To prevent his daily routine from running too wild, Xu Qiduo went to see his older brother again before he had even settled back in at home.
However, his words seemed to carry very little credibility in front of Xu Qizhi.
He had given his absolute, ironclad guarantees, only to receive the reply: “Why Zhou Mengxing was able to enter the Xu family is something he knows very well in his heart. He is expressing his loyalty. You don’t have to accept it, but you can’t stop him either, can you?”
Hey! What kind of crooked logic is that?!
Wait a minute! Xu Qiduo vaguely sensed that something was a bit off.
After pondering for a moment, he suddenly realized: wasn’t what his older brother made Zhou Mengxing do to him the exact same thing as his own bootlicking behavior toward Wang Shuo?
Was this older brother planning to use Zhou Mengxing to mirror his own actions so that he would recognize reality and turn over a new leaf?
Moreover, what difference was there between Xu Qizhi doing this for his younger brother and the wealthy young masters of old-time aristocratic estates having a spouse bought for them with money?
This was the new century; that sort of thing simply wasn’t trendy anymore!
As the saying goes, every cause has an effect. Because he hadn’t relented and agreed to immediately let go of his twisted love for Xu Qizhi, he naturally couldn’t get Xu Qizhi to relent and let him go either.
Xu Qiduo had no choice but to retreat to a secondary option, saying he needed time to take it slowly, and that when the time came for him to let go, he would also let Zhou Mengxing go.
Xu Qizhi nodded in agreement on the surface, but simply reminded him once more: “Since he took the benefits, he naturally has to pay a price.”
Xu Qizhi’s words reminded Xu Qiduo of what Zhou Mengxing had told him earlier.
Zhou Mengxing had been given a hand up by the Xu family when he was in the depths of despair. Out of gratitude, he was willing to make any kind of selfless contribution to the Xu family on the condition that it didn’t involve contributing toward him.
Since he hadn’t managed to talk things through with his older brother, this matter weighed on him so much that he couldn’t sleep well all night.
He was just a cannon-fodder NPC; was it really necessary to subject him to this level of pressure? Wouldn’t it be fine just to let him peacefully and honestly walk through the plot line? We are all NPCs, why bother sticking your nose into the drama?
Xu Qiduo suffered from insomnia that night and slept straight through to three o’clock the next afternoon. He had an elective online class on Sunday night, so as soon as he woke up, he went straight back to school.
The professor on the computer screen was lecturing, and the students had their cameras turned on, each staring intently at the screen with bright eyes.
Xu Qiduo was no exception. He kept his eyes fixed on the computer screen, tilting his head from time to time in deep thought.
Until his mouse played a pair of Jokers, leaving only a 3 in the game screen minimized in the bottom right corner of the computer. Keeping pace with the rhythm of the professor’s lecture in his headphones, he nodded approvingly.
The dormitory door was knocked on.
Since Xu Qiduo’s desk was close to the balcony, it naturally wasn’t his turn to open the door. Controlling his mouse to start another round of Landlord, and coincidentally having the online class professor announce they were going to do a multi-person mic link to ask questions, he put on a serious expression and righteously studied whether his hand should call Landlord.
Yet the voices of his roommates occasionally drifted through his headphones and into his ears.
“What the heck!”
“Is that a freshman?”
“He’s in class right now.”
“Come on in and wait a bit.”
“Hey buddy, can I add you on social media? If I had a friend like you, I’d be willing to live the high life even if it meant eating dirt!”
It seemed someone had visitors.
Who could it be?
Xu Qiduo originally wanted to turn his head to catch some gossip.
As a result, he heard the professor in his headphones say: [This student’s answer is correct, but too one-sided. Does anyone else have any other thoughts?]
Xu Qiduo reined in his neck, which had been eager to turn around, and sat up straight with an honest and obedient posture.
[Xu Qiduo, you tell us.]
Sure enough, the professor called on him.
Resigned to his fate, Xu Qiduo unmuted his mic and stated his perspective.
[Very good, Student Xu Qiduo’s answer is very standard.]
Xu Qiduo clicked his mic mute, thinking to himself that this professor truly loved calling on him for mic links.
Without fail, he would be called on at least once during every weekly class.
Fortunately, he had been majoring in this exact subject before he transmigrated. For a senior student to review junior-level coursework was naturally simple and straightforward.
Thinking of this, Xu Qiduo couldn’t help feeling a wave of sentimentality.
Before he kicked the bucket and transmigrated, he had been living a colorful, wonderful life.
His parents ran a company and made quite a bit of money. Although they weren’t obscenely wealthy like the Xu family here, he had still grown up being held in the palm of everyone’s hand.
He also had an outstanding older brother ahead of him, so his upbringing could be described as gathering tens of thousands of favors in one body.
Father doted on him, mother loved him, and brother pampered him.
Aside from his habit of staying up late to play video games, he felt he had no other flaws.
Even his university major had been thoroughly discussed with his family; he had volunteered to study finance so he could later help his older brother share the workload at the company.
Who could have ever imagined he would run into this kind of situation?
On second thought, though, it was fortunate that his family still had his older brother; otherwise, how heartbroken his mom and dad would be once they found out he had kicked the bucket!
This wave of sorrow came on fiercely and dissipated just as quickly.
A child who grew up pampered possessed a naturally optimistic personality. Transmigrated into a book, so be it, isn’t it just changing a way of life?
Knowing full well there was no chance of returning to his original world, rather than spending every day feeling dejected and half-dead, it was far better to live a good life inside the book.
Xu Qiduo exited the previous Landlord game room and entered a new one.
The professor was still lecturing in his headphones. He listened with a divided mind while his mouse clicked away to play cards.
