Chapter 13
Zhong Er at that time was completely different from now. He wore a small dress, his mid-length hair scattered on his shoulders. His features hadn’t fully developed yet, so such attire wasn’t strange at all. At first glance, it was difficult to tell whether he was a boy or a girl.
Xi Shi mistook him.
He stood on the second-floor staircase, staring at Zhong Er for a long time, watching him eat a piece of cake slowly, bite by bite, watching him avoid the crowd, sitting quietly by himself.
Until their eyes met.
Zhong Er quickly looked away and put down the half-eaten cake.
Xi Shi thought he might have scared the little girl.
The banquet hall was filled with mingling adults, exchanging pleasantries. The children were mostly second-generation heirs of top wealthy families, well-behaved and knowing how to restrain themselves at a young age, presenting a polite and proper demeanor.
There was one exception.
Four-year-old Shi Chengze.
This age was delicate. One second he was obediently calling him “gege,” the next he transformed into a little devil, releasing childish malice.
“Gege.”
“I have a mommy, why don’t you? Oh, I know, because your mommy is sick, and you’re sick too, treating a dog like family, and even breaking your leg trying to save a dead dog.”
They shared the same father. Their mothers were cousins who used to be very close, and they were biologically related.
“Daddy doesn’t like you or your mommy. He only likes me and my mommy. Your mommy is dead, why aren’t you?”
Xi Shi would never forget that day. Shi Chengze asked him with a smile, the same innocent and bright smile, full of malice, as when he stood by the pool watching him retrieve the dog’s body.
“Oh, the puppy drowned, why didn’t you drown, gege?”
Perhaps the idea that human nature is inherently good was a fallacy. Xi Shi later checked the surveillance footage. It was Shi Chengze who threw his dog into the swimming pool, holding its head down until it stopped moving.
Unfortunately, there was no swimming pool in the banquet hall.
Xi Shi was almost six years older than Shi Chengze. Shi Chengze barely reached his chest, and Xi Shi could knock him to the ground with one hand. He grabbed Shi Chengze’s hair and slammed his head against the floor repeatedly.
The shrill screams broke the peaceful atmosphere of the banquet, startling everyone. Xi Shi turned a deaf ear, his movements mechanical.
Blood splattered on Xi Shi’s face. He looked up and met Zhong Er’s gaze.
The little girl stared at him blankly, as if stunned.
Xi Shi wiped his face and hit Shi Chengze’s leg with his crutch.
This banquet was hosted by the Xi family, and almost everyone knew Xi Shi, the eldest grandson of the Xi family. The one-sided beating continued until Shi Fengsheng arrived.
“Xiao Ze, Xiao Ze, are you okay?”
Shi Chengze was wearing a delicate white suit, his trousers covered in blood. He lay on the ground, his legs limp, unable to even crawl.
Xi Shi looked at him like he was looking at a dead dog.
“Daddy, it hurts, it hurts, Daddy, waaaah…Gege hit me!”
“Xi Shi, are you crazy?!”
Crazy?
Perhaps.
Xi Shi raised his crutch and swung it. Shi Fengsheng didn’t expect him to attack him and couldn’t dodge in time, getting hit on the shoulder.
This blow used all his strength, much harder than when he hit Shi Chengze. Even an adult could barely withstand it. Shi Fengsheng’s entire body went numb with pain, and he snatched the crutch.
“You want to hit me?” Xi Shi steadied himself against the railing, sneering. “Go ahead, you better kill me, or I’ll kill you sooner or later.”
Shi Fengsheng’s raised hand froze in mid-air. Xi Shi’s face, so similar to Xi Yue’s, shocked him, as if he was back three years ago, when Xi Yue, whose personality had changed drastically due to depression, always looked at him with resentment.
Xi Shi inherited her looks and her resentment.
Xi Chongyang shielded Xi Shi behind him. Shi Fengsheng came back to his senses and explained dryly, “Dad, I didn’t mean to hit him.”
Before Xi Chongyang could say anything, the housekeeper stepped forward and took the crutch from Shi Fengsheng’s hand.
“What happened?”
“He was bullying a little girl, lifting her skirt, and making her cry. He deserved it.”
The second floor was quiet. Besides him and Shi Chengze, only Zhong Yuxiao, who was hiding in a quiet corner, saw everything.
Xi Shi pulled Zhong Yuxiao closer and squeezed his wrist tightly under the cover of his clothes. “He bullied you, didn’t he?”
Despite the blood on his face, Xi Shi’s tone was gentle, but his eyes were fierce. He had just beaten someone to a pulp, looking like a dangerous madman.
Zhong Er, a sickly child, was raised as a girl by his parents. Being bullied by Xi Shi, his eyes immediately reddened.
