Rong Heng and Wu Cheng looked at Rong Qiu without blinking. Was this some kind of a prank? Didn"t it mean that he was actually someone unknown to them and he took his father"s position? But... But...
They were rendered speechless.
Then, who was the man in front of them?
They couldn"t believe that he wasn"t the real Uncle Qiu. They didn"t dare to believe in such an ugly truth!
Rong Heng felt that he was struck by a thunder... he felt really baffled --- the one that felt hurt the most was, of course, him if what he said was the truth. What about his life? Was it all a lie? From the beginning? He had really thought of him as his father all along.
Didn"t it mean... he wasn"t his real father?
His mind was in a mess and he couldn"t even control his train of thoughts. It was so confusing and he was in shock. For the first time in his life, he was feeling helpless. The last time he felt like this was the time when his father chose to help those Bei Yue people and go back to their homeland. It took several months and he was entrusted to someone else.
They didn"t treat him bad but also not that well either --- in the end, he was only a little boy and he kept blaming his father for choosing others!
When he came back, he was beyond happy. But now... what did he just say?
He wasn"t his real father?!
A counterfeit?
But... How...?!
Rong Heng"s mind was blank. He really didn"t know what to think anymore. He didn"t think that he was able to believe in him. Even if he was good at covering up his feelings, but this time, he couldn"t mask his feelings well.
He was already a father himself and yet, he had the urge to cry at this moment --- it was really hard for him to breathe. He forced a smile which was uglier than a cry and begged, "Father... please..."
Rong Heng begged Rong Qiu so that he would say that it was only a joke... It wasn"t the truth --- it was just a stupid prank.
However, Rong Qiu looked at him guiltily but he still insisted that it was the truth. He didn"t know what to say and in the end, he could only say three words, "I"m so sorry."
Rong Heng"s smile faltered while he was trying to make sense of what he had just heard. The "sorry" word echoed inside his ears over and over again. If that was the truth, it would be better if he lived in the dark forever. It was better if he didn"t know the truth.
This... was too cruel! If he wanted to act, why didn"t he act until the end?!
"Father... don"t joke around! How could that be?" Rong Heng slightly choked when he said that.
Rong Qiu solemnly answered, "I"m not joking around..."
"Father... this time, I really couldn"t believe you. Even if it"s the truth, I don"t want to believe it!" Rong Heng said resolutely.
"True ah~! Master, please don"t joke around about such an important matter!" Wu Cheng pleaded seriously, then he added, "You will hurt Young Master"s feelings ah~!" He took a peek at his young master and his heart hurt for the latter, after all, he was the one who took care of him most of the time --- especially, when Rong Qiu wasn"t there for him. He even looked blamingly at Rong Qiu and the latter flinched at that.
This time, Rong Qiu couldn"t bear to get angry because he could clearly see their miserable expression. He sighed in defeat, "Do you think that I really want it to happen? It took me a long time to accept that my own mother had erased my memory and let me live as someone else without knowing anything! I have lived as another person for so long and honestly, it"s really painful..."
He decided to admit his feelings and his thought so far...
"Why... Why do you want to tell me all of this? You have become my father for a long time, so why don"t you act until the end?" Rong Heng threw the question at him and he added another hard question, "Why are you being so cruel to me?!"
Rong Qiu was taken aback. Cruel? Was that true? He didn"t think too much back then about their feelings because he just wanted to tell them the truth so that he could follow Yao Ling with a peaceful mind... he started to realize that he was being selfish and those two were feeling betrayed by him. However, he had been living as another person his whole life... He forgot about his own wife and daughter...
He really hurt a lot of people because of this matter and somehow, he blamed his mother for forcing him into this situation. But what else he could do? Everything had already happened.
In the end, whatever steps that he chose from both choices that he had... would end up hurting someone... either Rong Heng or Yao Ling.
Was he that cruel? Would it be better if he lied to them?
Somehow... he still didn"t think it would be a better step.
He looked guiltily at Rong Heng but he knew that he had chosen this step and he couldn"t take it back. He... he had to hurt this little boy... no, he was a man now... Rong Qiu tried to convince himself that as a man, he should be able to accept it better, right?
Rong Qiu started to get a headache. In the end, Rong Heng had gotten his love for so long but Yao Ling had grown up without it. His heart was painful for both of them, but he needed to face the truth as well. His wife was waiting for him to save her somewhere out there...
"I... I..." Rong Qiu felt flabbergasted. Even though those were his real thoughts, he didn"t know how to put it into words. The matter of the heart was really too complicated ah~! However, he needed to be responsible. Thus, he gathered his thought and told them everything that was inside his mind --- along with the consideration between the pros and cons and also, why he decided to choose to admit everything to them.
He tried to tell them with the softest words that he could muster, even though in the end, it would still hurt them.
"But how do you replace my master? I"ve been growing up together with him together... How could I mistake an imposter as my master?" Wu Cheng asked in disbelief. He still believed in his own judgment. The man in front of him was the one who grew up together with him, so how could he say that he wasn"t the real one?
"It"s easy for my mother to manipulate your mind, besides, she got a pointer from the real one... before he died," Rong Qiu answered. "This was also the reason why I told you that it was so complicated."
Rong Heng and Wu Cheng knew that there was no advantage for him to tell the truth, so they started to believe in him. Everything fell into pieces IF the power that he had mentioned was real.
"What is the proof? Where"s my real master"s grave?" Wu Cheng asked in sadness.
"This..." Rong Qiu didn"t really know how to answer this.
"Tell us the truth!" Rong Heng demanded in a soft voice.
"I refused to take his ident.i.ty because of my wife and I told my mother that the man was still alive... Why didn"t he just continue to live on and cherish his son until the end? My mother answered that he only had a few days to live and after saying that, she erased my memories..." Rong Qiu answered hesitantly.
"So... you don"t know where it was..." Rong Heng flatly answered on Rong Qiu"s behalf.
"I..." Rong Qiu didn"t know what to say. "I heard a few things about his wishes though..."
"What do you mean?" Rong Heng asked in confusion. "What kind of wishes?"