chapter 8

Mu Nuannuan handed two pieces of paper napkins to Sheng Liang. She had not told Shen Liang about Moo Tingxiao, hence her shocked reaction the moment she heard what Moo Jiachen said.

Moo Jiachen, clueless about the twists and turns of the matter, was apparently stunned by Shen Liang’s reaction. As he sat down, the perplexed Moo Jiachen asked Mu Nuannuan, “What’s wrong with my name?”

“Nothing, your name’s alright.” Mu Nuannuan patted him on the head.

Acknowledging with an “Oh”, he just sat there quietly, totally unlike his talkative nature. It seemed that the Moos were all good actors.

“This is Moo Jiachen, Moo Tingxiao’s cousin,” Mu Nuannuan said after she organized her thought. With Shen Liang’s eyes still on stalks, she continued, “The Moo Jiachen you’ve met before is Moo Tingxiao.”

“Huh?” Shen Liang nearly lost the thread. A long while later, her brows were knitted together. “You mean the previous ‘Moo Jiachen’ is Moo Tingxiao, and this cute kid is the real Moo Jiachen?”

“Yeah.” Mu Nuannuan nodded. She then noticed that Moo Jiachen was blushing.

“What’s wrong with your face?” she asked, a little shocked.

“He’s shy.” Shen Liang still looked confused. “Why did Moo Tingxiao want to disguise himself as Moo Jiachen? Does he have schizophrenia or DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder)? No, that’s not right. That’s not the most important thing. The fact is, not only is he not disfigured, but he’s also super handsome!”

Moo Jiachen, who was still in the dark a while ago, finally put two and two together. He looked at Mu Nuannuan, frowning.

Mu Nuannuan poured him a glass of water. “Good boy, have some water.” She then looked over at Shen Liang. “Keep your voice down.”

Shen Liang covered her mouth with her hand and mimed a zip-up motion. She was trying to digest the news that “Moo Jiachen” was Moo Tingxiao and that he was very handsome as well as presumably not impotent. She did not say this in front of the kid, instead, she took out her phone and sent a text message to Mu Nuannuan.

“So he isn’t a limp d*ck, I suppose? Have you tried doing it?”

Mu Nuannuan, on the other hand, did not want to answer her lewd question. So, Shen Liang turned to Moo Jiachen, all smiles.

“Hey, handsome boy, how old are you?”

“Fourteen.” He blushed again.

“Oh, fourteen, and you’re already this tall. You’ll be a handsome man when you grow up.”

“I suppose, yeah,” Moo Jiachen replied matter-of-factly.

His narcissism was no surprise to Mu Nuannuan; she was immune to it. But Shen Liang was amused, laughing her head off.

Mu Nuannuan looked over at him. “Handsome boy?”

“Stop calling me that…” He was still blushing.

“He’s feeling embarrassed?” Mu Nuannuan could not believe that Moo Jiachen was capable of being embarrassed.

Shen Liang’s happy-go-lucky personality and Moo Jiachen’s talkativeness turned the atmosphere into a lively affair. Halfway through, when Moo Jiachen went to the washroom, Mu Nuannuan finally got the opportunity to tell Shen Liang about Moo Tingxiao.

“There’s something I haven’t told you before. Moo Tingxiao was shot before. When I removed the round from him, he did not even bat an eyelid or pass out.”

She saw the changed expression on Shen Liang’s face. The Moo Family had the wealth and social standing to command respect, but their family affairs were also complicated as hell. Besides, not every Tom, Dick, and Harry had access to firearms.

“Who is Moo Tingxiao, really? How could he have gotten shot?” Shen Liang frowned.

Mu Nuannuan never thought of those questions before. She was probably still in awe of Moo Tingxiao’s mental toughness. Why did someone shoot him? What was he doing, actually?

“It looks like things are a lot more complicated than we think. A wealthy family like the Moos is supposedly very conscious of their reputation, but they’ve done virtually nothing to curb the negative news about Moo Tingxiao all these years. They even got him into an arranged marriage with Mu Wanqi, but he ended up marrying you. Even if Moo Tingxiao’s a cripple, logically speaking, they wouldn’t have allowed him to marry a Mu.”

Mu Nuannuan did not mind what Shen Liang was saying since they were as close as sisters. Mu Nuannuan nodded, agreeing with Shen Liang’s analysis.

“I have the same questions in my mind, but I can’t figure out why. They agreed on the marriage arrangement when my grandpa was still in the country. I heard that he left the country a few years after that. That’s as far as I can still remember.”

“I heard about it too. When Moo Tingxiao and his mother were abducted back then, the Moos had sent a rescue team to look for them. By the time they found them, the mother was dead and Moo Tingxiao was found alive but disfigured. Later, he allegedly suffered from ED (erectile dysfunction). Then news of his arranged marriage with Mu Liyan's daughter came about.”

Someone from Shen Liang’s family was a politician, and that was why she had a little insider information about the case. Back then, Mu Nuannuan had heard about the case from the mouth of her family members, but it was nothing too in-depth.

“That means the marriage arrangement between the Moos and the Mus probably has something to do with the kidnapping case?” Mu Nuannuan analyzed.

“It’s possible,” Shen Liang said.

Mu Nuannuan fell into deep thought. There was more to the marriage arrangement between Moo Tingxiao and Mu Wanqi than met the eye. Grandpa Mu’s sudden departure abroad had to have something to do with this.

“What’s your plan now?”

At first, Shen Liang was still happy for Mu Nuannuan when she heard that “Moo Jiachen” was Moo Tingxiao. But after she heard what Mu Nuannuan said, she became worried. Behind the glamor of the wealthy families was some funny business going on. For the heir of the Moo Family to be able to stay under the radar for so many years, it spoke volumes of him.

“I don’t know. Let’s just wait and see,” Mu Nuannuan said self-deprecatingly.

Since the day of her marriage, she had lost control of her life. Most of the time, people had to succumb to fate. You could neither stop nor go back; you could only move forward in the tide of fate. There may be light at the end of the tunnel. Who knows?

Shen Liang did not know what to say, and all of a sudden, there was silence. Just then, Moo Jiachen returned with someone behind him. When he stepped aside, a familiar face appeared.

“Nuannuan, this is my elder brother.”

Mu Nuannuan looked up and saw a gentle face she recognized.

“Si Chengyu!”

“Si Chengyu!”

Shen Liang and Mu Nuannuan called out in unison.

“He’s your elder brother?” Shen Liang asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Moo Jiachen scratched his head as he answered.

“But his surname is Si while you’re a Moo…” Mu Nuannuan had met Si Chengyu several times but never associated him with the Moo Family.

“My elder brother adopted my mom’s maiden name while I, my father’s,” Moo Jiachen explained.

Si Chengyu smiled at Mu Nuannuan. “Thank you for taking care of Jiachen all this while.”

“You’re welcome.” Mu Nuannuan was now a little confused.