Wang Muguang faced the wall, his hands hanging straight down at his sides, tightly pressed against his pants seams. His expression was humiliated, and he bit his lower lip hard, full of anger but not daring to speak.
He, Wang Muguang, twenty-two years old and a top trending celebrity, still had to face the wall and reflect at home after making a mistake.
This method of punishment had started when he was little. Back then, he didn’t understand anything. His parents couldn’t bear to hit or scold him, but love couldn’t just be indulgence, they also had to think about his future life.
Education in the initial stage was the most important. Most people think education after starting school was more important since it concerned the child’s future prospects. But the Wang family believed that from the moment a child was born, all surrounding factors began to take on meaning, and this child was already learning from the world.
So they wouldn’t speak carelessly just because the child was small and couldn’t understand.
The couple loved each other deeply, and they cared for their children even more, giving them all they had. If they made a mistake, they would forgive but not indulge infinitely. They must let the child know they were wrong and that they had to correct it. Only then was it good.
Until before elementary school, Wang Muguang and Wang Huanxiu could both be said to live carefree lives. If they had to face the wall and reflect, it was like the sky had collapsed.
When Wang Muguang was young, he would cry loudly whenever he had to face the wall, repeatedly saying he was wrong. But when his younger sister came to see him, he would deliberately stop crying, feeling it was too embarrassing.
His sister would also plead for him with their parents.
In contrast, Wang Huanxiu, who was four years older, was much more mature. When eight-year-old Wang Huanxiu faced the wall and reflected, he looked completely unfazed.
He even didn’t understand why Wang Muguang cried.
Little Wang Muguang was shocked. Did his big brother have no sense of shame?
Don’t look at Wang Huanxiu’s current serious and stern appearance. Actually, when they were little, he was the most mischievous and the one who caused the most trouble among the three children.
Every morning he would go out wearing his aristocratic school uniform, and come back all dirty in the evening. Either he went rolling around playing soccer, or he dragged friends along to watch the Principal fish and accidentally fell into the pond.
Every time Wang Huanxiu came home, he would always bring small toys for him and their sister.
Wang Muguang’s voice trembled, “Big Brother, I was wrong.”
He was facing the wall, not knowing who he was talking to.
Bai Shuijin hadn’t expected it to be such a coincidence. When the two of them were running lines, Wang Huanxiu happened to come back, and they just happened to be at the most explosive part.
Wang Huanxiu sat on the sofa looking at the iPad. Hearing Wang Muguang’s voice, he didn’t even lift his eyelids. “Stand properly.”
Bai Shuijin vaguely felt the sound of the water pump truck about to start. He stood by the big vase. From the moment his laogong-ge told Wang Muguang to stand in punishment, he hadn’t dared to say a single word to him.
He tiptoed over in his slippers, carefully asking, “Laogong-ge, he’s been standing for half an hour already. How about we let him stop standing?”
The tablet went black, and Wang Huanxiu’s perfectly structured face reflected on the screen.
“Let’s talk again after another hour.”
In the corner, Wang Muguang hummed and whimpered even louder.
It wasn’t really that standing itself was so physically demanding. Standing for one or two hours was nothing unusual in a day. But because it carried the connotation of punishment, it felt much heavier.
Moreover, when he was young, Wang Muguang felt that standing as punishment was like he had committed a crime. Now, after so many years, being punished again made him not only feel uncomfortable but also think of their parents.
It had already been twelve years since their parents passed away.
When the plane crashed that year, his older brother was fourteen, he was ten, and their little sister was only five.
Wang Muguang sniffled. Suddenly a face appeared below.
He saw Bai Shuijin bending down to look at him.
“Are you really crying?”
“…”
Seeing Bai Shuijin free and walking around beside him, Wang Muguang felt even more stifled. They were acting together, so why was only he punished to stand in the corner?
He reached out and grabbed Bai Shuijin by the collar. “You stand with me.”
Bai Shuijin jumped away. “Laogong-ge is only angry at you, not at me.”
“How do you know my big brother isn’t angry at you?”
Wang Muguang glanced at Wang Huanxiu.
His big brother was about to be angered to death by Bai Shuijin.
Wang Muguang stood facing the wall for another hour before finally finishing this intense reflection.
He went up to Wang Huanxiu. “Big Brother, from now on I will definitely speak cautiously and act carefully.”
Wang Huanxiu responded with a sound and returned to his room.
