Fouls Prohibited

Since the military training at the beginning of school, Ye Ci was no longer an invisible person at school. The communication skills of those little Omega boys were comparable to a battalion of machine guns. A dozen people together were noisier than a dozen chicken farms, and getting to know them was equivalent to getting to know the whole school.

After being chattered around by those little Omegas,  Ye Ci’s soft temper and athletic talent for beating Alphas was undoubtedly exposed in one day – – there was an Omega in the next class who secretly brought a mobile phone during training. During Ye Ci’s 400-meter obstacle course, he recorded a section and spread it widely, and accompanied it with passionate and dynamic background music. At the end, he typed, “Glory of Omegas” in a strawberry marshmallow font, which made Ye Ci cover his face with embarrassment.

The handsome boy who put on a face like a coffin board every day was actually shy and timid. In fact, after teasing him for a few times, he was softer than glutinous rice cakes in front of his friendly classmates, but was so good at sports that it was scary……

It was not just the dozen or so little Omega boys, the girls also found him so cute that their motherly love was almost overflowing. Among other things, Ye Ci didn’t need Huo Tinglan to explain when he was stuck on a topic. Their average age was one year younger than Ye Ci, but still stubbornly called themselves his “older sister fans” and “auntie fans.” The girls worked together to raise this single-minded primary school slag who was dedicated to learning.

Of course, it wasn’t just Omega and Beta girls who were attracted by Ye Ci after his surge in popularity, but quite a few Alphas. They had previously been afraid to make a move, for fear of hitting a wall, but now that they found out he was a paper tiger,[1] they were all ready to try.

But facing the flirtatious Alphas, Ye Ci still maintained his cold face from before.

Wearing a wedding ring or announcing his marriage status was still too high-profile for the current Ye Ci. If he couldn’t come clean, he had to be mentally prepared.

But he knew it himself.

He was a married man……

He needed to keep a lookout.

An Alpha’s possessiveness was unreasonable. Huo Tinglan even drank vinegar over Omegas, let alone Alphas who were the same age as Ye Ci. Therefore, Ye Ci concealed the fact that a large number of Alpha suitors had suddenly appeared after the military training. In addition, he took the initiative to share with Huo Tinglan all the big and small things that happened at school: In physical education class, he taught the little Omegas how to do a three-step layup, and one after another, the ones who learned shouted, “Ye Ci is so cool, wu wu!” During the lunch break, they taught him how to play games in turn and even teamed up with him to have a match……

Although they teamed up for a game about dressing up the Omega protagonist.

It touched all the blind spots in his knowledge……

Ye Ci’s year-round aesthetic of hoodies, sneakers, and jeans made record lows for the team one after another, and he was finally kicked off the team by the tearful little Omegas. Ye Ci was dumbfounded: “I dressed her up, doesn’t it look good? Why is it F-level?”

The little Omegas collectively mourned Ye Ci’s aesthetics.

Ye Ci licked his lips anxiously: “I’ll give her pink, pink lipstick, doesn’t she look like a kind of doll?”

Everyone continued to mourn.

Ye Ci was dying, and asked in a low voice, “Isn’t it pretty, ah……?”

“That’s called death to Barbie fans! ! !” All the little Omegas spoke in unison and burst into tears.

The campus life of youthful vigor, laughter, quarrels, and friends came a bit late, but it came after all.

Ye Ci’s high school life left no regrets.

After autumn that year, the temperature dropped rapidly, getting colder with each autumn rain. The rubber track on the sports field seemed to be covered with gold and red fallen leaves overnight. And then, on a night of self-study, it was quietly covered with a layer of frosty snow.

Although there was no scientific research to prove it, based on Ye Ci’s own experience, he felt that the time in his third year of high school had passed much faster than before.

The crisp sound of firecrackers and the cool smell of gunpowder smoke seemed like it was just yesterday, but the snow at the edges of the road had already melted in the warm spring.

Half a month, then a month, all flew by in the blink of an eye, as they had never passed before.

