After picking up Wang Huanxiu, they walked home. Spring was about to arrive, and now there was no trace of late winter snow on the streets. The sky darkened later than before, as if someone had added another handful of fine sand into the hourglass of daytime.
Even though they had to go back to the old house for dinner tonight, Wang Huanxiu wasn’t in a hurry. He walked at an unhurried pace. He wasn’t keen on returning to the old house, and was not even interested in taking a glance.
From the ages of fourteen to eighteen, he had lived at the old house under the watchful eye of Old Master Wang.
There were no happy memories from those years. Before he turned fourteen, although the strict aristocratic education left him no time to relax, his parents were still around then, and their love allowed him to sneak in moments of leisure amidst the busyness. Things weren’t as tense as they became later.
After fourteen, happiness became rare for him. Every day he lived like a tightly stretched fishing line.
Bai Shuijin looked at the evening glow in the sky. It was orange-red, a bit like orange-flavored ice cream.
Passing by a convenience store, Bai Shuijin called out to the man ahead, “Laoggong-ge!”
The man turned his head and saw Bai Shuijin stretching out a finger from inside his down jacket, pointing at the convenience store beside them.
At the convenience store entrance was a giant ice cream signboard.
He was afraid of the cold. Whenever he went out and wasn’t holding something in his hands, he’d make sure to tuck them completely inside his sleeves.
Bai Shuijin: “I want to eat.”
Even though it was freezing cold.
Wang Huanxiu stood tall, the sunset falling on his shoulders. “Then just want.”
“…”
In the end, Bai Shuijin still went in and bought one. It was orange-flavored, the same shade as the sunset in the sky.
He tore open the packaging and was just about to take a bite when he hurried to Wang Huanxiu’s side.
“Laogong-ge, you eat.”
The scent of oranges lingered at his nose. Wang Huanxiu didn’t like sweet things . “You eat it yourself.”
Seeing him refuse, Bai Shuijin brought the ice cream back to himself. It was really good.
Holding the ice cream in his hand felt a bit cold, so he decided to make it quick. He took a big bite, and the cold pain shot straight to his brain.
After the pain passed, he still felt satisfied. Pain and happiness coexisted.
It tasted just as good as he had imagined.
When they got home, Wang Muguang smelled the scent of ice cream on him.
“You two went out for ice cream? Why didn’t you bring me along for something good?”
Bai Shuijin looked shocked. “Good things can’t be shared with you.”
Wang Muguang: “…”
Wang Huanxiu was back, so Wang Muguang and Bai Shuijin freshened up quickly and then got into the car together, heading to the old house.
It was Bai Shuijin’s first time going. Although it was his first time, he knew the Wang family didn’t have a good impression of him, let alone those at the old house.
The old master of the Wang family hadn’t liked him from the start. Even on the day Wang Huanxiu married him, the old man didn’t show up.
Bai Shuijin knew the more you said, the more mistakes you’d make, so when he gets there, he just needs to talk less and eat more.
He glanced at Wang Huanxiu and Wang Muguang’s expressions and found both of them looking quite subtle.
Wang Huanxiu was still relatively normal, but his furrowed brows showed his impatience.
Wang Muguang, on the other hand, kept sighing along the way.
Bai Shuijin: “Do you have frogs living in your mouth?”
Wang Muguang’s face turned red from embarrassment. “You’re the one with frogs in your mouth.”
“Then why are you sighing so much? Is the food at the old house bad?”
Wang Mugang scratched his face. “That’s not the case. It’s just that I didn’t go there often before, and every time I did, I’d get scolded.”
Wang Muguang had entered the entertainment industry for his dreams, but in the eyes of the older generation, being an actor exposed to the public was unpresentable. They couldn’t criticize Wang Huanxiu’s abilities, so they turned their arrows on Wang Muguang.
He was so narcissistic and cared a lot about how others evaluated him, let alone his own family.
They hadn’t even arrived at the Wang family yet, and Bai Shuijin already felt it was a man-eating, bone-spitting abyss.
The car drove into the estate. The old house was extremely grand, with a winding mountain road boulevard entirely owned by the Wang family.
They weren’t the only ones coming to the old house today. Wang Huanxiu’s third uncle’s family and the Pei family were also there.
As a result, the moment he walked in, Bai Shuijin heard an extremely familiar voice. Following the sound, he saw Pei Zhiheng sitting on the sofa.
“…”
Why was the protagonist showing up at the villain’s house?
