Chapter 60.1 – Late

Song Yu: “……”

Song Yu: “Not everyone is as superficial as you and only has money in their eyes.”

Song Wanying chuckled. As the only daughter of the Song Family and a top celebrity in A City, the one thing she disdained the most was money, okay?

“Okay, okay, okay.” Song Wanying continued after insincerely and perfunctorily agreeing, “I’m the superficial one. I hope you can succeed with your pure love as soon as possible. Since they’re so amazing, you can take them home for our parents to see, hey.”

This last sentence was a direct provocation.

He’d likely end up with broken legs if he took Xie Sui home. Wait, that wasn’t right. Why would he be taking Xie Sui back to the Song Family in the first place for the new year?!

Song Yu: “You talk too much. I’m hanging up.”

He was really crazy to try and talk about such things with Song Wanying.

Song Yu went back to his apartment by himself. He went to bed after washing up and dropped his head on the soft pillow, feeling that things weren’t right no matter how he thought about it.

He clutched at his head, sat up, and took out his cell phone, wanting to send Xie Sui a message. It was just that, after typing out a line of text, he reread it for a long time, then deleted it, then typed it out, then deleted it again. After hesitating this way for seven or eight minutes, he pursed his lips and chose to sleep.

“Why are you so innocent, big brother? You’re the one who kissed him first, even if it was an accident.”

He was muttering to himself.

He briefly closed his eyes, then changed his personal signature so that Xie Sui could see it.

[ We are too young to know how to love and be loved, only because our hearts have been hurt before ]

Do you understand what I mean?

It was just that someone else from Class One sent these words to the forum and the entire forum ‘got it’ before he could figure out if Xie Sui had understood or not.

[ Take a look at Brother Yu’s signature. What does it mean? ]

Main post: It was changed at one o’clock in the morning. He didn’t go to sleep in the middle of the night and sent out these kinds of words. What’s going on with Brother Yu?

1L: What else could it be? He’s trapped in love. Aren’t people who are in love all overly sentimental and earthy [picks nose] I never thought that a cool boy like Brother Yu would also embark on this road of no return

2L: Look at this stupid style? How come I feel like Brother Yu copied it from Baidu’s ‘annual list of sad personal signatures’?

3L: Was Brother Yu dumped by a bad woman?

4L: ? Can us Happy Together CP shippers say a sentence [wants to speak but stopping.jpg]

5L: What? A bad woman made Brother Yu cry?

6L: I’m so sad, my heart is broken, it’s broken wuwuwuwu

7L: Brother Yu’s crying, I don’t want to live anymore [wail][wail][crying]

Other people: “……”

That night, this thread became a late-night crying and mourning brigade.

Song Yu went home on Sunday.

After one night’s separation, Grandma Meng had finally lost most of her anger. Her voice was soft as she reprimanded him, “If you don’t like that child from the Qin Family, you can not attend. But to shame others like this is intolerable. Don’t do that next time.”

Song Yu thought to himself, as long as Qin Mo didn’t come to provoke him and Xie Sui, who would care about him? But his mouth was very obedient and his smile even revealed his dimples, “Yes, I know.”

In the afternoon, he did his homework in the garden.

Song Yu received a message from Ma Xiaoding.

[ Sadako Won’t Forget Those Who Dug The Well: ? Brother Yu, you were crying?! ]

[ Sadako Won’t Forget Those Who Dug The Well: My god, what happened to you during that time when the power went out in the Internet cafe qwq ]

Song Yu almost dropped his cell phone. Why did he have to bring that up? He didn’t want to think about what had happened when the Internet cafe lost power at all, okay?

[ Your Husband, Brother Yu: You haven’t woken up yet, right? ]

What were you chattering on blindly for?

Ma Xiaoding sent him a link to the forum.

[ Sadako Won’t Forget Those Who Dug The Well: qwq The tragedy caused by your personal signature ]

Song Yu clicked into the thread on his cell phone. The thread had started off relatively normally, but the back was filled with strings of [wailing and crying] expression packs, a crying and mourning brigade, ‘I’m lovelorn wuwuwuwu’ ‘Brother Yu’s crying, I’m dying’, and enough tears to create a river. Looking at it dazzled his eyes; when did he cry? How come he didn’t know about it?

