OEBSAS |Chapter 2

The light was dim and blurry, and the world seemed to have a double image.

Shao Xian’s head was heavy and foggy. He wanted to reach out and rub his eyes, but a person decisively caught his hand.

“Don’t rub them. It’ll hurt your eyes.”

The man’s voice was low, and it seemed a little familiar, but he could not remember it for the moment.

“A, assistant, get my assistant over here.” Shao Xian felt that he was probably drunk, and his head was spinning even worse.

“I’ll help you to the lounge first.”

The man came a little closer, and a faint, strange fragrance drifted over, making Shao Xian come to his senses for a few seconds. He could not help but raise his head to look.

His eyelashes were extremely long. Right now, they were lowered, hiding the emotions in his eyes. At the lower end of the outer corner of his left eye, a tear mole was clearly visible.

Fu Baizhou!

Shao Xian suddenly sat up from the bed, his back a little damp with sweat.

A few strands of morning light slipped in through the crack in the curtains. He knocked his head a few times. Why had he dreamed about Fu Baizhou?

Dreaming of his mortal enemy was really not a good omen.

After calming down for a few minutes, he quickly got out of bed, slipped on his slippers, and ran to the bathroom to let out water. Just after he put on his pants, he heard a knock at the door.

“Xianxian, get up. There will be guests coming to the house today, and there will also be some little kids.”

Cai Yalan said gently.

“Mom, I’m up. I’m just about to brush my teeth.”

He answered toward the door, and Cai Yalan went downstairs in peace.

Although Shao Xian was favored, the Shao family had always upheld independence and self-reliance. Shao Xian started taking care of himself very early on. Although his personality was a little spoiled and unruly, he never was careless about serious matters.

It was precisely because of this that Cai Yalan could feel at ease spoiling him.

Shao Xian stood on a small stool brushing his teeth, looking at the childish face in the mirror, and silently sighed.

Could it be that he had to go through a miserable student era all over again?

At ten years old, he was in fourth grade. The elementary school to middle school entrance exam was fine, but the key was the middle school entrance exam and the college entrance exam.

He was already thirty years old, and the knowledge he had learned before had basically been forgotten. Just thinking about it made him feel tired.

However, no matter what Shao Xian did, he treated it seriously. Even if this was a dream, he would not give up on life because of it.

After washing up, he wore home clothes and went downstairs. When Cai Yalan saw him run down, she directly came forward and held him in her arms, kissing him once on each cheek. “Our Xianxian is the most handsome today!”

If it were the ten-year-old Shao Xian, he would definitely have been quite pleased by these two kisses, but now that he was thirty on the inside, honestly speaking, he was a little shy.

“Cough!” Shao Boyuan put down the newspaper, and his eyes glanced over.

Shao Xian was very sharp, and quickly said seriously, “Mom, the most handsome person in our family is clearly Dad, the second most handsome is Big Brother, and I am the ugliest.”

Shao Yun laughed heartily. “Xianxian, you praise me so much that I can’t bear not to give you a present.”

“Brother, even if you don’t give me a present, you are still the second most handsome!”

Shao Xian walked over and sat beside him, his little mouth as sweet as if it had been coated with honey.

Seeing him become lively again, Cai Yalan felt completely reassured and said with joy, “Who said Xianxian is the ugliest? He’s clearly the prettiest!”

What she said was not false at all.

Although Second Young Master Shao was a little tyrant, the children of the same age all wanted to play with him. First, because their parents had repeatedly warned them, and second, because Shao Xian really was good-looking.

Children were the most pure looks-obsessed of all.

Shao Xian inherited his looks from Cai Yalan. His eyes were big and bright, his eyelashes were astonishingly long, and his nose and mouth were all very delicate, but there was not the slightest bit of effeminacy, because his eyebrows were like his biological father’s, so he looked sharp and spirited.

In terms of appearance, as long as Shao Xian did not grow up ugly, he was definitely one of the best in the Shao family.

As it turned out, he really had not grown ugly. On the contrary, the older he got, the more noble he became.

