Chapter 42

So almost no one had ever thought to connect the names “Xi Siyan” and “Xi Yucheng.”
After a bunch of college students joked around Jing Miao’s dad and mom for a while, Hang Wan suddenly pointed at him again and gasped, covering her mouth.
“Xi! Xi! Your surname is Xi! Holy—Xi Siyan wouldn’t be your… no no no, impossible, it’s a coincidence, right? A coincidence? Jing Miao’s dad is Xi Siyan’s dad—how could that be?!”
“Holy crap!”
“My god!”
“No way, no way—Leader, is your son Jing Miao or Xi Siyan?!”
“Come on, impossible! If Leader were Xi Siyan’s dad, wouldn’t the whole school know?”
“Hahahaha, right—no way, no way!”
“Maybe relatives? Like Xi Siyan is your nephew or little cousin or something?”
“If you say that… they do look kind of alike…”
Xi Yucheng said, a little exasperated, “Uh… actually, I am Xi Siyan’s father.”
Everyone: “……”
Hang Wan stared at Su Wan. “Then you’re…”
Su Wan, proud as anything: “They’re both my sons!”
The entire crowd fossilized in the wind.
The class monitor, who hadn’t spoken once, squeezed forward.
“Can we take a photo with your family, Leader? Then I can brag later: not only am I alumni with the leader’s son, I was classmates with the leader’s other son too!”
“Yeah yeah! Can we take a photo? Can we?!”
“This is so surreal—same class as the secretary’s son… or son-in-law… and taking photos with the secretary?”
“Ah! The nation owes me parents like this, wuwuwu!”
Su Wan laughed so hard she nearly couldn’t breathe. She nudged her husband.
“Looks like our leader is quite popular. Everyone line up—who’s going to take the photo for us?”
“Of course, Auntie! Last year when Leader came to our town, the issue with the immoral developer taking our farmland got solved!”
“And that year’s snow disaster! Leader was the first official to arrive, right? Stayed with the people for half a month—ate and lived together with everyone! My parents kept saying his name back then!”
“Yes! And also, and also…”
The crowd bustled and somehow it turned into a group photo session centered around their family of three.
Jing Miao wasn’t used to this kind of enthusiasm.
But when the camera shutters clicked, he stood between Su Wan and Xi Yucheng as the two of them held him close. Around them were adorable classmates; across his chest, bright sunflowers.
The bitterness of Xi Siyan missing his graduation eased a little.
This world was noisy and bright—everything beautiful in it had been given to him by Xi Siyan.
“Oh my god, we finally finished taking pictures—we’ve been waiting forever!”
Song Fuxue and Zhong Yuan came up carrying flowers.
“Happy graduation, Miaomiao!”
Then, to Su Wan and Xi Yucheng: “Hello, Uncle and Auntie. We’re colleagues from Xi Siyan’s institute.”
Jing Miao froze. His arms were already full of flowers; Su Wan waved for Uncle Yang to come help.
“Oh, thank you! You still remembered our Miaomiao’s graduation.”
Zhong Yuan grinned. “Good thing we remembered, or we wouldn’t get to meet the leader today.”
Xi Yucheng laughed awkwardly. “Heh… heh heh. Just… call me Uncle.”
“Thank you, Sister Song. Thank you, Brother Zhong Yuan,” Jing Miao said shyly.
Song Fuxue thought: Xi Siyan really is something—bringing his dad out like this. What a lineup…
Fang Heng also stood to the side.
“Hello. My name is Fang Heng. I’m a colleague at Xi Siyan’s institute. Nice to meet you, Jing Miao.”
Jing Miao nodded bashfully. “Hello.”
Before he could say more, someone else came over with flowers.
“Happy graduation, Miaomiao!” Wang Song arrived with Gan Zisen carrying bouquets too. “Oh wow, we waited forever. Uncle’s popularity is even higher than Siyan’s.”
“Thank you, two gege!” Jing Miao beamed.
Su Wan smiled and helped him hold flowers. “Why are you two here too?”
Wang Song gave a mischievous grin. “How could we not be? This is a perfect chance. Later I’ll have material to piss Xi Siyan off—everyone in the world came to his wife’s graduation except himself. He’ll be mad for a year.”
Zhong Yuan and Song Fuxue gasped. “Me too! That’s exactly what we were thinking!”
Gan Zisen widened his eyes. “Comrade! Who told him to blind us with PDA every day!”
Realizing Xi Siyan’s parents were still present, Wang Song got embarrassed.
“Uncle, Auntie—we’re just joking.”
Su Wan shot him a glare, pretending to be angry, then laughed.
“Honestly… we are too. You have no idea—this little brat wouldn’t let us attend Miaomiao’s graduation before, said we’d steal his spotlight. I was furious!”
Everyone laughed. Fang Heng could only smile along.
What he saw was this:
Xi Siyan’s family and friends all gathered around this boy—so introverted he almost seemed out of place—smiling, sending him flowers, taking pictures of him, as if the whole world revolved around him.
Fang Heng didn’t accept it.
They’d been together so long—could this delicate greenhouse flower, so obviously mismatched with Xi Siyan’s world, really keep a good relationship with him?
Wasn’t it obvious? Xi Siyan didn’t even come to the graduation.
And where were Jing Miao’s biological parents? Nowhere in sight. Maybe he didn’t even come from a particularly good family—otherwise why would it be Xi Siyan’s parents attending?
Thinking that way made Fang Heng feel better.
He was an Ivy PhD candidate. In every way, he was better than Jing Miao.
And Xi Siyan…
Xi Siyan was also excellent in every way—family background, character, looks, ability. There was no one better than Xi Siyan.
And yet someone that perfect had already come out, married, long ago.
Jing Miao couldn’t say much. He listened as they teased him, blushing as he hid behind Su Wan.
Fang Heng, sharp-eyed, noticed Jing Miao didn’t seem very happy.
He deliberately asked, “Jing Miao, you don’t look very happy. What’s wrong?”
One sentence, and everyone’s minds began working furiously.
Zhong Yuan, inner voice: *Here it comes, here it comes!*
Song Fuxue, inner voice: *Jing Miao will say it’s because Xi Siyan didn’t come. Then the next line will be: does your husband not like you, are you two not doing well, are you getting divorced—damn it, I already have the script!*