But then Song Yu went back to see his personal signature and ended up choking on his own saliva, coughing extremely awkwardly.

He guiltily and quickly went to delete it, wondering if he’d had water in his brain yesterday.

[ Sadako Won’t Forget Those Who Dug The Well: I’ll go ask God Xie since he was closest to you. What exactly happened that day? qwq ]

“Damn it!” Song Yu glared. He typed super quickly, “Ma Xiaoding, don’t—”, But before he could even send it out, Ma Xiaoding’s next message had already arrived.

[ Sadako Won’t Forget Those Who Dug The Well: ??? God Xie said that it’s a secret. What? ]

Song Yu: “……”

[ Your Husband, Brother Yu:  ]

He exited out of their conversation and saw Xie Sui’s message.

[ Xie Sui: Crying? ]

Song Yu’s heart stopped for a moment. His heart, which had calmed down with much difficulty, was once again disrupted into chaos.

[ Your Husband, Brother Yu: How could that be ] I haven’t cried in this lifetime.

[ Xie Sui: That’s good ]

Another message slowly came over from another side a minute later.

[ Xie Sui: I thought I made you cry with my kiss ]

Song Yu: “……”

[ Your Husband, Brother Yu: Let me discuss something with you! Since it was an accident! Let’s just pretend nothing happened last night, okay? ]

[ Xie Sui: Okay ]

Originally, he’d thought that he would have to wait until school started on Monday to make things clear, but unexpectedly, after a series of accidents, they were able to clarify it all today.

Song Yu breathed out a long sigh of relief. He kind of wanted to ask Xie Sui ‘have you thought about it clearly’, but his fingers paused on the chat interface. His eyelashes trembled, and he gave up.

Looking at Xie Sui’s attitude, he should’ve thought things through. They were all teenagers who’d only just started to understand love, so how could they act so naturally towards the people they like?

Xie Sui set down his cell phone and dropped his gaze, smiling faintly.

He told himself that he couldn’t rush things. He really was surprisingly patient when it came to this child.

His gaze drifted back to the computer and the rows of files that were in his mailbox. They were all related to the ‘Xie Group’.

The look in Xie Sui’s eyes turned to one of indifference.

He’d been in power in the Xie Family for many years in his previous life and he knew the Xie Group well. With his help, Qu Rong had easily been promoted to Xie Mingsen’s side.

[ Qu Rong: According to President Xie, Xie Mingsen should be transferred out of headquarters next year and will first take over ‘Xinrui’ as CEO. ]

Xinrui was a technology company under the Xie Group which had very promising development prospects. Rather than calling it a transfer, Xie Sinian had given Xie Mingsen a springboard from which he could make some achievements. He could use these achievements to win over the board of directors at headquarters and pave the way to take over the Xie Group in the future.

It was just that this eldest son was doomed to let him down.

Xie Sui’s memory was especially good. The Xinrui scandal from his last life seemed to have happened in Xie Mingsen’s hands.

The game they’d developed was sued for plagiarism and their user information was exposed. There was an overwhelming amount of negative publicity, causing the stock price to plummet and breaking their capital chain, which made it difficult for Xinrui to recover. In the end, Xie Group’s headquarters had to come out and make a move to save the situation.

He tapped his fingers twice on the desk.

Xie Sui laughed briefly, his eyes cold.

Repeating the same experiences from his previous life after being reborn was too boring. Last time, it had only taken him three years to go from being the illegitimate son of the Xie Family, unacknowledged by anyone, to thoroughly reshuffling the board of directors and firmly grasping power. This time, it might happen even earlier. He would return to the Xie Family sooner or later, but he wanted to first give them a surprise before then.

[ Pay more attention to Xie Mingsen’s decision making. Make some audio recordings. ]

[ Make a trip to Qinghe Mansion at the end of the year. ]

[ Qu Rong: Okay. ]

Xie Sui flipped his pen, then received a call from Xu Shi’en.

