015
“He is…” He Xingluo improvised under pressure, answering very tactfully, “He is a college student whom the young master is about to sponsor, and he came specially to the house to express his gratitude.”
Gratitude montage.
He simply hadn’t told the whole truth, which didn’t mean he was lying.
First, Young Master Li wasn’t just about to sponsor Wen Tian; he was going to pull Wen Tian out of the quagmire of his original family single-handedly. The level of sponsorship far exceeded that of ordinary wealthy benefactors supporting college students.
Second, Wen Tian really did come to the house to express his gratitude, though the object of his gratitude wasn’t Young Master Li. However, since he had already decided last night to split half of his good karma with Young Master Li, half of this gratitude naturally belonged to Young Master Li as well.
He Xingluo recited with full emotion, “There’s no help for it, the young master is just this kind.”
“Zhanbei is naturally a good person!” Wen Tian wouldn’t allow anyone to defame Li Zhanbei, shifting his gaze back. “But why is he the one being sponsored?”
“Because his grades are good,” He Xingluo told him.
“How good?” Xia Xu asked.
“The best university in the country, ranked first in his major. But…” He Xingluo thought for a moment and added, “Being first in his major is the school’s limit, not his limit.”
Xia Xu’s expression suddenly lost its luster.
He mumbled dismally, “Then Zhanbei’s taste is really good.”
Watching his reaction, He Xingluo felt a bit guilty inside. Surely young master Xia wouldn’t take this kind of blow too hard, would he? Just as he was about to say something, he heard the young master ask, “Is that person very poor?”
“Not really…”
“I’ve never seen poor people before,” Xia Xu asked. “He’s different from the poor people I imagined.”
“Come, Young Master Xia, take a look at me,” He Xingluo said somewhat speechlessly. “I am a poor person, looking every bit like someone who can’t afford a down payment, planning to top up my transit card with a hundred million once I get rich so I can ride the subway forever.”
Xia Xu asked, “Ah?”
He Xingluo raised his wrist to check the time. “It costs a fee to look at me for more than a minute.”
Xia Xu hesitated for a moment before saying, “I don’t know what a down payment is.”
He Xingluo remained silent.
He really wanted to wage class warfare against you rich people!
“Young Master Xia,” He Xingluo said with mental exhaustion, “isn’t your mother at home waiting for you to eat? Why don’t you head back now and stop staying here being unhappy.”
“I was originally going to go back.” Xia Xu paused, shaking his head in confusion. “I don’t know, I just really dislike that person, even though I don’t even know who he is.”
He Xingluo silently glanced at Xia Xu. Because Xia Xu disliking Wen Tian was a preset condition from the very beginning, his stance was naturally opposed to Wen Tian’s.
After all, Xia Xu was a cannon-fodder second male lead, while Wen Tian was the protagonist.
Recalling this detail, He Xingluo said with a complex mood, “I’ll walk you out.”
Xia Xu looked back inside with lingering reluctance before finally nodding. “Alright then. If you ever don’t want to be Zhanbei’s housekeeper anymore, you can come find me.”
He Xingluo smiled. “Are you trying to poach Young Master Li’s staff?”
“I can be your sponsor…” Xia Xu said halfway, stammering as he sensed something in He Xingluo’s gaze. Turning around, he saw Li Zhanbei standing right behind him.
“I… I’ll leave first.” Xia Xu scrambled into his car in a panic, blurting out while fumbling around, “Drive fast, hurry up…”
He Xingluo turned back speechlessly. “Young master, why are you scaring children?”
Li Zhanbei denied it. “I didn’t.”
He Xingluo shook his head. “No, young master. Something is wrong with you.”
“Is that how you question your employer?” Li Zhanbei gave a light cough. “Come with me to the old residence.”
“Why? Where are we going, young master!” He Xingluo felt like a bolt from the blue. “We just came back yesterday, why do we have to go again today!”
The moment He Xingluo finished speaking, the prepared car had already pulled up right in front of them.
“Get in.” Li Zhanbei drove himself, waiting a few seconds for the passenger to get inside. He Xingluo spoke as if sleepwalking, “Young master, why are you driving yourself? Doesn’t that clash with your status?”
Li Zhanbei was already unfazed and even played along, “What status do I have?”
