Chapter 35: A New Life – Abandoned

Ran Feng Ge didn’t say anything out loud but he was guessing in his heart who this older boy was.

An Mu was taller than Ran Feng Ge by almost two heads. He leaned over slightly and said with a smile: “I’m your Gege!”

[TN: gege = older brother]

Gege?

Ran Feng Ge bit down on his lower lip as he glanced at An Mu. An Mu’s smile was very gentle and welcoming, he had a slightly feminine aspect to his handsome features, very unlike papa’s rugged handsome good looks – An Mu likely resembled mama more?

Oh that’s right! Where’s mama?

Ran Feng Ge slowly looked behind An Mu towards the porch behind him, there was a lady with curled hair in a long dress walking towards them. As soon as the lady laid her eyes on Ran Feng Ge, she felt herself stumble a little, this child is actually very cute and adorable looking…

As she made her way to Ran Feng Ge, she reached out a hand to gently ruffle his head: “Yangyang, don’t you recognize mummy?”

Ran Feng Ge dodged her hand, his gut telling him to be wary of this woman before him.

He did not know why but the emotions he sensed from this woman did not make him feel at ease, in fact, it made him feel like this woman held fury towards his appearance.

Even though he managed to dodge the offending hand, Ran Feng Ge’s little hands were still attached to the back of An Mu’s jacket. It was already evident that Ran Feng Ge felt safe when An Mu was around.

Master An finally stepped forward: “Alright, alright. Yangyang has only just been discharged from the hospital and had to fly back home immediately after. He must be exhausted by now. Let him rest and recover, who knows, he might regain his memories tomorrow? Come, let’s get inside!”

An Mu pulled Ran Feng Ge’s hand into his: “Yangyang, would you like gege to show you to your room?”

Ran Feng Ge nodded silently before finally speaking: “En.”

The two young children walked before the adults and quickly disappeared into the mansion.

Master An finally turned to his wife and said: “Remember. You are to care for him diligently. I do not want anything untoward to happen to him. Understand?”

“Don’t you worry, I will treat him as though he were one of my own.”

“En.” Master An hummed before saying: “Let Xiao Mu take care of him too.”

“I understand.” After deliberating for a moment, Mistress An asked: “Should we bring Xiao Chen and Xiao Ya home as well then?”

“No! Not at the moment.” Master An iterated, “They are both still too young. What if once they see Yangyang, they say something they are not supposed to? They are both still not even of age to start kindergarten yet, might as well leave them with your parents for now.”

“… Alright then.”

With that, all negotiations regarding this matter were finished. With Ran Feng Ge’s little hand still in his, An Mu pulled his new little brother into the house and quickly up the stairs to the room his mummy had only just redecorated two days prior. With a push, An Mu opened the door leading into the room: “Yangyang, this here was your room!” and then pointed to the next door down the corridor, “And this here is mine! I am right next to you, there were times when you would come crawling into my bed in the middle of the night.”

Ran Feng Ge entered his room, he could hear An Mu talking to him, but he did not want to answer. He scanned the room, looking from the bed sheets to the study table – suspicions once again clouding his eyes.

This room did not appear to be lived in, everything looked as though they were new and fresh. The bed posts were new and the study table was too clean and tidy – why were there no photos or family portraits?

Family portraits… Wait… Photo shoots… Photos…

Ran Feng Ge leaned against the study table, his brows furrowed together as his brain ached suddenly. He could recall something from his missing memories, something that had to do with photos and a photo shoot.

Was he supposed to have gone for a photo shoot with someone? Who was it? And what ever happened after that? Was it with his gege?

Turning around to look at An Mu behind him, Ran Feng Ge disagreed with that notion in his heart. It wasn’t him.

No. That other person… He was not as tall as An Mu, and his age was closer to that of Ran Feng Ge.

An Mu made his way to stand before Ran Feng Ge. Seeing that his face was scrunched up in confusion, An Mu couldn’t help but ask “Yangyang, what’s wrong?”

Ran Feng Ge shook his head: “Nothing.”

“If there is something wrong, you have to tell gege okay!” An Mu said patiently as he looked kindly at his little brother.

He had realized in the short time together, Ran Feng Ge was not someone who liked to talk, he was not too sure if it was because Ran Feng Ge was suspicious about the whole situation or he was just a very quiet boy.

Likely… Likely it was because Ran Feng Ge was too vigilant?

And this was how Ran Feng Ge’s life began with the An Family.

The initial vigilance Ran Feng Ge had about the whole situation slowly dissipated the more he spent time with An Mu; the closer he got to An Mu. At this point in time, An Mu was already old enough to attend junior high, he was also allowed to board in the school dormitories, however, An Mu decided to commute to school just so he could spend more time with Ran Feng Ge. Ran Feng Ge also learned to enjoy spending time in the backseat of An Mu’s car playing with his gege during the daily commute.

The children here all knew how to speak English, and so Ran Feng Ge also started to learn English alongside An Mu; he was very smart and a quick learner, it didn’t take him long to be on par with all the other kids his age.

Perhaps it was all to do with the innocence of children, anything that once worried them, they could easily overcome. Even though he was an amnesiac, it didn’t affect Ran Feng Ge one bit.

Ran Feng Ge was cute, adorable, obedient, and smart, without any ulterior motives. He easily gained the affection of everyone he met.

Master An and An Mu couldn’t help but love Ran Feng Ge more and more each time they met him.

