Coming out.

Shu Ning had always been worried that neither of their families would be able to accept the fact that he was in a relationship with Wei Mingzheng. He had been struggling with this for more than a year, hiding it for more than a year.

Once he became an adult, Shu Ning thought that he could no longer keep this relationship a secret. After all, his relationship with Wei Mingzheng wasn’t a crime. They were already together, so they might as well make it public.

So, Shu Ning bought a lot of things for Cai Qin and spent some time with her. Once he had her in a happy mood, he quietly said, “Cai Cai, there’s something I want to tell you.”

“What’s the matter?” Cai Qin asked.

Shu Ning stuffed a toy car into Shu Yang’s hand and said, “Yang Yang, go play with Auntie.”

The housekeeper left with Shu Yang.

Shu Ning and Cai Qin were the only ones left in the living room. Shu Ning swallowed and said, “Mom…”

Cai Qin noticed his nervousness and gradually became more serious. “What exactly do you have to say?”

Shu Ning took a deep breath. Then, he spit out the words that he’d been brewing over for a long time. “I’m dating Mingzheng.”

Cai Qin froze.

When she didn’t respond, Shu Ning quietly repeated himself, “We’re dating.”

Cai Qin let out an “ah” and rubbed her brows. “The two of you are together.”

Shu Ning had been prepared for her to yell at him, but she was surprisingly calm. He said, “Yes.”

Cai Qin nodded. “Mn.”

…Mn?

That was it?

Shu Ning’s eyes widened. “Mom, Mingzheng and I are dating.”

“I know,” Cai Qin said.

Shu Ning was even more surprised. “You knew? When did you find out?”

Cai Qin responded, “I guessed.”

“You guessed?”

“The two of you are always hanging around under my nose. I’m not stupid.”

Shu Ning: “…”

Shu Ning was silent for a moment. He was sitting across from Cai Qin. His hands and feet were still and orderly. “Mom, what do you think?”

“What else can I think?” Cai Qin rubbed the space between her brows. “Both of you are my babies, so who can I blame?”

Shu Ning lowered his head.

When she noticed that he was in low spirits, Cai Qin smiled and said, “Don’t be sad. I don’t mean to blame you. When I first found out, I didn’t know what to do. I was shocked. Later, I tried to learn a bit more about this kind of stuff, and, slowly, I started to understand a bit more.”

“As long as my son is happy, what does it matter? I also want Mingzheng to be happy. It hasn’t been easy for him.”

Shu Ning raised his head in surprise, his eyes slowly turning red. “Mom…”

He hadn’t expected Cai Qin to already know. Even though she was shocked, she didn’t scold them or bother them. Instead, she went out of her way to learn and understand. It really was rare to have such open-minded parents.

Shu Ning couldn’t help but reach out and hug Cai Qin, tears trickling down his cheeks.

Cai Qin hugged him back and said, “Don’t cry. How old do you think you are?”

Shu Ning wiped away tears and asked, “What about Dad? Does he know?”

“I told him. He’s a little old-fashioned. Two men won’t be able to have children together, so he’s a little reluctant about it,” Cai Qin said. “However, he’s not against you being with Mingzheng. He’s just a little concerned about who’ll take care of you guys when you’re older if you don’t have any children.”

Shu Ning didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “He’s thinking too far ahead.”

“How is this too far? This is reality,” Cai Qin said.

Shu Ning said, “If we really want to have children, we could just adopt a few.”

“Adopt? How many?” Cai Qin was surprised.

Shu Ning said, “One is fine, but I’d like to adopt a few more. One boy, one girl, and two disabled children. As for everything else, we’ll talk about it once we get there.”

Cai Qin was shocked. “D-disabled children?”

Shu Ning nodded. “Mingzheng proposed it, and I agree. If conditions permit, it’d be alright to raise two more disabled children.”

Cai Qin hesitated for a moment. Then, she said, “Would it be possible for you to adopt children without any physical disfigurement? “

Shu Ning asked, “Why?”

Cai Qin replied, “I feel scared and uncomfortable whenever I see them.”

Shu Ning was silent for a moment. Then, he said, “We’ll see when the time comes. I’ll just leave it up to fate.”

Cai Qin said, “If you like them, you can give money and have someone else raise them. That kind of physical disfigurement really frightens me. When I was little, I saw this child who had been severely burned. It was the stuff of nightmares. Of course, I know it’s wrong, but, just between the two of us, I have a very real fear of it.”

The topic of the conversation had gone from coming out of the closet to raising children. Shu Ning held her hand. “Okay.”

Shu Ning hadn’t expected this battle that he spent a whole year preparing for to end before it had even started. The obstacles he had been worrying about turned out to only exist in his imagination.

In that case, why had he been struggling over?

He called Wei Mingzheng and told him that he came clean to Cai Qin about their relationship. Wei Mingzheng’s breathing sped up, and he revealed a rare bout of nervousness. “What did Mom say?”

Shu Ning chuckled. “Guess?”

