On his way back, Bai Huan received calls from several teachers. Each of them had arranged a new class schedule to accommodate his timetable.
"I can't attend classes anymore." Bai Huan assumed Cheng Yueqing had renewed his lessons. Although he was touched, he still declined politely. "I don't have a driver now. Traveling would take too much time."
"Young Master Bai said the lessons could be conducted over video."
"Bai Mingzhen? Mom wasn't the one who renewed my lessons?"
"No," the teacher replied. "There are still several stages of your courses that we haven't covered. It's just that about half a month ago, Mrs. Cheng transferred all your lessons to a student named Bai Chen and arranged additional lessons for him to catch up on the earlier material. Afterward, Young Master Bai personally contacted us and asked us to continue teaching you from where we'd previously left off."
When Bai Huan heard Bai Chen's name, his brows knitted together.
The thought of Cheng Yueqing transferring his lessons directly to Bai Chen ignited a blaze of jealousy.
"Please don't schedule my lessons on the same day as his."
The teacher didn't know what changes had recently occurred in the Bai family, but didn't pry. After agreeing to his request, the teacher heard Bai Huan continue.
"Also, don't assign any teachers who've taught him to my schedule. If you can't find better teachers, that's your problem to solve."
"...All right."
By the time he hung up, Bai Huan's good mood had completely vanished.
Sitting in the back row of the bus, his expression icy, he hurled the Oppo phone he'd bought only a month earlier all the way to the front.
It shattered into pieces, startling every passenger on the bus.
Before returning home, Bai Huan bought another phone of exactly the same model.
Then, as though nothing had happened, he stopped by the juice shop and asked Qin Xian for a bagel.
"How much have you made today?" he asked.
"A little over three hundred and seventy yuan," Tang Jiuyue answered from behind the cash register. "And more than a hundred yuan of that came from what you paid this morning."
"Your prices are too low," Bai Huan said.
Tang Jiuyue replied, "If we set the prices too high, nothing will sell here. It's better to make a small profit on each sale and sell more."
Bai Huan nodded vaguely.
He was already thoroughly bored with the subject.
He was always like this. After displaying an intense interest in something, he would quickly cast it aside, sometimes forgetting about it entirely.
Yet this habit made other people mistakenly believe they hadn't performed well enough, which only made them more eager to please him.
At three in the afternoon, Bai Huan said goodbye to the juice shop and returned to Taohua Lane.
However, he stopped when he reached the fourth floor.
He walked toward the now-familiar door, intending to knock, only to discover that it swung open with the slightest push.
That idiot hadn't locked his door!
"He Youxiang?"
The setting sun scattered across the He family's floor like golden flower petals.
As the sunlight shifted its angle, the floor seemed to flow like honey.
The He father and son occupied two adjoining apartments. They were spacious and bright, with hardly any furniture or clutter. Someone could have walked around inside with their eyes closed without difficulty.
"Taimi~"
A weak voice called from the inner room.
Following the sound, Bai Huan found He Youxiang lying on the floor.
His entire face was flushed, appearing a dark reddish-purple in the shadowy corner of the afternoon room.
He was clutching a thermometer.
Bai Huan switched on the light and saw that the mercury had climbed to nearly forty degrees.
"You're going to burn to death," Bai Huan said, squatting beside him. "I'll call He Chu and tell him to come home and take you to the hospital."
The moment He Youxiang heard that Bai Huan intended to call He Chu home, he suddenly found a burst of strength.
He twisted around and wrapped his arms around the boy's calf.
"He makes twenty yuan an hour! Don't call him back!"
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
"Aren't we friends? You take me."
Bai Huan began to suspect that He Youxiang wasn't actually an idiot at all.
He went downstairs again and hailed a taxi outside the lane.
He gave the driver a hundred yuan and asked him to help carry the patient into the car before driving them to the hospital.
With money to be made, the driver naturally worked enthusiastically.
In less than an hour, Bai Huan had gotten He Youxiang hooked up to an IV drip.
Even someone as immature as Bai Huan understood that a human life was at stake.
"Remember to transfer me the medical expenses," Bai Huan reminded He Youxiang in the infusion room.
"I don't have money. Ask Little Chu."
"Idiot. Freeloader."
The two leaned back in their chairs and gradually grew drowsy.
Later, someone suddenly woke them with a shout.
"The drip's empty! Blood's flowing back into the tube!"
He Youxiang was terrified.
"I'm going to die! It's all your fault!"
"You're the adult, and I'm the child. You're lucky I even got you hooked up to an IV."
Bai Huan pressed the call button.
