Old Master Xu possessed a booming, resonant voice, and the moment he spoke, not a single soul in the dining hall dared to breathe a loud word.
“The only reason he is permitted to sit here is because Xu Qiduo has an older brother capable of pulling his weight.” Old Master Xu stated the facts with brutal directness.
“The moment your eldest brother can generate ten billion in net revenue for the company within half a year, you can have any man you want accompany you, and I will satisfy every single demand.”
Blunt, exceptionally blunt. So blunt that the toes inside Xu Qiduo’s shoes couldn’t help but curl up in embarrassment.
No way… Could Zhou Mengxing actually have been scouted and brought here by his eldest brother for him?
Standing in place, Xu Yemeng stiffened her neck, entirely too terrified to utter another syllable.
“Do you know why Xu Qiduo is allowed to love men and live life by his own rules without being constrained?” Old Master Xu demanded, sweeping his gaze across the assembled family.
As the person being held up as an example, Xu Qiduo himself was actually quite curious to know the answer.
Mainly because Xu Qiduo seemed to hold a rather extraordinary status within the Xu family.
Seeing that everyone present had clutched their tongues like frightened quails, Old Master Xu cast a severe, sweeping glare around the table before continuing. “Just the eldest of his older brothers alone brings in enough to feed this entire extended household.”
Ah, so it turned out to be the protective halo of a wonderfully competent big brother.
“Even with his preference for men, his academic grades have never slipped a single fraction. He knows how to balance his personal emotions and his daily life, ranking in the top ten of every single exam throughout high school. And what about you? What was your score on this recent preliminary exam, Xu Yemeng?”
Xu Yemeng kept her head lowered, completely subdued and mute.
Old Master Xu pressed on. “If you want to secure a firm footing in the Xu family, it is not enough for your father, brothers, or sisters to possess ability; you must pull your own weight as well. As long as you maintain a high level of personal excellence, the Xu family will naturally grant you infinite tolerance.”
Therefore, within the Xu family, relatives were not merely family members; they formed a cooperative corporate entity. To win respect and acquire power here, every branch of the family had to prove themselves strong and capable enough.
Furious, Old Master Xu slammed his cane against the floor and rebuked angrily, “If any of you genuinely wish to run off with men, go ahead and leave, nobody is stopping you. There are hundreds of people across the various branches of the Xu family alone, and every single household is grinding their teeth to climb higher. Look at yourselves—you can’t even keep your mouths shut over a meal.”
The younger generation sitting around the dining tables was too terrified to make a peep.
Fortunately, Xu Qizhi arrived in the nick of time, stepping forward to soothe Old Master Xu and temper his rising anger.
Dishes began to be served, though the atmosphere remained heavy and tense.
Luckily, Xu Duoduo boldly marched right up to Old Master Xu and proudly announced that she had scored first place in her entire school on the latest examination, a feat that finally coaxed a smile back onto the old man’s face. Laughter and conversation gradually returned to the dining hall.
A crab shell packed full of tender, juicy crab meat was suddenly placed onto a small plate right in front of Xu Qiduo. Following the line of that slender, porcelain-white hand, Xu Qiduo glanced sideways at its owner, then picked up the shell and swallowed the savory meat in a single gulp.
As he chewed the food in his mouth, Xu Qiduo bumped his leg against Zhou Mengxing’s under the table.
Zhou Mengxing did not push away or resist his little gesture.
It seemed his earlier assessment of the Xu family members hadn’t been entirely accurate.
People born at a high starting line indeed possessed certain inherent advantages, but one could hardly dismiss the sheer amount of personal effort they poured into maintaining it.
Zhou Mengxing glanced up at Xu Qizhi, who was seated right beside Old Master Xu at the main table, before retracting his gaze to look at Xu Qiduo, who was quietly burying his head in his meal next to him.
A few of the younger kids in the hall simply couldn’t contain themselves any longer and began whispering among each other. Old Master Xu merely glanced their way without intervening.
It wasn’t just the younger kids who were granted silent permission to speak.
Noticing that the old patriarch had finally calmed down, the adults cautiously resumed their own conversations as well.
The dining hall quickly regained its vibrant, warm atmosphere of a happy family gathering.
Truth be told, the single most essential requirement for surviving as a member of the Xu family was possessing a truly thick skin and a resilient mindset.
Once the delicious food settled into his stomach, Xu Qiduo’s mood improved by a fraction.