He Xingluo recited again, “Li Zhanbei, the cream of the crop among wealthy male leads, walking hormones. Not only do you possess countless wealth and the confidence to look down on everyone from the peak, but you also thoroughly understand the operating rules of the entire world. You are the undisputed favored son of fortune!”
Li Zhanbei pondered, “So that’s how it is.”
Reciting such a large chunk left He Xingluo a bit tired. He casually pulled out a bottle of water and was about to ask, “Young master, may I…”
Li Zhanbei cut him off. “Drink.”
He Xingluo closed his mouth. “Alright.”
Returning to the old residence once more, He Xingluo felt a strong sense of familiarity. He sighed, “Young master, could returning to the old residence be my destiny? It feels so familiar.”
Li Zhanbei replied, “Because you were just here yesterday.”
He Xingluo asked, “Then why am I coming here two days in a row?”
Li Zhanbei fell silent.
He Xingluo resignedly followed him inside. This time, they didn’t go to the building where last night’s banquet was held, but rather to an enormous reception hall that sounded quite lively from the commotion.
He Xingluo grew slightly interested. “Are we here today to clean up Li Zhitao’s mess? It sounds like they’re arguing inside.”
Li Zhanbei asked, “Are you here to watch the spectacle?”
He Xingluo admitted, “To tell you the truth, I really don’t know what I’m here for, so I can only look around.”
Li Zhanbei remained silent for a moment. “Try not to be too obvious about it.”
He Xingluo remained silent.
So he really was here to watch the spectacle.
Approaching the entrance of the reception hall, the old butler of the Li family hurried over. “Young Master Li, you’re finally here. Everyone’s waiting for you, the old master is thoroughly infuriated this time.”
He Xingluo peeked inside.
Before he could see clearly, he heard someone say, “Our Taotao has been a good child since he was little. This time he must have been seduced by some shameless vixen to say such foolish things… Little Uncle of the Xu family, please don’t be angry, I’ll have him apologize to you and Huai’an right now.”
In the dead center of the reception hall, Li Zhitao stood with his head lowered like a quail.
He Xingluo muttered in surprise, “Uncle Xu is here too? Is this a three-way tribunal?”
Li Zhanbei shot a glance over and helplessly led the way inside. As the tacitly acknowledged next-generation head of the Li family, his seat had long been reserved.
Seeing him made Li Zhitao even more terrified.
He timidly called out, “Brother.”
Li Zhanbei nodded, signaling for them to continue. After briefly greeting his elders, he sat down in silence. He Xingluo seized the opportunity. “The young master’s presence is so imposing!”
Li Zhanbei pinched the bridge of his nose, gesturing for him to take a seat.
He Xingluo found a spot suitable for eating melon seeds and began observing this family civil war.
However, he quickly realized that the best performances of the show came exclusively from Li Zhanbei’s second uncle and second aunt. These two seemed overly invested in the marriage alliance with the Xu family, pushing all the blame onto Wen Tian while keeping Li Zhitao completely blameless.
Although this drama was lively, it lacked real substance.
He Xingluo boredly looked over at Li Zhanbei and was surprised to find that, faced with this arguing scene, the young master himself didn’t seem to care at all.
Perhaps he was here to watch the show too.
In the original plot, today’s theme was supposed to make Li Zhitao obediently fulfill his engagement vows without causing further scandalous talk that made people laugh, while the deeper logical purpose was to investigate Wen Tian and give Li Zhanbei a deeper understanding of him.
Otherwise, how else would the romantic storyline get pulled along?
Li Zhanbei casually accepted a handed-over document. He Xingluo perked up; this definitely had to be Wen Tian’s personal profile, and the lingering love story was about to begin right now!
He Xingluo immediately turned vigilant, flashing directly behind Li Zhanbei.
This was how he earned points.
As an NPC of a romance game, he would gain points whenever progress occurred in the protagonist’s romantic storyline, provided that he himself was present on-site acting as part of the atmosphere crew.
When he first learned this rule, He Xingluo had a very detached attitude. After all, to him, whether he was in this world or the next didn’t matter, and since he wasn’t the one falling in love, he had no intention of caring about the progress.
Yet now, the plot was clearly malfunctioning, and the main system still hadn’t noticed, which was obviously problematic. Therefore, He Xingluo intended to use this node to test whether the system and the plot had broken down.