His eyes darkened, but his tone was calm, “Hello, little aunt.”

Xu Shi’en’s voice held suppressed excitement, but she pretended to be both sad and angry, “Ah-Sui, your little aunt finished reading the diary from last time. After reading it, I was so angry I was shaking all over and it took me a long time to calm down. My poor sister. Alas, how could she encounter such a thing?! Qin Qiuyun is simply not human. I’ve already contacted people, and I’m investigating Chengnan Club. I’ll definitely get justice for your mother. I want Qin Qiuyun to know that in A City, our Xu Family isn’t so good to provoke.”

Xie Sui curved his lips, mocking and sarcastic, but his tone was sad, “Thank you, aunt.”

Xu Shi’en continued, “After Qin Qiuyun is pulled down, Ah-Sui, come back to A City. Your grandmother and grandfather miss you very much.”

Xie Sui carelessly replied, “Mm.”

He wasn’t interested in their biting at each other. He couldn’t even muster up the desire to make a move on Qin Qiuyun himself.

The Xu Family and Xu Shi’en’s purposes were very obvious. The Xu Family wanted to use him as a chess piece and have him become a point with which to establish a relationship with the Xie Family. But Xu Shi’en was even more daring and coveted the position of Xie Family’s main wife. She’d been eagerly waiting to make a move for many years.

What he’d met the most while in A City was this kind of smart fool.

The Xu Family wasn’t good to provoke, but did that mean the Qin Family was? Even though Qin Qiuyun had never been liked by the Qin Family, it had been beyond everyone’s expectations for her to marry Xie Sinian back then.

But at the end of the day, she was still surnamed Qin.

Xie Sui hung up the phone and laughed mockingly.

Chapter 60.2 – Late

On Monday, Song Yu packed up his books and headed out.

“Uncle Ma doesn’t need to send me back. I’ll take the bus myself.”

Grandma Meng muttered, “Waiting for the bus takes so much time. What’ll you do if you end up late?”

Song Yu: “It’s still early.”

He really didn’t want to be in the same car as Ma Xiaoding. Listening to him ask and chatter on about what had happened in the Internet cafe that day was simply a nightmare.

Song Yu attracted the whole vehicle’s attention when getting on the bus.

But he soon grew accustomed to it. He looked up lazily and didn’t speak.

He pulled on the hand ring and had just steadied himself when the girl beside him suddenly and quietly spoke up, “Brother Yu, do you want to sit?”

Song Yu looked at her bright eyes and raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t old, weak, sick, disabled, or pregnant, so why give him a seat? He lightly responded, “Thank you, but you can keep your seat.”

The girl looked at him tentatively and continued to whisper, “Brother Yu, are you alright?”

Song Yu: “???”

The girl mustered up her courage and earnestly said, “You deserve better.”

“……”

Oh, he remembered now. Everyone thought he’d been dumped.

Fine then. He was too lazy to explain. Getting dumped was better than being kissed.

Song Yu bought a cup of soymilk while on the streetside after getting off the bus and gnawed at the straw as he headed to school.

The bus stop was at a crossroads and he still had to walk halfway down the street to reach the school gates.

He’d walked half of the way there when he suddenly heard the sound of fighting coming from the front of a narrow alley.

There were a few curses in the darkness, “Why is there so little? Look at how richly you’re dressed—why do you have so little spending money?”

A boy’s voice was mixed with sounds of crying, “This is my breakfast money for the month.”

“I don’t believe you! You must be hiding it. A brat like you won’t learn your lesson if I don’t beat you up!”

“I really don’t have any wuwuwuwu, I really don’t.”

“There’s nothing? Then you should f*cking know to ask your mother for more money next time!”

Kicks fell down like rain and groaning and crying rang out in the alleyway; the level of noise wasn’t insignificant.

Song Yu finished his soymilk and took a step forward. When he could see the scene in the alley clearly, he saw that the boy being beaten up was wearing a school uniform, and he looked thin and weak as he crouched down crying in the corner.

