The comments seemed to have been steered by someone, but it was hard to say for sure.
Truth and lies were mixed together. The same facts, placed in different contexts and phrased differently, took on entirely different meanings.
It was true that Fu Xingjian had been drugged, and that it had something to do with Cen Wan. Cen Wan had indeed hit him. And when Cen Wan later collapsed in the bathroom, it was Fu Xingjian who took him to the hospital.
But the drugging had been an accident, and Cen Wan only hit Fu Xingjian because the drug’s effects had driven Fu Xingjian out of his mind.
Yet now everyone believed that Cen Wan had drugged Fu Xingjian in an attempt to seduce him, and when that failed, he’d flown into a rage and smashed Fu Xingjian’s head open and that Fu Xingjian had still been kind enough to take him to the hospital.
The version most people found believable was that the clique had offended Fu Xingjian and gotten expelled, and that Fu Xingjian was currently busy dealing with that mess, which was why he hadn’t had time to deal with Cen Wan.
If they ever found out that Fu Xingjian had taken down the clique because of Cen Wan, it would probably stir up another storm.
Cen Wan’s face was as cool as jade. He returned the phone to Chu Zhili with a word of thanks, then took out his own phone and sent Fu Xingjian a message:
Cen Wan: 【Where are you?】
To his surprise, the reply came quickly: 【At the company. What’s wrong?】
Cen Wan: 【Can I come see you?】
Fu Xingjian: 【What happened?】
Fu Xingjian: 〔Location shared〕
Fu Xingjian: 【I’m a bit busy right now. You might have to wait for me a while when you get here.】
Cen Wan: 【That’s fine. I can wait.】
He put his phone away and smiled at Chu Zhili again.
“Thank you. I’ll treat you to a meal sometime.”
“Could you help me ask for leave? I’m going to see Young Master Fu.”
Chu Zhili let out a breath of relief, his tone firm.
“I know you’re not that kind of person.”
“Go on, and be careful on the way.”
As Chu Zhili finished speaking,
the others in the class chimed in one after another:
“I think so too.”
“Yeah, there must be some misunderstanding.”
Cen Wan’s heart suddenly softened. As he headed out the door, he glanced back, his eyes shimmering.
“Mm! Thank you, everyone.”
On his small, pale face, the corners of his eyes had flushed pink. He thanked them with such earnestness, as if they’d done something extraordinary, that the few who had spoken, caught under his gaze, all turned red to the ears and straightened their backs.
Cen Wan hurried to the school gate and hailed a taxi.
While waiting, he noticed a shifty-looking, unkempt middle-aged man standing not far from the school’s outer wall.
The man had been loitering around the school entrance for a while, apparently too afraid of the security guards to approach. The moment his eyes met Cen Wan’s, he suddenly stopped looking around and walked straight toward him.
Cen Wan had a bad feeling, but his taxi was still five minutes away.
The vagrant-like man moved fast, and before long he was there. His gray padded coat was tattered and covered in patches, cotton wadding poking out of the torn, filthy cuffs. His greasy, matted hair hung in a tangled mess over half his face, revealing a pair of murky eyes tinged with exhaustion.
Cen Wan turned to run, but the man’s shout stopped him in his tracks:
“Kid! Do you know Jiang Xinian?” The voice was rough and hoarse.
Cen Wan hesitated, then stopped.
The man halted in front of him, panting heavily, still shouting at the top of his lungs:
“I’m his old… his dad.”
The stench rolling off the man made Cen Wan stumble back a few steps. He wrinkled his nose and turned his head away, but the man seemed not to notice, still pressing closer desperately:
“Don’t believe me? It’s true, it’s true! I’ve been looking for him for ages!”
His hands kept moving as he fished a tattered little booklet out of his pocket.
“Look this is our household registration book. I’m Jiang Gaofei, he’s Jiang Xinian he’s my son!”
Cen Wan frowned.
“Is there something you need from him?”
Jiang Gaofei wiped his face, looking worn down by life.
“Ah… ever since Xinian got into St. Rhodel, he hasn’t contacted me at all. Maybe he’s ashamed of having a father like me, I came here just hoping to have a good talk with him. But I’ve been waiting and waiting, and he never came out.”
“Do you know him? Could you help me call him out?”
[Wanwan! The mission target just walked right up to us!]
[Mission Six is literally to find the protagonist’s father!]
Cen Wan’s lashes trembled slightly, and she lowered her eyes.
“Sorry… I don’t have his contact information.”
Jiang Gaofei beamed and pulled out a phone with a cracked screen.
“No problem! I have it! Just call him from your phone.”
“But could I trouble you not to tell him it’s me looking for him? I’m afraid he won’t come see me otherwise.” Jiang Gaofei’s tone was dejected, his expression grief-stricken the very picture of a good father who cared for his son but wasn’t accepted by him.
Cen Wan’s ride was two minutes away. She had no choice but to nod and dial Jiang Xinian’s number.
