Tearing away the wrapping paper and opening the box, he found two smaller boxes inside one large and one small. Qi Zhi first took out one of them and opened it; it was a bank card with a password written on the back.
The password happened to be Lan An’s birthday in the novel.
Giving money directly?
Qi Zhi then opened the other, slightly larger box. To his surprise, inside was a little red booklet with several large characters printed on it: Real Estate Ownership Certificate.
This…
Not only Qi Zhi, but the other onlookers among the guests were also stunned. Who on earth gave gifts like this?
“Why… why are you giving me money and a house?” Qi Zhi asked, sobbing.
“Isn’t this exactly what you need most right now?” Lan An remained half-squatted, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly into a somewhat rogue-like smile. “A home to shelter you from the wind and rain, and enough money to support you until you finish your studies. At the same time, these are things that others cannot snatch away from you.”
He came just short of naming the Qi family and Liu Guifen’s gambler husband, Qi Dawei, directly.
Was the atmosphere a bit awkward?
Qi Zhi looked at him, asking in a tiny voice, “Why?”
Why give him these things? Why come to back him up? Why slap the faces of Qi Ran and the Qi family on his behalf?
Was it because Lan An saw him as pitiful and was bestowing charity?
No, that was impossible. Lan An had everything, but the one thing he lacked was a heart of pity.
Was it to modify the novel’s content?
But he had already promised to modify it according to Lan An’s wishes. Although he was the author, he had long lost the right to control the lives of the characters in the book.
The one who could control that world now was Lan An.
“There aren’t that many pure emotions in this world; relationships intertwined with mutual benefits are the ones that last long,” Lan An gave an irrelevant answer. He stood up and looked toward Father Qi: “Don’t you agree, Mr. Qi?”
These words seemed to be directed at Father Qi, but in reality, they were meant for Qi Zhi.
Unaware of the stakes involved, Father Qi’s old face flushed red with awkwardness, leaving him completely speechless.
“Young Master Lan must be joking.”
Just when Father Qi was so embarrassed that his toes were practically curling, Qi Ran actually stood forward, speaking out in a resonant voice: “Qi Ran is foolish and doesn’t understand whether relationships tied by benefits can last long. But I do know that relationships built on sincere devotion definitely will last, just like between me and my two mothers.”
He first looked toward Rong Li.
“A mother and son share a connected heart. Even though I didn’t live with Mom, the familial bond and blood relation in my bones cannot be erased, and she wouldn’t refuse to acknowledge me just because I’m not good enough.”
Then he looked toward Liu Guifen.
“She endured all kinds of hardships to raise me. Even though I’m not her biological child, she will forever be my mother. I will absolutely never disdain or distance myself from her because of her poverty. Rong Li is my mother, and Liu Guifen will also forever be my mother.”
“This point will never change!”
Finally, he looked back at Lan An, saying politely and apologetically, “Qi Ran is foolish and doesn’t know how to speak properly. If I have contradicted Young Master Lan’s meaning, I beg your immense forgiveness.”
Listen to that how deeply moving!
If Qi Zhi hadn’t known what kind of person Qi Ran truly was, he would have been moved to tears by him.
Look at that how cultured and reasonable!
Anyone who didn’t know the truth would think Lan An had done something terrible to him.
The onlookers, however, were entirely unaware. They were deeply shaken by Qi Ran’s words, and Liu Guifen even leaned on her daughter’s shoulder, weeping until she became a puddle of tears, murmuring constantly: “Ranran, Mom’s Ranran.”
It was a bit affected, but it seemed to fall within reason.
As the number-one sidekick, Zhang Dong immediately chimed in loudly: “Not everyone places so much importance on benefits. For Qi Zhi to be like this… he ought to think about whether there’s something wrong with himself.”
The meaning was clear: the reason Qi Zhi was abandoned by the Qi family and rejected by his biological mother wasn’t because of benefits, but because Qi Zhi himself had issues.
For example: disdaining the poor and loving the rich.
For example: being ungrateful.
Zhang Dong looked at Qi Zhi again, his tone carrying an interrogation: “The Qi family raised him for twenty years and treated him incredibly well. Even after knowing he wasn’t biological, there was still a place for him at the birthday banquet. Yet he suddenly went mad and ruined everyone’s hard work; who knows what his intentions are? It’s a good thing Ah Ran is magnanimous.”