Perhaps it was also because life was so regimented.

Huo Tinglan didn’t dare to delay Ye Ci’s studies even if he didn’t behave like a human being. He was ridiculous while taking advantage of the summer vacation before, but after Ye Ci entered the third year of high school, he resumed his behavioral pattern of restraint as the mainstay and hooliganism as the supplement. After the permanent marking, Ye Ci had two to three days of fever every month, which was very regular. He would only be presumptuous in these two or three days, and the rest of the time was spent teasing at most, and letting his desires remain unsatisfied.

In this way, Ye Ci lived a life of endless repetition back and forth between two places, submerged in a sea of books and learning, hand in hand with his classmates. Aside from the important study topics and exercises, every day was like a copy of the previous one. Although enriching, it was inevitable to feel that time passed quickly.

However, during these months of copy-and-paste routine, a few unusual things happened, stirring up waves.

The old man of the Chu family fell ill a year ago and was admitted to the hospital. He was saved, but his body collapsed completely. For the past year, he had been hanging on by a thread. For some unknown reason, this old man Chu, who may pass on at any time, had been stubbornly refusing to make a will. The inheritance battle between the branches of the Chu family and the heirs of each house had been fought intermittently for a year. Compared with the second son who used test tube technology to “create a human” in order to get more property, and got twins with his wife three months ago, the eldest son of the third house, Chu Wenlin, recognized his illegitimate son who had been adrift for many years and forced him to marry in order to cling to the Huo family.

This big family searched and searched but couldn’t pick out a few normal people.

After all, the old man’s property was a fixed amount. Whoever got more, the others would get less, and a group of misfit half-brothers and sisters looked at each other covetously. They all wished they could tear each other’s flesh and chew it raw, but the battle line was stretched too long, and the situation gradually reached a stalemate, entering a state of balance, and no one could deal with each other.

At this moment, Huo Tinglan threw a few pebbles into the backwater of the Chu family, breaking the balance.

He first repaid Ye Ci’s huge medical expenses that Chu Wenlin had paid for Ye Hongjun. The debt was cleared, and the father and son had nothing to do with each other except for the blood relationship on a biological level.

Chu Wenlin was a slick person. After recognizing Ye Ci, he didn’t speak ill of him to his face. Without saying a word, the coercion was half-hidden and half-exposed. There were a few rounds of confession drama in the beginning, such as: Dad is willing to make it up to you and your mother, Alphas inevitably make mistakes when they are young. Seeing that Ye Ci didn’t buy it, he stopped all the drama.

In short, during those few months of getting along with Ye Ci, he didn’t have much trouble with Ye Ci and was a repulsive person with a knife in his smile. If Huo Tinglan only used Ye Ci as a medicine jar, he naturally wouldn’t have to be afraid. Huo Tinglan really liked Ye Ci, so no matter what mistakes he made when he was young, he was their matchmaker and Ye Ci’s biological father. He would make up for his mistakes so that Huo Tinglan wouldn’t bear a grudge against him.

– – The abacus clacked.

However, Huo Tinglan already knew that this person was rotten to the bone. There had been no serious consequences yet, but that was just because Ye Ci entered the Huo family’s door early this time, and there was no time for them to occur.

In the previous life, Huo Tinglan also attacked Chu Wenlin in order to vent his anger for Ye Ci. At that time, he started with Chu Wenlin’s wife, Ruan Jiayi – – this couple had lived in harmony for many years, and Ruan Jiayi, as the daughter of a renowned family, had always been arrogant. She always had to compare herself to others and be better than them in every way. However, her husband’s private life was corrupt. Not only did he have an illegitimate child, but he also treated her more and more indifferently and rudely, and even caused her to catch a sexually trasmitted disease. She had no one to confide in. Although glamorous on the surface, she was miserable in reality. Coupled with the fact that the Ruan family business had been declining over the years, she had no natal family to rely on, so she had to swallow her anger.

