on the sofa and thought it over.

When Zhao Shuo came downstairs, Zhao Guangyuan said to him, "Huo Zongzhuo’s really something. He’s right, and he reminded me."

"What Ming Ming has now should have been Jiang Luo’s all along."

"Jiang Luo is the real Zhao."

Zhao Guangyuan said, "Find some time in the next couple of days to go to Fudan University and talk to Ming Ming. Have him come back, clear out his room, and make it available for Jiang Luo."

"If we want Jiang Luo to come back, we need to show we mean it."

Zhao Shuo was stunned and immediately said, "What did Mr. Huo say?"

He quickly added, "Do we really have to? Ming Ming has lived in that room for years. Why make him move? There are other empty rooms in the house. If Jiang Luo comes back, he can pick any empty one."

He even said, "If he likes my room, I’d give it up for him."

"Give him up for what?"

Zhao Guangyuan said authoritatively, "Mr. Huo is right—a cuckoo in a magpie’s nest is just that."

"Even if Ming Ming isn’t the 'cuckoo,' he has occupied what should have been Jiang Luo’s all these years."

"I said he should move, so he moves."

"You said it yourself—there are plenty of rooms in the house. Then just let Ming Ming pick whichever he wants."

"If Ming Ming likes yours, you should let him have it."

"Dad!"

Zhao Shuo, clearly biased toward Zhao Mingshi, immediately shot back, "Mr. Huo knows Jiang Luo, so of course he’s taking his side."

"You can’t just ignore Ming Ming just because what he said makes sense, can you?"

"Isn’t Ming Ming also yours and Mom’s son..."

Zhao Guangyuan cut him off, "Don’t argue with me about this!"

"So what if Mr. Huo is speaking up for Jiang Luo? Shouldn’t he?"

"Aren’t you also biased toward Ming Ming?"

"Not just you—your mother is biased toward Ming Ming too. Do you think I’m blind to that?!"

Zhao Shuo: "But..."

Zhao Guangyuan: "He will move, no arguments."

"If you don’t go to Fudan to find Ming Ming, I’ll call his dorm myself."

Zhao Shuo: "Dad..."

Zhao Guangyuan: "If you say one more word, you’ll move out too—straight out of the house. Every room will be freed up for Jiang Luo!"

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. "How much have we helped you with your municipal business? You know exactly how much!"

"What have I ever done to support Jiang Luo?"

"Is it too much to just give back the room that was rightfully his?"

"I’ve really played favorites. All these years, I’ve poured everything into you and Ming Ming—what has Jiang Luo gotten?"

"Jiang Luo hasn’t come to me making a fuss, yet here you are, arguing with me?"

"What exactly are you dissatisfied with about this family?"

"If you’ve got a problem, then get out! The car, the cash—hand it all back!"

"..."

Only then did Zhao Shuo shut his mouth.