After that day, Yu Xiang waited punctually at the front gate of Jinyang Gardens every morning to send Yan Sheng to school.
At first, the delivery runner still tagged along, but two days later he simply outsourced the task to Yu Xiang. All he did was buy the groceries, bring the kid down from the apartment, hand him over to Yu Xiang, and then wait for Yu Xiang to send back photos so he could forward them to his employer.
It felt a little bad betraying his employer’s trust, but he had no choice. The man simply paid far too generously.
Yan Sheng took very well to having someone else escort him to school, even rejoicing in secret.
This way, someone would always be around to sign his Chinese language tests in the future!
Yan Hui was completely in the dark about all of this.
He typed out his web novel chapters late into the early morning every night and could never wake up early, so how could he possibly know about the little schemes brewing between Yu Xiang and his son?
As for the missing unit test papers, he simply assumed the semester was ending and the teacher had stopped holding regular pop quizzes in class.
In reality, Yan Sheng was afraid of getting caught, so he had Yu Xiang handle the signatures for all his other subject tests as well.
Yan Hui remained kept in the dark until the fourth day, which was Friday.
On this day, Yan Hui uncharacteristically woke up early, opening his eyes before eight-thirty.
Out of habit, he first reached for his phone to check the photos to confirm that Yan Sheng had arrived safely at school. Then, he closed his eyes and tried to fall back asleep.
More than ten minutes later, he resignedly opened his eyes, squirmed around in the quilt for a while, and picked up his phone again. He entered keywords such as “Zhengxin” and “Yu Xiang” into the search bar.
[Zhengxin’s New Factory Confirmed in Jindu]
[Zhengxin General Manager Yu Xiang Leads Inspection Delegation to Jindu]
[Major Breakthrough! Zhengxin Officially Announces Technological Breakthrough]
They were all old news.
Yan Hui pursed his lips, set his phone aside, and got out of bed to get dressed and wash up.
Had Yu Xiang returned to Yunjing after all? There had been no movement for days, so he probably went back. It seemed what was said on Saturday had taken effect.
His brushing motions grew slower and slower. Yan Hui looked down at the foam falling into the washbasin, not resuming his routine until it was buried under fresh foam as though waking from a dream.
It was fine that he had left. That way, Yan Sheng was completely safe.
Wiping the water droplets from his face, Yan Hui walked over to the dining area, grabbed a small cream bun from the snack cabinet, and nibbled on it without tasting a thing.
Right at that moment, a sudden commotion came from outside the door.
“Careful, be careful! Don’t bump it!”
“Make way, make way! Excuse me, coming through!”
“Turn it upright, or else it won’t fit through. Hey, that’s it!”
Are they moving? Which neighbor is it?
Yan Hui walked to the front door and peered outside through the peephole.
Across the hall, his neighbor’s front door stood wide open. Under the direction of the female homeowner, several men in gray uniforms were hauling a sofa outside.
Yan Hui widened his eyes in surprise.
The father and son had lived in Jinyang Gardens for three years. Due to his work schedule and lifestyle, he was never particularly close with the other residents in the complex, except for the neighbor across the hall whom he bumped into often enough to exchange brief greetings.
Like most homeowners in the complex, the neighbor’s family had bought this school district apartment for their child’s education. Their son went to the same school as Yan Sheng and was currently in the sixth grade.
With the transition from primary to middle school just around the corner after the New Year, why were they moving at such a critical juncture?
Thinking of this, Yan Hui opened the door to greet his neighbor. “Good morning, Sister Li! Are you moving?”
Seeing Yan Hui, Sister Li immediately beamed with a smile. “Yes, we are!”
“Why move at a time like this? Isn’t the middle school entrance exam coming up soon?” Yan Hui asked curiously.
“You know how my son is. His grades are terrible. There is no hope for a key middle school, so we will be lucky if he has a school to attend at all.”
Sister Li walked over to Yan Hui’s doorway, speaking with a broad smile on her face. Her joyful expression was completely at odds with her self-deprecating words.
Yan Hui watched her, totally bewildered, and instinctively comforted her, “You can’t look at it that way. Some kids perform best during actual exams. Maybe he will pull off a surprise when the time comes.”