This inexplicable question popped into Bai Shuijin’s head. Normally, protagonists and villain families should be at odds.
But here was Pei Zhiheng, visiting like it was nothing.
Seeing Pei Zhiheng reminded Bai Shuijin of his fate of being cut into pieces and fed to sharks. Sure enough, the Wang family’s old house was a man-eating, bone-spitting place. There were lightning strikes and dangers everywhere.
Across from Pei Zhiheng sat an old man. He looked almost seventy years old, but his hair was only half white. It could be seen that he was still in very good health.
The Wang family and Pei family had been close during the grandfathers’ generation. Upon hearing that the Pei grandfather and Wang grandfather had arranged to have tea together, Pei Zhiheng hadn’t intended to come. But when he heard Wang Huanxiu would be bringing Bai Shuijin back, he changed his mind.
Even though his grandfather had something come up and couldn’t make it today, he still brought a gift to visit… including the bracelet he hadn’t managed to give Bai Shuijin that morning.
The bracelet was specially custom-made, a matching pair. Once worn, it couldn’t be removed without the key made specifically for it.
He planned to give the bracelet to Bai Shuijin, but had absolutely no intention of giving the key to Wang Huanxiu. In fact, he hadn’t even brought the key today.
It was all for the purpose of staking his claim right in front of Wang Huanxiu.
When the old man saw Wang Huanxiu and the others come in, his gaze swept over the three of them. When it landed on Bai Shuijin, he gave a cold “hmph” and turned his head away.
His dislike was written all over his face.
“Coming back is fine, but why bring along irrelevant people?”
The old man thumped his cane heavily on the floor with a loud bang.
Wang Huanxiu’s expression didn’t change. “There’s no such thing as irrelevant people.”
Old Master Wang looked at Bai Shuijin, almost about to name names directly.
“If not, would I be saying this?”
“When people get old, getting muddle-headed is unavoidable.”
“You!”
Wang Wang, who was sitting beside the old man, spoke up. “Dad, Huanxiu hardly comes back. Why get so angry?”
He deliberately stressed the words “hardly comes back,” biting them harder.
A clear implication at how Wang Huanxiu never came back to see him.
The old man usually listened to his youngest son the most. Not for any other reason, but because this was the child from his remarriage, his youngest.
Back then, marrying his first wife had been purely a family-interest alliance. Their first child was Wang Huanxiu’s father. Although he valued home very much, he didn’t love him very much and treated him like someone raised solely as a successor.
After his first wife’s death, he quickly remarried and had two more children. The second son was committed to scientific research and was barely seen once a year, but the youngest son was considerate and often visited.
After remarrying, the old man treated the eldest son much colder, focusing almost all their interactions on cultivating his abilities. After the remarriage, the eldest son seldom returned home, and the old man had thought their father-son relationship was merely a bit strained. The real rift began with Wang Huanxiu’s birth.
It was his first grandson and when Wang Huanxiu was born, he immediately demanded the child be raised by him, but was flatly refused.
This refusal enraged the old man, who had never been defied. The eldest son wasn’t a tough man, and was even gentle to the point of weakness. To put it bluntly, he was cowardly. He always looked calm and had never refused him before.
Such decisiveness made the old man’s sense of paternal authority feel shaken.
The eldest son was a qualified successor, the old man’s proud creation. His grandson should have been the same.
The eldest son usually obeyed him in everything, except when it came to marriage and children. On this point, they had become opponents. Wang Huanxiu was rarely brought back to the old house, only shown to his grandfather during holidays. As for his education, the old man wasn’t allowed to interfere.
It wasn’t until the couple died in a plane crash while going abroad to watch Wang Huanxiu’s competition that Wang Huanxiu was finally taken in by the old man, as he had always wanted.
When Wang Huanxiu was first brought back, he was extremely hard to manage. It was only through constant persuasion that the old man managed to put him on the “right path.”
Both harsh advice and beatings played a part.
Old Master Wang always believed that without his own education, Wang Huanxiu wouldn’t have become as outstanding as he was now. If his eldest son had still been alive to continue raising him, Wang Huanxiu wouldn’t be managing the company now, nor would he have the achievements he had today.
The younger son stepped in to mediate, and Old Master Wang didn’t say anything further.
Pei Zhiheng stood up from the sofa and brought out the gift he had prepared.
“I knew Brother Huanxiu would be bringing someone back today, so I specially prepared a gift for you all.”
Although Bai Shuijin didn’t want to accept it, basic politeness dictated that when Pei Zhiheng handed the gift over, he still accepted it and thanked him.