The screen lit up for quite a while. No one answered.
“No one’s picking up… How about I ” Just as Cen Wan started to speak, the phone suddenly buzzed the call went through.
Jiang Gaofei stared at Cen Wan expectantly.
“Hello… Jiang Xinian?”
There was a pause of a few seconds on the other end.
“Cen Wan?”
“Mm.” Cen Wan answered.
“Is something the matter?”
Cen Wan met Jiang Gaofei’s eager gaze, her nails digging into her palm.
“I’d like to see you is that all right? I’m waiting at the school gate.”
“Fine. Twenty , fifteen minutes.”
Jiang Xinian replied crisply. The call ended.
Jiang Gaofei was smiling, eyes narrowed, looking delighted but something inexplicably venomous flickered in his eyes. It vanished quickly, though, and he turned to Cen Wan, thanking her excitedly:
“Thank you so much, student… If our father-son relationship can be repaired, I’ll definitely have to repay you properly.”
Cen Wan waved a hand.
“It’s nothing. My ride’s here, so I’ll be going.”
Once in the car, Cen Wan glanced back at Jiang Gaofei through the window. Her phone screen lit up and went dark, over and over. Finally, she opened the school forum and dug up Professor Li Mingde’s contact information.
“Sorry, I’ve been too busy lately to pay attention to what’s been happening at school.” A bandage was still wrapped around Fu Xingjian’s wheat-tanned forehead, his nose high and brow bone deep-set. After reading through the posts on the school forum, his temples throbbed.
When he saw the young man sitting on the sofa across from him, an inexplicable sense of guilt grew even heavier.
The lamplight streamed down, making the fair-faced boy’s pale skin look nearly translucent. His slightly long bangs fell over his reddened eyes. Despite having been wronged, he was still anxiously comforting Fu Xingjian instead:
“No, it’s me I’ve troubled you too much.”
“I still haven’t repaid you for helping me last time, and now I have to put you through trouble again, Young Master Fu.”
Cen Wan hung his head, cheeks flushed, feeling like a grade-schooler tattling to the homeroom teacher.
Though, oddly enough, he was getting used to it.
Deep in debt feels like no debt at all; too many lice don’t itch.
Fu Xingjian pressed his thin lips together. Cen Wan’s manner really was like a younger member of the family meeting his grandmother reserved and deferential.
“No need to be so formal. We’re about the same age just call me ‘bro.'”
When Cen Wan’s soft, timid gaze turned toward him, Fu Xingjian felt heat rise behind his ears.
Almost flattered, Cen Wan said quietly:
“Thank you, Fu-ge.”
“You’re really kind.” Cen Wan’s habit of acting cute kicked in again, his clear, soft voice like something coated in sugar frosting. His eyes curved into crescents as he smiled at Fu Xingjian.
The heat in Fu Xingjian’s face grew stronger thankfully his dark complexion hid it.
So this is what it feels like to have a little brother.
Knock knock knock.
A knock sounded at the door, and the assistant’s voice came through, somewhat urgent:
“Master Fu, the person you scheduled is here.”
Fu Xingjian’s relaxed brows knitted tight again, his eyes full of apology:
“I’ll be going then. I’ll take care of the forum matter.”
[Task complete. Reward: 24 hours of survival time.]
Fu Xingjian’s voice and the system’s sounded at the same time. Cen Wan nodded his farewell.
Jiang Xinian’s platinum-white uniform billowed in the wind, the tips of his hair dotted with sweat. A few loose strands were lifted by the breeze, rising and falling gently with his run, making his star-bright eyes stand out all the more.
Passing the fountain in front of the school gate, he finally skidded to a stop, breathing slightly ragged. He looked out through the towering, majestic gilded archway with its intricate carvings, but couldn’t find the figure who hadn’t returned all night.
As he stepped out of the school gate, he met another pair of eyes sinister and full of resentment.
Jiang Xinian froze in place, his pupils contracting sharply.
“My dear son, you really made me search everywhere for you.” The murky, rasping voice carried a grating friction that churned Jiang Xinian’s stomach, nearly making him vomit.
“Where’s Cen Wan?” Several terrible possibilities flashed through his mind in an instant, but Jiang Xinian ultimately suppressed the urge to turn and walk away, questioning Jiang Gaofei in a voice devoid of any warmth.
The venom in Jiang Gaofei’s eyes shifted to curiosity. He stared at his son’s stiff posture for a few seconds, then suddenly let out a strange laugh:
“So even heaven itself is helping me. I grab someone at random and it turns out to be your good friend?”
“So even a cold-blooded person like you has someone he cares about?”
“Hah?!” Jiang Gaofei’s pitch shot up abruptly, shrill enough to nearly pierce the eardrum.
Jiang Xinian’s jaw tightened into a sharp line. Unwilling to waste words on him, he only repeated:
“Where’s Cen Wan?”