Wei Mingzheng always looked confident, as if nothing would ever be able to trouble him. It’d be nice to make him anxious every now and then.

Wei Mingzheng suddenly laughed. “Looks like it went well.”

Shu Ning: “Ah? How do you know?”

Wei Mingzheng: “By listening to your voice.”

Shu Ning: “…”

This was the downside of couples who knew each other two well. Nothing could be hidden. They always knew what the other was thinking. There wasn’t any suspense at all.

Shu Ning: “Can’t you pretend that you don’t know and play along?”

Wei Mingzheng: “Okay.”

He adjusted his tone of voice and pretended to be nervous. “I’m guessing… Mom is angry.”

Shu Ning said, “Heh, you guessed wrong. Mom already knew about our relationship a long time ago.”

Wei Mingzheng said in surprise, “Wow, that’s awesome! Mom’s so great!”

Shu Ning laughed for a while. He felt that this conversation was childish and void of any substance. However, he would often have these meaningless conversations with Wei Mingzheng. They might end up talking for an entire hour if they weren’t careful.

Wei Mingzheng asked him once more, “Tell me about how it went.”

Shu Ning became full of spirit. “So it was a beautiful and sunny day. The sky was clear. The breeze was cool. Yours truly made all the necessary preparations…”

Wei Mingzheng played along. “Amazing. So amazing.”

Shu Ning went into detail about how the conversation went. Wei Mingzheng then said, “Mom’s the best.”

The two of them spoke a bunch of nonsense for a while. Then, Shu Ning hesitantly asked, “Does the Wei family… know about us yet?”

“They don’t know yet.”

Shu Ning was a little disappointed. “Is that so?”

He worried, “Will they agree to our relationship?”

Wei Mingzheng found this strange, “Why do you want them to agree?”

Shu Ning was surprised by this question. “Why wouldn’t I want them to agree?”

Wei Mingzheng responded, “I’ve decided on you. It doesn’t matter if they object. Don’t worry. They’ll agree.”

After chatting for a while, they hung up the phone.

Shu Ning lay in bed, dazing off. He was really worried.

After all, Wei Mingzheng’s family was different. This was the Wei family! This was a family that arranged marriages. This was a family where a single relationship could end up on the news. If the partner in question happened to be a man, it was sure to make front page headlines!

Plus, there were a lot of interests involved. There was no way the main branch would allow Wei Mingzheng to have a boyfriend!

Now, it was all up to Wei Mingzheng.

Shu Ning rolled around on the bed and ended up rolling over to Wei Mingzheng’s side of the bed. He hugged one of the pillows and pretended that Wei Mingzheng had come back, slowly falling asleep.

That weekend, Wei Mingzheng told Shu Ning that he had something to do and didn’t come back.

A few days later, Wei Mingzheng told Shu Ning that he had told his family about their relationship and that the obstacles had been cleared.

Shu Ning was very surprised. It was really hard for him to imagine that the issue would be resolved so quickly given Wei Mingzheng’s complicated family situation.

“How did you convince them?”

“It’s simple. Personal interest.”

Shu Ning was surprised. “Huh?”

“Grandma and Grandpa like me. The second and third branches of the family had always been nervous about this. My coming out was a good thing for them, so they took my side.”

Shu Ning: “…Oh.”

Wei Mingzheng continued, “My father’s ex-wife has two children, and he also has an illegitimate child. He doesn’t like me at all, so it doesn’t matter whether I come out of the closet or not. All he cares about is his reputation and his personal interests. I made a few concessions, and he happily agreed to my relationship.”

“As for my mother, she was really worried. After all, I’m her only child. I spent a long time convincing her. Then, she got divorced.”

Shu Ning was so shocked he almost shouted. “What?! Divorce?!”

Back then, Madam Wei had been determined not to get a divorce!

Wei Mingzheng said, “Yes. She didn’t have any assets within the Wei family, and Dad didn’t like her. Even after all this time, she didn’t gain a single thing. She was already considering whether she should divorce or not.”

“I helped her win a lot from the divorce, and I promised to open a company under her name. Oh, I forgot to mention. I found out that she had a lover from before and arranged for the two of them to meet. That way, she was able to easily get divorced and accept my sexuality.”

Shu Ning: “…”

For some reason, Shu Ning felt a little complicated.

When Cai Qin found out about his relationship with Wei Mingzheng, she held back her shock and her doubt. She didn’t confront him or question him. Instead, she quietly did some research on the topic by herself. She learned about the issue and finally came to accept it. She even persuaded Shu Jun to understand the two of them.

However, Wei Mingzheng had to make a ton of deals in order for his relationship to be accepted. Shu Ning couldn’t help but feel that his family lacked affection for each other.

“Don’t feel sad.” Wei Mingzheng seemed to know what he was thinking. “I don’t think Mom did anything particularly bad. You once told me that my mom is still an ordinary person who makes mistakes. She’s not a saint after all. That’s why I don’t think that she’s a bad person or that she did something particularly bad to me.”