After saying that, he even raised his eyebrows triumphantly at Qi Zhi, as if to say: Let’s see how you handle this.
“What is your status? Are you even worthy of speaking to this Young Master?” Lan An glanced at Zhang Dong, his face filled with disdain.
“…”
“…”
A stream of curse words nearly slipped out of Zhang Dong’s mouth, but fortunately, he held himself back.
Lan An wasn’t Qi Zhi; he wasn’t someone Zhang Dong could afford to provoke.
Qi Ran’s face also turned pale in an instant; these words demeaned him right along with Zhang Dong.
Lan An averted his eyes dismissively. His gaze swept over the crowd, finally resting on the face of Liu Guifen, who was still standing behind Qi Ran, weeping endlessly while holding her daughter. He uttered shockingly: “Qi Zhi, have you ever done a DNA test? Are you absolutely certain that’s your biological mother?”
“…”
“…”
The scene grew increasingly quiet.
Qi Zhi was also startled. “Why do you ask that?”
Lan An looked at Qi Zhi, then looked back at Liu Guifen. “You don’t look alike at all. With a face like hers, how could she possibly give birth to a face like yours?”
Qi Zhi was beautiful so beautiful that his features almost blurred the line between male and female.
Although Liu Guifen had proper and delicate facial features, she could at most be considered average-looking. How could she give birth to a child like Qi Zhi?
Did he take after his father?
Qi Dawei was a gambler and a thug. If he had possessed even half of Qi Zhi’s appearance in his youth, he wouldn’t have degraded into his current pathetic state; wouldn’t it have been better to just find a rich woman to live off of?
As Lan An put it this way, the crowd also began to compare them one after another, surprisingly discovering that they really didn’t look alike.
“Young Master Lan must be joking, how could there be a mistake about this?”
Father Qi stood forward at this moment, but he didn’t have much confidence in his heart either. Back then, they had only done a DNA test for Qi Ran and themselves, but hadn’t done one for Qi Zhi and Liu Guifen.
Because it was no longer important.
“Perhaps it’s because we didn’t live together.”
At this moment, Qi Zhi was in no mood to care about why he didn’t look like Liu Guifen. Supporting himself against the chair, he stood up, knelt down toward Father Qi and Rong Li, and respectfully kowtowed three times.
“Qi Zhi kneels to thank the Qi family for twenty years of nurture. In a moment, I will return every single thing the Qi family gave me. From this day onward, I am no longer a member of the Qi family, nor will I ever want anything from the Qi family again.”
He looked at Rong Li, “Mom, this is the last time Xiao Zhi will call you Mom. The grace of upbringing can never be repaid. If there comes a day when you need Xiao Zhi to repay you, even if it means climbing a mountain of swords or plunging into a sea of flames, Xiao Zhi will definitely not hesitate.”
Standing up, Qi Zhi then looked at Qi Ran: “From now on, please let me go as well. I will never take away anything of yours again, including Qi Zhennan.”
Finally, he looked at Lan An, almost pleadingly: “Take me away, can you?”
“Of course,” Lan An decisively swept him up into a princess carry, placed him into the passenger seat of the sports car, and sped away under everyone’s watchful eyes.
“…”
“…”
“Xiao Zhi?”
Only after the sports car had driven far into the distance did Rong Li finally react. In an instant, her heart felt completely empty.
Had she been too harsh on Xiao Zhi?
Ranran was her biological child, but Xiao Zhi was also the child she had raised for twenty years! She could still remember the scene of Xiao Zhi calling her “Mom” for the very first time, taking short steps with his little legs as he threw himself into her arms.
“Xiao Zhi, Xiao Zhi?” Disregarding her poise, Rong Li chased out the door, but the sports car was already long gone.
“Was I wrong?” Turning back, she looked at her husband helplessly, “Did we do something wrong?”
…
The sports car drove out of the villa district and pulled over under a tree by the roadside. Lan An asked Qi Zhi: “Going back to the dorm? Or going to check out the new apartment?”