It hurt.
Zhong Yuxiao didn’t speak.
No one cared about his answer either. Anyone could see that he was just an excuse for Xi Shi.
When Xi Chongyang arrived, Shi Fengsheng’s aura immediately weakened. “You can’t beat your younger brother like this.”
“He’s not my brother.” Xi Shi let go of Zhong Yuxiao’s wrist, his eyes bloodshot. “My mother only gave birth to me. That bastard, born from you and your mistress, dares to call me brother? He’s not worthy, and neither are you!”
“Xi Shi, don’t talk nonsense.” Shi Fengsheng couldn’t save face, but he couldn’t lose his temper with Xi Chongyang present. “Your mother wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
“Shut up, you’re not worthy of mentioning my mother! She was driven to death by you!”
He was like a ferocious wolf cub. If it weren’t for his injured leg, he would have pounced on Shi Fengsheng and torn him apart.
Xi Shi had been raised by Xi Chongyang since he was young, taught to be the future successor of the Xi family. After Xi Yue’s death, the relationship between him and his father completely deteriorated.
Shi Fengsheng’s face darkened. His reputation in the wealthy circles wasn’t good. He married his deceased wife’s cousin shortly after her death and even had a son with her. Judging from Shi Chengze’s age, the child was conceived while Xi Yue was still alive.
Although Shi Fengsheng claimed that Shi Chengze was born two months premature, no one believed him, and the rumors behind his back never stopped. Some even speculated that Xi Yue didn’t commit suicide but was murdered by him.
The rumors, coming from Xi Shi’s mouth, were thought-provoking.
“Alright, go check on your son.”
Xi Chongyang spoke, and Shi Fengsheng had no choice but to leave. The farce ended just like that.
He looked at Xi Shi. “What happened?”
He knew the child he raised. Xi Shi might have lied, but Shi Chengze must have provoked him first. A beating wasn’t excessive. Although there was blood, he was still crying and screaming, so he wouldn’t die.
Because of Xi Yue’s death, Xi Chongyang also held some resentment towards his niece, whom he had once loved, let alone the child born from his niece and her husband.
“I saw Shi Chengze bullying a little girl, so I taught him a lesson.” Facing Xi Chongyang, Xi Shi seemed like a different person, without the rebelliousness he showed when arguing with Shi Fengsheng. “Protecting girls is what a man should do. The little girl is pretty, I like her, so I naturally can’t let anyone bully her.”
These words were half-truth and half-lie. He really did think Zhong Er was pretty and liked him.
Except it wasn’t Shi Chengze who was bullying him, it was him.
Xi Chongyang laughed heartily. “Do you even know what ‘like’ means?”
“Like means I’ll marry her when I grow up!”
Not only Xi Chongyang, but even Zhong Fu and Zhong Mu were amused. “Xi Shi liked Xiaoyao even before he was born. Yueyue even said she wanted to arrange a marriage for them…Sigh, such a twist of fate.”
It was indeed a twist of fate. After Xi Yue’s incident, two boys couldn’t be betrothed.
Xi Shi thought the matter was over, but the little girl, who had been silent, suddenly rolled up her sleeve, revealing a red mark on her wrist, and pointed at Xi Shi.
“He pinched me.”
A clear, male voice.
Xi Shi was dumbfounded. “You, you’re a boy?!”
Because Zhong Yuxiao complained, Xi Shi was scolded and grounded by Xi Chongyang.
That’s how he remembered Zhong Er.
Xi Shi thought his preference for men might have been triggered by Zhong Yuxiao. Being tricked by a little guy in a dress at such a young age, it would leave a mark on anyone.
The dream featured Shi Fengsheng and Shi Chengze, so it wasn’t a very good dream for Xi Shi.
He only slept for a little over an hour before waking up.
The curtains were tightly drawn, and the bedroom was dark. Xi Shi grabbed his phone and checked the time. It was just past ten.
Zhong Yuxiao had left early and hadn’t returned yet. He didn’t know where he had gone.
How cute Zhong Yuxiao was as a child, wearing a princess dress, with pigtails, fair and chubby like a little glutinous rice ball. Now he always wore suits and glasses, looking more and more like his serious and unsmiling older brother.
Even his profile picture was old-fashioned.
Xi Shi clicked his tongue and zoomed in on the profile picture. It was a typical elite profile picture, an open book with a cup of coffee in front of it.
Zhong Yuxiao was in the middle of class when his phone vibrated twice.
[Gold-Inlaid Jade Radish poked you]
Had the young master woken up?
He turned off his phone, but soon received another message.
[Gold-Inlaid Jade Radish: Why aren’t you wearing a dress anymore?]
He was clearly still not fully awake.