A nurse hurried over, changed the IV bag, and hurried away again.
Ever since childhood, Bai Huan had been surrounded by family doctors who attended to his every need. He'd rarely had to come to a hospital and receive the same assembly-line treatment as everyone else.
The corridor outside led to the emergency department, which was chaotic and noisy.
After sleeping for a while, Bai Huan felt somewhat refreshed.
He told He Youxiang to sit obediently and not wander around.
Then he went wandering around himself.
An elderly man suffering a heart attack had just been rushed into the emergency department.
Several of his children and grandchildren had paid the fees while crying, then gathered outside the resuscitation room to talk and argue.
Bai Huan wandered over from the infusion room and stood at the far end of the corridor.
Under the glaring white fluorescent lights, he recognized the group.
Every one of them had eaten at the same table as him not long ago.
"Then what do you expect us to do?" Chen Yangyang roared in a lowered voice. "Who knew Dad would argue with us over such a trivial matter? Besides, who hasn't benefited from Third Brother? Hasn't he?"
"And you still have the nerve to talk!" Chen Lingling scolded, her thick black eyebrows shooting upward.
Then she glared at her daughter, Chen Jinxiao.
"Always running to your uncle to ask for money whenever you feel like it! You little beggar!"
Chen Jinxiao felt both wronged and humiliated.
Covering her face, she sat on a nearby bench and cried.
Just then, Chen Lingling spotted Bai Huan.
At first, her face displayed the delight that an elder would ordinarily show upon unexpectedly encountering a younger relative.
But then, for some unknown reason, her raised eyebrows drooped.
Immediately afterward, her entire face collapsed like an old rag that had been used for far too long.
She marched toward the boy with powerful strides, huffing and puffing, her footsteps clacking against the floor.
Bai Huan's visit to the Chen family's old residence had sparked an argument unlike anything the household had seen in years.
Chen Shouxin had taken out a bamboo strip and whipped Chen Jinxiao until she cried out for her father and mother.
Meanwhile, Chen Lingling, Chen Yangyang, and Chen Yaoyao, who had taken far more money from Chen Yuanyuan than she ever had, stood silently to the side.
So Chen Jinxiao began pouring out their dirty secrets like someone emptying a bucket of swill.
"Grandpa, do you think Second Uncle earned the money for that big Mercedes he drove eighteen years ago all by himself?"
"And Mom hasn't just made three investments! She's made at least ten! She lost seven or eight hundred thousand yuan without letting you know, all right?!"
"And Youngest Aunt was still asking Youngest Uncle for Chen Jinbao's private school tuition last month! Two hundred thousand yuan a year—"
Chen Shouxin's hand trembled upon hearing this, and the bamboo strip struck Chen Jinxiao across the face.
Half her face immediately swelled up.
She sobbed.
"The Chen family's good days are almost over! Just you wait and see!"
Chen Shouxin and Zeng Wenjuan had been kept in the dark for years.
Only now did they discover that, beyond the mutual support they'd personally approved, the three siblings had joined forces and practically gnawed Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi down to the bone.
Bai Huan knew nothing about what had happened.
He was simply subjected to a furious tirade from Chen Lingling, who pointed directly at his nose.
"A wildcat paying New Year's respects to a chicken! Nothing good can come of it! You outsider! Who knows what crooked schemes you're cooking up in that head of yours? You're trying to eat my parents alive!"
Chen Yangyang approached in complete confusion.
He had no idea what kind of performance his eldest sister was putting on.
"Why are you at the hospital?" he asked.
Bai Huan glanced at Chen Lingling.
"My neighbor had a fever, and nobody was taking care of him, so I brought him here for an IV."
Then he turned to Chen Lingling.
"Eldest Aunt, why are you scolding me?"
Chen Jinxiao truly was Chen Lingling's daughter.
She came over and explained, "Because you went to Grandpa this morning and tattled on us, making him so angry that he collapsed."
"Why would I tattle?" Bai Huan asked blankly. "I saw Older Cousin do that, so I did the same thing. Why are you calling it tattling? Does Older Cousin think what she did was wrong?"
"You..."
Chen Yangyang finally caught on and pulled his niece aside.
"We're all family. There's no need to make such distinctions. Everyone calm down. Taimi, call your father and tell him to come pay the medical bills."
Bai Huan suddenly understood.
So that was why these people were waiting here for him.
"If you want to call him, do it yourselves."
Bai Huan curled his lip, looking somewhat arrogant.
It wasn't because he wanted to protect Chen Yuanyuan.
He simply didn't want to shoulder the blame, and even more than that, he despised being ordered around by others.
