Shen Yu's big eyes darted around, his little head busy plotting how to pluck out hair. Even Lin Yujing couldn't keep the corner of her mouth from twitching, and she helplessly tapped her son's not-so-bright head.
Leaving aside the fact that a minor couldn't get a paternity test on his own, even if Shen Yu slapped the results down in front of them, wasn't he worried everyone would suspect someone was behind him?
Yes, Shen Yu had no such concern at all. An ordinary person born and raised locally, Shen Yu had spent his time either studying or working, with absolutely none of that so-called experience of society.
"We're not busy these next couple of days, and it's rare for us all to be together. Little Yu, do you want to go out?" Anxious to learn his biological younger brothers' whereabouts, Shen Xubai could only hint tactfully to his not-so-sharp little brother.
"Yes!" Shen Yu's muddled little head finally picked up the signal. Then he tentatively held out his little hand. "I want to find my friends?"
There was hope!
The Shen Family's spirits soared. They looked at Shen Yu expectantly but discreetly, waiting for the boy to give them specific information.
Shen Yu also nervously straightened up, schooling his little face as he tried hard to remember. His head was filled with that maddening baritone voice.
[The living conditions were utterly appalling, with neither running water nor electricity, and urine used to flush down feces...]
[In a deep, dark alley, several boys with brightly dyed hair slowly closed in on the corner...]
No, that wasn't it!
Shen Yu anxiously tugged at his cowlick, unable to understand why he remembered so much useless nonsense when he couldn't even recall the protagonist's name.
"Argh!" Worked up, Shen Yu jumped in agitation, his little legs shuffling frantically in place. He wished he could dart back to his original world and listen again to what the novel had said.
Shen Xingshuo, too, had gone from initial anticipation to numbness, then distressed shock, and now speechless resignation.
What exactly were they expecting? For this scrawny kid, whose brain seemed only half functional, to make some major contribution?
"I want to look around the nearby schools." Remembering only that the biological child's living conditions were poor, Shen Yu guiltily wrung his hands. "To see everyone's living conditions."
Not knowing why the Shen Family hadn't found their biological child in the same city, Shen Yu blamed it all on the author's setup and clenched his fists, determined to help find him.
Despite all the holes in his words, the Shen Family nodded in unison without pointing out the flaws in the young boy's phrasing.
The family of five headed out in force. Shen Xubai drove, Shen Changgeng sat in the passenger seat, and Shen Xingshuo pressed Shen Yu's head toward the window to look outside.
"Do you know where your... friends live?" Shen Xingshuo looked eagerly at his little brother.
Shen Yu guiltily bobbed his cowlick, trying to rescue his head. "No!"
He had never been here either. He was relying entirely on his recollection of the words and his imagination.
[The deep alley was dilapidated, and the surrounding trash cans gave off a foul stench. The boy curled up in a corner, faced with everyone's malicious abuse. All he could do was protect his head.]
After two hours of aimless driving, they had gotten nowhere and reached yet another intersection. Shen Yu shook his head, which was almost worn smooth from all the handling, his wavering voice full of uncertainty.
"Do we go left?"
For heaven's sake! Who were you asking?
With no hope left, Shen Xubai drove aimlessly under Shen Yu's directions until they stopped in a cramped residential neighborhood, where all five had to get out.
Just as Shen Yu had imagined, the residential neighborhood was not only cramped but noisy and dim, with countless deep alleyways. They could only wander around tentatively.
Shen Yu hadn't realized there was anything strange about the whole family searching for someone without any reason. His mind was filled with the biological child living such a miserable life.
A biting wind swept past their ears. Shen Xubai silently pulled up the hood behind Shen Yu's head and tenderly covered the boy's cold-reddened cheeks with his hands.
Though adopted, Shen Yu had long since become a member of the Shen Family. Finding the biological younger brothers was neither his responsibility nor his duty.
Perhaps they were lucky, for before they had walked far, they really did hear shoving and shouting in a dark alley. Even from a distance, the ill intent in those voices was clear.
Passersby on the street kept their heads down, as though they didn't know what was happening, or perhaps they were used to this sort of thing. Without the slightest hesitation, they chose to pass it by.
Shen Yu swallowed. The words in his head matched the sounds. This had to be the Shen Family's biological child, right?
Just as Shen Yu was struggling over how to speak up and stop them, the hot-tempered Shen Xingshuo stepped straight forward and roughly shoved aside the delinquent boys on the outside.
The thugs had hair dyed every color of the rainbow and seemed not to have expected anyone to interfere. But when they saw Shen Xingshuo standing alone, along with his expensive watch, they grinned and laughed arrogantly.
"Another score! We're so lucky today. Are rich young masters lining up to go traveling on the cheap?"
The thugs thought nothing of the 180-centimeter-tall Shen Xingshuo. They had done plenty of bad things and held school students' empty moves in utter contempt.
Behind him, Shen Xubai raised his brows slightly. "All out traveling"? According to Shen Yu, wasn't their biological younger brother living in poverty?
Shen Xingshuo had a quick temper and couldn't help lashing out when he heard that. As captain of the basketball team, he held nothing back in a fight, either.
The thugs were used to relying on their numbers to collect tolls from passersby, but they hadn't brought knives. Shen Xingshuo suffered a few superficial injuries, but he didn't let them get the better of him, either.
Naturally, Shen Xubai and Shen Changgeng wouldn't stand by and watch their own child get bullied. Their deft attacks left Shen Yu's jaw hanging in shock, and in the end, he watched the thugs leave, cursing and swearing.
Security in the residential neighborhood was poor, and since the thugs hadn't used knives or caused any deaths, the police wouldn't do much to rein them in. Everyone could only let them leave.
What none of them noticed was that the bullied boy hiding in the corner quietly slipped the small knife in his hand into his sleeve, then raised his head with a pitiful, aggrieved expression.
[Hmm... so this was the real young master?]
Shen Yu hurried forward. Looking at the boy, who appeared down-and-out and utterly pitiful, he felt terribly guilty.
Compared with a frail fake young master like himself, raised in a golden nest, the boy wore plain clothes. Fear and helplessness flickered in his eyes, making him look like a poor little thing who had suffered oppression for years.
"It's all right now. Shall we take you to the hospital?" Seeing his two younger brothers at a loss, Shen Xubai tried to appear as approachable as possible to the boy. "Where are your other brothers?"
"I have an older sister. She went missing." The boy lowered his brows slightly, concealing the probing look at the corners of his eyes, his voice carrying a trace of a sob.
"Don't cry. I..." Seeing how dirty the boy's hands were, Shen Yu immediately handed over the tissues he had on him and discreetly helped remove the grass from the boy's head.
Helpful little student Little Yu failed to notice that when the boy described his family, the light in the Shen Family's eyes abruptly dimmed.