“I can tell that she loves me, so I’m not sad. I can’t ask her to just accept my sexuality with a smile. I’d be asking for too much.”

Hearing Wei Mingzheng say this, Shu Ning’s eyes teared up. “It’s good that you think that way.”

He would only be able to be happy if he had this kind of mindset.

Wei Mingzheng had truly become the type of person Shu Ning hoped he would be, a mentally and emotionally strong individual.

“What about your grandfather?” Shu Ning asked. Wei Mingzheng was going to work for the Wei family in the future, so there was quite a lot at stake here.

“He hasn’t accepted it. However, he can’t do anything about me,” Wei Mingzheng replied nonchalantly. “He originally planned to groom me as his heir. He had also been looking for potential marriage candidates for me, but that’s gone up in smoke now. These past few days, he’s been scolding me every time he sees me.”

Shu Ning tightened his grip on his phone. “He… wanted to groom you as his heir?”

Wei Mingzheng chuckled. “Things haven’t even taken shape yet. What are you worried about? Do you really think I’d give you up for these baseless promises? Besides, is it even worth giving up everything for the sake of the Wei family?”

After a pause, Wei Mingzheng said softly, “You’re the most important thing to me. I know exactly what it is that I want.”

Wei Mingzheng rarely spoke words of endearment like this. Every time, it gave him a distinct feeling.

For example, right now, Shu Ning’s heart felt as if it was surrounded by warm feathers. It felt very, very soft.

Graduation.

Within the blink of an eye, it was time to graduate from high school.

Shu Ning hadn’t studied very hard. His grades were slightly above average. He was now preparing to apply for university.

Originally, he planned on applying to a school within the city, closer to home. However, after considering the back and forth traveling Wei Mingzheng had to do, he decided to apply for a school in Beijing.

Wei Mingzheng told him, “I’m going to apply for Chuzhou University.”

Shu Ning was taken aback. He knew what Wei Mingzheng’s grades and abilities were. It was a total waste for him to apply to Chuzhou University. Besides, if he came to Chuzhou, he would be far away from the Wei family. It was likely he’d lose a lot from it.

“No, I’ll just apply to a university in Beijing.”

“No, I’ve decided.” Wei Mingzheng was firm. “I want to go back and be with you.”

After a few days of discussion, the two of them finally decided to apply for Chuzhou University, one of the most famous universities in the area. However, in the national arena, it really wasn’t anything impressive.

Wei Mingzheng chose to major in finance. Meanwhile, Shu Ning was lazy and chose to major in German.

Wang Shenshen really didn’t understand. He got into Beijing Drama Academy. He planned to join Mingzheng ge in Beijing and become a director by riding on his coattails. However, his coattails ended up running away. There was nothing he could do but shed tears of sadness.

Fortunately, Song Nian was admitted into a good university in Beijing. He was studying accounting. The two of them would be able to rely on each other.

Long Qiao’s grades were so bad that the only colleges he could get into were junior colleges. His family wanted him to repeat a grade, but he firmly disagreed. Instead, he applied to a culinary school, angering his mother into tears. His mother cried so hard that Long Qiao didn’t know what to do, so Wei Mingzheng sent him to a culinary school abroad.

Long Qiao’s mother stopped crying.

When Long Qiao asked why, Wei Mingzheng replied, “I’m repaying Grandma Li for the clothes she gave me back then.”

Long Qiao was at a loss.

Shu Ning had a lot of emotions. As expected, Wei Mingzheng remembered everything from back then. He used to get the feeling that Wei Mingzheng didn’t seem to care for Long Qiao, but he could now confirm it.

Back then, Grandma Li had given Wei Mingzheng some clothes, but Long Qiao insisted on taking them back. Wei Mingzheng had always remembered this. If he had been a little more vengeful, he probably would’ve gotten back at Long Qiao. However, Wei Mingzheng remembered everything, but he let it go at that. He put his anger aside.

Later.

Shu Ning chose to study German because his goal was to become a slacker. He didn’t attend his classes very seriously. Either way, he was already good enough to become a teacher.

During his time at school, he established a small foundation. Its main investor was Wei Mingzheng.

The goal of the foundation was to prevent domestic violence and provide aid to disabled children.

He was planning on opening an orphanage and taking in more children.

When he was talking with Cai Qin, he realized that someone as gentle and knowledgeable as Cai Qin could still have prejudices against children with disabilities. He could only imagine what kind of treatment those children must suffer on a day-to-day basis.

Either way, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. He could only hope that his efforts would be able to provide a little bit of help to victims of domestic violence, to children with disabilities.

Unexpectedly, the foundation ended up receiving a lot of support from the students of Chuzhou University. Both students and faculty of the school donated to the fund. There were also volunteers who helped with the legwork.

It might’ve been because of the fact that college students had yet to experience the pressure of life. They were full of enthusiasm and hope, so they were a lot more active.

Maybe, one day, his foundation would be able to do much, much more.