ACBNHTS Chapter 10

“My clothes might be a little small for you, so please bear with wearing my pajamas for now.”

Pei Du took them and changed, somehow managing to give the soft pajamas a cool vibe.

Sheng Yiguang picked up his discarded coat and trousers, though he hadn’t worn anything this expensive before, he’d heard about them.

“Can’t you put these in the washing machine?”

“You can.”

“But what if I ruin them…”

“It’s on me.”

With those words, Sheng Yiguang felt relieved.

Sheng Tong walked over to Sheng Yiguang’s side, “When is he leaving?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t like him.”

This older brother was tall, looked fierce, cold, looked at everyone like they were dogs, and was very arrogant.

He didn’t like him, and was a little scared.

“He’s not as good as Teacher Zhou.”

A cold laugh came from the living room.

The place was small.

Pei Du heard it.

“Sheng Yiguang, how did you pass on your bad-eye genes to your son?”

Sheng Tong was slightly stunned.

Son?

Pei Du strolled to the balcony, looking down at Sheng Tong, his tone cool.

“Uncle here, seeing that you’re a child and don’t understand things, I’ll teach you. That Teacher Zhou of yours has bad intentions, approaching your dad to abduct him, making you a child without a father.”

Every word was like the old witch in a fairy tale.

Sheng Yiguang: “…”

Sheng Tong was unhappy, “If Teacher Zhou has bad intentions, what about you? Do you also like Sheng Yiguang?”

Pei Du glanced at him, “What do you mean?”

Sheng Tong: “?”

“Got it, you have a crush on me, wanting me to be your…” Pei Du drawled, pausing deliberately for a few seconds, before spitting out two words, “Step, dad.”

Sheng Tong: “…”

Sheng Yiguang: “…”

Pei Du: “Buy one get one free? Seems like I’m making a profit, but actually you are.”

Pei Du: “Young, but you have good taste.”

Pei Du: “See that Uncle is handsome, kind, and rich?”

Sheng Tong: “…”

Sheng Yiguang: “…”

Pei Du: “Do you know how many people are chasing Uncle?”

Pei Du: “I gave your dad a chance, but he rejected me, acting like he wanted to never see me again. If you want me, you better work on him first. You want me to come with a family without even trying to woo me, you’re dreaming.”

Sheng Yiguang: “…”

Sheng Tong endured it, clenching his fist, “When will the clothes be washed?”

Sheng Yiguang: “…Just put them in.”

Pei Du scoffed and returned to the living room.

Sheng Tong took out the “I’m Not Happy” imperial decree pendant that Sheng Yiguang had designed earlier, raised it up, pointing it at Pei Du’s arrogant-looking back, lowering his voice.

“Don’t want him!”

Sheng Yiguang was a little helpless, he couldn’t exactly ask Pei Du to be nicer to Tong Tong. Afraid the two would start fighting, Sheng Yiguang coaxed Sheng Tong back to his room.

Only Sheng Yiguang and Pei Du were left in the living room.

Pei Du, wearing his pajamas, sat calmly on his sofa, as if it were his own home.

Instead, Sheng Yiguang felt a little awkward.

“Do you want to rest for a while?”

Just sleep, better than the two of them staring at each other.

Pei Du slowly raised his eyes, his voice casual, “Rest? Where? On the sofa? Or, your bed?”

“…” He shouldn’t have said that!

Pei Du looked down at his phone, saying indifferently, “If you have something to do, go do it.”

Sheng Yiguang had nothing to do, but didn’t want to be alone with him, so he said, “Then call me if you need anything.”

After speaking, he hid in the bedroom.

Pei Du sat on the sofa, his gaze falling casually on the black screen of his phone, a mocking smile on his face.

–

Sheng Yiguang timed the washing machine and went out to take out Pei Du’s clothes.

The expensive and well-ironed suit was wrinkled.

Ruined.

Pei Du didn’t care, “No dryer?”

“No, I’ll dry it with a hairdryer.”

Sheng Yiguang took the clothes into the bedroom, carefully drying them with a hairdryer, ironing them a bit, making them wearable, but clearly not suitable for going out.

Pei Du put on the clothes.

Sheng Tong heard the commotion, opened the door, excitement written on his face.

“Is he leaving?”

Pei Du’s eyebrows darkened.

Seeing that something was wrong, Sheng Tong slammed the door shut.

Sheng Yiguang quickly said, “He’s just a child, General Manager Pei, don’t take it to heart.”

Pei Du laughed in anger.

He hadn’t even done anything yet! So protective?

He was annoyed just by seeing this brat!

Every time he saw him, he couldn’t help but compare.

Comparing where this child resembled Sheng Yiguang, and where he came from his mother.

Every time he compared, the nerves in his brain throbbed, and his heart felt like it was being clenched, hurting so much it was hard to breathe.

This wasn’t a child, this was clearly a deadly drug coated in sugar, a dream-shattering machine that never ran out of power, an unsolvable fatal problem.

Constantly reminding him that he was the erased pencil mark, the eternally waiting solo act, the forgotten old CD.

Out.

“You can see the future at three, the old age at seven, if you can’t educate him, I’ll help you.”

“No need to trouble General Manager Pei, thank you for today, if you ever need my help in the future, just say so.”

“Really grateful? Not secretly scolding me for being meddlesome? I think you probably don’t want to see me.”

Sheng Yiguang didn’t speak, tacitly agreeing.

Pei Du was so angry he almost had a heart attack.

They’d been separated for four years, and he missed him every day, hoping for the day they would reunite.

The day of their reunion was even more wonderful than he’d dreamed, Sheng Yiguang starting from zero, being both infatuated, clingy and confessing, he immediately fell.

The reality after waking up made him feel like he might as well have died in his dream.

