The four stood before Meng Chuan, their expressions unreadable. None betrayed a hint of emotion.
Nor did any of them speak. They simply watched Meng Chuan in silence as the tension steadily mounted.
Meng Chuan looked at each of them in turn, smiled, and said:
"What is this, a tribunal?"
Shi Hao said sternly, "Don't laugh. Who said you could laugh? You need to understand how serious this is!"
"Take this seriously," Ye Fan said with a straight face.
"Comrade Meng, it seems you still haven't recognized your mistake!"
"Acting like this puts us in a difficult position."
"Heh..."
But as he spoke, Ye Fan suddenly started laughing himself.
He couldn't keep a straight face.
"Uncle Meng, sorry for putting you through so much trouble," Ye Fan said, his voice tinged with emotion.
"You've looked after us since we were little. I never thought we'd still be relying on you to do all this for us today."
Looking back, Ye Fan finally understood why Meng Chuan had advised them against leaving home, and why he had been so mysterious whenever their breakthroughs came up.
The reasons behind it all were far more complicated than he had imagined.
Strictly speaking, though, Ye Fan's claim that Meng Chuan had looked after them since childhood was not entirely accurate.
It fit Shi Hao, Ye Fan, and Chu Feng well enough. Meng Chuan really had been there as all three grew up.
But it did not fit Ruthless at all.
Of the four, Chu Feng wore the most conflicted expression. He knew the least about Meng Chuan, and everything he had just learned left his thoughts tangled like a ball of thread.
Yet Chu Feng was actually the least affected.
Unlike Shi Hao, Ye Fan, and Ruthless, he had not gone through his experiences