Outside the door, Wu Tingsheng was so excited he almost rushed in.
His son, on normal days, to put it nicely, just wasn’t very bright, but he was obedient and never caused trouble.
To say it bluntly, even the family members couldn’t be bothered with him, so of course he wouldn’t go out and stir up trouble.
Now, with just one sentence from Wen Yan, his son actually took the initiative to respond. How could Wu Tingsheng not realize—Wen Yan had spotted the root of the problem at a glance and found the most suitable way to break through.
He held himself back, clenched his fists tightly, and stood by the door watching, not daring to go in and disrupt them.
Wen Yan saw that the boy seemed to be lost in thought, but she wasn’t in a hurry. She just waited quietly.
After waiting for two or three minutes, the boy finally seemed to figure out what Wen Yan’s words meant, and he asked slowly,
"What do you want to ask me?"
"The part you filled in—where did you get it from?"
The boy stared blankly at Wen Yan, not speaking for a long moment. He couldn’t make sense of her words.
Wen Yan thought for a bit and asked again.
"Did you ever get anything before?"
The boy was still in a daze. After a while, he just shook his head, unsure if he didn’t understand or just didn’t know.
Wen Yan decisively gave up—she’d better go ask Wu Tingsheng instead.
"Don’t rush to paint anymore. It’s better to find a teacher, really study properly, and then take it step by step.
As you gradually understand more, sometimes inspiration hits, and then you can paint works with soul.
This kind of crazed, mechanical painting is useless—for you, at least, it’s pointless.
You can start by doing something outside of painting. For instance, eat your meals on time every day."
The boy didn’t quite understand, but he more or less got the idea.
Wen Yan was the first person to immediately see what he wanted to do and to express it. Instinctively, he trusted Wen Yan’s words.
Wu Tingsheng saw his son put down the brush and walk out of the studio. He was instantly overjoyed, nearly brought to tears.
"Dad, I’m hungry."
"Alright, alright, we’ll eat right away."
Wen Yan was invited to stay and eat with them. The boy was very obedient—she told him to eat properly, and he really did eat properly.
After the meal, she let him go watch cartoons on his own, while Wu Tingsheng followed Wen Yan to the study.
"Wen Sheng, thank you so much. As long as he eats his meals on time, I’m honestly already satisfied."
Wu Tingsheng took out two red property ownership certificates and handed them to Wen Yan.
"The building you live in—I already handed it over to Scorching Sun Department before, and now we’ve just got all the paperwork done together. The other one, the paperwork’s been wrapped up all at once too."
Wen Yan was a little surprised. They’d just talked about this yesterday, she hadn’t even gotten a penny or done anything for him yet, but Wu Tingsheng had gone and sorted out the paperwork already.
All in one day. Wen Yan had no idea it could be done that fast. Wu Tingsheng was not only spending big, he’d gotten everything ready in advance—without waiting for the results.
Now Wen Yan felt a bit embarrassed. If she didn’t do her best to help, how could she justify taking these?
Wen Yan pushed the two certificates back.
"No hurry. Whatever’s meant to come will come. Do as much work as you get paid for. If you give them to me now, I can’t accept."
"It’s all the same. Just seeing things like this, I’m already very satisfied, really. My boy neglected sleep and meals, and no matter how many times our family tried to persuade him, nothing worked. He’s already started showing signs of malnutrition. If this kept going, I was afraid his body would give out. As long as he’s okay, the rest is up to fate."
Wu Tingsheng spoke sincerely. Things were already developing in the worst direction, so just a little improvement made him happy. His son had been like this for years—he was used to it. If he could just hope for his son’s health, that was enough.
Wen Yan fell silent for a moment.
"Let’s talk about this later. For now, let’s focus on the main point.
This time, we’re lucky I could see what’s on him right away.
He doesn’t have just one problem."
"What do you mean—not just one?" Wu Tingsheng immediately tensed up when he heard that.
"One problem is, the soul damage is real. It’s most likely due to what happened to him as a child.
But I have to warn you: after all these years, the chances of finding that missing part are very slim.
We can only try in the future, see if there’s any way to mend it.
But the other problem is: that missing part of his soul is partly replaced by a fragment of someone else’s soul.
I remember you saying he suddenly knew things he shouldn’t have, and sometimes he’d suddenly be clear-headed, right?"
"Yes, yes, that’s happened. I kept track of everything because I was afraid I’d forget." Wu Tingsheng pulled out his phone—his notes app had all the dates marked down.
Wen Yan just glanced at it—it was enough to remember. She couldn’t glean much else from it.
"During the time when those changes happened, did anything unusual occur? Did he visit anywhere special, or did the family bring in anything out of the ordinary? Think carefully."
"There really wasn’t anything special. He didn’t go anywhere either. He never even left the house then. The family didn’t bring in any antiques or anything like that.
Ever since my boy got in trouble, I moved all the old family items out, let alone brought anything in.
I don’t even mess with antiques anymore. Who knows where they come from, what they carry?
I’ve been extremely, extremely careful."
When Wen Yan heard this, she couldn’t help but feel a headache.
A shut-in who never leaves the house naturally won’t run into anything odd. The family didn’t even keep any old stuff with a whiff of a backstory. How are they supposed to find any clues?