168: Side Story (3) Hengtang

"Year after year, seeing off guests on the Qiong Tang road, fine rain and weeping willows tie the painted boat."

As the son of a Researcher, Wen Hengtang didn't inherit any of Wen Song's talent. Although he was born and raised in MR Country, he loved Huaxia's history and culture immensely; he was a through-and-through liberal arts student.

For example, after reading a poem called "Qiong Tang," he became convinced that his name originated from it, expressing his family's sorrow of parting across the vast ocean.

It wasn't until he was nine, when he finally couldn't resist confirming the origin of his name with his father, that Wen Song told him, "I felt no sorrow whatsoever about leaving Huaxia."

Oh, it turned out this "Tang" was not that "Tang." His name didn't contain that distant and peaceful land, let alone any nostalgic sentiment of parting.

Unwilling to accept that his name was meaningless, Wen Hengtang searched all over the internet. Since he was abroad, he had to put in a great deal of effort before finally finding those two familiar Chinese characters in a remote corner of a website introducing Huaxia culture.

Qiong Tang, an alias for the traditional Chinese medicine henbane, a chinese medicinal herb.

Thank goodness, at least it was a name with an origin!

Wen Hengtang thought of his grandmother who had passed away from illness a few years ago. It seemed this medicine was among those she had taken, so the name must have been chosen to pray for her well-being. But why use the alias "Qiong Tang" instead of naming him "henbane, a chinese medicinal herb" directly? He wanted to ask his father, but unfortunately, Wen Song spent all day in the Research Institute and left him with a nanny, so he never found the chance.

So he began to ponder it himself. henbane, a chinese medicinal herb, henbane, a chinese medicinal herb... dissolute?

Oh! He understood. His father must have thought the homophone didn't sound good!

Thinking he had found the reason, Wen Hengtang was quite happy, feeling he was truly clever. But soon, another question popped into his head. There were so many Chinese medicines; why did it have to be this name?

Over the next six or seven years, he would occasionally dwell on this question.

Until one day, as he returned home from school shortly before his sixteenth birthday, he saw the rarely-seen Wen Song sitting on the sofa as soon as he entered.

"Father?"

Wen Song looked very calm. He beckoned, gesturing for Wen Hengtang to sit down.

"Your mother has passed away."

Wen Song paused, then added in detail, "She was hounded to death. You must avenge her."

Wen Hengtang's mother was named Sun Qian. In truth, he hadn't seen her many times. He only knew she had returned to her home country less than two months after giving birth to him. Later, he would only occasionally have a video call with her during the New Year, and even then, they had very little to say.

He wasn't close to his mother, so he didn't feel a very strong emotion upon hearing the news. He didn't understand why he had to be the one to seek revenge.

"Why not call the police?" Wouldn't that be better than me seeking revenge?

Wen Song's face seemed to twitch, and he suddenly erupted.

"Call the police? That's the most useless thing! I said, you must go and avenge her!"

The father and son parted on bad terms.

*

From that day on, Wen Song disappeared for a few more days. It wasn't until the night of his sixteenth birthday that Wen Song, whom Wen Hengtang thought wouldn't return, appeared before him again.

This time, Wen Song told him many things.

It turned out Wen Song had once been an intern at the Huaxia Research Institute. But on his very first day of work, something happened at home.

A wealthy young master from their hometown loved drag racing, and one day he finally crashed. The Researcher's parents were in that accident; one died and the other was seriously injured.

Originally, it would have been fine if the sentence had been passed normally, but that family was wealthy and powerful, and they forced the witnesses to change their stories through sheer bribery. Having no other choice, Wen Song sought help from the leaders at the Research Institute, hoping they could assist. But the leader didn't want to offend an investor who could provide research funding, so he refused Wen Song's plea for help. He even used his power to kick Wen Song out of the Research Institute to keep him quiet.

Consequently, with nowhere else to turn, Wen Song could only watch as that young master was released due to insufficient evidence.

That year was exactly when the mecha project was being established. Although Wen Song was just an intern who hadn't worked for many days, he had a vague understanding of the project's theme and knew something about the participants.

Therefore, to vent his pent-up rage, Wen Song took his sickly mother—who had just been discharged from the hospital—and his wife, Sun Qian, and went abroad. He planned to take this information and defect to a foreign country as a means of revenge.

Speaking of which, as a former staff member of the Research Institute, even if he had only been an intern for a few months, he should have undergone a background check to go abroad. However, in order to wipe away all traces, that leader simply erased Wen Song's internship records, so Wen Song's departure from the country went very smoothly.

A year or two later, the other illegal activities committed by that leader were discovered, and he was sentenced to death. Now, even fewer people could know that there was once a person named Wen Song at the Research Institute.

This actually made it easier for Wen Song to cause trouble behind the scenes. Thus, in league with the officials of MR Country, after several attempts and considerations, he arranged for his wife, Sun Qian—who had just given birth—to return to City A. Through threats and bribery, they forced the Zhao Family to swap the Yan Family's child, and subsequently intercepted and killed the head of the Yan Family ten years later.

Now another five years had passed, and he had instructed Sun Qian to expose the bombshell of the fake young master. He never expected that Sun Qian would actually be suspected. There was no other way; at the time, the international situation was uncertain, and MR Country could not be found out for doing such things. So, he could only persuade Sun Qian to take her own life and then have someone erase her traces.

"So it wasn't the Yan Family's fault?"

"How is it not?" Wen Song suddenly smashed the cake on the table. "It's because of them, because of these rich people!"

Wen Hengtang stared blankly at the messy cake on the floor, remaining silent.

After a long time, Wen Song finally caught his breath and broke the silence.

"I will arrange for you to learn some skills. In two years, I will send you back to the country to study."