Huo Tinglan saw this and promised to give her some benefits, then tried to comfort and provoke her in a seemingly gentle manner. Ruan Jiayi really couldn’t bear it anymore, and shook out all the dirty things that Chu Wenlin had done over the years at him……

Chu Wenlin was greedy, but Mr. Chu had been clinging to power all this time. The father and son were the same in this respect. 

Chu Wenlin was ruthlessly suppressed. A bottomless pit of greed and desire, his hands and feet had always been dirty in terms of economic issues, and he was severely punished by Ruan Jiaji and Huo Tinglan in his last life.

But in this life, since returning to the age of thirty, Huo Tinglan’s maneuvers never stopped. With the information given by Ruan Jiayi in the previous life, he had done many things with half the effort this time. As if opening his third eye, he didn’t need to check in order to know which direction to exert his strength.

So at the beginning of this year, just after the Spring Festival, a detailed, comprehensive, and well-documented report was submitted to the inspection department. 

Chu Wenlin was inexplicably shaken out of the sky. Bribery, tax evasion……after this case was settled, he would have to squat in jail for a few years. Not to mention the years of squatting, his messy affairs also involved several government cooperation projects signed by Mr. Chu himself and implemented by him, and the entire Chu family was taken over and inspected. Mr. Chu, who was originally in stable condition, was so stimulated that he was sent to the ICU, where he almost died.

Chu Wenlin didn’t care about the life and death of Mr. Chu, and he would not die if he was imprisoned for a few years, but in the future inheritance, it was hard to say how many leftovers could be picked up from those shark-like brothers and sisters.

For a villain like him who was greedy for money and profit, this was more painful than dying after ten years in prison.

Naturally, Huo Tinglan confirmed Ye Ci’s opinion before submitting the materials.

Ye Ci was kind-hearted and honest, but he also made a clear distinction between love and hate. Chu Wenlin had harmed his mother and also regarded him as a tool for forced marriage. As far as Huo Tinglan’s methods were concerned, he didn’t think they were too much, and could even be regarded as light.

Moreover, those materials were really not false or slanderous. It was nothing more than uncovering what Chu Wenlin had done with his own hands. Chu Wenlin got what he deserved, and couldn’t blame anyone but himself.

This incident turned the Chu family upside down, but Ye Ci only glanced at the materials Huo Tinglan handed him while working on questions.

……This could be regarded as taking revenge on that scumbag on behalf of his mother, right?

In fact, Ye Ci’s heart was not very troubled. Even thinking about it for a minute more would be a waste of his life. The college entrance examination was coming up, and all he could think about was brushing up on questions.

There was one other thing that stirred his heart – –

Ye Hongjun came back from San Francisco with the medical team sent by Huo Tinglan before the Spring Festival.

With a healthy body, free from sickness.

The phase III clinical trial of that biotech company had achieved relatively gratifying success. Not all volunteers participating in the trial achieved such a good therapeutic effect, which was probably related to the specific type of gland structure, but all the members of Ye Hongjun’s group had improved to varying degrees. Before returning to China, she had undergone repeated tests. All indicators were normal, and she had fully recovered to her previous state before she fell ill. She still needed regular checkups and reports on her physical condition in the follow-up, but the project team was quite optimistic about her prognosis and believed that her probability of recurrence was theoretically very low.

The old house had been sold, and she temporarily lived in the Huo Residence after returning to China.

In the past six months, Huo Tinglan had traveled between the two countries several times due to business reasons, and no matter how busy he was, he would make a special trip to San Francisco to visit her. She also often made video calls with Ye Ci, and with more contact, the relationship between the two naturally and gradually got through to her. She already had a good impression of Huo Tinglan, and when she heard the good news, she was of course happy for her child.

Seeing that Ye Ci not only did not fall behind in his studies, but also improved by leaps and bounds under Huo Tinglan’s encouragement and guidance, she felt even more at ease in her heart – – it was completely different from Chu Wenlin, who persuaded her to give up her studies and elope to have a baby. Huo Tinglan cherished Ye Ci’s wings in every possible way.

He really loved him, and would help him soar into the sky wholeheartedly.

