OEBSAS |Chapter 16

Shao Xian had always had everything go smoothly, and had basically never suffered a setback.

He sympathized with Chen Baizhou, and he thought Chen Yu was going too far, but he did not truly understand what desperation felt like.

But now, he had figured it out.

Chen Baizhou had never done anything wrong. The one at fault was the abuser. Even if Chen Baizhou had found someone to break Chen Yu’s leg, that was still Chen Yu bringing it on himself.

So when he heard the child answer uneasily, “Yes,” he instead felt relieved.

After Chen Baizhou answered with a trembling voice, bitterness surged up in his heart.

He was so despicable. He had people beat Chen Yu. Would Shao Xian dislike him?

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have hit people…” the child apologized pitifully, with a sobbing voice.

Shao Xian sighed, took a tissue, and wiped his tears for him, saying gently, “You are at fault. Your mistake was not to use this kind of method.”

Chen Baizhou was stunned all at once, his eyes full of confusion, a single tear hanging on his eyelash, ready to fall but not falling.

After raising him for more than a month, the child had shed his earlier gaunt, sallow look. Now his complexion was rosy and healthy, his skin fair, and with such a good-looking face, it really made people unwilling to say harsh words to him.

“Do you think your little tricks really won’t be discovered by anyone?”

Shao Xian spoke earnestly, “The highest level of making trouble for someone is when others simply don’t know it was you who made the move. Even I can guess it was you who did it, so how could Chen Yu not guess? How could Chen Changjian not guess? When they react, what will you do? Can you really make them shut up now?”

Of course, for a ten-year-old child to do this much was already quite good.

Chen Baizhou listened extremely seriously, and while listening, he revealed an admiring look.

Shao Xian felt a little guilty for no reason, feeling like he was some creepy uncle tricking a child.

“Besides, the way our family does things has always been to value integrity and honor. It’s not that we can’t use some methods. After all, some people are just disgusting, and disgusting people need to be treated specially. But no matter what, if we want to fight, we have to first make sure we’re not standing on a dangerous wall.”

Seeing that the child had listened in, Shao Xian felt much more at ease.

“You’re still young right now, and you don’t have the ability to go head-to-head with them. As the saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold, what do you think?” Shao Xian persuaded him earnestly, trying to change the child’s way of thinking.

The more Chen Baizhou listened, the brighter his eyes became. Suddenly, he curved his eyes and laughed, as if he had won some huge prize, so happy he could hardly contain himself.

“I know.” I know you’re caring about me, afraid I’ll be found out by the Chen family, afraid I’ll be retaliated against by the Chen family.

How fortunate he was to be able to meet such a good person.

The child was really obedient and lovable. Shao Xian could not help reaching out and pinching his cheek, smiling as he said, “You’ve finally put on a bit of meat.”

Chen Baizhou let him pinch him, his eyes curved, clearly happy because of Shao Xian’s closeness.

“Actually, I don’t want you to keep staying in the Chen family,” Shao Xian said as he let go, “It’s just that everyone lives together. You carry the Chen surname, but you don’t live in the Chen family home, so it’s inevitable people will talk behind your back.”

It could not be said that Shao Xian was selfish. He was the second young master of the Shao family. No matter what he did, he had to think of the Shao family. He could not let others secretly curse the Shao family for snatching a child from the Chen family, and he also could not let others curse Chen Baizhou as a traitor and the like.

Presumably back then, when Chen Baizhou insisted on returning to the Chen family on his own, it was also for this reason.

But privately, Shao Xian also did not want Chen Baizhou to return to that wolf’s den of a Chen family. These past few days, he had been thinking about this: if Chen Baizhou did not have to face the Chen family people anymore, would his psychological problems be easier to cure?

When Chen Baizhou heard this, it was as if something had filled his heart, bulging and swelling, and all the uneasiness, self-reproach, and self-disgust from the past few days disappeared without a trace.

He could clearly sense that the person in front of him was sincerely caring about him.

That one sentence was enough.

He was not afraid of Chen Yu now. He was only afraid that Shao Xian would not want him.

“Baizhou, do you want to break away from the Chen family?” Shao Xian asked seriously.

Chen Baizhou opened his mouth, but his throat felt sour and astringent, and he could not say a word.

Of course he wanted to!

The child stared quietly into Shao Xian’s eyes, and it took him a long while to find his voice again. In a low, hoarse voice, he said, “I want to.”

Shao Xian beamed sincerely.

These past few days, in addition to worrying about Chen Baizhou’s problems, he had also been thinking about how to make the Chen family willingly give up Chen Baizhou.

In front of businessmen, especially businessmen like Chen Changjian, interests were always the first priority.

Although the Shao family did not often use some special methods, that did not mean they would not use them. To deal with someone like Chen Changjian, he had to be thicker-skinned than him.

He had not let Chen Baizhou use tricks just now because Chen Baizhou was still young, his outlook on life had not fully formed yet, and after suffering so much abuse in the Chen family, if there was no outside intervention, who knew whether the child’s psyche might develop even more serious problems.