There was another group of tall and well-built people who were also wearing school uniforms, but the number on their uniforms was ‘13’. They were most likely a group of school scum who went everywhere collecting ‘protection fees’.

“Bring 500 tomorrow, or else you’ll—ah!” The empty soymilk cup flew over and hit its target, smashing against the back of the leader’s head. There was still a little bit of soymilk left, which splashed out and drenched his body.

The young man who’d been soaked by soymilk was infuriated. He turned around, “Who is it?!”

Song Yu wasn’t wearing a backpack. He held his books in his hand and stood with his back towards the light. His tone was mocking, “Your father.”

He was tall, with long legs and pale, delicate skin. His pupils were very light under his thin eyelids.

The leader of the youths was enraged, “You’re f*cking looking to die.”

It was just that his rage hadn’t had the chance to explode when the person beside him grabbed at his sleeve. That person showed a little dread as he looked at Song Yu and quietly said, “Boss, this person seems to be No.1 High’s new school bully.”

The young man was stunned for a moment, but his expression remained gloomy, “What’s there to be afraid of? He’s on his own.”

The person beside him swallowed hard, “Last time, he dealt with Gao Feng and his crowd on his own.”

They and Gao Feng knew each other. The young man fell silent for a while, then cursed, outwardly fierce but cowering inside, “What bad luck. Brat, you should consider yourself lucky that Laozi’s going to be late. Otherwise, I’d beat you up until even your own mother couldn’t recognize you.”

Song Yu sneered. He stood at the entrance to the alley like a plague god, blocking the way, “What are you in such a hurry for? Did I tell you guys to go?”

“……”

—The group of people from No.13 High.

“Don’t cue my mother all day long. Call her grandma. Got it, son?”

A series of wailing sounds came from the alley. Finally, the crowd of people from No.13 High left their money behind and crawled away, crying and yelling.

Song Yu crouched down and helped the boy pick up his glasses.

The boy raised his head. He was very thin, his skin milky-white and his eyes red-rimmed like a rabbit. His lips were still trembling.

When Song Yu could see his face clearly, he felt that it looked a little familiar. Eh, wasn’t this the person who’d been sitting in front of him when they took the monthly exams?

He looked like an intense bookworm when he wore glasses, but when they were off, he looked like a crying and chirping… rabbit?

Song Yu gave his glasses back to him and asked him the real key questions, “Fellow brother, what’s your name? How come you always meet such scum?”

“Thank you, Brother Yu.” His hands were still shaking, and his eyes were red. He looked aggrieved and afraid, “My, my name is Ren Wenhan.”

Song Yu chewed on a candy and glanced over him with doubt, but he didn’t know how to comfort others, so he said, “Let’s go to school first. We’ll be late soon.”

Ren Wenhan sniffed, his tears falling again, “Oh, yes.”

He tightened his arms around his school bag and put on his glasses. He looked particularly thin and pitiful.

However, after such a delay, the school bell rang as soon as they stepped into school.

The teaching director had recently been very strict about catching students who arrived late. He held up a loudspeaker and angrily roared, “Those who came in at the end should all come over here and stand still! Arriving late on a Monday—what are you guys attending school for?!”

The group of students who’d rushed over all howled to express their sorrow, then gave up resistance and lined up to stand silently at the gate like a welcome brigade.

Song Yu internally lamented over how his luck was really bad.

Ren Wenhan was still crying beside him, sniffling and unable to catch his breath, “Brother Yu, I’m sorry, I pulled you down with me.”

Song Yu was still eating candy, “I don’t blame you. I was in a bad mood. I should actually thank you for sending me a group of people to vent my anger out on.”

Ren Wenhan looked at him in a daze.

The teenager’s side profile was very excellent and handsome in the golden morning light. They were all wearing school uniforms, but he had a school grass’s exuberant, youthful spirit, and was coated with a lazy attitude that made him stand out from the others.

His breathing stalled and he couldn’t help but clench his fingers tightly around his school bag.