Just like his own Sheng Sheng, who failed Chinese and English on regular days, yet somehow managed to scrape right along the passing line during final exams. In its own way, wasn’t that also a talent for test-taking?
Sister Li, completely abandoning the anxious and exhausted attitude she usually wore whenever her son’s grades were mentioned, covered her mouth and giggled heartily.
“I am not counting on him anymore. In this life, he is destined for factory work. Rather than expecting him to become a dragon or phoenix, my husband and I might as well work hard to leave him an inheritance so he will always have food and drink.”
This happened to coincide with Yan Hui’s own mindset.
Even though he yelled at Yan Sheng every day while tutoring his homework, that was strictly aimed at Chinese; he never stressed over English. Simply put, as a writer, he could not stand grammar errors or misused vocabulary.
His wealth was more than enough for Yan Sheng to live a safe and joyful life. Whether the boy rose above the crowd or not did not matter; being healthy and happy was what truly counted.
However, the neighbor across the hall belonged to an ordinary working-class family. To buy this apartment, they had emptied the savings of six wallets across two generations, pinning all their hopes on the child. Becoming so carefree all of a sudden was clearly unusual.
Thinking about the prime location of Jinyang Gardens, Yan Hui understood at once. “Sister Li, did you sell the apartment?”
Sister Li smiled without answering, but Yan Hui understood completely. “Congratulations, Sister Li. It seems you got a great price.”
Sister Li did not say much more, merely pointing toward her door. “Thank you. I need to go keep an eye on them so nothing gets damaged.”
“Alright, go ahead and attend to your things.” Yan Hui nodded, watching Sister Li return home before turning back and closing his own door.
It would be a lie to say he was not curious. Because Jinyang Gardens was in a prime school district, even though it was an old, rundown complex, property prices were sky-high. An apartment measuring under eighty square meters could command a total price of up to two million yuan, which was considered astronomical in Jindu where the average second-hand housing price was twenty thousand yuan per square meter.
Sister Li had bought her unit early for over 1.7 million yuan, shouldering a thirty-year mortgage. For her to willingly give up the lottery quota for the key middle school, the sale price must have been extraordinary.
Fortunately, no wall was entirely windproof. By the afternoon, Yan Hui saw the residential group chat buzzing with lively chatter, saying that Sister Li’s family had caught an enormous sucker.
[Building 2, Unit 301]: Word is it sold for this number [Cloth/Five]
[Building 1, Unit 502]: Five million?! That is a complete sucker!
[Building 5, Unit 102]: More than that. I heard the five million does not include the remaining loan payoff.
[Building 6, Unit 202]: Then doesn’t that exceed six million?
[Building 4, Unit 601]: Holy crap! Where did such an absurdly rich tycoon come from? Why can’t I ever run into good fortune like this!
[Building 5, Unit 502]: Even government demolition compensations don’t pay this much these days, right?
[Building 3, Unit 302]: No wonder that woman upstairs has been glowing with joy these past few days. She used to beat her kid every single day and was known alongside 402 as the dual champions of helicopter tiger parenting.
Yan Hui was speechless.
Was he a tiger parent? He thought he was fine. Who wouldn’t get furious upon reading a sentence practice like “One of my fathers is a lawyer”?
Although the kid’s godfather really was a lawyer, it couldn’t be phrased that way! If the teacher saw it, they would think a whole herd of wild horses was galloping over his head, implying endless scandals!
Paying over six million yuan for an old, dilapidated apartment truly made someone a complete sucker. With that much money, wouldn’t it be better to send a kid abroad to study and gain prestige?
If all else failed, investing in real estate would provide more than enough passive income for a child’s future.
When the new neighbor across the hall moved in, he would definitely take a good look at what kind of sucker this person was.
Early the next morning, on Saturday.
It was another morning where he woke up uncharacteristically early. Yan Hui drifted out of sleep and hazily heard the sound of Yan Sheng’s footsteps pattering back and forth in the living room.
That was not surprising. Young children went to bed early and woke up early. Before going to bed, he had prepared a sandwich, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and placed it in the refrigerator so Sheng Sheng could easily warm it up in the microwave.