After Ye Hongjun returned to China, Huo Tinglan bought her a small two-storey western-style house only a few minutes’ drive from the Huo residence.

The inside of the western-style building was not too big. It was suitable for Ye Hongjun to live in by herself, and could be properly taken care of by hiring a housekeeper and a gardener. There was a garden on the first floor, with scattered flowers and trees, and vines hanging on the walls that faced the sun. After spring, the branches and leaves were full of vitality, and when the wind blew, the leaves fluttered green and silver alternately. Light yellow flowers were dotted in the gaps, lining the white bricks and stones, as beautiful as a fairytale.

It would take some time to renovate the house after purchasing it, and the mother and son had not seen each other for half a year. Therefore, Ye Hongjun lived in the Huo residence first, and it happened that she could personally accompany Ye Ci through the difficult second semester of senior high school.

Her culinary skills were not as good as those chefs hired by the Huo family, but she was the only one who could cook Laohuo[2] soup. It was learned from her mother many years ago, and was a unique secret recipe. No matter how good a chef was, they couldn’t recreate that unique taste. Before she got sick, she would cook the health-improving food for Ye Ci once a week. After her body collapsed, she didn’t go into the kitchen for two years and Ye Ci never drank such delicious soup again.

At nine o’clock that night, Ye Ci was in the study as usual, immersed in writing questions.

Huo Tinglan had finished his work for the day and stayed in the study simply to accompany him. In his hand was a book with a black leather cover and bronze inscriptions, its title difficult to read.

The study door was ajar, and Ye Hongjun stood at the door, calling out in a warm voice: “Tinglan, Xiao Ci, I brought you some supper.”

Huo Tinglan got up quickly to meet her. Taking the tray in Ye Hongjun’s hands, he smiled gratefully and said: “It’s so late, and you still worked so hard to cook……”

“It’s okay, Xiao Ci likes to drink this.” Ye Hongjun smiled gently. Her body had healed and she had recovered a bit in the past six months, but her body was still overall thin. However, her cheeks were much rounder and her complexion was also pink, with a healthy appearance.

Ye Ci’s calculations on a problem had reached a critical point, and he was reluctant to stop writing, but he still took time out of his busy schedule to complain in a distressed tone: “You told me yesterday that you would have a good rest today, shouldn’t promises be kept?”

“Aiya,” Ye Hongjun retorted, caught out by her son. “It’s not tiring to make soup. I just sat there and watched the fire, and the chicken was prepared by others……”

Huo Tinglan smiled and, like a tall and handsome waiter, bent over to put the two soup cups on the tray onto the table, persuading: “Take a break first and drink while it’s hot.”

Ye Ci swallowed, scribbled out a few lines of calculations and hurriedly filled in the answer, then put down the pen.

It was already the end of the third year of high school, and there was still a small gap between him and the top 50 in his class that he had promised Lin Yao he would reach, so he didn’t dare relax.

“Mmm……it smells so good.” He had eaten a lot of dinner, but perhaps he had used his brains too much, because after three hours of writing and calculations, he was hungry again. Ye Ci rubbed his slightly concave belly and lifted the lid of the soup pot.

Steam mixed with a fresh fragrance rose up, making his red lips and white teeth half hidden behind the mist extra vivid.

The light brown soup was very clear, and all impurities were filtered out, but it didn’t look bland. When scooped with a spoon, the soup was thick and had a jelly-like texture.

It was simply at a professional level.

Ye Ci drank vigorously, and Ye Hongjun dragged the swivel chair over to sit down, looking at the child drinking soup with a smile on her face – – Since Ye Hongjun moved in, the chairs in this study had never been “missing.” It seemed that even Huo Tinglan still had to save some face in front of his elders.

“By the way, Xiao Ci……” Ye Hongjun wiped her hands on her apron. Looking at Huo Tinglan, she was a little embarrassed, but she still asked, “It will be your birthday in a few days. Is there any gift you want? Mom will buy it for you.”