There was someone cursing and scolding nearby, “In the whole school, it’s just this disciplinary teacher who comes up with so much crap, and he even stands here for a morning self-study session. When he leaves, Laozi’s gonna bail.”

“It was him last time at Shushan Building too, right? Dammit, we should find a chance to beat him up.”

“Put a sack over him and block him in a corner, then toss the blame to Song Yu. Isn’t he the school bully? We’ll teach him what a school bully should do. He must’ve turned into an idiot from all the studying.”

“Like I said, what kind of sense of existence does he have as a school bully? He was only powerful for a while on that one day.”

Song Yu wrapped his tongue around the candy and treated them like a bunch of fools.

The teaching director finally dragged back the person who’d tried to escape on a bike, pulling him over by the collar and setting him down next to Song Yu. He sneered, “Want to run? You even tried to run? I’ve taught students for so many years, yet I haven’t had any students manage to slip away from my hands!”

The student with the bicycle forced a smile onto his face, “Teacher, I was just helping an old grandmother cross the road.”

The teaching director: “What a coincidence. The people in front of you said the same thing. According to your words, an old lady passed by the red street light in front of the school gate at an average of once per minute.”

The bicycle student couldn’t smile anymore.

The teaching director held up his loudspeaker and shouted at him, “Late is late, and you even tried to quibble. Write a five thousand word essay!”

After telling off this student, the teaching director came to a stop in front of Song Yu, still holding his loudspeaker. The bellyful of words he’d been about to say regarding bad students were all stuck in his throat when Song Yu looked up.

The two of them looked at each other.

The teaching director, “How come it’s you again?!”

The student who’d run faster than a rabbit last time at Shushan Building.

This disciplinary teacher had always been selfless and didn’t fear Song Yu’s background. He was a good, upright man and had nothing to fear even if the mayor came to ask him questions.

Song Yu: “Hello, teacher.”

The teaching director: “… Tell me, then. Why are you late?”

Song Yu chuckled, “I was acting bravely for a just cause.”

“What?”

“A group of No.13 High students bullied a student from our No.1 High. As the school bully, I must take the lead in the fight to stop this evil behavior.”

Ren Wenhan’s eyes were still red. He weakly raised his hand, “I… I can testify.”

The teaching director: “……”

Gao Feng’s group: “……”

They all turned their heads to look over when they heard the words ‘school bully’, rather like a group of sunflowers, their eyes filled with shock.

“Song Yu?!”

The first one to shout out was Gao Feng.

Song Yu smiled slightly, “Hi.”

Gao Feng: —F*ck!

Can you not say hi? Dammit, he didn’t want to hear this word again in his life.

The teaching director was half-believing and half-doubtful. Suddenly, the headmaster’s voice rang out from behind him, “What’s going on here? Why is everyone standing in a row?”

The teaching director looked back and found that not only was the headmaster there, but two vice-principals were too, and they were following behind a tall boy.

“Headmaster, I’m punishing late students.”

The headmaster laughed genially, his tone kind, “There’s no need to stand at the gate to do it. Students still need face; ask them to go back and write an essay.”

The teaching director: “… Yes.”

The students who were standing in a row all subconsciously looked over at the young man who was of a similar age to them.

His clothing didn’t look cheap and his temperament was clearly that of someone who had been raised well and lived comfortably. His smile was warm and gentle; while everyone was looking at him, his eyes were focused on Song Yu, his gaze a little cold, “Song Yu?”

Song Yu’s eyes were icy.

Qin Mo didn’t back down.

In fact, he’d first felt quite positive about Song Yu. He liked people who were good-looking, regardless of whether they were men or women. Song Yu’s personality suited his tastes, his attitude on the terrace both cold and wild, and he’d likely be interesting to play with. But later, Song Yu had made his antipathy very obvious, so his interest had faded. In the past, when he encountered these kinds of difficult targets, he would use less-than-gentle means to make them yield.

But he was from the Song Family, and there was too much to consider.

After losing interest, he felt bored after a few glances.

Moreover, he preferred the cold silence of an arrogant beauty in comparison, whereas Song Yu had already been spoiled into lawlessness by the Song Family.