When Bo Xuming was helped home by his childhood friend at four-thirty in the morning, reeking of alcohol, he was still thinking about what excuse to use tonight to ask the old lady for money again.
Old Master Bo and his wife had only one son. The only son had been a playboy in his youth, but he had left early, having time only to leave behind this one child, Bo Xuming.
From childhood Bo Xuming had been doted on and cherished by the old couple. The greatest hardship he had suffered was the headache upon waking from a hangover.
“Grandpa Bo, Granny Huang, Aming, Bo Xuming was happy today and drank a bit more. He’s not usually like this,” the childhood friend said with an awkward smile, laying the dead-drunk Bo Xuming on the sofa.
“Blegh, so uncomfortable…” Whether the friend had poked Bo Xuming’s stomach or not, Bo Xuming nearly vomited.
The childhood friend was startled, not because he feared Bo Xuming would blame him when he woke up, but because he feared the old lady would take her anger out on him.
“Let him vomit, it’d be fine if he vomited himself to death right here!”
Old Master Bo’s face was terrifyingly dark. The old lady wanted to step forward and coax her grandson out of pity, but Old Master Bo pulled her back.
“!”
Old Master Bo’s rage scared the friend, who was patting Bo Xuming’s back, so much that he nearly jumped.
Old Master Bo had always been an especially stern, black-faced god whom all the children of the compound feared. In his youth his face had been injured and he had nearly gone blind in one eye. Even after healing, the wound was extremely terrifying. Even though many children had seen little Bo Xuming riding on his neck, the fact that everyone feared Old Master Bo could not be changed.
After all, when Old Master Bo smiled, the fierce scar looked even more frightening, enough to scare them into nightmares at night.
“Uh, Granny Huang, Grandpa Bo, I, I’ll head back first.”
The friend took to his heels, wishing he had never come near this place today.
“Strange, Bo Xuming usually comes back late, and I never saw them this angry.”
Old Madam Huang doted on Bo Xuming deeply. She hurt for Bo Xuming drinking and ruining his health, but feared even more that Bo Xuming would be unhappy.
Bo Xuming had his own set of twisted logic: “My dad didn’t smoke or drink, and didn’t he die early too? Grandma, I drink to be happy, and I’m unhappy if I don’t. Do you want me to be happy until the last moment, or unhappy and die soon!”
These words pierced the old lady’s heart, and it hurt so much that she didn’t speak to Bo Xuming for several hours, and Bo Xuming also pulled a long face, looking not happy at all.
In the end the old lady compromised: “If the young man likes to drink a little, let him drink a little. As long as he’s happy.”
The old lady agreed, and Old Master Bo, himself a drunkard, had even less to say.
“Stand up!”
“Blegh—” When Bo Xuming was scolded awake by his grandfather, his head was still foggy.
“What did I tell you yesterday?! I told you to stay honestly at home, read, exercise, and prepare for Wenxin Cultivation University’s admissions exam. Why did you run out to drink again?!”
The more Old Master Bo thought, the angrier he got, nearly roaring.
The childhood friend who had fled the Bo villa, hearing the words “Wenxin Xiuxian University,” instinctively felt his skin tighten. Why did he feel like he’d heard this name? Where had he heard it? Who had said it? He couldn’t remember. Forget it, it probably wasn’t something very important.
“Look at you! You’ll be twenty soon, and all you know is drinking, racing cars, and not coming home at night. What else can you do besides that?! Jiang Yuhuai next door, two years younger than you, has gotten into the cultivation university. Your talent is better than his, your brain is sharper than his, you’re taller than him, you’re better-looking than him, so why wasn’t the one picked you!”
“Huh?” Bo Xuming couldn’t understand what Old Master Bo was saying. “Grandpa, are you senile? What do you mean Jiang Yuhuai got into a cultivation university, where’s there a cultivation university?”
Bo Xuming pinched his own face: “It doesn’t hurt, huh, so I’m dreaming.” He cherished his face too much to pinch hard, and just made the motion.
Bo Xuming grumbled complaints: “I give up, did I drink fake liquor? Why am I having such a strange dream.”
“Smack!”
A crisp slap landed on Bo Xuming’s face and nearly sent him flying.
The pain made his head buzz nonstop, and perhaps with the numbing effect of alcohol added, he couldn’t come back to his senses for quite some time.