The birthday banquet was held at noon. After breakfast, Cai Yalan specially changed Shao Xian into new clothes and looked him over from left to right, so satisfied she could not stop smiling.

“Why is my son so cute?” she said, and again leaned over wanting to kiss him twice.

Shao Xian reached out his small hand to push her away. “Mom, I’m all grown up now. Don’t just kiss me whenever you feel like it.”

“Okay, okay, I won’t kiss you,” Cai Yalan said with a smile. “After you greet the uncles and aunties later, you can go play with the little kids, but don’t run around randomly, understand?”

Shao Xian agreed repeatedly.

He had basically forgotten who came to his tenth birthday, except for Qian Wenjie.

At the time, he mistakenly thought it was Qian Wenjie who had kicked him, so he had always treated Qian Wenjie coldly. But he and Qian Wenjie really did have a fated bond. From fifth grade until the end of high school, they were always in the same class. Plus, Qian Wenjie’s character was indeed pretty good, so the two of them became close brothers.

Later, Qian Wenjie even helped him go after Fu Baizhou together, not afraid that Fu Baizhou would anger and make the sky turn cold and the Qian family collapse.

Thinking of this, he could not help but laugh.

“Xianxian is so obedient! Come, go downstairs with Mom.”

Shao Xian obediently let her lead him down. He received many praises from the guests, and he kept a faint smile on his face the whole time, looking like an elegant and noble little prince.

Under everyone’s gaze, he blew out the candles. Shao Yun smiled and helped him cut the cake, then distributed it to the children.

In this kind of setting, the adults naturally would not touch the cake.

The children held pieces of cake and left the banquet hall together. Everything looked beautiful yet illusory.

Shao Xian was not interested in the sweet, greasy cream, and even less interested in this kind of setting. He was rather listless and was just about to go to the garden for some quiet.

“Shao Xian.” Someone called him from behind.

He turned around, and a pair of thick eyebrows suddenly came into view.

“Qian Wenjie, why aren’t you going to play with them?” Shao Xian tilted his chin toward those children.

Qian Wenjie shook his head. “I just moved here, and I don’t know any of them. Besides, they’re all playing with Chen Yu.”

He disliked Chen Yu, so naturally he would not be in cahoots with them.

The Chen family was not especially outstanding in the villa district, but around Chen Yu there gathered a whole group of children.

As for the reason, it was probably because Chen Yu was tall and burly, and every gesture he made carried a bit of “underworld vibe,” making people unable to help but trust him.

He often formed little cliques to isolate some child for a few days, and after a few days, he would bring people to accept that child again. Although this kind of behavior was very deserving of a beating, the children really ate it up. After being tormented, they became even more loyal.

Although Shao Xian was favored, his upbringing was also very strict. The Shao family had principles in how they acted and did things. Shao Xian looked down on people like Chen Yu, so naturally he never paid them any mind.

“Then play with me in the future. You don’t need to know them either.” Shao Xian said sincerely.

Qian Wenjie’s eyes immediately sparkled. “Shao Xian, you’re so good! Then we’ll be friends from now on?”

When they were at the hospital, Shao Xian had helped clear up his wrongful blame, so he had already had a very good impression of Shao Xian. Now that Shao Xian wanted to be friends with him, he was even happier, and his two eyebrows seemed so excited they were about to knot together.

Shao Xian could not help but laugh out loud. “Your eyebrows are really on par with Crayon Shin-chan’s. Qian Crayon.”

Qian Wenjie was not the least bit angry. Instead, he laughed along with him. “Everyone says that.”

“Come on, I’ll take you to stroll around the garden.”

As the host, Shao Xian naturally had to bring his friend to inspect their territory together.

The two of them walked into the garden side by side, and Qian Wenjie let out a “wow.” “So pretty!”

The Shao family’s garden had always been personally maintained by Cai Yalan. Cai Yalan had excellent taste, so the garden was decorated in a way that was quite pleasing to the eye.