Bai Shuijin looked at Wang Muguang, who was lying on the sofa, looking like he had lost the will to live. “Little Uncle, won’t you run lines again in the future?”
“Of course I will.”
He definitely had to. This was his grand career to develop internationally.
“Weren’t you going to speak cautiously and act carefully? How will you run lines?”
“Do it behind Big Brother’s back.”
“…”
At night, Bai Shuijin returned to his room. He took all the clothes and pants from his suitcase and put them into the closet. He tossed the ones he hadn’t had time to wash into the dirty laundry basket, then he took out a piece of paper crumpled into a mess from his jacket pocket and put it into his backpack.
This paper was his social practice report. He had class tomorrow morning, so he would give the report to the counselor at school.
After finishing everything, he took a shower, feeling comfortable all over as he lay on the bed. After sleeping on a hard bed for five days, lying in the bed at home felt like lying on cotton.
These five days going out to work with Wang Muguang felt very fulfilling, much happier than staying bored alone at home before.
He tossed and turned on the bed, feeling a kind of indescribable feeling in his heart.
What was he going to do in the future? Was he really going to spend his days passively with the gold card given by Wang Huanxiu? It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Wang Huanxiu would always give him money to spend.
Even without helping the protagonist, the probability that Wang Huanxiu would keep supporting him was as high as one hundred percent. Supporting him was like casually sprinkling water. But being idle made Bai Shuijin feel a deep emptiness from the inside out.
However, once he thought of the hardships of his previous life, Bai Shuijin hurriedly shook his head and threw all those thoughts out of his mind.
What was he thinking? Wasn’t this exactly the life he had dreamed of before?
He was doing very well now. He had money to spend, a big house to live in, and a handsome husband. The only thing he didn’t persist on was his dream of dancing.
There was nothing good about dancing. He remembered his ankles being so swollen in winter they didn’t even look like ankles, and walking on the ground felt like they were about to break. He also remembered the stifling dance studio, where even with air conditioning on, the corners of his clothes were still wet after practicing.
There was nothing good about it, Bai Shuijin. This life now was the best.
Being lazy and having good food was the best.
He slowly drifted off to sleep on the bed. The next morning, he was woken up by the alarm. He got up to wash and put on his backpack, ready to leave. He didn’t plan to eat at home today. He had agreed with Ji Cao to go to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was cheap and delicious, and Bai Shuijin looked forward to it.
He went into the campus and directly to the second cafeteria. Not many college students ate breakfast, so he immediately saw Ji Cao waiting for him at the entrance.
Bai Shuijin quickly walked forward.
“Fuck!”
Ji Cao suddenly looked up sharply. Who! Who was scolding him!
Following the direction of the voice, he saw Bai Shuijin running toward him with a backpack, bathed in the golden morning sunlight, full of warmth and energy.
When he arrived, Ji Cao asked him, “Why did you scold me?”
“I didn’t, I was calling your name.”
“…”
It would be better to scold him then.
Bai Shuijin and Ji Cao ate small wontons together on the first floor of the second cafeteria. The wontons here were large and had rich fillings, and were very popular among college students.
Bai Shuijin stuffed the wontons into his mouth, feeling they were really tasty. One day he should bring Wang Huanxiu to try them too.
But while the two of them were eating, there were always people intentionally or unintentionally walking past them.
Bai Shuijin noticed something was wrong and lifted his head from the wonton bowl.
The college students passing by suddenly got startled. “He’s looking at us, let’s go, let’s go.”
Several people pushed and shoved each other and fled in a panic.
Bai Shuijin couldn’t help but frown. After all, the most uncomfortable thing in the world was having someone staring at you while you ate.
“Did you lose your appetite?”
“No, it’s just that this bowl is like I haven’t eaten at all. I need another bowl.”
“…”
Seeing Bai Shuijin’s uncomfortable expression, Ji Cao swallowed his wonton and spoke. “You still don’t know, do you? You’re famous at our school now.”
He was surprised. “I’m famous?”
“Yeah.” Ji Cao nodded. “The fact that you live streamed with a big celebrity went on the hot search. Netizens all saw it. You said you were working as an assistant to the big celebrity for your practice report, and which school you were from got dug up right away. It even brought some popularity to our school.”
Bai Shuijin scratched his head. He hadn’t expected so many people to know about it.
