Chapter 14
Chi Aibei took a taxi to the mall. He came out of a gym on the third floor, holding two newly purchased membership cards. He was about to take a picture and send it to Lin Xiu when his phone rang.
Chi Aibei answered the phone. “Hello? Brother?”
On the phone, Chi Wendong’s voice was flat. “I heard your father’s lung cancer has recurred. The family called for you to go to the hospital to see him one last time?”
Chi Aibei was looking for a quiet place to avoid being overheard, but hearing Chi Wendong’s words, he stopped, surprised. “How did you know?”
Chi Wendong’s reaction to Chi Aibei’s confession was even more speechless than hearing about his father’s lung cancer. “Thanks to you, I just received a call from your school’s headmaster, offering condolences for our father.”
Over the years, Chi Wendong had seen Chi Aibei’s antics countless times, but he was still shocked. When he received the call from the school, he hadn’t suspected Chi Aibei was lying and truly believed something had happened at home.
He was out of town on a business trip these past two days. Before he left, Chi Fu was fine; how did he suddenly get lung cancer?
It wasn’t until he called home and heard Chi Fu’s strong voice over the phone that he realized what was going on.
The child had grown up and become successful. After the death of his parents, he had now arranged another illness for the family.
Chi Aibei had no choice but to resort to this tactic. If he hadn’t said that, the school gatekeeper wouldn’t have let him out. He just wanted to get a membership card and go back; he hadn’t planned to wander around. He thought no one would notice, but why did the gatekeeper report him?
Chi Wendong didn’t ask why he lied and ran out. He sighed. “Where are you now?”
Chi Aibei didn’t know whether to tell the truth or continue lying. “Wanda… Hospital.”
Chi Wendong paused, almost not understanding which “hospital” that was. Chi Wendong said helplessly, “Did you open it?”
Chi Aibei took the opportunity to plead poverty. “I have no money.”
Nonsense! Zhou Mingming had returned his twenty thousand yuan; Chi Wendong hadn’t confiscated the money, so how could he have no money?
At any other time, if Chi Aibei said he had no money, even knowing he’d squandered the money, Chi Wendong would give him some, but today he was truly angry.
Chi Wendong didn’t respond. “Stay there and don’t wander around. I’ll send someone to pick you up.”
Chi Aibei responded with an “oh,” without asking who would pick him up. After hanging up, he wandered around the mall, stopping in front of a store selling small fish-shaped cakes, seeing many people queuing. He had nothing to do, so he joined the queue.
After queuing for over ten minutes, it was his turn, just as a fresh batch of fish-shaped cakes was ready. He ordered two red bean-filled ones, and they were still hot when he received them.
The fish-shaped cakes were only palm-sized and smelled milky. Chi Aibei was impatient, taking a bite; the red bean filling was steaming hot, burning his mouth, preventing him from taking a second bite.
“Lao He, look, isn’t that the fool?”
He Chenjiang and Qin Wanpeng had just finished dinner upstairs and saw Chi Aibei standing there, constantly blowing on the fish-shaped cake in his hand. He Chenjiang frowned.
The fish-shaped cake was too hot to eat immediately. Chi Aibei was about to find a place to sit when he looked up and saw Qin Wanpeng on the escalator, grinning and waving at him. It was hard to tell who was the fool.
Chi Aibei rolled his eyes. “Bad luck.”
The fish-shaped cake shop was right next to the escalator. Just as Chi Aibei was about to go around to find another escalator, He Chenjiang came down from the escalator.
He Chenjiang asked Chi Aibei, “Who did you come with?”
Chi Aibei didn’t want to deal with him. “I came by myself.”
The school wouldn’t let him out alone; He Chenjiang knew this better than anyone. Unless his family picked him up, but if it were his family, they wouldn’t leave him alone.
He Chenjiang looked around. “Lin Xiu brought you out?”
Chi Aibei was already impatient. Hearing Lin Xiu’s name from him, he suddenly looked up and glared. “Good dogs don’t block the way. Move!”
Chi Aibei wasn’t going to go around. Why should he?
He was about to go downstairs when Qin Wanpeng suddenly raised his hand to stop him. “What’s wrong? You don’t recognize people after changing classes? You found a new patron. Lin Xiu’s just good at studying, right? I heard his family isn’t doing well.”
Such a glib tongue, always mentioning someone’s family background, and hanging around He Chenjiang. Chi Aibei knew who it was without asking.
He looked at Qin Wanpeng.
He remembered this person—He Chenjiang’s lackey, who had been a lackey for many years. The rumor that “Lin Xiu was being kept by He Chenjiang” had spread from his mouth. No matter how much Lin Xiu achieved to repay He Chenjiang, in his mouth, it was all obtained by “sleeping his way to the top.”
He relied on his family’s money to look down on Lin Xiu, subtly encouraging his friends to humiliate Lin Xiu, as if only by stepping on someone he had once envied could he feel superior.
Chi Aibei became increasingly angry. He looked at the fish-shaped cake in his hand and suddenly squeezed it hard—the steaming red bean filling “biu!” shot out from the hole he had bitten, splattering Qin Wanpeng’s face.
Qin Wanpeng jumped in place. “—Damn it! Fool, what are you doing?!”
Chi Aibei looked at the squashed fish-shaped cake, feigning innocence. “Oh, my fish-shaped cake threw up.”
Qin Wanpeng was severely burned. The area splattered with red bean filling was burning, as if he’d been whipped.
Chi Aibei dropped the foolish act and looked coldly at Qin Wanpeng. “Have some self-respect. Didn’t your family teach you that gossiping about others’ family background is ill-mannered? What does your family’s wealth have to do with you? It’s not your money. Others being good at studying is their skill, and yours is gossip?”
He Chenjiang looked at Chi Aibei in astonishment… This wasn’t the fool he knew.
Qin Wanpeng: “You—”
“Chi Aibei!”
Someone called out from downstairs.
Chi Aibei looked down through the glass railing and saw Lin Xiu walking up the escalator. He was wearing gray work pants, a black windbreaker, a black baseball cap, and something like a bandage on his right hand.
The slender teenager looked somewhat frail, but compared to his image as a three-good student in school uniform, the Lin Xiu before him was like a different person, not just in clothes but in aura. Everything about him was different.
He Chenjiang had always thought Lin Xiu was easy to manipulate, especially after knowing his family’s financial difficulties. He had even planned how to buy Lin Xiu off, but now he suddenly felt he had misjudged him.
Chi Aibei abruptly pushed past He Chenjiang and ran to the escalator to wait for Lin Xiu. When Lin Xiu stepped onto the escalator, Chi Aibei stared at his hand. “Brother, what happened to your hand?”
Lin Xiu didn’t answer Chi Aibei. He untied the bandage on his hand, glancing at He Chenjiang, who had been pushed by Chi Aibei, and Qin Wanpeng, whose face was half red. “What are you doing?”
Qin Wanpeng was complaining to someone when he saw someone who could control Chi Aibei arrive. He said, “He just now…”
How could Chi Aibei let him ruin his image in front of Lin Xiu?
Chi Aibei raised his hand, pointing at Qin Wanpeng and He Chenjiang, complaining. “Brother, they stole my fish-shaped cakes!”
He Chenjiang: “…”
Qin Wanpeng: “???”