And so, the older brother kicked his younger brother out of the kitchen.
Bai Mingzhen had to go to the law firm that afternoon. First, he needed to take Bai Huan and his food back to his school in Lanshuitang.
Bai Huan got into the car and settled into the front passenger seat. It was only after they set off that he realized something was wrong.
He looked around and asked, "Where's your previous driver?"
"Mom called him back. He resigned last week and returned to his hometown."
Bai Mingzhen put on his glasses and lowered the temperature inside the car first. His expression betrayed neither happiness nor anger.
"He worked for you for so many years. Why was Mom meddling in his affairs?"
"His employment contract was in her hands. There was nothing anyone else could do. After she called him back, he refused to continue working. Even when I offered him triple his salary, he insisted on leaving."
As Bai Mingzhen spoke, he slowly drove the car out of the garage.
"I asked him repeatedly before he finally told me the truth. Mom wanted him to report my whereabouts to her and Dad every day. She also wanted him to secretly photograph documents from my law firm. He couldn't bring himself to do it, and he felt he'd let me down. No matter what I said, he refused to stay. I transferred two million yuan to him from my personal account. At least he was doing fairly well when he left."
"Two million?"
The moment Bai Huan heard that figure, almost all his sympathy vanished.
"Why don't you give me two million?"
Bai Mingzhen glanced at him, a hint of sternness in his eyes.
Bai Huan immediately realized he had said the wrong thing and hurriedly turned to look out the window.
They drove for a while before Bai Mingzhen finally spoke in a deep voice.
"Don't let me see you picking up any more of those bad habits from Mom."
Bai Huan had long legs. He thrust both of them forward, producing a loud thud against the front of the car, yet he still couldn't straighten them completely.
Deep down, he knew his brother was right.
A person ought to have feelings and loyalty. He couldn't learn from Mom, who couldn't retain new employees or keep old ones for long. That sort of behavior would eventually lead to serious trouble.
But he still had to kick and make a fuss to express one thing: You need to speak to me nicely. You can't be so fierce with me, okay?
Bai Mingzhen kept his left hand on the steering wheel and used his right to rub the boy's fluffy head.
By the time Bai Huan returned to school, the opening ceremony still hadn't ended.
A school administrator was speaking onstage, currently discussing fire safety.
Bai Huan found his class's designated area and quietly took his place at the very back.
The boy standing in front of him seemed to sense someone approaching from behind. Thinking it was a teacher, he turned around.
Their eyes met.
Both froze.
"It's you!" they exclaimed in unison.
The person standing in front of Bai Huan was none other than the fellow he'd met on registration day, the one repeating his final year for the fifth time.
The two were just about to introduce themselves when a sturdy old man in a polo shirt hurried over.
Waving a palm-leaf fan, he stopped in front of Bai Huan and looked him up and down.
"Are you Bai Huan?"
Bai Huan nodded.
"I'm your homeroom teacher. You can call me Teacher Mao. Now, hurry over to that building. See it? The one painted green."
Mao Pijing placed a hand on Bai Huan's shoulder and was already steering him out of the line as he continued speaking.
"When we took attendance this morning, you were the only one missing from our class. I checked the surveillance footage and saw that you'd left on your own, so I figured nothing serious had happened. But your mother was terrified. If you hadn't come back soon, she would've called the police. Hurry to Room 302 in that building and let her see you. She's been looking for you all noon, and she hasn't eaten a thing..."
Before Mao Pijing could finish speaking, Bai Huan had already taken off running toward the green-painted office building with his schoolbag on his back.
I'm sorry, Mom.
He had completely forgotten about her.
Wang Caiyi sat in the office with reddened eyes, marking summer homework that a colleague had asked her to help grade.
"Oh, Teacher Wang, you've been crying all morning. We've told you there's nothing to worry about! Here, have some Hami melon. It'll make you feel better."
"My little girl loves running around on her own too. She's terribly mischievous."
"A child raised in a wealthy family isn't going to accept a change in circumstances so easily. He's probably gone looking for that rich mother of his again."
Knock, knock.
"I'll get the door. Wait until I come back before you carry on chatting!"
A female teacher opened the door.
Standing outside was a breathless boy with bright eyes and white teeth. His good looks were rare among students.
Since when did No. 1 High School have someone like him?
"I'm looking for my mom," Bai Huan said, swallowing. "My mom is Wang Caiyi. Teacher Wang."
From inside the office came the sound of a pen dropping to the floor.
Bai Huan still didn't know exactly where Wang Caiyi's desk was. It was only when she stood up and ran toward him that he spotted her.
He wanted to apologize, but Wang Caiyi had already rushed over and wrapped her arms around him.
"Where did you run off to? Were you trying to scare your mother to death?"