But he didn’t want to be famous. The price of fame was having people stare at you while you eat. It was really terrifying… no, it brought about hunger.
Seeing his subtle expression, Ji Cao chewed. “If you don’t want to be disturbed, you can dye your hair back. After all, your hair color is too eye-catching right now. Within a hundred miles, you’re the only one with rainbow hair. It’s hard not to be recognized.”
When Ji Cao mentioned it, Bai Shuijin noticed his hair. The color had already faded quite a bit, and it had grown long enough to block his eyes. Dyeing it back would be good, and he could trim it short too. After all, every time he wanted to see something clearly, he had to push his hair aside, which was too troublesome.
There was still some time before class after breakfast, and Bai Shuijin wanted to take this chance to get his hair done. He carried his backpack in front of him to check if his phone was in it.
Just as the two of them lifted the heavy curtain at the entrance of the second cafeteria, Bai Shuijin was suddenly bumped into by a figure.
In winter, the second cafeteria had thick door curtains. When you lifted them from inside, you couldn’t see if there was anyone outside, so an accident happened. He only felt a loud “bang” on his forehead.
It hurt so much that he gasped, and when he looked up at the person who had bumped into him, Bai Shuijin was stunned. The person’s features and expression actually resembled Wang Huanxiu by fifty percent.
For a moment, he thought he was seeing things.
The person across from him had been bumped on the shoulder. He looked at Bai Shuijin with a slight frown, said nothing, and quickly left. He seemed to be in a big hurry.
Bai Shuijin didn’t think much of it. After all, it wasn’t clear who had bumped into whom first. He rubbed his forehead and continued walking out with Ji Cao.
They had only walked for about two minutes when the person who had collided with him already came out of the cafeteria and overtook them.
He had long legs and big strides, moving hurriedly.
What was so urgent?
The other party’s resemblance to Wang Huanxiu stirred Bai Shuijin’s curiosity.
“Who is that classmate?”
Ji Cao looked dumbfounded. “You don’t know him?”
Bai Shuijin blinked. Was it someone he had to know?
He shook his head blankly. “I don’t know. Did I know him before?”
“Not exactly, but it’s strange you don’t know him. His name is Wang Xing. He’s your husband’s younger cousin.”
Younger cousin…no wonder he looked so much like Wang Huanxiu. So there was a blood relationship.
At first glance, he almost thought Wang Xing was Wang Huanxiu. After all, even Wang Muguang didn’t resemble Wang Huanxiu that much.
“Why is he in such a hurry?”
“Aren’t the heirs to big families all very busy? It’s already rare for him to be at school. He used to be an exchange student abroad, and I heard he still had to attend meetings every day even when taking external classes.”
Everyone wanted power; everyone wanted to climb up. Even more so with the internal interests of the Wang family, countless people wanted to reshuffle the game.
Wang Xing was only a freshman now, one year below them, but he had more things to do than ten people combined. And that didn’t even count the time he had to spend learning other things every day.
No wonder his laogong-ge was so exhausted. It turned out no one in the Wang family from top to bottom had it easy.
Bai Shuijin went to the hair salon on campus to change his hair color and get a haircut. He had become used to the rainbow hair, so switching back to black felt a bit strange at first.
Being able to open a hair salon on campus and have good business showed that the barber had skills. You know, although college students love to gamble, they also learn after getting burned. The barber here had many returning customers and was trustworthy.
The bangs weren’t cut too short. The length was just right, slightly above the eyebrows, just enough to reveal his eyes and eyebrows. With shorter bangs, Bai Shuijin looked even younger than his actual age.
Ji Cao looked at Bai Shuijin’s new hairstyle. “You look quite handsome like this.”
Bai Shuijin was also quite satisfied with his hairstyle. “Really?”
The salon owner swept the hair trimmings on the floor. He truly lived up to his reputation.
The first class started at ten in the morning. Pei Zhiheng sat in the classroom and occasionally glanced at the door, waiting for Bai Shuijin to arrive.
There was a gift box in the backpack next to him, which had a bracelet for Bai Shuijin.
Ever since Bai Shuijin got married, their contact had become very rare. Before, Bai Shuijin used to bombard him with eight hundred messages a day. Now, even in eight full days, he wouldn’t get a single message.
If he wanted to see him, he had to rely on the live stream.
Pei Zhiheng had heard about Bai Shuijin’s live streaming from a friend. He was at a gathering that day when he got a call saying Bai Shuijin was live.