There was no reasoning with a drunkard. Zhong Yuxiao ignored him and turned off his phone.
Xi Shi wasn’t angry at not receiving a reply and amused himself by opening a shopping app and ordering more than a dozen dresses. Princess dresses, sundresses, floral dresses…and miniskirts.
Zhong Yuxiao’s long legs would look amazing in a miniskirt.
After class, Zhong Yuxiao received a notification from Zhong Zhili, asking him and Xi Shi to keep their lunch schedule free. He wanted to treat them to a meal.
Zhong Zhili was back from his business trip, and the first thing he wanted to do was to reprimand the wild boar and lecture the cabbage.
Before Zhong Yuxiao could say anything, the call was hung up. When he called back, Zhong Zhili’s secretary answered, saying that Zhong Zhili was busy and asked if there was anything he could relay.
Zhong Yuxiao was both helpless and amused. “Then please ask Mr. Zhong where we’re having lunch.”
“Tell him, Shuiyun Painting Boat.”
The secretary relayed the message faithfully.
“Okay, thank you.”
Zhong Zhili was always meticulous, but this time, he was truly angry. He answered before the secretary could even finish asking, forgetting that he had his phone on speakerphone.
Shuiyun Painting Boat was a famous private restaurant in Lincheng, half an hour away from Lincheng University. He compared the routes on the map and sent Xi Shi a message.
[Night: Are you sober?]
[Night: My brother is treating us to lunch at Shuiyun Painting Boat. If you’re sober, come pick me up at Lincheng University, and we’ll go together.]
Above was the message Xi Shi sent.
Zhong Yuxiao narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t worn a dress since he was eight years old. To be precise, he hadn’t worn one since shortly after that banquet.
At the banquet, Xi Shi had mistaken him for a girl.
Looking back on his life, that was the most embarrassing moment of his twenty-plus years. He had complained about Xi Shi because of that incident. The guy was blind and crippled, couldn’t even tell if he was a boy or a girl, and even said he wanted to marry him when he grew up.
Unexpectedly, they really did get married in the end.
Xi Shi didn’t reply. Zhong Yuxiao waited a bit longer, thinking about whether he should just go to lunch by himself. Zhong Zhili wouldn’t let him go hungry.
He hailed a cab and just as he opened the door, the sports car that had taken him speeding on the mountain road last night stopped in front of the taxi. Xi Shi, holding his sunglasses with one hand, winked at him. “Handsome, take my car. Gege is a good driver, I guarantee you’ll have an unforgettable experience.”
“…”
There were many people coming and going at the school gate, and many looked over. Zhong Yuxiao was silent for a second, then decisively got into the sports car, pretending not to know him. “Let’s go, driver.”
Xi Shi was anxious, quickly jumped out of the car, and patted the taxi window. “We slept in the same bed yesterday, and today you’re getting into another man’s car? This is cheating!”
“…”
“Zhong Er, get out of the car, or I’ll call the police!”
The taxi driver quickly said, “Don’t call the police, I’m not the adulterer, I’m just a taxi driver.”
He looked at Zhong Yuxiao, his eyes slightly reproachful. “Handsome, cheating is not good, you’ll lose everything in the divorce.”
Zhong Yuxiao: “…You misunderstood, we’re just joking.”
Zhong Yuxiao apologized awkwardly, and the taxi driver waved his hand. “Handsome guys are just different, even their jokes are unique. I thought I was really going to be arrested.”
Help!
Zhong Yuxiao was almost suffocated. He quickly got into the sports car and urged Xi Shi to drive.
“So eager to experience gege’s skills?”
“…Are you still drunk?”
Proper people spoke so subtly. Xi Shi saw four words written all over his face: Are you crazy?
His mood suddenly brightened. “Don’t worry, I’m driving legally. Our motto is no bumper cars, no getting arrested by the traffic police.”
Zhong Yuxiao fell silent and looked him up and down.
“What are you looking at?”
“You’re not acting like yourself today.”
“More handsome?”
No, more of a flirt.
Zhong Yuxiao wondered, the young master was still inexplicably sulking last night, why was he so cheerful today?
He didn’t speak, and Xi Shi took it as a tacit agreement, curling his lips and humming happily.
Arriving at the Shuiyun Painting Boat, Xi Shi suddenly became serious. “Don’t worry, with our relationship, just wait and see how Gege Xi will back you up.”
Zhong Zhili?
Heh, he wanted to see this big devil who forced Zhong Er to stay abroad.
Zhong Yuxiao was puzzled. “?”
When they first met, before Xi Shi beat up Shi Chengze, he had also looked at him with a calculating gaze.
Zhong Yuxiao suddenly had a bad feeling.
