TFS | Chapter 33

Today, Qi Yue didn’t skip class. He went through a full day of lessons in order, then left school under the astonished gazes of a group of people, planning to go home.

Today was Friday, the monthly family banquet day. Although there were not many people left in that household now, just him and the old bastard, he still decided to go back for a trip.

It wasn’t for anything else. Mainly, there were still some problems that hadn’t been solved, and he had no choice but to go back. Just thinking about that made Qi Yue feel a little irritable.

When he got back to the villa, the butler came running over with a cheerful smile to open the door for him. He looked to be in a pretty good mood, and as expected, a familiar and authoritative figure was sitting in the living room.

Qi Yue had his backpack slung over one shoulder. He lazily brushed his fringe back with his fingers, then greeted the old man sitting in the main seat. “Mr. Qi, you’re back, old man.”

To be honest, Qi Yue and his father didn’t have too bad a relationship. It was just that their personalities were too similar, so whenever they were together, it was easy for them to start arguing.

Aside from finding him plenty of nominal stepmothers, the old bastard had never mistreated him. From childhood to adulthood, none of his food, drinks, clothes, or daily necessities had ever been lacking.

After greeting him, he tossed his schoolbag aside and flopped onto the sofa, too lazy to pay him any mind, a textbook useless rich boy.

How should he put it? Even if he was his biological son, Qi Hui still thought this brat was a little too punchable.

He looked him over back and forth. The more he looked, the more irritated he felt. The boy had no posture sitting, no posture standing, and not a trace of scholarly elegance anywhere on him. How had he ended up with such a useless spendthrift of a son?

Dinner passed in a bland, lukewarm blur.

Qi Yue barely ate a few bites before glancing at the time and preparing to head upstairs. The old man behind him darkened his expression and set down his chopsticks with a sharp clap. “What, are you planning to give up on the materials you asked for?”

Qi Yue stopped in his tracks. That was what he had been waiting for all along. The moment he heard that, he immediately sat back down. “Don’t be like that, old man. I’m your biological son, after all. You don’t want to see me lazing around all day, do you?”

Just looking at him made the old man annoyed. He knew his own son’s personality better than anyone. There was no way he had asked him for help for no reason.

Before coming back, he had already sent someone to the school to look into things, and the result was that he learned this brat had been dating someone at school. The reason he wanted to change wasn’t because he had suddenly matured and become steady. It was because that girl was a genuine top student, and he was afraid of getting dumped, so he wanted to work hard and chase after her.

Although it sounded a little pathetic, it still counted as a prodigal son returning to the right path.

Even as he looked down on him, the old man also let out a quiet sigh of relief.

When he was young, he had been busy with his career, and because of his marriage, he had gradually paid less attention to the family. Before he knew it, he had neglected his son’s growth.

That had led to Qi Yue growing more and more crooked as time went on. Especially after he entered high school, the rebellious side of his personality gradually surfaced, and skipping class and fighting became routine.

At one point, he had even thought that he had ruined this son of his. He figured that as long as he didn’t cause any real trouble, he might as well turn a blind eye to the messy stuff that could be solved with money.

After all, there was a big part of this brat ending up like this because he himself hadn’t fulfilled his responsibilities as a father. Qi Hui still felt a little guilty, so he had tried his best to make it up to him materially.

But now, looking at the brat in front of him completely absorbed in romance and acting so careless, the old man’s head hurt again. He snapped, unable to hold back his anger. “Look at the little bit of promise you have.”

“All because of a girl, you’re still so young and already unwilling to strive for anything. You’ve learned nothing useful, but you went and learned how to date? Tell me, what kind of look is that?”

Qi Yue didn’t care what he said. He shot back smoothly, “Didn’t I learn to date from you? If we’re talking about not striving for anything, I’m nowhere near as good as you.” He had so many stepmothers he couldn’t even recognize their faces anymore.

The old man cursed back at him. “You little brat, what kind of attitude is that? Is that how you talk to your old man?”

Qi Yue just shrugged, looking completely unconcerned and wilful. “I’m just telling the truth. I can’t even date without you trying to interfere? Besides, you’re no better yourself. What, your rule of conduct is just that the magistrate may set fires, but the common people may not light lamps?”

The old man nearly fainted from anger. He grabbed a stack of materials from the table and threw it at him. “What lamp are you lighting? Your old man paid for your food, your drinks, your schooling, spent all that money on you, and all you learned was how to date. You’re even chasing after someone and still afraid of getting dumped. Aren’t you embarrassed saying that out loud?”

Qi Yue didn’t think it was embarrassing at all. So what if he was the one chasing after her? If he managed to win her over, that would just mean he was capable, okay.

He took the materials and couldn’t be bothered to argue anymore. He flipped through them once, then again, before his brows slowly drew together. “Did you get the wrong materials? Why are they all foreign schools?”

The old man gave a cold snort, his eyes filled with undisguised disdain. “With your grades, you still want to get into a domestic university? I’m not looking down on you, but those schools all rank very high in their fields here in China. You can’t get in just by throwing money at them.”

“The schools Old Zheng picked out for you are all ones I’ve looked at too. Their professional programs are world-class, and overall their teaching quality is still very good. They’ll be good for shaping you up.”