His friend on the phone said, “It’s that guy who used to chase after you. How come I didn’t know he was so good looking before?”
He didn’t know either.
After hanging up, he opened the Weibo app Bai Shuijin was streaming on and entered the live stream. The first thing he saw was Bai Shuijin just waking up.
The freshly woken-up Bai Shuijin looked a bit dazed. Pei Zhiheng found a corner seat in the lively private room and started looking at his phone.
Actually, he was quite unhappy that Bai Shuijin didn’t sit next to him in class last time. After all, Bai Shuijin used to stick to him every day; he couldn’t even shake him off if he wanted to.
During the second half of the live stream, Bai Shuijin talked about his current life, how he got along well with Wang Huanxiu, liked him, loved him. Pei Zhiheng’s face turned completely dark.
At twenty years old, he was young and impulsive. It wasn’t that he really liked Bai Shuijin so much, but he had gotten used to Bai Shuijin shamelessly chasing after him, which made him feel that Bai Shuijin should always be chasing him and shouldn’t shift his feelings to Wang Huanxiu.
Even if he didn’t like him, he shouldn’t go after someone else.
Pei Zhiheng felt uncomfortable. They had only been married for two months, and Bai Shuijin was already saying “love”.
Bai Shuijin was a bit fickle and a sweet talker.
But if Wang Huanxiu really loved Bai Shuijin as much as he said, then if he hooked his finger and snatched Bai Shuijin back, wouldn’t it be Wang Huanxiu’s turn to suffer?
This idea lingered in Pei Zhiheng’s mind for a long time. Ever since he was little, he didn’t like Wang Huanxiu. Even though their families used to be close for generations, by their generation, they had already fallen out because of interests and resources. They just pretended to get along in front of the elders.
Recently, Old Master Wang and Old Master Pei still occasionally had tea together.
Pei Zhiheng hated Wang Huanxiu. He had always disliked him since they were children and played football together. Wang Huanxiu beat his cousin badly and acted arrogantly. At that time, Wang Huanxiu was basically a devil in his eyes and in the adults’ eyes, a real troublemaker.
Even though he was still young then, he often heard how Wang Huanxiu caused trouble, for example falling off a mountain while hiking with friends and needing stitches, or breaking bones somewhere.
Anyway, there wasn’t a single day of peace.
He also loved to bully them. He had candy in his pocket but wouldn’t share, just because someone said his sister’s skirt wasn’t pretty.
And it wasn’t even him who said it, it was his good friend.
You had to know, kids were strictly controlled from eating candy. Not getting any felt like the sky had collapsed. Although it only happened once, it left a deep scar on a child’s self-esteem.
Wang Huanxiu was really bad at that time, and the title “little demon king” suited him perfectly.
Now that they were all grown up, he had simply switched to snatching projects instead.
Pei Zhiheng had never liked Wang Huanxiu. In fact, because of the other party’s outstanding abilities, he had always seen him as a rival. After hearing all those stories about Wang Huanxiu getting into trouble, he thought the other party didn’t have much skill, but he turned out to be extremely capable.
Finally, the figure he had been waiting for appeared at the door. Bai Shuijin walked into the classroom, instantly drawing the attention of many students. He had just been on the hot search a few days ago, so most students knew about him.
Pei Zhiheng’s gaze also followed him. Compared to before, today there was a change: his hair was dyed back to black and cut shorter, making him look clean and youthful.
After class, Pei Zhiheng stopped Bai Shuijin.
Bai Shuijin originally wanted to leave right away, but when he heard someone call him, he turned his head and regretted it immediately when he saw it was Pei Zhiheng. He hadn’t expected it to be the protagonist looking for him.
Did he want help stealing some documents again this time?
He felt nervous inside.
The next second, he saw Pei Zhiheng pull something out of his backpack and hold it in front of him. “This is for you.”
Bai Shuijin looked down at what was in his hand, it was a square white gift box tied with a bow.
“What’s this?”
Pei Zhiheng cleared his throat. “A gift for you.”
Was he being too forward? Pei Zhiheng secretly regretted it in his heart. If he had known, he would have had someone else deliver it to Bai Shuijin.
“Why are you giving me a gift?”
“Because I want to give it to you. Why do you need so many reasons?”
“Okay, then I don’t want it.”
“…”
Was he still angry about not showing any reaction to his marriage?