Giving a gift was a kind gesture; in front of the elders, he couldn’t slap the guest’s face.
Seeing the gift box securely in Bai Shuijin’s hands, Pei Zhiheng smiled and said, “Open it and take a look.”
Bai Shuijin’s scalp tingled, but with Old Master Wang also watching from the side, he had no choice but to open the gift box under everyone’s gaze. Inside lay a beautifully crafted bracelet.
This bracelet must be the same one Pei Zhiheng had tried to give him this morning, which he had refused.
Pei Zhiheng gave Wang Huanxiu a provocative look and smiled. “Put it on and see if it fits.”
Bai Shuijin looked at the bracelet without any hint of fondness. The bracelet was from a luxury brand, and luxury goods were expensive because of the brand’s value, not because the materials were rare or precious. If the bracelet went out of season, it wouldn’t resell for a good price. He still preferred pure gold.
Seeing Bai Shuijin not moving for a long time, Old Master Wang ordered the servant to help him put it on.
The bracelet felt a bit heavy on his wrist.
Bai Shuijin: It’s a very good gift, don’t give it to me again next time.
He wanted to take it off, but found that the bracelet didn’t pop open the same way it did when being put on.
“How do you take this off?”
“This bracelet is custom-made. You just need the matching custom key to open it.”
After speaking, Pei Zhiheng pretended to search for the second gift. “This is also something I prepared for Brother Huanxiu. The bracelet and key are a set.”
But no matter how he searched, there was no sign of the key.
Bai Shuijin gave him a wary look. You didn’t bring it, did you? You definitely didn’t bring it.
He just knew the protagonist wasn’t up to anything good.
The key and bracelet were a pair. What did it mean to keep the key to yourself?
What, are you afraid the sharks in the sea haven’t been fed?
Pei Zhiheng put on a falsely troubled expression. “Sorry, Brother Huanxiu. I forgot to bring your gift.”
Bai Shuijin: “…”
What shallow acting. Right now he wanted to twist Pei Zhiheng’s head off and use it as a football.
Bai Shuijin leaned toward Wang Huanxiu. “Laogong-ge, a bracelet doesn’t necessarily need a key.”
“If you don’t have the key, you can’t open the bracelet.” Pei Zhiheng’s tone held deeper meaning. “Do you plan to wear it forever?”
“Of course not.” Right now, he wanted nothing more than to chop off his hand.
“Then how are you going to take it off?”
Bai Shuijin’s gaze was firm. “You can always trust China’s firefighters.”
“…”
As they argued over the bracelet not having a key, a figure stepped forward.
“Let me try.”
It was him, the Little Uncle who cried like a water pump truck.
Wang Muguang appeared wrapped in holy light, holding a small white handkerchief.
He had noticed that Bai Shuijin didn’t like the bracelet and had only put it on out of politeness, but who would have thought it couldn’t come off.
Then it was time for him, the savior, to take the stage.
Seeing the usually unreliable Wang Muguang suddenly reliable, Bai Shuijin almost shed tears of gratitude. “Little Uncle, you have a solution?”
“I recently learned a bit of magic. It just happens to come in use now.”
‘Learned magic?’ No wonder he’d often seen Wang Muguang letting pigeons loose in the garden lately.
In order to show something new during future livestreams, Wang Muguang had spent his days off diligently practicing, even hiring an internationally renowned magician to come teach him at home.
He did it secretly, and apart from the butler Uncle Zhang, no one else knew. He was preparing to give everyone around him a surprise.
At first, he’d sneak off to the garden greenhouse to practice. After a few times, he simply went openly.
Because he realized no one cared what he was doing.
“…” Damn it.
He covered Bai Shuijin’s wrist with the white handkerchief, and said confidently. “Count to three.”
Bai Shuijin obediently did as told. After three seconds passed, Wang Muguang snapped his fingers, and sure enough, the bracelet popped open.
Bai Shuijin: !
This person’s talent for street performance is terrifyingly high.
For some reason, wearing the bracelet just now made Bai Shuijin anxious, but seeing it open now made him even more anxious.
As everyone walked toward the dining room, Wang Muguang asked him, “What’s wrong?”
Bai Shuijin hesitated, only wanting to beg Wang Muguang to stop learning these things.
But he was still curious how Wang Muguang had opened it.
“How did you do it?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I just used a little wire to open it.”
“…”
On the way to the dining room, Wang Wang and his wife deliberately lagged behind the others.
