On May 17, Pei Haobin left work early. He then shut himself up in the study room.
Bai Yutong asked, “What is Uncle Pei doing? He didn’t answer when I called him to eat.”
Cao Li wiped her hands on her apron, remembering that Pei Haobin had locked the silk banner and badges he had acquired these past few years in a safe a few days ago. She then remembered that night’s conversation. Her face sank. “Today is Pei Chuan’s 18th birthday.”
Bai Yutong’s eyes widened.
Cao Li’s heart was also filled with worry. She was the second wife after all, and Bai Yutong wasn’t Pei Haobin’s daughter. Pei Haobin worked as a chief of criminal police and sometimes got dangerous missions.
The mother and daughter pair were relying on Pei Haobin for a living. Cao Li was neither employed nor highly educated, and she had an insecure personality. The only thing worth mentioning was that she was good at currying other people’s favor.
What Cao Li feared the most was Pei Haobin secretly making a will and giving all of his assets to Pei Chuan. This man would not be so cruel as to let her and Bai Yutong live on the streets, but she was afraid all that would be left to her would, at most, be a house and a bit of money.
Pei Haobin and Jiang Wenjuan had struggled for a few years and accumulated a few assets. Cao Li had looked into the general information and felt that the Pei family’s financial circumstances weren’t bad.
Even if Cao Li and Bai Yutong tried to gain Pei Haobin’s favor, they were only outsiders. Pei Chuan was his biological son.
When sons grew up, all families were generally busy with buying a house for when they got married. If Pei Haobin was aware of this, added with his guilt, it was possible for him to leave everything to Pei Chuan.
Once Cao Li thought of this, her usual calmness left her. There was some panic in her heart.
The mother and daughter were silent, occupied with their own thoughts. Bai Yutong was even more panicked. She still remembered how horrible it had been when Pei Chuan had almost choked her to death. If all the money was left to Pei Chuan, he would never care about her or her mother.
Bei Yutong said, “Mom, I have a solution. You should give Uncle Pei a little son.”
A perfectly healthy son who was blood-related to Pei Haobin was what the mother and daughter could rely on.
Cao Li glared at her. “Do you think I don’t want to? Do you think one can give birth as long as one wants to?” She was almost forty this year. No matter what, she was too old to get pregnant. Not to mention… Pei Haobin would pay attention to contraception.
She didn’t know if the boy had left a shadow on him or not, but in these two years, Pei Haobin had never mentioned the idea of having another child.
Cao Li said, "Right, why don't you do your own things and not bother me? Let me tell you, if you're sensible, you’ll focus on working hard in your studies, this way I'll feel more at ease."
Bai Yutong pouted.
Pei Haobin came out of the room in the afternoon, and he was not in a good mood. He wiped his face with both hands without speaking and went into the bathroom.
Cao Li quietly reached for his hand, in which there was an unfamiliar phone call, which displayed a thirty-two-minute call duration.
Cao Li’s heart skipped a beat, and she had a guess…
This call was most likely from Pei Haobin’s ex-wife, Jiang Wenjuan. They were Pei Chuan’s biological parents, after all, so they must remember his birthday. Cao Li panicked inside. She was afraid that he would leave all his assets to Pei Chuan because of guilt. She gritted her teeth and made the decision to give birth to a son for Pei Haobin.
She had guessed right. The call was indeed from Jiang Wenjuan.
Jiang Wenjuan had had a good life these past few years and had no plans to have any more children. Her husband was very good to her. However, on the 17th, she still thought of her child.
Jiang Wenjuan had once told him that she was on a business trip, but she had never come back.
Jiang Wenjuan suffered from insomnia all night. With encouragement from her husband, she mustered up the courage to give Pei Haobin a call the next day to ask about Pei Chuan. She felt guilty and scared, but didn’t expect that Pei Chuan had left home. Jiang Wenjuan was in a bad mood and quarreled with Pei Haobin on the spot.
In the end, Pei Haobin promised to leave all of his assets to Pei Chuan.
~
At night at Qin Shi, Jin Ziyang and the others celebrated Pei Chuan’s birthday.
Everyone knew that Pei Chuan had stopped smoking since Christmas night, so they smoked by themselves. Ji Wei was holding books. He also didn’t smoke, let alone drink.
Jin Ziyang was afraid that it wouldn’t be lively enough, so he invited many people, and Pei Chuan frowned when he saw this.