The new apartment was the house Lan An had gifted Qi Zhi, located in a high-end residential neighborhood. Both the surrounding facilities, the neighborhood environment, and the property management security were excellent.
At this moment, how could Qi Zhi be in the mood to look at any house? “Back to the dorm, to pack my things.”
True to his word, he would return everything belonging to the Qi family, giving no one another opportunity to make things difficult for him.
“Not bad!”
Lan An liked this kind of principled Qi Zhi. He sent a message to Bian Jiong and restarted the car.
Dorm 502 was completely empty; even the remaining occupant, Zhuang Yuexiang, wasn’t there.
Bian Jiong and Lu Yuan hadn’t arrived yet, Qi Zhi’s foot was inconvenient, and it was impossible for the grand Young Master Lan to personally roll up his sleeves, so he went to knock on the doors of the dorms on the same floor. In the end, he hired three fellow students as temporary workers at a high price of three hundred yuan per hour to help out.
Qi Zhi had quite a lot of things. Apart from his textbooks, everything else had to be packed and boxed up.
He had truly become empty-handed.
“Regret it?”
Qi Zhi was currently downloading his assignments from his computer. Hearing Lan An’s voice by his ear, he replied without even lifting his head: “There’s nothing to regret. These things never belonged to me in the first place; I ought to return them.”
As for the future?
Once his ankle injury healed, he would go find a part-time job. Combined with his novel royalties, though he couldn’t earn big money, he could always cover his living expenses and tuition.
He didn’t want to touch the card Lan An gave him for the time being, just in case of emergencies.
The three temporary student workers were remarkably efficient and quickly packed the things. Qi Zhi also finished downloading his assignments and important documents, restored the computer to its factory settings, and placed it into a packed cardboard box together.
Because they all knew each other on the same floor, one of them couldn’t help but ask Qi Zhi, “Are you moving out to live? Do you need us to help carry these downstairs?”
Otherwise, he wouldn’t feel at peace taking three hundred yuan an hour.
Qi Zhi shook his head: “I’m not moving out, I’m just returning these things to the Qi family.”
The three students blanked out, looking at Qi Zhi in unison.
They had all heard about the incident, but they hadn’t expected it to be this severe.
Apart from his books, Qi Zhi had even packed up his computer, ornaments, clothes, and bedsheets. Did all of these have to be returned? Then how was he going to live in the future?
“And this,” Qi Zhi took off the watch on his wrist, and tugged at the formal dress shirt he was wearing, “Once I go buy a set of clothes to wear, I’ll return this outfit along with the rest.”
The three temporary student workers: “…”
Wasn’t this a bit too extreme?
Was he trying to completely sever all ties?
At this moment, Bian Jiong arrived, dragging two massive suitcases. Entering the room, he pushed them over to Qi Zhi: “Young Master had me prepare these. One is for daily necessities, and the other is for clothes. You can use them for now.”
“…”
Qi Zhi looked at the suitcases, then looked back at Lan An: “When… when did you prepare these?”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Lan An leaned back against the chair, crossing his legs with his chin tilted up slightly. “I just want to tell you not to be afraid. Even without the Qi family, you can live just as well.”
Qi Zhi stared at him silently, puckering his lips. A few seconds later, he burst out crying with a loud wang.
The three temporary student workers: “…”
Why did he start crying all of a sudden?
Bian Jiong: “…”
The tool-man hurriedly settled the wages for the three temporary workers and escorted them out of the dorm.
Lan An had already grown accustomed to Qi Zhi bursting into loud wails at the slightest provocation. Standing up, he fished a box of Skittles (the green packaging, the sour variety) from his pocket, poured out a few candies, and gave them a gentle toss, landing them precisely into Qi Zhi’s wide-open mouth. Following that, he quickly pressed Qi Zhi’s chin to shut his mouth.
The crying stopped abruptly.
“Wu-mgh~~” As the candy coating melted in his mouth, Qi Zhi was instantly turned into a walking meme by the sourness, shuddering violently.
“Hahahahaha!” Lan An burst into hearty laughter, thoroughly amused.
“…”
Too much, this was way too much!
How could Lan An be this wicked?
With tears still hanging from his eyes, Qi Zhi pounded him with several punches, and the shred of gratitude that had just surfaced vanished completely into thin air.
…