Vireo was speechless.
After a long while, he coldly asked, "Dad, am I you and Mom's biological son?"
"Why are you not? Are you making blind guesses again? Who do you take after to have such a suspicious character!"
"I think I didn't take after you for that. You're not suspicious of anything!" Vireo was so angry that he started to talk back to his father.
"You! You're talking back to me now?" his father said.
"If your biological son had been accepted by a college, would you have gotten in the way of his future?"
"Of course, not!" Lucius blurted out.
Vireo laughed. "Haha!"
He cried. "And yet, you said I am your biological son?" "You're very capable now, aren't you? You play tricks t o get words out of my mouth and you even talk back t o me. Don't pull all this nonsense on me! No matter what, your mother and I are the ones who raised you. We have raised you since the day you were born! The kindness of raising a child is greater than just delivering the child! Has it been easy for us to raise you? The purpose of us raising you is so that you can care and serve us when we get old. If you've left us after becoming a college student and never return to this place again, then who should we lean on?" Lucius said.
Vireo was tempted to say, 'Lean on your three daughters then!' However, he did not say it. He knew that those words were too hurtful. After all, they were his parents who had raised him, fed him, and let him g o to school. No matter what, he could not rebel against his parents.
Who cared about his biological parents? They brought him into his world but they did not raise him. Instead, they sold him off. When he thought about his biological parents, Vireo felt that his adoptive parents were just a little selfish but they were not bad people.
The boy was only able to get through that summer with endless envy and sorrow. He watched as other students, who had worse grades than he did, got into college. He watched as others ushered in a new hope while he, on the other hand, could only firmly stand by his parents and work odd jobs on the streets. When his parents' sand business was getting busy, he would then go to the quarry to help his parents. After a year, his dream of going to college seemed to have been worn away.
In fact, only Vireo knew it himself that he had been studying very hard till midnight every night. He had never let himself fall back for a day. He was just waiting for an opportunity. He was waiting for the chance to talk some sense into his parents. He was hoping to make his parents feel touched through being obedient to his grandparents and parents and through his contribution to the family. He wanted to let them know that even if he had left for college, he was still their son. A person who had left their home would eventually return to his rooms, and he would still return after all.
He had even thought it through that he wanted to take two majors. One of the majors was going to be in teaching and the other major was going to be in medicine. He hoped that when he returned to this county after he had graduated, he would either be a teacher to educate others or be a doctor to treat and save lives.
After one year, although he had been a heavy workload every day and had turned himself into a tough young man, he did not fall behind his studies at all. When the college entrance test was almost open for registration, Vireo wanted very badly to tell his parents that he wanted to take the test. He plucked up the courage and came outside of his parents' room. When he was about to knock on the door, he heard people talking inside the room.
"Say, this area is going to be demolished soon. How should we divide these six storefronts?" That was his mother's voice.
"What's so hard about dividing six storefronts? Two for Chloe, two for Ashnah, and two for Abigail. The three sisters will get two each. It couldn't be any fairer, " said Lucius in a very casual tone.
After Vireo's mother thought about it, she laughed. " That's right....that is very fair."
Vireo, who was outside of the room with his hand already on the door, was speechless.
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