“Did Pingtian come?”
Wang Wang asked his wife.
“He’s here, and he brought the people we need for today.”
Last time Wang Huanxiu said their son’s name was bad, and the couple had taken it to heart. The other party obstructed Wang Pingtian at every turn from getting into the company, which deepened the resentment towards Wang Huanxiu.
Now that the other party had returned to the old house for dinner, it was the perfect time to trip Wang Huanxiu.
Wang Wang had never liked this nephew. Not only was he naughty and mischievous as a child, he grew up to be even more unfeeling.
If their Pingtian hadn’t been born late, they wouldn’t have let Wang Huanxiu seize power back then.
Wang Pingtian was twenty this year, six years younger than Wang Huanxiu. In those six years, Wang Huanxiu had secured his position in the company. For their family to get a share of the pie now was as hard as ascending to the heavens.
He and his elder brother weren’t born of the same mother, and their children weren’t close either.
Wang Huanxiu’s father disliked his younger brother, and now Wang Huanxiu hated their whole family too.
As expected, if the upper beam isn’t straight, the lower beam is crooked.
But Wang Huanxiu was as cunning as a fox; it was hard to attack him directly. So their only option was to target Bai Shuijin.
Bai Shuijin didn’t leave a good impression on the old man, nor did he have much presence, but he belonged to Wang Huanxiu.
As long as they took him down, they could make Wang Huanxiu lose face, and at the same time, get rid of Bai Shuijin to gain favor with the old man.
They had heard Bai Shuijin had a great weakness for handsome men. Today, Wang Pingtian would bring a male model home, pretending to be a bodyguard. Later, he’d lure Bai Shuijin into the room where Wang Huanxiu used to stay in the old house.
If Bai Shuijin couldn’t resist and messed around with the male model, all the better. If he did resist, they could still have the male model accuse him. Wang Huanxiu couldn’t tolerate a speck of sand in his eye.
When they caught them on the spot, Wang Huanxiu would lose face, and their family could claim credit before the old man for uncovering Bai Shuijin’s affair.
At dinner, Wang Pingtian did indeed show up with someone. As soon as he met Bai Shuijin, he displayed unprecedented warmth and friendliness, aiming to lower his guard.
During the meal, he deliberately sat next to Bai Shuijin.
“You’re Brother Huanxiu’s partner, right? I’m his cousin, Wang Pingtian. It’s nice to meet you.”
Seeing Wang Pingtian so enthusiastic, Bai Shuijin politely smiled back. “Nice to meet you.”
After exchanging greetings, when Wang Pingtian tried to strike up more conversation, he found he couldn’t get through to Bai Shuijin at all.
The other party was solely focused on chasing his food, chasing deeply and intently.
It was not until Bai Shuijin went to the bathroom that Wang Pingtian finally found a chance to talk to him.
When Bai Shuijin came out of the bathroom and saw Wang Pingtian suddenly standing there, he was startled.
“What are you doing outside the bathroom door?”
Wang Pingtian answered sincerely, “Cheering you on.”
“…”
‘No need at all.’
As for Wang Pingtian, Bai Shuijin had no impression of him. His name had never even been mentioned in the book. He was practically non-existent.
Bai Shuijin wanted to head back to the dining room but was suddenly stopped by Wang Pingtian. “Brother Huanxiu lived here in the old house when he was in junior and senior high school. Do you want to go see his room? This is your first time here, so you probably haven’t seen it yet.”
Wang Huanxiu’s room from his high school days?
Bai Shuijin was indeed curious.
Seeing that he really piqued the other party’s interest, Wang Pingtian laughed secretly to himself. The plan was already halfway successful. “I’ll take you there, follow me～follow me～”
Bai Shuijin followed him to the fourth floor. The first room on the fourth floor was the one Wang Huanxiu had stayed in when living at the old house.
Every room in the old house was cleaned daily, and Wang Huanxiu’s room was no exception. So when Bai Shuijin walked in, there was no musty smell from years of disuse.
Instead, the window was even open, letting in the breeze. The servant probably forgot to close it after cleaning in the morning.
Bai Shuijin went over and casually shut it.
Wang Pingtian stood at the door without entering. “Take your time looking around, I won’t bother you. I haven’t eaten enough yet.”
Bai Shuijin waved at him as if bidding farewell. “Go ahead, you greedy little brat.”
“…”
As soon as he sat down on the fourth floor, Wang Pingtian sent a message to the male model he brought, telling him to hurry and get into Wang Huanxiu’s room.