Every day, Sheng Yiguang was either making him angry, or on the way to making him angry.

He had just let go of the fact that Sheng Yiguang put on his pants and didn’t recognize him, Sheng Yiguang turned around and pulled out a biological son.

He decided to accept this son, but Sheng Yiguang pushed out a rival in love.

He chased away the rival in love, and Sheng Yiguang told him that he only coveted his body that day, didn’t want to be responsible and didn’t want to reconcile, and that the past was the past.

Amazing.

The speed at which he, Pei Du, could appease himself couldn’t keep up with the speed at which Sheng Yiguang made him angry!

Life is truly a roller coaster…

Sheng Yiguang urged him to leave, “Hurry up and go, it’s going to be dark soon if you don’t leave.”

“I helped you, and you’re not even keeping me for dinner?”

“Simple meals won’t suit General Manager Pei’s taste.”

“Is it that it won’t suit my taste, or that you simply don’t want me to like it?”

Sheng Yiguang lowered his eyes, using gentle silence to convey his answer.

The scene froze.

Sheng Yiguang didn’t speak, and Pei Du stayed with him, tracing him with his eyes, looking at him enough.

Before, every time this happened, Sheng Yiguang couldn’t hold on first.

This time was no exception.

“General Manager Pei, you should leave.”

“General Manager Pei? Have you forgotten my name?”

Sheng Yiguang felt that he was being unreasonable and turned to open the door, asking him to leave.

His wrist was grabbed.

“Leave for what? Aren’t we still arguing?”

Sheng Yiguang didn’t shake off his hand, lowering his eyes, “Pei Du, I made myself very clear that day, why bother? Do you like this?”

Pei Du’s voice was slightly hoarse, “It’s better than being strangers with you.”

Sheng Yiguang’s heart skipped a beat.

Almost instantly, his eyes turned hot.

He suddenly shook his hand back.

“But I think being strangers is very good.”

He opened the door, “It’s late, drive carefully.”

Pei Du stood stiffly for a moment, then walked out.

The door closed mercilessly behind him.

After a long time, Pei Du went downstairs.

A cold wind blew past.

He raised his eyes, looking at the bare tree branches, realizing

– It’s winter now, long past summer.

–

As the end of the year approached, Sheng Yiguang saw a push notification.

Tsinghua University’s New Year’s Eve Gala.

Sun Mo had sharp eyes, “Want to go back to your alma mater?”

“No, just looking.”

“I remember you’re from Liaocheng, it’s really awesome that you could stand out from a small county and get into Tsinghua. Bring honor to your ancestors, your family must be very happy, right?”

Sheng Yiguang lowered his eyes and “mm”ed.

Lied.

When the admission results came out, his family wasn’t happy.

Not to mention his parents who had long stopped caring about him.

His grandparents, who raised him, were outwardly beaming, but actually sitting together worrying, they were afraid that their son would misunderstand that they were putting all their energy into Sheng Yiguang, one grandson.

Moreover, they didn’t have the money to afford for Sheng Yiguang to study in a big city.

Only then did Sheng Yiguang understand that not all excellence is praised.

Excellence can also be a burden.

Sun Mo: “The school should be very happy too?”

“Yeah, two came out that year.”

“Two?”

“And Pei Du.”

Sun Mo opened his mouth in surprise, and after a long while said, “Don’t tell me, you guys agreed to go together.”

“Yeah, we did.”

When they were in school, when discussing desired schools, when he said Tsinghua, the three rows behind were silent.

Someone sighed, “Truly ambitious.”

“You go for it, I believe in you, if you get in, let me brag about you.”

Pei Du slowly got up from the table, his eyes still carrying the drowsiness of just waking up, “So you’ve been going to that four-eyed kid recently to get into Tsinghua?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I thought you preferred making friends with the nerds, turns out you were just using them.”

“It’s not really using, it’s helping each other.”

“Then why didn’t you ask me?”

The three rows behind were silent again.

Pei Du: “I just look like I can’t.”

Deathly silence.

Sheng Yiguang thought for a while, opened the practice questions and pushed them to Pei Du.

“This, I don’t know how to do it.”

“Is it urgent? If it’s not, I’ll sleep first.”

“Not urgent.”

“Okay.”

Pei Du slept, went to the bathroom, and then wrote the solution for Sheng Yiguang.

“In the future, ask me, don’t look for others.”

Sheng Yiguang nodded.

After Pei Du could answer, Sheng Yiguang’s frequency of going to others to discuss problems decreased sharply.

He thought Pei Du was really gifted.

He couldn’t memorize the formulas, but he could solve the problems.

Until, Sheng Yiguang discovered that the solution Pei Du wrote for him was the solution he had just discussed with the teacher during the last break.

He reasonably suspected that Pei Du didn’t know how to do it at all, and every time he asked someone else for help, memorized the problem-solving process, and then came back to tell him.

Sheng Yiguang told Pei Du his guess and the evidence.

Pei Du “oh”ed and slowly lay down, leaving him with the back of his head.

After a long while, he turned his head and asked, “I memorized it word for word, am I very awesome?”

Sheng Yiguang held back his laughter and nodded.

Pei Du got up and, for the first time, opened his books.

“You have to go to Tsinghua?”

“Yeah, I like it.”

“Then what schools are near Tsinghua?”

“Peking University.”

“…Okay.”

Pei Du put the book on his head, his face as arrogant as ever.

“No matter what it is, your brother will go with you.”

After that, Pei Du really started studying, and Sheng Yiguang had to test his math formulas, chemical equations, English words…

If he couldn’t answer, he would spread his palm in front of Sheng Yiguang and ask, “Do you want to punish me?”

If he answered correctly, he would spin the book around, raising his eyebrows and saying.

“See, I told you I could go to Tsinghua with you.”