Nobody in this world could order Young Master Taimi around.
Chen Shouxin had suffered a particularly severe episode this time and might even need a ventilator.
Those things were charged by the day, and the expense would be difficult for anyone to bear.
Chen Yangyang grew anxious.
He pulled out his phone.
"Hmph. If you won't call, I will."
Standing at the center of the chaos, Bai Huan remained perfectly composed.
His own will came before everything else.
He snatched Chen Yangyang's phone away and smiled faintly.
"I'll talk to Dad."
Chen Yangyang straightened his collar and smiled with the confidence of someone certain of victory.
There were more Chen family members present than just the three of them. Another three or four had come as well.
They all gathered around Bai Huan, watching him intently as though preparing for battle.
The phone rang several times before someone answered.
For the first time, Chen Yuanyuan's voice sounded utterly exhausted to the boy.
"Second Brother, what is it this time?"
Bai Huan looked around at everyone.
He took a deep breath.
Then he said, without stopping for breath:
"Dad I went to visit Grandpa this morning and Grandpa found out that Second Older Cousin exchanged mint water for two thousand yuan from you so he gave me two thousand yuan too and when Second Older Cousin found out she went to argue with Grandpa and Grandpa whipped her until she spilled the secret that Eldest Aunt and the others have been asking you for lots of money all these years and then Grandpa got so angry that his old illness flared up again and now he's in the hospital wow so it turns out Grandpa never even knew they were always asking you for money and now they want you to pay so they can take advantage of you again."
Before anyone could react, Bai Huan hung up.
He tossed the phone into Chen Yangyang's pocket and fled like a streak of smoke.
When Chen Lingling finally recovered her senses, she was so furious that her teeth chattered and her entire body trembled.
When Chen Yaoyao recovered her senses, she was so ashamed that she looked dazed and completely at a loss.
When Chen Yangyang recovered his senses, he flew into a rage, jumping up and down and stamping his feet.
"That little bastard! That damned brat!"
He frantically called Chen Yuanyuan, only to hear a recorded message informing him that the other party was already on a call.
In the infusion room, He Youxiang was wandering around holding up his IV bag.
When he spotted Bai Huan, he hurried over.
"Your dad's calling! Hurry up and answer!"
Still panting, Bai Huan answered the phone.
He assumed Chen Yuanyuan would certainly explode at him.
Unexpectedly, the first thing the man asked was, "Did they bully you?"
"...No. I bullied them," Bai Huan answered.
"Don't go arguing with them anymore. I'll come to the hospital in a little while. What are you doing there? Are you feeling unwell?"
"He Youxiang has a fever. I came with him."
"...You should call him Uncle He."
Bai Huan pulled He Youxiang down into a chair.
"Are you coming to the hospital later to pay the bills?"
Chen Yuanyuan fell silent for a moment.
"The others can't afford it."
Bai Huan asked, "Dad, where does your money come from?"
Of all the conversations the boy had had with his father, this question produced the longest silence yet.
Bai Huan didn't realize just how piercing his question was.
It was like fingernails scraping across a blackboard or a steel bar scraping against a porcelain basin.
Yet this was also the occasion on which he'd shown Chen Yuanyuan the greatest consideration.
He was simply looking at things from a different perspective.
"I don't have a choice."
Chen Yuanyuan sounded deeply embarrassed as he spoke.
Bai Huan was confused.
He calmly thought the matter over but couldn't make sense of it.
However, his consideration ended there.
He lowered his voice.
"Grandpa's medical expenses should be shared by the entire family. Dad, you only need to pay your portion. Let them figure out how to pay theirs. Aside from their houses and cars, I imagine they have plenty of things they can sell."
Without waiting for Chen Yuanyuan to answer, Bai Huan continued.
"Dad, if you give them money, I'll find a way to move in with my eldest brother, and I won't come back to Lanshuitang."
That finally defeated Chen Yuanyuan.
He agreed to do as Bai Huan said.
Bai Huan hung up, put away his phone, and lazily leaned back in the spacious chair.
The vindictive streak that had been with him since birth, growing stronger as he grew older, would never allow him to easily forgive anyone who insulted him or ordered him around.
Chen Shouxin remained hospitalized for nearly half a month, including six days in the intensive care unit.
The total medical expenses exceeded two hundred thousand yuan.
Even after insurance reimbursement, the out-of-pocket bill came to nearly eighty thousand yuan.
Divided among his four children, each person needed to contribute almost twenty thousand yuan.
But Chen Yuanyuan was the only one who paid promptly.
The other three dragged their feet, complaining endlessly about their hardships.