“If you really want to change yourself, think about these schools. Once you’ve decided, I’ll arrange things early. After the gaokao, I’ll send you abroad.”

He was someone who believed that out of sight meant out of mind. If he locked the boy into a closed, militarized management school and didn’t let him out until he got his diploma, he refused to believe he still couldn’t train him properly.

Qi Yue said nothing. His face was expressionless, and no one could tell what he was thinking.

But his mood was clearly not good. Qi Yue stared at the materials in his hands, thinking that if he went abroad, did that mean he wouldn’t be able to see her often anymore? But if he didn’t change the current situation, what right did he have to stand beside her?

The boy lowered his eyes, flipped through the page edges with his fingers, and said indifferently, “Let me think about it. I’ll tell you after I’ve thought it over.”

He was in a terrible mood right now. Just thinking that he would be separated from Xu Linruan for a very long time made it hard to breathe, like there was a weight pressed against his chest. More than unease, what he felt was reluctance.

How long had the two of them even been together? She was his first love, a girl whose smile made him want to give her everything he owned.

This was the first time he had ever liked a girl so much. He couldn’t bear for her to suffer even the slightest grievance. He wanted to change himself for her, wanted to use all his strength to give her the best life, then support her for the rest of her life.

But none of that could be realized just by talking. He needed time to grow.

It was all because he had realized his feelings too late, because he hadn’t known that liking someone meant holding her carefully in both hands and cherishing her.

If he had known earlier that he would meet such a girl who made his heart race, he would have grown up sooner, become the kind of person she liked, and then become her reliance, shielding her from wind and rain.

Because he wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, stand by her side, and become more worthy of her, going abroad was the best choice he could think of for now.

Because of that, he felt even more irritable. It meant he had no choice but to agree to this request. After thinking it through, Qi Yue turned around and went upstairs with the materials in hand. He was radiating low pressure from head to toe, and even the butler didn’t dare provoke him casually when he saw him.

…………

That night, he made a video call to his girlfriend. Once the call connected, the bad mood that had been suppressed all day finally eased a little.

The voice on the other end was clear and slow. The girl seemed to be working on practice problems, her long eyelashes looking like butterfly wings under the light. “What is it? Did you call me for something?”

Qi Yue sat down with his legs bent, leaning forward slightly. His voice turned soft and clingy. “I miss you, girlfriend.”

Xu Linruan lifted her eyes slightly, her gaze landing on the boy in the little student posture in the floating window on her phone. There were a few smudges on that handsome face, and he seemed to have no idea at all. He just stared at her without blinking, that clingy gaze practically like a miser staring at his own property.

Xu Linruan calmly looked away. “Didn’t we just see each other during the day?”

Compared to her calmness, the boy opposite her was practically overflowing with enthusiasm.

“How can that be the same? Men in love have memory like it’s negative numbers. This is what they call not seeing someone for one day feeling like three autumns, you know?” He held up his phone and adjusted his posture so she could see him clearly.

Xu Linruan rolled her eyes at him. “You have so many things to say.”

Even after being disliked, the boy didn’t get angry. On the contrary, because of his girlfriend’s response, he looked a little happy. He held up his phone and grinned so widely that he couldn’t close his mouth. “Ruanruan, look at me. Look at me, okay?”

The way he was grinning made him look a little stupid.

Xu Linruan set her phone on the stand and pulled out a set of practice questions to check the answers. The guy in the floating window stretched his neck to watch her movements, and that curious expression made him look especially dumb. “Ruanruan, what are you looking at?”

“A test paper.”

Then he craned his neck as if trying to see through the screen, his voice careful and tentative. “Let me see it.” Unhappy with her look of disdain, the young master held up his phone and kept whining, “…Let me see it.”

“See what? You can’t do it anyway.” Xu Linruan shot him a glance.

The young master was obviously hit hard. He drooped his head like a deflated ball, looking like a puppy with its ears down. He had originally wanted to seize the chance to find a topic and keep talking, but this one wouldn’t do. He really couldn’t do it, sob sob.

But he wasn’t someone who gave up that easily. The young master climbed up from the desk and muttered in a soft, aggrieved, and depressed voice, “It’s fine if I can’t. I can learn.”

Xu Linruan was surprised in her heart, and her brows lifted slightly. “Hmm? So obedient? Don’t you hate this kind of stuff the most? Are you saying that if I ask you to learn something, you’d be willing to learn it?” She didn’t really take this kind of verbal promise seriously. It was just talk, who knew whether he would actually be serious about it?

But the guy opposite clearly took it to heart, and cared a lot. He held up his phone and tried to pledge his loyalty on the spot.

“I’m willing.” The boy looked at her with serious eyes. He stressed, “Ruanruan, whatever you want me to do, whatever you want me to learn, as long as it’s what you want, I’m willing to do it.”

Those eyes on the other end were wide open and shining as they stared at her. Even through a screen, one could see the seriousness in that gaze.

Xu Linruan gave him a meaningful look. She wanted to say, Then if I ask you to break up, will you break up too? But seeing the heat in that guy’s eyes, she ultimately didn’t say it. If she did, he would probably keep pestering her all night again.