After she returned to China, Huo Tinglan opened an account for her and transferred money into it every month, which was essentially alimony – – It was a matter of course to support the mother of one’s spouse. But he was afraid that she would lose face and refuse to accept it, so when he saw her cook soup for Ye Ci from time to time, he said it was “vegetable money.”

In fact, Ye Hongjun didn’t need to buy vegetables. The ingredients used in the Huo residence were all delivered by special personnel every day. What’s more, such a large amount of money was more than enough to buy a few fresh supermarkets, let alone vegetables.

However, Ye Hongjun knew that Huo Tinglan only wanted to treat Ye Ci’s family well, and it would be petty to just blindly evade it, so she thanked him and accepted it.

She took it but didn’t waste the money in it. She was used to hard times, and her spending habits wouldn’t change for a while, so she wanted to save it for her child, just in case.

“It seems……there is nothing I want.” Ye Ci hesitated before telling the truth.

“You can just say a few things casually.” Ye Hongjun stroked the hair at his temple and said with emotion, “I haven’t given you a real birthday in the past two years since I was sick. Can’t Mom try to make it up to you……”

“Uh……”

Ye Ci was in a bind.

Huo Tinglan had taken care of him well this year and he really didn’t need anything. What else could he want besides getting into the top 50 in his class?

At this time, Huo Tinglan gave a small smile, turning to Ye Hongjun to say: “You don’t have to worry about Xiao Ci’s birthday celebration. I’ve pretty much prepared everything.”

Ye Hongjun’s eyes lit up, and she said curiously on behalf of Ye Ci: “It’s all been done? How did you prepare? Can I be of use?”

Huo Tinglan lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment: “It really has……I will discuss this in private with you later. Ye Ci shouldn’t know, so that it’s a surprise when the time comes.”

If you wanted to surprise people, how could you say that in front of them?

Didn’t it hurt people if you don’t tell the whole story? !

“What?” Ye Ci stopped, tugging on Huo Tinglan’s cuff. “Don’t just say something halfway……”

“What kind of surprise would that be?” Huo Tinglan immediate Ye Ci’s tone leisurely with a half smile, and gently scratched the tip of his nose with his fingers. “I won’t tell you.”

Ye Hongjun couldn’t hold down the corners of her lips, so she hurriedly left the study and closed the door, so as not to disturb the young couple.

The door shut softly, and there were only the two of them left in the study.

“Be coquettish,” Huo Tinglan said softly.

Ye Ci hesitated for a moment, leaned forward, and hugged Huo Tinglan. He buried his face in his chest, rubbing left and right, soft and slightly jerky: “Say a little bit, ba, just a little bit. You’re the best, I, I like you the most.”

“Baby is so cute.” Huo Tinglan kissed that glowing red face, then sat back as if nothing had happened, picking up the half-read book and continuing to flip through it.

“ ? ”

Ye Ci stood in amazement.

“You’re not……”

“No.” Huo Tinglan expressed a smile.

“You know what I’m asking……”

“I know.” 

This was just blatantly bullying a child.

– – He only said to “act coquettish,” but didn’t say “I will tell you if you act coquettish.”

Falling in love with an old scoundrel was so hard.

Ye Ci had no choice but to nurse a grievance and continue to solve problems.

In this way, Ye Ci was in a dilemma for a few days. It was almost all he thought about during the study break, and his expectations were high.

Finally, it was March 17th, just in time for Saturday, when the school was on a half-day holiday, and he returned from school with two big bags of birthday presents from his classmates. The car drove to the courtyard of the Huo residence, where Uncle He was already waiting. Ye Ci got out of the car, and Uncle He asked someone to take the two bags of presents. Instead of letting him into the main house, he led him to the banquet hall next to the auxiliary building.

Huo Tinglan did not have Lin Yao’s sociable and lively character. This banquet hall was only used a few times a year, and Ye Ci had never been inside at all. Uncle He opened the door for him, and the afternoon sun poured warm light into the hall. The glacier-white marble floor was polished to a bright sheen and there were no lights on in the hall. The scarlet curtains hanging to the floor had an excellent shading effect, and distant objects were hidden in darkness. Ye Ci stepped in, and only had time to glimpse some vague outlines before Uncle He hastily closed the door behind him with speed like a black shop owner trying to abduct someone.