He Xingluo blinked at the system. “Are you ready?”
The little system nodded vigorously.
Human and system both looked toward Li Zhanbei.
Li Zhanbei had just received the document without even flipping through it, handing it directly to the person behind him. “Here, your scam setup.”
He Xingluo was dumbfounded. “Young master, why give it to me?”
Li Zhanbei asked in confusion, “Then what did you come here for?”
He Xingluo blanked. “I’m just stretching my legs.”
Li Zhanbei let out a soft huff, seemingly unconvinced.
He Xingluo held the documents with a helpless expression. “Young master, I told you it wasn’t a scam setup.”
Upon hearing this, Li Zhanbei seemed to chuckle softly.
Over on the other side, a loud voice rang out, pointing right at He Xingluo and saying, “Little Housekeeper He, what did you just say?”
He Xingluo hadn’t been paying attention to the plot over there at all, entirely focused on talking to the young master. Feeling like a student caught chatting in class by the teacher, he answered guiltily, “Scam setup?”
“See, Little He is right,” the second aunt said as if she had grabbed onto a pillar of support.
He Xingluo remained silent.
He felt somewhat utilized. How did such a quiet voice get heard anyway?
Li Zhanbei’s second aunt passionately continued, “That brat definitely ran a scam setup, feeding our Taotao a bewitching soup, otherwise he’d never do anything to let Xiao Lu down!”
With that, the second aunt turned to the other party involved. “Xiao Lu, you mustn’t hold it against him!”
Noticing He Xingluo’s apparent interest, Li Zhanbei made space for him on the single-person sofa he occupied. He Xingluo smoothly sat down and found it quite spacious.
He Xingluo directed his gaze toward Lu Huai’an.
As the other party involved, Lu Huai’an’s behavior was actually quite strange. For the most part, he kept his head down without uttering a word, sitting quietly right behind Xu Jing, the younger uncle of the Xu family.
Called out by Li Zhanbei’s second aunt, he finally raised his head.
Seeing him, Li Zhitao wanted to say something again, but the moment he looked up, he happened to collide with Li Zhanbei’s threatening glare. He obediently lowered his head back down.
Could the young master make crying infants stop wailing at night?
Acting as if he hadn’t noticed anything, He Xingluo waited for Lu Huai’an’s reaction just like everyone else in the room. If Lu Huai’an didn’t mind, then the hurdle with Xu Jing would be easily cleared.
Among juniors, bickering usually didn’t hurt their feelings, so the elders didn’t need to get involved.
Xu Jing also looked at Lu Huai’an. “An’an, what do you think?”
He Xingluo was surprised by the term of endearment.
While elders sometimes used particularly affectionate terms for juniors, “An’an” was a bit too much. Normally adults wouldn’t use reduplicated characters to address others in public, right?
He Xingluo lowered his head. “Young master, did Lord Xu just call him An’an?”
Li Zhanbei frowned slightly as well.
He Xingluo recalled the banquet day, which was just like today. No matter who said what, Lu Huai’an’s eyes only looked at one person, speaking solely to Xu Jing.
Just like right now, he only spoke to tell Xu Jing not to be angry, saying he was truly fine.
He Xingluo pondered for a few seconds. “Young master, that day at the banquet I heard that Lu Huai’an was originally engaged to the next-generation heir of the Xu family, meaning he was supposed to marry the eldest brother’s son of Lord Xu?”
“So Lord Xu is actually the biological younger uncle of Lu Huai’an’s former fiancé?”
Li Zhanbei apparently didn’t understand why He Xingluo was reciting other people’s family trees, giving him a strange look that roughly translated to so what?
“So,” He Xingluo whispered, “young master, do you know about internet literature where after being dumped by the scum, I married the scum’s uncle? Although the relative relationship in these kinds of stories isn’t necessarily a younger uncle, they are always male elders or relatives of the scum. Being a younger uncle is a setup that best combines high power, authority, a relatively young age, and a fair amount of striking good looks.”
Li Zhanbei furrowed his brow, looking somewhat uncomprehending.
He Xingluo patted the other’s shoulder consolingly; this particular hobby was indeed a bit niche.
Li Zhanbei asked, “Do you think Xu Jing looks good?”
He Xingluo remained silent.
Young master, your ability to zero in on the key point is truly unique.