They repeatedly called Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi, insisting that their families were struggling and they simply didn't have that much money.
Chen Yuanyuan deeply sympathized with his eldest sister, older brother, and younger sister.
He understood their difficulties perfectly.
But he didn't give them any money.
Bai Huan had achieved his revenge.
As a bonus, he'd also gotten to watch an extremely entertaining spectacle that delighted him immensely.
Within a couple of days, Chen Jinxiao even returned the two thousand yuan.
As for whether this incident would change Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi's opinion of him, Bai Huan didn't care.
He had never lacked confidence.
He was confident that other people would love every side of him.
On Sunday, He Chu had the day off.
He came upstairs and knocked on the door, saying he wanted to treat Bai Huan to a meal to thank him for taking his father to the hospital.
"Is He Youxiang coming?"
"That idiot's too much trouble. We're not taking him."
"Let's go."
Bai Huan and He Chu walked down the stairs, one in front of the other.
Although He Chu was a year or two younger than Bai Huan, he was slightly taller.
Whereas Bai Huan possessed an arrogance that bordered on nobility, He Chu was the gloomy, dangerous type.
Walking together, the two were deathly silent.
Neither spoke.
They weren't familiar with each other, and neither was particularly talkative.
After leaving Taohua Lane, Bai Huan asked He Chu to wait a moment.
He took a detour into the juice shop and said to Qin Xian, who was busy working in the back, "It's Sunday today. If Bai Mingzhen comes, call me."
Qin Xian froze.
"Young Master, you're not staying home? Where are you going?"
"I'm going out to eat with He Chu from our building."
Qin Xian nodded.
"Don't come back too late."
Bai Huan nodded and left.
The moment he was gone, Qin Xian wiped his hands, picked up his phone, and reported to Bai Mingzhen.
"The young master has gone out to enjoy himself with a friend."
"Mr. He?"
Bai Mingzhen only knew of one person named He: He Youxiang.
Mr. He? He Chu?
Young Master Bai was certainly polite.
Qin Xian answered yes.
"Where did he get the money?" Bai Mingzhen asked.
Qin Xian gave an awkward laugh and said he didn't know.
"I have other things to do. You don't need to call me when he gets home. Just let Bell know."
With that, Bai Mingzhen hung up.
No sooner had he ended the call than another video call came in from Mei Sifan, one of his partners who was currently in America.
The moment Bai Mingzhen saw the nightclub in the background, he decisively declined the video call.
There were currently three partners in Bai Mingzhen's law firm, including himself.
By now, the firm handled virtually no cases with legal fees below a million US dollars.
The year before last, last year, and even throughout the first half of this year, Bai Mingzhen and Mei Sifan had led their team abroad to work on an antitrust case.
A week ago, the lawsuit had finally concluded.
The application for eighty-one million US dollars in legal fees submitted by Bai Mingzhen's BMT Law Firm had been approved outright.
For the foreseeable future, Bai Mingzhen himself wouldn't be taking on any more cases.
Everyone at the firm knew that something had happened in the Bai family.
Apparently, a child was preparing for the college entrance examination?
"One year at most," Mei Sifan said over the phone from abroad. "Twenty-eight is the prime age to be building your career."
Bai Mingzhen hung up on him.
He signed several documents, drank some coffee, and once again remembered the question that hadn't been answered.
Where was Taimi getting his money?
He couldn't be foolish enough to assume that the boy would take a part-time job to earn money.
But that didn't mean the boy wouldn't be foolish enough to do exactly that.
Perhaps Mei Sifan's frivolous video call had briefly influenced Bai Mingzhen's imagination.
A scene appeared in his mind of Taimi twisting and writhing like an enchanting little enchantress in a nightclub to earn money.
Admittedly, male hosts didn't appeal to as broad an audience as beautiful women, but they certainly had their admirers.
Bai Mingzhen knew perfectly well how popular boys like his younger brother could be: beautiful, mischievous, straightforward, sincere, and not without a fondness for good food and idleness.
At the same time, his extensive exposure to all kinds of literary and artistic works had made him thoroughly familiar with the many paths by which an innocent young man could fall into depravity.
A plot resembling An American Tragedy suddenly seemed entirely possible for his younger brother.
Meanwhile, in Lanshuitang, Bai Huan and He Chu had already taken seats opposite each other at an open-air food stall.
He Chu picked up the menu, wiped it down with a tissue, and handed it to Bai Huan.
While Bai Huan was looking through the menu, his phone rang.
He picked it up and checked the screen.
It was a money transfer from Bai Mingzhen.
-20,000.00