Youth: You’re my Redemption
Chapter 13: From now on, you are both heaven and hell (1)
After the turmoil on New Year’s Eve, Qin Fujun’s protests failed to stop Qin Liang’s decision from being implemented. The executives at the head office received the notice and began making personnel arrangements for Bai Song’s appointment as general manager. Once the New Year’s holiday ended, Bai Song would assume the position.
Qin Fujun and Song Chengjun each managed a subsidiary company, and once Bai Song assumed office, she would be their reporting superior.
After fighting for so many years, Qin Fujun naturally couldn’t accept it. But in the Qin family’s business empire, Qin Liang had always had the final say. With the patriarch making the decision, Qin Fujun had no choice but to swallow her discontent.
Another matter concerned Qin Lou and Song Shu.
Qin Liang’s initial plan was for Qin Lou and Song Shu to go through a simple engagement process after graduating from high school, and then in August, they would go to the U.S. together to take the SAT.
However, this plan hit a snag with Bai Song.
Bai Song had previously only heard rumors about Qin Lou’s “madness” and hadn’t believed much of it. But after witnessing it firsthand on New Year’s Eve, she seemed to have developed some unease about the relationship between Song Shu and Qin Lou.
On the night of New Year’s Eve, she called Song Shu out for a private talk.
“Shu Shu, tell mom the truth. Are you really willing to be with Qin Lou?”
Song Shu nodded.
“He hasn’t bullied you?”
Song Shu was slightly startled, then smiled softly. “He just looks very fierce.”
Thinking about Qin Lou’s behavior that night, Bai Song clearly disagreed with Song Shu’s words. But after a few seconds of eye contact with her daughter, Bai Song helplessly smiled. “You really like him.”
It wasn’t a question; it was a statement.
In this world, besides Qin Lou, the person who understands Song Shu the best must be Bai Song now.
Song Shu didn’t deny it either. She gently lowered her eyes and smiled, “Just like I said on the phone before, because of him, I became who I am today.”
Bai Song felt a mixture of concern and relief. “Okay. Mom respects your choice.”
The engagement and study abroad plans were thus verbally agreed upon.
Under these public and private factors, Bai Song and the two children spent the year at the main Qin family residence.
Then, slowly, rumors began to circulate among the servants.
Song Shu heard about it for the first time on the second day of the Lunar New Year, during the daytime.
That morning, the elders were conversing with guests in the main hall on the first floor, and Song Ruyu and Song Shuai were being paraded around as “lucky charms.”
Given their status, Qin Lou and the others hid away, naturally not allowing him to come downstairs. Song Shu wasn’t the type to excel in such situations, so the two stayed upstairs in the empty house.
Qin Lou really wanted to move his little clam shell to his third floor, but Song Shu refused without leaving any room for negotiation: “You said I wasn’t allowed on the third floor.”
“I didn’t say that.” The little master lied without batting an eye.
Song Shu glanced at him slowly, put down the brush in his hand, and curved her waist, mocking the way that person had spoken in the beginning: “I don’t allow you to come up to the pool, it’ll block your legs off.”
She picked up the paintbrush again, lowered her head and continued to paint, “Isn’t this what you said?”
Qin Lou: “.”
Qin Lou has become much more unrestrained since New Year’s Eve, and now he dares to get closer to talk to the girl. He leaned over to her ear and hummed as if he had a toothache, “Isn’t it because I am young and ignorant? Forget what I said.”
“Then I ‘ll take back what I said before, is that okay?”
“No.” Song Shu was too lazy to talk to him any more.
Qin Lou’s patience wore thin, squinting threateningly, “Little clam shell, I’ll give you one last chance. If you don’t leave, I’ll carry you up to the third floor with your shell intact.”
“…”
Song Shu remained silent, calmly lifting her head to glance at him.
Qin Lou backed down, “Fine, if you don’t want to go up, then don’t.”
The two reached a consensus and went to the second floor’s resting platform leading to the third floor. Since that incident years ago, the platform’s tables no longer held vases, leaving it bare for the two.
Song Shu spread out her sketchbook on the table to draw, while Qin Lou sat at the corner, legs folded, watching her draw while occasionally playing with his Rubik’s Cube.