As soon as the door closed, the huge banquet hall was so dark that you couldn’t see your fingers.

“Huo-shushu?” Ye Ci called out, his voice fluttering with nervousness.

His heart beat wildly.

Suddenly, there was a light “click” in the darkness, as if a switch had been flipped.

Then, something not far away was illuminated.

It was a small exhibition stand, square, slender, and tall. A bit like the ones used to display cultural relics in museums, it had an ebony countertop and soft, shiny silk, just without the glass cover. The beam of light was very narrow, like the stage light in a play. It only illuminated this one area, and the things in the distance were still unclear.

……What was on it should be Huo Tinglan’s birthday present to him, right?

The corners of Ye Ci’s lips raised, and he walked over quickly and excitedly.

There was a letter on the silk surface along with a silver longevity lock.[3] The letter paper was folded, and the words “Zero Years Old” was written on the back of it.

Ye Ci was impatient about the gift, so he picked up the longevity lock and rubbed it. The lock was silver-gray, with an engraving of a child riding a horse, and the silver chain was decorated with four small bells. The engraving was ancient and quaint, the gilt was light, and there was a sense of wear and tear, as if it were an antique that had been passed down for more than a hundred years.

Ye Ci unfolded the letter.

On the paper was Huo Tinglan’s sharp, eloquent handwriting.

“……19 years ago today, you were born. I was 12 years old. If I had been in your life then, I couldn’t be ‘Huo-shushu,’ but ‘the neighbor’s big brother.’……

“……I heard from your mother that you seldom cried at night, and you were already so well-behaved after only being a few months old. She also said that among the rubber toys for exercising your fingers, your favorite pony had been lost……

“……I happen to have a zero-years-old birthday gift for you, a longevity lock with a boy riding a horse. This lock was worn by my great-grandfather when he was a child, and he was a hundred and twelve years old when he died. No disease and no pain, a happy death. So I think this lock must be very effective……

“…..A longevity lock, a lock for a hundred years, a lock for a prosperous life. May my baby live a long life and be free from disaster and diseases. This is a gift from Huo Tinglan, who was 12 years old at the time.”

Ye Ci clutched the silver lock. It was metal, but it wasn’t cold and hard, and his palm was filled with a soft warmth.

His eyes suddenly turned red, and he read the letter several times, as if he wanted to engrave the words and sentences into his heart. Then he folded the paper carefully and put it back in its original place for the time being – –

The second beam had come on.

With the help of the two lights, he could just barely see into the distance.

There were about a dozen similar gifts and letters in the shadows, but he couldn’t pick up another until he put the previous one back.

On the next letter, it said “One Year Old.”

The next letter said, “Two Years Old.”

Another and another……

Huo Tinglan made up every birthday gift to him from birth to eighteen years old, and they were not given indiscriminately. Like the longevity lock, they were each related to the corresponding age and had profound meanings. The effort this must have taken was unimaginable.

“……15 years ago today, you were still in kindergarten, listen to what your mother said……”

“……This is a gift from Big Brother Huo Tinglan, who was sixteen at the time……”

“It’s a pity that I didn’t appear in your life earlier, I can only make up for it in this way.”

“……….”

Not only were there gifts, but he also assumed what would have happened to the two of them if he had appeared in Ye Ci’s life at that time.

“……3 years ago today, you were sixteen years old and completed your transformation from a child into a teenager. I think that at 28, I would have given you a real, beautiful horse when you were an Alpha and liked speed and excitement. I would have liked to respect your hobbies under the premise of ensuring your safety. I heard from your mother that you secretly learned to ride a motorcycle with others. This is no good. A horse would be more suitable. I would teach you how to ride, and until you learned, I would have to choose to ride with you……”

“……A young Friesian horse, intelligent, easy to control, and gentle, suitable for beginners in horsemanship. Here is a pedigree certificate, it is already in the backyard, and you can play with it later……”

“……This is a gift from Mr. Huo, who was 28 years old at the time.”