The boy knew how to use the microwave, the air fryer, and the steam oven; he was exceptionally bright.
If only he put that same dedication into studying Chinese language arts.
“The food my dad makes is the tastiest!”
Mhm, good boy. With an enthusiastic eater like you, Dad feels very accomplished cooking. Wait, who is Sheng Sheng talking to?
A jolt ran through Yan Hui, and he sprang out of bed like a missile. Without even pausing to put on clothes, he grabbed the metal baseball bat by the bedroom door and rushed outside.
“Sheng Sheng! Who are you talking to? Yu Xiang!”
Yu Xiang was sitting by the dining table, holding a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. His gaze swept over Yan Hui’s unrestrained attire consisting of only a long-sleeved T-shirt over boxers, finally coming to rest on his two fair, slender long legs.
The bite of sandwich he had just taken seemed to go down his throat only now. Yu Xiang’s Adam’s apple bobbed as his gaze darkened slightly. Forcing himself to look away, he met Yan Hui’s eyes and greeted him.
“Good morning. Don’t you want to put on some clothes first? Aren’t you cold?”
“You. Achoo! Achoo!” Having uttered only a single word, Yan Hui sneezed several times in succession. Seeing this, Yan Sheng promptly dashed into the master bedroom and ran out carrying an armful of clothes.
“Dad! Put your clothes on quickly, don’t catch a cold!”
Yan Hui looked at his son, then at Yu Xiang. Clattering the bat onto the floor, he picked up the clothes and threw them on.
There was actually an electric heater in the apartment running around the clock, so the temperature was never terribly low. However, constrained by the outdated electrical wiring of the old neighborhood, Yan Hui only dared to keep it on the medium setting, otherwise it would easily trip the circuit breaker.
Throwing on the clothes in a few swift motions, Yan Hui ruffled his son’s hair in gratitude, gathered his resolve once again, and turned around to glare at Yu Xiang, ready to demand answers.
“How did you…”
“Pfft!”
His interrogation had barely begun before it was cut short again. Yu Xiang pressed a fist against his lips, his eyes overflowing with laughter.
“Sorry, ahem, the outfit is very cute.”
Yan Hui looked down. On the fluffy, pastel blue loungewear, the face of a brown teddy bear took up most of the hem.
If he remembered correctly, the hood on the back had pastel blue bear ears, and the back hem featured a pastel blue bear tail, matching the parent-child set Yan Sheng was wearing.
Standing together, the two of them looked like a pair of pastel blue bears.
Yan Hui closed his eyes in despair.
What kind of intimidation factor could he possibly have dressed like this?
His fiery momentum thoroughly deflated on the third attempt, Yan Hui walked over dejectedly and sat down across from Yu Xiang. Yan Sheng followed closely behind, sitting next to his dad and picking up his sandwich to continue munching, his eyes flitting back and forth between the two adults.
Having missed the moment to unleash his fury in one go, Yan Hui was in no rush to speak either. He first felt the cup in front of Yan Sheng, confirming the milk was warm, before lifting his gaze to look at Yu Xiang.
“Did you buy the apartment across the hall?”
Yu Xiang gave a quiet grunt in confirmation and took a bite of the sandwich.
“Are you out of your mind? Spending six million yuan on an old, rundown apartment, do you have nothing better to do?”
“I need a long-term place to stay.”
“Ha!” Yan Hui scoffed coldly. “Who are you trying to fool, Yu Xiang? In all of Jindu, the esteemed Second Young Master Yu couldn’t find a place to stay and had to settle in an old, rundown apartment?”
“A house is easy to find, but people aren’t.” Yu Xiang swallowed the last bite of the sandwich, raising his eyes to look at Yan Hui. “In all of Jindu, I only know you. Of course, I should live closer so we can look after each other.”
Made uncomfortable by his gaze, Yan Hui turned his head away. “You are almost thirty years old, do you really need me looking after you? Besides, you are the boss of a company, what problem can’t be resolved with money?”
“Plenty,” Yu Xiang chuckled softly. “Still, you have a point. Having money is always better than having none. That is why I want to look after you.”