Each time he solved it, he placed the cube in front of her, and she scrambled it again. They spent the quiet morning peacefully engaged in their “game.”
The more you walk on dark roads, the more likely you are to encounter ghosts; the more you gossip behind someone’s back, the more likely you are to run into that person. Near noon, when the two servants at home talked again about the recent gossip circulating privately in the house, their voices happened to drift up to the platform from the second-floor corridor.
When the conversation of two servants downstairs drifted up to the platform from the second-floor corridor near noon, they could hear:
“After all these years, I never realized it. I thought Miss Bai was straightforward, but turns out she’s the most cunning.”
“Isn’t it true? To gain control of the company, she could even ‘sell’ her daughter.”
“I don’t quite understand that part. Doesn’t she only have a ten percent share in the Bai family from when the older generation started the business together? Even if she gains temporary control now, what good would it do?”
“Are you daft? They said she sold her daughter. Could it just be about control? Young Master Qin Lou is the sole heir of the Qin family now. Most of the shares will be his in the future. If he marries Song Shu, won’t the influence over these shares ultimately lie with Bai Song?”
“Did Mr. Qin really just hand it over to her like that?”
“What else could he do? Young Master Qin Lou won’t bother with the company in the future. Mr. Qin is paving the way for his grandson. That’s why they prioritize personal matters first and business second—only this way can he trust Bai Song with the company!”
“I see… That explains why Qin Fujun was so against the engagement and studying abroad for those two…”
“I even suspect that Bai Song brought Song Shu to the Qin family with this purpose in mind. This scheme has been set up a long time ago.”
“Could it be true?”
“Why not? Why else would parents marry their daughter to Young Master Qin Lou? It’s like sending a sheep into a tiger’s den—”
The conversation abruptly stopped.
The servants froze at the staircase, their eyes fixed ahead. Qin Lou descended the wooden steps slowly and calmly.
He held a Rubik’s Cube in his hand, his face adorned with a brilliant smile.
“Yo—young Master Qin Lou!”
The two servants turned pale instantly.
“Please continue, don’t stop. I was just getting interested,” Qin Lou said, pausing a few steps away from the second floor, leaning casually against the wall beside the staircase. “You were saying something about ‘little clam shell’ marrying me being like a sheep into what?”
“We—we—we didn’t say—”
Qin Lou’s smile faded slightly.
“So you’re saying I imagined it?”
“…”
The servants were even more terrified, unable to explain themselves properly.
“Qin Lou, enough playing around.”
Another voice came from the resting platform, calm and devoid of any emotional fluctuations.
Qin Lou turned around.
Song Shu continued to lie on the table, engrossed in her painting. Throughout the conversation, it seemed like the words of those two servants had no effect on her whatsoever.
Qin Lou clicked his tongue lightly, then smirked with a hint of malice. “Little clam shell, they said I fell for your beauty scheme.”
Song Shu pondered for a moment. “The beauty scheme refers to Fu Chai and Xi Shi[1]; one ended up committing suicide, and the other was drowned in the river. It’s not a good analogy.”
“Was it that tragic?”
In all subjects requiring memorization, someone who had always been useless, laid back with hands under his head, sighed nonchalantly, “But when it comes to beauty schemes, they both ended up as they deserved.”
He circled around twice and then suddenly stopped, frowning as he asked, “So who died first?”
“The King of Wu, Fu Chai.”
Qin Lou’s brows relaxed, “That’s more like it.”
“…?”
The girl, who hadn’t reacted much, stopped her drawing and turned to look at him, her dark eyes filled with confusion.
Even Song Shu, this time, clearly didn’t understand the logic behind Qin Lou’s words.
Qin Lou didn’t explain, just sat on the stair railing, laughing unrestrainedly.
“You must die after me, Little Clam.”
Although she didn’t understand, after a two-second silence, Song Shu slowly nodded.
“Okay.”
“…”
Qin Lou’s smile faded, and he lowered his eyes.
Otherwise, in a world without you, I don’t know how I would live alone, how desperate and sad I would be.
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[1] Fu Chai was the King of the state of Wu (one of the warring states in ancient China). Xi Shi was one of the Four Beauties. She was sent to Fu Chai to distract him, resulting in the defeat of the state of Wu