Perhaps his utter disregard for Jiang Gaofei ignited the man’s temper Jiang Gaofei suddenly lunged forward, shoving Jiang Xinian hard and shrieking:
“You beast!”
“You little bastard, running off to a fine place like this to live the good life do you have any idea what kind of life I’ve been living?!”
“If I hadn’t run fast, the debt collectors would’ve chopped off my hand!” Jiang Gaofei’s murky eyes were bloodshot, rolling wildly as he cursed.
Fingertips filthy with grime were close enough to jab into Jiang Xinian’s eyes. But the next moment, the unhinged man abruptly fell silent.
Panting heavily, he grinned viciously:
“That pretty little classmate of yours is doing just fine. Very fine. Better than fine!”
“It’s been a long time since your dear old daddy saw such a fresh, lovely little thing.”
“Those people are sure to like him too. Wouldn’t you say, hmm? Good son.”
The color drained from Jiang Xinian’s face in an instant, cold sweat soaking through the shirt against his skin.
His Adam’s apple bobbed twice, painfully, before he forced out the words:
“What did you do to him?”
But Jiang Gaofei didn’t answer. He lifted his chin high, the corner of his mouth curling into a twisted arc:
“Transfer me a hundred thousand first.”
The veins on Jiang Xinian’s neck bulged, the rage churning in his eyes nearly solidifying into something tangible. His nails dug deep into his palms as he growled through gritted teeth:
“What did you do to him?!”
Seeing him lose control only made Jiang Gaofei more smug:
“I already told you transfer a hundred thousand yuan first. Otherwise…” He left the threat hanging, which made it all the more chilling.
Jiang Xinian’s temple throbbed violently. He forced down the heaving of his chest, again and again.
“I can’t come up with that much money all at once.”
“You’re lying through your teeth!” Jiang Gaofei’s nostrils flared with his heavy breathing. “You managed to get into Saint Rhode, and you can’t produce a hundred thousand yuan?”
“You think your old man is an idiot?”
“Everyone teachers, students come judge for yourselves!” He suddenly raised his voice, gripping Jiang Xinian’s hand and refusing to let go as he shouted toward the campus:
“This heartless brat, I sold a kidney to put him through Saint Rhode, and now he pretends he doesn’t know me!”
“The regret oh, the regret! If I’d known I’d raise such a little beast, I never would have raised him from infancy, wiping his ass and feeding him by hand!”
The commotion outside the school gates drew crowds, students gathering in twos and threes, pointing and whispering:
“Is that for real? He looks so respectable, and he’d do something like this?”
“Probably thinks his dad’s too poor for him.”
“What rotten luck, ending up with a son like that.”
Jiang Xinian shook off Jiang Gaofei’s clutching hand, his face so dark it could drip water.
Jiang Gaofei took the opportunity to fall to the ground, wiping his face and wailing:
“This is outrageous!”
“I say two words to him and he starts hitting me! If I really got in his way, he’d probably kill me!”
“Is there no law? No justice?”
The crowd grew larger and larger, the voices of condemnation swelling.
But Jiang Xinian had no attention to spare for them. All he wanted was to find out where Jiang Gaofei had taken Cen Wan.
Maybe Cen Wan hadn’t been caught by Jiang Gaofei, but he didn’t dare gamble her safety on the whims of a madman.
If anything happened to Cen Wan, it would all be because of him.
In the mere two or three minutes they had been struggling, the school gate had somehow become packed tight with onlookers. Seeing this, Jiang Gaofei’s eyes darted, and he suddenly pulled a fruit knife from his pocket and pressed it against his own neck.
His expression unhinged: “Fine! With a son like this, I don’t want to live anymore!”
“Today I’ll let everyone see how an unfilial son drives his poor old father to death!”
The crowd erupted.
Several special-admission students wearing white name tags rushed over to grab Jiang Gaofei’s hands, indignantly taking up his cause:
“Jiang Xinian, I never thought you were this kind of person.”
“Seriously, what a disgrace to us special-admission students!”
“If you drive your father to death in broad daylight, did you really think you could keep studying peacefully at Saint Rhode?!”
Jiang Xinian stood alone at the center of the dense, surging crowd. The waves of curses boiled like a seething pot, yet stirred no emotion in him.
After all, he had grown up in exactly this kind of environment. These accusations had long since lost the power to ripple the still water of his heart.
Meanwhile, the special-admission students were still wrinkling their noses and comforting Jiang Gaofei, dabbing at the few murky tears he had squeezed out with their handkerchiefs.
“Report him to the dean’s office!”
“Yeah!”
“Saint Rhode doesn’t keep students with stains on their record!”
Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, and more and more voices chimed in agreement.
Just as the uproar reached its peak, a clear, bright voice cut through the air like a fire-tempered dagger:
“Wait!”
Following the sound, they saw a slender, handsome youth push open the car door and stride menacingly toward the center of the commotion.
In an instant, every sound was put on pause.