With his mood lifting and his mind clearing up, a wave of stark sobriety suddenly hit him.
Because of Xu Yemeng’s reckless and unfiltered outburst earlier, the secret dynamic between him and Zhou Mengxing had been blown wide open in front of everyone.
Although nothing had actually happened between him and Zhou Mengxing yet, the entire Xu family seemed to have tacitly accepted Zhou Mengxing’s special status.
For Zhou Mengxing… wouldn’t this whole arrangement feel terribly unfair and oppressive?
As he ate, Xu Qiduo couldn’t help casting another concerned look toward the youth beside him.
Suddenly, the mental alarm bell in his head rang violently.
Wait, hold on a second!
Putting Zhou Mengxing’s situation aside for a moment, didn’t he aggressively snap at Wang Shuo right before lunch?
He had turned Wang Shuo down flat and then rudely hung up on his phone call…
That was a massive, textbook out-of-character violation!
Xu Qiduo was instantly gripped by a surge of guilty panic. Wang Shuo was his designated target character; his survival in this fictional world entirely depended on keeping that plotline alive.
While Zhou Mengxing had been sitting right beside him, his mind had been drifting elsewhere, staring blankly into space while wrestling with these heavy thoughts.
It wasn’t until Zhou Mengxing gave him a gentle nudge with his elbow that he was snapped back to reality.
“What is wrong?”
Xu Qiduo shook his head, forcing a casual expression to mask his panic. This wasn’t the kind of trouble he could easily explain to others. What did we mean, what’s wrong—the crisis right now was astronomical!
The food he had just shoved into his mouth instantly lost all flavor.
He anxiously waited out the remainder of lunch until the gathering finally dispersed. The moment it ended, he bolted for a quiet, secluded corner to dial Wang Shuo’s number.
The call rang repeatedly without anyone picking up.
Guessing that Wang Shuo must be furious, Xu Qiduo quickly pivoted and messaged one of Wang Shuo’s close friends, only to learn that Wang Shuo was still holed up at the resort hotel attached to the polo club.
He scrambled to catch a ride straight to the polo club. He could afford to lose his dignity, but he certainly couldn’t afford to lose his life!
The polo club was one of the many commercial properties that Xu Qizhi had registered under Xu Qiduo’s name. In fact, far beyond just this club, a vast network of Xu family businesses spanning countless industries operated under his name.
Xu Qizhi managed everything with impeccable efficiency while leaving the legal ownership to Xu Qiduo. The sheer volume of dividend profits he collected from these assets each year translated into an endless supply of unlimited black cards.
It was easy to see why Old Master Xu held Xu Qizhi in such impossibly high regard; a man like that was simply indispensable.
The polo club featured a top-tier five-star hotel.
Swiping his card to unlock the door to Wang Shuo’s suite, Xu Qiduo was immediately greeted by the sight of a coffee table littered with empty bottles of expensive red wine and imported liquor. It took no imagination at all to picture how wild the party here must have been last night.
The room’s advanced air filtration system had already scrubbed away most of the lingering odors, but a faint trace of stale cigarette smoke still hung heavy in the air.
Articles of clothing lay scattered haphazardly across the sofa and the floor.
Xu Qiduo’s eyelids twitched violently at the sight. No way, please tell me I’m not about to stumble into some restricted, age-inappropriate scene right now.
Skirting around the oversized sofa, he approached the bedroom area. Stepping forward cautiously and poking his head inside, he accidentally startled a young man who was busy taking photos with his phone on the bed.
The young man let out a sharp gasp, quickly diving back beneath the heavy duvet to hide.
That sudden movement ended up waking Wang Shuo, who had been fast asleep.
Blinking his eyes open, Wang Shuo locked gazes with Xu Qiduo. A look of annoyed displeasure crossed his face as he clicked his tongue, slowly hauling himself up into a sitting position.
His bare torso was covered from neck to shoulder in obvious, intimate love bites and scratch marks.
Yet Wang Shuo looked utterly indifferent and deeply irritated as he looked down at the young man hiding beside him in the bed. “Who the hell are you?”
“It’s me, Qiao Fan,” the boy whimpered, peering out from beneath the blankets with wide, doe-like eyes full of aggrieved pleading.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Xu Qiduo sneaked a quick, covert glance and instantly recognized the boy as the exact type Wang Shuo always went for.
Wang Shuo raked a hand through his messy hair with an expression of supreme annoyance, clearly still failing to recall who the person sharing his bed actually was.