Qi Du naturally wouldn’t worry about Qi Lan being lured away, but with the male second lead and female second lead appearing, that might not be a good thing for their Little Treasure.
Xu Yangxia actually had a pretty good temper. He rarely disliked or hated anyone in particular, but after these two transfer students arrived, he had complained about them at home several times.
0617 didn’t work as hard as Qi Du on a daily basis, so he kept a stricter watch over the little male lead. Sometimes when Little Treasure was studying, he would sit nearby and read with him.
When he checked his homework, the father and son would definitely chat for a bit.
“I don’t know why, but I always feel like Gao Xinyuan is so fake…”
“And the two of them, especially Xia Die, love showing off. Brother said they have this cheap sense of superiority and told me to stay away from them.”
0617 laughed. “Your brother’s right. You don’t lack friends. Spend more time with like-minded little companions and improve together. If you don’t like classmates who love to make a fuss and show off, just keep your distance.”
Xu Yangxia nodded in agreement. “I already did!”
“It’s just that Xia Die keeps pestering me. Every time she deliberately comes looking for me, she asks a lot about brother. When I go to the upper grades to wait for brother to get out of class, she comes too.”
“I can’t shake her off. It feels like she’s glued to me.”
0617 paused. “That little girl has her eye on your brother Qi Lan?”
Xu Yangxia reluctantly said, “Mm,” and added, “Xia Die wants Qi Lan to be her brother too, Qiqi. What should I do? I don’t like her.”
“But I don’t want to badmouth a girl in front of Qi Lan, and I don’t want to seem overly jealous, like I’m not letting brother play with anyone else. I just feel unhappy…”
“I only want brother to play with me. I only want him to have me as his little brother…”
Why did this plot feel so familiar?
If you replaced Qi Lan with Cheng Huan, wouldn’t that be the original story’s path?
Originally, Xu Yangxia had followed Cheng Huan around calling him brother. As soon as Xia Die arrived, she wanted Cheng Huan to be her brother too. By then, the little male lead was already getting very little care and affection. Once she snatched Cheng Huan away, Xu Yangxia was left in a helpless, isolated position.
Then the male second lead, Gao Xinyuan, would casually toss him a little kindness, and Xu Yangxia would be grateful to tears. The three of them would toss him around, wearing down both his mind and his spirit.
0617 made the connection and thought to himself that Qi Lan had better not change in some unexpected way. If he was influenced into starting to treat Xu Yangxia badly, then all the effort Qi Du and he had put in over the years would be wasted.
Seeing that his expression was off, the little male lead tugged at his sleeve. “Qiqi~ what’s wrong?”
“Do you think it’s not good that I’m monopolizing brother like this too much?”
0617 reached out and patted his head. “No. Little Treasure is very well-behaved and very smart. You like brother, so you feel possessive toward him. That’s a very normal feeling.”
“People aren’t only possessive toward their partners. They can feel that way about family and friends too. It’s a normal emotion. You don’t need to overanalyze yourself.”
Xu Yangxia pressed his lips together, clearly still a little worried. “Then do you think brother will accept Xia Die too?”
“She’s such a pretty little girl, and she’s sweet-tongued. If she keeps hanging around brother, will he soften one day?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Qi Du pushed the door open and came in. “No. Your brother isn’t some brainless elementary school kid. He has more tricks than all your classmates put together.”
“And think about it… why would your brother like her?”
“No matter how rich and powerful her family is, can they compare to you?”
Xu Yangxia’s face turned red. He hadn’t expected Qi Du to overhear his little worries.
He immediately said a little timidly, “Daddy…”
Qi Du rubbed his head. “If you’re not at ease, I’ll call your brother over this weekend and ask him.”
“Stop thinking random things all day. Other people aren’t the same as your brother. Family will always have your back, and we’ll choose you unconditionally.”
Xu Yangxia nodded vigorously, then obediently went to his violin lesson.
He had chosen all of these things himself. In fact, Qi Du and 0617 hadn’t pushed him at all. They just felt that the more skills a child mastered, the more confident he would become.
Music, calligraphy, and painting were all things that nurture the spirit, and it was good for Xu Yangxia to learn them.
The peers around him were all excellent, and with Qi Lan as such a good role model, Xu Yangxia would take the initiative to chase after them. That kind of development was a welcome sight for Qi Du and 0617.
That weekend, Qi Lan came by. Qi Du called him into the study alone to ask him a few questions, mainly because he wanted to hear from someone else how the story was developing.
If Qi Lan’s attitude had been affected and changed, he and 0617 would also need to make plans early and change their approach to education.
But Qi Lan did not disappoint them.
There are always people in this world who choose to break with convention, who are not influenced by that fixed pattern, and who firmly walk their own path.
When Qi Du looked at him then, he felt that the strength bursting out of a child was truly incredible.
He asked Qi Lan, “If you had the conditions and the background to become the favored male lead of this world, would you do whatever you wanted?”
“Would you do things that go against your beliefs in order to follow a set path?”
His wording was a little roundabout. Qi Lan didn’t understand it right away. After thinking it over briefly, he curved his lips into a smile and looked at Qi Du with a somewhat baffled expression.
“Little Uncle, we live in a materialist country. What are you talking about?”
Qi Du also smiled at him. “Little Uncle is just making a hypothetical.”
“If you had the chance to become the center of the world, the protagonist of the Small World, would you walk the path laid out for you just because the laws favored you?”
Qi Lan shook his head. “That hypothetical doesn’t hold. If I were the protagonist, then the world’s will would follow my will, not the other way around.”
“If I’m not the protagonist, my own will already governs my life. Why would I still have to listen to it?”
Qi Du patted his head. “What if listening to it would bring you a lot of benefits?”
Qi Lan laughed. “The premise of that hypothetical is that I haven’t received many benefits, that I’m someone who lacks love.”
“But I’ve already received a lot of love.”
“Little Uncle, I’m the youngest child in the Qi family. I’ve been cherished beyond measure since birth. My parents, my elder brother, my family, and my friends are all excellent. As for something like a male lead…”
“Wasn’t I born one already? Why would I need to compete with the world’s will for it?”
Qi Du laughed. “You brat, no shame at all!”
“That’s because you were born into a good family. If you didn’t have that kind of background and had a hellish start, would you sell out your own life?”
Qi Lan found that funny. “But you just said all of that was hypothetical. If things really developed that way, then anyone willing to sell out their life wouldn’t be worthy of being the protagonist in the first place. He’d just be a slave working for the world…”
“Then this world is really shameless. I’m nothing more than a puppet driven and enslaved by it. What do I have to be insecure about?”