There were even female juniors from the first grade.
JIn Ziyang said, “Chuan Ge, it’s a birthday party, after all, it’ll be more fun with more people. Anyway, we’re only playing cards and games.”
Jin Ziyang really didn’t mean anything else, but some of the girls didn’t think so. Among the few boys, Pei Chuan was the most handsome. He had a cold demeanor and looked cool even when he didn’t speak.
Everyone knows that Jin Ziyang changed girlfriends faster than changing clothes. Zheng Hang seemed to have his heart set on someone. Don’t even mention Ji Wei, he might be wealthy, but studying was a girlfriend he would never betray.
There was only Pei Chuan. Although his family background was unknown, everyone knew that he drove a luxury car. Not to mention, he had only been involved in a rumor with Wei Wan, and she had withdrawn from their circle.
Pei Chuan was single.
He was just turning eighteen tonight, which was the dividing line between a boy and a man. The girls secretly stole a gaze or two, and there were hearts floating around.
Pei Chuan’s phone rang. It was from Pei Haobin.
Pei Haobin had asked Pei Chuan’s homeroom teacher for his number before.
On the other side, Pei Haobin was a little awkward. “Tonight is your birthday, come back for dinner, okay? I’ve asked your aunty Cao Li to prepare the food.”
Pei Chuan laughed. “Officer Pei, it’s better for your family to eat together.”
It was kind of him to still remember that he had a grown-up son. However, Pei Chuan hadn’t needed Pei Haobin to take care of him before, even less so now that he was an adult.
Pei Chuan hung up and blocked the number.
Everyone saw that his face didn’t look good. Some people were bold enough to come over and laugh. “Chuan Ge, it’s your birthday, I’ll toast you a glass, happy birthday.”
Pei Chuan said, “Don’t drink in the future.”
Jin Ziyang’s face showed disbelief. “Chuan Ge, are you for real? You don’t smoke and drink, are you trying to cultivate to be an immortal?”
Pei Chuan thought for a while, and there was a little gentleness in his cold expression. He nodded. “You guys go play, I’m going home before ten.”
Everyone was stunned.
When it became 9:50 p.m., Pei Chuan really did get ready to leave. Everyone felt complicated.
Zheng Hang sent him downstairs and looked at Pei Chuan’s expression. “Chuan Ge, do you have a girlfriend, ah?” Everyone didn’t say anything, but they all held the same guess in their hearts.
There were people singing upstairs and it was noisy. The night view of C City was beautiful, not a flashy kind of beauty, but a quiet and tranquil kind of beauty.
Pei Chuan pursed his lips. “No.”
Zheng Hang noticed that even when he said no, his eyes were still gentle.
Pei Chuan drove away, and his luxury car was very eye-catching.
The car’s shadow left. Zheng Hang’s reaction was half a beat slower. If there really was no girlfriend, then who had he changed his lifestyle for?
Was he restraining himself?
~
Pei Chuan’s car cost 5 million.
The small apartment had been bought under someone else's name, but it could be resold. The money in his bank account... also had a large amount of money.
At the end of May, Pei Chuan sold the car. He modified it back before selling it.
In 2008, this was a huge sum of money for ordinary families.
However, Pei Chuan felt that it wasn’t enough. He frowned and looked at the strings of zeros in another bank card. There was a lot of money inside, but it couldn’t be used.
Pei Chuan worked for three hours every night, from eleven at night to two in the morning. It had been like this for a year.
He turned on his computer and stared at the program in front of his eyes for a few seconds. He clicked delete.
This was a software used for stealing passwords, a half-finished product. If it was finished, one could combine it with hacking techniques to steal money from financial institutions at will.
There was also a program to crack security. He clicked on the program he had been working on for half a year, his finger clicking on the mouse.
Removing it completely.
The last section was one of his biggest sources of money.
Pei Chuan looked down, unwilling to think about what “it” was for, so he clicked permanently delete.
When June arrived, Pei Chuan received a call from a man.
“Satan*, the deadline's in August, do you have the outline ready?”
*t/n: It was written in English.
Pei Chuan was silent for a moment before replying, “I’m not doing it anymore, you guys should find someone better.”
The man was agitated. “What jokes are you playing! It’s been half a year and this is how you answer us!” If they could find someone who could write this program in 2008, would they be worshipping this genius boy as a god, following his requests and letting him live an ordinary high school life?