“Grandpa, you, you hit me?” He looked in disbelief at this fierce grandfather who had never said a harsh word to him since childhood, then at his grandmother, who covered her mouth and wept silently. “Grandma, you, don’t you love me anymore? Grandpa hit me, how can you also—”
The old lady stepped forward and hugged Bo Xuming out of pity: “Grandpa hit you, but it’s for your own good. You’ll be twenty soon, you’re not young anymore. This is the last chance. If you don’t get into the cultivation university this year, there may be no chance later.”
Bo Xuming’s head was a mess, but the pain on his face reminded him that he was now the one with the right on his side, a pitiable person, and he could question his grandfather.
“Didn’t you say all that mattered was that I’m happy and joyful?! Didn’t you say you could protect me for life? Now you’re tricking me with some excuse of cultivation, you’ve gone mad hoping your grandson becomes a dragon!”
Old Master Bo looked at Bo Xuming with a complicated expression. He didn’t raise a hand again, just heaved a deep sigh: “Xuming, times have changed. Grandpa and Grandma won’t live much longer and can’t protect you as we did before.”
Bo Xuming’s muddled head instantly cleared. He looked at the two white-haired old people, his lips trembling, unable to speak: “Grandpa, Grandma… you…”
Bo Xuming instantly choked with sobs: “Medicine is so advanced now, you’ll be fine. I haven’t even married a wife to give you great-grandsons to play with. You can’t leave me behind. I already have no dad, and I can’t be without you too. I don’t want to be a child nobody wants, wuwuwu…”
Old Master Bo: “…”
Old Madam Huang: “…”
Old Master Bo couldn’t be bothered to talk to this earless fool: “Xiao Wang, Xiao Zhao, change his clothes and send him to the Lincheng Municipal Gymnasium area. Don’t let him out of the gymnasium before 24:00. Understood?!”
“Grandpa, what are you doing?! Let go of me! Grandma, rein in my grandpa, he’s a fa-scist, he’s a tyrant! I’m not going to the municipal gymnasium, I want to sleep!”
An unbearable, pained look appeared on the old lady’s face. She was about to speak, but Old Master Bo had already grasped her hand first: “Times have changed. With society stable in the future and the family fortune we leave behind, Xuming will never suffer in this life, but later—”
The “tragedy” that happened at the Jiang house hadn’t happened in a vacuum. The surveillance footage clearly captured the scene of the giant beast swallowing the entire Jiang house.
Old Master Jiang had found people to get the surveillance footage, but had not deleted it.
The state machinery had also gotten involved.
Old Master Bo couldn’t say what had gone through his mind when he watched that footage.
If Bo Xuming went to cultivate, in a few years he would surely stand on the front line fighting such terrifying demons.
Saying he wasn’t pained or worried would be a lie.
But he feared even more that Bo Xuming would live in a daze, passively enduring the world’s huge changes.
“Xuming has our blood in him. He just doesn’t understand things yet. Once he learns about Wenxin Cultivation University, he’ll grow up.”
The old lady lowered her eyes and suddenly said: “Tell me, if I cultivated, how would my talent be?”
Old Master Bo looked sharply at his wife.
Families that forced their kids to the gymnasium before dawn were not few. Some kids were obedient and, though they didn’t understand, did as told. In some families with many children, they secretly found out the clue of the “Municipal Gymnasium” and, even without knowing what was there or what to do, all rushed to go see. And there were families like the Bo family, where the child was doted on and rebellious, refusing to go no matter what, and the house was in uproar.
Elderly people sleep less. Granny Lin got up early to dance square dance in the small park, but today fewer people came than yesterday, not even enough for a small formation, so they simply gathered to chat.
When someone mentioned that the family in the villa next to hers was arguing because of Wenxin Cultivation University, Granny Lin frowned: “Wenxin Xiuxian University? That name sounds so familiar.”
She thought hard, then slapped her thigh: “Isn’t that the university where my old sister’s grandson works!”
The several people exchanged glances, then beamed at Granny Lin: “Oh, Elder Sister, your connections are so solid! My grandson is also fussing and making a scene to go study there. Think of a way and introduce us, will you!”
Granny Lin: “Didn’t your grandson just get into Tsinghua or Peking University last year? What now, is this university even better than Tsinghua? Or has your son got another high-school-senior son?”
“My son isn’t that kind of scum who messes around with women! I have only one grandson!”