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In the original book, Zhou Hao is the protagonist, and the main storyline also revolves around Zhou Hao and his mother Shen Baolan.
Pei Ziheng and the original protagonist act as the antagonistic contrast, simply serving to highlight the protagonist's character.
The author portrays one as having a psychologically twisted anti-social personality, and the other as malicious and foolish.
Perhaps to rationalize the storyline of the villain's abusive childhood or to emphasize the tragicness of his youth, Pei Yang and Pei Wenping, two relatives crucial to Pei Ziheng, are merely glossed over as passersby in the book.
Pei Yang died young.
As for Pei Wenping's fate, Shen Mingzhu just remembered that she passed away when Pei Ziheng was seven years old.
Pei Ziheng had a little over a month left before turning seven, which means that Pei Wenping, at most, could only live for one more year.