Ye Ci wiped away tears as he walked.

Afraid that his tears would wet the precious letters, he wiped his face with his sleeve, and the cuff was full of dark wet marks.

He cried so hard that when he saw Huo Tinglan, who was waiting at the end of the row of display stands, he couldn’t even speak.

“Baby.” Huo Tinglan opened his arms to him, smiled softly and handsomely, and said with understanding, “Don’t talk, give me a hug.”

Ye Ci rushed forward and desperately hugged him as if trying to strangle someone to death, his throat choked up.

How fortunate he was to have met him.

Huo Tinglan’s warm palm rested on the back of his head, hugging him in a very possessive posture. After he calmed down a while later, he dropped the last “blockbuster.”

“You haven’t been given your nineteenth birthday present yet……from this year, I won’t ever miss another one again. Will you accept it?”

Ye Ci straightened up, and in a strong, nasally voice, he said: “Okay.”

Huo Tinglan handed him a thick stack of documents. There was also a key made of unknown material in the file, and he said with a smile: “Happy nineteenth birthday.”

Ye Ci wiped his eyes and opened the documents.

……He couldn’t understand half a word.

“What is this?” He flipped through them in a daze, and it was all in the same unknown language.

Huo Tinglan smirked and said unhurriedly: “You can read it after you learn it……you just need to remember that this is very important and take good care of it.” He reminded him, “It can be put together with the jadeite bracelet.”

The documents came from a city in Central Europe, where more than 120 banks worldwide were headquartered, known as the “Billionaire Capital.” What Ye Ci had in his hands was documentation provided by one of the established financial service providers. Their official common language was German, so of course Ye Ci couldn’t even understand half a word. With this certificate, the key, and Ye Ci’s own fingerprints, Ye Ci would be able to open a private vault that Huo Tinglan had purchased for a 100-year service period, within which were piles of gold that ordinary people would not be able to squander within dozens of lifetimes. This was an astronomical level of wealth. Huo Tinglan didn’t intend to tell him directly at the moment, but Ye Ci would know sooner or later.

“Huo-shushu, I think I’ve probably guessed……what this is.” Ye Ci pondered for a moment before making a vague guess.

He didn’t entirely understand, but it looked like some kind of document related to assets. If it could be given away as a gift, it must be expensive.

“Guess, just guess, I won’t take it back.” Huo Tinglan finally used his scoundrel tendencies in the right place. “It’s nothing to me…….it is my lifetime guarantee to you.”

In the first eighteen years of Ye Ci’s life, he suffered so much due to poverty. He only hoped that he would never be in such a predicament for the rest of his life, no matter what.

Not for one second.

He just wanted him to fly high.

May he soar through the sky, free and light.

May his wings be free from the dust of the world.

“I understand.” Ye Ci gripped the documents and didn’t evade the issue. He just raised his head, kissed Huo Tinglan lightly on the lips, and whispered, “Thank you, this is the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

He had already become calm, accepting love and kindness without resistance.

He was loved and in love.

There was nothing better.

Looking back, the nineteen beams of light behind him formed a bright road full of love and warmth.

And as the lights in the banquet hall gradually turned on, the road ahead became clear.

It was a smooth road.

Radiant and splendid.

In this way, full of love and warmth, he would go forward down that road, running all the way.

【The End】

T/N: There are several extras after this, and I’ll have those posted soon!

[1] A paper tiger, 纸老虎, is someone who looks tough and intimidating but is actually the opposite. ⮐

[2] Laohuo soup (老火汤) directly translates to ‘old fire soup.’ It is made by boiling various ingredients for several hours in a pot or pressure cooker. ⮐

[3] A longevity lock is an ancient Chinese tradition. These ornaments are given to children as sort of a ward against disaster and evil spirits. ⮐