Seeing Bai Shuijin turn to leave, Pei Zhiheng strode forward to block his way.
“You don’t have anything to ask me?”
Like asking what feelings he had toward him…Bai Shuijin used to always ask those nagging questions but he had never answered them.
Looking at Pei Zhiheng blocking the path, did he really have to ask something to be allowed through?
“Alright.”
It looked like he was compromising.
Hope rose in Pei Zhiheng’s heart.
Bai Shuijin: “Do you like Dad or do you like Mom?”
Pei Zhiheng: “…”
.
While Pei Zhiheng was caught off guard, Bai Shuijin slipped away, left campus, and took a car home.
As soon as he got home, there was new news; Wang Muguang told him that they would be going back to the Wang family’s old house for dinner tonight.
He heard that people from the Pei family would also be there. The two old masters wanted to get together and let the younger generation experience the “harmonious joy” of both families.
Bai Shuijin didn’t have a very good impression of the Wang family. One, the entire Wang family were all villains; two, everyone lived too tensely. There were endless things to do every day, which is too suffocating.
Wang Muguang looked at his new hairstyle and asked, “Why did you suddenly decide to get your hair done?”
Bai Shuijin tugged his bangs. “It was almost faded, so I cut it short and dyed it black.”
“Little Shorty looks pretty.”
“Remove the first two words and I’d be happier.” Bai Shuijin felt a bit expectant inside, wondering what expression Wang Huanxiu would have when he saw him.
“What do you think laogong-ge will say about my hair?”
He could already imagine it. It would probably just be a cold “mn”, then he would act like he didn’t see it and go do his own things.
“My Big Brother should really like it.”
“Really?”
Bai Shuijin had never seen Wang Huanxiu like anything before.
“You don’t know, right?” Wang Muguang laughed. “My brother has liked cute things ever since he was a child.”
When they were young, Wang Huanxiu would share everything with him and their little sister, except for things he thought were cute. He would keep them for himself, no matter how much they begged.
He even rolled around on the floor begging, and his brother said he’d send him to the circus to perform with the clowns.
The two of them waited for Wang Huanxiu to get off work so they could go to the old house together. Because of his new hairstyle, Bai Shuijin kept showing it off to others and was even a bit impatient to know Wang Huanxiu’s reaction.
Unable to sit still, he started walking around the villa area, occasionally glancing at the street to see if Wang Huanxiu’s Rolls-Royce had come back.
There was a stray dog self-service feeding spot nearby, and he even went to check if there were any dogs eating there.
On the way back, he ran into Wang Huanxiu’s car and excitedly waved by the roadside.
The driver saw the person waving at the roadside and didn’t recognize it as Bai Shuijin at first. When they got closer, he realized and said to the person in the back, “Sir, that seems to be Young Master Bai.”
Under Bai Shuijin’s enthusiastic greeting, Wang Huanxiu got out of the car.
As soon as he got out, Bai Shuijin ran over. “Laogong-ge.”
Wang Huanxiu naturally saw his new hairstyle.
The other party looked at him with eyes full of expectation. “Laogong-ge, what do you think?”
Wang Huanxiu averted his gaze. “It’s good.”
His indifferent reaction wasn’t what Bai Shuijin had wanted.
“Just good?”
Wang Huanxiu didn’t understand why he was asking like this. It was just a haircut. “Otherwise?”
Seeing his cold reaction, Bai Shuijin looked disappointed. As expected, it wasn’t like what Wang Muguang said at all.
“I thought you’d like this hairstyle.”
“I don’t like it.”
Bai Shuijin pouted, looking unhappy, and let out a short sound.
“Oh.”
If he didn’t like it, then he didn’t like it.
As long as he liked it himself, that was enough. Changing his hairstyle was for his own happiness.
“But it’s cute.”
This sentence suddenly hit Bai Shuijin’s ears, and his eyes lit up. “Really?”
He quickly took a few steps to walk side by side with Wang Huanxiu. “Laogong-ge, you think it’s cute?”
“Mn.”
A smile appeared on Bai Shuijin’s face.
“Cute like what?”
He wanted a metaphor.
Wang Huanxiu looked at the stray dog in the distance with bangs like Bai Shuijin’s, and raised an eyebrow. “Cute like that one.”
Bai Shuijin: “…”
He is such a good husband who deserves to be struck by lightning.