Since childhood, he had always been compared to Wang Huanxiu. Although his parents meant to motivate him, anyone in his position wouldn’t have a favorable impression of such a role model.
Not to mention, the reason he couldn’t get into the company had always been because Wang Huanxiu refused to agree, deliberately targeting their family.
When Pei Zhiheng left the dining table and saw Bai Shuijin and Wang Pingtian head up to the fourth floor, and then shortly after only Wang Pingtian came down alone with no Bai Shuijin behind him, it was obvious Bai Shuijin was still upstairs alone. This was the perfect opportunity for him to go over and have a proper chat.
However, when he reached the fourth floor, he saw a stranger. He had never seen this person in the Wang household before.
“Hey! Who are you? What are you doing?”
The male model had just placed his hand on the doorknob when he was suddenly shouted at. Startled and already guilty, he immediately turned and ran. The fourth floor didn’t just have one staircase; there were staircases on both sides.
As soon as the man ran, Pei Zhiheng lifted his legs and chased after him.
Bai Shuijin in the room was completely unaware, spinning around while curiously inspecting Wang Huanxiu’s old room.
The room was clean and tidy but much smaller than the one Wang Huanxiu lived in at home now. By the window was a row of display cabinets, all filled with golden trophies and numerous medals, packed to the brim.
The room was dominated by white, rarely featuring any other colors. It looked so serious it didn’t feel like a bedroom, more like a hotel room, devoid of any warmth.
It was a room for someone between the ages of fourteen to eighteen, but there wasn’t even a single comic book.
After looking at most of the room, Bai Shuijin stepped into the walk-in closet.
Wang Huanxiu was sitting on the sofa looking at his phone when a message popped up.
[Laogong-ge, fourth floor, your room, come quickly!]
His dark eyes fell on the words “come quickly”.
Seeing him get up, Wang Muguang asked, “Big Brother, where are you going?”
“To the bathroom.”
Not long after, the door to the first room on the fourth floor was pushed open. As soon as Wang Huanxiu entered, he saw Bai Shuijin rushing out from the walk-in closet holding something.
“Laogong-ge! Put this on for me!”
Looking down, it was his old high school uniform.
Seeing the uniform in the other party’s hand, Wang Huanxiu’s face stiffened. “Don’t even think about it.”
But Bai Shuijin refused to back down. He was really curious about what Wang Huanxiu looked like in a school uniform. There wasn’t even a single photo of him from high school in the room.
He pulled Wang Huanxiu towards the closet. “Laogong-ge, change into it, please. I really want to see.”
Bai Shuijin’s eyes shone like two light bulbs. Wang Huanxiu’s face darkened. “Impossible, it won’t even fit.”
“Just wear it for a moment. Just a moment, then you can take it off.”
Bai Shuijin looked at him expectantly. “Please, laogong-ge…”
After coming down from the fourth floor, Wang Pingtian hid in the bathroom on the second floor for a while, planning to rush out and tell everyone that he saw Bai Shuijin go into a room on the fourth floor with a man.
He sent a message to the male model but received no reply. More than ten minutes passed, and still no word. By now, it should’ve been done. If Bai Shuijin resisted, waiting any longer would expose the plan.
He hurriedly ran downstairs, pretending he had run all the way down from the fourth floor.
“Grandpa, I just saw Bai Shuijin go into Brother Huanxiu’s old room with a man.”
.
After changing into the school uniform, Wang Huanxiu looked completely unnatural from head to toe, and his tone was even worse than usual. “Have you seen enough? If so, get out.”
“Not yet, not yet,” Bai Shuijin hurriedly said, placing his hands over his chest, looking ready to pounce. “Laogong-ge, can I touch you?”
So when Wang Pingtian barged into the room on the fourth-floor with a group of people, they saw Bai Shuijin molesting a man in a school uniform.
Bai Shuijin was rubbing his hands all over with great enthusiasm.
‘Let me touch, let me touch, let me touch.’
“Adulterers!”
Bai Shuijin was suddenly shouted at and shivered with fear. He turned his head and saw Wang Pingtian pointing at them, cursing.
Who would’ve thought that after being in the room for just a while, so many people would barge in.
‘Adulterers?’
Saying that about him and Wang Huanxiu? Doesn’t that mean it’s illegal?
How dare they slander him and Laogong-ge.
Bai Shuijin: “Nonsense! Laogong-ge and I are in a mutually consensual, illicit relationship.”