Pei Chuan said calmly, “That’s right.”
He looked at the room filled with coding books before locking the door.
That dirty money, if necessary, would be handed over to the state by him.
He hadn’t been stung by a conscience, nor was he going to change to have one from now on. He still didn’t like this world very much, this world that allowed him to be born perfectly fine, but deprived him of his legs and everything.
He just felt that ever since he had kissed her, he needed to be clean.
He doesn’t know how long he could stay with her, but he wanted to go to university with her, watch her grow up, and become an adult.
He smiled. The little girl didn’t choose to be with him.
She was still angry.
~
Bei Yao was still angry, so angry that the winter scarf hadn't been returned even when it was already summer.
There would be additional classes this summer vacation. They were almost third-year students, and every class had enthusiastically put up a banner—— “Increase one point, defeat a thousand people”.
“If there is no college entrance examination, can you get a rich second-generation?”
“To pass as a Mr. Perfect*, defeat officials’ second-generation**!”
*t/n: “To pass a college entrance examination” in Chinese is 考过高考, so they changed the last word into 高富帅 which means tall, rich, and handsome a.k.a a Mr. Perfect.
**t/n: Remember how the military cadet novels are currently popular? The 'official' refers to their sons.
“Why sleep a lot when you are alive, you will sleep forever after death.”
“There is a way in, but no way out. Stay back, it’s a dead-end!”
……
Even some nutrition companies followed the college entrance examination gimmick and began to promote some kinds of brain supplement nutrition products.
As the day of the college entrance examination was fast approaching, everyone finally felt a little sense of urgency.
Everyone was also quite comical, laughing and saying, “The college entrance examination is coming soon, “Why don’t you knock a bottle of ‘Brain Boost’? Guaranteed increase of a hundred points, defeat many people.””
However, compared to the college entrance examination which was still a year away, the latest news was the upcoming Olympics.
On August 8, 2008, a very auspicious date, athletes from all over the world would gather in the motherland* to participate in the grand sports festival.
*t/n: Refers to China.
This was a symbol of the motherland's growing strength and prosperity, and a mark of a peaceful world.
Chen Feifei, who didn’t care about politics, said, "I want to go to B City in the summer to see the Olympics live, so I can die without regrets. Yaoyao, do you want to go?"
"I want to," Bei Yao said honestly. "It must be very exciting, but I guess I can only watch it on TV."
She would watch it on TV with Zhao Zhilan and the others then.
Tickets were required to watch the Olympics live, and there might be a chance of getting scammed and not getting the tickets even if they did spend some money. Moreover, the tickets were so expensive, just like the expensive house prices in B City; it wasn’t something people from a little city like theirs could afford.
Therefore, no one would take these words to heart.
They were simply looking forward to it. Who had the ability to get the live tickets now?
Before the school holiday in July, Bei Yao saw Pei Chuan who had surpassed her ranking by more than 20. He was firmly ranked first and no one said he was cheating this time.
They could only gasp in admiration.
She puffed her cheeks and thought to herself, wait for me to work harder and bypass this annoying bastard.
But in reality, she couldn’t surpass even Minmin who ranked ten in the whole city.
Bei Yao felt discouraged.
On the day of her vacation, Zhao Zhilan went to pick up Xiao Bei Jun who was in preschool as usual. Bei Yao went home by herself. The summer sun had turned into a dazzling silhouette when Bei Yao saw the teenager under the tree.
Almost two months of grievance made her want to hit him ruthlessly, yet when he gently called out ‘Yaoyao’, she went over anyway.
"Take this." He said.
After two months of not seeing him, he looked much more mature. He put a pile of something in her hand, and Bei Yao looked down to see that it was the tickets for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Half of them were in magnificent red and yellow colors, half were white, the hard paper texture exquisite and beautiful.
At the bottom right corner was a cute little cartoon drawing of a cow.
She stared blankly at the four tickets before looking up at him.
The teenager smiled. "Go have fun, en?"
Bei Yao whispered, "There are four."
“En, you, Aunt Zhao, Uncle Bei, and Bei Jun can go.”
“How about you?” She raised her head and stared at him with her big watery eyes, looking both happy and sad.
He chuckled and said, “I will be here waiting for you.”
Waiting for her to see the brilliant world and the power of healthy people to go all out in sports and life. Only then could she decide whether to come back or not. This August was the most beautiful August, her seventeenth birthday.