Chapter 5

[Three years ago, a protégé of a famous lawyer worked tirelessly to get his case reopened. Cheng Haisheng was acquitted long ago. He received state compensation too.]

[Has he really never tried to find you? You're his only family in the world.]

I read it all in silence and didn't reply.

As though I hadn't seen anything, I put my phone away.

Then turned back to Sheng Yucheng.

"That man... was it really you?"

I still couldn't quite believe it.

"Yes."

His answer was firm.

"You have that much money? Seven hundred thousand?"

He smiled without answering.

I rummaged in a living-room drawer and took out a handbag.

"You gave my mother this designer bag too, didn't you? I heard it cost tens of thousands."

"You gave it to them the second time you met. Then you arranged holidays for them and helped build a new house. All of that must have cost a lot."

I really did wonder where he'd got so much money.

This time, he smiled more broadly.

He stroked my head.

"Silly girl. Do you know what I charge for an hour's consultation?"

"How much?"

He didn't give a figure.

"I have my own law firm. Plenty of protégés working under me. The expenses you mentioned are nothing to me."

He sighed softly.

"For people like me, at this age, it isn't about how much money we have. Life is too dull. Too boring. We want a different experience."

"Like being with a girl like me?" I asked.

"Exactly. Like hunting a little white rabbit. Patiently luring her in, setting the trap, then devouring you."

He reached inside the layers beneath his suit jacket.

And slowly drew something out.

I nearly gaped in disbelief.

My black lace bra.

"I stole it while you were cooking," he said. "When did you start wearing this color?"

I felt I couldn't stand another moment.

If this continued, I might vomit all over him.

When I didn't answer, he showed no hurry.

He held it beneath his nose and inhaled deeply.

His eyes closed in pleasure.

"Ningning, did you mean what you said?"

"What?"

"That you kept thinking about the child's father. Even missed him..."

"Of course."

"Then could we have another baby?"

I stepped back and smiled.

"Probably not."

"Why?"

He opened his eyes, puzzled.

"My father wouldn't agree."

"Your father? Isn't he dead?"

"Not Zhou Yu. My biological father."

As I finished, a figure slowly emerged behind Sheng.

Bare feet. No shoes. Dark, weathered skin.

Cheng Haisheng.

If Officer Liu knew I'd hidden the truth, he would surely be deeply disappointed in me.

He'd asked whether Cheng Haisheng had ever come to find me.

In fact, he had.

More than once.

When I was seven, my father was jailed on suspicion of harassing a girl.

I'd never had a mother growing up. After he went to prison, the Zhous adopted me.

Five years later, Cheng Haisheng was released.

One day after school, he waited on the road I had to take home.

The moment he saw me, he grew terribly excited and swept me into his arms.

He said he was finally out. Said he'd never committed the crime.

I remembered the rain that day.

He carried a bag of egg sponge cakes in a cheap red plastic bag.

"Ningbao, I bought your favorite cakes."

His hands trembled.

Almost without hesitation, I knocked away the bag he offered.

"I don't want them! I don't want anything from you!"

"You're scum who harassed a young girl. You don't deserve to be a father!"

He froze.

I'd always remembered the look in his eyes afterward.

Lost. Panicked.

He stood in the pouring rain, clutching his shirt like a child who'd done something wrong.

The rain was so heavy I didn't know whether he cried.

Even if he had, I'd have considered them crocodile tears.

I told him to get lost. Never to bother me again.

But he still came to find me from time to time.

Ashamed, I never told my adoptive parents.

When I was in middle school, he told me a famous lawyer had agreed to help overturn his conviction and sent a protégé to assist.

I still thought he was lying.

In high school, he came again, delighted, saying his case had been overturned and the paperwork was being processed.

I couldn't bear it anymore. I coldly told him to wait until he'd actually proved his innocence before coming back.

He left dejectedly.

For a long time after that, he didn't bother me.

That same year, I took leave from school.

My adoptive mother had heart disease. The expensive treatment left both my parents gloomy and worried every day.