Shao Xian was used to looking at it and did not think much of it, but Qian Wenjie was just a bumpkin, and his eyes were completely captivated by the various colored flowers.

“I’ll take you over there to have a look.”

Shao Xian curved his lips and walked briskly in front.

“Didn’t you like eating cake? Eat it, eat it for me! Why aren’t you eating anymore?”

From not far away, a malicious voice vaguely came over, followed by a string of echoes.

“A bastard is indeed a bastard, actually stealing cake to eat too. So shameless!”

“Brother Yu told you to lick it! Why aren’t you licking it? Want to die?”

“You’re really dirty! If you don’t lick it clean soon, watch out that your vixen of a mom won’t let you in the door, hahaha!”

“Say something! Hurry and kneel on the ground to beg Brother Yu to forgive you, otherwise we’ll beat you!”

“Brother Yu, this garden isn’t that fun either. Why don’t we just ride a horse?”

The malicious voice sounded again. “Sure, but there isn’t a horse here. How are we supposed to ride it?”

“Brother Yu, isn’t there one ready-made right here?”

The other children all burst out laughing, and one after another reached out to press a little child down on the ground, shouting for him to crawl and kneel on the ground to be their horse.

The child had red and green cream all over his head, one eye was still smeared shut by cream, unable to open at all, and the other was beaten black and blue, only able to force it half open.

He wanted to resist, but he had no strength. He had not eaten much of anything for two days already.

Several children forcefully pinned him to the ground, exposing his narrow and bony back. His spine was arched high, as if the Zhaozhou Bridge in the textbook that had weathered wind and frost.

Tenacious, yet fragile.

“Brother Yu, hurry and come ride the horse!” the children shouted excitedly.

It seemed that tormenting others could bring them immense satisfaction, cruel and unaware of it.

Chen Yu revealed an evil smile. He walked forward, lifted his foot and heavily stepped on the child’s back, grinding fiercely with the sole of his shoe, and then straddled the child’s back, about to sit down hard.

It seemed as if in the next second, Shao Xian would be able to hear the sound of the child’s spine breaking.

“What are you doing!”

He strode forward and shoved Chen Yu aside at once, his beautiful eyes filled with rage. He had never known that Chen Yu and the others could be this vicious.

“You’re bullying the few with the many, so shameless!” Qian Wenjie also angrily cursed.

The children holding down the child’s hands and feet looked at Chen Yu, then at Shao Xian’s face full of anger, and for a moment did not know whether they should let go.

The child on the ground was trembling slightly.

Shao Xian’s anger value shot up. “Let go of him all of you!”

He did not easily get angry, but once he did, he was not to be compared with people like Chen Yu, who were all bark and no bite.

The children were all scared into letting go.

This was Shao Xian. They could not afford to provoke him.

“Qian Wenjie, go call the adults over.” Shao Xian’s dark eyes swept over the few of them. “You lot, one and all, actually bullied someone in my family’s garden. You’re really something. None of you move. Try running one and see!”

Since other people all called him a little tyrant, then he would be domineering once and let them see!

The garden instantly fell silent, and even Chen Yu lowered his head, not daring to speak. It was just that in his eyes, besides fear, there was also a bit of unwillingness and resentment.

Shao Xian bent down to help the child up, but as soon as his hand touched the child, the child could not help but tremble and hide away.

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hit you.”

The child had his eyes closed, his head buried in the crook of his arm, lying on his side on the ground, his body curled into a shrimp.

His head was full of sweet cream, his clothes were full of shoe prints, and the exposed arm was frighteningly thin.

Shao Xian felt a wave of sourness in his heart.

Seeing that the cream around the child’s nose had blocked his breathing a little and made it difficult, he reached out carefully to wipe the cream away, then reached toward the child’s left eye, which was covered in cream.

“Uncles and aunties, over there!”

Qian Wenjie’s clear childlike voice suddenly came, and Shao Xian’s hand paused as he turned his head back.

But he did not notice that the child on the ground secretly half-opened his right eye and looked at the cream on the tip of his finger.