If they solved the problem with violent methods right now, then after reaping the benefits, this sense of achievement would only grow bigger and bigger, and it would not be good for Chen Baizhou’s growth.

That was why Shao Xian would not let him do those things.

But to rescue Chen Baizhou from that place in the Chen family, they still needed a little bit of a scheme.

In his previous life, because of Fu Baizhou targeting the Chen family, Shao Xian had specifically studied the Chen family’s rise to wealth, and he still remembered one of Chen Changjian’s turning points in life very clearly.

If his estimate was not wrong, it should be soon.

“I have a way, but it might wrong you a little.” Shao Xian’s expression was somewhat hesitant.

Chen Baizhou smiled especially softly and sweetly. “It’s fine.”

Shao Xian sighed inwardly. How did such a well-behaved child become like that in his previous life?

It was all the Chen family’s fault!

He leaned close to Chen Baizhou and whispered in his ear, telling the child his plan. The more Chen Baizhou listened, the brighter his eyes became, and he almost could not suppress his admiration.

As Shao Xian spoke, he looked at the child’s jade-white ear. Seeing that the ear moved slightly because of his breathing, he only felt it was extremely adorable and very much wanted to reach out and touch it.

But he still forced himself to suppress the impulse.

“What do you think?” After finishing the plan, Shao Xian drew back to a normal distance and asked Chen Baizhou.

Chen Baizhou nodded hard. “Okay.”

Anyway, he would listen to Shao Xian about everything.

Shao Xian was very action-oriented. As soon as he finished making the plan, he was going to take Chen Baizhou out, but Chen Baizhou stopped him.

“What is it?”

“The sun is strong outside. Auntie Cai said that if you go out, you should apply some sunscreen so you don’t get sunburned,” Chen Baizhou replied.

Shao Xian’s skin was too delicate, and that was something everyone could see.

“We’re going by car. We won’t be exposed to much sun,” Shao Xian said, too lazy to put on that stuff.

Chen Baizhou looked straight at him with his beautiful eyes. Because he had just cried, they were still shining with watery light, making it hard to refuse him.

“Fine, fine,” Shao Xian said, glancing around, “Where’s the sunscreen?”

Chen Baizhou pressed his lips together in a smile, ran to get the sunscreen, then ran back and opened the bottle cap, pouring some into his palm. “I’ll help you.”

Shao Xian was glad not to have to do it himself, so he simply closed his eyes and let him work.

Chen Baizhou’s expression immediately became extremely solemn and serious, as if what was in front of him was a priceless piece of porcelain that needed to be handled with the utmost care.

He spread the sunscreen out little by little, and after finishing his face, he applied it to his neck. After finishing his neck, he applied it to his arms.

While he was applying it to Shao Xian’s arms, Shao Xian had already opened his eyes, his gaze falling on Chen Baizhou’s focused face.

From the perspective of a thirty-year-old Shao boss, the child knew gratitude, had a quick mind, and if he could be properly nurtured, he would definitely become something great.

He did not know how the Fu family had treated the child after taking him back in his previous life, but in Shao Xian’s heart, he already had a plan.

Even if the child returning to the Fu family was destined, he still had to cultivate the child into someone sufficiently outstanding before the Fu family came looking.

The Fu family members were not easy to deal with either. In his previous life, Fu Baizhou had been able to gain a foothold in the Fu family, and who knew how much ridicule he had endured, and who knew how much effort he had put in.

He could figure it out with his toes that a youth who had suffered abuse in the Chen family until his teens, once he stepped into another bloodless battlefield, would face even heavier pressure.

The more smoothly Shao Xian had lived, the harder Fu Baizhou’s life had been.

So in his previous life, Shao Xian losing to Fu Baizhou again and again was actually not unjust at all.

A towering tree forged by adversity was not something a sapling growing in a greenhouse could compare to, no matter how much it bared its teeth and brandished its claws.

“Done.” Chen Baizhou was just about to put the cap back on when Shao Xian grabbed his wrist.

Shao Xian rubbed his hair. “Aren’t you going to put it on?”

Because of his words of concern, Chen Baizhou curved his eyes and smiled again, the tear mole under the corner of his eye tugged by it, as if it had come alive.

In his previous life, Fu Baizhou had never smiled.

For some reason he could not explain, Shao Xian ghosted by a divine impulse and pulled the child into his arms, as if he wanted to use the embrace to dispel all the gloom and pain in Chen Baizhou’s heart.

“You look really good when you smile.” He praised sincerely.

The sunscreen in his hand immediately rolled to the floor, and Chen Baizhou’s whole person went completely blank.

He only heard that in his thin chest, a heart began pounding fiercely, thump thump, thump thump. Shao Xian had praised him for being good-looking, Shao Xian was hugging him!

Since the time he could remember, no one had ever hugged him.

So this was what being hugged felt like. It was really so warm.