Wang Caiyi spoke through heartbroken sobs.
She released Bai Huan and began fussing with her hair and her tear-streaked face, looking almost like a madwoman.
The education Bai Huan had received growing up in a wealthy family made him frown instinctively.
His personal feelings immediately overrode any affection arising from their blood relationship.
Almost at once, he mentally withdrew from the situation and began examining Wang Caiyi's loss of composure as though he were an outsider looking on.
How embarrassing.
Wang Caiyi hadn't noticed the sudden distance in his eyes.
Wiping away her tears, she said, "I thought Miss Cheng had taken you away. Miss Cheng likes you so much, and her family is so wealthy. She wants to raise you. All of them want to raise you. Mom was so frightened."
Bai Huan was desperate to leave.
He didn't listen carefully to what she was saying.
He should have listened more closely.
Perhaps then he would have discovered something new.
Just then, after several teachers in the office whispered among themselves for a while, a short-haired female teacher spoke up.
"Teacher Wang, isn't that enough? You're exaggerating a bit, aren't you? It's not like you raised the boy yourself. You're acting so heartbroken that it looks fake."
Her voice sounded remarkably like Cheng Yueqing's.
Bai Huan instantly snapped back to his senses.
He realized that he wasn't merely a spectator.
The woman's tears were like needles stabbing into his own body.
He pulled Wang Caiyi into his arms and patted her back.
Then he raised his eyes toward the teachers, smiled, and asked, "What? Have any of you had a child die? Is that how you know how a woman who's lost her child is supposed to grieve?"
Wang Caiyi sucked in a sharp breath and looked up.
"Taimi..."
The teachers' faces instantly turned hideous, going from white to blue, then from blue to red.
The same short-haired teacher spoke again.
Her name was Liu Manli.
She set her teacup down heavily.
"Is that any way for a student to speak to a teacher?"
Wang Caiyi's face had turned bright red.
She was no longer crying. She hurriedly turned around, intending to apologize.
But Bai Huan swept his gaze over her desk.
With his schoolbag still on his back, he strode over.
She was an art teacher. Where had all these assignments for her to grade come from?
Bai Huan picked up a thick stack of test papers and threw them straight onto the floor.
"Where did all this rubbish come from? Take it away yourselves," he muttered.
Liu Manli let out a shriek.
"You little brat!"
"Hey, Teacher Liu, what's that supposed to mean? How can you speak to a student like that..." another teacher protested with a frown.
Wang Caiyi hurried over, grabbed Bai Huan, and dragged him outside the office.
Then she went back to her desk and bent down to pick up the assignments one by one.
However, after stacking them neatly, she didn't take them back to her own desk.
Instead, she carried them over to Liu Manli's.
With a slightly apologetic expression, she said, "Teacher Liu, I think you'd better check and grade these yourself."
"You..."
"And another thing. Bai Huan is my child, and he's also a student at this school. Please don't insult him with language like that again. It's really... really too crude and ill-mannered. It's completely unbecoming of a teacher."
Wang Caiyi forced the words out through gritted teeth.
Then she turned and fled as though a ghost were chasing her.
Mother and son went to the deserted school cafeteria to talk.
Bai Huan took out the dishes his brother had prepared for him and arranged them one by one.
"Teacher Mao said you hadn't eaten lunch. Bai Mingzhen made these. Have something to eat."
"Mom isn't hungry."
Tears glistened in Wang Caiyi's eyes.
"He must have made these for you. You should eat them yourself."
"Go on, eat."
Bai Huan pushed the dishes closer to her.
Only then did Wang Caiyi go into the kitchen to ask one of the cafeteria aunties for a bowl and chopsticks.
She intended to take just a little of each dish to fill her stomach.
As the cafeteria worker retrieved the bowl and chopsticks from the sterilizing cabinet, she kept craning her neck to look outside.
"This little one is even better-looking than the one before."
"They're both good children. Please don't say things like that."
Wang Caiyi took the bowl and chopsticks and carefully served herself a little of each dish.
She put the lids back on everything else and set the containers aside.
Bai Huan didn't press her any further.
Instead, he said quietly, "Mom, I'm sorry. This morning, I thought Bai Mingzhen had gone to Bai Chen's opening ceremony, so I went to confront him. He hadn't gone. And since I was already there, I had lunch at his house. I forgot about everything here."
"It's all right. But if something like this happens again, you have to tell us, so we won't worry about you."
Bai Huan nodded.
Wang Caiyi ate a few bites.
Then, seeming to have noticed something in the boy's words, she asked gently, "Taimi, do you really not want Bai Mingzhen to accept Xiao Chen?"
Bai Huan didn't think there was any reason to hide it.
So he hummed in agreement.
"I don't care about anyone else. My brother can only be mine."