At a loss, I asked if there was anything I could do.

Looking back, they seemed to have been waiting for those words.

With apparent difficulty, my mother said there was a quick way to earn the money for treatment.

I had to have a baby.

I was stunned.

My first reaction was refusal.

I'd rather work. Three jobs. Ten jobs. Day and night without rest.

Anything but that.

They said earning money that way was too slow. Her health couldn't wait.

By then, Sheng Yucheng had already shown his generosity.

I asked why they didn't go to him for help.

They said they were embarrassed to accept any more favors. They owed him too much already.

We reached an impasse.

To be fair, my adoptive parents really couldn't have treated me better.

Even when I refused to be a surrogate, they didn't take it out on me.

They remained patient and gentle.

My mother often showed me educational material. Giving birth was simple for a young woman, she said. Recovery was quick. If I didn't tell anyone afterward, nobody would know.

And she took more medicine every day.

Whenever she secretly wiped away tears, I "happened" to catch her.

After struggling with myself countless times, I finally agreed.

Only then did I learn there was a basement.

It had tiled walls, a bed and a bathroom.

The surrogacy wasn't a cold needle putting something into my body.

It was naked contact with a stranger.

Like primitive animals in a forest.

I would never forget it.

The summer I was eighteen, I moved into the basement.

Waiting for the man's unpredictable visits.

Sometimes, I'd wake from a nightmare to find my adoptive mother sitting beside the bed.

Smiling gently.

"Ningning, you're awake?"

"The boss is here. Put on your blindfold."

Those were the moments I feared most.

More suffocating than the worst nightmare.

...

Ten months later, I gave birth and went back to school.

Everything seemed to return to normal.

I guarded the secret with my life.

I only told my best friend.

After hearing it, she held me and cried for a long time.

Later, she kept bringing me nourishing food and helping with my cleaning duties.

She worried I wouldn't recover properly.

As for the child, I felt nothing.

Being separated didn't affect me.

I thought it was over.

Gradually, though, I noticed something wrong.

My mother didn't look as though she'd survived a serious illness.

She was full of energy every day.

She learned to do her makeup and coordinate outfits. She even bought luxury goods regularly.

Just as I thought perhaps her brush with death had made her want a more colorful life, I went downstairs for water one night.

Passing their bedroom, I heard them through the partly closed door.

My mother said, "The boss wants another baby. He's willing to pay a million this time."

My father replied, "But... Ningning's only just had one. What excuse can we use to trick her now?"

"We'll think of something convincing. Don't let her get suspicious."

"Oh, and the boss said he doesn't want her pregnant so quickly. He wants to spend more time with her. You understand."

...

I couldn't remember how I left that night.

I seemed to have needed the wall to keep myself upright.

Instinctively, I went looking for her remaining medicine.

With shaking hands, I opened the box and saw the tiny writing on the foil.

Vitamins.

Vitamins. Vitamins...

Fucking vitamins.

I laughed.

And kept laughing until salty tears ran into my mouth.

They'd lied to me.

The adoptive parents I'd been so grateful to, whom I'd respected so deeply, had lied to me like this.

I didn't sleep that night.

All I could think of was the time I'd spent in the basement, stripped of dignity.

Darkness, thick with a man's distinctive smell.

My swollen belly. The pain of childbirth...

Everything disgusted me.

In one night, the gratitude I'd felt for my adoptive parents became a hatred so fierce I wanted them dead.

Sure enough, before long, my mother tried the same trick.

She said her heart operation had failed. Corrective surgery would cost even more.

"Ningning, the boss from last time is willing to help. But he wants another baby with you. Could you help me just once more?"

I answered readily.

"Of course."

She left happily.

She still didn't know I'd looked it up online.

They had comprehensive health insurance. They didn't need to worry about being unable to afford treatment.

The instant she turned away, my smile vanished.

They'd driven me to this.

They'd never truly considered me their own daughter.

That was how they could use my body for money without a second thought.

I walked out of the house.