APCF -Chapter 31 (1)

Once he finished speaking, Qi Jiaze slammed the car door and stalked towards the boy.

Qi Xingchen could not hold back his younger cousin, yet because he was afraid that the two boys would start fighting, he had no choice but to get down from the car and rush to follow after him.

Rushing to the boy’s side, Qi Jiaze, in a rare moment, did not start throwing hands but instead showed a look of surprise: “So it’s you. Why are you wandering around blindly on the road and not going back for self-study?”

The boy did not speak, maintaining his posture of hugging his school bag. He turned his head slightly to glance at Qi Jiaze and Qi Xingchen.

Qi Xingchen was taken aback for a bit; this boy looked really familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before. However, he was sure that he had never met this person before.

From Qi Jiaze’s tone, he seemed to know who the boy was, so Qi Xingchen asked him: “Jiaze, do you know each other?”

“We do. He’s from the same school and grade as me, but he’s in a different class, in Class 3.”

“Since you both are fellow students, let’s just forget it,” Qi Xingchen acted as the peacemaker, “The car wasn’t damaged, nor were we hurt, let’s stop bickering.”

“How can that be done?” Qi Jiaze remained unrelenting.

He furrowed his brows and turned to the boy: “Hey, I’m asking you a question. What are you doing swaying in the middle of the road, did you turn mute?”

“What has my whereabouts got to do with you?” The boy finally opened his mouth.

“What has it got to do with me?”

Unfortunately, his words instantly angered Qi Jiaze, and Qi Jiaze stretched out a finger to jab at his shoulder: “You didn’t look out for cars, and crossed the road with your head down. Even if you were knocked dead by a car, it wouldn’t be an injustice to you, you know?”

The boy immediately took a step backwards to avoid his finger: “How I die has nothing to do with you.”

Qi Jiaze choked to the point where he couldn’t endure it.

This sentence was even more exasperating, and Qi Jiaze could not suppress his temper. Taking off his jacket to wrap it around his waist, he then raised his fist, signalling that he was about to hit people.

Qi Xingchen now understood while observing from the sidelines. With his younger cousin’s disagreeable character, if he had wanted to beat people up, he would have thrown hands at the first opportunity.

He didn’t do so, and even warned the boy to look out for cars when crossing the road. Although his words were not nice to listen to, it was out of kindness, showing that he was still concerned about a schoolmate.

On the contrary, the boy did not appreciate it, with every sentence being more choke-inducing than the previous. In addition, his words sounded self-depreciating, which could be due to a bad mood.

Qi Xingchen did not want to cause trouble and grabbed Qi Jiaze’s arm, “Okay, no more arguing, let’s go home.”

“No way, laozi must beat him up today until he kneels down and cries out ‘grandfather’!”

“I don’t have that much time to wait for you,” Qi Xingchen pretended to be physically exhausted, “After an entire day of being on a plane, I’m exhausted.”

“Uh…”

Qi Jiaze looked at the boy, and then look back at his older cousin, and finally felt that venting his anger was not as important as his older cousin. He put down his fists, calling for an armistice, “We’ll leave it like this for now… Don’t you get cocky, when laozi goes back, I’ll deal with you properly.”

Qi Jiaze put his jacket back on, finished warning the boy, and was prepared to return home.

Qi Xingchen was a little uneasy about the boy’s mental state and added, “Jiaze, it’s going to be dark soon. Since you’re schoolmates, let’s just give him a ride on the way back.”

“Ge, why are you siding with an outside instead-“

“No need.”

The boy dropped these two words and turned to leave without waiting for Qi Jiaze to finish his protest.

Since the boy said so, even if Qi Xingchen wanted to help, he could not do so. He shook his head helplessly and dragged Qi Jiaze, who was enraged once more and had evolved into a super Greymon, back into the car.

When they arrived home, Qi Xingchen was once again stunned by his family’s dining table.

All he saw was the long table being cover in plates from left to right. Each plate had a different dish, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Hunan cuisine… Anything one could want to eat was present, it was just short of becoming a full Manchurian-Chinese banquet.

“Why were so many dishes made,” Qi Xingchen didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, “can we even finish them?”

“It’s nothing else than because after Dad watched 《Budget Travel》, he felt that you were not eating or sleeping well outside and had to make arrangements for you to be well nourished.”

Qi Yuji pushed his back: “Go go go, go and wash your hands quickly. I’ll scoop some soup for you.”

Qi Xingchen complied and went to the bathroom to wash his hands. When he settled down, his designated seat already had a bowl of soup in front of it.

This should be personally boiled by Qi Yuji, he thought as he lifted the soup bowl to take a gentle sip.

Emmmm…… It was so foul that he wanted to puke.

He didn’t even know what was in it, could it be that this missy did not taste it herself after it was boiled?

Qi Xinghcne silently placed the soup bowl down, and he just happened to see from the corner of his eye that Qi Yuji made a move to look over at him.

Unable to bear disappointing Qi Yuji’s expectant gaze, he reluctantly lifted the soup bowl again and drained the bowl of foul soup like he was a heroic sacrifice.

After dinner, he was caught by Qi Yuji to chat for a very long time. By bedtime, maybe it was the soup that took effect, he fell asleep within minutes of lying on his bed, forgetting to ask about the matter of Qi Jiaze’s schoolmate.

…

The appointment with the Communist Youth League was at 10 o’clock, location at the Noah Entertainment practice room. At 7 in the morning, Du Lanxin made a series of fatal chain calls:

“How are you still sleeping? In half an hour, the driver will go downstairs of your house to fetch you, try to get downstairs on time. Remember to not drink water, if your face is swollen it won’t look good on camera. Also, I asked the assistant to bring you breakfast, just eat it on the way here and don’t waste time dilly-dallying, pack fast!”

Qi Xingchen had only just woken up, and his mind raced to sift through the information in what she said.

“The driver will fetch you” meant that the company allocated a car to him.

“The assistant buying breakfast” meant that the company also allocated an assistant to him.

After a year and half a month, he was finally enjoying how an artiste should be treated—— this was due to the increased attention he got from 《Budget Travel》.

Otherwise, with the character of the original owner, if he did not want to touch the Qi family’s resources, it was indeterminate which year he would be buried under the snow until.

He left the door ten minutes earlier than the time Du Lanxin specified. The original owner had filled his address in as the small neighbourhood beside his, and he had to walk over.

Once he arrived at the designated location, the car had already been waiting for a while. It was an ordinary Buick MPV, a far cry from Bo Ye’s luxury caravan, but it was still better than nothing.