It was especially evident in the case of Master An, he even hired tutors after tutors to aid in Ran Feng Ge’s education.

In the beginning, Master An didn’t want to register Ran Feng Ge to attend the local school because he was afraid the secret would be exposed. In a school, there was bound to be a large number of students, even if Master An prepared for everything he could think of, he could not control the mouths of the other students and their parents. Ran Feng Ge was a very intelligent child, if there was even a hint of incongruity, the secret would be exposed immediately. This child of his was obtained after many trials and tribulations; he was not going to let him go that easily.

Therefore, in the beginning he used the excuse of Ran Feng Ge having only just been discharged to stop him from going to school.

However, it was not long before Ran Feng Ge’s innate intelligence reared its head.

One day, during An Mu’s piano lesson, Ran Feng Ge who had been lounging on the couch near him with his head resting on his arms enjoying himself couldn’t help himself from commenting after An Mu played a wrong note: “Gege, the note you played just now was wrong! It is supposed to be Re not Mi.”

An Mu looked at the piano score and with a chuckle: “Yangyang is so amazing! Gege did play the wrong note!”

“Punishment! Punishment! Punishment!” Ran Feng Ge yelled as he leapt off the couch and ran up to An Mu, placing his arms around An Mu’s shoulders, “The punishment for gege is to take me out to play!”

An Mu could never say no to Ran Feng Ge, and so he would ride his bicycle with little Ran Feng Ge riding tandem behind him to go enjoy the sun and sights.

Where they lived, very beautiful scenery could be seen all around them. Just a short ride away by bicycle was a little hill; in spring, the little hill would be covered in all colors of the rainbow due to the growth of wildflowers. It was always so beautiful then.

The two brothers would lie amongst the flowers on the little hill and cloud watch, their little conversations going on and on without interruptions.

Because of this incident, An Mu found out about Ran Feng Ge’s talent in piano and could not help but boast about this fact to Master An when he next saw him: “Yangyang is so talented daddy!”

And with that, Master An started hiring tutors for music, literature, English, economics, finance… whatever could be taught and learned, they were all hired. Because of this, Master An then found out that this little son of his was so much more than he had expected – Ran Feng Ge was already well versed in quite a few subjects such as finance and business economics. Furthermore, he absorbed new knowledge very readily, and it was due to this that Master An’s adoration for his new son grew even deeper, perhaps even more so than that for An Mu.

An Mu was by far not a stupid child, he was very intelligent as well. However, he was quite a few years older than Ran Feng Ge and all his knowledge was a given due to the education he had access to. Whereas, Ran Feng Ge was so much younger but he was already so talented!

These few months that Ran Feng Ge had been in the An Family, Master’s An attitude and expectations towards him had changed drastically for the better, and because of this, Mistress An couldn’t help but grow anxious at the new glow of adoration her husband had towards his illegitimate son.  What worried her even more was that with things going how they were, she had no doubt that Master An might even consider changing his heir and cast An Mu aside! The one who might inherit the entire business empire might become Ran Feng Ge and her own son, An Mu might be pushed into second place.

This would not do. No. She had to come up with a plan to ensure An Mu’s status…

Mistress An’s plan would finally come into fruition two months later.

At that time, it was already in the middle of winter, it was right at the time where Master An had left for a business conference in Washington and Mistress An had taken both An Mu and Ran Feng Ge to New York for some fun at a winter theme park.

An Mu and Ran Feng Ge had been having the time of their lives playing together at the theme park, both had such happy smiles on their faces. However, Mistress An could not help but feel irritated at the happy smile on Ran Feng Ge’s little face.

Just a little more… Ran Feng Ge, you won’t be so happy in just a while…

After taking them to a few locations to play, when it was finally time for them to depart back for home, Mistress An first gave An Mu a couple of sleeping tablets; An Mu could not help himself from yawning even though he was desperately trying to stay awake. Mistress An had also planned ahead and left behind a bag back in the hotel room, once the car was ready to set off, Mistress An turned to Ran Feng Ge: “Yangyang, Mummy forgot my bag back there, can you please help mummy to go get them? I think I left it on the couch in the room we stayed in.”

An Mu struggled to open his eyes: “I.. I will go.”

Ran Feng Ge quickly removed his safety belt and hopped out of the car: “I will go, gege you must have played too much yesterday night and that’s why you are so tired now. You go and sleep, I’ll be right back with the bag!”

With that, An Mu allowed his heavy eyelids to finally droop closed and soon dropped off to slumber.

As Ran Feng Ge’s little shadow disappeared through the hotel doors, Mistress An quickly stepped down hard on the accelerator and drove off as quickly as she could.

Fighting the sleep, An Mu could tell something was amiss but no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to force his eyelids open.

Ran Feng Ge, with his little arms around the bag that had been forgotten, skipped merrily down the stairs and out the front door but came to an abrupt stop once he realized the car was gone.

Stunned and confused Ran Feng Ge could not understand what had just happened. Unless something had happened while he was gone – could something have happened to mummy and gege? But even if something had happened, shouldn’t they have waited for him?

He scanned the roads and quickly spotted a familiar car slowly getting smaller in the distance.

The confusion quickly turned into horror and anxiety as he hugged the bag to his chest and began to chase after the car: “Mummy! Wait for me!”

The fear in his heart started to grow exponentially until Ran Feng Ge started crying: “Mummy! Gege! I’m here! I’m still here! Mummy! Gege! Wait for me… Please wait for me…”

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Translator: Jypoonie
Proofreaders: Lyrick