It wasn’t until the online class ended that Xu Qiduo stood up, stretched his back comfortably, and muttered, “Is any brother going out to grab a midnight snack with me?”
The original Xu Qiduo only acted abnormally when it came to his feelings for Wang Shuo; he maintained perfectly fine social interactions with everyone else.
Therefore, even though Xu Qiduo had a certain notoriety outside, he got along very well with his roommates and had quite a few friends.
Coupled with the blessing of his family background and social status, he had over a thousand contacts on his phone.
Feng Chunming reminded him, “Stop worrying about good brothers for a second, your younger brother is here.”
A younger brother? Where on earth did he get a younger brother?
Xu Qiduo finished stretching, turned around, and looked, and was almost blinded by Zhou Mengxing’s beauty.
Zhou Mengxing was wearing a black athletic outfit today. The young man had a tall, slender physique, and his ink-black hair made his skin look as white as snow.
Due to his height advantage, when he lowered his gaze to look down at him, it was clearly an expressionless look, yet it always carried an unstated, lingering sense of aggressiveness. Coupled with those exceptionally pretty eyes, long-shaped with inner double eyelids, that face, already hard to tell whether male or female at first glance, delivered a visual impact every time it entered one’s field of vision.
Xu Qiduo stared blankly for a full half-minute at Zhou Mengxing, who was exuding a soft glow all over his body under the dormitory lights.
Only then did he belatedly find his voice: “Why are you here?”
Zhou Mengxing’s voice tended to be cool and detached, but today, Xu Qiduo managed to detect a tone slightly different from usual within that coldness: “The temperature is going to drop. You left in a hurry this afternoon and didn’t bring anything. Your older brother asked me to bring you some clothes.”
Following Zhou Mengxing’s gaze, Xu Qiduo indeed saw a bag of clothing placed right by the railing of his bed frame.
“Oh, well, then, thank you, thanks a lot.” Xu Qiduo gradually recovered his wits. “How come you didn’t call out to me when you got here?”
“You were in class,” Zhou Mengxing replied.
“There was no need to wait this long either; you could’ve just given me a heads-up. It’s just an online class, the professor can’t hear our voices.”
“It’s fine, I didn’t want to disturb you.”
Goodness gracious, how strange. He finally figured out what was weird.
Zhou Mengxing’s gentle tone gave him goosebumps.
Keep in mind that just two days ago, Zhou Mengxing’s attitude toward him was still cold and dismissive, answering only when spoken to.
Feeling extremely uncomfortable with Zhou Mengxing’s behavior, Xu Qiduo found an excuse to take his younger brother out for a midnight snack and left the dormitory.
Before leaving, one of his roommates said to Xu Qiduo, “Xu-ge, bring me back a plate of fried rice, will you? Any kind of fried rice is fine, I haven’t eaten dinner yet.”
Xu Qiduo nodded and asked the other two roommates, “Do you guys want midnight snacks?”
“I’宁’m not hungry, I’m staying disciplined. I won’t eat,” another roommate replied.
“What about Feng Chunming? What do you want?” Zhou Mengxing asked Feng Chunming.
Feng Chunming had already seen Zhou Mengxing last Thursday and knew that Zhou Mengxing was Xu Qiduo’s younger brother.
“Baked flatbread! Help me swing by that shop on the back street and grab a signature baked flatbread. I will be eternally grateful for your great kindness!”
Xu Qiduo flashed an OK sign at Feng Chunming and dragged Zhou Mengxing’s arm out of the dorm.
It wasn’t until they got downstairs from the dorm building that Xu Qiduo spoke up again: “Cut it out with that weird act, it’s seriously giving me the creeps.”
Seeming puzzled, Zhou Mengxing tilted his head and asked doubtfully, “What act?”
“What delivering clothes, waiting for me, all those things my brother told you to do, don’t do them. My brother won’t even find out anyway.”
Xu Qiduo was already having a hard enough time completing missions. Looking at it from another angle, wasn’t Zhou Mengxing just like him, blindly doing things he didn’t want to do simply because of a single instruction?
He understood that feeling all too well, and he didn’t want Zhou Mengxing to go against his own wishes just for this.
“This is all things I ought to do,” Zhou Mengxing stated calmly.
Under the moonlight and streetlights, the other’s expression was difficult to make out.
“Fine, so basically you didn’t listen to a word I said. Did you not listen, or did you just not want to listen?” Given his standing within the Xu family, he naturally lacked the authority to order Zhou Mengxing to stop his behavior.
“If there’s a win-win method, though, do you want to hear it?” Since talking wasn’t getting through, Xu Qiduo switched tactics to persuade him.
Zhou Mengxing was silent for a moment before saying, “Let’s hear it.”
“Seriously, everything I told you earlier I meant from the bottom of my heart, I really don’t need you hanging around by my side. As for Wang Shuo over there, I’ll handle that too, it’s just a matter of time. During this period, just do whatever you want; there’s no need to revolve around me. If we need to put on a convincing act, we can just do that when we go back home.” Xu Qiduo was speaking out of earnest goodwill, stopping just short of declaring outright that he no longer liked Wang Shuo.
As soon as his voice trailed off, Zhou Mengxing immediately answered: “I refuse.”
Now it was Xu Qiduo’s turn to be left speechless: “What on earth did my brother bribe you with? Enough to make you sell yourself out like this?”
Looking straight ahead, Zhou Mengxing remained silent and simply kept pace right beside Xu Qiduo.
Fine, fine, fine!
Stubborn, truly stubborn. The personalities of the NPCs in this novel were one by one more stubborn than the last.